Editing SWAT (section)

=== Riots and political conflicts of the 1960s ===
<!-- Please don't enter any material without citations, sources, or references. We have a lot of anonymous editors adding apparent original research to the text. -->
[[File:Seal of LAPD Special Weapons and Tactics.svg|thumb|The [[LAPD Metropolitan Division#D Platoon (SWAT)|LAPD Metropolitan Division's "D" Platoon]] is one of the world's most prominent SWAT units and was the second SWAT team established in the United States, after that of the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] in 1964.<ref name="Mitchel P. Roth 2001, p. 333">Mitchel P. Roth & James Stuart Olson, ''Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement'', Westport, Ct: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p. 333 and; John S. Dempsey & Linda S. Forst, ''An Introduction to Policing'', Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2011, p. 276.</ref>]]

According to the ''Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement'', the term "SWAT" was used as an acronym for the "Special Weapons and Tactics" established as a 100-man specialized unit in 1964 by the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] in response to an alarming increase in [[bank robbery|bank robberies]]. The purpose of this unit was to react quickly and decisively to bank robberies while they were in progress, using a large number of specially trained officers who had a great amount of firepower at their disposal. The tactic worked and was used to resolve other types of incidents involving heavily armed criminals.<ref name="Mitchel P. Roth 2001, p. 333" /><ref>{{cite book
| title      = Crime and Punishment: A History of the Criminal Justice System
| author     = Mitchel P. Roth
| pages      = 283
| date       = June 2, 2010
| publisher  = Cengage Learning; 2 edition
}}</ref> The [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD) [[LAPD Metropolitan Division#History of LAPD SWAT|Special Weapons and Tactics]] was established in 1967.<ref>{{cite web |title=S.W.A.T. |url=http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/848 |website=Los Angeles Police Department |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221083432/http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/848 |archive-date=21 February 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref> LAPD inspector [[Daryl Gates]] envisioned the "SWAT" acronym to be "Special Weapons Attack Team" but this was not accepted by deputy chief [[Edward M. Davis]] who instead approved Special Weapons and Tactics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gates |first1=Daryl F. |last2=Shah|first2=Diane K. |title=Chief : my life in the L.A.P.D. |date=1992 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=055307301X |page=114}}</ref> 

The LAPD promoted what became known as SWAT teams for a variety of reasons. After the racially-charged [[Watts riots]] in [[Los Angeles]] in August 1965, the LAPD began considering tactics it could use when faced with urban unrest, rioting, or widespread violence. Daryl Gates, who led the LAPD response to the riots, would later write that police at the time did not face a single mob, but rather "people attacking from all directions".<ref name=warriorcop>{{cite book| last1= Balko| first1= Radley| title= Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces| date= 2013| publisher= PublicAffairs| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTkTTIF1IpUC| access-date = November 30, 2014| isbn = 9781610392129}}</ref> [[New York University]] professor [[Christian Parenti]] has written that SWAT teams were originally conceived of as an "urban [[counterinsurgency]] bulwark".<ref name=parenti>{{cite book
| last1     = Parenti
| first1     = Christian
| title     = Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis
| date     = 2000
| publisher     = Verso
| isbn     = 978-1-85984-303-1
| url-access     = registration
| url     = https://archive.org/details/lockdownamericap00pare
}}</ref>{{rp|112}}

Another reason for the creation of SWAT teams was the fear of lone or barricaded gunmen who might outperform police in a shootout, as happened in Austin with [[Charles Whitman]].<ref name=warriorcop />

After the LAPD's establishment of its own SWAT team, many [[law enforcement in the United States|law enforcement agencies in United States]] established their own specialized units under various names. Gates explained in his autobiography ''[[Chief: My Life in the LAPD]]'' that he neither developed SWAT tactics nor the associated and often distinctive equipment; but that he supported the underlying concept, tried to empower his people to develop it, and generally lent them moral support.<ref name="SWAT01" /><ref>{{cite web
| url        = http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/849
| title      = Development of SWAT
| access-date = June 19, 2006
| publisher  = Los Angeles Police Department
}}</ref>

SWAT-type operations were conducted north of Los Angeles in the farming community of [[Delano, California]] on the border between [[Kern County, California|Kern]] and [[Tulare County, California|Tulare]] Counties in the [[San Joaquin Valley]]. At the time, the [[United Farm Workers]] union led by [[César Chavez]] was staging [[Delano grape strike|numerous protests]] in Delano in a strike that would last over five years from 1965 to 1970.<ref name=warriorcop /> Though the strike never turned violent, the [[Delano Police Department]] responded by forming ad-hoc SWAT-type units involving crowd and riot control, sniper skills, and surveillance.<ref name=warriorcop /> Television news stations and print media carried live and delayed reportage of these events across the United States. Personnel from the LAPD, having seen these broadcasts, contacted Delano and inquired about the program. One officer then obtained permission to observe the Delano Police Department's special weapons and tactics units in action, and afterwards, he took what he had learned back to Los Angeles, where his knowledge was used and expanded on to form the LAPD's own first SWAT unit.

[[John Nelson (police officer)|John Nelson]] was the officer who conceived the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit in the LAPD, intended to respond to and manage critical situations involving shootings while minimizing police casualties. Inspector Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. This first SWAT unit initially consisted of fifteen teams of four men each, making a total staff of sixty. These officers were given special status and benefits, and were required to attend special monthly training sessions. The unit also served as a security unit for police facilities during civil unrest. The [[LAPD Metropolitan Division#D Platoon (SWAT)|LAPD SWAT]] units were organized as "D Platoon" in the Metro division.<ref name="SWAT01">{{cite web
| url        = http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/849
| title      = Development of SWAT
| publisher  = Los Angeles Police Department
| access-date = June 19, 2006
}}</ref>

Early police powers and tactics used by SWAT teams were aided by legislation passed in 1967–68 with the help of [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States House of Representatives|House representative]] [[Donald Santarelli]]. The legislation was promoted within the context of fears over the [[civil rights movement]], [[mass racial violence in the United States|race riots]], the [[Black Panther Party]], and the emerging [[War on drugs|War on Drugs]].<ref name=warriorcop />

The first significant deployment of the LAPD SWAT was on December&nbsp;9, 1969, when an attempt by the LAPD to serve arrest warrants against the Black Panthers led to a four-hour standoff at their Los Angeles headquarters at 41st and Central, during which over 5,000 rounds were exchanged between police and the Panthers. During the shootout, Daryl Gates called the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], requesting and receiving permission to use a [[grenade launcher]]; however, it was never actually used. The Panthers eventually surrendered, with four Panthers and four officers being injured. All six arrested Panthers were acquitted of the most serious charges brought against them, including conspiracy to murder police officers, because it was ruled that they acted in self-defense.<ref name=warriorcop />

By 1974, there was a general acceptance of SWAT as a police resource in Los Angeles.

==== 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shootout ====
On the afternoon of May 17, 1974, elements of the [[Symbionese Liberation Army]] (SLA), a group of heavily armed [[left-wing politics|left-wing]] [[Left-wing terrorism|guerrillas]], barricaded themselves in a residence on East 54th Street at Compton Avenue in Los Angeles. Coverage of the siege was broadcast to millions via television and radio and featured in the world press for days afterwards. SWAT teams engaged in a several-hour gun battle with the SLA; no police were wounded, but the six SLA members died in the conflict, which ended when the house caught fire and burned to the ground.

By the time of the SLA shootout, SWAT teams had reorganized into six 10-man teams, each team being divided further into two five-man units, called elements. An element consisted of an element leader, two assaulters, a scout, and a rear-guard. The normal complement of weapons was a sniper rifle (a [[.243]]-caliber [[bolt action|bolt-action]], based on the ordnance expended by officers at the shootout), two [[.223]]-caliber semi-automatic rifles, and two shotguns. SWAT officers also carried their service revolvers in shoulder holsters. Standard gear included a [[first aid kit]], gloves, and a [[military gas mask]]. At a time when officers were usually issued six-shot revolvers and shotguns, it was a significant change to have police armed with semi-automatic rifles. The encounter with the heavily armed Symbionese Liberation Army, however, sparked a trend towards SWAT teams being issued [[Bulletproof vest|body armor]] and automatic weapons of various types.

A report issued by the LAPD after the SLA shootout offers one of the few firsthand accounts by the department regarding SWAT history, operations, and organization. On page 100 of the report, the department cites four trends which prompted the development of SWAT. These included riots such as the [[Watts riots]], which in the 1960s forced the LAPD and other police departments into tactical situations for which they were ill-prepared; the emergence of snipers as a challenge to civil order; political assassinations; and the threat of urban [[guerrilla warfare]] by militant groups. "The unpredictability of the sniper and his anticipation of normal police response increase the chances of death or injury to officers. To commit conventionally trained officers to a confrontation with a guerrilla-trained militant group would likely result in a high number of casualties among the officers and the escape of the guerrillas." To deal with these under conditions of urban violence, the LAPD formed SWAT, notes the report. The report states on page 109, "The purpose of SWAT is to provide protection, support, security, firepower, and rescue to police operations in high personal risk situations where specialized tactics are necessary to minimize casualties."<ref name="SWAT02">{{cite web
| url         = http://www.courttv.com/archive/trials/soliah/docs/lapdreport.pdf
| title       = Report following the SLA Shoot-out (PDF)
| publisher   = Los Angeles Police Department
| access-date  = July 4, 2008
| url-status     = dead
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120226115805/http://www.trutv.com/newname.html
| archive-date = February 26, 2012
}}</ref>