Concerned citizens in Lima, Ohio continue to search for answers six weeks after their local SWAT team killed an innocent woman and shot her baby during a drug raid. Though the police department has yet to explain the shooting, their behavior certainly speaks volumes about the Us vs. Everyone mentality that made this tragic event possible.

Via The Agitator, snipers from the Lima SWAT team were perched on the rooftop as citizens gathered to discuss the violent excesses of the Lima SWAT team. Apparently, they think you pose a threat if you protest the threat that they pose:

As residents arrived in the parking lot at the school, several noticed movement on the roof of the buildings. The Lima SWAT team was in position looking down on the gathering speakers. “Here we come in good faith, and they have snipers on the roofs of our school! We came in peace, and they are ready to gun us down like dogs!” Willie Manley vowed to ask them face to face. “How can we trust you, when you can’t trust us?”

The mood seemed to changed as people continued to walk into the school many taking a final glance at the rooftops in disbelief, shaking their heads and commenting to friends. [The Sojourner's Truth]

By what sort of twisted logic was it decided that these peaceful protesters might have to be put down? The whole thing just smacks of intimidation.

This is the same SWAT team that had to remove an image from its website shortly after the shooting, which depicted a SWAT officer firing a machine gun straight at you when you opened the site. The graphic made anyone visiting the site feel like a potential target, which was exactly the wrong message to send after killing an innocent mother of six and shooting her baby.

Yet, the decision to post SWAT snipers atop the local high school during a town hall meeting discussing SWAT violence is even more hideous. An act so ironic and inappropriate is an unambiguous statement of contempt towards a confused and grieving community. If the Lima Police Department were even remotely concerned about the widespread public animosity they'd already caused, they would not behave this way. And if they had a plausible explanation for killing an innocent woman and shooting her baby, we'd have heard it by now.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the War on Drugs. You might have heard of it before, but you really don't understand what it is until you've witnessed the spectacle of hundreds of African Americans marching hand in hand against indiscriminate police violence. If you've formed an opinion about drug prohibition without realizing that innocent mothers and babies are getting shot, then please take this opportunity to reassess the situation.

animated graphic from Lima Swat Team web site -- they took it down after killing Tarika Wilson