ACLU: American police becoming excessively militarized

File under: Painfully Obvious

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A few of the incidents highlighted in the report:

— "In 2010, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed when, just after midnight, a SWAT team threw a flashbang grenade through the window into the living room where she was asleep. The flashbang burned her blanket and a member of the SWAT team burst into the house, firing a single shot, which killed her."

— Jose Guerena, a 26-year-old Iraq War veteran, whose wife heard a noise that turned out to be a SWAT team. Guerena "picked up his rifle, with the safety on, and went to investigate. A SWAT team fired 71 shots at Guerena, 22 of which entered his body and killed him."

Among the ACLU's findings:

— 62 percent of SWAT raids were for the purpose of conducting drug searches.

— Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were "for hostages, barricade, or active shooter scenarios."

— SWAT raids are directed disproportionately against people of color — 30 percent of the time the "race of individual people impacted" was black, 11 percent of the time Latino, 20 percent white and 30 percent unknown.

— Armored personnel vehicles that local law enforcement agencies have received through grants from the Department of Homeland Security are most commonly used for drug raids and not school shootings and terrorist situations.

— In cases in which police cited the possible presence of a weapon in the home as a reason for utilizing a SWAT team, weapons were found only 35 percent of the time.

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The war on drugs can't end soon enough to get rid of these incentives to raid and confiscate the belongings of private citizens.

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God Dammit. I agree with the ACLU

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Global Cooling in Hell....

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U.S. law enforcement at all levels has undergone a dangerous militarization in recent years

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Recent years? It's been going on for 20.

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made possible by federal programs that incentivize aggressive weapons and battlefield tactics at the local level.

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Yep. It all goes back to the top.

The police dept in my little shite hole town always takes a photographer when they work drug warrants, and then puts the pics on Facebook after. You would think they were trying to look as ridiculous as possible. They even have Punisher patches ironed onto the vests. Bunch of idiots if you ask me, not a one of them made it past high school.

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— 62 percent of SWAT raids were for the purpose of conducting drug searches.

— Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were "for hostages, barricade, or active shooter scenarios."

— Armored personnel vehicles that local law enforcement agencies have received through grants from the Department of Homeland Security are most commonly used for drug raids and not school shootings and terrorist situations.

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Yeah, no shite. When you've got all these new, fancy toys, you gotta justify their existence by utilizing them whenever possible.

Never thought I'd ever agree with the ACLU. Things are getting shitty

Time for people to wake up and push for drug legalization. The so-called "cure" in the form of police protection is worse than the perceived problem of drug abuse. Focusing on prevention and treatment instead of punishment and incarceration is the only way to proceed from this point forward. The war on drugs has been a 40 year failed policy. Talk about the definition of insanity.

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We can thank the drug trade and the illegal immigrant situation ... this is all about combating the cartels that are coming across the border.

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