When you're done, please sign our "Petition for Responsible SWAT Reform"; and please inform your friends, family members, and mailing lists you're on about http://www.swatreform.org so they can watch the video and sign the petition too.
"SWAT Raids -- No One Is Safe" is based on the 2008 case of Cheye Calvo, Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, whose home was stormed and two dogs killed by a SWAT team during a botched marijuana investigation. Last month the Maryland General Assembly passed groundbreaking legislation, proposed by Mayor Calvo, requiring SWAT teams to report on their activities so the public can know.
Our web site will send copies of your petition to your own state legislators, and to Congress and the Attorney General, helping Mayor Calvo and others get SWAT reform legislation passed in Congress and in states across the nation. Please visit http://www.swatreform.org to watch the video, sign the petition and spread the word so this can happen.
The overuse of SWAT teams is one of many abuses in our failing "drug war" -- visit http://www.swatreform.org for information about this troubling problem -- and to do something about it. to donate to this effort.
Thank you for standing up for justice,
David Borden
Executive Director
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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Will SWAT RAIDS Mirror Military-Police Raids In N. Ireland?
When the U.S. Supreme Court lowered the legal requirement for "no knock warrants" it opened for door for SWAT TEAMS to arbitrarily attacked U.S. Citizens.
Historically, police-military styled raids when not brought under control to protect the public, have incrementally moved forward to target innocent Citizens for their political speech, for attending an assembly or because someone wrote something that offended a police handler. It is imperative Americans NEVER accept SWAT TEAM misconduct.
U.S. SWAT RAID stories are beginning to mirror abusive police raids in Northern Ireland during the 1990âs. Like America in 2009, Belfast police raids increasingly involve military styled troops to abate ordinary crimes. Amidst expanding bloodshed, Irish âCatholic political activistsâ apparently got possession of British documents that concerned a UK Government study, e.g., âHow to control civilian populations by integrating military forces with civilian police activities.â The thrust of the British study was how to Control âcivilian populationsâ through âmisinformation and other conditioningâ to cause a population to accept increasing police involvement in their lives while holding a population in fear of police; ensure the State could without "public resistance" arrest any group or person deemed undesirable by government.
However, subsequently during the 1990âs and the early 2000âs other UK documents leaked to the Republic of Ireland and British press that showed several prior Northern Ireland police raids on civilians were done for the purpose of damaging political activistsâ homes and in some cases SWAT styled raids were believed used to cover up political assassinations. One of those leaked documents involved a British operation called âSteak Knifeâ, information from one of many sources may be accessed below:
U.S. SWAT TEAM MISCONDUCT needs to be legally reined in before SWAT TEAMS take on the head of a snake Americans canât stop.
See: The âSteak Knifeâ affair and Britainâs dirty war in Northern Ireland
At: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/irel-a09.shtml
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