[VIDEO] Russia: Man High on Drugs Holds Teen Hostage, Demands More Drugs
Posted: February 3, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Russia | Tags: Assault, Drug Addiction, drugs, Federal Police (Austria), Graz, Hays County, KXAN-TV, Omsk Oblast, SWAT, Texas, video Leave a comment
Raw video: Police neutralize man after he entered house and held 13-year-old girl hostage with knife in dramatic standoff caught on tape in Russia.
The drug-crazed man broke into a house in the city of Omsk in Omsk Oblast region, central Russia, where the girl lives with her grandmother.

Named only as Zhenya, he starts demanding drugs from the terrified family, according to local media reports.
Threatening her with a knife, the man made the girl call the police so he could demand drugs in exchange for her freedom. Police and a SWAT team rushed to the scene.
The clip filmed by a cop shows the tattooed junkie holding the girl on his lap. His hands are behind her, thought to have been holding the knife against her. Read the rest of this entry »
$1 Million Bail Sought for Suspect in #MountVernon Officer’s Shooting
Posted: December 16, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Alford plea, Arrest warrant, Chief of police, Domestic violence, Facebook, Felony, Mount Vernon, murder, Police officer, Seattle, SWAT, Washington State Leave a commentMOUNT VERNON, Wash. KOMO Staff & Associated Press report: A man suspected of shooting a police officer in the back of the head was ordered held on $1 million bail Friday.
The suspect, identified in court documents as Ernesto Lee Rivas, 44, appeared in Skagit County Superior Court the day after the cold-blooded shooting.
Rivas, who has a lengthy criminal history, was arrested earlier Friday morning after a seven-hour standoff in Mount Vernon that began after a police officer was shot and critically wounded, the Washington State Patrol said.
The online roster for the Skagit County Jail shows Rivas was booked at 1:55 a.m. Friday following his arrest.
Court and State Patrol records show that Rivas has eight felonies on his record, including unlawful possession of a firearm in 2011 and unlawful imprisonment in 1998. He was subject to a domestic violence protection order last year after the mother of his child accused him of stalking her at work.
At Friday’s court hearing, prosecutors said the suspect is being held for investigation of attempted first-degree murder. It was not immediately clear if Rivas has obtained an attorney. Read the rest of this entry »
Two Bailiffs, Gunman Dead in Shooting at Michigan Courthouse, Sheriff says
Posted: July 11, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Chief of police, Death, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fox News Channel, Law enforcement officer, Police officer, SWAT, WFAA Leave a commentDEVELOPING: Two court bailiffs were killed and a police officer shot Monday inside a southwestern Michigan courthouse when an inmate broke loose and got his hands on a deputy’s gun, officials said.
“What occurred today in my hometown breaks my heart. My thoughts are with our entire community – our friends and neighbors. This tragic event reminds us all too well that our law enforcement officers have their lives on the line every day not knowing what that day will bring. We have lost two very able public servants and we all grieve for them and their families.”
Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey told local media at a press conference the gunman, whose identity was not immediately available, was killed by responding police.
“Brave officers” took down the shooter, Bailey said.
Berrien County Undersheriff Chuck Heit told Fox News a civilian was also shot, and is in stable condition.
The incident occurred just days after five Dallas police officers were killed by a sniper, and amid a wave of violence and threats against law eforcement officers around the country. Read the rest of this entry »
#ChaseBankShooting? #PlannedParenthoodShooting?
Posted: November 27, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere | Tags: Active shooter, Chase (bank), ChaseBankShooting #PlannedParenthoodShooting, Colorado, Colorado Shooting, Colorado Springs, Planned Parenthood, SWAT Leave a commentLeast Original Perp Statement Award Nomination Announced for Phoenix Freeway Shooter Suspect: ‘You Got the Wrong Guy!’
Posted: September 19, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice | Tags: Arizona, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Doug Ducey, Drive-by shooting, NBC News, News conference, Operation Red Dawn, SWAT, Twitter, Walmart 1 Comment“All I have to say is I’m the wrong guy. I tried telling the detectives that. My gun’s been in the pawnshop the last two months. I haven’t even had access to a weapon.”
PHOENIX, Sept. 19 (UPI) — Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., the man believed to be responsible for a series of drive-by shootings on Arizona’s Interstate 10, told a judge on Saturday that authorities arrested “the wrong guy.”
“The weapon and man we believe was responsible for starting this spree is in custody. Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead said. “Are there others out there? Are there copycats? That is possible.”
— Frank Milstead. Arizona Department of Public Safety Director
Judge Lisa Roberts was unmoved, setting the 21-year-old’s bail at $1 million.
“The suspect presents a dramatic and profound threat to the community,” the prosecutor said at Merritt’s arraignment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“All I have to say is I’m the wrong guy,” Merritt said, after the judge granted him permission to address the court. “I tried telling the detectives that. My gun’s been in the pawnshop the last two months. I haven’t even had access to a weapon.”
“The father of the accused told reporters that anyone who thinks his son is guilty is a ‘moron.’”
A SWAT team swarmed Merritt in a Walmart on Friday. Authorities announced his arrest shortly afterwards, saying the young man was “forensically linked” to the 11 highway shootings along busy I-10. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: ‘We Got Him’: Suspect Arrested in Arizona Freeway Shootings
Posted: September 18, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption | Tags: Arizona, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Arrest, Arrest warrant, Beltway sniper attacks, Department of Public Safety, Doug Ducey, Federal Bureau of Investigation, SWAT 1 CommentA police SWAT team on Friday arrested a suspect in a string of shootings along an Arizona freeway that have terrified drivers over recent weeks, the governor said.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced the arrest on Twitter at around 6:59 local time (9:59 p.m. ET), with a post that began: “We got him!”
BREAKING: We got him! DPS SWAT team is in custody of the individual suspected of I-10 shootings. Apprehended moments ago.
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) September 19, 2015
Police did not immediately provide details. A spokesman for Ducey said the arrest occurred at a Walmart. A press conference was scheduled for later Friday evening.
Eleven vehicles were shot at on or near the I-10 freeway running through Phoenix since Aug. 29, authorities have said, although some of those incidents involved bullets and others were what has been only described as “projectiles.” Read the rest of this entry »
Movie Theater Attack: When is America Going to Get Serious About Hatchet Control?
Posted: August 5, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense, U.S. News | Tags: Antioch, Brian Haas, Hatchet, Mad Max Fury Road, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Movie theater, Nashville, Pepper spray, SWAT, Tennessee, Theatre 1 CommentNASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBS Atlanta/AP) — A suspect wielding a hatchet and a gun inside a Nashville-area movie theater died after exchanging gunshots with a SWAT team that stormed the theater, police said Wednesday.
The suspect, only identified so far as 51-year-old white male, was wearing a surgical mask and was armed with a gun and a hatchet at the Carmike Hickory 8 theater in Antioch, said Don Aaron, a spokesman for Metro Nashville police. The suspect was said to be a local resident. Read the rest of this entry »
Suspect in Dallas Police Shooting Struck by Sniper After Attack on Police Headquarters
Posted: June 13, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption | Tags: Associated Press, Chief of police, Dallas, Dallas Police Department, Dallas SWAT, David Brown (police officer), Interstate 45, Pipe bomb, Police car, SWAT 1 CommentGunman opened fire on Dallas Police Department and rammed a police car before fleeing
Police couldn’t confirm whether the suspect, who was in an armored van that he claimed had explosives inside, was alive. Police hadn’t yet confirmed the man’s identity.
Snipers shot at the van’s front window and struck the suspect, Mr. Brown said. Police were using a robot to determine whether explosives remain near the vehicle.
#dallaspdshooting I hate white people and I am white
— kys joy (@lrhgroupies) June 13, 2015
Pathetic tweet of the day
Police had chased the suspect to a parking lot at a Jack in the Box restaurant south of Dallas after he fired on officers at the Dallas police headquarters early Saturday. No officers were injured in the shootings. Read the rest of this entry »
Dallas Police HQ Attacked; Suspect Cornered
Posted: June 13, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption | Tags: Chief of police, Dallas, Dallas City Hall, Dallas Police Department, David Brown (police officer), Hutchins, Police car, Police station, Saturday morning cartoon, SWAT, Texas 2 CommentsDALLAS (AP) — Nomann Merchant reports: At least one gunman opened fire on officers outside of police headquarters in Dallas early Saturday, spraying squad cars with bullets before fleeing in a van, which officers followed to a suburban parking lot and surrounded, beginning a standoff, the police chief said.
Witnesses described seeing as many as three other suspects taking part in the attack, but police Chief David Brown said at a news conference that conflicting accounts made it difficult to determine how many people may have been involved. Despite a hail of gunshots, including some that hit police vehicles, nobody was wounded, he said.
According to Brown, the shootout began at around 12:30 a.m., when the suspect or suspects parked in front of the department’s headquarters south of downtown and began firing. At least one assailant later drove off in a dark-colored van, which witnesses described as armored, but not before ramming a police cruiser. The moment was caught on cellphone video shot from a nearby balcony in which several shots can be heard.
Officers trailed the van to a Jack in the Box parking lot in Hutchins, a Dallas suburb, where a SWAT team had it surrounded, Brown said. They had been speaking to a man inside who identified himself as James Boulware and who said he blames police for losing custody of his son and “accusing him of being a terrorist.”
The gunman also said he had explosives in the van, which appeared to be outfitted with gun ports in the sides. Read the rest of this entry »
San Diego Police Officer Shot, Suspect Dead
Posted: May 17, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption | Tags: California State Route 163, Jeep, Kearny Mesa, Police officer, San Diego, San Diego Police Department, Sharp Memorial Hospital, SWAT 1 CommentMichelle Moons reports: Shots fired at approximately 8:25 a.m. Sunday morning that sent one San Diego Police Officer to the hospital were met with responding shots fired at the shooting suspect leaving the man dead at the scene.
SDPD officers originally attempted to stop a gray Jeep traveling an estimated 90 miles per hour on Interstate 805 around 7:40 a.m. The vehicle evaded authorities in the chase that ensued, but was later spotted–abandoned. A search of vehicle license records yielded the possibility that the SUV had been used in multiple shootings in the city within the several weeks prior.
A male suspect spotted near the abandoned vehicle ran when officers attempted to approach him. It was then that the suspect produced a gun and fired at the officers, hitting a female officer in the upper tors,o according to a Sunday afternoon statement from the San Diego Police Department. Read the rest of this entry »
SWAT Surrounds Essex House Motel in Littleton; FBI Agent Wounded
Posted: May 8, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Alicia Keys, Anne Arundel County, Arrest warrant, Associated Press, Colorado, Denver, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Maryland, Robert Fitzpatrick, SWAT, The Denver Post, Twitter, Whitey Bulger Leave a comment“It’s terrifying. It’s frightening. It’s a situation where you are trying to be as safe as possible but when you hear over the radio that an officer is down, it’s the worst thing you can possibly hear.”
— Littleton police Lt. Trent Cooper
An FBI agent was wounded Friday afternoon while trying to serve an arrest warrant at a Littleton motel.
The agent was taken to Swedish Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
Littleton police, SWAT officers and other law enforcement personnel were still surrounding the Essex House Motel in the 5300 block of South Santa Fe Drive at 6:15 p.m., about two hours later.
[The “Longhorn Bandit” is wanted in heists across the Denver area that began in February]
At 6:20 p.m., police were preparing to send a robot into the second-story room, since they had been unable to make contact with the suspect since the shooting at 4:15 p.m.
Officials said they were waiting for a federal warrant to enter the motel, which could take a couple of hours.
Littleton police Lt. Trent Cooper said the suspect fired two shots at law enforcement agents, hitting the agent in the leg. The officers fired no shots, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Foreign Policy’s David Francis Resurrects Discredited WH Spin: Ambassador Stevens Death ‘Connected to Low-Budget Film’
Posted: May 4, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Religion, War Room | Tags: André Carson, Charlie Hebdo, CNN, Council on American–Islamic Relations, Garland, Geert Wilders, Islam, Keith Ellison, Louie Gohmert, Muhammad, Pamela Geller, Politics of the Netherlands, Southern Poverty Law Center, Stop Islamization of America, SWAT, Texas, United States, United States Capitol 1 CommentAmericans Have ‘Stirred the Pot’, Says David Francis
David Francis writes: Violence connected to images depicting the Prophet Mohammed has arrived on American shores.
Five months after an attack at the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and four months after a shooting at a free speech event in Copenhagen, two gunmen were shot and killed outside of a cartoon exhibit and contest near Dallas late Sunday evening. While the motive for the attack is unclear, one of the event’s keynote speakers, Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders, has been denounced by Islamist groups for his criticisms of the Muslim presence in Europe, and its organizer, Pamela Geller, is a long time critic of Islam.
“In 2012, protesters stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo after Mark Basseley Youssef, a U.S. resident, released the anti-Muslim film ‘Innocence of Muslims’. Violence in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens dead was also connected to the low-budget film.”
Two Democratic lawmakers recently asked the White House to ban Wilders from entering the United States.
It remains unclear whether the shooting is connected to broader extremist Islamic movements like the Islamic State or al Qaeda. Some Twitter posts by users associated with the group denounced the event in advance. Citing FBI sources, ABC news reported one of the gunmen is Elton Simpson, a target of previous terrorism related investigations. He had previously
Tweeted using the hashtag #texasattacks.
“Its organizer, Geller, is the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a ‘hate group’.”
Note: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s standards are so ludicrous they’d list a box of cereal a “hate group”.
The identity of the second gunman is still unknown. Read the rest of this entry »
OH YES THEY DID: Liberals Side with Islamic Gunmen in #Garland Terror Attack, Blame Organizers, Wish Geller Had Been Shot
Posted: May 4, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Religion | Tags: Charlie Hebdo, Garland, Garland Independent School District, Geert Wilders, Islam, Jews, Muhammad, Pamela Geller, Police, Stop Islamization of America, SWAT, Texas, The Dallas Morning News, United States 1 Comment“A number of online liberals appeared to side with the gunmen and were upset that Pamela Geller, one of the event organizers, was not shot. A number of others simply blamed Geller for the shooting, while others blamed the free speech event.”
On Sunday, two gunmen attempted what appears to be a Charlie Hebdo-style terror attack on a free speech event in Garland, Texas, that included a “Draw Mohammed” cartoon contest. Both gunmen were killed by Garland police officers and one officer was wounded. But, Twitchy said Sunday night, a number of online liberals appeared to side with the gunmen and were upset that Pamela Geller, one of the event organizers, was not shot. A number of others simply blamed Geller for the shooting, while others blamed the free speech event.
“Two people at racist hate event killed, one unfortunately not Pam Geller,” one person said. A search of Twitter revealed many others who blamed Geller.
“What’s worse mocking Islam or killing people?”
“Nothing like presence of Geert Wilders & Pam Geller to bring out crazies on other side,” one person said. “Oh, and by the way, it is not the fault of ‘Jews’ but one Jew, Pam Geller,whose only job is to create problems,” another person added. Wilders, Twitchy added, is a Dutch politician Democrats wanted to keep out of the country. CAIR also joined in the effort, demanding he be denied a visa.
#Garlandshooting suspect Elton Simpson was convicted in 2011 on terror-related charge, records show. http://t.co/VTj14BlQgo
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) May 4, 2015
“Let’s be real, the event in #Garland featured hatemongers like Geert Wilders & Pam Geller, this wasn’t an art event, it was a hate event,” another person said on Twitter, apparently blaming the intended targets for the attempted terror attack. Others appeared to openly side with the gunmen who, as we reported Sunday, received praise from ISIS.
“Racist Pam Geller is responsible for the deaths in Garland Texas,” one Twitter user said. “Her Klan meeting was meant to draw violence. She is responsible.”
“Officials believe Simpson is the person who sent out several Twitter messages prior to the attack on Sunday, in the last one using the hashtag #TexasAttack about half an hour before the shooting.”
“I live in Garland,Tx where shooting occurred,” another Twitter user said. “I’m sorry Garland ever let Pam Geller put this event on–only 200 tickets sold. Geller=idiot.”
“Two of the key speakers/organizers of the ‘Draw Mohammed’ event in Texas are Pam Geller and Geert Wilders,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald. The tweet attracted a great deal of criticism. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Police Standoff in Ferguson
Posted: April 21, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News | Tags: 9-1-1, Addison Street, African American, Ferguson, KTVI, Missouri, Police, Police officer, St. Louis, SWAT 2 CommentsFERGUSON, MO (KTVI) – Police are involved in two stand-offs in north St. Louis County.
Ferguson police are involved in a standoff after responding to report of a shooting in Ferguson. A person has barricaded themselves into a home in the suspects 400 block of Warford. Investigators are unable to check on the possible shooting victim until they deal with the person blocking them from entry. Police have blocked off area streets.
An unknown number of Ferguson protesters have made their way to the scene. Read the rest of this entry »
Rogue Police Home Invasion: Marijuana Grower Shot SWAT Cops Who Kicked Down His Door, Jury Says They Don’t Blame Him
Posted: March 30, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Arrest warrant, Burleson County, Cannabis, Cocaine, Crack cocaine, Drug paraphernalia, Police, Search warrant, Sheriff, Special Investigations Unit, SWAT 1 Comment(CCN) Recently, there has been some talk about places that allow you to shoot officers if they are in the wrong when they enter your home. Our friends at The Free Thought Project write the following about the steps that one state has taken in this direction:
Indiana has taken action to “recognize the unique character of a citizen’s home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant.”
While Indiana may appear to be the only state to so publicly announce legislation that permits self-defense against rogue police home invasions, there are other courts which have ruled in favor of recognizing this right.
One of the most striking examples is that of a Texas man who says he was the victim of a home invasion in the middle of the night. But that home invasion was carried out by SWAT officers.
In the pre-dawn raid, that occurred on December 19th, 2013, Henry Goedrich Magee, like many residents of Burleson County, Texas, had a gun in the house. When Magee heard his door being broken down, he reached for his gun.
The police wanted to throw the proverbial book at him, but after hearing the evidence, a grand jury determined that Magee should not be charged in the shooting death of one of those officers.
The ruling was clear that Magee would not be charged with capital murder for the death of Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders, who was part of a SWAT team which attempted to raid Magee’s rural home, in the execution of a search warrant.
The officers did in fact have a warrant, but a key factor in the grand jury’s decision was that they did not knock before entering.
The warrant says that they were primarily looking for marijuana primarily, and also for illegal guns. Read the rest of this entry »
Cops & Cops: Context Matters
Posted: August 15, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Canada, Deadly Force, Dogs, Ferguson Missouri, journalism, Photography, Police, Protect and Serve, Public Servant, Radley Balko, satire, SWAT, Twitter, USA, Warrior Cops Leave a comment@punditfap @rdbrewer4 @KevinNR @radleybalko I agree US police getting over militarized but context matters. pic.twitter.com/xWo0ONt5AQ
— Christopher Taylor (@KestrelArts) August 15, 2014
Related articles
- This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police – Business Insider (businessinsider.com)
- Pics: The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police (dailypaul.com)
- Ferguson: live video streams of SWAT team assault on protesters (boingboing.net)
- American Militarism: The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost (campaignforliberty.org)
- NBC might want to rethink its aggressive Twitter campaign for ‘Chicago PD’ (dailydot.com)
- The left professes ignorance about conservative, libertarian concerns over police militarization (hotair.com)
- Free societies require more of police than turning tough situations into militarized zones (hotair.com)
- Opportunism knocks in Missouri (powerlineblog.com)
CHART: Violent crime is lowest in 44 years and half the rate in 1991, so why have we become United States of SWAT?
Posted: August 15, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Self Defense, U.S. News | Tags: Carpe Diem, Drug war, Ferguson Missouri, Police, SWAT, United States, United States of SWAT 1 CommentCHART: Violent crime is lowest in 44 years and half the rate in 1991, so why have we become United States of SWAT? pic.twitter.com/c0k4CnbdkL
— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) August 14, 2014
Should police departments release the names of officers involved in on-duty shootings?
Posted: August 14, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: ABC7, Ferguson, Ferguson Missouri, Police, Robert Holguin, SWAT, Washington Post 1 CommentShould police departments release the names of officers involved in on-duty shootings? @ABC7 @ 6. #Ferguson #mapit pic.twitter.com/ON0lwiMhxb
— Robert Holguin (@ABC7Robert) August 14, 2014
Ferguson Missouri: SWAT Truck Repositioned, Gun Pointing Straight at Protesters
Posted: August 13, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Anonymous, Civil Unrest, Ferguson Missouri, Global Panic of 2014, HuffingtonPost, Looting, Militarized Police, MSNBC, Riots, SWAT, Twitter, Warrior Cops 3 CommentsSwat truck repositioned, gun pointing straight at protesters pic.twitter.com/BYN58JDfgV
— Conetta (@BmoreConetta) August 13, 2014
War Gear Flows to Police Departments
Posted: June 9, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Kevin Wilkinson, Louisiana, Neenah, Neenah Wisconsin, Police, Police state, Seminole County Sheriff's Office (Florida), SWAT 1 CommentA military-style armored personnel carrier, top, that the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida bought off a contractor. Credit Jacob Langston
NEENAH, Wis. — For NYTimes, Matt Apuzzo reports: Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.
The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice.

Kevin Wilkinson, the police chief of Neenah, Wis., said having a vehicle built for combat would help protect his officers. Credit Darren Hauck for The New York Times
During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: At Least Three Shot at Seattle Pacific University, Suspect in Custody
Posted: June 5, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption | Tags: Seattle, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle Police Department, SWAT 2 CommentsReuters reports: At least three people were shot at Seattle Pacific University on Thursday, and the suspect was in custody, Seattle police said on social media.
The Seattle Times newspaper put the number of wounded higher, at seven, none fatally, and said that police were evacuating Otto Miller Hall on campus, but a police spokesman at the scene confirmed only three victims.
Seattle police had initially said via twitter that four people were confirmed shot but later downgraded that to three, saying a SWAT team was searching the campus and that authorities were receiving conflicting information about the number of victims…(read more)
If a Well-Regulated Militia is Necessary to the Security of a Free State, are we Insecure? Or Unfree?
Posted: March 10, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v Chicago, Militia, Right to keep and bear arms, Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, SWAT, United States Constitution 3 CommentsNo militia means more intrusive law enforcement
Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes: The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
For a while, some argued that the so-called “prefatory clause” — “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State” — somehow limited the “right of the people” to something having to do with a militia. In its recent opinions of District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court has made clear that the Second Amendment does recognize a right of individuals to own guns, and that that right is in no way dependent upon membership in a militia. That seems to me to be entirely correct.
“A professional standing army could turn on the people, placing its loyalty with its paymasters rather than with those it was supposed to protect. The militia, on the other hand, couldn’t betray the people because it was the people.”
But there is still that language. If a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, then where is ours? Because if a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, it follows that a state lacking such a militia is either insecure, or unfree, or possibly both.
For law enforcement, the militia has been replaced by professional police, with SWAT teams, armored vehicles and Nomex coveralls; for military purposes, the militia has been replaced by the National Guard, which despite a thin patina of state control is fundamentally a federal military force.
In the time of the Framers, the militia was an armed body consisting of essentially the entire military-age male citizenry. Professional police not having been invented, the militia was the primary tool for enforcing the law in circumstances that went beyond the reach of the town constable, and it was also the primary source of defense against invasions and insurrection.
Scenes from Militarized America
Posted: February 4, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Ankeny Iowa, Battle Dress Uniform, CCTV, Des Moines Iowa, Iowa, Police officer, RAID, SWAT 3 CommentsIowa Family ‘Terrorized’
Authorities destroy cameras to prevent account of raid
When critics warn about the dangers of police militarization, this is what we’re talking about. You’ll see the raid team, dressed in battle-dress uniforms, helmets and face-covering balaclava hoods take down the family’s door with a battering ram. You’ll see them storm the home with ballistics shields, guns at the ready. More troubling still, you’ll see not one but two officers attempt to prevent the family from having an independent record of the raid, one by destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens…
Yard shooting: Swat team awaits answers
Posted: September 22, 2013 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Self Defense, U.S. News | Tags: ABC News, BBC, Capitol Police, Incident response team, Police, SWAT, Washington DC, Washington Navy Yard 2 Comments
Personnel returned to work at the Washington Navy Yard on Thursday
Debbie Siegelbaum writes: Members of a Washington DC Swat team who the BBC has learned were ordered not to respond to Monday’s Navy Yard shootings have yet to be contacted by the authorities.
The Capitol Police tactical response team was told by a supervisor to leave the scene instead of aiding municipal officers, sources told the BBC.
Meanwhile, the department has installed a new leader of the elite unit. No reason has been given for the decision. Read the rest of this entry »
The Left’s Hatred of Ted Cruz
Posted: August 22, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Cruz, Ed Rendell, George W. Bush, Harvard Business School, SWAT, Ted Cruz, Texas, United States Supreme Court Leave a commentTed Cruz, traitor to his class
By Rich Lowry
Henry Adams said that politics is the systematic organization of hatreds. For the left, over the past year it has seemed at times to be the systematic organization of hatred of Ted Cruz.The freshman senator is not the first Texan to be so honored. In fact, the state isn’t holding up its end if, at any given moment, it isn’t throwing onto the national scene at least one Republican reviled by the other side.
The party’s highest-profile Texans, George W. Bush and Rick Perry, tended to match inarticulateness with cowboy swagger and lend themselves to mockery as intellectual lightweights. Bush went to Yale and Harvard Business School, yet no one naturally thinks of him as an Ivy Leaguer. The two Lone Star State governors played into the left’s stereotypes so nicely that if they didn’t exist, Gail Collins would have had to make them up.
Cruz is different — a Princeton and Harvard man who not only matriculated at those fine institutions but excelled at them. Champion debater at Princeton. Magna cum laude graduate at Harvard. Supreme Court clerkship, on the way to Texas solicitor general and dozens of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cruz is from the intellectual elite, but not of it, a tea party conservative whose politics are considered gauche at best at the storied universities where he studied. He is, to borrow the words of the 2009 H.W. Brands biography of FDR, a traitor to his class. Read the rest of this entry »
How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?
Posted: July 7, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: ABA Journal, British Army, Humvee, Police, SWAT, United States, United States Constitution, United States Navy SEALs Leave a commentBy Radley Balko
Are cops constitutional?
In a 2001 article for the Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, the legal scholar and civil liberties activist Roger Roots posed just that question. Roots, a fairly radical libertarian, believes that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow for police as they exist today. At the very least, he argues, police departments, powers and practices today violate the document’s spirit and intent. “Under the criminal justice model known to the framers, professional police officers were unknown,” Roots writes.
The founders and their contemporaries would probably have seen even the early-19th-century police forces as a standing army, and a particularly odious one at that. Just before the American Revolution, it wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia; it was England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement. This wariness of standing armies was born of experience and a study of history—early American statesmen like Madison, Washington and Adams were well-versed in the history of such armies in Europe, especially in ancient Rome.
If even the earliest attempts at centralized police forces would have alarmed the founders, today’s policing would have terrified them. Today in America SWAT teams violently smash into private homes more than 100 times per day. The vast majority of these raids are to enforce laws against consensual crimes. In many cities, police departments have given up the traditional blue uniforms for “battle dress uniforms” modeled after soldier attire.
Police departments across the country now sport armored personnel carriers designed for use on a battlefield. Some have helicopters, tanks and Humvees. They carry military-grade weapons. Most of this equipment comes from the military itself. Many SWAT teams today are trained by current and former personnel from special forces units like the Navy SEALs or Army Rangers. National Guard helicopters now routinely swoop through rural areas in search of pot plants and, when they find something, send gun-toting troops dressed for battle rappelling down to chop and confiscate the contraband. But it isn’t just drugs. Aggressive, SWAT-style tactics are now used to raid neighborhood poker games, doctors’ offices, bars and restaurants, and head shops—despite the fact that the targets of these raids pose little threat to anyone. This sort of force was once reserved as the last option to defuse a dangerous situation. It’s increasingly used as the first option to apprehend people who aren’t dangerous at all.
Click here to read the rest of “How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?” from the July issue of the ABA Journal.
via ABA Journal
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces by Radley Balko
Posted: June 5, 2013 Filed under: Reading Room | Tags: Balko, Cato Institute, Militarization, Occupy movement, Overkill, Police, SWAT, United States 1 Comment”Are cops constitutional?” It’s a bold and provocative question, and the more Balko (Overkill) delves into the history of law enforcement, the more that question seems worth considering. And yet it’s not the mere presence of a police force that concerns the Cato Institute policy analyst (he readily concedes that one is necessary to any functional society); it’s the force’s gradual militarization that bothers him and many who’ve found themselves on the wrong side of a SWAT team. Our country’s “founding statesmen were adamant about the dangers of armed, standing forces,” but Balko argues that we have strayed far from their vision. From the creation of the first SWAT teams in response to the violent riots of the 1960s, to the literal war on drugs, the much-publicized crackdowns on the Occupy movements, and the increasingly frequent deployments of heavily armed units to address minor incidents (underage drinking, anyone? unlicensed barbers?), the list of questionable tactics and militarized raids has grown longer with each passing year, especially in the wake of 9/11. The problem, Balko insists, is that we “tend not to take notice of such long-developing trends, even when they directly affect us. The first and perhaps largest barrier to halting police militarization has probably been awareness.” After reading Balko, you’ll be aware, alright—and scared.