The Economist report that in the 1980s, there were about 3000 SWAT raids a year, or about 8 SWAT raids per day. Compare that to today, where 50,000 SWAT raids a year implies about 137 SWAT raids per day. Otherwise stated, nowadays (July 2013 population estimate of 316.6 million citizens) no less than 1 in 6000 people are the primary target of a SWAT raid in any given year (assuming, for the purpose of maximum understatement, that each SWAT raid only has one main target), whereas in the 1980s (1985 population of 238 million) this figure was closer to 1 in 80,000. Is there some particular reason that we need nearly 15 times greater prevalence of SWAT raids per day than just a few decades ago? Are things really that much more dangerous on the streets? Are our cops getting too comfortable with going too far, too often? We need to discuss whether it may be time to rein in the police. They should see themselves as mediators and pacifiers who are trained to use force as a last resort, not as the first resort, and leave the paramilitary work to special forces, who should face more significant barriers to getting their legal firepower onto the streets so regularly. General principles: I don’t want to live in a police state.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:56:52 +0000
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