Posted on 03/16/2008 2:18:41 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
The LAPD's assault on SWAT
Would you rather have an elite fighting force made up of the best cops, or of officers who 'look like L.A.'?
By Robert C.J. Parry
March 16, 2008
On a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2005, Jose Peña fueled himself with cocaine and grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol. Waving the gun at the head of his 19-month-old daughter, Suzie, he told the LAPD officers who arrived at the scene that he was Tony Montana -- the character played by Al Pacino in "Scarface" -- and that he was going to kill his daughter and himself. He'd already shot at her sister and at the police, so the threat was believable.
The situation was straightforward: If an LAPD SWAT crisis negotiator couldn't dispel Peña's narcotic fantasies, the little girl's life would rest with a SWAT rescue team's ability to cross a 50-foot alley, access the building, find and enter the room he was in and save Suzie before Peña pulled the trigger.
Now imagine for a moment that you were in Suzie Peña's position. Would you want the police SWAT team coming through the door to be the best of the best -- the toughest, most highly trained, most elite tacticians in the Los Angeles Police Department -- or would you want the team to "look like L.A."? Would you want rescuers who had not lost a hostage in three decades, or would you want a team with heartwarming, multicultural diversity?
The answer is pretty obvious, no? You'd want the best. That's what Suzie got, and even so, the results were tragic. According to the L.A. district attorney's office, Jose Peña emerged from the building and a gunfight ensued.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I was very surprised that this op-ed even ran in the L.A. Slimes er, I mean Times.
Then again, the author, Robert C.J. Perry, submitted this as an independent op-ed and he has no connection to the L.A. Times editorial board.
The commie propagandists in the newsroonm and editorial board over there must have thrown a collective hissy fit-tantrum after this was published....
“Would you rather have an elite fighting force made up of the best cops”
Uhhhh why would we want an “elite fighting force” as law enforcement???
I guess we need the cops just to talk with them.
“Uhhhh why would we want an “elite fighting force” as law enforcement???”
Good question. Kind of like when grabbers say that “assault weapons” are only good for killing large numbers of people so only the cops should have them.
I have to ask them “is that before or after they’re read their rights?”
Thank you riverrunner, it took a full 10 minutes for an answer to a stupid question.
I have seen a distinct tendency in our society for our fighting men in the Military and our Public Safety Personnel to be trashed at every opportunity.
Liberals usually do the former, libertines usually do the later.
They are both cut from the same cloth.
“Thank you riverrunner, it took a full 10 minutes for an answer to a stupid question.”
Thats far from a stupid question and the fact that you don’t even realize what you are endorsing is quite scary.
When the military acts as a nations police force that nation is not free. The only difference between the military and SWAT teams is the spelling of their name. Oh and the military usually has tighter restrictions on the use of force.
Human slaughter at the altar of Political Correctness is apparently A-OK.
“I have seen a distinct tendency in our society for our fighting men in the Military and our Public Safety Personnel to be trashed at every opportunity.”
HA!
I suppose the SWAT Team should be “diversified and be culturally sensiative”. The office of dversity should be sure this happens. The mayor should also come out in favor of having illegal alliens on the team as well. They should have at least several fat black women on there as well.
If there are any whites left on LA they can be tokens.
This should of course be confined to LA and the rampart division.
fighting force".
snicker.
Veritable Legionnaires. (Praetorians more likely, and late empire ones at that)
Jeasus, next they’ll be letting in darkies in the Army. After all, SWAT training is oh so mentally and physically challenging.
I don't know what you base that statement on.
From the stats stated in this article I would say it reflects a great deal of restraint by SWAT in LA, mainly because of gang activity and the sheer number of nut cases in a large population.
“From the stats stated in this article I would say it reflects a great deal of restraint by SWAT in LA, mainly because of gang activity and the sheer number of nut cases in a large population.”
So I should be thankful that the swat team hasn’t determined it necessary to kill me yet?
The police are not the same as the military. They shouldn’t have the same weapons, tactics or training. But they do and even use many of the same recruiting tactics for groups like swat. As a result they get the nut cases who want to play with the automatic weapons and be a part of the pseudo military team.
But anyone who so much as questions something the police do is immediately labeled a cop hater and worse. The cops seem to to feel they are not only above the law but above any oversight.
HA!
They are both cut from the same cloth.
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I take it you are blind , otherwise you could easily see that our military protects our rights and their detractors are the socialist despotic democrat types while our police forces attract detractors because their overreaching for a nanny-police state ala “Atlas Shrugged” does the opposite, they tear down our rights. Hardly “cut from the same cloth” those groups you speak of are exact mirror-images of each other.
I see nothing particularly scary about the government being able to focus a lot of power against a particular individual, especially in things like hostage situations. What is scary is not the ability of 'real' SWAT teams to focus and apply such force, but rather the proliferation of pseudo-SWAT teams.
Freedom does not require that every individual be able to withstand all the forces of government combined. Freedom requires merely that the government not be able to overpower more than a certain critical mass of people.
I have been called a cop-hater many times on this board. I resent that cops are held to a different standard than citizens, and I believe SWAT teams are an extremely dangerous erosion of liberty when misused, which is most of the time in my opinion. Busting someone’s door down at 3AM with 20 hyped-up cops on adrenaline, so they can “transfer the risk to the suspect” and prevent an ounce of powder from being flushed down the toilet is abusive, stupid, dangerous, and often fatal to innocents, especially when the cops get the address wrong, which happens distressingly often.
However, when there is an active shooter, or a hostage situation - either of which places innocents in imminent danger - then and only then should SWAT teams be dispatched. In fact, that’s why SWAT teams were originally formed.
I have zero argument with a SWAT team going in after someone who credibly is threatening to shoot an innocent. More power to them - if only they could confine their use of that power to such circumstances.
“Freedom does not require that every individual be able to withstand all the forces of government combined. Freedom requires merely that the government not be able to overpower more than a certain critical mass of people.”
That was very well said and thought out.
Dont expect too many here to choose the “elite fighting force.” I have said it before and say it again, many who post here are not the best friends of cops or the tactics that are necessary to be successful in law enforcement.
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