The media does not ignore interesting stories like "Our country is in shambles and here are some police officers schmucking up to prove it".
I don't mean to say the media ignores it, because they obviously don't, just that alot of potentially similar stories go unreported because the victims don't go to the media. I know of several personal events that I was either tangentially related to or actually part of that the media would have been all over if anyone had told them.
In fact, they do the opposite. They sensationalize corruption, crime, and disaster in order to report on interesting stories, making people like MSH think they live in a police state (please. The fact that you're able to say that on the internet without your door being kicked down and having your dog shot indicates it isn't that bad). Look at how many earthquakes have sprung up in the media since the Haiti Earthquake. All of a sudden, every magnitude 2 quake on Earth is breaking news, making us think that the world is collapsing in on itself.
Once again, I won't argue with you there because you're quite right. All the stories I posted were obviously biased (every victim seemed to be old and sick, police more then likely selectively quoted etc) but they still did happen and I assume that the base facts of what happen are still there beneath the sensationalism. And once again, I said I'm ignoring the Hyperbole of the "police state" stuff at least in the way MSH says it. I do think that the police in certain parts of the country are more corrupt and abusive of their power then others, but its certainly not a police state.
To the question you asked me on page 5 (Before this thread suddenly doubled in size overnight): The SWAT team doesn't bust into your house to stop you from downloading music, despite what the commercial claims. They bust into your house if they have a warrant for a violent crime or a drug-related crime
In theory yes, but there are plenty of instances of warrant-less, knock-less, raids based on the information of a single informant. There are even plenty of cases of raiding the wrong house and then charging the victims with something completely unrelated as a cover. So while you say that the swat team DOESN'T eg never breaks raid anyone wrongfully or illegally and then uses excessive force, I'll just shay that they SHOULDN'T but that it does happen.
(presumably because they're worried that somebody heavily involved in drugs and drug dealing will be erratic when the police come, which is actually valid, because police officers have been killed in the past). Now, I realize you used a relatively insignificant crime in order to sway the argument in the direction of "these guys are jackasses", so I will revert the question back to "If there was a search warrant for marijuana out for you, and the SWAT Team came in and killed your cat dog, you would be okay with it?"
Actually the reason I used music downloading is because I didn't want to pseudo-accuse you of using drugs or any other illegal activity. Pirating music seemed like the most acceptable example, so as not to offend.
No, I wouldn't be okay with it. I'm under arrest, and my dog is dead. Now, if I was actually dealing marijuana, that is about what I can expect. If I was innocent of the crime and only had a few grams in my dresser, as is being suggested here, I would probably be pissed off. I would not be pissed off at the SWAT team, however. It's fruitless. It's like being stabbed and getting pissed off at the knife. I would be upset with whoever signed the search warrant based on a tip (and, moreover, on whoever called in an anonymous tip on my house). The SWAT team shot the dog because there was a chance the dog could maul them when it saw them taking away their master. The shootings in the video were spaced apart not just by a few seconds, either, but by close to a minute. From the angle we get, it even appears as if the pitbull and the corgi arrived on scene at different times, so it isn't as if they sat there and stared at the police.
From what I've heard the dogs were actually chained up in the kitchen and as such couldn't maul anyone if they tried. Beyond this though, it really is impossible to tell how they shot because the first burst ends in yelping that the second burst puts an end to. Did they shoot both dogs at once then fire again to put the yelping one out of it's misery? Did they shoot the second one later? Were they abusing their power by killing the dogs or were they defending themselves? Its hard to tell and will be for a while until we get further info. More what I'm angry about is that this raid happened at all, when it clearly wasn't needed. Am I angry at the swat team itself? They did seem pretty overtly forceful against one guy who was completely complying but thats how they're trained. The big question it comes down to is "Did they act inappropriately" Which is something we just won't know for a while.
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Topic: Swat team raids house and kills pets over a small amount of pot. (Read 14455 times)