War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

06/01/2014 Reports & Briefs

By ACLU & Campaign Zero

Report: Across the country, heavily armed Special Weapons
and Tactics (SWAT) teams are forcing their way into
people’s homes in the middle of the night, often deploying
explosive devices such as flashbang grenades to temporarily
blind and deafen residents, simply to serve a search warrant
on the suspicion that someone may be in possession of
a small amount of drugs. Neighborhoods are not war
zones, and our police officers should not be treating us
like wartime enemies. However, the ACLU encountered
this type of story over and over when studying the
militarization of state and local law enforcement agencies.