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From: Alamaine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: CTRL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Mon, 12 May 2008 11:02 pm
Subject: [ctrl] American Chronicle | Americans Are Living (And Dying) In A
Militarized Police State
Americans Are Living (And Dying) In A Militarized Police State
Dave Gibson
Dave Gibson is a freelance writer living in Norfolk, Va.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/60717
Dave Gibson
May 05, 2008
Today, police departments across the United States more closely resemble
an occupying army than they do public servants responding to calls for
help. Police officers can now be seen wearing helmets and body armor and
carrying AR-15's, just to deliver simple warrants. The militarization of
our police departments not only gives the appearance of a military
dictatorship but places the public at great risk.
No less than 70 percent of U.S. cities now have SWAT teams. In cities with
a population of 50,000 or more, 90 percent have SWAT teams.
Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter Kraska told the Washington
Post that SWAT teams are currently sent out 40,000 times a year in the
U.S. During the 1980's, SWAT teams were only used 3,000 times a year. Most
of the time, SWAT teams are being sent out to simply serve warrants on
non-violent drug offenders.
Many municipalities are using Homeland Security grants to even purchase
large armored vehicles. The Pittsburgh Police Department now uses their
20-ton armored truck complete with rotating turret and gun ports to
deliver many of their warrants. Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Barry Budd recently
told the Associate Press: "We live on being prepared for 'what if'."
Our police departments now regularly receive free surplus equipment from
the U.S. military, which they readily accept. The training being given at
many police academies appears to be the type of tactics one would use in
Baghdad, rather than Baltimore. It would seem that our police officers are
being readied for war, with the American public as the enemy. In the last
several years, there has been a transformation from community policing to
pre-emptive assaults
On January 24, 2006, Dr. Salvatore Culosi was shot and killed outside his
house by a Fairfax County SWAT officer. Police used the SWAT team to serve
a documents search warrant, after Dr. Culosi came under suspicion for
taking sports bets. The investigation began after Fairfax Detective David
Baucom solicited a bet with Dr. Culosi at a local sports bar.
Dr. Culosi was standing outside his home while talking with Det. Baucom,
when SWAT Officer Deval Bullock quickly approached with his gun drawn and
fatally shot Dr. Culosi in the chest. Court documents report that Culosi
never made any threatening movements and made no attempt to run as he
watched the SWAT team move in around him.
Dr. Culosi had no history of violence nor any criminal history whatsoever.
He operated two successful optometry clinics at Wal-Marts in Manassas and
Warrenton, Va. His parents have filed a $12 million lawsuit against the
county of Fairfax, Va.
On the night of January 17, 2008, a police SWAT team surrounded Ryan
Frederick´s home in Chesapeake, Va. The police were there to serve a drug
warrant based on a tip from a criminal informant.
As usual, 28 year-old Ryan Frederick had gone to sleep early in order to
leave the house before dawn for his job with a soda distributor. He awoke
to a commotion of screams and the distinct sound of someone breaking down
his front door.
Frederick´s house had been broken into a few days earlier, being a slight
man of only a little over 100 pounds, Frederick feared for his safety.
After the break-in, he purchased a gun.
Understandably frightened, Frederick grabbed his gun and when he got to
the front of his house, he saw a man trying to crawl through the bottom
portion of his door. Terrified that the intruders had returned, he fired.
The man he shot was not an aggressive burglar, nor a drug-crazed murderer,
he was Det. Jarrod Shivers. The police detective and military veteran died
almost immediately. Frederick was charged with first-degree murder and now
sits in a jail cell awaiting trial.
As for the marijuana-growing operation for which police were looking,
nothing was found. Only a very small amount of marijuana was discovered on
the Frederick property, only enough to charge him with misdemeanor
possession. Frederick has admitted that he uses marijuana occasionally but
has never been involved with producing nor selling the drug.
Ryan Frederick has no prior history of violence, nor any criminal history
whatsoever. He took care of his grandmother until her death two years ago,
had a full-time job, and recently became engaged. In his spare time, he
worked in his yard and tended to his Koi pond…Not quite the drug
kingpin type!
However, based solely on the word of an informant, police obtained a
warrant and stormed into this man´s house in the dark of night. The
information turned out to be false, a police officer and father of three
is dead, and a decent young man´s life is now over.
When Ryan Frederick awoke to the sounds of his home being invaded, he did
what many of us would do. He acted reasonably when he grabbed his gun to
defend himself and fired at a man who he believed was breaking into his
home to do him harm.
Had the police simply went to his home during the daytime and knocked on
his door, they could have questioned Frederick and found their information
to be groundless. A little traditional police work could have saved the
life of a police officer and the Shivers and Frederick families would have
remained whole.
The Ryan Frederick story is truly frightening because this same scenario
could play itself out in your home or mine. In the age of militarized
police departments, we are all in danger.
Here are a few more recent victims of our militarized police departments:
Cheryl Lynn Noel, a mom who was shot by police for picking up her legally
registered handgun. She went for her gun to defend herself after a SWAT
team in the middle of the night, broke into her Baltimore, MD home. Police
stormed her house that night because they claim to have found marijuana
seeds in the family's trash can.
Rev. Acelyne Williams, 75 of Boston, died of a heart attack as a SWAT team
broke into his home. Police actually had the wrong address.
92 year old Kathryn Johnston who was so fearful that she never left her
home and would only open her door after friends who placed her groceries
on the front porch had left, was killed by an Atlanta SWAT team last year.
An erroneous tip from an informant was enough for the Atlanta Police
Department to invade her home. Police have since admitted to lying to
obtain a search warrant and to planting drugs in her home after killing
her.
In 2006, a 52 member SWAT team stormed into a Denver home in search of a
friendly small-stakes poker game. The same thing happened a few months
later when SWAT and K-9 units barged in on a charity poker game in
Baltimore.
When someone straps on body armor and large caliber weapons, their
adrenalin levels begin to surge. As they arrive at the scene, those levels
increase. When these now militarized police officers actually break into a
dark home and begin shouting at terrified citizens, severe injury and
death is likely to occur. It is beyond reason to employ these tactics on
anyone other than hardened, violent criminals.
SWAT teams were created in the wake of the 1966 University of Texas sniper
shooting spree by ex-marine Charles Whitman. Police did not have the
firepower to reach Whitman, who was perched atop the 27-story clock tower.
Civilians with hunting rifles came to the scene and joined with police in
the effort to stop Whitman. Eventually, police officers and a well-armed
citizen scaled the stairs of the tower and killed Whitman, but not before
he killed 17 people and injured another 31. As a result of the incident,
police departments began to assemble small teams of highly trained
officers with equipment specific to sniper shootings, hostage situations,
bank robberies, etc.
SWAT teams were designed to deal with very violent individuals who
represent a clear and present threat to the public. However, they are now
being used to execute warrants on non-violent offenders and even those who
have no prior criminal history at all. Turning our neighborhood cops into
shock troops will do nothing but erode public confidence in the police and
endanger the lives of innocent Americans.
Recently, Boston´s new police commissioner William Fitchet announced that
the department´s Street Crimes Unit will begin wearing military-style
black uniforms, to instill a sense of "fear." At last week´s city council
meeting, police Sgt. John Delaney told council members that the black
uniforms would send the message that officers were serious.
Did someone declare martial law?
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--
Alamaine, IVe
Grand Forks, ND, US of A
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