Who Thought This Was A Good Idea
Digby has found another example of the militarization of government agencies – a water quality inspection team dressed up like a SWAT team to inspect mining claims in Chicken, Alaska.
The claim is that the EPA was told there was human trafficking and drug activity in the area, so they dressed for a possible hostile situation.
First off, they were dressed to die. Their body armor wouldn’t have stopped the guns everyone in the Alaskan interior has for hunting moose and caribou, as well as chasing off bears and wolves.
There is no abundance of humans or traffic along the Taylor Highway, which is closed in the winter. The area is just to the south of the Yukon Quest route. As for drugs, the problem drug in the Alaskan interior is alcohol, and it’s legal.
Chicken was founded during the glory days of the Yukon Gold Rush. There was a decent amount of gold in the area, so the town was born. They wanted to name it for the local bird, a type of grouse, that fit the place of the chicken in their diet, but they couldn’t agree on how to spell Ptarmigan, so they went with Chicken. The town dwindled with the gold. There is still gold in the area, but it isn’t easy to get and can’t support a big operation.
Checking the water quality in Chicken was a job for a summer intern from the University of Alaska – Fairbanks, not a pseudo-SWAT team. They would have probably had a rifle in their truck, but they wouldn’t have brought along an attitude.
2 comments
What this indicates most to me is fear. The crime statistics say that violent crime is at its lowest level since the 1950’s, so it can’t be fear of criminals that is motivating these cops to behave like ball-less wonders. They seem to fear ordinary citizens today. Which is odd, because in a democracy, the law is obeyed primarily because ordinary citizens want to be law-abiding, because in a democracy, laws are made based on the desires of ordinary citizens. Police are necessary to take care of the few malcontents and sociopaths who would create mayhem, but in a democracy would rarely face ordinary citizens who disagreed with their actions. Are police officers now facing increasing numbers of ordinary citizens who disagree with the laws passed by the government and thus disagree with their actions enforcing said laws, requiring the police to ramp up the levels of force that they use in order to maintain compliance with the law? Or do we just have a generation of ball-less wonder cops who in an earlier era would have been cringing and whining “don’t hurt me!” when faced with the possibility that someone might say mean words to them? Curious penguins are… curious!
If these had been isolated claims, showing up like that could have gotten them shot by the miners, who tend to be a bit paranoid by claim jumpers. Things are more ‘civilized’ in Chicken because there is a tiny settlement and established claims.
The safe way to approach any dwelling or camp in Alaska is to announce yourself as soon as you saw it, and approaching in the open. If they didn’t want visitors they would let you know while you still had the time and space to avoid it.
This kind of ‘raid’ might be appropriate in an urban setting, but it was totally absurd in Chicken, Alaska. We are obviously wasting a lot of money on ‘Homeland Security’.