Monday, March 24, 2014

The Economist: American Police Too Militarized



The Economist: American Police Too Militarized


by AWR Hawkins 22 Mar 2014
On March 22nd, The Economist claimed U.S. police are overly militarized, relying too much and too often on raids by Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units who were "originally designed to tackle only the most dangerous criminals" but are increasingly employed for a variety of situations.

According to The Economist, the overuse of these teams creates situations like the one that took place in Los Angeles County where a SWAT team burst into the home of 80-year old Eugene Mallory and shot him six times with a submachine gun before ever telling him to put down the weapon he was holding.

SWAT members originally said they were acting in self-defense and opened fired after telling the 80-year old engineer to drop his gun, but audio recordings of the raid proved otherwise.

The Economist quotes numbers from Eastern Kentucky University's Peter Kraska showing that SWAT raids were once a rarity. There "were only about 3,000 in the early 1980s," but now there are "perhaps 50,000 a year."

The teams, "whose members wear body armor and are equipped with military-style weapons"--including submachine guns--have been used "to break up illegal poker games... to arrest people suspected of petty fraud... and to crack down on cockfighting."

Through it all, The Economist stresses that courts have been kind to SWAT teams and tactics--allowing "no knock raids" in which a militarized group of policemen storm a home without warning.

The Economist does not argue for doing away with SWAT teams but for somehow putting them back in the role from which they once operated; deployed only when the suspect involved was "armed and dangerous" or when a simple knock on a door from a policeman would not suffice.

Los Angeles
William J. Bratton was the chief for the Los Angeles (CA) Police Department, the police commissioner for Boston (MA), is the police commissioner for New York (NY), the security adviser for David Cameron, and a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Note: David Cameron’s security adviser is William J. Bratton, and is the prime minister for the United Kingdom.
Mark Malloch-Brown was the minister of state for the United Kingdom, a political correspondent for The Economist, the vice chairman for Refugees International, and is a co-chair or the International Crisis Group.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for Refugees International, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think tank), the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the International Rescue Committee.
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was a board member for the International Crisis Group, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)
Zanny Minton Beddoes is a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and an economics editor for The Economist.
Thomas R. Pickering is a co-chair or the International Crisis Group, and a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Charles D. Powell is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was John Major’s private secretary & foreign affairs adviser.
John Major’s private secretary & foreign affairs adviser was Charles D. Powell, and the prime minister for the United Kingdom.
Samantha Power was a board member for the International Crisis Group, a director at the International Rescue Committee, Barack Obama’s aide, is the United Nations U.S. ambassador for the Barack Obama administration, and married to Cass R. Sunstein.
Cass R. Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, a member of the White House intelligence technologies review panel, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
White House intelligence technologies review panel is reviewing practices of the National Security Agency (NSA).
Kenneth A. Minihan was a director at the National Security Agency (NSA), and is a director at BAE Systems Inc.
BAE Systems Inc. is a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).
Lee H. Hamilton is a director at BAE Systems Inc., an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
William J. Bratton is a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, the police commissioner for New York (NY), the security adviser for David Cameron, was the police commissioner for Boston (MA), and the chief for the Los Angeles (CA) Police Department.

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