Do you watch 'Dallas SWAT'?

You should read this:
Our Militarized Police Departments


The Kathryn Johnson incident is only the latest and most outrageous.. the most famous or notorious is that of Cory Maye, who shot and killed cops, mistaking them for thugs breaking into his house.

I dont necessarily agree with Balko on everything he writes, but the news is too full of these misidentified targets.

Cops say that the facts he cites are wrong on the one hand and a small percentage of raids carried out, on the other... but the point of it is that it's unnecessary to have ANY mistaken identities.

I remember the first time I saw 'Cops'. I was horrified. Not at the risks of the job, but at the full portrayal of the actual take-downs when a perp was apprehended. We who have been around know how it's done and how it has to be done but it's different seeing it on-air.

Now that is less a factor in the show, the edit no doubt leaves out a lot of the more brutal looking stuff.

And we know what sort of person it takes to make a good tough cop. Think about it.

How much more so a SWAT team?

It is the adrenaline rush, along with poor planning and verification of the details for the warrants, that results in so many of the mistaken killings... both of police and civilians.

We need people to take cop jobs, but we dont need this