Liberty Minute August 29 2014

In Caldwell, Idaho, a SWAT team was deployed in an effort to arrest a single suspected gang member, who escaped and was arrested later by less dramatic means.

Six days later, police in Boise dispatched a SWAT team in an MRAP ? a combat-grade armed vehicle ? to arrest a man suspected of pointing a gun at a pedestrian. This raid, which took place late in the evening, resulted in an arrest on a single misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, which is the sort of thing that happens when police carry out a military-style raid at midnight.

Neither of those arrests required the use of a SWAT team and military hardware, which were used because of availability, not need. Since 2011, police agencies in Idaho have received $9.3 million in military equipment from the federal government.

Analyst Noel Brinkerhoff points out that the Pentagon?s 1033 program specifies that ?any participating law enforcement agency must use its equipment within one year of receiving it. If they don?t, they have to give it up.?

If a police department wants combat gear, it can get it, and once the department has that gear, it will use it. In fact, the Feds will require that they invent a need where none exists.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.