The Gestapo Of America
Kathryn Johnston was alone in her Atlanta, Georgia, home at the age of 92. It was night, and she was most likely preparing for bed. Suddenly her door was busted down without a word and armed men crowded her doorway. Naturally she attempted to defend herself and fired her pistol one time above the men’s heads. In rapid succession 39 bullets violated her house from the intruders’ high powered weapons. The old and frail woman was pronounced dead, riddled with six bullet holes throughout her body. The attackers were police, a SWAT team that had been sent to investigate reported drug dealing from the elderly woman. They had kicked down her door without announcing themselves because they had obtained a “no-knock warrant.” When …show more content…
SWAT teams have become a “fad” among city police departments, causing small towns to purchase unneeded armored cars, tanks and other military items. In small towns there are generally very low crime rates and thus less money is needed to maintain order. With the militarization of the police millions of tax dollars are being wasted on equipment and training for SWAT teams that will never be truly needed. This race to own the most up to date equipment will also leave officers itching to play with their new toys, which only causes more trouble. The price of having a militarized police force alone, should be reason enough to stop funding it. According to Radley Balko, “in Wisconsin alone during the 1990’s, local police departments were given nearly 100,000 pieces of military equipment valued at more than $18 million,” and this is merely one state("Federal Appeals Court: Stop Using SWAT-style Raids for Regulatory Inspections."). Throughout the country, taxes are being raised as more and more departments are creating small armies. Previously, only cities with 50,000 plus citizens had SWAT teams, now small towns with as little as 20,000 people are acquiring them. The money being spent to create and maintain these teams is not having any payback, and is only succeeding pushing us into further debt while increasing the potential for …show more content…
The similarities between our "peacekeepers" and our operational military are growing. In order for America to be governed properly there must be an obvious separation between the military and police force. ABIGAIL R. HALL AND CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE point out the needed differences in their article Militarization of U.S. Domestic Policing
“they are to protect the rights of the citizenry, both victims and criminals alike. In the realm of domestic policing, the police are, in principle, trained to resort to violence only as matter of last resort. Military forces, in contrast, are trained to engage in combat with the goal of destroying an external enemy deemed a threat to the rights of domestic citizens (U.S. Department of the Army 1962, 1). Typically operating in hostile environments, soldiers are trained to kill an adversary(Hall, "The Militarization of U.S. Domestic
Kathryn Johnston was alone in her Atlanta, Georgia, home at the age of 92. It was night, and she was most likely preparing for bed. Suddenly her door was busted down without a word and armed men crowded her doorway. Naturally she attempted to defend herself and fired her pistol one time above the men’s heads. In rapid succession 39 bullets violated her house from the intruders’ high powered weapons. The old and frail woman was pronounced dead, riddled with six bullet holes throughout her body. The attackers were police, a SWAT team that had been sent to investigate reported drug dealing from the elderly woman. They had kicked down her door without announcing themselves because they had obtained a “no-knock warrant.” When …show more content…
SWAT teams have become a “fad” among city police departments, causing small towns to purchase unneeded armored cars, tanks and other military items. In small towns there are generally very low crime rates and thus less money is needed to maintain order. With the militarization of the police millions of tax dollars are being wasted on equipment and training for SWAT teams that will never be truly needed. This race to own the most up to date equipment will also leave officers itching to play with their new toys, which only causes more trouble. The price of having a militarized police force alone, should be reason enough to stop funding it. According to Radley Balko, “in Wisconsin alone during the 1990’s, local police departments were given nearly 100,000 pieces of military equipment valued at more than $18 million,” and this is merely one state("Federal Appeals Court: Stop Using SWAT-style Raids for Regulatory Inspections."). Throughout the country, taxes are being raised as more and more departments are creating small armies. Previously, only cities with 50,000 plus citizens had SWAT teams, now small towns with as little as 20,000 people are acquiring them. The money being spent to create and maintain these teams is not having any payback, and is only succeeding pushing us into further debt while increasing the potential for …show more content…
The similarities between our "peacekeepers" and our operational military are growing. In order for America to be governed properly there must be an obvious separation between the military and police force. ABIGAIL R. HALL AND CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE point out the needed differences in their article Militarization of U.S. Domestic Policing
“they are to protect the rights of the citizenry, both victims and criminals alike. In the realm of domestic policing, the police are, in principle, trained to resort to violence only as matter of last resort. Military forces, in contrast, are trained to engage in combat with the goal of destroying an external enemy deemed a threat to the rights of domestic citizens (U.S. Department of the Army 1962, 1). Typically operating in hostile environments, soldiers are trained to kill an adversary(Hall, "The Militarization of U.S. Domestic