The BBC gets it right on SWAT

The use of SWAT teams on relatively normal police work has been growing dramatically in the US for at least two decades. This is undeniably a bad thing. Normal police officers work to control crime, focusing on obtaining evidence and working through the judicial branch -- with all appropriate presumption of innocence and legal recourse. However, if the government sends a SWAT team after you, it's a good bet you will end up dead before you see the inside of a courtroom. That renders your legal protections somewhat irrelevant.

"These elite units are highly culturally appealing to certain sections of the police community. They like it, they enjoy it," he says.
"The chance to strap on a vest, grab a semi-automatic weapon and go out on a mission is for some people an exciting reason to join - even if policing as a profession can - and should - be boring for much of the time.
"The problem is that when you talk about the war on this and the war on that, and police officers see themselves as soldiers, then the civilian becomes the enemy."

To put it bluntly, SWAT teams are the tool of a police state.

Posted on 2006-04-09 12:02:16.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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