10 Facts About The SWATification Of America That Everyone Should KnowMichael Snyder Thanks to relentless illegal immigration, drug cartels are thriving and there are now at least 1.4 million gang members living in the United States. But there are many that believe that the militarization of our police forces has gone way too far. Almost weekly, SWAT team brutality somewhere in America makes national headlines. You are about to read a couple of horrific examples of this below. Once upon a time, police in America were helpful and friendly and the public generally trusted them. But now our police forces are being transformed into military-style units that often act like they are in the middle of Iraq or Afghanistan. The following are 10 facts about the SWATification of America that everyone should know #1 In 1980, there were approximately 3,000 SWAT raids in the United States. Now, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country. #2 79 percent of the time, SWAT teams are deployed to private homes. #3 50 percent of the victims of SWAT raids are either black or Latino. #4 In 65 percent of SWAT deployments, a battering ram, boot, or some sort of explosive device is used to gain forced entry to a home. #6 In at least 36 percent of all SWAT raids, no contraband of any kind is found by the police. #7 In cases where it is suspected that there is a weapon in the home, police only find a weapon 35 percent of the time. #8 More than 100 American families have their homes raided by SWAT teams every single day. #9 Only 7 percent of all SWAT deployments are for hostage, barricade or active-shooter scenarios. #10 Even small towns are getting SWAT teams now. 30 years ago, only 25.6 percent of communities with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 people had a SWAT team. Now, that number has increased to 80 percent. And thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, police forces all over the nation are being showered with billions of dollars of military equipment that is coming home from overseas. The following is what a recentTime Magazine article had to say about this phenomenon But when you start arming the police like military units and your start training them like military units, eventually they start acting like military units and the results are often quite frightening. For example, just check out what happened when a SWAT team in Florida raided the home of one young couple earlier this month That is the kind of thing that I would expect to happen in Nazi Germany, not the United States of America. But this next example is even more horrifying. The following is what one mother says happened to her 2-year-old son when a SWAT team raided her home Does that make you angry? It should. That young child is probably going to be disfigured for the rest of his life because of the brutality and the carelessness of that SWAT team. Yes, we live in perilous times and many of our communities would rapidly descend into anarchy if there were no police. But that does not mean that they have to act like Nazis. They should be able to protect us while treating us with dignity and respect at the same time. So what do you think? Please share your opinion by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the American Dream. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 