The Force in Enforcement

Several authors have been chronicling for some time the “paramilitarization” of American life—the trend in which the myriad departments and agencies of an ever-expanding government are opting for quasi-military tactics to put the force in enforcement. The Department of Education has its own SWAT team, for example; it is used, ostensibly, to police student-loan compliance. IRS agents have been training with AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.

The latest paramilitary action is a tragic one. The Chicago Tribune reports that Park Forest police fatally tased and shot with bean bag rounds John Wrana, a 95-year-old World War II veteran living in an Illinois senior living facility who was refusing to take his medicine:

The old man, described by a family member as “wobbly” on his feet, had refused medical attention. The paramedics were called. They brought in the Park Forest police.

First they tased him, but that didn’t work. So they fired a shotgun, hitting him in the stomach with a bean-bag round. Wrana was struck with such force that he bled to death internally, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

Police claim that Wrana was endangering the staff, but an executive with the facility says that staff were cleared from the room when police arrived and not allowed to reenter, even after asking to intervene. Instead, five to seven police officers entered with riot shields and bean bag shotguns.

There is unnecessary force, and there is recklessness, but this extends beyond any such excuses. This is yet another example of the danger caused when military tactics become standard operating procedure for agencies that are not military.

The IRS has wreaked havoc just by selectively pushing paper. Imagine the nation’s tax authority armed.