On April 19, a million Bostonians stayed locked down in their homes while
9,000 cops combed the metro area for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect
in the marathon bombing. In Watertown,
cops went door-to-door and removed homeowners at gunpoint before searching
their houses. Tsarnaev was found in that town around 8 PM by the owner of the boat sitting in his backyard that
the 19-year-old suspected terrorist had chosen as his hiding place.
The lockdown was something new. Not serial killers, not cop-killing cop Christopher
Dorner’s LA rampage, not even 9/11 shut down a city like this. Still,
Bostonians seemed fine with staying inside for the most part. Cops found
their guy relatively quickly, and the city partied in the streets afterwards.
During the manhunt, a tough-looking officer even brought two gallons of milk to
a family with young children, serving as a perfect meme to refute any
accusations of jackbooted thuggery. Even some normally anti-police
libertarians urged restraint in reacting to the manhunt.
What shouldn’t go unmentioned, however, is that while the circumstances were
unique, the military muscle displayed by law enforcement is hardly reserved for
responding to rare acts of terrorism. Videos from the lockdown—particularly this
piece of paranoia-porn in which a SWAT team orders a family out of their home
at gunpoint and one of the officers screams “get away from the window!” at the
videographer—either look frightening or grimly necessary, according to your
views. But haven’t we seen displays like this before?
Those who say that the above high level of police intrusion was due to the
unique seriousness of the situation in Boston
had better explain what cops are doing with their expensive toys during the
other 360 days of the year. A suspected bomb-toting terrorist is cause for
specific, serious law enforcement measures (if not an excuse to impose martial
law on an entire metro area). But a visit from cops that look like soldiers is
a reality for 150 people per day who are targeted by police raids—mostly on
suspicion of possessing or selling narcotics.
Sometimes the body armor, vehicles, weapons, and high-quality spying
equipment that make these raids easier are underwritten by the Department of
Homeland Security. The DHS has spent $7 billion over the last decade on war
toys to be used on America’s
streets. (There is no reason why those grants might not be eventually offered
for domestic drones as well. Boston
police commissioner Edward F. Davis has already suggested the city increase the
number of surveillance cameras in the city, and have drones patrol next
year’s marathon.)
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not 9/11 that militarized police. The march
towards cops who look and behave like soldiers occupying a hostile country
started in the 80s. Richard Nixon declared war on drugs but it wasn’t until
Ronald Reagan that it was decided that the conflict should involve real
weapons of war. In the past 11 years, terrorism has been the excuse for all
manner of police and security state maneuvering, but it’s all part of the same
drive towards giving law enforcement broader powers—supposed terrorism-fighting
tools like “sneak and peek warrants” are used today to go after drug offenders.
Contrast the above linked video of the Boston
house being searched with this footage from a 2008 Columbia,
Missouri, marijuana raid. It stars cops
busting down a family’s door in the dark, launching five potentially lethal
flash-bang grenades, and fatally shooting a pet dog. Or how about this video
from 2010, of a Utah SWAT team fatally shooting golf club-armed homeowner Todd
Blair five seconds after kicking in his
door? (They were searching for Blair’s allegedly drug-dealing roommate.)
Unsurprisingly, some recipients of these types of raids believe they are being
robbed. That impression can prove deadly for cops or homeowners.
Those who are confident that the cops did the right thing in Boston
are allowed their opinions. But they must remember that SWAT teams are not kept
behind a glass that says “break in case of terrorism.” Heavily-armed cops are
present at G-20 summits and political conventions; they are employed to look
for immigrants or raid places where cockfighting or gambling is suspected
of going on. And in spite of rumors of the drug war’s demise, cops are
still looking fighting that war. The tired phrase “new normal” absolutely
applies to the officers seen in the streets (and on the roofs) of Boston
in the last week. And if America
is always on high alert, always ready to send militarized police after any
enemy, then what happened in Boston
wasn’t an aberration; it was a look at law enforcement’s new face.
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