SIGHTINGS



SWAT Termed 'Cowards
And Fools' At Columbine
From Brasscheck <ken@brasscheck.com>
2-16-2000
 
There are now 30,000 SWAT teams in the US. Here's what we're getting for our money...
 
(Excerpted from "Flash. Bang. You're Dead: SWAT teams make dramatic TV but horrible justice" by James Bovard)
 
What happens when a SWAT team performs its intended role - confronting crazed gunmen? On April 20, 1999 students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. By the time the two ended their massacre by committing suicide, 12 students and one teacher were dead or mortally wounded. Dave Sanders bled to death because the police took nearly four hours to reach the room he was in - even though students had placed a large sign announcing "One Bleeding to Death" in the window.
 
The first police officer on the scene exchanged fire with Harris and Klebold. Shortly after noon, police radioed that they needed to be resupplied with ammunition. It arrived in the form of almost 800 policemen, enough to form eight SWAT teams from five jurisdictions. Eventually, the on-site commander sent 50 members into the school.
 
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone explained: "We had initial people there right away, but we couldn't get in. We were way outgunned." Jefferson County SWAT team commander Terry Manwaring concurred: "I just knew the killers were better armed and equipped than we were." SWAT teams made no effort to confront the killers in action; instead they devoted their efforts to frisking students and marching them out of the building with their hand on their heads.
 
The police response was paralyzed by concerns for officer safety. A spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department said: "We had no idea who was a victim and who was a suspect. And a dead police officer would not be able to help anyone." Don Kraemer of the Lakewood SWAT team explained: "If we went in and tried to take the them and got shot then we would be part of the problem. We're supposed to bring order to chaos, not add to chaos."
 
As one former law enforcement officer observed: "Everything that SWAT teams did that day was geared around fear. A great flaw in the training for SWAT teams is that they are so worried about officer safety that they've lost their ability to fight." *
 
James Bovard is the author of Freedom in Chains published by St. Martin's. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/isbn=0312229674/emediaA
 
 
* Of course, SWAT teams *are* very good at breaking down the doors of innocent people and murdering them.
 
August 9, 1999 - El Monte, California 64 year old Mario Paz shot in the back in front of his wife. Reason for 'search': a reputed drug dealer had used his mailing address
 
February 13, 1999 - Osawatomie, Kansas Willie Heard ran to his 16 year old daughter's aid who he thought she was being attacked by burglars at 1:25 AM in the morning. Shot dead by SWAT team.
 
April 17, 1995 - Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Scott Bryant, 29, shot to death while being handcuffed when a SWAT team member accidentally discharged his firearm. Bryant's crime: Police found trace amounts of marijuana in his garbage.
 
July 12, 1998 - Houston, Texas SWAT teams shoots Pedro Oregon Navarro 12 times in the back. His crime: A confidential informant said he witnessed a drug transaction at the address. No drugs were found on the premises.
 
March 13, 1996 - Oxnard, California 12 SWAT team officers break into an *empty* condominium and shoot one of their own fatally.
 
and on and on it goes.
 
Cowards and fools playing at being super cops. 30,000 of these teams are now active in the US, many with Pentagon quality armaments.
 
Let's see:
 
* 25% of the world's prisoners sit in US jails; * 30,000 teams of dangerously inept "super cops" who have carte blanche to attack people in their homes on the slimmest of pretences; and * Now in schools all around the country, there's a new Justice Department program to put an armed cop in every school whether they need it or not. More on that last one later...
 
 
 
====
Brass Check - http://www.brasscheck.com
 
 
Comment
 
 
From Brasscheck <ken@brasscheck.com
To John Krulik <krulik@mindspring.com
2-19-00
 
 
John Krulik wrote:
 
I just read your article that was linked to the Sightings web page. It was very interesting and the first time I have seen this brought up anywhere. Congratulations. The only comment I have is you missed the one incident that first started me thinking about this. Happened a few years ago in Miami Beach when the police thought they had Andrew Conanin hold up in a houseboat. Remember, the caretaker for the boat walked in on him, the caretaker ran from the boat, while running to safety the caretaker thought he heard a shot. He called police, who responded in mass. Swat teams from both Miami Beach and Dade County showed up, streets were cordon off, and the circus was on. Around 11:00PM, the police actually boarded the boat,with flash grenades blazing in the darkness. When they finally got on board they found out the jerk had committed suicide 8 hours earlier when he was first discovered by the caretaker. In fact, that was the shot the caretaker heard. Sincerely John Krulik
 
 
There you go. Another one. Since that article posted, I get one or two new examples per day.
 
Also, recall the entirely innocent man in the Bronx, Amadeu Diallo, who was shot 19 times (41 shots fired at him!) for holding a wallet. That work was done by a "specially trained" plain clothes urban action team, or some other such bureaucratically named nonsense.
 
Their mission is to roam around minority neighborhoods looking for "signs of unrest." Signs of unrest? What the #%&@ are they, an occupation force?
 
Thanks for writing. I'm sure we've barely scratched the surface on this one.
 
Ken

 
SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE

This Site Served by TheHostPros