In these days of austerity and budget cutbacks it's important for law enforcement to nab some splashy headlines once in awhile.
Hence the great Super Bowl Party caper at Le Parc Banquet Hall on Sunday. Four hundred cops, many kitted out in full SWAT regalia, to make six arrests.
The six suspects had been under investigation for some time. The police knew where they lived. It would have taken a couple of officers to go their front door and make the arrest.
But that wouldn't grab newspaper headlines. That wouldn't lead the eleven o'clock news. As law enforcement it would be a quiet success. As PR it would be an abject failure.
So instead of doing the job with two officers they did it with 400.
Overkill? Absolutely!
But great PR!
Then they hold a news conference where "Mafia" and "Hells Angels" are name-dropped into every other sentence, and the public soon realizes that the only thing standing between them and the complete collapse of civilization are the men in blue.
And those pending budget rollbacks just magically disappear.
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