The American People are NOT the "Enemy" ...
War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing
aclu.org
All across the country, heavily armed SWAT teams are raiding people’s homes in the middle of the night, often just to search for drugs. It should enrage us that people have needlessly died during these raids, that pets have been shot, and that homes have been ravaged.
Our neighborhoods are not warzones, and police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies. Any yet, every year, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment flows from the federal government to state and local police departments. Departments use these wartime weapons in everyday policing, especially to fight the wasteful and failed drug war, which has unfairly targeted people of color.
As our new report makes clear, it’s time for American police to remember that they are supposed to protect and serve our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them.
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War Comes Home:
Disparate Impact on Communities of Color
aclu.org
Larger Map: Cincinnati Larger Map: Austin
It is widely known that policing tactics across the country often unfairly target communities of color. According to our investigation, the use of paramilitary weapons and tactics appears to be no different. These maps show the distribution of SWAT raids by racial composition of neighborhoods in two cities, but this trend is echoed nationwide. Read the complete report for more.
The American People are NOT the "Enemy" ...
Even Law-breakers deserve their "Due Process" day-in-court.
(Those falsely accused -- even more so ... )
The Report on their Excesses ...
WAR COMES HOME
The Excessive Militarization of American Policing (pdf)
June 2014 -- ACLU Foundation
American Civil Liberties Union -- www.aclu.org
[pg 41]
RECOMMENDATIONS
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The federal government should take the lead by reining in programs that incentivize local police to engage in excessively militarized tactics, especially in drug cases. The federal government holds the purse strings, and restricting the flow of federal funds and military-grade equipment into states and localities, and/or conditioning funds on the appropriate use and training with regards to such equipment, would significantly reduce the overuse of hyper-aggressive tactics and military-grade tools in local communities.
Additionally, state legislatures and municipalities should impose meaningful restraints on the use of SWAT. SWAT deployments should be limited to the kinds of scenarios for which these aggressive measures were originally intended -- barricade, hostage, and active shooter situations. Rather than allowing for a SWAT deployment in any case that is deemed (for whatever reason the officers determine) to be “high risk,” the better practice would be for law enforcement agencies to have in place clear standards limiting SWAT deployments to scenarios that are truly “high risk.”
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Local police departments should develop their own internal policies calling for restraint and should avoid all training programs that encourage a “warrior” mindset.
Finally, the public has a right to know how the police are spending its tax dollars. The militarization of American policing has occurred with almost no oversight, and greater documentation, transparency, and accountability are urgently needed.
A requirement that SWAT officers wear body cameras would create a public record of SWAT deployments and serve as a check against unnecessarily aggressive tactics. The ACLU generally takes a dim view of the proliferation of surveillance cameras in American life, but body cameras are different because of their potential to serve as a check on police overreach. Any policy requiring SWAT officers to wear body cameras should have in place rigorous safeguards regarding data retention, use, access, and disclosure.[108]
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[pg 42]
5) Law enforcement agencies should adopt local policies requiring the implementation of the following best practices in the use of SWAT teams:
• Each deployment should be pre-approved by a supervisor or other high-ranking official.
• Each deployment should be preceded by a written planning process that documents the specific need for the deployment, describes how the operation is to be conducted, and states whether children, pregnant women, and/or elderly people are likely to be present (except in emergency scenarios in which engaging in such a process would endanger the lives or well-being of civilians or police personnel).
• All SWAT deployments should include a trained crisis negotiator.
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• For each SWAT deployment, a post-deployment record should be made that documents the following, in a manner that allows for the data to be easily compiled and analyzed:
-- The purpose of the deployment
-- The specific reason for believing that the situation for which the SWAT team was being deployed presented an imminent threat to the lives or safety of civilians and/or police personnel.
-- Whether forcible entry or a breach was conducted and, if so, the equipment used and for what purpose
-- Whether a distraction device was used and, if so, what type and for what purpose
-- Whether an APC [Armored Personnel Carrier] was used and, if so, for what purpose
-- The race, sex, and age of each individual encountered during the deployment, whether as a suspect or bystander
-- Whether any civilians, officers, or domestic animals sustained any injury or death
-- A list of any controlled substances, weapons, contraband, or evidence of crime that is found on the premises or any individuals
-- A brief narrative statement describing any unusual circumstances or important data elements not captured in the list above.
• Law enforcement agencies should provide training programs for all SWAT teams that do not promote an overly aggressive or “warrior” mentality.
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The American People are NOT the "Enemy" ...
Even Law-breakers deserve their "Due Process" day-in-court.
It used to be the norm, that 'we were innocent until proven guilty'.
Who authorized the Police to take our system of "Due Process" into their own hands -- where "weapons and tactics" and "unnecessary excessive force" are more important than honoring the American Citizen's constitutional rights -- like the right, not to die as 'collateral causality' of a Rambo-style Police Action.
Kind of seems like -- they Authorized themselves ...
Support this petition
Limit the abusive use of SWAT
Outrageous! Police should serve and protect our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them.
Nearly 80% of the SWAT raids the ACLU studied* were to serve search warrants, usually in drug cases. SWAT teams are forcing their way into people’s homes, often in the middle of the night, using paramilitary weapons and tactics and doing needless damage to people and property. Poor communities and communities of color bear the brunt of this unnecessary force.
It does not have to be this way. We can make sure that police honor their mission to protect and serve, by ensuring that hyper-aggressive military tools and tactics are only used in situations that are truly “high risk.”
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... truly “high risk” -- and not just more
"paramilitary biz'n as usual."
The U.S. militarization of police displayed in Ferguson has been going on across America for decades
by Meteor Blades, dailykos.com -- Aug 14, 2014
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When cops treat people the way an occupying army would, the consequences for citizens, for constitutional protections, for the police themselves are exactly the opposite of what is needed in a civilized society. "Serve and protect" is transformed into a sick joke.
The American People
are NOT the "Enemy" ...
Even Law-breakers deserve their "Due Process" day-in-court.
Even the poorest of poor deserve to be treated ... with basic human dignity.
Especially by those, whose oath is "To Protect and to Serve" the Public -- NOT to suppress and extinguish us -- just because they have 'the means'.