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Regular readers know that the rise of quasi-public "special operations groups" (SWAT teams or "SOG") within the Granite State law enforcement community has caught our attention. In this prior post about a raid in Bristol, NH involving some 20 masked police officers, I mentioned two other events involving overwhelmingly excessive force given the circumstances. One happened in state– the Charlestown incident in which a man in a trailer was killed as a combined special operations group/ state police operation sought to arrest his son. The other I noted occured in Maryland where a SWAT team stormed a mayor’s home in search of drugs and ended up killing his dogs as they held him and his mother-in law prisoner in his own home.
The following video is rather chilling, and almost seems the stuff of movies– but it is all true. I can vouch for the military hardware being doled out to local law enforcement. I got some serious snark from our county sheriff during budget time after I questioned costs of our "South African police tank" vehicle used by the SOG. As I pointed out in a post last week, there is an extensive list of goodies the federal "JAG" grant is pumping into the region. Some of the items one questions whether LOCAL law enforcement, run and financed by LOCAL people, would ever purchase, left to their own devices. And this exclusive ‘Grok story about road block activity here in the Granite State is by no means the exception, as that activity too is featured in the vid…
Several weeks back I spoke with the lawyer representing the Bristol family raided by the platoon of masked "cops." He told me the civil trial should happen in December. He also confimed what I have come to know while studying this topic: These regional SWAT teams, or SOGs, are, for all intents and purposes, private militias unaccountable in any meaningful way to elected governing bodies. Additionally, I have observed that such groups are funded in part by local taxes AND the federal government generally unbeknownst to most folks– often with NO oversight… Sleep tight. If you hear a knock during the night and it’s the police, don’t worry. They’re probably only there to protect and serve you.
One day, we’ll wake up, and wonder how it all happened. By then, it’ll be too late…
