![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneWords fail me at how wrong this is. The basic concept I like: small law enforcement agencies don't have the resources to have a computer crime unit, a SWAT team, etc., so they pool funds so they can participate in a regional organization that gives them access to resources that they couldn't otherwise afford. I have no problem with that. But now these regional groups have been incorporated as 501(C)(3)'s and claim that as private corporations, they're immune to public records requests.
Even though they're funded by publicly-funded organizations. Even though they carry badges and guns, and the badges are backed by the state government.
The ACLU has been doing a series of investigations in to the militarization of law enforcement, and state chapters have been doing lots of FOIA requests to find out what they're doing with the hardware that they're buying from Homeland Security grants. And they're doing shit like this.
They can kick in your door in the middle of the night. They can throw flashbang grenades around and burn down an apartment complex, or burn a hole in an infant's chest. They can mistakenly or clumsily kill innocent people.
Aren't there laws about government forming private corporations? Shouldn't anyone in that state be able to form a private corporation to provide a for-hire SWAT team? If they are a private corporation, they should have no shields against law suits when they botch a raid, which happens with alarming frequency. The stories mentioned in this article are nothing less than horrific.
I'm SO GLAD that I don't live in Massachusetts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/26/massachusetts-swat-teams-claim-theyre-private-corporations-immune-from-open-records-laws/?tid=pm_pop
Even though they're funded by publicly-funded organizations. Even though they carry badges and guns, and the badges are backed by the state government.
The ACLU has been doing a series of investigations in to the militarization of law enforcement, and state chapters have been doing lots of FOIA requests to find out what they're doing with the hardware that they're buying from Homeland Security grants. And they're doing shit like this.
They can kick in your door in the middle of the night. They can throw flashbang grenades around and burn down an apartment complex, or burn a hole in an infant's chest. They can mistakenly or clumsily kill innocent people.
Aren't there laws about government forming private corporations? Shouldn't anyone in that state be able to form a private corporation to provide a for-hire SWAT team? If they are a private corporation, they should have no shields against law suits when they botch a raid, which happens with alarming frequency. The stories mentioned in this article are nothing less than horrific.
I'm SO GLAD that I don't live in Massachusetts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/26/massachusetts-swat-teams-claim-theyre-private-corporations-immune-from-open-records-laws/?tid=pm_pop
