10 Facts About The SWATification Of America That Everyone Should Know

a reply to: Lipton

Interesting.

Esp the part about the security cameras being disabled. I wouldnt have expected that to be a standard thing for forced entry raids. Surely MORE evidence is better than less, right?

originally posted by: Biigs
Well you guys need that much SWAT action because off all the flys

HEYOOOOOOOOOOH!


btw, it's "flies"

originally posted by: bbracken677
A refresher fact: in 1980 206 police officers lost their lives.

In 2012 122 officers lost their lives.

Isn't that about proportional to the decrease in violent crime overall?

www.infoplease.com...
In 1980 we had 10.2 homicides per 100,000 people but in 2012 we had 4.7.

I would say violent crime being on a steep decline has far more to do with fewer police deaths than SWAT teams.

Since 1980 we've more than doubled the number of cops on the streets and the total deaths have gone down by 40%

originally posted by: ParanoidAmerican
a reply to: 727Sky

Why would this stat be included...."#3 50 percent of the victims of SWAT raids are either black or Latino." Its seems like an even split? Now if it were 80% that would be a stat worth putting in.....looks like I am not the only one who noticed this weak stat....

Because when an ethnicity makes up 20% of the total population but accounts for 50% of the SWAT raids there's another factor at work. In this case it's most likely because in the inner cities where SWAT is mostly deployed the populations are very heavily skewed in favor of black and latinos.

What this actually suggests is that SWAT is often times being used for raids outside of the high violence/crime areas, because the black/latino concentration is considerably lower than what should actually be expected. Which means SWAT is suffering from mission creep. But, we already knew that. That statistic just backs it up.

America is a country that Makes a Great deal of money
from selling weapons and the things that go with them.

just look at how much US spend on the armed forces!
almost half of the GP.
and what they sell to the law.
then what they sell to who ever they can give a gun and ammo to.

The big scare about taking the guns from the people?
they just got them to buy even MORE guns and ammo.

it ends up well Over half the GP.
THEM are making insane amounts of money.

all around the world Them keep fighting going.
who do you think sells them weapons.
Thats why they do it.
the rest is just the mess from it.

a reply to: 727Sky

We have already seen the changes in the past few years. Police carrying M-16 rifles and shotguns with ammo drums. Our local sheriff bought a reinforced army vehicle. The only thing missing was the turret.
We also have these microwave energy weapons that disperse crowds. The puke ray, the burning skin ray, so on so forth.