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February 06, 2006
Is Your Town Overpoliced?
What happens when your town can't produced enough crime to satiate the desire of the police force to arrest people? The police have to do something. You can't just eat donuts and drink coffee 24/7.
On Jan. 24, a SWAT team in Fairfax shot and killed Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., an optometrist who was under investigation for gambling. According to a Jan. 26 front-page story in The Post, Culosi had emerged from his home to meet an undercover officer when a police tactical unit swarmed around him. An officer's gun discharged, killing the suspect. Culosi, police said, was unarmed and had displayed no threatening behavior.
It's unlikely that the officer who shot Culosi did so intentionally. But it's also unlikely that the investigation into this shooting will address why police sent a military-style unit to arrest an optometrist under investigation for a nonviolent crime and why the officers had their guns drawn when approaching a man with no history of violence.
Read the rest of the Cato Institute article.
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Posted by Peenie Wallie on February 06, 2006 at 02:19 PM
Comments
why police sent a military-style unit
When you have a tactical hammer, every situation starts to look like a nail.
Posted by: Robert on February 06, 2006 at 04:55 PM
What a tragedy for the officer involved.
He'll have to live with what happened for the rest of his life.
But at least he was able to go home to his family at the end of the shift, and that's what is really important.
Posted by: 'Net Leo on February 06, 2006 at 06:08 PM