What the Heck was I Thinking!?

In looking over the comments from readers of the BlackFive blog, I saw that Radley Balko got involved in the discussion.

One of his comments:

So to answer your question, casualties of war are regrettable, but acceptable. Casualties of the “war on drugs” are neither.

reminds me of the argument against gun ownership…If outlawing guns saved only one life, it would be worth it.

As Thomas Sowell put it:

There will be no rational discussion of gun control until both sides acknowledge that guns both cost lives and save lives, so that the issue boils down to the net effect.

The same argument applies to the SWAT teams - they both can cost lives and save lives. How many and what kind are the questions.

That’s my problem with the study. The data doesn’t support the claim of widespread abuse or erroneous use of SWAT resources. The number of fatal instances in the attendant map listed only 293 wrongful deaths over the course of nearly 21 years nationwide. That’s a very low rate of death.

Mr. Balko’s absolutist comments indicate that he hasn’t put the data into perspective.

Innocent people shouldn’t die to preserve police tactics. When police tactics are causing innocent people to die, the tactics need to change.

When the same police tactics are also protecting innocent people (i.e., the police SWAT officers and non-SWAT patrol force) there has to be a balancing of the “cost” in human lives and the “benefit” in human lives. The number of officers killed in the line of duty nationwide averages about 150 per year. Interestingly, according to the Wikipedia entry, SWAT was formed in the late 1960s in response to changing criminal tactics. The highest death toll for police occured in 1974 with 253 killed. nearly the same number as the entire study period of Mr Balko’s paper.

I was on Blackfive, a very interesting mil blog site. Unfortunately what caught my eye was another posting about Radley Balko’s article on the militarization of police forces. I’ve copied my comments there below:

I saw this article from an Instapundit link. I checked into the stats and blogged about it at my site:
http://response39.blogsome.com/2006/07/19/instapunditcom-just-the-facts-maam/

The data aren’t that alarming. To quote myself,

“At first, this looks just as bad as the claims in the article. Then I looked at the numbers:

“These 293 results represent
The state of: All
For the year: All
And the following type of incident: All”

The All years must cover back to 1985, the earliest year that can be queried.”

In youre response to “The New Guy” you state, “I am with you new guy and in the cases where you pulled those large bunches of ugly stuff, you most likely knew you were dealing with serious bad guys. Far too many of these cases involve, folks who counld not reasonably be considered dangerous, and I still hold to my belief that dynamic entry is an absloute last resort.

A little cunning and trickeration should yield an easier way to do this than actually busting in the doors.”

I have to say that you’ve fallen into the trap of post-event prediction. Just because of all those rights guaranteed (see Balko’s response above), the police cannot have even very good intelligence on what the suspect has or might have. The cops have seen everything including body armor and a tank in the commission of crimes!

I don’t quarrel with your “more training” mantra - everyone who has the ability and may have the requirement to save or end lives (including other first responders) needs as much training as possible. I think it’s a slam to say that the SWATs use these real events as “live training” anymore than it would be to say that all combat is simply live fire exercises with rude people. Lessons learned? You bet. Just like practice? That’s just the pep talk before the deployment.

Over at Wizbang, Paul posts (
Saddam Steals Democrats’ Play Book - Or is it Vice Versa? - Wizbang ) about a recent letter written by Saddam Hussein.

One choice phrase Paul uses popped out at me:

Why is it Democrats always agree with murderous dictators?

It puts me to mind of the statements by P.J. O’Rourke about the Democrat party opposing capital punishment and supporting birth control.

A little hypocracy adds spice to a conversation. A whole plate of it makes you want to barf!