More paramilitary raids on poker games, in Georgia this month, and in North Carolina last month.

The latter included a small army of police officers from several police agencies, including the federal BATF and the National Guard. They even brought a damned helicopter. They issued 41 citations, all of them misdemeanors.

Police in Cary, North Carolina gave the same excuse for the show of force that the cops in Dallas gave when they sent out the SWAT teams to raid poker games in that city: While not prone to violence themselves, poker rooms are often robbed. Therefore, they have sometimes have armed guards. Therefore, police have to use overwhelming force.

I don’t know that it’s true that poker games are regularly knocked off by armed bandits. Nor are they particularly dangerous. I’ve been to a couple. And I’ve gotten email from people who were at games that were raided in Dallas. These games are frequented by poker enthusiasts, not mobsters. I suspect the local authorities may have been watching too much Sopranos

But even if the theory is true, the show of force doesn’t make a lick of sense. Let’s assume the game does have armed guards. Put yourself in the guards’ position. You’ve been hired to make sure a black market poker game doesn’t get knocked off by armed intruders. Under which scenario are you more likely to use your gun: (A) Several uniformed cops knock on the door, identify themselves, come into the room, and break up the game, or, (B) several men dressed in black or camouflage and packing heat storm the place without warning, screaming and shouting obscenities?

The SWAT fetishists will tell you that SWAT is still the safer option, because the overwhelming force disables the guards before they can react. I say that’s wishful thinking. Ask Edward Reed, who was working security at a Virginia Beach club raided by the local SWAT team serving a gambling warrant. Oops. You can’t ask him. He’s dead. His last words, directed at the SWAT team, were, “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book.” And of course, there’s Sal Culosi, also the dead victim of the local police department’s policy of serving a gambling warrant with the SWAT team.

This editorial writer at the Fayetteville Observer gets to the grist of the issue, while smothering it with a couple gravy ladles of folksy wisdom:

Should the U.S. Department of Defense throw its great bulk into local law enforcement operations meant to bring people to justice for civil misdemeanors that might net them a fine and, maybe, 60 days in jail?

[...]

Maybe you already know all about the National Guard Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection program. I didn’t. So, after breaking my nails on a few bureaucratic walls (Cary PD, governor’s office, Crime Control and Public Safety, Alcohol Law Enforcement), I Googled it and quickly discovered that it’s all over the place — spotting marijuana from the air, interacting with kids at school, routine law enforcement stuff. Problem is, it’s not a law enforcement agency. It’s the military.

[...]

They were there to play cards, not to foment rebellion. Now, what was it about this operation that demanded backup not only from the state Bureau of Alcohol Law Enforcement and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but also from the U.S. military? Ahem: What did the warrants say?

It’s only a guess, but I’d say Cary called for National Guard RAID simply because it’s available and it’s willing. Which leaves me wondering what other minutiae, personal vices and petty crimes are occupying its time, and where they’re occupying it. Coulda sworn somebody told me there’s a war on.

Until we get this sorted out, better not jaywalk. There could be a military helicopter overhead.

Hey, it could be worse. In Britain, they’re considering sending cops into people’s homes for unpaid parking tickets.

Government Bytes reports that that will be the theme of Bob Dylan’s XM Radio show this week. Air times here.

I don’t know that his replacement will be any better, but Fairfaix County Prosecutor Robert Horan is apparently retiring.

So I’m watching Dennis Miller’s new HBO special. And you know, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but frankly, the more partisan the guy gets, the less funny he gets. September 11 didn’t kill irony, but it does appear to have killed Dennis Miller’s sense of humor. His career has basically been a mirror image of Bill Maher’s. Both of them were funnier when they were fuck-all cynics. Now they’re party hacks who occasionally tell jokes. Blah.

Sweet.

I damned Rep. Mark Souder.

So depending on when you want to mark it, the five-year anniversary of this site was either in February, March, or yesterday.

In any case, thanks for reading. The first month we started keeping track I was getting 600-700 visits per day. Lately, it’s been 10,000-12,000.

You keep reading. I’ll keep making bad jokes and reporting stories that either make your blood boil, or get you terrifically depressed.

Deal?

So this is going to sound a little weird, but what the hell.

My girlfriend is in South America until the end of the summer. And my current subletter is leaving at the end of this month. So I have a room to rent for about three months. May through the end of July, or the end of August if need be. I’ll be gone for about a month, so you’ll have the place to yourself for most of May and part of June. No parties.

I figure it might not be a bad idea to advertise here because it’s an ideal housing situation for any interns coming to D.C. for the summer. And I know a good number of young libertarian/free market types read this site. I live in Del Ray, a trendy little section of Alexandria, about 2.5 miles outside of D.C.

If you’re interested, drop me a line at the email address to your left.