CITIZENS IN THE COMMANDOS' CROSSFIRE

Late at night armed men shot their way into the home,set off a "flash-bang"
grenade,then ran into a bedroom where a man and his wife had been sleeping.
One of the gunmen shot Mario Paz, a 64-year-old grandfather, in the back
twice. Paz, head of a hard-working, law-abiding Compton, family, was killed
on Aug. 9 by an officer from El Monte who says he thought the retiree might
be reaching for a gun.

The SWAT team was looking for evidence against a former next-door neighbor,
a suspected drug dealer who occasionally used the Paz mailing address.

Police had no evidence against anyone in the household and found none
during the raid. Nobody in the family has a criminal record. Despite that,
they launched a military-style raid, shot a man for looking like he might
be trying to defend himself against violent intruders and then handcuffed
the survivors, including the victim's wife, and took them to a police
station for questioning.

Police found three guns and a rifle, bought for self-defense in a
crime-ridden neighborhood. The weapons were not in reach when Paz was shot,
his widow told the Los Angeles Times. Maria Luisa Paz said he was trying to
give money to the gunmen, assuming they were robbers.

Police seized $10,000 in cash, hoping to keep it as drug profits. Mrs. Paz
produced w withdrawal slip showing her husband had withdrawn the money -
his life savings - from his bank account that day. He was afraid of Y2K. No
drugs were found in the search.

The El Monte police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are
investigating the raid. Federal authorities are checking to see if Paz's
civil right were violated.

Naturally, the survivors are suing.

But there's been little outcry about the police invasion of the Paz home.
We expect people to die in drug raids, including the occasional unarmed
grandfather. It's what happens when a heavily armed SWAT team breaks into a
home, primed to shoot not to "protect and serve."

When police treat citizens as the enemy, operate in communities they don't
know and rely on overwhelming firepower, they are soldiers of an invading
army. Mario Paz is just another casualty in the drug war.

The drug war has militarized law enforcement. Collateral damage includes
the 80 or so Branch Davidians - nobody knows the exact number - who died in
the flames of Waco.

In its war with David Koresh's religious sect, the FBI used military
helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers and weapons - apparently
including pyrotechnic military tear-gas grenades.

The gas grenades were lobbed into the cultists' compound before the fatal
fire broke out - shot off too early to be a factor in the fire, says the
FBI. But after six years of claiming that no pyrotechnics were used the FBI
has no credibility.

Attorney General Janet Reno, who "took responsibility" after the assault,
says she was clueless, and therefore bears no responsibility.

So John Danforth, a former Republican senator, has been named to
investigate "whether there was a cover-up and whether the government killed
people." as he put it last week.

Danforth also will investigate whether there "was any illegal use of the
armed forces," Reno said.

More than a month before the final assault, Delta Force commandos were sent
to observe the siege, advise the FBI and report back to the defense
secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to documents released to the
New York Times.

If Delta Force commandos participated in the Waco assault, that's a no-no.
The military isn't supposed to make war on U.S. soil.

Except to fight the drug war.

A Marine anti-drug patrol shot to death a Texas teenager two years ago.
Reno's Justice Department found the civil rights of Esequiel Hernandez Jr.,
18, had not been violated. Nobody was held accountable for his death. Not
the corporal who fired the shot. Not the drug warriors who sent the Marines
to do a law enforcement job.

Danforth said last week that his mission is to investigate bad acts, not to
ask "dark questions" about bad judgment. He will not look at how the siege
started, with a bloody, botched raid by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
agents. He will not ask if the government's aggressive tactics created a
catastrophe.

Republicans in Congress will wade in, but they're so eager to sink Reno
they're likely to miss the deeper issue.

When police officers play soldier and soldiers play police, Americans die.