ACLU: SWAT operations engage U.S. citizens like enemy war combatants

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The California Highway Patrol playing tough-guy dress up and photo shoot with taxpayer money all to intimidate YOU.


The American SWAT team has become a domestic extension of the United States military, conducting seek and kill thrill missions that have cost an increasing number of the average citizen in this country both life and limb. Not only are these raucous foot soldiers of the War on Drugs gaining sustutnance from their gnawing wrath against dark skin poverty, but their cutthroat infiltrations are without regard for public safety and ultimately, making enemies of a population they are paid to serve.
This is the consensus of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose recent study, entitled “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” paints a vile portrait of the Land of the Free by revealing how state and local law enforcement agencies are bribed by Uncle Sam to make drug busts in exchange for federal funding – an incentive program that has armed local yokel police departments to the teeth. The ACLU finds this military-grade arsenal is in the hands of lunatics who have accomplished very little but a violent onslaught of no-knock savagery that has invoked fear and panic throughout entire communities.


The report finds that while SWAT teams were once only used to handle emergency stand-offs, such as those involving hostages, these paramilitary forces have now been employed to execute search warrants issued as the result of a drug investigation. In fact, the ACLU discovered that the majority of the blitzkrieg-style, Robocop raids are a direct result of the drug war, with 79 percent of the shakedowns erupting simply because probable cause was established to search a residence for drugs.
Interestingly, the overuse of SWAT to combat the vicious scourge of stoned society appears to be another heavily armed failure of the drug war. In the cases studied by the ACLU, the organization found that as many as 65 percent of SWAT deployments for drug searches uncovered no contraband – no speed, weed or weapons of any kind.
Not surprising, but perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the ACLU’s report is how much more these violent soldiers are moving in on the neighborhoods of blacks and Mexicans as opposed to white America – minorities accounted for nearly 70 percent of the raids between 2010-2011.
“It is widely known that policing tactics across the country often unfairly target communities of color–the recent controversies surrounding stop-and-frisk programs in numerous cities across the country document the ineffective and unfair racial disparities associated with the practice. According to the incident reports studied in the course of this investigation, the use of paramilitary tactics appears to be no different,” reads the report.
Attached to the document is a disturbing look into the National Tactical Officers Association training handbook, which frighteningly reveals that brainwashed Special Forces have snuffed out officer friendly and left his rotting corpse on the front law of the average citizen.
“TALK-FIGHT-SHOOT-LEAVE,” reads one stills from a PowerPoint presentation, which goes on to explain SWAT’s definition of Battlemind. “A warriors inner strength to face fear and adversity during combat with courage. It is the will to persevere and win. It is resilience.”
It is the militant attitude that has lead to the injury and death of a number of innocent citizens across America, including Tarika Wilson, the 26-year-old mother who was gunned down by officers while holding her 14-month old son. “The SWAT team had been looking for Ms. Wilson’s boyfriend on suspicion of drug dealing when they raided Ms. Wilson’s rented house on the Southside of Lima, the only city with a significant African-American population in a region of farmland,” reads an ACLU casualty report.
Most recently, a SWAT team on the outskirts of Atlanta tossed a flash grenade in the crib of 19-month-old, Bounkham Phonesavanh, which exploded in his face and left him with potentially life threatening injuries. At the time of this report, he was still in a medically induced coma. This particular incident went viral last month as photos of the seriously injured baby and reports of the officer’s excuses for their carless actions circulated around the Internet. The child’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, has spoken extensively against the SWAT team’s no-knock raid tactics since the attack.
“After breaking down the door, throwing my husband to the ground, and screaming at my children, the officers- armed with M16s-filed through the house like they were playing war,” said Phonesavanh. “My three little girls are terrified of the police now. They don’t want to go to sleep because they’re afraid the cops will kill them or their family.”
In an attempt to stop further militarization of police forces across America, the ACLU is calling for the federal government pull the plug on all drug enforcement incentive programs that assist local police in acquiring military-grade equipment. They are also asking lawmakers to place “meaningful restraints” on the use of these squads. “SWAT deployments should be limited to the kinds of scenarios for which these aggressive measures were originally intended – barricade, hostage, and active shooter situations.”
To read the full report: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf

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