AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: Another SWAT Raid on Poker Game
DATE: 10:33 AM
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BODY:
The latter included a small army of police officers from several police<br>agencies, including the federal BATF and the National Guard. They even<br>brought a damned helicopter. They issued 41 citations, all of them<br>misdemeanors. He also makes a very good point about the absurd excuse that<br>the police have for bursting in with a SWAT team like they&#39;re rescuing<br>hostages. They claim it&#39;s because sometimes gambling operations have armed<br>guards to prevent them from being robbed. Police in Cary, North Carolina<br>gave the same excuse for the show of force that the cops in Dallas gave when<br>they sent out the SWAT teams to raid poker games in that city: While not<br>prone to violence themselves, poker rooms are often robbed. Therefore, they<br>have sometimes have armed guards. Therefore, police have to use overwhelming<br>force. I don&#39;t know that it&#39;s true that poker games are regularly knocked<br>off by armed bandits. Nor are they particularly dangerous. I&#39;ve been to a<br>couple. And I&#39;ve gotten email from people who were at games that were raided<br>in Dallas. These games are frequented by poker enthusiasts, not mobsters. I<br>suspect the local authorities may have been watching too much Sopranos But<br>even if the theory is true, the show of force doesn&#39;t make a lick of sense.<br>Let&#39;s assume the game does have armed guards. Put yourself in the guards&#39;<br>position. You&#39;ve been hired to make sure a black market poker game doesn&#39;t<br>get knocked off by armed intruders. Under which scenario are you more likely<br>to use your gun: (A) Several uniformed cops knock on the door, identify<br>themselves, come into the room, and break up the game, or, (B) several men<br>dressed in black or camouflage and packing heat storm the place without<br>warning, screaming and shouting obscenities? The SWAT fetishists will tell<br>you that SWAT is still the safer option, because the overwhelming force<br>disables the guards before they can react. I say that&#39;s wishful thinking.<br>Ask Edward Reed, who was working security at a Virginia Beach club raided by<br>the local SWAT team serving a gambling warrant. Oops. You can&#39;t ask him.<br>He&#39;s dead. His last words, directed at the SWAT team, were, &quot;Why did you<br>shoot me? I was reading a book.&quot; And of course, there&#39;s Sal Culosi, also the<br>dead victim of the local police department&#39;s policy of serving a gambling<br>warrant with the SWAT team.
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