Law Enforcement: More Raids Gone Bad, Making May a Bad Month for SWAT

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #633)
Consequences of Prohibition

Two more SWAT raids gone bad in the past couple of weeks have kept the spotlight on the aggressive police units and the tactics they employ. In Polk County, Georgia, an elderly Cedartown woman was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack as a local police SWAT team and DEA agents swarmed the wrong house. In Detroit, in an incident that drew national attention, a 7-year-old girl was killed by police gunfire in a SWAT raid at the wrong apartment in a house. The SWAT team was attempting to arrest a murder suspect, so there was arguably more of a case for SWAT than in the routine drug cases we normally track in Drug War Chronicle. But the incident tragically demonstrates the potential dangers arising from such aggressive police tactics.

The two raids come before the national outrage generated by the now infamous dog-killing SWAT raid in Columbia, Missouri, has had a chance to die down. In that raid, a videotape of which went viral on YouTube, a SWAT team executing a marijuana search warrant burst into a family home and shot two dogs, killing one, before ushering the suspect's terrified wife and young daughter out of the home. All police came up with was a tiny amount of pot and a pipe.

In the Georgia raid, Helen Pruett, 76, was home alone when nearly a dozen agents entered her property with guns drawn in search of drug dealers. They were actually looking for another residence on the same property, but mistakenly -- after two years of surveillance -- hit hers.

"She was at home and a bang came on the back door and she went to the door and by the time she got to the back door, someone was banging on the front door and then they were banging on her kitchen window saying police, police," said Pruett's daughter, Machelle Holl, adding that her mother was scared to open the door until the Polk County Police Chief convinced her she was safe. "They never served her with a warrant. At that point, she said the phones were ringing with the other men that were in the yard and they realized that it was the wrong address," said Holl.

Police Chief Kenny Dodd said police realized the subject they were looking for was not there. "She made us aware that she was having chest pains and we got her medical attention. I stayed with her and kept her calm and talked with her, monitored her vital signs until the ambulance arrived," said Dodd.

Bizarrely for a wrong address raid, police said the property had been under surveillance for two years. The DEA said it is investigating how the wrong address raid address raid occurred. That didn't mollify Holl.

"They have totally made a really bad mistake. You would think that with the officers and the SWAT team and the DEA they would make sure that all of their I's are dotted, all of their T's are crossed before they go bursting into someone's home like that," said Holl. "My mother was traumatized. Even the doctor said this is what happens when something traumatic happens. He said it's usually like a death in the family or something like that just absolutely scares them half to death, and that is what has happened," said Holl.

In the Detroit raid, the SWAT team was attempting to arrest a murder suspect, making the decision about whether to use SWAT potentially more complicated than in the routine drug cases we normally track in Drug War Chronicle. But the incident tragically demonstrates the potential dangers arising from such aggressive police tactics, and it resulted in the death of a seven-year-old Aiyana Jones.

According to a statement Sunday by Assistant Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, police had tracked the killer of a 17-year-old man the day before to the house. "Because of the ruthless and violent nature of the suspect in this case, it was determined that it would be in the best interest of public safety to execute the search warrant as soon as possible and detain the suspect if while we sought a murder warrant," Godbee said. "Our intelligence was accurate in this case. The suspect in Mr. Blake's death was found inside the home and arrested... But to locate him, we first had to make entry into the home. At approximately 12:40 this morning, members of the Detroit Police Special Response Team, or SRT, executed this high-risk search warrant," the assistant chief explained.

"According to our officers, and at least one independent witness, officers approached the house, and announced themselves as police. As is common in these types of situations, the officers deployed a distractionary device commonly known as a Flash Bang. The purpose of the device is to temporarily disorient occupants of the house to make it easier for officers to safely gain control of anyone inside and secure the premise," Godfree continued. "As the lead officer entered the home he encountered a 46-year-old female immediately inside the front room of the house. Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact. At about this time the officer's weapon discharged one round which, tragically, struck seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones in the neck/head area. Officers immediately conveyed Aiyana to St. John's Hospital while others apprehended the suspect and cleared the rest of the residence."

The SWAT team was accompanied by film crews for A&E's "The First 48," a reality TV show that follows police homicide investigators in the crucial first 48 hours after a murder has been committed. The network was taping the raid for a documentary. The videotape could play a crucial role in how this case plays out, and copies of the tapes were reportedly turned over to the state police later in the week. The state police are investigating the incident.

Prominent Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing the family in a civil suit filed this week, has questioned the police version of events. Saying he had obtained video footage shot by the TV show camera crew, Fieger said it showed officers rushing the house and throwing a flash grenade through a window before an officer fired into the home from the front porch.

The police account was "entirely false," Fieger said. "Of course, I have seen the videotape and the videotape vividly portrays the fact that a percussion grenade device was thrown through the front window and a shot was fired immediately from the outside from the porch," he said.

"No murder suspect was found in Aiyana's house," Fieger added. "In fact, there's an upstairs apartment next door which the police did not have a search warrant for and that is where he surrendered, they went into that house too. But he was not in Aiyana's house."

This isn't the first time the behavior of Detroit area SWAT teams has generated lawsuits. According to the Detroit Free Press's archive of stories on the Aiyana Jones killing, a civil suit is pending against Detroit SWAT for a 2007 raid at a home where children were present and a dog was killed, and another lawsuit is pending against the suburban Southfield police for a 2004 raid in which a 69-year-man was brutalized. Police in that raid found a small amount of marijuana in an adult son's dresser drawer.

Such raids have consequences. The anger is palpable in Detroit. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has called for a federal investigation, the Rev. Al Sharpton will address Aniya's funeral, and the city council is preparing its own review. The anger is also still palpable in Columbia, Missouri, where the dog-killing pot raid continues to reverberate. On Sunday, demonstrators picketed the police station, and city council meetings for the past two weeks have been packed with citizens complaining about the raid and demanding that heads roll. The mood wasn't helped by the police department's announcement Thursday that it had investigated itself and found its actions "appropriate."

Neil Franklin is a former Maryland police officer with SWAT experience. He is also the incoming head of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). For Franklin, SWAT has limited legitimate uses, but aggressive, paramilitarized policing has gone too far. He blames the war on drugs.

"Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we didn't use SWAT teams to conduct search warrants unless it was a truly documented violent organization," he said. "As the drug war escalated, we started using SWAT to execute drug-related warrants. When I first started as an undercover officer, the narcotics team executed the warrant, along with two or three uniformed officers, but not with the high-powered weapons and force we use today. The drug war is the reason for using these teams and the driving force behind them."

"Whatever one thinks about using SWAT tactics when looking for a murder suspect, the results in Detroit show how dangerously volatile the tactics really are," said David Borden, executive director of StoptheDrugWar.org, who is also the moving force behind the Americans for SWAT Reform web site. "There is every reason to believe that conducting a late night raid and detonating flash bang grenades led to the physical contact between the woman and the officer in which the gun discharged, killing the girl. All the more reason to avoid those tactics wherever possible, certainly for routine drug search warrants."

As the Chronicle and others, most notably, Radley Balko at Reason and The Agitator blog have reported, these aggressive drug raids gone bad are not flukes, but occur on a regular, if unpredictable, basis. As they become increasingly routine, so do the risks associated with them -- for police and citizens alike. Next week, the Chronicle will be taking a look at what can be done to begin to rein them in.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

David Schempf (not verified)

The best and most effective way to deal with the outrageous oppression in this country is to get rid of ALL incumbents in ALL political offices. They're a part of the Evil Conspiracy to deprive the citizens the freedom to prosper and thrive. Is there ever honor amongst thives( or liars and cheats)?

"We've come to take our government back"
Rand Paul, 5/19/2010

Fri, 05/21/2010 - 2:43pm Permalink
ZenQuixote (not verified)

In reply to by David Schempf (not verified)

"We've come to take our government back"
Rand Paul, 5/19/2010

"We've come to take our government back to 1850"
Rand Paul, 5/19/2010

Sat, 05/22/2010 - 10:31am Permalink
Moonrider (not verified)

In reply to by ZenQuixote (not verified)

NO! Back to Constitutionally restricted government!

Back to the idea that each adult owns his/her own body and the fruits that come from one's labor (including property bought or businesses begun with those fruits), and the government has no legitimate power to interfere with that self ownership or to take or control how one uses the fruits of one's labor, such as interfering with the management of the property/business one owns, or taking it, unlawfully (confiscation/seizure or eminent domain abuses).

I hope this isn't taken as spam since I also posted it over in the Speakeasy. It's an important resource for us, as reformers, to demand our government take our issue seriously:

Today, Republicans in the House of Representative launched an online initiative very similar to the Contract from America, in which they intend to solicit ideas from the American people. Presumably they will act on the best ideas and perhaps on those that generate the greatest response. Their initiative is called, "America Speaking Out" and it can be found online at www.americaspeakingout.com.

I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!

Tue, 05/25/2010 - 12:50pm Permalink
newageblues (not verified)

"The purpose of the device is to temporarily disorient occupants of the house to make it easier for officers to safely gain control of anyone inside and secure the premise," How are people who are being made disoriented while having their home broken into supposed to know it's cops who want to arrest them and not criminals out to kill them? As said above, tragedies on a regular basis are predictable, so such tactics should be used only when really necessary, after very careful consideration.
If the cops weren't so busy with non-violent drug offenders, maybe they would have had the resources to do better surveillance in the Detroit case.

Fri, 05/21/2010 - 7:21pm Permalink
rita (not verified)

As soon as a cop starts talking about "our intelligence," you know you're in trouble. There is no intelligence going on here. Every SWAT raid constitutes police violence against civilians. Even in murder cases that level of violence is rarely, if ever, justified. Now who will "investigate" the murder of a 7-year-old? Why, other cops, of course. No doubt THAT will be an honest, impartial affair.

Everyone's shocked and appalled at the shooting of dogs, but they've been shooting people for decades. Not to "enforce the law." Not to "protect the public." Not even because it's their job. No, they do it because they can.

Fri, 05/21/2010 - 9:00pm Permalink
Moonrider (not verified)

will likely find the cops did everything according to department procedures, just as this one did:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/may/20/police-conclude-swat-investigation/
It is time that every one of these deadly raid (and corruption cases) investigations be done by non-law enforcement personnel, such as citizen review boards but with disciplinary teeth, even the power to remand careless and/or corrupt cops into police custody (jail) and certain prosecution in a court of law before a fully informed jury of citizens.

I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!

Sat, 05/22/2010 - 4:16am Permalink
April Martinez (not verified)

There was NO prohibition of ANYTHING in 1850. however, there has been a 3,000% increase in laws 1900. Is the standard of living that much better? Has there been that much human progress since 1900? Are you Safer than in 1850, especially from the Agent of the State?

"There are those deniers in society that choose to believe the leaders of the land that have the wisdom of Fools"
Paul, speaking in scripture

Sat, 05/22/2010 - 4:29pm Permalink
daniel (not verified)

WOW i have an 8 month puppy and before that i never understood the meaning of mans best friend until i bonded with my dog. But really a drug raid over TINY amount of weed is just so stupid. Weed is not that harmful and is used for medicinal purposes in some states. Marijuana is such a big problem because the word ILLEGAL stirs it up and Marijuana goes against the LAW. Maybe the CRIME raates would go down if it were legal; possesing or using marijuana should not be considered a crime ; to tell u the truth in maryland the only drug i've experience is weed and i have never even seen anything other than weed at parties, friends house, college at george mason, college parties, and etc. When i have children i know they'll be exposed to marijuana because almost everybody does it. other drugs should be kept illegal because it KILLS.But going on a drug raid for tiny amount of weed is the dumbest thing i've heard. if i found out the swat team was outside my house ready to shoot my pup for a pipe and tiny amount of weed i would start swinging.

Mon, 05/24/2010 - 7:31am Permalink
no brainer (not verified)

What an assinine comment. Prohibition IS the problem.

Fri, 05/28/2010 - 12:42pm Permalink
Marcus mackey (not verified)

  In the town i live in(lets call it Ban Vuren Smarkansas.  They raid people on emergency medical calls.  Collect evidence without search warrants,  seize property without proof that it was obtained illegally and mistreat pregnant women.   Further more they try to railroad people for things that the Supreme Court has already cited precedence on.

Sun, 12/12/2010 - 3:21am Permalink

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Source URL: https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/may/21/law_enforcement_more_raids_gone