Columbia, Missouri Police Chief: “I Hate the Internet”

[The Straight Story]

Columbia, Missouri Police Chief: “I Hate the Internet”
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Columbia, Missouri Police Chief Ken Burton is apparently frustrated. At another press conference yesterday, a reporter asked the chief what he has learned from the international attention generated by the YouTube video of his department’s SWAT team conducting a drug raid last February.

His reply: “I hate the Internet.”

I’ll bet he does. For two-and-a-half months, Burton and his department were quiet about the raid. That’s likely because, as I wrote yesterday, the raid was really no different from the tens of thousands of similar raids conducted every year, and that are probably conducted by his own department a couple of times per week. Within days of the video hitting the web, Burton was forced to hold several press conferences, and has now laid out several reforms to the way SWAT raids will be conducted in Columbia in the future. I suppose it’s possible those reforms were brewing all along, and the timing of him announcing them after the video went viral was mere coincidence. It seems at least plausible, though, that the dread “Internet” sparked some actual policy changes, here.

Unfortunately the changes—while small steps in the right direction—still miss the point. Burton says his department will no longer conduct SWAT raids at night. They won’t conduct raids in homes where children are present. Suspects will be under constant surveillance until the raid is carried out. And raids will be conducted within a shorter period of time from when police get the initial tip about a suspected drug dealer. But the Columbia Police Department will still conduct volatile, violent, highly aggressive forced-entry raids on people suspected of consensual, nonviolent drug crimes. That is what’s wrong with the YouTube video. Changing the time of day of the raid doesn’t change the wildly disproportionate use of force.

http://www.theagitator.com/2010/05/12/columbia-missouri-police-chief-i-hate-the-internet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+radleybalko+%28The+Agitator%29

[foxfeet]

1. The internet doesn't speak very highly of him, either.

Edit: spelling. Duh.

[arcadian]

2. ^^^this post is full of win^^^

:rofl:

[sabrina 1]

3. He hates the internet because he can't lie, which he tried to do,

when people can see with their own eyes that he is lying.

He hates it because he has learned that the people who pay his salary were mostly unaware of the fact that in this democracy, SWAT teams were being sent into family homes at night where there are children and pets, often killing family dogs and sometimes even people themselves.

And almost unanimously, across the political spectrum, the public was outraged. Sending a SWAT team to a house to find pot IS an outrage in itself, but when the public got a look at what those SWAT teams are doing to Americans in their own homes, especially to their dogs, the outrage was so intense, everywhere, that any normal person would at least ask themselves 'why are we doing this'?

But then, people who agree to this kind of oppression to begin with are NOT normal, so the Chief misses the point completely.

He hates the internet, he hates 'our freedoms' but I bet he supports the WOT. His SWAT team are terrorists but he can't see that.

I hope the outrage this generated doesn't go away until the Drug War ends, and some laws are passed against the militarization of the police in this country.

The only crime committed that night was committed by his SWAT team. When the public almost unanimously agrees something must be done about that.

There should be zero tolerance in a democracy for this kind of criminal activity against U.S. citizens in their own homes.

[here_is_to_hope]

4. I used the internets to

...let that rat bastard and his jackbooted thugs how comparable their behavior and style was to the mercenaries I came across in El Salvador in the early 1980's.

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Police/Contact_Us/index.php

[sabrina 1]

8. Lol, good for you. They were whining about

all the negative messages they were getting from all over the world. Crybabies!

[snooper2]

5. I guess he got the message I left for him

After spending an hour calling and calling to get a live person and no voicemail...

I had to give them a piece of my mind after watching that video

[Mojeoux]

10. The only web connections on their site are to report crimes.

I am very tempted to go ahead and report them as criminal terrorists. However, I don't want to mess with that part of their system for the sake of somebody who's really in trouble.

I wanted to send a message to them via the evil Internet.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Then is a good balanced column well worth the read.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, The Straight Story.:thumbsup:

[SlipperySlope]

7. proportionate use of force...

I've lurked on a few bulletin boards where LEOs hang out. One of the most surprising things I've learned is that police generally don't believe in any sort of "proportionate use of force", at least not as a civilian would recognize it.

When talking amongst themselves, officers are unapologetic about using as much force as they think necessary to counter any perceived possibility of resistance. This includes using force purely as a "show of force" to eliminate any thought of resistance.

There is also an extremely strong double standard used by police officers. Show them a video of police brutalizing citizens and they will defend it too the end of the earth; the most standard defense is that the video doesn't show the totality of the situation and that they need more information. If pushed to the wall with unjustified use of force they will begrudgingly say it was an isolated incident that doesn't reflect the police in general. But show them a case of citizens using force against police and they will consider it inconceivable that such force could ever be justified. Even when talking about a hypothetical illegal use of force by police, officers will not concede that citizens even have the right to resist illegal force.

[sabrina 1]

9. They have gotten way out of hand. And their attitude is despicable.

They forget who pays their salaries.

We are their employers, how dare they presume that it is okay for them to brutalize the public as we have seen far too often in this country.

No other modern democracy would tolerate one tiny % of the abuse they engage in here. Their whole attitude is criminal

Take that situation in the video. Like robots they 'shoot to kill' a dog and wound another. This kind of mindset has already proven to be deadly for far too many Americans and their pets now it seems.

This over-reaction is stupid, their 'training' is stupid. They are meant to protect the public, but their training is teaching them to view the public as the enemy. Apologists for this 'training' excuse make me ill.

I and most people I know now, are more afraid of the cops than they are of criminals. And judging from the worldwide reaction to that video, they are viewed as thugs and their little world of abuse and oppression has been exposed to the sunlight and it didn't hold up very well.

Now it's time to get Congress to do something about this. We don't need the military policing our streets and homes.

[PM Martin]

12. The attitude of police is that they are above us all.

They do not respect those who pay their salaries, those who put the food on their tables for the children.

[Kievan Rus]

13. Cops are essentially high school bullies that never grew up

They remind me of the cariacature of Russell Crowe presented in the one South Park parody...beating people up because they feel insecure.

[WeDidIt]

11. The best defense against police forcdes out of control?

Cameras.

Lots of 'em.

Remote controlled hidden cameras where a quick press of a button starts the recording in your own home.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. That can get you arrested for disorderly conduct (AKA contempt of cop)

Check out Carlosmiller.com, AKA Photography is not a Crime

[Festivito]

15. What he doesn't hate is government against the people.

His idea is that anyone in a uniform deserves to go it alone, not bother with the whole truth, not bother with the things that we as a birthing nation fought against: hack Brits who would barge in and kill. Those egregious acts solidified support for a new nation conceived in liberty.

He is as UN-AMERICAN as un-American can be.

What he doesn't hate is government against the people.

[Downtown Hound]

16. I'll bet cops do hate the internet

The corporate media is way too chickenshit to take the police on most of the time, so the internet is the only medium that routinely exposes police violence and corruption.

[progressoid]

17. I guessing Ken Burton hates a LOT of things.

[Scurrilous]

18. Kick

:kick: