Mass. SWAT teams claim they’re private companies and don’t have to tell you anything

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/26/mass-swat-teams-claim-theyre-private-companies-and-dont-have-to-tell-you-anything/



Mass. SWAT teams claim they’re private companies and don’t have to tell you anything
By Travis Gettys
Thursday, June 26, 2014 14:56 EDT

After the ACLU sent open records requests as part of its investigative report on police militarization, SWAT teams in Massachusetts claimed they were exempt because they were private corporations.

Some SWAT teams in the state operate as law enforcement councils, or LECs, which are funded by several police departments and overseen by an executive board largely made up of local police chiefs.

Member police departments pay annual membership dues to the LECs, which share technology and oversee crime scene investigators or other specialists.

~snip~

“Let’s be clear,” wrote Radley Balko for The Washington Post. “These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure, and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because they’ve incorporated, they’re immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The state’s residents aren’t permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they’re used for, what sort of training they get or who they’re primarily used against.”

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Wtf?

And we the citizens are not privy to this, had no say in it? Phone calls today.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. And what kind of activity might they not want to divulge...?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Cops in Mass are incredibly well behaved

For example, we have the lowest rate of pot busts in the country, by far, because cops have a policy of ignoring pot laws - they don't want to mess up people's lives over something that stupid. Boston was the only Occupy that ended with a negotiated settlement instead of Occupiers being carted off. And so forth.

I suspect that this "we don't have to answer your stinkin' questions" thing will get cleared up shortly.

[WinkyDink]

6. Not exactly the point.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. I was addressing the photos of awful things

That are very, very unlikely to happen in Massachusetts, and I also,addressed the issue (i.e, this refusal will likely get turned around quickly.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Cops may be,yes, but there are still many folks concerned with incidents like the Watertown

house to house searches, and SWAT drug raids...

Here is the ACLU report:

https://www.aclu.org/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-policing

[MannyGoldstein]

9. I lived about a mile from the Watertown incident when it happened

I've not heard anything but praise from the locals. As scary as they looked, the cops were relaxed and polite (except when they got the guy).

i'm glad that the ACLU is doing what it's doing, and hope they get the records they want. I just feel bad when Mass cops get lumped in with the bad cops of that abound these days.

[cprise]

12. Seems they've decided a change of priorities was in order. n/t

[FailureToCommunicate]

21. I'm not trying to say MA cops are bad, or as bad as SWAT teams nationwide, which this ACLU report

looks into. It is disturbing, however nice(er) they may seem, that SWAT teams in MA refused to answer the ACLU for the reasons they stated.

You are correct to say that MA police units received praise for their handling of most of the manhunt. However, not everyone would say the police or especially SWAT teams were particularly "relaxed" or especially "polite" (That is my brother's apartment building in the picture above)

It was an extaordinary event requiring a big amount of cooperation by the otherwise quiet neighborhoods they searched. We're all glad it turned out pretty well...

[MannyGoldstein]

22. I agree that it's disturbing.

I'm sure it'll get rectified promptly. Stupid stuff doesn't stay stupid for long here, in all but a few cases.

Is your brother's building in the top or bottom photo? We used to live in Newton Corner on the brighton line, by Oak Square. We moved last summer across town to West Newton/Newtonville.

[bananas]

23. only 7% of SWAT missions are actual SWAT missions, 62% are drug searches

Last paragraphs in the OP:

“NEMLEC can’t have it both ways,” said ACLU attorney Jessie Rossman. “Either it is a public entity subject to public records laws, or what it is doing is illegal.”

The ACLU survey found that only 7 percent of SWAT missions involved incidents they were originally designed to handle – such as hostage situations or shootings – while 62 percent of their mission involved drug searches.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Radley Balko

I know that name.

Darryl Howard and the rampaging prosecutor: Durham learns little from Duke lacrosse debacle

[blackspade]

5. So they are mercenaries no better than Blackwater.....

And just as 'legitimate?'

Sorry, they can't have it both ways.

[handmade34]

10. hence the need

for less privatization, not more...

[Ed Suspicious]

11. Fuck off and die from a baby throwing the grenade

back at you.

[valerief]

14. That could happen in Mass. if the "Georgia cop mentality" creeps in. nt

[90-percent]

20. Speaking of Georgia cops

I visited my sister there recently in the Atlanta region. I was told about a girl in her office that got pulled over for a D.U.I. and blew 0.0 on the breathalyser. ZERO-POINT-ZERO

She was prosecuted for D.U.I. anyway, and it ended up costing her about $10,000 to go to Court and clear it up.

Nice justice yawl got down there in Georgia.

-90% Jimmy

[MynameisBlarney]

13. Basically, they just admitted that they're fascists

This shit is getting out of hand, fast.

[Purrfessor]

15. If they are private companies, strip them of all their taxpayer funded benefits...

including their health insurance and pensions.

[Ed Suspicious]

19. Still unacceptable. I do not want the right to deprive me of my rights and take me under arrest

to be in the hands of a private, ill-regulated private entity; a tiny tyranny. No way no how.

[mopinko]

16. shit. it's one thing to pull this with the tourism council

and another with a swat team. rahm is in hot water for turning tourism over to a non-profit that just got a ruling from the ag that it doesnt have to show it's records.
but this here.....

[truebrit71]

17. So then they shouldn't be allowed to arrest anyone..

... you know, because they're private corporations and all that...

[leftyohiolib]

18. tag

[FiveGoodMen]

24. So ... tax-payer-funded armies against US?

Whose bright idea?

[NYC_SKP]

25. Kick! (nt)

[Pholus]

26. I bet they'll want to be public when the liability lawsuits roll in!

Then again, this might be the way they are planning to open the door to domestic Blackwaters....