Sunday, March 22, 2009

SWAT Gets Swatted

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A police officer was battling for his life and three more were dead after a parolee with an "extensive criminal history" opened fire at a routine traffic stop and hours later gunned down members of a SWAT team searching for him.

The two motorcycle cops were no doubt totally confident that the two of them - armed, trained, proficient - had the situation under complete control. They didn't, because they weren't pulling over a law-abiding Grandma Moses with a burnt-out taillight.

Criminally stupid judges let more and more felons out onto our streets in an endless stream. Lawyers looking for fame and glory get killers off on a technicality. The government allows drug gangs to wander freely across our borders and into our nation. Our politicians and our business elites turn out to be nothing more than plunderers and thieves. The average guy - watching all this criminality at all levels, grows more angry, and thus more dangerous, closer to the line, closer to snapping.

It is not surprising that the United States grows more deadly every day.

I have always been prepared for the reality that these SWAT teams are not what we think they are, that when they finally run into somebody ready for them, they're going to get mowed down. They've always been great at surrounding and eliminating some drug-crazed or drunk dude armed with a kitchen knife or a .22 rifle, but they are no more ready for some real opposition than the meter lady is.

Sure,they get fancy military training and equipment, get to wear black clothing and masks - all that macho-dude stuff - but they are no way way ready for some real opposition. They are - in reality - just more 8-to-5 cops - playing at being the roughest and toughest dudes on the planet. They no doubt can cow the average citizen, keep total control of an average situation, keep the lid on the average mob. But they are not prepared for real conflict, for someone ready to take them on.

This cop-killer had no training, no tactics, no real plan. He just holed up with a semi-automatic rifle(AK-47, civilian variety), knowing they were coming... and they walked right into him.

Perhaps Obama, regardless of all his faults and failings, actually understands this. Maybe that's why he wants a civilian security force that is as well equipped and trained as the U.S. military.

Perhaps Obama knows better than most of us what is coming.

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