LEO's are private companies and therefore exempt from open records??

www.rawstory.com...

Mass. SWAT teams claim they?re private companies and don?t have to tell you anything

Some SWAT teams in the state operate as law enforcement councils, or LECs, which are funded by several police departments and overseen by an executive board largely made up of local police chiefs.

Member police departments pay annual membership dues to the LECs, which share technology and oversee crime scene investigators or other specialists.

Some of these LECs have also incorporated 501(c)(3) organizations, which they say exempts them from open records requests.

“Let’s be clear,” wrote Radley Balko for The Washington Post. “These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure, and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because they’ve incorporated, they’re immune to Massachusetts open records laws.

a reply to: 8675309jenny

Some SWAT teams in the state operate as law enforcement councils, or LECs, which are funded by several police departments and overseen by an executive board largely made up of local police chiefs.

Thats about as scary as it gets. Military (whats the difference between swat and military) "councils" deciding peoples fate without due process.

Like some kind of weird cross between a Junta and a military tribunal, they sit in the dark and decide to pounce or not based on their own "investigations" but more probably someone else's word that theres trouble at this or that domicile.

Fire up the MRAP and load up on machine guns, stun grenades, tasers and attack trained dogs.

Radley Balko is the real deal- One of the sole voices in the mainstream media that is on top of this situation.

That is in one state, what about other states?

How many states does this happen in?

Is there anyway around the law through some higher authority?

A few questions that come to mind.

Stuff like this is the direct result of unleashing corporations to do as they please in pursuit of profit.

In the days of old (not so long ago) corporations were restricted to performing tasks which had to serve the public good, or their charter would be revoked and the corporation dissolved and distributed amongst those who held shares of the corporation.

Corporations are not people, they should not have rights the same as people, they do not deserve a charter that is renewed into perpetuity like godlike entities, they need to be held accountable the same as a real live person is held accountable.

These entities are unjust and unaccountable, they cannot be held accountable because a corporate entity which is really nothing but a legal fiction cannot possess malice or intent to damage as you and I constantly are.

It's surprising to see how long it took for some people to actually see this, our compartmentalized and ineffective educational system seems to be working just fine, it's incorporated too....don't get on the wrong side of it, just pretend everything is OK....

Isn't it all paid with tax dollars? Non profit police? This is beyond stupid if people allow it.

Then as a corporation it`s employees do not have qualified immunity,now do they?

Hey! Cool! I'll go with private corporation, as long as we're not playing silly games to try and have the best of all worlds at the same time. They are extensions of the State for public safety or they are a private company.

If they are a State entity, then they have some very real sovereign immunity issues going on as Cops and working at the direction of the State in good faith to the regulations and laws they have to follow. It plays hell on getting accountability.

However...

If they are a PRIVATE company? Ah-Ha! I'll be happy to give them that ..with all the LACK of State immunity that should carry with all the private liability it absolutely should open them to...right?

Of course, I'm sure they did find someway to just write their own rules to borrow the best from two mutually exclusive sides so they are unaccountable to anyone who matters.

a reply to: 8675309jenny

Defund, seize records, prosecute RICO.

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