As we reached the top of the stairs and walked in the sunlight, I noticed that there were two police officers. Two Montgomery County police officers, but not in the daily khakis, but in black. Ah yes, the black. That means, the semi-automatic rifle (this is my first time ever typing the word "rifle," by the way) the patch badge, the shades, wires into ears, and equipment on belts and harnesses. I don’t know if they were members of the SWAT team or some post-Worldwide War On Terror special enforcement team (SET). But, does it really matter? They are the military, not your Franklin Mint, Norman Rockwell special edition collector’s plate police. Basically, soldiers.
I guess the heavies were out in some sort of “show of force.” Maybe they were there to keep the local politicians in line with all their stickers and brochures and handshaking. After all, there is a primary next Tuesday.
It wasn’t as if there was a particular “threat” announced (I had to backspace and add the quotation marks to threat, FYI) nor did they appear to be very busy other than talking, laughing, and looking so 21st century “all-American.” They were basically posing. A bicycle officer rolled up to chat (laugh, pose alongside our “heroes”) and there they were.
My instinct, of course, was to snap a photograph, because that’s what I do. But, as I began to reach for my bag, my better sense (my Spidey sense) asked me, “How fucking stupid are you today?”
Welcome to 2006 where reaching into a bag while exiting mass transportation - especially while appearing to be "of color" - in the presence of American paramilitary could get you noticed at best or fucking shot if the stars are so aligned. I had just seen an ad this morning for the Cato Institute’s new publication and lecture, “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.” Here’s the executive summary:
Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.
This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.
I didn’t get my camera out. I didn’t pursue the photograph. I chickened out. I felt like I've become a huge coward. It took me a good half-hour to reduce my dissonance. “Better judgment.” “Safe choice.” “Smart.” These are some of the words and phrases I’ve devised to feel less chickenshit in during the Bush years.
Then I realized: Golly, This is the New America.
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