The People of Poker vs. Dallas SWAT
Bad Chuck sends along an amusing comic about the anti-poker soldiers assigned to the Dallas front lines … and it reminds me of something I have been meaning to post about …
Funny, to be sure. Thanks for sending, Chuck. But as poker cases move through the court system, we might want to remember that the “enemy” here isn’t Dallas SWAT. They were simply doing their jobs. And save for a few rude apples, they handled their business with courtesy, professionalism, and skill. Think about it … they were able to “lock down” the “threat” and pass off police duties to non-military cops in a matter of minutes if not less — and NO ONE got shot, or even rifle-butted! When called in for the anti-poker task, the SWAT guys probably snickered at how easy a raid on a bunch of sedentary poker addicts would be.
With that said, the folks we pokerers should be looking at/concerned about are whoever decided that assigning a SWAT unit to “poker” was a good use of city resources. This should matter even to people who could give-a-shit about our little card game … and they are the ones whose support is essential if we ever want to see it legitimized locally.
Lavigne in Austin says:
December 2nd, 2006 at 1:45pm
you are absolutely right, Dan
Wes says:
December 4th, 2006 at 10:15am
While I agree that Dallas SWAT does not set the policy that criminalizes poker, and cannot change that policy, I think you go a little too easy on them. Remember, SWAT is a bureaucratic institution and, as such, its first order of business is self preservation. A raid on a poker room is fun, easy, and looks good on the books. The number of raids, number of arrets, and dollars seized (and forfeited), all help SWAT justify its existence, expand its budget, acquire new equipment, increase its influence in the department, etc. etc.
So SWAT’s institutional interests are a factor that tends to increase the number of raids on poker rooms and to make those raids much, much more violent and dangerous than they need to be.
n/a says:
February 15th, 2007 at 10:53am
I just wanted to write a comment about the injustices of the poker world that have occured in the past year or so in dallas tx. First of all I wanted to say that while the swat team was absolutely doing their jobs, there absolutely were two instances in my raid where people were injured who should have been protected. I would like to re-iterate that I was one of the people arrested in the grand daddy of them Aces and recall very vividly an 83 year old man who was sitting very uncomfortably for three hours on his butt being hit rather hard in the back by a SWAT member with the butt of his rifle. This man did nothing but try to acquiesce to the desires of the swat team and was punished with a rifle in his back. Furthermore lets not forget that there was an instance where a dealer was injured by a pair of flex-cuffs that were on much too tight and was given a permanent scar on his arm because of it. While I agree that these members of the Elite were doing their job, I feel as though there was too much emphasis on the cameras involved and the politics for anyone to really look at what good it did the county and even the nation to raid these people who were doing physical harm to anyone. I sincerely hope my words be read by as many people as possible since there cannot be double standards in a country like ours. In each state to texas borders gambling is not only legal but a major source of income for the states themselves. When will texas grow up and realize that poker will not go away and instead embrace it to take in a slice of the pie themselves.
Thanks,
Arrested Citizen
Pokerati | Texas hold’em blog » Blog Archive » Re: Re: Another Another Austin Raid says:
February 15th, 2007 at 2:07pm
[…] An fresh comment posted on a relatively old post about a Dallas poker raid caught my eye — seemed relevant in light of discussions we’ve been having about police activity in other Texas poker scenes. In it, the accused houseguy makes claims of borderline abusive behavior from police. Nothing Rodney King-like, but still, pain-addled nuisances that might kinda should be expected when dealing with armed enforcers charged with putting a scare into a semi-criminal subculture. […]