Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they’re private corporations, immune from open records

[Androidpk]

Tell me this isn't troubling, as if the ever increasing police militarization want bad enough..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/26/massachusetts-swat-teams-claim-theyre-private-corporations-immune-from-open-records-laws/

[Thondalar]

Gotta love those grey areas.

[Jarvan]

Does this mean that people can sue the LEC?

"They broke down my door for no reason, I am suing them"

I am sure there are a lot of other nasty things that can be done to them if they are a corporation, and not a government agency.

[Androidpk]

Watch them still collect a government pension, or at least try to. I have no idea how this is legal but I'm glad the ACLU is suing them.

[Tgo01]

I was about to jump right on in here and say as long as they are receiving checks paid for with tax dollars then their argument is shit.

But then what about contractors who work for the government? They are technically paid with tax payer dollars, are they subject to FOIA requests?

Sounds like an interesting loophole they found for themselves.

[Androidpk]

I was about to jump right on in here and say as long as they are receiving checks paid for with tax dollars then their argument is shit.

But then what about contractors who work for the government? They are technically paid with tax payer dollars, are they subject to FOIA requests?

Sounds like an interesting loophole they found for themselves.

I believe contractors file a W-9 tax form stating they are contractors, unlike government employees.

[Taernath]

http://www.empireonline.com/images/features/evil-movie-corporations/robocop.jpg

[Gelston]

It means they can be sued. Further, they can be tried as unlawful combatants. As a corporate entity, they are little more than mercenaries. Any member of that SWAT team runs the risk of being held indefinitely, without trial, under a military court.

[Jarvan]

I was about to jump right on in here and say as long as they are receiving checks paid for with tax dollars then their argument is shit.

But then what about contractors who work for the government? They are technically paid with tax payer dollars, are they subject to FOIA requests?

Sounds like an interesting loophole they found for themselves.

Sadly I have to agree with PK. As contractors, they would not be government employees. Just like KBR.

As officers, SWAT are government employees.

It's basically a bullshit legal defense used by them to refuse to give out certain information. It will never stand.

[Warriorbird]

Removing yourself from sovereign immunity sounds like a terrible idea.

[AnticorRifling]

Yeah they didn't think this one through.

[Wrathbringer]

Sadly I have to agree with PK. As contractors, they would not be government employees. Just like KBR.

As officers, SWAT are government employees.

It's basically a bullshit legal defense used by them to refuse to give out certain information. It will never stand.

Seems overly elaborate when all they have to do is say their computer crashed and all is forgiven.

[Androidpk]

"You can’t have it both ways,” Jessie Rossman, a staff attorney for the Massachusetts ACLU, told me in a phone interview. “The same government authority that allows them to carry weapons, make arrests, and break down the doors of Massachusetts residents during dangerous raids also makes them a government agency that is subject to the open records law.”

[Jarvan]

Seems overly elaborate when all they have to do is say their computer crashed and all is forgiven.

Touche.