Breaking news, we're getting more American imports, this time a SWAT team to tackle violent crime. And in related news, the Premier says "We've had enough".
Where've you been? The Vineyard? Welcome back.
Here's my 3 point plan:
1) Pay the police what they were awarded.
2) Turn on the CCTV cameras.
3) Forget SWAT. (Don't we already have an Emergency Response Team anyway?).
As usual they're late to the party and respond with - if I may borrow a phrase from some of Senator Burch's pre-election attack the UBP's tough on crime plan language - "DRACONIAN" headline grabbing reactionary plan.
Start with the basics. Recruit good Police Officers. Pay them well. Offer them a rewarding career. Develop them well. Use the existing resources which are being developed rather than reinvent the wheel.
Sort out the judiciary. Toughen up sentencing.
Oh, and stop playing to people's fears during elections saying that the UBP are draconian, 'out to get you' and 'are neo-fascists who want to lock everyone up'. What does Senator "They're neo-fascists" Bean think?
We don't need armed street wars between police and gangs. This isn't South Central. We don't need another import from Los Angeles.
I'm all for getting tough with crime, but this feels like a typical horse has left the stable knee jerk response.
A reader had an immediate and interesting take on the development:
SWAT tactics? Is Ewart for real?I'm flabbergasted. Floored.
Ewart Brown, respected member of the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s - which its members say still exists but "inside the beltway" - is advocating SWAT tactics?
SWAT was first formed by the Los Angeles Police Department in the late 1960s in response to the 1965 Watts riots and the formation in late 66 and early 67 of the Black Panther Party in Oakland.
We now know that the LAPD instigated riots in the 1940s, numerous brutality incidents in the 1950s and the Watts and Rodney King riots.
The man who first approved Special Weapons And Tactics units was none other than Daryl (Blacks' blood vessels don't open up as quickly as normal people so that's why they die in choke holds) Gates.
Ewart Brown lived in LA for a good 20 years. He knows all about LAPD. Will someone remind the public about the PLP attack advert last December in which the UBP was attacked for being "draconian"?
And what happened to SRT? What happened on Monday? Was SRT and other armed officer's performance not up to standard? How do we know? Was it that bad that within three days the Government wants something new? Is it really new thinking?
