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Rise of the Warrior Cop

EatTheRich

President
I just read Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. It is an excellent history of the militarization of the country's police forces which I would recommend to anyone, left, right, or center with any concern about the phenomenon. Some highlights:

1) The first organized police forces in the United States were slave patrols.
2) Police in northern cities were organized on ethnic lines in ghettoized neighborhoods, and routinely beat up people of different ethnicities who strayed into "their" neighborhoods without repercussion.
3) A fundamental principle of English common law, on which our law is based, is that police entering homes must make it clear (e.g., by knocking or announcing themselves) that "the officer cometh not as a mere trespasser, but claiming to act under a proper authority."
4) By 2005, there were an estimated 50-60,000 SWAT team raids in the United States.
5) The very first SWAT team raid was on the Los Angeles Black Panther Party headquarters. The creator of the SWAT team was Police Chief Daryl Gates, who famously said that perhaps Blacks were more likely to die from police chokeholds because "their arteries do not open as fast as they do in normal people."
6) When the Los Angeles police got into a shoot-out with the Symbionese Liberation Army, a well-armed terrorist group, even Gates refused to give them permission to use grenades on the grounds that it is inappropriate for police to have military weaponry. Today, police forces have APCs, submarines, and helicopters. Police forces in Cleveland, Phoenix, Chattanooga, Columbia (SC), Annapolis, and Shreveport have .50-caliber machine guns. Grenades are used by SWAT teams on a daily basis.
7) Conservatives have rarely objected to the use of military methods to enforce drug or immigration laws. Liberals have rarely objected to the use of military methods to enforce gun laws.

Targets of no-knock raids by SWAT teams using flash-bang grenades (which can be lethal) have included:
1) People not targeted for anything other than misdemeanor marijuana possession (every state).
2) Every house in Humboldt County, California.
3) Dozens of Black and Hispanic-owned barbershop in the Orlando area, to investigate allegations of "barbering without a license." This was a warrantless raid.
4) A bar whose owner was the apparent target of a long-standing vendetta by local government, for improper labeling of beer samples (VA). This was a warrantless raid.
5) A "rave" where the evidence of drug activity was the sale of glow sticks and bottled water and where private security, which had confiscated drugs from party attendees, were then charged with possession of the drugs they had confiscated (UT).
6) A VFW outpost hosting a charity poker game (TX).
7) A bar accused of selling alcohol to minors (CT).
8) A gay bar in Atlanta at which every patron was searched. This was a warrantless raid.
9) Thousands of wrong addresses all over the country, including one Brooklyn couple that was wrongly raided more than 50 times due to a clerical error. Unless the targets could prove malice, the police had no responsibility to repair the damage they'd done, which included not only property destruction, but killings of pets (who are more likely to be killed during such a raid than not) or even family members.
10) A mayor in Maryland who was targeted by drug cops when his address was used without his knowledge by drug smugglers to get a package into town so they could pick it up anonymously ... even though the police knew the criminals were doing this.

The numbers:
1) Number of SWAT teams in the United States in 1970: 1. In 1975: 500.
2) Percentage of SWAT team raids used to serve warrants: 94. To serve drug warrants: 73.
3) Percentage of wrong-address raids in New York City: 10.
4) Percentage of law enforcement murders involving "assault weapons" (used to argue for need for SWAT teams): 3.

(Ir)responsible politicians:
1) Liberal Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller (NY), who signed the first no-knock and stop-and-frisk bills.
2) Earl Warren, who upheld stop-and-frisk.
3) Lyndon Johnson, who signed a bill authorizing preventive detention and no-knock raids.
4) Richard Nixon and John Mitchell, who introduced 20 bills to expand police powers, including some (expanding no-knock warrants, eliminating probation, increasing mandatory sentences and wiretapping authority, on-the-spot urinalysis, and allowing prosecutors to appeal acquittals) that were passed and some (loose search warrants) that were not.
5) Democrats Mike Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey, who supported Nixon's proposals or in Humphrey's case criticized them for not going far enough.
6) Rudy Giuliani and Joe Biden, who paved the way for RICO and expansion of asset forfeiture. Biden was also the primary author of legislation cracking down on raves.
7) Ronald Reagan, who with William Rehnquist and other allies vastly expanded the admissibility of illegally seized evidence, who directed the National Guard to take part in drug enforcement, who with the help of George H.W. Bush set up a military-to-police equipment pipeline, and who signed an executive order declaring drugs a national security emergency, putting the war on drugs on a legal footing equal to the war in Korea or Vietnam.
8) Charlie Rangel and (again) Joe Biden, who criticized Reagan for not going far enough.
9) George H. Bush, whose administration ordered the attack on Ruby Ridge.
9) Bill Clinton, who created grants to significantly expand police forces, vastly increased the amount of military equipment shared with police, and created the "one strike" law for drugs in public housing--to say nothing of the federal raid on WACO and in the Elian Gonzalez case.
10) George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who each significantly expanded the amount of military equipment shared with police, while also increasing the admissibility of illegal evidence, expanding wiretaps, and stepping up raids on medical marijuana users in compliance with state law.
 
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