Coming Soon: Using Tanks to Collect on Parking Tickets!
Video of a February SWAT raid in Columbia was recently released and has been causing something of an uproar. The article accompanied by the video on the Columbia Daily Tribune’s website currently has over 450 comments, most of them disapproving of the police officers’ tactics, which included shooting suspect Jonathan Whitworth’s two dogs while his wife and young son were present. I doubt many people would complain if the police employed such aggressive tactics in response to a hostage situation or a bank robbery, but all the police had to show for the violence was a misdemeanor amount of marijuana and paraphernalia.
Regardless of your opinions about marijuana, I think we can all agree that it is an inappropriate use of force to call out the SWAT team for misdemeanor offenses. Granted, the police argue that they suspected Whitworth was selling marijuana, and it is certainly possible that they were right but happened to raid his house when he was essentially sold out. However, the fact that the police department’s intelligence indicated that Whitworth’s son was not present when, in fact, he lived there suggests that they did not really do their homework on the case.
This case highlights the need for greater information about the use of SWAT raids in Missouri, but it is hardly an isolated incident. Cheye Calvo is the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md., and in 2008 the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Department deployed a SWAT team to his house after a package containing drugs meant for someone else was delivered to his house. In that case, as well, the officers shot and killed Calvo’s dogs, two Labrador retrievers. (They always seem to shoot the dogs.) Calvo fought back and was instrumental in passing a law in Maryland that requires all police departments in the state to report when and why they deploy SWAT teams. The results so far in Maryland have not been encouraging:
Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day. In Prince George’s County alone, with its 850,000 residents, a SWAT team was deployed about once per day. According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, 94 percent of the state’s SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended.
If Missouri police uses SWAT forces for similar purposes, we have a right to know and a duty to do something about it.
I guess we’re already there:
“One of the most appalling cases occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona, the home of Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America.” In 2004 one of Arpaio’s SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custody–for outstanding traffic violations.”
(From the linked Reason article about Puppycide: http://reason.com/archives/2006/04/01/government-goons-murder-puppie)
Comment by ZOMG — May 6, 2010 @ 12:49 p.m.
I guess I should have pointed out that really those parking ticket collecting tanks aren’t coming soon; they are already here.
Comment by John Payne — May 6, 2010 @ 12:53 p.m.
Sigh… The Columbia Police Department deemed Whitworth so DANGEROUS that they sent a SWAT team to raid his house. In court, he plead guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, and was fined $300. That’s it. Apparently the judge didn’t think the evidence showed that Whitworth was that dangerous.
Equipment and cost of man hours for the SWAT bust? Probably >$1,000. Fine? $300. Getting to dress up in super cool SWAT gear? Priceless.
Comment by Audrey — May 6, 2010 @ 1:22 p.m.
Whoops. My html code to bold “paraphernalia” was incomplete.
Comment by Audrey — May 6, 2010 @ 1:23 p.m.
[...] As John Payne points out over at Show-Me Daily, Maryland recently passed a law requiring all police departments in the state to report how much they were using SWAT teams, and for what purposes. The results were, well, kinda disturbing: Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day. In Prince George’s County alone, with its 850,000 residents, a SWAT team was deployed about once per day. According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, 94 percent of the state’s SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended. [...]
Pingback by Marijuana arrest in Columbia draws controversy | Greg the College Student — May 6, 2010 @ 3:40 p.m.
I commented this on my blog (www.gregthecollegestudent.wordpress.com). Essentially, I agree that we need to be open about what operations our SWAT teams are carrying out. Even further, I think that possibly mandating that SWAT teams have a certain percentage of their work be for emergency situations vs. carrying out arrests could actually help create a solution, rather than just complaining about it.
Comment by Greg Young — May 6, 2010 @ 3:43 p.m.
[...] 11, 2010 I posted this on Show-Me Daily last Thursday, but in my rush to get to Chicago, I forgot to cross-post it here. I would probably [...]
Pingback by Coming Soon: Using Tanks to Collect on Parking Tickets! « Rough Ol' Boy — May 10, 2010 @ 11:06 p.m.