Friday, September 6, 2013



Waco, Texas. April 19, 1995. After a 51-day standoff with American federal and Texas State law enforcement, nine survivors of the religious group Branch Davidian emerged from the inferno that had engulfed their former compound. In total, 76 Branch Davidians died, including 26 children. A battle had ensued after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to raid the ranch in search of illegal weapons. While it’s not known for certain what caused the fire, it’s suspected that pyrotechnic rounds delivered from a grenade launcher ignited the blaze. The standoff raised some serious questions about the warrior-like, confrontational mentality in American law enforcement. In his revealing new book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces, investigative journalist Radley Balko takes on the issue by piecing together the alarming details of how and why America’s police forces have been transformed into combat troops.

Balko, senior editor at Reason Magazine (concerned with “free minds and free markets”) and a former policy analyst for the libertarian Cato Institute, has written extensively on hostile police tactics. The case of Cory Maye garnered national attention when Balko wrote several exposés outlining tactics employed by Prentiss, Mississippi police during a raid on Maye’s home. In December 2001, Maye was awoken by a sudden and violent pounding on the front door. “I thought someone was trying to break in,” he later testified. Maye and police would disagree on what actually transpired, but the ensuing melee left one police officer fatally shot. Maye was eventually sentenced to death for capital murder. What Balko uncovered was a disturbing trend that had become a normalized part of police investigations: from searches related to weapons and drug violations, to responses to non-violent misdemeanors, thousands of commando-like raids are being conducted annually by SWAT (Special Weapons and Training) teams who are undertrained and over-equipped. With fewer oversights than soldiers on a battlefield, it’s a volatile, and often disastrous, combination.

The book opens with a brief history of policing in America. As Balko explains, modern police forces first emerged in the 19th century to better cope with myriad problems facing centralized urban areas. Limited to fighting crime and protecting the public, constables were often unarmed and without uniforms. But today’s modern police forces hold little resemblance to their modest origins, leading to the book’s fundamental question: How did this happen? Balko writes, “We’ve evolved from a country whose founding statesmen were adamant about the dangers of standing forces, to a country where it has become acceptable for government agents dressed in battle garb to storm private homes.” According to the author, the process was so gradual that it happened right under the noses of Americans.

Balko outlines how the militarization of America’s police forces was propelled forward by a series of historic events. It’s a logical chronology, beginning with the Watts Riots and the counterculture movement, to the politically motivated oppression of the Nixon era, right through to the War on Drugs and the domestic surveillance apparatuses of the post-9/11 world. Like other structures of power, law enforcement exists in a vacuum, aptly termed the “Police Industrial Complex.” According to Don Santarelli, former head of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, under Nixon, “They’re always after greater power.”

The first SWAT teams were created in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts riots by Darryl Gates, the then 34-year-old inspector with the Los Angeles Police Department. Watts burned for six days, reflecting the anger of black and Latino residents tired of years of racial discrimination, and living in fear of intimidation by the police. The riot spread well beyond the neighborhood to encompass 46 square miles. Looting and arson were rampant; snipers took pot shots at police and firemen from high-rise windows. According to Balko, “The Watts riots were the first major incident to nudge the United States toward more militaristic policing.” Five years later, Los Angeles the first city in the United States equipped with a SWAT team. Its purpose was limited to those extraordinary events which were outside the realm of normal policing: riot control and hostage-taking, for instance. By the mid-1970s, the number of active SWAT teams had grown to 500.

During the 40 years since Watts, and through four administrations, SWAT teams would see unparalleled growth. Reagan’s “War on Drugs” set the wheels in motion. By the end of the 1980s, 89 per cent of U.S. cities with a population of over 50,000 would have a military-equipped SWAT team. Signed into law in 1970, the Controlled Substances Act authorized the War on Drugs and granted police the legal authority to conduct “no-knock” raids where only “reasonable” suspicion was required before entering a home unannounced. Balko writes, “It gave police permission to mete out extraordinary violence on people only suspected of non-violent crimes.” These no-knock raids are the centerpiece of Balko’s damning narrative: a world populated by vague enemies, like drugs and terror, where SWAT teams storm private home employing increasing aggressive tactics in pursuing a never-ending war on civilians.

Incentive-based federal grants, where the size of disbursements is tied directly to the number of drug arrests, and generous forfeiture policies, helped fund this explosion. Often times, state and municipal agencies were competing for the same pot of money, increasing the pressure for more impressive busts. By the mid-1990s, SWAT deployments had jumped by 937 per cent. Between 1997 and 1999, the Pentagon received 3.4 million requests for equipment and doled out tens of thousands of military-grade weapons and armor – everything from aircraft to machine guns. But police militarization wouldn’t stop there. Drug raids account for 95 per cent of all SWAT deployments. Now battle gear and aggressive police tactics have spread into mundane areas like raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, raves, and high school dances. Even the departments of Agriculture and Energy now have SWAT teams.

Balko’s accounting of the billions wasted on arming America’s police forces and the Supreme Court’s dismantling of civil liberties is equally both mindboggling and terrifying. But his primary focus is on the proliferation of SWAT teams. He paints a grim picture. A standing army exists in American cities and towns with few checks and balances protecting civilians. The book provides the reader with a sense of their day-to-day operations and their approach to training and operations. But we rarely hear from active-duty police themselves. Balko’s conclusions are based mostly on news reports, government documents and trial transcripts. Perhaps in-depth interviews with current SWAT personnel would have provided a more balanced approach. But this is an otherwise scathing report on American policing policies that’s equal parts history lesson and horror show. George Orwell once wrote, “If you want to see a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face.” Upon reading Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces one can’t help but think that Americans aren’t that far removed from a police state.

"Armies in the Streets" first appeared in Our Times.

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