[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Re: [sf-core] Fw: [police oversight] Author says police SWAT squads are out of control

[C. G. Estabrook]

  An important issue. There's a dangerous trade-off in personnel and ideas 
between domestic police and US military and mercenaries in the Mideast.  (The 
police chief of New Haven years ago said his biggest problem was keeping 
"suburban white adventure-seekers" off his force; he's out, & they're in - as 
Abu Ghraib and Blackwater show.)


On 10/3/10 11:29 AM, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>
> An interesting critical counter assessment to what passes as the established 
> point of view and wisdom.  We have seen some of this in the past in Champaign 
> - in particular - specifically when they went after a federal grant to buy a 
> SWAT Armored vehicle, which was not really needed and had not been used that 
> mush for anything that would require its use.  Part of this was  motivated and 
> pushed for by a Sgt. on the department who was about to retire and had headed 
> the SWAT unit.  He pushed for this so that Champaign would be seen as on a 
> level with L.A. and the other big cities, thereby adding credibility to his 
> resume when he applied for the position as director of the national SWAT 
> association (National Tactical Officers Association) , which he got when he 
> retired from the CPD...
>
> Author says police SWAT squads are out of control
> Thursday, September 23, 2010
> By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> The country's SWAT teams are out of control and largely ineffective, and their 
> proliferation marks a dangerous "militarization" of the police force, says a 
> Lawrence County author whose latest book offers a critical look at use of 
> tactical teams nationwide.
>
> Jim Fisher, a law graduate, former FBI agent and retired Edinboro University 
> criminalistics professor, is author of "SWAT Madness and the Militarization of 
> the American Police," which examines dozens of incidents in which SWAT 
> response ended in injury, death or costly lawsuits that, Mr. Fisher contends, 
> small departments can ill afford.
>
> "If SWAT teams were just costly and unnecessary, that would be bad enough in 
> bad economic times, when we have limited law enforcement resources to begin 
> with," Mr. Fisher said. "But when it's breaking down police-community 
> relations, when it amounts to high court settlement costs, when people are 
> being injured ... you have to say to yourself, 'why are we doing this?' "
>
> He discussed the book, which is available online but will be officially 
> published Sept. 30, in an interview this week as more than 725 officers from 
> 41 states and several countries gathered at the David L. Lawrence Convention 
> Center for the 27th annual National Tactical Officers Association conference. 
> Held in Pittsburgh for the first time, the weeklong conference is a valuable 
> networking opportunity, said officers who attended. It ends Friday.
>
> On Monday, officers perused the offerings at a vendor show, where salespeople 
> peddled bulletproof vests and protective barricades, sniper scopes, armored 
> vehicles and other items Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Stephen Mescan called "the 
> tools of our trade."
>
> Officer Frank Zielinski, of the Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., Police Department, 
> studied the $26,000 Pointman, a robot that takes surveillance footage inside 
> buildings to allow officers to keep a safe distance during standoff situations.
>
> He and other officers said they were looking forward to a week's worth of 
> training sessions on use of less lethal munitions, barricaded suspects, 
> waterborne operations and dozens of other topics.
>
> Although he declined to comment on Mr. Fisher's book specifically, Officer 
> Mescan, one of the city's team leaders, said incidents that have captured 
> recent news headlines underscore the need for well-trained and equipped 
> tactical officers. He said they respond to situations patrol officers don't 
> have time to train for.
>
> "Tactical teams are life-saving units designed to handle critical incidents," 
> Officer Mescan said. "We're seeing these incidents on a more frequent basis."
>
> Mr. Fisher, however, argues that "fear-mongering" officials have convinced the 
> public that rapid response teams are needed even in "low-risk" police work.
>
> "Today, it's hard to differentiate between a police officer and someone 
> fighting in Afghanistan," he said. "They act the same, are trained by the same 
> people, and they have the same mind-set at a time when violent crime is down."
>
> In an early chapter, Mr. Fisher writes that slayings of three Pittsburgh 
> police officers in April 2009 prompted McKeesport City Council members to 
> approve a federal grant for the city's own SWAT team, "unwilling to rely" on 
> Pittsburgh, Allegheny County or state police teams. Rural Lawrence County 
> followed suit and formed a 15-officer emergency response team at a cost of 
> more than $100,000, although Mr. Fisher says the "new paramilitary unit" would 
> have "virtually nothing to do."
>
> "It's overkill," Mr. Fisher said.
>
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