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Randy Balko has this overview at Reason Magazine: Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage.
Read it all.
The militarization of our beloved ‘public servants’ has evidently created an urge to use that capacity. In the absence of actual need, i.e., in times of domestic peace and tranquility, who would it be safest to attack than some random guy sleeping in his house?
A S.W.A.T. team should not need justify its existence – even if it had never been called into action. Like a handgun or a rifle, it’s better to have one and not need it, than to need one and not have it.
But to use it (“it” being a handgun, a rifle or a S.W.A.T. team) where when you don’t need it – that’s where the highest standard of accountability comes into play – for both Citizens and our public servants.
The ‘cut and paste’ warrant with pencil-scratched changes do not indicate good up-front work by those who broke into the sleeping man’s North Little Rock house and shot him FIVE TIMES.
If only there were some document that delineated the limits of Government powers we could refer to in cases like this … a document that had a catchy name: I think The Bill of Rights has a nice ring to it. Yea, that’s the ticket.
