Monday, October 23, 2006
SWAT team members serve warrants
Fathers should pay child support, wife-and-girl-friend-beaters should go to jail. No ifs or ands. They’re scum; like bigamists or fixers or bad check artists, telephone con-artists, you know: predators. People that should not be in the circle, but who need to be kept away from decent folks until they understand. Assuming they will.
OK. Now, back not too many years ago, when para-military SWAT teams first appeared in police departments, we were told they were for rare and extremely dangerous situations. Hostage scenes, terrorist attacks, snipers...events that were likely to end in gunfire, violence. The SWAT teams received extra training and were subsidized by the federal government. They were serious people.
So, now, we’ve become so numb to things—like the militarization of daily life in America—we find stories like this one, where SWAT team members are used to serve warrants for domestic abuse. Commonplace, actually; like sub-machinegun-armed guards in airports. Only, it couldn’t have been too dangerous, because in many of the instances, regular cops did the job.
But SWAT teams are like heavy weapons: if you got them, you use them. Ho-hum, here come the storm troopers...
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/289418_warrants20.html
Hunting domestic violence offenders
Law agencies act in concert to serve warrants
Friday, October 20, 2006
By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER
Detective Pamela St. John pounds on the apartment door, and the tenant answers. He sounds groggy, as if he just woke up.
"Is Richard here?" St. John asks, holding a warrant for a domestic violence suspect who broke a court order.
It's 8:30 a.m. A drizzle taps the pavement outside. The tenant's reply isn't what the detectives hoped for. His friend isn't there: "He's out camping on the coast -- it's like a spiritual thing for him."
The brick Capitol Hill apartment building was one of several stops Thursday for the two detectives as they tracked domestic violence offenders sought by the law. All over Seattle, officers, detectives and SWAT team members worked to serve 168 outstanding warrants as part of the fourth annual National Family Violence Apprehension Detail.
OK. Now, back not too many years ago, when para-military SWAT teams first appeared in police departments, we were told they were for rare and extremely dangerous situations. Hostage scenes, terrorist attacks, snipers...events that were likely to end in gunfire, violence. The SWAT teams received extra training and were subsidized by the federal government. They were serious people.
So, now, we’ve become so numb to things—like the militarization of daily life in America—we find stories like this one, where SWAT team members are used to serve warrants for domestic abuse. Commonplace, actually; like sub-machinegun-armed guards in airports. Only, it couldn’t have been too dangerous, because in many of the instances, regular cops did the job.
But SWAT teams are like heavy weapons: if you got them, you use them. Ho-hum, here come the storm troopers...
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/289418_warrants20.html
Hunting domestic violence offenders
Law agencies act in concert to serve warrants
Friday, October 20, 2006
By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER
Detective Pamela St. John pounds on the apartment door, and the tenant answers. He sounds groggy, as if he just woke up.
"Is Richard here?" St. John asks, holding a warrant for a domestic violence suspect who broke a court order.
It's 8:30 a.m. A drizzle taps the pavement outside. The tenant's reply isn't what the detectives hoped for. His friend isn't there: "He's out camping on the coast -- it's like a spiritual thing for him."
The brick Capitol Hill apartment building was one of several stops Thursday for the two detectives as they tracked domestic violence offenders sought by the law. All over Seattle, officers, detectives and SWAT team members worked to serve 168 outstanding warrants as part of the fourth annual National Family Violence Apprehension Detail.
