by Lina Bryce. More militaristic tactics on the way. A firm that provides non-lethal equipment to law enforcement is set to release a new “compliance weapon” that temporarily blinds targets for up to 15 minutes and police have their sights set on the “eye-blinding” gun. This, in spite of recent controversy of the Ferguson, Missouri unrest, stirs up ... MORE
Showing posts with label SWAT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SWAT. Show all posts
SWAT Team Raids House And Kills Homeowner Because Criminal Who Burglarized The House Told Them To
by Tim Cushing. We've heard complaints that warrant requirements for searches are an obstacle to efficient crime fighting. Here's a timeline of an incident that led to the death of a homeowner during a SWAT team raid in search of drugs it never found. Late Sept. 22nd/early A.M. Sept. 23rd: David and Teresa Hooks' home was burglarized. Among ... MORE
Labels:
assault,
brutality,
government,
home invasion,
law enforcement,
police,
police state,
raids,
SWAT
Radley Balko: Absurd Fourth Circuit Ruling Embodies Everything That’s Wrong With SWAT Drug Raids
Some police state bootlickers have robes. Earlier this month, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an appalling decision in a lawsuit stemming from a fatal 2005 drug raid in Maryland. In fact, the opinion encapsulates everything that’s wrong with sending militarized police barreling into homes to serve ... MORE
Labels:
government,
home invasion,
judges,
justice,
law enforcement,
police,
police state,
raids,
SWAT
John W. Whitehead: The Only Truly Compliant, Submissive Citizen In A Police State Is A Dead One
"Serve and protect" has become "comply or die." Americans as young as 4 years old are being leg shackled, handcuffed, tasered and held at gun point for not being quiet, not being orderly and just being childlike—i.e., not being compliant enough. Americans as old as 95 are being beaten, shot and killed for questioning an order, ... MORE
Labels:
abuse,
brutality,
government,
law enforcement,
police,
police state,
SWAT,
tactics,
violence
Radley Balko: Another Day, Another Drug War Fatality
Pot suspect shot in the face by cops in his own home. Meet Derek Cruice, your latest collateral damage in the drug war:A
deputy shot and killed an unarmed man while attempting to serve a
narcotics search warrant in Deltona, according to the Volusia County
Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said deputies were entering the
home on Maybrook ... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
drug war,
home invasion,
kill,
police,
police state,
prohibition,
raids,
SWAT,
tactics
Police State Update: Did SWAT Burn A Man Alive?
from the Antelope Valley Times. A convicted felon, whose body was found after a SWAT team fired in tear gas into a Lancaster home, and a fire broke out, was publicly identified Saturday by the Coroner’s Office. The man was identified as Michael Leroy Soares, 35, of Lancaster, said Coroner’s Lt. David Smith. It was still not clear how he died, ... MORE
Michael Heise: 22 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Trust Police
The police aren't making too many friends these days. It seems like there isn't a day that goes by where some tragic and outrageous story doesn't come out involving the cops somehow violating someone's rights, or even killing them. But, no matter how much we see this behavior, no matter how frequent it becomes, there seems to be ... MORE
Labels:
dishonesty,
law enforcement,
police,
police state,
policing for profit,
prisons,
protection,
SWAT
Masked SWAT Team Raids Poker Game, Terrorizes Players
by Tom Jackman. Militarized cops seek to protect society from gamblers. On a quiet weeknight among the stately manors of Great Falls, ten men sat around a table in the basement of a private home last November playing high stakes poker. Suddenly, masked and heavily armed SWAT team officers from the Fairfax County Police Department ... MORE
Labels:
force,
gambling,
government,
poker,
police state,
property rights,
risk,
self-ownership,
SWAT
Police Union: Don't Mess With No-Knock Warrants
by Bernard Watson. Carrie Mills is a retired Atlanta Police officer with 30 years on the job - primarily in APD's drug unit. Mills is now a union rep for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. She considers herself an expert on search warrants, particularly no knock warrants, which allows officers to enter a structure without knocking first. Mills says ... MORE
Radley Balko: The Flashbang Menace
Officer safety always trumps citizen safety. ProPublica has just published a long investigation of the use of flashbang grenades, an issue I’ve written about quite a bit, including here at The Watch. These
are the incendiary devices intended to temporarily stun, blind and
deafen everyone within range. They have some limited appropriate ... MORE
John W. Whitehead: From Neighborhood Cops to Robocops
The changing face of American police. “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” ― Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means If 2014 was the year of militarized police, armored tanks, and stop-and-frisk searches, 2015 may well be the year of technologized police, surveillance blimps and ... MORE
SWAT Kills Man In ‘Drug Raid’ That Finds $2 Of Marijuana
One less pot smoker, America is safe! Original story. Jason Westcott had no criminal record to speak of, and yet he died in a SWAT “drug raid” on his house which yielded only $2.00 in marijuana. It all started when a confidential informant lied to police about Westcott. That informant, who approached the Tampa Bay Times in July using ... MORE
John W. Whitehead: Welcome To The Matrix
Enslaved by technology and the Internet of things. If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and ... MORE
John W. Whitehead : You’re Either a Cop or Little People
A bad year for the little people. For those of us who have managed to survive 2014 with our lives intact and our freedoms hanging by a thread, it has been a year of crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and ... MORE
Labels:
authority,
brutality,
government,
police,
police state,
policing for profit,
raids,
SWAT,
violence
Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim Private Corporations Status; Contend They're Immune From Open Records Laws
by Radley Balko. So they're NOT public servants. That explains a lot. As part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent report on police militarization,
the Massachusetts chapter of the organization sent open records
requests to SWAT teams across that state. It received an interesting
response. As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in ... MORE
Radley Balko: A Drug Informant Lies, An Innocent Man Dies
When home invaders are from the government. Back in July, we looked at the case of Jason Wescott, a Florida man shot and killed by a police SWAT team during a drug raid over an alleged sale of $200 worth of pot to a police informant. The tragedy was exacerbated by the fact that according to friends and relatives, Wescott had been ... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
death,
drug war,
government,
marijuana,
police state,
pot,
prohibition,
raids,
SWAT
Don't Blame Me - The Year's Highlights In Buck Passing
by Jacob Sullum. For years New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has
insisted that people who pay for sex and the
intermediaries who facilitate that exchange are responsible for
violence against women. Hence his February 26
column celebrating the arrests of men who were guilty of
nothing but negotiating terms with cops posing as ... MORE
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