Comments on: Coming Soon: Using Tanks to Collect on Parking Tickets!

By: Coming Soon: Using Tanks to Collect on Parking Tickets! « Rough Ol' Boy

Coming Soon: Using Tanks to Collect on Parking Tickets! « Rough Ol' Boy — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:06:47 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Greg Young

Greg Young — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:43:39 +0000

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.

By: Marijuana arrest in Columbia draws controversy | Greg the College Student

Marijuana arrest in Columbia draws controversy | Greg the College Student — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:40:14 +0000

[...] 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. [...]

By: Audrey

Audrey — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:23:18 +0000

Whoops. My html code to bold “paraphernalia” was incomplete.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:22:12 +0000

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.

By: John Payne

John Payne — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:53:33 +0000

I guess I should have pointed out that really those parking ticket collecting tanks aren’t coming soon; they are already here.

By: ZOMG

ZOMG — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:49:31 +0000

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)