Yes, the picture to your left is from Buffalo, New York. Not Iraq. Or some third world junta-dictatorship. And the series of raids form which the photo was taken didn’t target kingpins or cartels, but “street-level” dealers, mostly for marijuana. From the Buffalo News:

A loud “flash bang” concussion device is detonated inside a Kensington Avenue house as Buffalo Police SWAT officers, clad in black armor and brandishing automatic assault rifles, storm a lower apartment.

“Buffalo Police. Search warrant. Buffalo Police,” the officers yell to the now temporarily stunned occupants inside.

Within seconds, there are multiple shotgun blasts. At the same instant, another officer cradles a 1-year-old boy out the front door and down a flight of steps to safety.

When the smoke clears, three large pit bull terriers lay dead, in pools of their own coagulated blood. Five people are in handcuffs. They’re among the latest of the 78 people arrested on drug charges during a three-day crackdown on narcotics sales across the city.

Note the artfully written third paragraph. Police “rescued” the boy, they didn’t endanger him by tossing a flashbang and firing weapons into the home he was in in the first place.

“We are declaring war on street-level drug dealing,” said Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson as he drove a Buffalo News reporter to the site of a raid Thursday.

“The reason for the secrecy is that we didn’t want the drug dealers to know that we were coming,” he added. “This has put a dent in the drug trade, put some operations out of business and addressed the fears of some of the residents. These residents are glad to see us taking action against drug dealers.”

It’ll be interesting to see how many of the 78 people arrested actually get charged and convicted. From the 38 SWAT raids, police seized a total of five guns, not exacty a data point in support of the argument that SWAT teams are necessary because drug dealers are overwhelmingly armed with high-powered weaponry.

Also, given that police seized a grand total six pounds of marijuana and seven ounces of crack in the entire operation, it’s probably a bit of a stretch to say the raids “put a dent” in the Buffalo drug trade. I’d imagine you’d find that much weed in a single SUNY-Buffalo frat house.

Bringing the media along for the ride was a nice touch, though.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 9:51 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.