SWAT the f*ck?

For those of you who have not yet seen the video of the SWAT home invasion of a Missouri family, please watch this and then read on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc

We have all either said it or heard someone say it before, "Cops have a tough job. It is very dangerous. They never know when it might be their last day alive. They deal with the dregs of society." Of course, you might also say, "The family shouldn't have had drugs in their house. That's what happens when you break the law. There's probably something that you didn't see in the footage." I find this to be an inexcusable use of force, period.

I do not know what happened to society-at-large which has rendered our collective ass to that of complacent, bleating sheep; a society which will try to make excuses for this travesty or who will dismiss it as an unfortunate event far from home and quite soon forget about it. I have my ideas about where things went wrong with us, but I'll save that for another post. The cases of police brutality, excessive use of force, and the militarization of our police force are so rampant and the responses to these perversions of Liberty are ceremonial at best. Why do we have such a reverence for police officers? Is it because they do a job that Joe Six Pack dares not do? Is it because of their polite and courteous demeanor when interacting with the public? Or, perhaps, is it because we are afraid of them?

During my membership (and subsequent leadership position) with Oath Keepers, I received a link to a Blog which told a parable about how criminals are wolves and the citizenry are sheep and how LEOs are sheep dogs. You see, wolves have sharp teeth and they eat/scare the sheep. Sheep dogs have sharp teeth too and they scare the sheep but protect them from the wolves. This makes sense on the surface and is maybe even a cute analogy for those who lack awareness of the world around them and critical thinking skills. Far too many of these "sheep dogs" are merely wolves in sheep dog's clothing. I blame society for losing their sense of self-preservation and I blame the cops for losing their sense of honor and service to the public. These "Only Ones" (a reference to David Codrea's Blog, The War on Guns) care far more about their jack-booted brethren than they ever will about We the People.

Given that this video shows a search warrant being served and all that was found was a very small amount of marijuana for the homeowner's personal use, let's weigh out whether such actions were worth the outcome...dead dogs, permanently traumatized kids and grossly mistreated citizens VS a misdemeanor marijuana bust. Must I go any further? So herein lies the problem: in a perfect world, the police would have announced that they had a warrant to search the premises and the homeowner would have courteously obliged; this, however is not a perfect world and that is not what happened. The homeowner could have fought back using his own firearms (assuming he owns any). We know what would have happened had this occurred, so what is the answer to this dilemma?

Until We the People wake up out of our stupor and begin to care more about the world around us, nothing will ever change. In fact, things will continue to degenerate into an even more perfect replica of an Orwellian 1984. I, for one, will never tolerate such treatment. Any warrants served to me will be regarded with the level of respect shown to me; I am no threat unless I am being threatened, in which case I will respond with unbridled fury and I have guns too. If I am allowed to retain my dignity and I am being treated with respect, I will certainly peacefully cooperate...assuming that there is a valid warrant specifically detailing what is being searched for.