A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State (11 page)

While these so-called "free" surplus military weapons may seem like a windfall for cash-strapped communities, the maintenance costs for such extraneous equipment can quickly skyrocket. For example, police in Tupelo, Mississippi, spent about $274,000 over five years servicing a helicopter that flew an average often missions per year.
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In addition to the military equipment acquired by police departments via the 1033 Program, police agencies are also beginning to use drones–pilotless, remote-controlled aircraft that have been used extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan–domestically. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration has already issued testing permits to local police agencies across the country seeking to employ drone technology.
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AeroVironment, Inc., a manufacturer of drones, intends to sell 18,000 five-pound drones controlled via tablet computer to police departments throughout the country.
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They are also touting the "Switchblade," a small, one-use drone that has the ability to track a person from the air and then fly down to their level and explode.
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Moreover, some police officials are already discussing outfitting these spy drones with "nonlethal" weapons.
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Civilian Branches of the Military

In appearance, weapons, and attitude, law enforcement agencies are increasingly being transformed into civilian branches of the military. This militarization of American police–no doubt a blowback effect of the military empire–has become an unfortunate part of American life. In fact, it says something about our reliance on the military that federal agencies having nothing whatsoever to do with national defense now see the need for their own paramilitary units.

Consider that federal agencies now employ more than 100,000 full-time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry firearms.
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Among those federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions are the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Education,
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Department of Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service, to name just a few.
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These agencies have secured the services of fully-armed agents–often in SWAT team attire–through a typical bureaucratic sleight-of-hand provision allowing for the creation of Offices of Inspectors General (OIG). Each OIG office is supposedly charged with not only auditing their particular agency's actions but also uncovering possible misconduct, waste, fraud, theft, or certain types of criminal activity by individuals or groups related to the agency's operation.
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At present, there are 73 such OIG offices
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in the federal government that, at times, perpetuate a police state aura about them.

For example, it was heavily armed agents from one such OIG office, working under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education, who forced their way into the home of a California man, handcuffed him and placed his three children (ages three, seven, and eleven) in a squad car while they conducted a search of his home.
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Kenneth Wright (News 10 Central Stockton)

This federal SWAT team raid on the home of Kenneth Wright on Tuesday, June 7, 2011,
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was allegedly intended to ferret out information on Wright's estranged wife, Michelle, who no longer lived with him and who was suspected of financial aid fraud
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(early news reports characterized the purpose of the raid as being over Michelle's delinquent student loans
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). Wright was awakened at 6 a.m. by the sound of agents battering down his door and, upon descending the Stairs, was immediately subdued by police. One neighbor actually witnessed the team of armed agents surround the house and, after forcing entry, they "dragged [Wright] out in his boxer shorts, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him."
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A Dangerous Paranoia

The total militarization of government, which has taken place since the 1980s and rapidly advanced since 9/11, is most clearly illustrated by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) transformation from a security agency into a domestic army, with its teams of paramilitary forces roaming the country. This disconcerting transformation has been made all the more troubling by a dangerous paranoia that seems to have overtaken the governmental bureaucracy, especially in regard to an increasingly discontent citizenry.

Speculation has been understandably rife as to the government's motivation in ordering vast quantities of hollow-point bullets, which are designed to explode upon entry into the body, causing massive organ damage, thus resulting in death. For example, in March 2012, defense contractor ATK agreed to produce 450 million hollow-point rounds to be used by the DHS and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
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DHS placed another order for 750 million rounds of various ammunition in August 2012.
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In August 2012 the Social Security Administration (SSA) placed an order for 174,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition.
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Supposedly, the SSA sent the ammunition to forty-one locations throughout the United States, including major cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia, among others.
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It's unclear why the SSA would need hollow-point bullets. However, it's worth noting that DHS and SSA have already collaborated in police exercises. In January 2012 Federal Protective Service officers with DHS conducted a training exercise at the SSA office in Leesburg, Florida. One officer carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle randomly checked IDs as people filed into the building, while other officers combed the building with K-9 units. The exercise was part of the larger Operation Shield, which, according to DHS officials, involves federal officers randomly showing up to government buildings throughout the country in order to test the effectiveness of their security procedures.
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DHS and SSA aren't the only agencies beefing up their ammunition stockpiles. In August 2012 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which houses the National Weather Service, requested 46,000 hollow-point bullets to be sent to locations in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Florida,
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as well as 500 paper targets.
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The NOAA later released a statement claiming that the ammunition is intended for the Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement which is entrusted to "enforce laws that conserve and protect our nation's living marine resources and their natural habitat."
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A New Way

Hollow-point bullets, local police armed to the teeth, and SWAT team raids on unarmed citizens. A spurious trend? Or America's new way of life?

CHAPTER 9

SWAT Team Mania

"On July 29, 2008, my family and I were terrorized by an errant Prince George's County SWAT team. This unit forced entry into my home without a proper warrant, executed our beloved black Labradors, Payton and Chase, and bound and interrogated my mother-in-law and me for hours as they ransacked our belongings ... As I was forced to kneel, bound at gun point on my living room floor, I recall thinking that there had been a terrible mistake. However, as I have learned more, I have to understand that what my family and I experienced is part of a growing and troubling trend where law enforcement is relying on SWAT teams to perform duties once handled by ordinary police officers."
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–Maryland MAYOR CHEYE CALVO in testimony before the Maryland Senate

W
hat we are witnessing is an inversion of the police-civilian relationship. Rather than compelling police officers to remain within constitutional bounds as servants of the people, ordinary Americans are being placed at the mercy of law enforcement and the stomping boot, especially with the increasing reliance on SWAT teams for matters that once could have been satisfactorily performed by traditional civilian officers.

Frequently justified as vital tools necessary to combat terrorism and deal with rare but extremely dangerous criminal situations, such as those involving hostages, SWAT teams–which first appeared on the scene in California in the 1960s
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–have now become intrinsic parts of local law enforcement operations.
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This is thanks in large part to substantial "donations" of military equipment from the federal government
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and a law enforcement bureaucracy pressured to put such resources to use.

SWAT Team Raid (AP Photo/The Daily World, MacLeod Pappidas)

Consequently, 75-80 percent of SWAT callouts are now for mere warrant service.
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In some jurisdictions, SWAT teams are responsible for servicing 100 percent of all drug warrants issued.
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A Maryland SWAT Team Raid (AP Photo/The Daily World, MacLeod Pappidas)

study
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indicated that SWAT teams are deployed 4.5 times per day in Maryland with 94 percent of those deployments being for something as minor as serving search or arrest warrants.
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In one county more than 50 percent of SWAT operations carried out were for misdemeanors or non-serious felonies.
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Mimicking the Military

The pervasive culture of militarism in domestic law enforcement is largely the result of the militarization of
local
police forces, which are increasingly militaristic in their uniforms, weaponry, language, training, and tactics.
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Police mimicry of the military is enhanced by the war-heavy imagery and metaphors associated with law enforcement activity: the
war
on drugs, the
war
on crime, and so on.
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Moreover, it is estimated that at least 46 percent of paramilitary units (SWAT teams) are trained by "active-duty military experts in special operations."
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In turn, the military mindset adopted by many SWAT members encourages a tendency to employ lethal force.
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After all, soldiers are authorized to terminate enemy combatants and not act, as local police should, as "peace" officers. As Lawrence Korb, a former official in the Reagan Administration, put it, soldiers are "trained to vaporize, not Mirandize."
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Ironically, despite the fact that SWAT team members are subject to greater legal restraints than their counterparts in the military, they are often less well-trained in the use of force than are the special ops soldiers on which they model themselves. In fact, SWAT teams frequently fail to conform to the basic precautions required in military raids.
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