<i>THE SACRAMENTO BEE:</i> Beware of feds bearing weapons

THE SACRAMENTO BEE: Beware of feds bearing weapons

Nando's in-depth coverage of The Confrontation Over Kosovo.

(April 9, 1999 5:03 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Back in 1997, the San Joaquin (Calif.) valley town of Dinuba, population 15,269, eagerly accepted gifts of submachine guns and head-to-toe combat gear - all of it free surplus paramilitary equipment from the U.S. military.

Dinuba used the material to set up its version of a SWAT team, called SET - Special Enforcement Team. Half of the city's 12-member police force joined the unit.

In a recent report, the Los Angeles Times described how the gifts from the U.S. military, initially seen as a boon to law enforcement, turned out to be a fatal mistake. Responding to reports that a sawed-off shotgun used in an attempted murder was at a house in town, SET members wearing black masks and camouflage burst into a small house and surprised a 64-year-old farm worker and his wife, who were asleep in bed.

The man jumped up and grabbed a folding knife. Invading officers, armed with MP-5 submachine guns, a favorite of the Navy Seals, shot him 15 times, killing him. The gun they sought, allegedly belonging to the farm worker's son, was never found.

Last month, a federal jury in Fresno awarded the family $12.5 million in damages in a brutality suit filed against the city of Dinuba. The damages are more than twice Dinuba's annual budget; the city's insurance policy covers only $9.5 million.

The city is appealing but regardless of the outcome of that appeal, the tragic incident has been a costly yet instructive lesson for Dinuba and police departments across the country. It shines a useful light on the dangers of police departments accepting free military hardware without the need, the training or the sophistication to use it.

Peter Kraska, a professor of criminology who's written a study on the subject titled "Militarization of Mayberry and Beyond," told the Los Angeles Times that boredom was part of the problem. "You've got these neat little units with all this equipment and training and nothing is happening. So you start using them in situations where they aren't really needed, like routine search warrants."

Bigger communities like Sacramento are not immune to the lure of free military hardware. In recent years, the Sacramento County Sheriff's department has received four helicopters, flight helmets, camouflage pants, gas masks and an armored personnel carrier. The county turned down an offer of 300 M-16 automatic rifles.

"We discussed it and said 'no,"' Sacramento Sheriff Lou Blanas said. "We didn't need them and you run a risk when you have that much firepower all over."

The county did recently accept six AR-15 semiautomatic rifles from the military for delivery to the new city of Citrus Heights.

In Dinuba, meanwhile, the SET team has been disbanded. City fathers now say the town was too small to need a paramilitary unit. In the wake of Dinuba, other police departments around the country need to make their own assessments. What equipment do we really need to maintain law and order and what will get us into trouble?