ive been of the mind, for a while now, that if citizens would police their own neighborhoods and not rely on the police so much.. these over reactions wouldnt happen.
but that isnt going to happen.. people dont want to get involved, or fear a lawsuit. its just easier to let someone else handle it.
and the police seem to use a high level of force for the smallest infractions these days.. i dont honestly blame them, but its just not always warranted.
I agree.
And the use of disproportionate force for small infractions has been increasing through the years and innocent lives have been harmed or worse (there was one fairly recent case where an innocent woman was killed by a SWAT officer and her child wounded when they raided her house to capture her boyfriend. I saw an article on FR about it not too long ago). Why do the various small-town USAs need heavily armed SWAT teams?
Drugs and drug dealers. Or violent offenders. It only takes one tragic case of someone outrunning and outgunning the police for people to be outraged and to wonder why they weren't well armed, trained and prepared to take these people down without incident.
I'm coming at this from the law enforcement side - first of all, without any real probable cause, this case was handled poorly. They had no business busting into their home with a SWAT team.
There have been several cases that have ended in the death of an innocent person due to overzealous law enforcement or shoddy police work that drags innocent people into the fray. I fully support law enforcement. But in cases like this, I am ashamed and furious because it's senseless and stupid. And it gives good cops a bad name.
