April 18, 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of the
Branch Davidian siege where four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents
were killed by cult members during a raid of the Davidian’s compound. The agency planned to raid the compound due
to allegations that the group was converting AR-15 assault weapon from
Semi-automatic to Full-automatic which turn the weapon into a machine gun which
is illegal in the state of Texas. Also
there were several rumors that the Cult Leader David Koresh was married to
several women under the legal age. Prior
to the raid news reporter would visit the compound to interview Koresh and
during one of the visit a undercover ATF agent Robert Rodriguez who was posing
as a mail courier told him that I know government agents are coming to raid the
compound and when they do we will be ready for them. When law enforcement agencies use force
especially in situations like this the element of surprise is how they gain the
advantage over the opposition. Since
this advantage was lost Rodriguez rushed back to the ATF Command and Control
Center to report these facts to Operational Commander.
So why did the ATF Agents through with the raid anyway? The
use of force is usually the last resort when dealing with suspects law enforcement
wants to place under arrest or detain.
Officer safety is the number one objective when using force. In this case Agent Rodriguez warning were
disregarded and there were not contingency plans or alternatives set in place
to change the course of act which resulted in the four fatalities. For sample chemical agents such as tear gas
or flash grenades could have been used.
Sometimes law enforcement officers see themselves as crime fighters and
ignore the details that could affect them.
Sometime arrogance on the part these officer caused by the Dirty Harry
Syndrome can cloud rational and ethical reasoning.
After shooting the Federal Bureau of Investigation were
called to handle the incident and after 51 days they raided the compound with
tanks and heavy armored vehicles as a result the Branch Davidian’s committed
mass suicide by burning down the building in which everyone was housed. Usually
it takes a tragedy such as this to change agency policy and training of ATF
officer to ensure that this does not happen again.
Turner, A. (2013, March 12). The branch davidian seige, 20 year later. San Antonio Express News. Retrieved from http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/The-Branch-Davidian-seige-20-yea..//
Banks, C. (2013). Criminal justice ethics. (3rd ed., pp. 27-33). Thousand Oak, CA: Sage.
