AP PHOTO/WALLY FONG
THE SWAT-IFICATION
OF AMERICA
Additionally, the affiliates will
ask for information about drones,
GPS tracking devices, how much
military equipment the police
agencies have obtained through
programs run through the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, and how often and
for what purpose state National
Guards are participating in enforcement of drug laws.
“We’ve known for a while now
that American neighborhoods are
increasingly being policed by cops
armed with the weapons and tac-
HUFFINGTON
03.31.13
tics of war,” said Kara Dansky, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Center
for Justice, which is coordinating
the investigation. “The aim of this
investigation is to find out just
how pervasive this is, and to what
extent federal funding is incentivizing this trend.”
The militarization of America’s
police forces has been going on for
about a generation now.
Former Los Angeles Police Chief
Daryl Gates first conceived the
idea of the SWAT team in the late
1960s, in response to the Watts
riots and a few mass shooting incidents for which he thought the
police were unprepared. Gates
Former L.A.
Police Chief
Daryl Gates
— the brains
behind SWAT
— at a press
conference
in 1978.