Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > ♫ You Gotta' Know When to Hold 'Em. Know When to Fold 'Em. Know When to Walk Away. Know When to Get the Fuck on the Floor and Put Your Hands on Your Head...♫:
"More paramilitary raids on poker rooms, in Georgia this month, and in North Carolina last month.
The latter included a small army of police officers from several police agencies, including the federal BATF and the National Guard. They even brought a damned helicopter. They issued 41 citations, all of them misdemeanors.
Police in Cary, North Carolina gave the same excuse for the show of force that the cops in Dallas gave when they sent out the SWAT teams to raid poker games in that city: While not prone to violence themselves, poker rooms are often robbed. Therefore, they sometimes have armed guards. Therefore, police have to use overwhelming force.
I don't know that it's true that poker games are regularly knocked off by armed bandits. Nor are they particularly dangerous. I've been to a couple. And I've gotten email from people who were at games that were raided in Dallas. These games are frequented by poker enthusiasts, not mobsters. I suspect the local authorities may have been watching too much Sopranos.
But even if the theory is true, the show of force doesn't make a lick of sense. Let's assume the game does have armed guards. Put yourself in the guards' position. You've been hired to make sure a black market poker game doesn't get knocked off by armed intruders. Under which scenario are you more likely to use your gun: (A) Several uniformed cops knock on the door, identify themselves, come into the room, and break up the game, or, (B) several men dressed in black or camouflage and packing heat storm the place without warning, screaming and shouting obscenities?"
yeah. that's for sure. My son is a music producer. He and his group often work til 2am. there have been 4 SWAT raids here...never found anything...nothing like my 5-7-9-10 year old kids (practicing their violins/viola/cello) being thrown to the ground and having AKs held to their heads then us all being cuffed for two hours each time. F&(K^% B@#$%^&*. THEY need to be on the other side of that with THEIR families. The bums were laughing, punching the punching bag, shooting BB guns IN THE HOUSE (rec room in basement)...while my babies were being traumatized...over and over again. I work with cops (I'm in Emergency Medicine) and heaven help any of them that come to MY department. We'd get REALLY busy about then...
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