[420 Girl]

In 2004, I was sitting in a bar in Ruzyne Airport in Prague, Czech Republic. Outside the bar was a police officer wearing military clothing and toting a military style weapon that was most likely an automatic.

It used to be that such a militant display by police officers was limited to banana republics and the Soviet Bloc. Being from a country where the average police officer only carries a Glock sidearm and perhaps some sort of electronic control weapon, the sight was slightly jarring.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is headed in that direction.

Americans should be seriously concerned with the militarization of our municipal police forces and the rapid rise of paramilitary police raids.

The trend began in the 1960s with the first special weapons and tactics team and quickly escalated in the 1980s and 1990s with the dawn of the war on drugs. Today, even the smallest departments can boast of heavy firepower, including military-grade weaponry such as the Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine gun. Other equipment often includes battering rams, ballistic shields, "flash-bang" grenades, smoke grenades, grenade launchers, pepper spray and tear gas. They use armored personnel carries, helicopters, tanks, rappelling equipment, bayonets, and night-vision goggles.

The officers (soldiers?) are often wearing combat boots and black or camouflage military uniforms. They have Kevlar helmets, ninja-style balaclava masks and boot knives.

All dressed up and no place to go.

In the beginning, such tactical teams were only used in volatile, high-risk situations such as hostage crises. Today, however, they are used to carry out routine police work.

While there is a role for such police tactics, i.e., hostage situations, terrorist attacks, etc., those situations are exceptionally rare. More commonly, these paramilitary groups are used to execute routine drug warrants.

They kick in doors in the middle of the night or just before dawn, often using explosives. Some have even rappelled from police helicopters and crashed through second-floor windows.

That is really cool stuff, at least in the movies.

In real life, however, it is usually reckless and unnecessary and endangers the lives of not only American citizens but also the police officers conducting the raids.

Just as mistakes occur on the battlefield, we are seeing more mistakes in American cities as police departments, which already tend to have a bunker mentality, increase their lethalness. With those mistakes come an increasing body count, both civilian and police.

Part of the problem is that civilian police departments rarely have the controls in place that military units do. They have all the firepower and equipment without the restraint.

Unlike raids conducted by military units, these paramilitary police raids are rarely accompanied with any kind of preraid intelligence. In a 2000 study, the Denver Post found that in eight out of 10 raids involving no-knock warrants in that city, police assertions that weapons would be present turned out to be wrong.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of examples of these paramilitary forces kicking in the wrong door, killing an innocent civilian and then shrugging it off without so much as an apology.

After one such mistake, a Florida city attorney justified it by saying that it has to be viewed in the context of a war.

This is America, not a battlefield.

Most Americans don't even realize they are in a war. They hear about a few cases that capture the attention of journalists, but most of these mistakes rarely get media attention outside the town in which it happened. When it does garner media attention, too many people shrug it off or blame the victims.

Proponents often claim that militarization is necessary because of an increase in the firepower of criminals. However, studies indicate this is simply not true. Such firepower is expensive and cumbersome and not favored by criminals.

There used to be a time when a person's home was his or her castle.

Not today.

We are all in danger of having our houses invaded by government agents wearing black acting on an anonymous tip that a household hibiscus plant is marijuana (that actually happened).

If you are not afraid of this growing militarization, then you are not paying attention. I pray you don't learn about it the hard way.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...ce-threat.html