[Grady Clay]

Noah,

Colorado has a “Make-my-day” law permitting deadly force against an intruder. Fortunately it hasn’t (yet) been applied to a warrant no-knock situation. I suspect if the SWAT have the wrong address (or any imperfection in the warrant), the use of deadly force against the police would be upheld. A sad state.

State Immunity is another issue worth addressing. I don’t think the concept was ever meant to cover wrongdoing. Clearly jurisdictions are paying out millions of our tax dollars daily to victims of official mistakes and misconduct. Am I correct that the burden is for a victim to overcome some very significant legal obstacles? That should change and people should be held personally accountable.


I think it is unfortunately necessary to have SWAT. I think the problem is with the use (and over use). This may be the “If you have it you need to use it” funding justification. There needs to be greater judicial oversight when a warrant is issued. Perhaps a public advocate should be able to argue counter to law enforcement when a warrant is proposed. The critical aspect is with supervision and accountability.


A few years ago I had the occasion to discuss SWAT with a team leader in our local county sheriff’s department. Basically I listened and asked non-judgmental and even supportive questions. I was absolutely appalled.

At first I thought this was a rouge cop with some personal agenda. Not so. It turned out that he was the person responsible to attend national training of some sort and bring that back to training in our local sheriff’s organization. The most frightening aspect was he had absolutely no respect for the law – even constitutional rights. He even admitted that the hoods and black garb (not personally identifiable) were there to protect his and his men’s identity and not be held accountable for their actions.

My reaction was “How could such an obvious Nazi/SS/Gestapo be in this position in MY community?” Needless to say I didn’t say that out loud.

I wrote a carefully worded letter with positive suggestions to my County Sheriff Sullivan (an elected position). I got back a letter that didn’t address anything. I had the occasion to bring up the subject personally and he changed the subject three times.


Who here has had SWAT training?

I may ask our County Sheriff to permit me to observe the training and actions - for a positive and supportive article of course.


Back to the Militarization of our police.”
Aside from the obvious (to me) issues with SWAT, what are the more insidious aspects of the police becoming more militarized?

Best,
Grady