How Many Body Armored Police Does It Take To Check For Dirty Water?

by William Teach | September 5, 2013 7:49 am

The answer would be eight (via Climate Depot[1]

(Alaska Dispatch[2]) When agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor and jackets emblazoned with POLICE in big, bold letters, local placer miners didn’t quite know what to think.

Did it really take eight armed men and a squad-size display of paramilitary force to check for dirty water? Some of the miners, who run small businesses, say they felt intimidated.

Others wonder if the actions of the agents put everyone at risk. When your family business involves collecting gold far from nowhere, unusual behavior can be taken as a sign someone might be trying to stage a robbery. How is a remote placer miner to know the people in the jackets saying POLICE really are police?

Miners suggest it might have been better all around if officials had just shown up at the door — as they used to do — and said they wanted to check the water.

In case you were wondering, the Environmental Protection Agency was involved

The EPA has refused to publicly explain why it used armed officers as part of what it called a “multi-jurisdictional” investigation of possible Clean Water Act violations in the area.

A conference call was held last week to address the investigation. On the line were members of the Alaska Congressional delegation, their staff, state officers, and the EPA. According to one Senate staffer, the federal agency said it decided to send in the task force armed and wearing body armor because of information it received from the Alaska State Troopers about “rampant drug and human trafficking going on in the area.”

There was apparently some concern over drug smuggling and human trafficking, which absolutely no-one is buying. And only one person was a compliance officer meant to check the water quality.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[3]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[4].

Endnotes:

Climate Depot: http://www.climatedepot.com/
Alaska Dispatch: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130903/gold-miners-near-chicken-cry-foul-over-heavy-handed-epa-raids
Pirate’s Cove: http://www.thepiratescove.us/
@WilliamTeach: http://twitter.com/WilliamTeach

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/environment/how-many-body-armored-police-does-it-take-to-check-for-dirty-water/