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Drop that funnel or we'll shoot!
Last week, at a Washington State University frat house, a SWAT team was called in to respond to reports of underage drinking. Wait. Did I just write that? Indeed, I did. Let me rephrase that. Paramilitary police officers trained for high-risk, violent confrontations were dispatched to arrest college students who were a year or three younger than the current legal age for drinking alcoholic beverages.
Still doesn't sound good, does it? We'll let the Moscow-Pullman Daily News have its say:
The Pullman Police Department called in members of the regional SWAT team to execute a search warrant at a Washington State University fraternity Wednesday night.
Police responded to the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity shortly before 8:30 p.m. after receiving reports that members of the house located at 500 NE Colorado St. were furnishing alcohol to minors. When they arrived on scene, Pullman Cmdr. Chris Tennant said police found a crowd of intoxicated individuals playing with air soft guns.
An observing sergeant was notified that illegal substances were in a red Honda parked on the street. He flashed his light in the car and found a bong and bag of marijuana lying on the backseat floorboards, Tennant said.
Ah-ha! Drugs and guns!
But airsoft guns are toys. They shoot little plastic pellets and are used the same way paintball guns are used, for combat games.
As for "a bong and bag of marijuana" ... Oh, c'mon. It's grass. Yes, it's illegal (though it shouldn't be), but calling in the heavy weapons to address that particular legal transgression is a major overreaction.
Tennant of the Pullman PD insists, "We activated the SWAT team not because we needed special weapons and tactics, we just needed the bodies.”
But bodies could well have been the end result. When SWAT teams were originally developed in Los Angeles (see page 100 of this LAPD report (PDF)) they were intended to address "riots," "the sniper," "political assassins" and "urban guerrilla warfare." Their training "to successfully combat urban violence" makes them not-so-logical a choice for breaking up a kegger. Well, not unless you really want to break up the keg -- with machine-gun fire. Sending SWAT in to control "a crowd of intoxicated individuals playing with air soft guns" makes you wonder if somebody in the command structure of Pullman PD has a brother in the coffin business.
No, that's not just a morbid joke. The use of a SWAT team to arrest Salvatore Culosi, a 37-year-old optometrist, for sports gambling (the plague of this troubled land) resulted in the shooting death of Culosi. (Fairfax County, Virginia, uses SWAT "for most search warrants").
Police detective Jarrod Shivers was killed by panicked homeowner Ryan Frederick during a misfired SWAT raid that turned up a baggie of marijuana. (Frederick, who enjoys widespread community support, is now on trial.)
Tarika Wilson was killed and her one-year-old son lost a finger when a SWAT officer opened fire on the cowering woman during a drug raid in Lima, Ohio.
A Minneapolis SWAT team engaged in a shootout with a homeowner after barging into the wrong address.
And, of course, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Mayor Cheye Calvo's two dogs were killed when a SWAT team raided his home after he accepted delivery of a package of marijuana brought to his door by police officers. Calvo was cleared of any wrongdoing, but has yet to receive an apology.
SWAT teams and enforcement of laws against nonviolent activities are two things that don't go so well together. Unless, that is, you think downing a beer a few months before your 21st birthday should carry the death penalty.
You might also enjoy these:
- Dump the drinking age and let 18-year-olds have a legal beer
- Colorado Beer Examiner: Should 18 be the proper age to drink beer?
- College Sports Examiner: East Carolina University police brutality
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Comments
I wish I were shocked, but, I'm not. Unfortunately, I've spent some time in Houston, Texas fairly recently. The police regularly use paramilitary style raids on the night clubs there over licensing violations - or the question thereof - since nobody seems to know what the law actually is. There are no more strip clubs with female dancers left in Houston (although, LaBare, which a club for men taking it off mostly for other men continues unabated...), but the SWAT-style raids continue. They have a "vice" department there. They are not exactly "gentlemen," either. (You think you are in the Victorian Era there until you realize that the Age or Reason has not yet dawned there. By that, I mean that there are no search warrants used, but the cases don't get thrown out in court, no right to face your masked accuser, no due process, no evidence - you're just guilty. The whole thing seems to be an elaborate pay-off racket with lawyers, cops, judges and City right on up to the mayor involved. I know lots of people who have had their lives nearly destroyed just for showing up to work on the wrong day.) Masked men with automatic weapons are terrorizing working people in Houston. Why a SWAT style raid on a night club? Nobody knows for sure. (But, you get the feeling that these men enjoy their jobs a little too much. They spend a lot of time in the clubs on the taxpayer's dime.) The entertainers aren't really known for packing heat or presenting much resistance while tottering around on 7" heels. The cops, on the other hand, are notorious for their abuses. Usually, the whole place is terrified and in tears as innocents are roughed up and hauled up for further abuse at the jail. Yeah, lovely place... Houston!
Lately, the City has turned its attention to educators in the public schools. I don't know if they're resorting to SWAT raids just yet, but they are letting drug-sniffing dogs loose in school parking lots and hauling in teachers for having a pill or two in their cars and not being able to locate a prescription. Personally, I would be terrified to be a teacher in any of the school districts in Houston right now. The City has lost all reason and no one is standing up for the teachers. Again, it appear to be some kind of racket they are running. Lives are ruined and the City and the attorneys get some money at the expense of good people. Talk about economic terror - there's nothing like being afraid to go to work!
Houston is a lunatic asylum. If you have business there - get in and get out. Don't have a drink - anywhere! You can be arrested for drinking even in a licensed drinking establishment. Dancing is against the law after 1 p.m. and depending on who you are and where you are you can be charged with prostitution or something prostitution-related. Don't jay-walk. Be careful where you go because the cops here are trigger happy. I was nearly murdered at the hands of some idiots from HPD over the summer - at a garage sale.
For more on un-Constitutional, un-American outrages in Houston and the lack of integrity there, please see my "Mad, Mad Tea Party in Houston."
I live across the street from Phi Kaps. they caught some dude smoking weed and proceeded to raid the house a couple of hours later. More than one frat house here has been caught selling drugs. I lived in one for three years and can vouch that there are no shortage of guns on what is a largely rural campus. Overkill? maybe, but the student population is better armed than the cops. Until this, the worst the cops do is bust some idiot for MIP or contributing.
I am a former member of Phi Kappa Sigma at WSU. What the cops did was totally overkill. Not only did the police mess up the report sent to the newspapers, but they also messed up the warrant. The warrant they got was for a red 4 door honda. In fact, it was a two door volkswagen GTI that had marijuana in it. It was not parked in the fraternity parking lot, it was parked on the street. The car did not belong to a member, it belonged to a pledge. The police did not arrive to drunk people playing airsoft. They responded to a call from the Live-In advisor of the fraternity telling the police that there were minors drinking in the house. Not only did the live-in advisor rat on his brothers, he also suggested to the police to raid the fraternity for alcohol/drugs. I do not know what the search warrant for the fraternity said, but I do know that the police found two pipes, a bong, and a bag of stems. Oh I almost forgot, they also found two stolen stop signs. They caused at least 10,000 dollars worth of damage in the raid and left a large scar on the reputation of our fraternity. I never hated the police until i've seen the evil they cause in Pullman.
You forgot 92 year old Kathryn Johnston, killed by a police drug raid in Atlanta (which was based on a faulty tip by a criminal informant); and then the police subsequently tried to cover up their mistake.
And there are lots more examples.
Come on JD. They were playing with air soft guns. Lots of air soft guns look like the real thing these days. I'd rather they over-reacted, then under reacted. And it was a drunken crowd of adults. Nice spin on things. I've always told my own teenagers that if it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't.
Why are you trying to connect a bunch of unrelated incidents? Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Washington State, etc...like all the authority figures are in cahoots with each other. Now your readers are adding other cities. Wow. Not.
The connection, Mom of 2 teen boys, is that this kind of thing - paramilitary raids on either completely innocent people or for minor alleged violations - is going on everywhere. This incident at Phi Kappa Sigma and WSU is not happening in a vacuum.
Use your head.
Just forwarded this to my college kid. Several fraternities on his campus have been targets of some crazy stuff. No personal liberties on college campuses! He'll be living off campus next year.
Again Angela...house of drunk frat adults with play pistols. What do you want to show up? A lone campus police officer?
Dear "Mom of 2 teen boys" if you want men armed with loaded machine guns to show up just because some kids are drinking then you are not fit to be a parent and your children should be taken away. I suggest sending over a SWAT team to liberate them from you.
Undertaker, you mean like the case where A raid happened because a child playing hit his head, and his ex media father declined to take his unhurt child to the ER?
jbs.org/index.php/jbs-news-feed/650-police-break-into-house-to-take-child-to-the-er
Maybe the cato study can shed some light for you mom of 2, worthy of none.
www.cato.org/raidmap
Maybe it's time for some citizen initiatives spelling out WHEN the masked goons can be used, and with strict guidelines and punishments for abuse is in order. Otherwise, they're just terrorists...using fear to force you comply with the governments greed and lust for power over you.
I've partied at that Phi Kappa Sigma house!
Glad I wasn't around for the raid.
I for one think this is hilarious. Not for the money that was wasted on these frat kids, but the fact that some of you "pussies" think everyone overreacted. Well if they did, why don't you join and give them your years of experience? Oh because you are still pussies. I for one agree FULL HEARTEDLY in responding with my weapon out if someone sees a gun. Airsoft, paintball.....I don't give a crap. You aim it my way or in the way of another person, you will ultimately face the consequences for your own stupidity.
Go ahead and read about people who draw guns on cops (toys or the real thing) and find out who always wins. The police. Why? There is this thing in the LE rhelm which we call "reasonable officer response". Meaning: What would the typical police officer do if a gun was aimed at them or someone else in a hostile manner?? Enjoy your luxory of sitting behind a computer and being an Internet Lawyer. There is a reason you have not passed the BAR examine. You bring no evidence
I was actually there the night this happened... however as a live-out member I did not see it as prudent to interfere with anything that occurred. I was, prior to this a ranking member in a very proud group of young men that were trying to get an education. The facts of the Daily Evergreen story are completely false. Remember this is a newspaper run by a school that has been working with the town to rid itself of the Greek System for over a decade now. What I saw that night was less than TEN members of the fraternity "celebrating" peacefully. I will not go into why the police were even involved because that was an issue between a select few of the membership however the result of police interaction was devastating. I watched as a bloody SWAT team raided my fraternity house with loaded M4 assault rifles with no regard for property or rights. All charges in the actual raid of the fraternity house were dropped because there wasn't even a warrant issued for the search. Gestapo anyone?
Washington State University, and Pullman, would be better places without the Greek System.
If you guys want to just get drunk and party, don't make your parents fork out $25,000+ so you can do it. I work with the WSU PD, and I can't believe how many people, mostly frat guys, waste all that money just to party.
WWU has become a much better school since abolishing it's Greek System; WSU needs to follow suit. Any Frat that says it is dedicated to academics and good behavior is full of s**t and outright lying.
N Day your an idiot, that explains why you are a Pullman cop. Good work with Casto this year nice f up. They should change the name from Pullman to Hazard County.
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