Scary armored vehicles aren’t the biggest danger of police militarization
The problem of police militarization has been in the news for more than a week, as the city of Ferguson, Mo. continues to deal with the aftermath of the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Much of the debate and scrutiny of the police response to the Ferguson protests has focused on the Pentagon’s 1033 program. Created in 1997, the program allows state and local law enforcement to stock up on excess military equipment free of charge. Among the equipment that has been transferred include armored vehicles, assault rifles, aircraft and other military surplus equipment.
Some of these transfers, like the distribution of an MRAP to the Ohio State University Police Department, truly are bizarre, but it is important to note that not all of the equipment transferred from the Department of Defense to local and state police is lethal. Items as mundane as office equipment also are transferred under the 1033 program.
The real problem of police militarization is not, or not primarily, the DOD equipment police can acquire. Many of the arguments against the 1033 program, in fact, sound rather suspiciously like arguments of gun control advocates, in that they presume restrictions on inanimate objects will cause crime – or, in this case, police brutality – to decrease.
In fact, it’s paramilitary-style policing tactics such as “stop and frisk” that really contribute to the distrust of police in minority communities. As I wrote last week in a piece at Rare, police militarization is an attitude in policing that sees itself at war with the people they’re supposed to serve and the community of which they are a part.
We have seen some of this attitude on display in Ferguson. Police have arrested and threatened journalists covering the protests. In some of the most infamous pictures of the violence, police officers confront protesters wearing paramilitary gear and deploy snipers against them. In one instance, a police officer pointed his assault rifle at unarmed protesters and threatened to kill them. When asked for his name and badge number, the officer allegedly replied with profanities. As of this writing, that officer has been suspended, pending investigation.
Another example of the mindset can be found in a Washington Post op-ed written by a veteran Los Angeles cop with the provocative headline: “I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.” Such inflammatory rhetoric from peace officers only serves to separate the police from the people they’re supposed to serve, to make ordinary citizens afraid of the police.
Militarized policing also has led to overuse of paramilitary SWAT teams. The Cato Institute has this interactive map displaying all of the botched SWAT raids that have been conducted over the past three decades. Some of what is defined as “botched raids” include raiding the wrong house, killing a non-violent offender or killing an innocent person.
According to Radley Balko at the Washington Post, it’s estimated there are more than 50,000 SWAT raids in the United States every year. However, only one state, Maryland, requires law enforcement to record when SWAT teams are used and for what purposes. Balko has found that in Maryland, 90 percent of all SWAT raids are used to serve search warrants and that half of all SWAT raids are used in cases where the alleged offenses were non-violent. More states should follow Maryland’s lead and require police agencies keep records on when and why SWAT is deployed.
Many SWAT raids are to enforce “no-knock” warrants, in which a judge allows police to force their way into a residence without knocking or otherwise announcing their presence. No-knock warrants are supposed to be issued only when police believe announcing their presence would result in the destruction of contraband or put their lives in danger. They have led to tragic consequences, both for police officers and people inside the homes.
In May 2014, a SWAT team raid in Habersham County, Ga. – on what turned out to be the wrong house – left a two-year-old in a coma with a hole in his chest, caused by a flashbang grenade that landed in his crib. Incredibly, the county refuses to pay the medical bills of the child who was injured.
No-knock raids can also be deadly for the cops who execute them, as homeowners sometimes confuse them for intruders. In December 2013, Henry Magee’s home in Burleson County, Texas was subject to a no-knock raid by the county sheriff’s office. Magee mistook one of the deputies for a burglar, shooting and killing him. In February 2014, a grand jury declined to indict Magee for murder.
No-knock and SWAT raids need to be reserved for instances where an officer’s life genuinely would be endangered by serving a warrant conventionally. If the raid is botched or an innocent house is raided, there needs to be consequences.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how police are equipped, so long as they use the proper tactics and have the proper mindset to serve the public, protect their rights and fight crime. An armed officer with just a revolver and a shotgun can be as abusive as an officer wearing the latest in paramilitary gear and armed with an assault rifle. In the end, what we need most of all is to rebuild the broken trust between the public and the police.
