My older son is a policeman and is now on the SWAT team, which he really likes. I sometimes refer to him as my Nazi son because of the hair and the uniform and his unyielding attitudes and judgemental persona, etc. , but we do share some conservative opinions. Anyway, I always feel a twinge of guilt when I call him that, even jokingly, because he is funny and smart and loves animals and has many, many good qualities, but then I think of SS men like Mengele and Heydrich whose families thought the world of them and who loved music and their children and maybe animals, I don't know, and even Hitler was a vegetarian, and look at all of them. But he is my son and so far has not exhibited any conquer the world tendencies, so, oh well.

It doesn't seem to me that SWAT people do a whole lot. They train a lot and some of them follow the president's car around when he's in Austin and there are maybe 3 or 4 hostage situations in our town every year, which have so far ended without bloodshed, so I never really worry about his safety. But one job they do have is raids. They love that and they get to use all their equipment. One type of raid they get to do is on drug dealer houses. The narcotic cops find out about the drug dealers and their set up, etc. but if the house needs to be raided the SWAT team does it while the narcotic police stay down the street.

As an aside I will say here that I think the war on drugs is ridiculous and isn't even a stalemate. Regardless of the major drug busts and people arrested and all, there are drugs all over and readily available. I think they should all be legal. If one is weak enough to be an addict, go right ahead. At least if it was legal one wouldn't have to break into my house and steal my stuff to buy drugs because the law of supply and demand would operate and they would probably be affordable for anyone. It is easier in my country to keep minors from buying legal cigarettes than it is to keep them from buying illegal drugs. Anyway, I agree with Bill Maher that the biggest drug pushers in my country are the drug companies who are allowed to charge exorbitant prices and don't want any competition.

But, off the soapbox and back to the story. Once, the narcotic police told the SWAT police about a particularly dangerous dealer. He was reputed to have a pit bull trained as an attack dog roaming his house and many, many automatic weapons, a TV system to watch what was going on in his yard, all windows covered with burglar bars and burglar cages around his doors. This is a wrought iron cage that surrounds one's door which keeps anyone from being able to approach the door and break in unless the person in the house releases the lock on the burglar cage door to allow access to the real front door.

Well, Swat cops love burglar cages because they can use their armored SWAT tank like truck and hook chains to the burglar cage and yank the whole thing off the house, which is very loud and exciting. Then they use their big door slamming ram and knock down the whole front door and run in. Of course, if the person inside is waiting, after having been awakened by the burglar cage flying across the front yard, and having spied many men running around the yard in dark uniforms and head coverings and large body shields and guns, and that person has many automatic weapons, no one wants to be the first through the knocked down door.

So, the SWAT cops get to use another of their favorite things, the stun grenade. This thing emits a bright light and some sort of subsonic boom that renders anyone in the room with it stunned and incapacitated for about 30 seconds. So, my son and a few others went to the back of the house and the man's bedroom window. One broke the window out and my son stuck the grenade launcher in and fired the stun grenade. When it went off the burglar cage was yanked off and the door was knocked down and 10 SWAT guys charged into the living room and the first three fell over a couch and knocked it over in the process.

Now, all of the guys had those guns with the flashlights on them and were hooked up to the little over your ear, in front of your mouth, radios, so everyone could hear what everyone said. They were all on the lookout for the trained attack dog to charge them, although most are animal lovers and would only shoot it if actually attacked.

In the back of the house my son and his companions had yanked the burglar bars off the window and were coming through the window into the guy's bedroom before he could become unstunned and they were also watching for the dog, as if he were an alligator waiting under the window to snap off feet. Then over the radio they heard the guys on the floor in the living room, who had the best view down the hall, say "dog! dog coming!" And he was! That dog was hauling ass down the hall and away from the bedroom, where far from roaming and protecting and attacking, he had been asleep and recovered from the stun much quicker than his owner.

The dog leaped over the couch and the cops around it and raced for the front door which was on the floor and my son could hear the cops still by the door warning each other, "Dog! Watch the dog!" Well, they had to watch fast because that dog was over the door and out the opening, past the cops still in the yard, who also told each other, "Dog!", and down the street he went and out of sight.

The rest was rather anticlimatic. The guy was still stunned on his bed when my son came through the window and was put in cuffs without incident. Before the SWAT cops could call the narcotic cops from down the street to come in and process and search the house the down the street cops called them on their radios and said "hey, we have a dog here. He came running down the street and when he saw us he ran up to us." Yes, it was the fleeing, felon dog, apparently surrendering.

The owner heard this exchange and asked if they could call his brother to come get the dog because he was a good dog and he didn't want him to go to the pound or be left loose on the streets. It appears he was a loved pet more than the attack dog the informant had thought him. Well, the brother was called and he came and got the dog; probably for a long time based on what was found in the house.

I just thought this was a very funny story and much more indicative of SWAT police work than what is shown on TV and I wanted to say thank you to police people everywhere who take the time to think and pause and give a fleeing, four footed felon a chance to escape.