Metrocons and SWAT

The online presense of the metrocon fortnightly is noticing that there are way too many SWAT teams out there squaring off against non violent offenders or suspects.

If you are gonna arrest someone with a clean record for clamming next to navigable waterways you probably don't need to send the full breaching team with sniper overwatch on the run.  But hell, you paid them to do all that trainig and get all that equipment, might as well use em.  The family Corgi isn't gonna shoot itself.

Money quotes:

"Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was “visited” by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud."

and

"The year before the raid on Wright, a SWAT team from the Food and Drug Administration raided the farm of Dan Allgyer of Lancaster, Pa. His crime was shipping unpasteurized milk across state lines to a cooperative of young women with children in Washington, D.C., called Grass Fed on the Hill. Raw milk can be sold in Pennsylvania, but it is illegal to transport it across state lines. The raid forced Allgyer to close down his business."

Do you need a SWAT team for those, or a single officer in a black and white? Maybe 2 officers?  Think of the saving in gasoline, alone.

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Then there is this guy.  Dunno if he was SWATted for that, tho.  For a Twitter parody account.

And don't forget this one.  Gibson Guitars.