Baby SWAT

Radley Balko | June 30, 2007

The photo above shows Rock Island, Illinois SWAT team member Dytanya Robinson, who's teaching a youngster how to tear down a private citizen's door. Her appearance at the local elementary school came courtesy of funding from the DARE program. The article's lede:

The kids sat in Frances Willard Elementary School's library Thursday morning, waiting for their teacher.

She arrived about 9:10 a.m., dressed in all black, including a black face mask. "Sorry I'm late," Rock Island Police Officer Dytanya Robinson told the Junior Police Academy class. "I've already been working two raids ... I've been sweating in this hot suit since 6 a.m."

Two SWAT raids before 9am, on one day, in a city of 40,000, that had all of two murders in 2005.