On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
去年1月4日晚上8点40分，一支本地缉毒突击队对马修•戴维•斯图尔特(Matthew David Stewart)位于尤他州奥格登(Ogden)的住宅发起突袭。这12名警员是根据斯图尔特前女友提供的一条线索展开行动的，她说斯图尔特在地下室种植了大麻。赤身裸体的斯图尔特被冲击夯破门的声音惊醒。据他后来所称，他以为是犯罪分子入侵，于是抄起了自己9毫米口径的贝瑞塔手枪。
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
据警方说，他们当时敲门并亮明了身份，但斯图尔特和邻居们说，他们并没听到这类宣示。斯图尔特打出了31发子弹，警方打出了250多发。六名警员受伤，警员贾里德•弗兰科姆(Jared Francom)丧命。斯图尔特在身中两枪后被捕。他被控多项罪名，包括谋杀弗兰科姆。
The police found 16 small marijuana plants in Mr. Stewart's basement. There was no evidence that Mr. Stewart, a U.S. military veteran with no prior criminal record, was selling marijuana. Mr. Stewart's father said that his son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have smoked the marijuana to self-medicate.
警方在斯图尔特的地下室找到16株大麻幼苗。没有证据表明，身为美国复员军人、之前没有犯罪记录的斯图尔特是在销售大麻。斯图尔特的父亲说，儿子患有创伤后应激障碍，吸食大麻可能是为了给自己治病。
Early this year, the Ogden city council heard complaints from dozens of citizens about the way drug warrants are served in the city. As for Mr. Stewart, his trial was scheduled for next April, and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. But after losing a hearing last May on the legality of the search warrant, Mr. Stewart hanged himself in his jail cell.
今年年初，奥格登市议会听取了数十位市民对该城发放毒品搜查令方式的申诉。斯图尔特的审判定于明年4月份举行，检方要求判处其死刑。但去年5月，斯图尔特输掉了一场有关搜查令合法性的聆讯，随后他在牢房里上吊自杀了。
The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment─from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers─American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop─armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
斯图尔特一案涉及的警方战术并非孤例。从20世纪60年代起，全美各地各级执法部门为了应对他们眼中的一系列威胁，一直在模糊警察与军人之间的界线。在军事话语权及军事化装备可用性（从刺刀到M16步枪到装甲运兵车）的推动下，美国警察部队常常采用一种之前仅限于战场的思路。禁毒战争以及后来9•11事件之后的反恐怖行动塑造了合众国舞台上的一个新形象：警察武士(warrior cop)──他们武装到牙齿，随时准备严厉对待被设定为攻击目标的作奸犯科者，而且对人们所熟知的美式自由构成了越来越严重的威胁。
The acronym SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. Such police units are trained in methods similar to those used by the special forces in the military. They learn to break into homes with battering rams and to use incendiary devices called flashbang grenades, which are designed to blind and deafen anyone nearby. Their usual aim is to 'clear' a building─that is, to remove any threats and distractions (including pets) and to subdue the occupants as quickly as possible.
“SWAT”是“特种武器与战术”(Special Weapons and Tactics)的首字母缩写。这类警察部队按照类似于军队特种部队的方法训练，他们学习用破门器攻入住宅，使用名叫“闪光弹”的燃烧装置让附近人员失明、失聪。他们的目标通常是“清理”一栋建筑，意思是清除威胁和干扰（包括宠物）、尽快制服里面的住户。
The country's first official SWAT team started in the late 1960s in Los Angeles. By 1975, there were approximately 500 such units. Today, there are thousands. According to surveys conducted by the criminologist Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University, just 13% of towns between 25,000 and 50,000 people had a SWAT team in 1983. By 2005, the figure was up to 80%.
美国第一支正式的SWAT队伍建成于60年代晚期的洛杉矶。至1975年，这类部队大约有500支，到今天则已达到数千支。据东肯塔基大学(Eastern Kentucky University)犯罪学家彼得•克拉斯卡(Peter Kraska)的调查，1983年人口2.5万到5万的城镇建有SWAT部队的只占13%。到2005年，这个比例已经上升到80%。
The number of raids conducted by SWAT-like police units has grown accordingly. In the 1970s, there were just a few hundred a year; by the early 1980s, there were some 3,000 a year. In 2005 (the last year for which Dr. Kraska collected data), there were approximately 50,000 raids. Some federal agencies also now have their own SWAT teams, including NASA and the Department of the Interior.
SWAT之类警察部队执行的突袭数量也相应增长。70年代末期一年只有几百起，到80年代初则已达到一年3,000起左右。2005年（克拉斯卡所采集数据的最后一年）大约有5万次突袭。一些联邦机构也有他们自己的SWAT部队，像美国国家航空及太空总署(NASA)和美国内政部(Department of the Interior)
Americans have long been wary of using the military for domestic policing. Concerns about potential abuse date back to the creation of the Constitution, when the founders worried about standing armies and the intimidation of the people at large by an overzealous executive, who might choose to follow the unhappy precedents set by Europe's emperors and monarchs.
美国人很久以来都警惕将军队用于国内执法。对滥用军队可能性的担忧可追溯到宪法起草之日。那时候，建国者们担心常备军队的设立和狂热行政长官对百姓的恐吓，因为这样一位行政长官可能会选择遵循欧洲帝王定下的那些不愉快的先例。
The idea for the first SWAT team in Los Angeles arose during the domestic strife and civil unrest of the mid-1960s. Daryl Gates, then an inspector with the Los Angeles Police Department, had grown frustrated with his department's inability to respond effectively to incidents like the 1965 Watts riots. So his thoughts turned to the military. He was drawn in particular to Marine Special Forces and began to envision an elite group of police officers who could respond in a similar manner to dangerous domestic disturbances.
洛杉矶成立第一支SWAT部队的想法源自60年代中期的内乱时期。由于洛杉矶警察局未能有效应对1965年瓦茨(Watts)骚乱等事件，该局巡官(inspector)达里尔•盖茨(Daryl Gates)感到很不满。于是他想到了军队。他对海军陆战队特种部队(Marine Special Forces)尤其着迷，并开始设想成立一支精英警员队伍，用相似的方式来处理危险的国内动乱。
Mr. Gates initially had difficulty getting his idea accepted. Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker thought the concept risked a breach in the divide between the military and law enforcement. But with the arrival of a new chief, Thomas Reddin, in 1966, Mr. Gates got the green light to start training a unit. By 1969, his SWAT team was ready for its maiden raid against a holdout cell of the Black Panthers.
盖茨的想法起初很难被人接受。洛杉矶警长威廉•帕克(William Parker)觉得这一概念有可能突破军队与执法部门之间的界线。但随着新警长托马斯•雷丁(Thomas Reddin)在1966年走马上任，盖茨获准开始训练这样一支部队。到1969年，他的SWAT部队已经可以对一个拒不投降的黑豹党人(Black Panthers)团伙发起首次突袭。
At about the same time, President Richard Nixon was declaring war on drugs. Among the new, tough-minded law-enforcement measures included in this campaign was the no-knock raid─a policy that allowed drug cops to break into homes without the traditional knock and announcement. After fierce debate, Congress passed a bill authorizing no-knock raids for federal narcotics agents in 1970.
大约就在当时，总统理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)对毒品宣战。这次运动采用了一些新的强硬执法手段，其中之一就是“不敲门突袭”(no-knock raid)──根据这一政策，缉毒警察不需要像在一般情况下敲门、亮身份，就可以闯入住宅。1970年，国会在经过激烈辩论之后通过一份议案，授予联邦缉毒机关不敲门突袭的权力。
Over the next several years, stories emerged of federal agents breaking down the doors of private homes (often without a warrant) and terrorizing innocent citizens and families. Congress repealed the no-knock law in 1974, but the policy would soon make a comeback (without congressional authorization).
在接下来的几年，联邦特工撞破私宅大门（常常没有搜查令）、恐吓无辜市民及家人的故事不断涌现。国会在1974年推翻不敲门法，但这一政策很快又卷土重来（未获国会授权）。
During the Reagan administration, SWAT-team methods converged with the drug war. By the end of the 1980s, joint task forces brought together police officers and soldiers for drug interdiction. National Guard helicopters and U-2 spy planes flew the California skies in search of marijuana plants. When suspects were identified, battle-clad troops from the National Guard, the DEA and other federal and local law enforcement agencies would swoop in to eradicate the plants and capture the people growing them.
里根政府时期，SWAT部队的执法方法与禁毒战争殊途同归。到80年代末，警察和军人已在联合特遣队中共同参与禁毒。国民警卫队(National Guard)和U2侦察机飞越加利福尼亚的上空寻找大麻植株。认出嫌疑人的时候，国民警卫队、缉毒局(DEA)和其他联邦及地方执法机关的重装部队就会猛扑过去清除这些大麻，并抓捕种植大麻的人员。
Advocates of these tactics said that drug dealers were acquiring ever bigger weapons and the police needed to stay a step ahead in the arms race. There were indeed a few high-profile incidents in which police were outgunned, but no data exist suggesting that it was a widespread problem. A study done in 1991 by the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute found that less than one-eighth of 1% of homicides in the U.S. were committed with a military-grade weapon. Subsequent studies by the Justice Department in 1995 and the National Institute for Justice in 2004 came to similar conclusions: The overwhelming majority of serious crimes are committed with handguns, and not particularly powerful ones.
这些战术的倡导者说，毒贩获得的武器越来越重型，警察需要在军备竞赛中领先一步。在一些备受关注的事件中，警察的武器确实落后于对方，但没有数据表明这是一个普遍问题。自由主义倾向的独立研究所(Independence Institute)在1991年做了一项研究，发现美国用军事级武器犯下的杀人案比例不到0.125%。后来司法部在1995年的研究、国家司法研究所(National Institute of Justice)在2004年的研究都得出相似的结论：绝大多数的严重罪行都是用手枪犯下的，而且使用威力强大的手枪并不突出。
The new century brought the war on terror and, with it, new rationales and new resources for militarizing police forces. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Department of Homeland Security has handed out $35 billion in grants since its creation in 2002, with much of the money going to purchase military gear such as armored personnel carriers. In 2011 alone, a Pentagon program for bolstering the capabilities of local law enforcement gave away $500 million of equipment, an all-time high.
新世纪有了反恐战争，随之而来的是警察部队军事化的新理由和新资源。据调查报道中心(Center for Investigative Reporting)数据，国土安全部(Department of Homeland Security)从2002年成立以来已经拨款350亿美元，其中很大一部分是用于购买装甲运兵车之类的军事装备。仅2011年，五角大楼一个提高地方执法部门能力的计划就发放了5亿美元的装备，达到历史最高。
The past decade also has seen an alarming degree of mission creep for U.S. SWAT teams. When the craze for poker kicked into high gear, a number of police departments responded by deploying SWAT teams to raid games in garages, basements and VFW halls where illegal gambling was suspected. According to news reports and conversations with poker organizations, there have been dozens of these raids, in cities such as Baltimore, Charleston, S.C., and Dallas.
过去10年，美国SWAT部队的使命偏离程度也高得惊人。在扑克牌盛行的时候，多个警察局派出SWAT部队，对怀疑存在非法赌博的车库、地下室和海外战争退伍军人(VFW)礼堂展开突袭。据新闻报道以及与扑克组织的交谈，在巴尔的摩(Baltimore)、南卡州查尔斯顿(Charleston)和达拉斯(Dallas)等城市，这样的突袭有过数十起。
In 2006, 38-year-old optometrist Sal Culosi was shot and killed by a Fairfax County, Va., SWAT officer. The investigation began when an undercover detective overheard Mr. Culosi wagering on college football games with some buddies at a bar. The department sent a SWAT team after Mr. Culosi, who had no prior criminal record or any history of violence. As the SWAT team descended, one officer fired a single bullet that pierced Mr. Culosi's heart. The police say that the shot was an accident. Mr. Culosi's family suspects the officer saw Mr. Culosi reaching for his cellphone and thought he had a gun.
2006年，38岁的验光师萨尔•库洛西(Sal Culosi)被弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯县(Fairfax)的一名SWAT队员开枪打死。一名卧底侦探偷听到库洛西和一些朋友在一处酒吧赌大学橄榄球比赛，调查便由此开始。警局派出一支SWAT队伍跟踪之前没有犯罪记录和任何暴力史的库洛西。在SWAT队伍从天而降的时候，一名警员射出一发子弹，穿透了库洛西的心脏。警方表示这一枪属于意外。据库洛西的家人猜测，那名警员看到库洛西掏手机，以为他身上有枪。
In 2010, the police department in New Haven, Conn., sent its SWAT team to raid a bar where police believed there was underage drinking. For sheer absurdity, it is hard to beat the 2006 story about the Tibetan monks who had overstayed their visas while visiting America on a peace mission. In Iowa, the hapless holy men were apprehended by a SWAT team in full gear.
2010年，康涅狄格州纽黑文(New Haven)警局派出SWAT队伍突袭一处怀疑有未成年人饮酒的酒吧。要纯粹比荒谬性的话，2006年一批藏族僧人的经历很难被超越。他们在为一次和平任务访美期间签证过期，结果被全副武装的SWAT部队抓捕。
Unfortunately, the activities of aggressive, heavily armed SWAT units often result in needless bloodshed: Innocent bystanders have lost their lives and so, too, have police officers who were thought to be assailants and were fired on, as (allegedly) in the case of Matthew David Stewart.
不幸的是，激进、重装SWAT部队的活动常常造成不必要的流血：有无辜的围观者失去生命，也有被当作入侵者而被开枪击中的警员失去生命，就像在马修•戴维•斯图尔特案中的警员一样（据称是被当成入侵者）。
In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily). These victims were bystanders, or the police later found no evidence of the crime for which the victim was being investigated. They include Katherine Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed by an Atlanta narcotics team acting on a bad tip from an informant in 2006; Alberto Sepulveda, an 11-year-old accidentally shot by a California SWAT officer during a 2000 drug raid; and Eurie Stamps, killed in a 2011 raid on his home in Framingham, Mass., when an officer says his gun mistakenly discharged. Mr. Stamps wasn't a suspect in the investigation.
笔者在自己的研究中收集了50多个样本。在这些样本中，都有无辜人员在警方执行非暴力犯罪或自愿性犯罪（consensual，指各方自愿参加的犯罪，如吸毒或赌博等）授权令的突击行动中丧生。这些受害人有的是旁观者，有的被调查后并没有证据表明他们犯罪。他们当中有亚特兰大缉毒队2006年根据线人错误消息采取行动时打死的92岁老太凯瑟琳•约翰斯通(Katherine Johnston)；有加州SWAT一警员在2000年一次缉毒突袭行动中意外击中的11岁儿童阿尔贝托•赛普尔韦达(Alberto Sepulveda)；有2011年在位于马萨诸塞州弗雷明汉(Framingham)的住宅遭到突袭时被打死的尤里•斯坦普斯(Eurie Stamps)，一名警员称枪支当时是走火了。斯坦普斯并不是那次调查的嫌疑人。
What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures? The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement.
怎样才能取消这些过度警政措施？切入点当然是取消那些鼓励警察部队采购更适合战场之装备的联邦拨款。除此以外，改变美国执法界的军事化文化也很关键。
Consider today's police recruitment videos (widely available on YouTube), which often feature cops rappelling from helicopters, shooting big guns, kicking down doors and tackling suspects. Such campaigns embody an American policing culture that has become too isolated, confrontational and militaristic, and they tend to attract recruits for the wrong reasons.
想想今天YouTube上到处都有的警察招募视频吧。这些视频常含有警察从直升机绳降、用大型枪支射击、 门以及与嫌疑人搏斗的镜头。这些广告体现了一种已经变得过于孤立、挑衅和好战的美式警政文化，而且往往是以错误的理由吸引新手。
If you browse online police discussion boards, or chat with younger cops today, you will often encounter some version of the phrase, 'Whatever I need to do to get home safe.' It is a sentiment that suggests that every interaction with a citizen may be the officer's last. Nor does it help when political leaders lend support to this militaristic self-image, as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did in 2011 by declaring, 'I have my own army in the NYPD─the seventh largest army in the world.'
浏览网上警务论坛或与今天的年轻一代警察交谈，你常常会听到“不惜一切代价保证家乡安全”之类的话。这种心态意味着，警员与市民打的每一次交道，都可能是他们之间的最后一次。政治领导人对这种好战的自我形象表示支持也不是好事，就像纽约市长迈克尔•布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)在2011年那样。当时他宣布：“我在纽约警局有自己的军队──世界上第七大军队。”
The motivation of the average American cop should not focus on just making it to the end of his shift. The LAPD may have given us the first SWAT team, but its motto is still exactly the right ideal for American police officers: To protect and serve.
而对美国普通警察的激励不应集中在要他们坚持到下班了事。洛杉矶警局或许是让我们有了第一支SWAT队伍，但其座佑铭恰恰是美国警察的合适理想：保卫并服务。
SWAT teams have their place, of course, but they should be saved for those relatively rare situations when police-initiated violence is the only hope to prevent the loss of life. They certainly have no place as modern-day vice squads.
SWAT部队当然也有自己的角色，但对其使用应当限于那些相对少有的情形，也就是当警方主动采用暴力是防止出人命的唯一希望时。它们肯定不该作为现代风化纠察队的角色。
Many longtime and retired law-enforcement officers have told me of their worry that the trend toward militarization is too far gone. Those who think there is still a chance at reform tend to embrace the idea of community policing, an approach that depends more on civil society than on brute force.
很多老资格的、退休的执法者曾向我讲起他们的担忧：军事化趋势已经积重难返。觉得还有改革机会的人士往往奉行的是社区警政(community policing)的观念，即更多地依靠公民社会而不是蛮力。
In this very different view of policing, cops walk beats, interact with citizens and consider themselves part of the neighborhoods they patrol─and therefore have a stake in those communities. It's all about a baton-twirling 'Officer Friendly' rather than a Taser-toting RoboCop.
根据这种非常不同的警政观念，警察要四处巡逻，与市民打交道，把自己当作所巡逻社区的一份子，因此与社区利害攸关。总之，应该是挥舞警棍的“友好警察”(Officer Friendly)而不是挎着电击枪的“机械战警”(RoboCop)。
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