COURTESY OF PETER KRASKA
THE SWAT-IFICATION
OF AMERICA
resulted in criminal charges. The
effort to get the law passed was
led by Cheye Calvo, the mayor of
Berwyn Heights, Md., who was
the victim of a highly publicized
mistaken raid on his home in
which a Prince George’s County
SWAT team shot and killed his
two black Labradors. The bill puts
no restrictions on SWAT teams or
how they’re used. Its only purpose
is transparency. Still, it was vigorously opposed by every police
agency in the state.
“This is one of the most intrusive things a government can do,”
Calvo said. “These are government
agents, breaking down your door,
invading your home. And yet it’s
all done in secret. In most cases,
no one knows what criteria police
are using when they decide how to
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