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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlorida SWAT Team Steps Down, Citing 'Political Climate'
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hallandale-beach-swat-team-steps-down-citing-political-climate?ref=homeFlorida SWAT Team Steps Down, Citing Political Climate
PROTECT AND... RESIGN?
Tracy Connor
Published Jun. 12, 2020 9:43PM ET
The move comes a week after an elite unit of the Buffalo, New York, police department quit their special assignment amid public outrage that their colleagues shoved a 75-year-old peace activist to the ground and walked past him as blood pooled around his head. As The Daily Beast reported, there's concern police around the country could stage slowdown or strikes in retaliation for punishment of their fellow officers.
The Magistrate
(95,247 posts)Would do more to reduce disorder than just about any other conceivable action at present.
It would also provide cause to fire every officer participating, as most state laws forbid strikes by police.
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)Renew Deal
(81,861 posts)hatrack
(59,587 posts)So do they sell the flash-bangs, pepper spray, sound cannon, Tac-50s and the tank on EBay now?
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)it was clearly a retirement community back then. They lived in a nice, high-rise condo close to the beach, with tons of fellow residents in their 70s. A great place to visit as a kid, with the ocean right there! Is this SWAT team necessary for breaking up gambling on the shuffleboard courts?
ooky
(8,924 posts)I would think that its the beat cops that like to hassle jay walkers and people selling cigarettes that should be the one's that are getting worried enough about being held accountable for murdering people to resign.
sop
(10,193 posts)primarily made up of huge high-rise condos full of retirees and foreign-born emigres, with a population density of 9,242 residents/sq.mi, 10,101% higher than the national average. Hallandale Beach isn't exactly the place where you'd need SWAT teams. It's a rather interesting place, though.
In recent years that stretch has become known as "Moscow-by-the-Sea." Trump has six of his towers in the area, full of sketchy Russian "investors." The Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel have written numerous investigative pieces about the influx Russian (laundered mob?) money into the area, documenting the inflated prices paid to Trump, and other developers. I believe Rudy Giuliani's old pals, Parnas and Fruman, own properties in the area.
The "political climate" they're referring to might be something else entirely.
ret5hd
(20,499 posts)Youve been asked to slowdown for decades...so now youre gonna say were gonna do it...were gonna do it!
Sure you are. Why dont you threaten to hold your breath while youre at it.
TristanIsolde
(272 posts)We don't need your "services"
SpaceNeedle
(191 posts)They will give a first hand proof that all those police are not so indispensable.
Solomon
(12,311 posts)"I'm quittin' 'cause you won't let me kill black people for no reason no more".
Hav
(5,969 posts)If they have a problem with being held accountable for their own actions and they fear there'll be consequences for lynching citizens, randomly shooting up homes they've entered mistakenly and any other acts of violence against innocent people, then it's a good start that they give up some of their duties. Trying to find responsible people for these kind of jobs who aren't psychos is crucial.
And oh the horror of taking a knee. Racist fucks in a SWAT team? Thank god they resigned. Just make sure they never get back into this position.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)blew up in her face a bit when she joined civilians in public attacks on her own police SWAT team. She ran for mayor while she was still a student, so no surprise if she doesn't know just how experienced movers and shakers successfully battle entrenched interests to clean up governments.
On the bright side, grabbing this moment in history has resulted in a bit of a shakeup, and obviously that and more is needed. Guessing given today's mood and their record, the community, which is very mixed racially, will support her.
But good people are hard to come by, good procedures often developed over years of planning and opposition, and they have to be protected and made into allies while getting rid of the bad. And the mayors have to survive if they're to do their jobs. The SWAT members are still with the PD.
As The New Times Broward-Palm Beach has noted, the Hallandale Beach SWAT team "has a notorious record of raiding homes in Hallandale Beach for small amounts of drugs." Often, however, "it doesn't find any drugs at all." In 2014, the Hallandale Beach SWAT team killed 34-year-old Howard Bowe as he stood, unarmed, in his kitchen. Officers, who were executing a pre-dawn search warrant as part of a drug investigation, also killed his dog. In 2018, the city approved a $425,000 settlement with Bowe's family. No officers involved in the raid were ever convicted of a crime, though eyewitnesses claim they failed to announce themselves before entering Bowe's residence.
https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-swat-resigns-criticism-from-22-year-old-vice-mayor-2020-6
Sunsky
(1,737 posts)Similarly, I wouldn't blame the mayor of Buffalo.
They are just not willing to change their tactics to fit the societal anti-police brutality climate. They are not willing to stop mistreating the citizens especially minorities, so now they're playing the victim while quitting. A typical abuser when the spotlight is on them will act like they're the victim.
Look at their record. The young mayor was perfectly correct to stand with her citizens against police abuse.
At least this will shed some light on what many of us Broward residents have been complaining about for years regarding police mistreatment. If they didn't throw a hissy fit and quit, their horrible record would not have been published.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)win, and she can only do that by growing her base of allies in the centers of power. Politicians are always running on being outsiders; but if they are genuine outsiders even when elected inside, they fail and end up outside again.
Btw, governments that reform their PDs tend to hire most, or even all, of the same officers right back and retrain them to function in a new culture. Nothing to be gained by offending and even injuring the good ones who want that, assigning them to the enemy by telling their families, friends, the communities they patrol that they're head-busting thugs just like the worst. And if she were the kind of person who was unable to tell or to care who should be kept, that would make her unfit for the job.
Sunsky
(1,737 posts)How about the citizens who are insulted and offended by inaction? The story reported on incidents involving this swat team. Action is required.
"The good ones", their silence is deafening. While they stay silent, we are dying on these streets. I applaud the mayor for standing with her citizens. To the "good ones"- if the facts insult you then do something to effectuate change, if you do nothing then you're a part of the problem.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I pointed out that current reform of police corruption is being ENABLED by the citizenry. Now.
As long as we don't get bored and drop it. Because even one month ago that wasn't the case.
Of course it is exactly as you say: If you do nothing then you're part of the problem. +100, Sunsky.
Every person who remained silent enabled police abuse. Above all but hardly only the officers who protected criminals in uniform because the only other choice was to be driven out of police work, leaving their communities with one less good officer.
We The People always knew it was happening. But as is always the way, when it's mostly others who are hurt electorates don't act en mass until it gets so dreadful that it has to be fixed. Evil finally come to a boil, as now.
Most Democrats thought it had in 2016. Blacks had been murdered through this century, but we'd elected a black president and thought the resistance to RW brutality and racism was growing!
Instead, too many of those now spouting -- and some of those marching -- so virtuously from "our side," directly or indirectly helped turn our nation over to the Republicans. The Republicans who actually promised and campaigned on increasing the brutality and racism! Remember? 40 million Americans sat around badmouthing Democrats and didn't even vote. Many people who voted for Obama voted against HRC. Some actually claimed great virtue in refusing to vote for Democrats, the anti-brutality party! It may soothe guilt too many guilty refuse to acknowledge to pretend it's all on otherwise good cops trying to operate within bad systems WE helped create, but that doesn't work for me.
paleotn
(17,931 posts)Well....bye. I'm sure your tiny town won't miss its junior GI Joes.
Sunsky
(1,737 posts)This Broward resident (who has family living in Hallandale) says buh bye...
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)Good! Saves us the trouble of ousting their sorry asses the hard way.
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)Militarization of the police is not a good thing and has gone on long enough.
Happy Hoosier
(7,314 posts)If they cant do their job in a way that they are sure is ethically and legally defensible, the. They shouldn't be doing it.