Alright. I am going to link to National Review and the latest John Fund column (trigger warning?). The reason I do this is that is so disturbing. Not the events, but why are there so many bureaus of our Gubmint now armed with police enforcement personnel and polices?
When did this happen and why?
Is this a Democratic initiative? We at Dkos are all for this?
I'm just asking, because I am confused where we and our Democratic leaders stand on this stuff.
UPDATE: 4.5 hours in. No answers as to why, or further defense or explanation of Democratic/Dkos support... Oh Well. To be expected I guess. Gets in the way of the narrative. Too controversial.
Below the fold...
The United States of SWAT?
Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle’s grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy’s ranch.
They shouldn’t have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. It’s not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.
Since 9/11, the feds have issued a plethora of homeland-security grants that encourage local police departments to buy surplus military hardware and form their own SWAT units. By 2005, at least 80 percent of towns with a population between 25,000 and 50,000 people had their own SWAT team. The number of raids conducted by local police SWAT teams has gone from 3,000 a year in the 1980s to over 50,000 a year today.
Tell me I'm "concerned".
Tell me I'm sucked into a RW Talking Point.
Tell me whatever. But you should also tell me why there are now extraordinary police forces that do not report to your local sheriff, city police force, state patrol and now all work for Cabinet Offices of the Executive branch.
But, please be honest. Why do the "Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to mention the Dept of Education have SWAT teams?
Why?