“Overzealous drug war claims another casualty” -- SWAT & War on Drugs, Pembroke Pines FL

[jody]

Overzealous drug war claims another casualty

Deputy Police Chief David Golt defended the use of the Special Response Team, Pembroke Pines' version of SWAT, to carry out the 6:30 a.m. raid that left Hodgkiss, 46, dead.

"We use SRT to serve all narcotics warrants," Golt said Friday. "You never know what you're going to encounter."

In this case, a middle-aged man with a concealed weapons permit and no record of violent crime encountered his demise in his home of 14 years.

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"We don't discuss procedures," Golt said. "But we implement all acceptable methods used as SWAT tactics."
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According to statistics kept by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, police drug raids have resulted in 42 deaths of innocents, 24 deaths and injuries of police officers, and 22 deaths of nonviolent drug suspects since 1985.

Overkill: The rise of paramilitary police raids in America

The police chief obviously knew or should have known that Hodgkiss had a CCW and no criminal record.

Wouldn't a prudent chief have used more caution before ordering a SWAT attack that could be interpreted by the target as a criminal assault?

[Lex1775]

1. Thugs.

And the police wonder why the public doesn't trust them anymore.

[benEzra]

2. Tragic, and entirely predictable.

Tragic, and entirely predictable.

If someone with a clean record who has never had any trouble with the police is awakened to the sound of someone kicking in his door and what sound like shotgun blasts (concussion grenades), possibly accompanied by unintelligible yelling, then her/his first thought is NOT going to be that it's the police, since someone with a clean record is much more likely to be the victim of a criminal home invasion than a wrong-address SWAT raid. But if you act on that fact that it's probably a criminal breakin, and it turns out to be the police conducting a reckless warrant service, then it becomes a dangerous situation all around.

Police aren't saying if any illegal drugs were found, apart from a small amount of marijuana that led to the arrest of Lisa Ann Jones, 19, the girlfriend of Hodgkiss' son Chris, 22.

So, his son's girlfriend (presumably unbeknownst to him) had a little bit of pot, so that makes it all OK...

"We use SRT to serve all narcotics warrants," Golt said Friday. "You never know what you're going to encounter."

It seems that the highly successful Community Policing model seems to have been discarded, sadly...

FWIW, "You never know what you're going to encounter" is equally true of domestic violence calls, traffic stops, DUI checkpoints, neighborhood disputes, or ANY search warrant. Guess we should use SWAT tactics for those, too...

:sarcasm:

[gorfle]

4. How many billions?

How many billions of dollars and countless lives are spent each year in the name of marijuana?

What a complete waste.

[gorfle]

3. Insane

It is insane to assault the home of someone known to possess firearms specifically for self-defense, unless your intent it to get into a shoot-out.

In any case his war on drugs is ridiculous.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

7. Absolutely.

Like arresting Koresh when he was getting the mail in the days before the raid of the compound. How about we use SWAT for hostage situations and barricaded suspects?

David

[pipoman]

5. Most of these sorts of problems could be avoided

by simply waiting for the subject to leave, performing a traffic stop, making an arrest, then searching the residence. There is just no reason, usually, to kick in doors except to make use of a seldom needed swat team or secure a fugitive.

[SteveM]

6. The Patriot Acts are the War on Drugs writ large...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/patriotact/

"The law allows our intelligence and law enforcement officials to continue to share information. It allows them to continue to use tools against terrorists that they used against -- that they use against drug dealers and other criminals. It will improve our nation's security while we safeguard the civil liberties of our people. The legislation strengthens the Justice Department so it can better detect and disrupt terrorist threats. And the bill gives law enforcement new tools to combat threats to our citizens from international terrorists to local drug dealers."

-- President George W. Bush
March 9, 2006

President Bush has made it quite clear that he wants the Patriot Acts to use the same methodology used for years in the WOD. So stigmatized and hated is the drug "dealer," anything goes; so stigmatized and hated are those opposed to Bush and the far right, anything goes.

FWIW, in Austin, Texas, a few years ago the "Capitol Area Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force" was disbanded after (in the space of one year) an innocent elderly man was shot dead while reclining on his couch during a "drug raid," and after a Travis Co. sheriff's deputy was killed by a small-time meth dealer who thought his trailer was being invaded.

For years I was told by "those in the know" within progressive circles that the WOD was a back-burner, hot-button issue best ignored (but well-funded) so as to not stigmatize "Democratic" circles. We now live with the consequences of such an attitude.