Last week, Goldy posted the video of police officers storming into a Columbia, Missouri house and shooting two dogs in front of a young child – all in the pursuit of someone they believed had marijuana in his possession. Radley Balko has an excellent post about the raid, the reaction, and the reality:
Last week, a Columbia, Missouri, drug raid captured on video went viral. As of this morning, the video had garnered 950,000 views on YouTube. It has lit up message boards, blogs, and discussion groups around the Web, unleashing anger, resentment and even, regrettably, calls for violence against the police officers who conducted the raid. I’ve been writing about and researching these raids for about five years, including raids that claimed the lives of innocent children, grandmothers, college students, and bystanders. Innocent families have been terrorized by cops who raided on bad information, or who raided the wrong home due to some careless mistake. There’s never been a reaction like this one.
But despite all the anger the raid has inspired, the only thing unusual thing here is that the raid was captured on video, and that the video was subsequently released to the press. Everything else was routine. Save for the outrage coming from Columbia residents themselves, therefore, the mass anger directed at the Columbia Police Department over the last week is misdirected. Raids just like the one captured in the video happen 100-150 times every day in America. Those angered by that video should probably look to their own communities. Odds are pretty good that your local police department is doing the same thing.
…
It’s heartening that nearly a million people have now seen the Columbia video. But it needs some context. The officers in that video aren’t rogue cops. They’re no different than other SWAT teams across the country. The raid itself is no different from the tens of thousands of drug raids carried out each year in the U.S. If the video is going to effect any change, the Internet anger directed at the Columbia Police Department needs to be redirected to America’s drug policy in general. Calling for the heads of the Columbia SWAT team isn’t going to stop these raids. Calling for the heads of the politicians who defend these tactics and promote a “war on drugs” that’s become all too literal—that just might.
And now the Columbia police chief hates the internet. Oh, that mean, mean internet – always pointing out that storming into houses and shooting dogs in front of young children isn’t an appropriate response to marijuana use.
We need cops. We need to respect those who go out and faithfully carry out their mission of maintaining law and order. We also need to be able to sue them when they go over the top. They go over the top too much. The Columbia incident is hardly an anomaly.
See Greenwald, excellent as usual:
http://www.salon.com/news/terr.....3/citizens
The drug war and the GWOT are part and parcel of the same thing: erosion of rights and a corporatist government telling us who to be afraid of, and who should have fewer rights.
In the end we all are more afraid and more silent, and thus compliant.
Where perchance are the Teabaggers on this sort of thing? What about our local rightie trolls, er, friends?
Intrusive, violent government agents abusing their authority? Seems like it should be right up their alley.
Oh. The adult male in the video is kind of…brownish. Is that the problem?
in the words of NWA….
But it IS an “appropriate response to marijuana”. Marijuana is magic and has spells put on it by witches and makes baby Jesus cry. Now whiskey and beer, THOSE you can have in nearly infinite quantities, and those make little baby Jesus just giggle and giggle…even though they do tend to make daddy hit mommy and cause tens of thousands of fatal car accidents….oh well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs! Look, some drugs are just “magically” bad…don’t care what the science says.
By the way, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes must be made illegal now, they’re a known gateway drug…recently is was determined that 99.99% of all heroine users ate corn flakes early in life before taking up heroine. You can’t argue with “war on drugs”(tm) facts!
(sigh)
What the F**K is with responses like this from the police? There should NEVER be “guns out” violent raids on ANYTHING other than serial killer/murderer hideouts. Just because you didn’t pay your taxes, had an unregistered car, stole a diamond ring, whatever…you just jail or fine those folks, there is no NEED to smash down doors in riot gear and start shooting.
The broader issue is the militarization of the domestic police forces in America. That means military weapons and military tactics. Suspects are seen as a potential deadly enemy first with the justification of “we can’t take chances”.The military’s job is to annihilate a foreign enemy. The police are supposed to protect us while upholding our constitutional rights. It’s dangerous to conflate the two.
“SWAT teams were originally designed to be used in violent, emergency situations like hostage takings, acts of terrorism, or bank robberies. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, that’s primarily how they were used, and they performed marvelously.
But beginning in the early 1980s, they’ve been increasingly used for routine warrant service in drug cases and other nonviolent crimes. And thanks to the Pentagon transfer programs, there are now a lot more of them.
This is troubling because paramilitary police actions are extremely volatile, necessarily violent, overly confrontational, and leave very little margin for error. These are acceptable risks when you’re dealing with an already violent situation featuring a suspect who is an eminent threat to the community.
But when you’re dealing with nonviolent drug offenders, paramilitary police actions create violence instead of defusing it. Whether you’re an innocent family startled by a police invasion that inadvertently targeted the wrong home or a drug dealer who mistakes raiding police officers for a rival drug dealer, forced entry into someone’s home creates confrontation. It rouses the basest, most fundamental instincts we have in us – those of self-preservation – to fight when flight isn’t an option.”
Our Militarized Police Departments
Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Crime
Roger Rabbit Bumper Sticker Special
Get ’em while they last:
“Shoot Terrorists, Not Potheads”
@8
How about
“Shoot Pool, Not Potheads”
@8
RR, how about:
“SHOOT POOL, NOT POTHEADS”
Roger Rabbit eats shoots and leaves.
@10 Nice! Not THAT diverse…none of mine are even on there (S&W 686, S&W 640-1, KAHR K-9). But cute none the less…
The only thing SWAT should be used for is to combat OTHER violent people/organizations. Now if that was a known violent GANG hangout, where the gang was known to be armed and dangerous, then it makes sense. The drugs don’t matter, it’s the armed/dangerous part. I don’t care if the gang was armed and dangerous because they were selling drugs, fencing stolen goods, stealing cars, bootlegging whiskey, running an illegal gambling operation…it’s moot. It’s THAT they’re armed and violent. But if there is NOT a known armed violent gang present, JUST some pot (or stolen stereo, cars, whatever) then there is NO need for this kind of response.
Shouldn’t ALL of the supposed ‘small government’ conservatives be ANGRY at this? Government troops smashing down your door and shooting up your apartment for a simple criminal (non-violent) offense? Isn’t that too much and too dangerous government? You’d think.
Sounds like the 2010 Odumba Sadministration!
Cops are pussy’s, one thing is for sure any cops break in my door and kill my defenseless dogs will be gunned down, how do Columbia Mo Police justify killing animals, give me the cops that shot the dogs, let’s see how long they last, i can tell you this they won’t be killing anymore dogs, and they wonder why citizens are pissed off with so called law enforcement, PUSSIES WITH A BADGE & GUN, there aint one out there that’s worth a shit.
Columbia Police Dept, i double dog dare you to respond, tell me who killed the dog, and i will put him out of his misery, you cannot do what you did, i don’t even live in Mo’ but god help me i will come there to seek justice for the innocent.