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Thank you for a good and needed article. I have sent it to a friend as there are so many people who are totally unaware of the evils going on around them.
You mentioned SWATs having their roots in California in the '60s, but in the early '60s I was on the Jackson MI Police Department and at that time "Heavy weapons squads" were being created in response to the racial protest and the like at the time. The militarization of police has been unabated ever since.
I am not a particularly brave person, but when it comes to police work you do the job or get out, it's the right thing to do. I was appalled watching the videos of Columbine years ago with all law enforcement hunkered down around the school knowing a probable shooting rampage was going on inside. I don't believe in fool hardy actions or misplaced bravado, but never could I have tolerated not being on the offensive. From that and other incidents I decided that cowardice plays a roll in much of the SWAT team proliferation.
Additionally at that time for a 90 man department all the training was in house and on the job. Now all that has been abandoned and at least in MI graduation from a college level law enforcement training curriculum is required. So training is mostly at the whim of colleges and professors.
A third very important factor with the militarization is the proliferation of SWAT teams on TV programs. Occasionally they are shown in a bad light, but for the most part everything is depicted as good and virtuous. Usually the applications are appropriate, unlike what really happens in real life. But, on TV no one questions the need or validity of SWAT teams.
I still maintain a level of respect for those serving in law enforcement, but one cannot ignore the abuses and excesses.
One of my sons and his future wife was visiting me and they had a small motor home parked in the drive. To avoid them needing to come in and use my Internet service I attempted to run a telephone line out to the motor home. The wire my son bought did not have the ends on it so I left a 25' wire with a connector socket laying on the ground. One night two gestapo dressed deputy Sheriffs arrived and said 911 dispatch had received a call that hung up and they had to check it out. I assured them that I live alone and made no such call, but they persisted. They must have observed me at my computer through the large front window as they came to the house.
Afterward I regretted letting them in, but I did even though I explained the light rain must have shorted the telephone wire I left laying. Now, the stupid part is the lights were on in the motor home and obviously someone was in there. Yet those deputies never checked it out and my son never knew they were there.
Keep sharing the word Mr. Whitehead, people need to know about the excesses, SWAT teams raiding Amish dairy farmers and the like.
Sincerely,
Ron
Dear Mr Rutherford
After reading your article, SWAT Team Mania, I feel compelled to share with you a story about my father. He was a construction worker that got himself elected mayor of Missouri City, Texas (pop. 30,000 at the time?) in the early 70's by going door-to-door every evening and talking, at length, to anyone that would let him. During his political career, which included two terms as councilman, one of the agonies of my childhood was being dragged around with him on his rounds and having to endure hours of adult discussion as he talked to his constituents. (He loved to talk but he was also emphatic about the Constitution and upholding it as well as is oath of office.)
One discussion that I remember now, after having read your article, was about his opposition to the creation of SWAT teams. At that age I certainly did not understand everything I heard but I think that maybe the city of Houston had created a SWAT team around that time and that there was probably some enthusiastic noises being made by the moneyed interests in the area. (Namely developers who turned Missouri City into a huge sprawling upper class suburbia called Quail Valley, which ironically, denied an environmental group I worked with years later from canvassing door-to-door in the area by claiming some bizarre interpretation of their Constitutional "rights" to not allow Freedom of Speech. They lost of course.)
My father, I remember now, was emphatically against SWAT teams and had some huge discussions about it. Later, when I was much older, he mentioned once that very issue and described how he had given a speech at a mayor's conference in opposition to SWAT teams because they were paramilitary organizations and therefore, in his opinion, unconstitutional. The one thing about my father that was certainly different from most elected officials was that upon election to mayor, he sat down and read all of the by-laws and regulations of the community and county. It was infuriating to the developers and their lawyers because he would quote them chapter and verse the regulations that forbid them to do what they were planning to do.
He failed to get re-elected and was beaten by a much better funded opponent who just happened to be friendly with the developers and who immediately set out to remove the restrictive regulations on development. My father later ran for Lieutenant Governor of Texas on the Republican ticket and then got audited by the IRS three times in the next 5 years. He was at that time making about 32k per year and that never changed much for the rest of his life. At his death, he had about 5k in cash, some small property with a trailer home on it, and a 20 year old car. Oh yeah, and a garbage truck's worth of bags of receipts going back 25 years because after the audits he became obsessive about documenting even the smallest purchases. (Literally, there were receipts for such things as a pack of gum and 10 gallons of gas. It was a mess.)
I live in Switzerland now and never plan on returning to the USA. Here we have a real democracy and even if it is not perfect, it is functional, which is more than I can say about the USA. Ironically, because the Swiss have a great liking for America, the greatest threat and most detrimental changes to Swiss democracy have been the results of American corporate influence here.
Thanks for your articles and for voicing your opinion so forcefully and eloquently."Qui tacet consentit" - He who is silent, agrees.
Sincerely
Douglas
John -
I enjoyed "SWAT Team Mania: The War Against the American Citizen" and found it to be spot on with my knowledge on the topic. I am a retired military guy and have a number of close friends in law enforcement. Many of my acquaintances, most in fact, do not support the militarization of LE nor the capricious use of SWAT teams for non-violent crimes. I look forward to reading your work. Please keep up the good work.
Peace,
- Skip
Dear Staff:
I was very pleased to see you address the issue of the quasi- if not total militarization of the domestic police forces and their conversion into a 24/7 SWAT enforcement regime. I agree that this does not bode well for relationships between citizens and their constabulary. Take the case of David Burgert, now front and center in the news media. David Burgert apparently ran afoul of his corrupt law enforcement establishment back in 2002 and started being slandered as a "militia-survivalist-nut". He was not defended adequately in court the first time & despite having only minor infractions (gun ownership), ultimately was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and spent time in a federal correctional facility. Interestingly, the head of the Flathead County SWAT team at the time, Chuck Curry, is now the Sheriff and is continuing the county's vendetta against Burgert.
A simple moving violation has been the pretext of this new attempt to rope Burgert back into jail. In all of the alleged confrontations with police, no one has ever been injured--this in itself is surprising given Burgert's supposed "paranoid anti-government" delusions. It sounds very much as if they have already decided that this man is throwaway trash and their actions indicate that he is guilty with no chance of being proven innocent. (Wouldn't it suit their interests just fine if they found him and used him for target practice in the wilderness, where no one is looking and, where they have set the tone for his justifiable execution?)
A case history compiled about Chuck Curry, the SWAT menace and current Sheriff, is not so savory: his use of 'no-knock' SWAT raids on unsuspecting homeowners (ie, drug users) have been overturned several times on procedural grounds in Montana courts due to his many violations of the 4th amendment. Not surprisingly, it is this same Chuck Curry along with the FBI and others who now seeks to hunt down a supposed miscreant in the woods and give him no due process.
I offer this as an example of what happens when the police themselves are creating the very conditions they claim to want to avoid: direct confrontation with an irate populace. Which came first, oppression in the form of SWAT or, the arming and anger of the population?
Sincerely,
Karl
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
A friend of mine in NYS sent me your article on Swat Team Mania on the Rutherford.org site and I just had to write.
On Aug. 3, 2011 I was a victim of Swat Team Mania. First off, I am a 69 year old woman with stage III colon cancer and have spent the last 27 years in the same home, in the same town in Tennessee raising my parrots under the registered trademarked name of Hookbill Haven. I have shown my birds and won several Best in Shows, have raised several generations of rare Amazons, Greys and other species and sold my handfed babies to people all over the country, including the editor of the local paper and the owner of the local Farm Bureau Insurance Co. with never a complaint.
Last year during my second recurrence of colon cancer I needed a resection, involving a week long stay in the hospital. I hired a woman to come in and feed and take care of my 100+ birds. I did not particularly like dealing with her afterward and never had her to return until July 8,9,10th of this year when I hurt my neck and needed help. She came in and cleaned cages in a few rooms working several hours on those afternoons. My neck healed and I again let her go because things were turning up missing and she was acting erratically.
On the late afternoon of Aug. 2, after pulling in my driveway I was confronted by what looked to be a utility worker, dressed in white driving a white truck with a utility logo. He told me that the water to my home was to be shut off the next day (the HOTTEST day of the year) while a main was repaired.
I informed my estranged husband that evening and asked him to come early the next day and make sure all the outside animals, chickens, horses, etc. had plenty of fresh water.
On Aug. 3, worried about the upcoming heat and lack of water mentioned, I got up at 5am and started changing water dishes of all my birds in the house to make sure EVERYONE had fresh water. At 7:10 am the phone rang and I was told to come out of my home to show the utility men where my water line was. I was promptly served with a search and seizure warrant based on terrible lies that this woman had said about me and who I have since learned has a criminal record. I was not allowed to return to my home nor even get my cell phone. At the same time the assistant district attorney showed up and behind him a SWAT team, complete with bullet proof vests, automatic rifles aimed and wearing gas masks entered my home yelling and screaming. Thank God my estranged husband was not there or I believe they would have shot him!
What prompted this? I am a published auther, an animal rescue..a small elderly woman that raises BIRDS and have never even gotten a speeding ticket! I was even on the City of Portland web site as a "Noteable". Am wondering why in the world would they do this? Am still wondering today.
A road block was set up and NO media or anyone else was allowed within a half mile of my house during the raid, for the whole day. A porta potty was immediately set up. This raid was carefully planned ahead of time.
As soon as the SWAT team came out of the house a long line of people commenced to come up my driveway and I was informed that they were here to "inspect" my birds. At first I noticed a familiar face, a vet that had treated several of my birds and cats before, so I thought they would go in and see that my parrots and lovebirds were all fine and that would be that. WRONG! Another group closely followed the first carrying kennel cabs and white towels. I was ushered to the police station against my will and kept there all morning until a detective took me back to my home. There I was informed that ALL my birds, cats, my pet goose and some chickens were being confiscated. Then I was held at the police station and told to sign a "surrender" or post a $50,000 surety bond for their care and the costs of the raid, now totally "$30,000". I don't have that kind of money but still did not want to sign away my whole business and $40,000 worth of parrots but I was told if I signed there probably wouldn't be any charges and I wouldn't go to jail and I was in such a mental state I finally did sign it, a fact that no one in the world can know how much I regret.
And I was IMMEDIATELY ushered off to jail. They lied.
At least ONE of my parrots, and some have said two, were killed by Animal Rescue Corps during the raid. All photos were staged and taken by ARC, as I said NO media were allowed near my property...and Ch.2,4,5, Fox 17, the newspapers were all here trying to get photos to no avail. Property was destroyed during this raid, doors to outside pens were cut off, chickens were let loose, my horses were injured and several rescues were later killed because, according to ARC head, Scotlund Haisley, "they had no quality of life!" Now who is he to decide what lives and dies? He was recently let go from the Humane Society for Gehstapo like behavior during raids and is now known to direct his group to attack the elderly, particularly single women who raise animals as a business.
The assistant DA, who is a member of the Animal Legal Defense League, the police and the extremist Animal Rescue Corps have taken a self supporting, animal loving business person and ruined her financially, physically and emotionally for what? For politics and the almighty dollar...or dollars, $40,000 + of them. I have never made a late payment and now my line of credit, my business, is gone and I have been declared indigent by the court. My birds were gone before the hearing even took place just 7 days later. Only my purebred chickens were taken including a famous Andalusian rooster who was "Chicken of the Week on the online Backyard Chickens web site..a prestigious award he deserved. He did not deserve what he got here that day. 40+ mixed breed chickens were left and the fat, healthy cats were returned a few days after my hearing.
And if you would like to know about that joke, please let me know and I will tell you how the asst. DA and my attorney sold me down the river when I could disprove EVERY charge and did indeed get one knocked off immediately because the vet did not remember that he has examined one of my rescue parrots 10 years ago and declared her inoperable. Justice is only as large as your wallet. I am looking for it though because I feel my rights were violated in many ways and are still being violated as the DA will not give me the unedited video that was taken on the day of the raid or the necropsy reports which he already gave to the media.
Another aside...the assistant DA called the county codes department during the raid and had my home condemned for NO REASON! Signs were posted and the police said I was not allowed in my house. I slept in my truck for 3 nights until my daughter came down from Cincinnati and got a room. The monday after the hearing I was permitted back inside my home with no inspection. This was done so it looked like they found my home in terrible condition...it was not. I have central heat/air, city water, good electric, plumbing, a new roof, etc. A nice home...NO REASON!
Thank you for the time you have take to read my story. If you would like to use any part or all of my story please feel free and if you have any off the record advice I am all ears. I cry every day and night for my beautiful birds that I will never get back but I still need to do something...somehow...for my name and the name of my business.
Best...
Lasandra
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