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Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They're Private Corporations, Immune To Oversight
New submitter thermowax sends a report on how Massachusetts SWAT teams are dodging open records requests by claiming to be corporations. From the article:
As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments. ... Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And it's here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they're private corporations, not government agencies. And therefore, they say they're immune from open records requests. Let's be clear. These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because they've incorporated, they're immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The state's residents aren't permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they're used for, what sort of training they get or who they're primarily used against.
Well, no, libertarians in the current erra are against 3rd party public oversight of initiated violence. Private violence between free citizens is fine, and if one citizen can afford more violence then another, well, that other one should have worked harder. But since they are poor rather then middle class, if they pool their resources to protect themselves that is communism, so they should just get under the umbrella of some maker and try not to leach off them in order to be protected.
You must be true libertarian - your post really sounds all peace-loving. Don't forget to clean spittle from screen.
Just a reminder, that Massachusetts is among the most Illiberals states of the Union these days. Dukakis, Kerry — failed Democratic presidential nominees — hail from here. Ted Kennedy kept his Senate seat despite being responsible for a girl's death due to his drunk-driving (and leaving the scene of the accident). He abandoned his national ambitions after that, but remained popular in Massachusetts — and a shoe-in Senatorial candidate until his death.
Likewise, Barney Frank remained popular despite having patronized a (male) prostitute (nominally — a crime in Massachusetts). It was so pathetic, the man remained a prostitute even after moving-in with Barney... Only the most Illiberal State would forgive such scandals to Illiberal politicians.
And if anybody needed a reminder, that Illiberalism leads to outright tyranny, well, TFA is it. Flamebait by furry tail.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Maybe you're just a deeply stupid person who hates the police, so anyone who isn't as clueless, paranoid,and maladjusted as you are appears to be what you're paranoid and fearful about.
/. user base as all the sane and smart people leave.
The fact that you've been uprated to 3, Insightful just demonstrates the dumbing down and increasing paranoia of the