We've Got a Poker Situation. Better Call in the SWAT Team. (Reason Online)
Online Gambling Roundup (CATO Institute)
this shit has got to STOP.
the increasing use of SWAT teams to arrest NON-VIOLENT offenders for MINOR crimes is just another example of how the country i love is increasingly resembling the cold-war-era horror stories told about soviet russia when i was a kid. people are disappeared to guantanimo and held indefinitely without being charged or tried. financial transactions, private phone conversations, and online communications are routinely and clandestenly monitored. the
i tell you what, violent crime must be at an all-time low across the country if the nation's SWAT teams are so under-utilized that they have time to serve warrants on a few guys playing cards or betting on the ball game. this is a dangerous precedent. i do not dispute that people in violation of the law should be arrested and punished accordingly (although i DO dispute the laws themselves, as well as the punishments)... but i do NOT think that non-violent perpetrators of victimless crimes should be subjected to having an MP-5 or M-16 shoved in their face in the process of bringing them to justice. whats next, tazering jaywalkers? driving armored APCs through the front of a tax offender's house? tear gas and rubber bullets for the driver of an illegally parked car?
and god damn, how much more does it cost to have SWAT serve a warrant on a card game than it would a few vice cops? oh wait, i forgot, the cost for this particular dallas raid was offset by A&E and their "Dallas SWAT" tv show. great, just what we need, law enforcement being directed by reality tv and influenced by ratings.
excessive force doesnt just mean whaling on someone with a nightstick for failing to ask "how high" when a cop says "jump"... i think it also includes the use of SWAT for small-time misdemenor crimes. and its about time someone held the police accountable for this application of excessive force.