The victims often are poor, or non-white, or both. Or -- worse yet -- they are criminal suspects, who generally generate little sympathy, even when they are abused.
And while they were originally created to handle very special problems -- terrorist incidents, hostage situations, and the like -- there just aren't that many of those. As a result the use of SWAT has seen "mission creep," where SWAT teams are now routinely called out to serve search warrants, particularly in drug cases. In 1980, 2,884 SWAT deployments were recorded nationwide; the number today is estimated by experts at 50,000 annually or more.
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At least two people are dead in an apparent mass shooting at an indoor ice rink...
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time...
Robert Duvall, the Academy Award-winning actor known for his roles in Hollywood classics such as "The...
