On a recent night in Great Falls, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC, a "masked and heavily armed SWAT team" swarmed a home, screamed at unarmed men sitting around a table, pointed deadly assault weapons at them, and ordered them to stop… playing poker.
Not all crimes are equal. It is wrong for government agents to treat unarmed misdemeanors like hostage situations - that is the mark of a police state. This is part of a disturbing nationwide trend where SWAT teams are routinely used against non-violent crimes.
What would have happened if a poker player staring down the barrel of a gun had sneezed or otherwise moved the wrong way? Or what if an officer had an accident - as happened in 2006, when another Fairfax officer shot and killed an unarmed eye doctor during a SWAT raid?
This same police department has killed six unarmed civilians in the last eight years, while releasing very little information about the shootings. Many of the county's pro-police citizens -- led by a retired homicide detective and WWII veteran -- have been calling for a police oversight board. This latest unconstitutional SWAT raid shows it's time to get it done, but citizen efforts have been stonewalled by county officials.
Tell Governor McAullife: We are very grateful for our police, but all armed government agents must be accountable to their communities! Create citizen oversight boards for every police department in Virginia!
Update #19 years ago
The Fairfax PD is back in the news, and for all the wrong reasons. Over the weekend, on a Court order, the PD released 11,000 pages about the 2013 shooting of unarmed citizen John Geer. The report says five witnesses, including three officers, said Geer died with his hands up and did nothing wrong - but instead of an indictment, all we've gotten is a police coverup!
Learn more here: http://wapo.st/1yIkUm9 Then share this petition with everyone you know in Virginia - it's time for oversight!
