They Send SWAT for Just About Everything These Days

One of the most insidious and undeniable signs of our encroaching police state, is the increasingly popular usage of SWAT teams by numerous police departments across America. In recent years, SWAT teams have been used for everything from busting petty drug users, to wellness checks of all things. Considering that these cops are trained to be ferocious and lethal, one must question the wisdom of using them for these situations.

But potheads aren’t the only people who should be concerned for their safety in the police state. One Philadelphia family learned this the hard way, when the police raided their home on Sunday. Their crime? Insurance and Welfare fraud. They had apparently swindled the state out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. One anonymous witness spoke to the local news, saying “All of a sudden I saw a couple vans and all, maybe about 20 or 15 SWAT team came out and they ran up the driveway. I parked to the side and all of a sudden they said, ‘Open the door,’ and there was nothing – and they hit it with the battering ram, they went in and they proceeded to come out within five or ten minutes.”

While they deserve no sympathy for this crime, was SWAT really necessary to detain them? After all, welfare fraud is rarely synonymous with violent criminals. Do these people really deserve to have their lives threatened for the crime of stealing from the state?