No.

Very sad.

Good point. With all the lucre local LEA's take in from drug raids, and subsequent confiscation of assets, they nevertheless feel compelled to justify their massive expenditures on body-armour, high-powered assault weapons, sophisticated communications gear, et al, to the public, which generally means putting the afore-mentioned goodies on public display once-in-awhile.

These types of high-profile COPS-style raids are, from the LEA's standpoint, ideal opportunities to show off all their flashy hardware, while at the same time generating additional press coverage (quiet arrests of alleged perps not generating quite the same level of media attention as does a dozen SWAT team members in full regalia bashing down a tenement door), which in turn continues to feed the public "hysteria" over drug crimes, which in turn creates a vicious cycle of escalating violence all around; dealers and manufacturers feel compelled to arm-up in response to the increased likelihood of defending themselves against a literal army coming through their doors, which in turn gives the cops even more excuse to continually upgrade their own arsenals.

And of course the public sees all this and naturally comes to the conclusion that there's some sort of war between the cops and the druggies going down on the street, which is probably true, but it begs the question of whether, if LEA's used less violent means for taking down perps in the first place, would such an escalation even occur at all?

Aren't you the gun rights guy? So what if there's a stash of guns, that doesn't automatically make the person violent, does it? Other than, you know, when people charge into their house with no warning.

I do like to give the police the benefit of the doubt but things like this always look like incredibly dumb ideas in hindsight.

But, at the same time, I appreciate what you do with collecting the drug-war news. I look forward to the week on drugs and your "winning the war on drugs" posts as much as Savage posts.

I'm high as a kite on completely legal whiskey right now and I hope someday all your preferred highs will be as legal.

And maybe when I'm sober, I can tell you about the problems I have with the idea of rehabilitation.