Arpaio's Arizona Circus (with guns): Steven Seagal attacks!

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In Arpaio-land, Steven Seagal was seen attacking a home with a tank, armored cars, bomb robot, and dozens of SWAT team members. The crime? Suspected involvement in cockfighting.

Story here:

Here's video of the spectacle.

The kicker is this: The police acknowledge that there was no evidence to suggest that the man was dangerous or that he was armed. The only slightly disproportionate operation (costs?) and that this was apparently basically a stage set up to give Seagal good footage for his reality program 'Lawman' really make this something else.

In Arpaio-land that's “We’re going to err on the side of caution.” Clearly, allowing Seagal to parade around in a tank with a film crew is simply being cautious. Considering the prevalence of guns in America in general, and in places like Arizona in particular - who can't be expected to be armed? Erring on the side of caution means that this armoured assault becomes a standard operating procedure. What bollocks. Taxpayers should put an end to this folly and to the careers of the fools who have allowed this to happen.

 

That there just looks like a bunch of good ole-boys havin' themselves a bit of fun. How dare you rain on their parade.

Bottom line: if you have a tank, you gotta use it every now and again, especially when Seagal's in town!

 

Yeah, Joe's big chance for a photo-op with a has-been "actor" who has given up grade B movies for reality TV. I suppose that crap will sell in AZ. It's getting hard to tell the crimnals from the cops these days [or even harder than it used to be].

 

Wait, what? This is hilarious - at least as long as you aren't the neighbors .

As an aside, iirc local roads aren't exactly designed to handle the pressure from a heavy vehicle like a freaking tank. Does the movie company pay extra fees for the road damage they've caused ?

 

Nah, probably not. The joke probably is that the sheriff's office doesn't either.

 

I'm not sure why anyone would confuse that with a tank. It clearly has wheels and not treads ... hell, it's not even a heavy APC. What's the big deal here?

Seriously though, the armored vehicles like that one used have been in law enforcement for over twenty years; they even made a mockery of one in Die Hard. I believe this is the same type of vehicle used at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.

 

Police departments get stuff like that cheaply from military surplus. The Bush administration had iirc again increased such transfers after 9/11. Under the rubric of homeland security police departments armed up significantly with vehicles, even helicopters, lots of M16, body armour, helmets etc. Since the US doesn't really have a prevalent domestic terrorism problem the goodies were put to use elsewhere - as in this case ... or more usually for drug related operations.

This vehicle on the pic is some variant of a Vietnam era army XM706, so it is probably also army surplus.

I googled a bit and reliably the Libertarians from the Independent institute provide some insight:

The part I find absolutely hilarious is this:

 

Ah, ok. That really doesn't look much like a tank, I guess the woman didn't have much experience with things like that . BTW, I also like how the guy from the sheriff's office said they had an appropriate amount of force because the guy might have been armed. Armed in his home in America? How shocking . I wonder what would be the appropriate amount of force if they had a signal someone was peddling drugs - bomb the neighborhood to the ground?

Overall, it's an amusing story, but I'm not sure it will end so well for everyone involved. That Llovera guy got his place busted and his... roosters... killed, and I think someone might have to pay for that.

 

That he got his roosters killed is just half that. He was earning his living with roosters and chickens. They destroyed a part of his livelihood with their merry folly.

 

So was he cock-fighting or not?

 

They had to go in with the heavy equipment in case there were any professional football players there.

 

Definitely not a tank. But seriously - this is Arizona - they must do cockfighting raids from time to time. I find it hard to believe that an armored vehicle, a bomb robot, and a SWAT team are in the SOP for busting a cockfighting ring.

I hope that the show is footing the bill for all this...

And what about the guy's house? Are you allowed to wreck a guy's house to arrest him and he has no means of recouping the losses? I think they could of at least knocked with a "come out with your hands up" message...

 

I've seen those vehicles used before, but they're normally reserved for genuinely serious situations where a threat has already been established. For example, a small town chief of police was shot outside a guy's house after having pulled him over as he was arriving home, and then the guy went inside and became a 'barricaded gunman.' They brought in a Sergeant from a nearby department and drove it into his front room. Nobody else was injured.

edit - Sorry, that was a different case. They called a vehicle in for the one referenced above but didn't use it.