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FBI SWAT: The Most Miserable Job
Imagine being an FBI SWAT team member today. Can you really feel proud? You signed up (possibly motivated by the TV presentations of heroism) to take down the violent terrorists and menacers of the most vulnerable among us. And now you are being used to intimidate and “send a message” mafia-style.
How else to explain the many recent no-knock raids and arrests? The latest story is the arrest of Mark Houck in Philadelphia. Yes, he is charged with a federal crime of pushing a 72-year-old volunteer who was escorting a Planned Parenthood worker to the ground, twice. Accusations, of course, are not proof. And Mr. Houck has yet to have an opportunity to present his evidence of innocence or justification. And he may be guilty, I don’t know.
Certainly there will be many supporters and detractors of Mr. Houck as his case goes forward. But the key question remains in this case and so many others in our political divide: Why use an FBI SWAT team? This is becoming the preferred method of the Left.
It is intimidation, pure and simple. It is dangerous, and the government is way to overconfident about their ability to manage the reaction to a Ruby Ridge or Waco-style blunder. No doubt Ceaușescu felt similarly confident up to the moment he didn’t.
Pray the Left comes to its senses before the Right loses its mind.
Published in General
I had an offer for a position with the FBI Identification Division in 1959. I hadn’t completed my education so I didn’t qualify to be an Agent yet. Because I had a roommate from whom I was able to learn a few things about how Hoover ran that organization, I declined the offer. Most of what I learned at that time was just about a level of regimentation that would not suit me. I learned about many more serious deficiencies later. Now the FBI is out of control but it goes well beyond the FBI Director. I have sympathy for most of the seasoned FBI agents who took the jobs in good faith and have been betrayed.
According to the one report, the pro abortion activist was getting in the face of Houck’s son and yelling obscenities when Houck pushed him away.
He tried to sue but it was thrown out of court so the Feds picked it up because we can’t have a bunch MAGA types spewing hatred like, “God loves and He loves your baby too.”
Agents taking part in this know their role. A guy accused “pushing” could be served a warrant without the use of a SWAT team. They were not there to enforce the law but to scare and intimidate others to be more compliant to the Left. Will people sell their souls for a pension? If actions speak louder than words, most already have.
There are too many in Law enforcement who loves to flex their power on what they call civilians. They claim it is about safety when thevdo no knock, but it is really about intimidation and maybe they get to shoot someone defending their home.
What is most important is they go home alive, no matter how many 90 year old woman they have to kill.
I used to think this was the minority. I no longer believe this.
Especially with the FBI.
These recent actions are terrifying. Anyone could be their target.
Your military will soon think the same thing
Speaking of which, has the FBI taken any action regarding the dozens of pro-life counseling centers and churches that were vandalized when the Dobbs decision came out?
Domestic enemies.
I suspect they are going through the motions, but I’ve heard of no arrests.
Ginning up prosecutions for anti-abortion activists is not new. However, launching armed home invasions using more armed men than used for armed violent criminals appears to be the new normal for ideological enemies of the regime.
I wonder how much extra pay you get on a SWAT raid. They probably get extra for being on the team, and double plus extra for an actual raid. I would like to know the actual numbers. I am guessing that it is very lucrative.
Also, how much does a raid with thirty agents cost in total.
Pointless use of excessive force does not serve the interests of law enforcement in the long run. It surely must make the job of enforcing the law easier when you have a community that trusts the police force and wants to help them. Having cops used like this drives a wedge between police and the law-abiding public.
That’s why I’m baffled that they are acting this way. I think they are telling us that they don’t really care what we think.
Oderint dum metuant… let them hate us, as long as they fear us. The phrase, attributed to Caligula seems applicable.
And I’m sure there are people who subscribe to that philosophy, but I should think that a police force has a much easier time of doing their job when they have the support and cooperation of the community. Some guy sitting at a desk who is far removed from dealing with the public may not see it that way, though.
That is why there is more effort placed on DEI training than combat readiness.
Sending a registered letter probably would have been sufficient.
Time for everyone to brush up on the history of Reserve Police Battalion 101.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Police_Battalion_101
Did Mr. Houck have a dog and did they get to shoot it? SWAT teams seem to enjoy shooting people’s dogs.
The federal law under which Mr. Houck is being persecuted should never have been enacted. If there is any substance at all to charge him with a crime it should be a local matter. We are having far too much of this approach and calling it law enforcement. It is being abetted by the Congress passing laws that allow it.
Bob, did you mean to write “persecuted?” Or was that a Freudian slip?
I meant “persecuted”. I doubt they will try “prosecution”.
I was noodling on a similar post or idea this weekend. What’s it like to get all SWATTED-up, to raid the homes of people who are not violent or scary criminals? People accused of shoving?
I would assume these details are the ones that people scramble to get out of as soon as possible, to do real work, and the leftovers that stay are the less capable. Like any job that becomes so frustrating that leaving it is the only 0ption.
Sounds like the cost is paid in 60 testicles.
But that’s just my take.
@oldbathos Do you know what the record shows on this regarding whether such prosecutions have been state and local or federal? I cannot recall this being handled by the FBI, it just seems way beyond their purpose.
I’m thinking of all the times the local police send two officers to serve a warrant on a true criminal and one or both of them get shot to death? Can’t we switch situations and send the two local officers to Mr. Houck’s home and the 30 FBI agents to the criminal’s home?
Could these FBI agents be truly indoctrinated (as in a cult) and truly believe that conservatives are physically dangerous?
The first instances of this that I recall any publicity on started with the Russia Hoax trying to get something on Trump. Can you imagine the excessive costs associated with this non-work for presumably highly qualified federal workers?
I have two main questions about this.
First, the question everyone is asking, why the overuse of force?
But my second question is, why was this guy bringing his son to a demonstration where physical intimidation is common as well as profanity? We conservatives complain when progressives involve children in their own political agendas. How about this guy?
These are fair questions which is why I am not defending or condemning him. It is only the manner of his arrest and the potential that someone could have gotten killed — and for what?!
In liberal jurisdictions, the feds have come up with conspiracy, RICO theories: The protests are an assault (Violence Against Women Act) and so planning demonstrations is therefore conspiracy.
This is along those lines. The Civil Rights Division was Obama’s ideological Praetorian Guard used to (a) concoct attacks on the right and (b) be tapped for any investigation of the administration. Not much has changed.
But I don’t think those arrests were done by two platoons of SWAT guys at home.
The absurd display of force (a) serves the lie that these are dangerous people–why else would the US Govt have to send SWAT Teams? and (b) to scare the rest of us ultra-MAGAs into silence.