SWAT madness and the militarization of the American police

the long version

The facts are disturbing: Every year in the United States, Swat teams conduct predawn, no-knock raids of at least 50,000 homes looking for drugs. Unfortunately, a substantial percentage of these assaults occur at the wrong addresses, and law-abiding citizens who mistakenly kill SWAT officers thinking they are criminal home invaders often end up on death row. In the United States, military-style police enforcement is fast becoming the norm--even the smallest police departments now field costly SWAT units. While the fact that police forces have increased capabilities to deal with urgent or dangerous situations may seem positive, this type of aggressive response is problematic: court settlements regarding excessive SWAT raids cost law enforcement agencies millions of dollars every year, not to mention that these bruteforce strategies often traumatize, injure, and kill innocent people.