Tuesday, May 11, 2010

SWAT Raid Comes Under Fire



Judge Napolitano, host of Fox News' Freedom Watch has got to be TV's most outspoken opponent of the war on drugs. Check out the video above where he even calls for the arrest of the police officers that raided the home of a Columbia, Missouri family in February only to find a "small amount of marijuana."

SSDP and our friend Dave Borden were quoted in the Columbia Tribune's Sunday paper about the raid.
Advocates with Students for a Sensible Drug Policy — a national organization with a University of Missouri chapter — have taken notice of the Feb. 11 raid of Jonathan Whitworth’s home, where a SWAT team found a misdemeanor amount of marijuana and shot two dogs, one fatally. Associate Director Jonathan Perri said the war on drugs is a failure because of the violence associated with the illegal activity of distributing marijuana. The legalization of the drug would take the criminal aspect out its distribution, he said.

“By making it illegal, you are making it criminal,” Perri said. “If a local liquor store breaks a law, you are not going to see a SWAT team raid the place and kill a dog. … You still have the alcohol abuse but don’t have people killing each other over it.”

David Borden, the executive director of Americans for Swat Reform, said his organization’s philosophy is that SWAT teams should be used rarely. SWAT’s participation in the execution of search warrants, he believes, is an abuse of authority.

“The idea of SWAT was created for hostage situations and when military-style power is required and there is no other choice,” he said. “When going into a situation that the purpose is to preserve evidence, it’s not a good enough reason to put these thousands of people that are served search warrants each year through the aggressive and traumatic experience of a para-militarized police squadron entering your home.”

No comments: