MOSCOW, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - US law enforcement has become increasingly militarized leading to a growth in violent raids resulting in the devastating injury and deaths of innocent people, a survey conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reports.
“Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using paramilitary squads to search people’s homes for drugs,” the ACLU writes.
“Neighborhoods are not war zones and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies,” according to the union.
As troops withdraw from Afghanistan, the danger and tactics of the battlefield have entered American homes and neighborhoods blurring the lines between soldier and police officer.
The ACLU’s report, “War Comes Home,” examines 818 SWAT incidents from July 2010 to last October. Militarized tactics used in raids range from forced entry via battering rams to deaths caused by officers.
The ACLU reported 7 civilians killed and 46 injured since 2010. While SWAT originated in the 1960s a team specialized in risky situations including riots and hostage taking, it has evolved into a more commonly used team dealing in drug searches and raids on private homes. The ACLU survey reported a mere 7 percent of SWAT actions to fulfill their original purpose of facilitating in hostage situations and barricades.
Countless incidents of low-risk situations have been amplified by military tactics and equipment. In 2006, a common liquor inspection turned into a scene from the war as masked, heavily armed police officers raided a Louisiana nightclub. The issue of barbering without a license in Florida was investigated and dealt with through barbershop raids featuring armed officers in SWAT uniforms in 2010 according to the New York Times.
As former tools of combat continue to be placed in the hands of local officers, startling incidents continue to turn innocent civilians into victims.
“If the federal government gives the police a huge cache of military-style weaponry, they are highly likely to use it, even if they do not really need to,” the ACLU notes, partly blaming bloodshed on an increase in military weaponry.
A Congress-created military-transfer program dated back to the 1990s where Department of Defense’s inventory is routinely supplied to police stations for free is also a factor.
The influx of military weapons to police stations are deemed unnecessary by some officers, while others such as Capt. Chris Cowan, a Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s spokesman, take the free gear claiming it “allows the department to stay in step with the criminals who are arming themselves more heavily every day.”
Despite the lowest crime rate in a generation, an ending war, and domestic terrorist attacks on a sharp decline since the 1960s and 70s, local police stations are receiving a steady stream of high-resistance vehicles and deadly weapons.
In the span of their survey research, the ACLU found that the Pentagon had transmitted 15,000 items of battle uniforms and weaponry previously used in Afghanistan and Iraq to domestic police forces.
The US Department of State recorded the distribution of over 432 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles (MRAPs), 44,900 Night vision supplies, 533 military planes and helicopters, 93,763 machine guns, and 180,718 magazines to state and local law enforcement since 2006. With so many new toys at their disposal, some officers have become more than a little gun happy. As a result, SWAT is making more and more use of the equipment regardless the level of risk expected during a raid.
Local officers and police stations along with the ACLU’s report hope to halt the violent trend by making unnecessary militarized police violence public knowledge. Professor Peter Kraska of Kentucky University found through his research of SWAT raids a disturbing growth. Raids were as low as 3,000 during the 1980s while 2005 brought numbers up to 45,000.
If streams of war gear continue to enter the US and its otherwise quiet neighborhoods, police-induced fear and violence to civilians will inevitably remain.
