I haven’t seen it, but apparently Court TV is running another reality show about SWAT teams in Texas. A reader wrote yesterday with the following summation:

In case you haven’t had a chance to see Texas Swat on Court TV, it pretty much confirms everything you’ve been blogging about. Here are some scenes from tonight:

Scene:warrant on drug dealer who supposedly has an assault rifle. Door kicked open, then, shouts of “police, police!”

No sign of the assault rifle.

Interview with the suspect, “Campo:”

“It was ugly because I just heard, I just heard something loud, like a gunshot, so I thought one of my boys had got shot, I didn’t know it was the law. I just see people come in with ski masks and all that to my room. I didn’t know if I’m getting jacked or I’m gonna get shot or what’s going to happen.”

Somehow, they take that as evidence they are doing the right thing?

Next bust: Female drug dealer.

About 20 officers, no knock, no yelling, flash grenade through the window, use of truck to rip open the front door. No shouts of “police” through the entire operation.

Interview with swat officer:

“Man this is what we live for, you could see the smiles and the excitement on the way over here.”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 5:50 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.