There are three articles: (1) SW WA SWAT swamped during holidays. (2) Two bodies found at scorched scene of Washougal standoff. (3) The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US.
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From KGB News. Nov 30:
SW WA SWAT swamped during holidays
VANCOUVER – With four SWAT incidents in five days, the Southwest Washington Regional Swat Team is very busy.
Sgt. Tim Bieber with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said he expects it to get busier, now that the holidays are here.
This year alone, the Southwest Washington Regional Swat Team has had 46 missions. That’s up, he said, considering all of the members hold different positions, so SWAT isn’t their full-time job.
“Most of the calls are domestic,” said Bieber. He added that holiday stress, the bad economy and alcohol all add up. “We’re seeing a lot more calls,” he said.
“Yeah, 46 is. We’re probably up a little bit from normal what we’re a fairly busy team. We’re a collateral duty team which means we’re not full time [SWAT]. We all have primary assignments with our own agencies and for a collateral duty team, that’s quite a bit,” said Bieber.
The team is ten Vancouver police officers, ten members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and four so-called “floaters.”
All 24 members are ready to go at a moment’s notice.
“I expect a little bit of an increase in what we normally see throughout the summer, just with some of the issues with the economy right now, unemployment rate, people are depressed, holiday season tends to make people more depressed.”
He said to get days off and to avoid overtime, they try to adjust their schedules accordingly. Sometimes there’s just no way around the overtime to get the situation settled.
“It does cost money and SWAT teams aren’t cheap. But what I’ll tell you. is that most of our situations are resolved without anyone being injured. We do everything we can to protect everybody on scene and it’s invaluable. A community this size, whether you like it or not, they need a swat team,” he added.
The Portland Police Bureau has 31 members on their “SERT” team. They use the term, “SERT,” instead of “SWAT” for “Special Emergency Response Team.”
At least two Portland Fire Bureau paramedics are also always on scene.
Washougal, OR: “He was just unhappy…” hundreds of bullets, explosions, two injured police.
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From KOIN Local 6. Dec 8:
Two bodies found at scorched scene of Washougal standoff
A day after gunshots, an explosion and a house fire in Washougal prompted a massive emergency response, investigators announced the discovery of two bodies at the charred remains Thursday afternoon.
In a morning press briefing near the site of the two destroyed structures, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office announced the beginning of their investigation, which they said could take days, regardless of the possible discovery of human remains.
“It’s a daunting process,” said Sgt. Kevin Allais after explaining the meticulous sifting and photographing of evidence.
Five bullets, from either a rifle or a handgun, hit a Washougal police officer’s cruiser yesterday morning as he arrived to the scene of a house fire, triggering the eight-hour blaze and standoff with local SWAT teams.
The terrifying ordeal that placed four nearby schools on lockdown began at about 8 a.m. yesterday with the officer responding to the call and immediately taking fire from the home at 3275 F Place.
“He got out and hid behind the car, maintaining his position until SWAT arrived,” said Allais.
At least 90 minutes of shooting hundreds of rounds from the home caused the structures to burn uncontrollably as law enforcement from the entire metro area established a perimeter and firefighters were not able to get close, according to the sheriff’s office.
While no identity of the home’s residents was officially released, The Columbian reported the house owned by Steven D. and Leona M. Stanbary since 2002. Neighbors at the scene confirmed these names.
Four dead dogs were also found at the scene.
Any discovery would likely take days to identify via DNA testing, said Allais.
Despite all the firepower, large blaze and propane tank explosion, no other injuries were reported.
The officer who received minor injuries was placed on critical incident leave.
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From Business Insider. Dec 5:
The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US
The U.S. military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will.
We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.
Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the “1033 Program” that gave more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone.
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