MetaFilter posts tagged with paramilitary

You got yourself on video selling drug paraphernalia.

Talez — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:24:32 -0800

Under Pennsylvanian state law, it's illegal to sell containers if the store owner "knows or should reasonably know" that the buyer intends to use them to package drugs. A confidential informant entered a convenience store to buy tiny ziplock bags at about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2007. After making the purchase the Philadelphia PD Narcotics Field Unit raided the store for selling drug paraphernalia destroying the store's security system in the process and allegedly stealing money, batteries, cigarettes and food among other items. He's not the first one to make this complaint either.

The killing of Jamie Dean

homunculus — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:25:26 -0800

The killing of Jamie Dean. "Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq."

The Militarization of Mayberry

ryoshu — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 12:22:19 -0800

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America. Radley Balko (also mentioned here and here) has released a year long study of the militarization of police departments across the United States. Cato has a corresponding interactive map to track and filter botched paramilitary raids.

Choosing Friends

nofundy — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 05:36:18 -0800

Venezuela bad, Colombia good
Founded in the 1980s by landowners and powerful drug dealers, the paramilitaries carried out numerous massacres in villages they considered sympathetic to the rebels and were blacklisted by the U.S. State Department as terrorists. In recent years, however, the militias put their rebel-fighting efforts on hold to smuggle narcotics, extort businesses and engage in other illegal activities.

Strange how the White House decides which countries are "friends" and which are not. What exactly are the criteria?