The answer would be eight (via Climate Depot
(Alaska Dispatch) When agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor and jackets emblazoned with POLICE in big, bold letters, local placer miners didn’t quite know what to think.
Did it really take eight armed men and a squad-size display of paramilitary force to check for dirty water? Some of the miners, who run small businesses, say they felt intimidated.
Others wonder if the actions of the agents put everyone at risk. When your family business involves collecting gold far from nowhere, unusual behavior can be taken as a sign someone might be trying to stage a robbery. How is a remote placer miner to know the people in the jackets saying POLICE really are police?
Miners suggest it might have been better all around if officials had just shown up at the door — as they used to do — and said they wanted to check the water.
In case you were wondering, the Environmental Protection Agency was involved
The EPA has refused to publicly explain why it used armed officers as part of what it called a “multi-jurisdictional†investigation of possible Clean Water Act violations in the area.
A conference call was held last week to address the investigation. On the line were members of the Alaska Congressional delegation, their staff, state officers, and the EPA. According to one Senate staffer, the federal agency said it decided to send in the task force armed and wearing body armor because of information it received from the Alaska State Troopers about “rampant drug and human trafficking going on in the area.â€
There was apparently some concern over drug smuggling and human trafficking, which absolutely no-one is buying. And only one person was a compliance officer meant to check the water quality.
This is a case study for a larger problem infecting law enforcement at all levels since 9/11. I call it the DHSification of America. Creating the Soviet sounding bastard agency legitimized the idea of wielding tyrannical surveillance systems and overwhelming armed force domestically. One side effect has been the distribution of SWAT-like gear and jugheads into all kinds of undeserving gub’ment agencies. My father has a great observation on this point. He’s a retired police detective sergeant. He says when he was active he and his guys would kick down the doors themselves wearing sport jackets. Now the detectives routinely call in SWAT to kick down the doors wearing body armor and all the rest. When the door is kicked down, SWAT goes home and the sport jackets walk through the doorway to make the arrest.
It used to be taht doors were not kicked down. It is a warrant to search for evidence of a crime, not an aurthorization for distructiojn. It certainly wasn’t the liberals who went along with the WAR ON DRUGS now WAR ON TERRORISM.
Alaska has a huge problem wityh drugs always has always will. Meth is the choice of miners ( I spent 9 months in the 80s in AK with my 5 inch dredge) and now human traficking also is a big problem. A simple google search would show that.
You may not have seen that part of AK in “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on TV
http://articles.ktuu.com/2013-02-21/alaska-native_37228038
And Teach GUNZ??? aren’t they good? Shouldn’t really just about everyone carry one? especially you know when they are in areas where BEARS might be? What is your problem with Americans carrying GUNZ
To be perfectly clear, my father always had a warrant in his pocket when door kicking time came around. Not sure what to make of the rest of this rant, except to ask what gave you the idea I have a problem with Americans carrying GUNZ”
drugs and hookers in a mining camp town ??/ why that would be UNHEARD of
I am glad you made the point on guns, john. I agree, the SWAT team has to go in as many bad people have guns. Thus, why do you want to take guns away from law abiding citizens? That would expose us to the bad guys without protection, like our cops have. And if you think cops protect you, then you definitely have a screw loose. As to the war on drugs, most conservatives feel this is wrong. In fact, progressives were the ones that made drugs illegal, back in 1913. Check it out. Conservatives want the ability to treat ourselves and see no point in government controlled medical care (I am a doc). As to recreational drugs, let it happen, Darwin’s Law.
It may not be unheard of john, but in this case, local LEO’s knew nothing about drugs and human trafficking, no evidence was found of those activites.
Furthermore, what does the EPA have to do with drugs or trafficking? That is outside of their jurisdiction.
You live in a world where morals do not exist, logic does not exist and lies told by libetals are accepted.
Agreed. If this was a water quality issue, then it should have been handled by the local or state authorities. EPA has too much authority and now too much weaponry.
But, as we have seen, the LEOs can make up any excuse to justify their overwhelming use of force. “we got a tip about X”. You know they’re lies when the case itself is about checking water.
This is just another case of FEDS being outside their constitutional jurisdiction and way outside their bounds on law enforcement. The state should be the first to have stopped the FEDS in an issue like this. Unfortunately, many states are now subservient to FED control.
Unfortunately this is the ‘NEW” Law enforcement. It is all about intimidation of people, About making people FEAR the government and not about anything else.
Here is another story of swat team over kill:
“A SWAT team broke through the gates of a small Arlington, Texas farm and led a massive 10-hour search of the property. The residents were handcuffed and held at gunpoint while they watched more than 10 tons of their property hauled off in trucks.
What dangerous contraband required this massive governmental response? It wasn’t illegal explosives, stolen vehicles or drugs, but rather organic blackberry bushes, okra plants, and sunflowers.
The Garden of Eden is a 3.5-acre farm that promotes a sustainable lifestyle. Back in February, Arlington started complaining about possible city code violations. Officials said that the grass was too tall, bushes were too close to the street, and chopped wood wasn’t stacked in a government-approved manner….
…they had corrected some of the issues and challenged others, requesting meetings with the city… the government responded with the SWAT raid….The search warrant, signed the day before the raid, gave police the pretext to enforce the city’s “code violations†on private property.
….”They destroyed everything.” She said that officers shielded their nametags so they couldn’t be identified and didn’t produce a warrant until two hours after the raid started. …”
This is the real killer:
“City of Arlington spokeswoman Sana Syed said the raid was perfectly legal and appropriate. “The purpose was to improve the quality of life, to resolve safety issues within neighborhoods and to hold the property owner responsible for creating blight conditions on their property,” http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/joncgabriel/swat-team-raids-texas-organic-farm
So now we can expect a SWAT team if our neighbors complain we didn’t mow the grass short enough or stack our fire wood in the correct pattern??
And yes John, The Shrub started it but Obummer up the ante. This is always the pattern. Bush started pushing WTO and NAFTA and Clinton clinched the deal. Result? The top one percent became even more wealthy while Americans lost jobs. Clinton even revised how unemployment is calculated to hid the high number of long term unemployed. Unemployment is 22% ===> 23% (See John Williams Shadowstat for clinton’s betrayal and the stats.)
Pleas read America’s Ruling Class
Don’t forget the armed law enforcement that came to kill bambi up in Wisconsin.
Dont forget the armed swat team from dept of education on the EX- of the lady who had not paid her student loans in a while. Put him in handcuffs and scared his daughter to death. for student loans? for checking dirty water? for bushes?
How about the many dogs that are shot and killed for little to no reason? How about the many people that are shot, or their homes ruined due to SWATting the wrong home?
And we still have people’s rights violated near the border while the illegals have been given more rights than we citizens.
Tactical Cops = The guys who want to wear all the cool tactical gear and carry M4’s without the hassle of actually growing a pair and enlisting in a branch of the Service. Life must be great when you only wear the gear for the duration of a “raid”, and not have to hump 8-9 hours on a patrol fighting, you know, real bad guys…
@Gail COmbs, @Wonderful_Gumballs, @Jeff … All excellent points demonstrating those of us in favor of the rule of law will find ourselves more and more in direct conflict with badged yahoos running wild in the so-called law enforcement “community.” And make no mistake, the trend is due to Leftist ideas about the supremacy of the state … and Geo. W. Bush was also prone to falling prey to this obnoxious mentality post 9-11.