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Pesky ninjas

The BBC has a bit on the militarisation (what, Brits don’t like the letter Z?) of the US police:

Professor Peter Kraska, an expert on police militarisation from Eastern Kentucky University, says that in the 1980s there were about 3,000 Swat team deployments annually across the US, but says now there are at least 40,000 per year.

[snip]

Dr Kraska believes there has been an explosion of units in smaller towns and cities, where training and operational standards may not be as high as large cities – a growth he attributes to “the hysteria” of the country’s war on drugs.

[snip]

An NTOA study of 759 Swat team deployments across the US, found half were for warrant service and a third for incidents where suspects had barricaded themselves in a building – 50 were for hostage situations.

When criminology professor David Klinger looked at 12 years of data on Swat teams in 1998, he also found the most common reason for calling out teams was serving warrants, but that the units used deadly force during warrant service only 0.4% of the time.

There was a time in this country where, when faced with arresting someone, police would cowboy-up and head over to the suspect’s door. They would then knock and announce themselves. Now, thanks to the advent of indoor plumbing and the fact you may flush your stash, the police often send in their SWAT teams, complete with GI Joe gear and ninja masks. And it’s not a matter of a low percentage of deadly force, it’s about whether or not deaths of have increased. Ask Anthony Diotaiuto or these folks. Well, you can’t. They’re all dead.

And this quote from the piece struck a chord:

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.

Ayup.

5 Responses to “Pesky ninjas”

  1. drstrangegun Says:

    … I love abstract thought.

    The answer to SWAT no-knock raids is then obviously to install cut-off valves at the sewer tees to every residence 🙂 Police cowboy up, shut off the sewer, then knock politely. Flush? Simply retrieve it later. Septic? You can still test…

  2. Alcibiades Says:

    The police definitely need a new Sewer Inspection Unit. It’d be great to see them pump a septic tank to find some crack.

  3. EgregiousCharles Says:

    militarisation (what, Brits don’t like the letter Z?)

    Noah Webster, an early American patriot and author of Webster’s Dictionary, decided that American culture needed to be more distinct from British, and he worked with what he could: he changed militarisation to militarization, colour to color, etc.

  4. tgirsch Says:

    It’s also where we get things like “sox,” although that really only caught on with sports teams. He basically wanted to eliminate unpronounced letters from American English.

  5. SayUncle » Put the berries down and no one gets hurt Says:

    […] I’ve addressed how the militarization of our police force concerns me before. This is just another example. […]

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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