The New York Times has an extremely important and disturbing investigative piece in today’s paper about the use of SWAT teams to execute low-level search warrants across the nation, a practice that has led to the deaths of dozens of Americans, and the terrorization of thousands. It’s a problem that wouldn’t be happening without a breakdown of legal restraints, a demented “war on drugs” now entering its umpteenth decade, and a massive dearth of common sense; the article also cites Supreme Court decisions and lazy judges as part of the background.
But there’s also an overarching class and racial dimension that is sitting in plain view: this is something being done disproportionately to lower-income citizens, and to people of color. It summons a vision of two nations: one where citizens go about their daily business without fear, a second one where any evening a militarized police squad will break down your door, toss in a few flash-bang grenades, and gun down your family dog. More than this: it summons up nothing less than the vision of U.S. troops busting into houses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since when are American citizens treated like possible insurgents in the (deeply immoral and counter-productive) war on terror? The war on drugs continues to amaze and appall with its ability to descend to new extremes and cruelties.
Widespread drug use and addiction are clearly fed by the harsh economic realities faced by increasing numbers of Americans, not by some sort of growing moral failure; witness the rise of opioid addiction that is now decimating communities across the rural U.S. But on top of the injuries of joblessness and drug use now comes this third plague: over-the-top policing and avoidable harm to innocents.
And it turns out that the proceeds of the drug seizures usually go to the police departments, providing another perverse incentive for this brutalizing activity to continue.
In a small sign of hope, it turns out that a lot of police are deeply skeptical of this tactical approach to serving warrants, including the National Tactical Officers Association. In fact, one of the idiocies of this SWAT approach is that it unnecessarily risks the life of police officers for the sake of relatively low-level offenses. Clearly this is not a better known issue than it is because it’s affecting the least powerful members of our society. But if progressives are serious about revitalizing our democracy and making it work for everyone, no matter your income bracket, stopping this demented reign of terror against non-violent criminals and innocent bystanders needs to gain much higher priority.