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SWAT is an acronym for Special Weapons And Tactics.
In the United States, it is the most commonly known name to the public of a specialized paramilitary police unit in major city police departments who are trained to perform dangerous operations. These can include coordinated attacks on selected targets such as heavily armed criminals in secure locations. They are typically equipped with heavier armaments than ordinary police officers with available arms including submachine guns, carbines, specialized tear gas and concussion grenades, and high-powered rifles for " marksmen" ( snipers). SWAT at the Bay Area Rapid Transit - San Francisco
The first SWAT unit was created in the city of Los Angeles. In the 1960s Los Angeles had some serious troubles with sniping incidents against police officers and civilians. Common police officers didn't handle those situations at all well, because line police officers, whose job is simple law enforcement, get limited weapons training, very little weapons practice, and effectively no team combat tactics or "counterforce" capability. Classic "riot police" (crowd control) squads also seemed not to be up to the challenge presented by these events. Officer John Nelson came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit, intended to respond to and manage critical situations while minimizing police casualties. Inspector Daryl F. Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers.
This first SWAT unit was initially constituted as 15 teams of four men each, for a total staff of 60. These officers were given special status and benefits. They had to attend special monthly training. This unit also served as security unit for police facilities during civil unrest. In the LAPD, SWAT units were listed as "Platoon 'D'".
The first challenge for LAPD's SWAT unit was on 9 December 1969: a four-hour confrontation with members of The Black Panthers. The Panthers finally surrendered; the casualty tally was three Panthers wounded and three police officers wounded. By 1974 there was general acceptance and implementation of SWAT as a resource for the city and county of Los Angeles.
On the afternoon of May 17, 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped, LAPD SWAT took on one of its most significant challenges. Elements of a group which called itself the " Symbionese Liberation ArmyThe Symbionese Liberation Army was an American-based terrorist group that committed several murders and acts of violence in the early to mid 1970s. The group dates its formation from the escape of Donald DeFreeze, who adopted the byname "Field Marshal Cin" (SLA), a group of heavily-armed fugitive criminal would-be revolutionaries, barricaded themselves in a residence on East 54th Street at Compton Avenue. Coverage of the siege was broadcast to millions via television and radio and read about in the world press for days after. Appeals to surrender were made to the barricaded suspects on 26 separate occasions, 18 preceding the introduction of tear gas, and 10 during the ensuing confrontation. Not a single round was fired by police until their initial appeals had been answered by repeated volleys of semi-automatic and fully automatic gunfire. Despite the later-calculated firing of 3,772 rounds by the SLASLA stands for Symbionese Liberation Army, kidnappers of Patty Hearst South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-backed militia during the Lebanese Civil War Sudan Liberation Army rebel group in Sudan (SLA) A role-playing game written by Dave Alsop. Service Level Agr, no uninvolved citizens or police officers sustained injury from gunfire.
The fate of the suspects, however, was somewhat different. During the gun battle, a fire erupted inside the residence. The cause of the fire is officially unknown. Police sources speculated that an errant round ignited one of the suspect's molotov cocktailA Molotov cocktail (or petrol bomb is a crude incendiary weapon which consists of a glass bottle filled with flammable liquid, usually gasoline ( petrol) or alcohol (generally methanol or ethanol), and a rag stuffed in the mouth of the bottle. The weapons. Others suspect that the repeated use of tear gas grenades, which function by burning chemicals at high temperatures, started the structure fire. All six of the suspects suffered multiple gunshot wounds and perished in the ensuing blaze.