Police Raid Wrong Address, Hit Innocent Man With the Butt of a Shotgun
Also from Radley Balko, another horrific botched drug raid. This one happened a couple weeks ago, but didn’t get nearly as much press coverage as the Cheye Calvo raid, maybe because no dogs were shot. These folks must not have had any dogs. Instead, police hit an epileptic man in the head with a gun.
And just listen to this pathetic excuse for an excuse:
No, it’s not understandable! It’s inevitable. It's deeply disturbing. But it is not understandable. If doing multiple aggressive drug raids each day leads to outcomes like this, then stop doing them. If you can’t keep track of the addresses and your officers are clubbing the innocent, then please do something about it and don’t tell us we should be more understanding.
What sort of defense is it to point out that his officers smash down 1,100 doors a year? That, rather obviously, is exactly the problem.
Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight.
The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.
And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Schavon Pennyamon, who lives at the mistakenly raided apartment on Sherwood Street with her husband, Terrell, and six children.
Pennyamon alleges that after wrongly breaking into her apartment, police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment. [BuffaloNews.com]
And just listen to this pathetic excuse for an excuse:
"We wouldn’t be comfortable discussing the internal investigation," [Chief of Detectives, Dennis J.] Richards said. "We can say comfortably that over 1,100 search warrants were executed last year and 580 to date this year and that, with such a high volume and such a fast-paced environment, it is understandable that mistakes could happen."
No, it’s not understandable! It’s inevitable. It's deeply disturbing. But it is not understandable. If doing multiple aggressive drug raids each day leads to outcomes like this, then stop doing them. If you can’t keep track of the addresses and your officers are clubbing the innocent, then please do something about it and don’t tell us we should be more understanding.
What sort of defense is it to point out that his officers smash down 1,100 doors a year? That, rather obviously, is exactly the problem.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
drug raid
consfearacy
The "Drug War" is the Bread & Butter of Law Enforcement. 25 years old, attitude to sell, got a badge, got a gun, ain`t playing cops and robbers fun?! What else do the people expect? How many "Peace Officers" does a drug task force have? Answer = None. It`s not Drug Peace, it`s Drug War. The Drug War created apathy amongst the people. Fear. Loss of Liberty. It is what we make it.
It's not the THC they really fear... it's the BSB's!
I love it!
Q. How many "Peace Officers" does a drug task force have? A. None!
Q. What the hell do most 25 yr. old kids know about law, life, and liberty? A. Not Much!
Exactly the way the purveyors of gods & governments like it.
Remember, it's not the THC... the various gangs within gods & gov'ts really fear... it's the BSBs... the Bull Shit Blockers!
Always measure your excesses carefully and act like the responsible self-governing adults society demands for an egalitarian society to exist & thrive!
Daring to disagree,
Billy B. Blunt
Tacoma, WA
P.S. "Truth is treason in the kingdom of lies" Ron Paul (For President '08)
The Government’s Secret Lotteries
Approximately 1,100 raids are being serviced yearly under the discretion of Buffalo’s vain little war on doors and drugs. If 1-out-of-1,100 raids turn out to be incredibly wrong and stupid, then the odds of a little mishap is 1100-to-1, and as with any odds, people can wager.
Americans are being entered into this twisted government lottery without their permission. It’s a lottery they would reject outright if they could, and if they knew the terms of the wager.
The ‘winner’ in this lottery gets their door kicked down in the middle of the night by police cowboys with itchy trigger fingers who might kill them, their pets, or their family for no reason beyond being spooked by a shadow. Children get military weapons pointed at them, and if anyone truly vulnerable is spotted, they get a gun butt in the head to prove to everyone in the household the alleged moral superiority of the raiding officers.
This clever but deadly little drug war lottery that our vain and paranoid government has enrolled us in without our permission is little more than their latest contract with America, or contract on America, as the case may be.
I say the contract is illegal. No one signed any contract or placed any wager, and in this case the purpose of the contract is to protect an illegal government invasion of privacy. The U.S. is a country where the law says no one can make a contract for something illegal. So I won’t buy that lottery ticket, or take that ride.
Another problem with the Buffalo raid is that it raises a question about police violence. The fact that news of the violence associated with all these raids only (or maybe always?) seems to emerge in cases where the raid was botched, is very suspicious.
If the cops strike one innocent guy and threaten his family as they did in Buffalo, then odds are that they’ve abused others who weren’t so innocent, and whose charges of police corruption and violence no one takes seriously simply because the culprit ends up being convicted and that’s that.
Giordano
Contract with America or Contract On America
"Contract with America or Contract On America"
Sounds like a good title for an episode of 'Rocky & Bullwinkle' or 'Spy vs Spy'.
I've long suspected the DEA (dumb evil assholes) were the muscle for another rogue, but secret, criminal organization known as the FEA (fundamentally extreme authoritarians).
Just 2 more dangerous players among the gaggle of gangs within gods & governments.
Daring to Disagree,
Billy B. Blunt
Tacoma, WA
P.S. "Truth is treason in the kingdom of lies" - Ron Paul (For President '08)
Every drug raid is a terrorist attack
Most don't make the news because the victims aren't mayors.
There is absolutely NO excuse for the level of violence used in drug raids. And there is absolutely NO excuse for armed officers to use a weapon of any kind against any unarmed civilian -- innocent or guilty.
But they do it ALL THE TIME -- BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Amazing the actions society will tolerate....
.... in the name of protecting kids. Drug policy reformers can a lot to learn from this.
Mr. Morgan
Well said, I couldn't have said it better myself, literarily.
to rita.
the sad thing is, to the officers, EVERYONE THEY TOUCH (without a badge) IS CONSIDERED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Why can't we get that through cops heads? These "criminals" are not even proven to be so, yet they act as though its just a technicality, and they may as well be the scum-of-the-earth baddest nastiest criminal in their jurisdiction. That mentality is inhumane and sickening.
Excuse me?
Don't you mean "Everyone they touch is considered GUILTY even IF proven innocent?"
Actually, if it weren't for the gun in the baby's face, the sight of ten grown men stumbling around in a 12' x 50' trailer, taking pictures of empty tins! empty baggies! cigarette lighters! would have been kinda comical.
"Daddy, what did you do at work today?"
"Well, son, it was real scary -- me and nine of my buddies went up against two unarmed women and three little boys. We got 'em, though. We won."
"Gee, Daddy, I'm so proud of you!"
Post new comment