Botched Paramilitary Police Raids

[Sharon]

I'm a little concerned at the accused police hatred in the 'Max' thread. I don't see the hatred some posters have lately remarked about, I see concern...

That is: Confusing police hatred with police mistrust.

Why is there an increase of no-knock raids on non-violent offenders?

Why do police trust informants who are usually career criminals & liars trying to save their own ass to get a better bargain for their crimes?


From the book 'Overkill'

Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

Check out this map. Set the parameters and read the stories.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

Kathryn Johnston

November 21, 2006—GA

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, police conduct a no-knock raid on the home of 88 year old Kathryn Johnston.

Johnston, described by neighbors as feeble and afraid to open her door at night, opens fire on officers as they burst into her home. Three of the officers are wounded before Johnston is shot and killed.

Relatives say that Johnston lived alone, and legally owned a gun because she was fearful of intruders. She lived in the home for 17 years. Police claim that they find a small amount of marijuana in Johnston's home, but none of the cocaine, computers, money, or equipment described in the affidavit that was used to obtain a warrant.

There are now allegations of a police cover-up.

Developing...

Source

Shaila Dewan and Brenda Goodman, "Atlanta Officers Suspended in Inquiry on Killing in Raid " The New York Times, November 28, 2006.

Botched Raid on an Elderly Couple.

March 22, 2006—MS

Police in Horn Lake, Mississippi raid a home after a tip from an informant that someone's operating a meth lab inside.

Once the paramilitary unit arrives at the scene, however, they find two houses on the property instead of one. They decide to pick one, and conduct the raid anyway. They end up waking up, terrorizing, and injuring a couple in their 80s, leaving the man with bruised ribs and the woman with a dislocated shoulder. They find the meth lab in the other house.

Police chief Darryl Whaley insisted that his officers "acted properly" and "followed procedures" in guessing which home was correct before commencing with the raid.

Source:

"Elderly couple hurt in raid on wrong house by Horn Lake police," Associated Press, March 23, 2006.

H. Victor Buerosse.

December 30, 2005—WI

On December 30, 2005, police in Pewaukee, Wisconsin break into the home of 68-year-old H. Victor Buerosse in a predawn raid. Buerosse is thrown into a closet door, then to the ground, and hit in the head with a police shield.

Despite his protests that police have the wrong address, they don't concede their mistake until a sergeant arrives later. They leave without an apology.

They eventually raid the correct residence, where they find a small amount of marijuana. Buerosse, a retired attorney, tells a local reporter, "SWAT teams are not meant for simple pot possession cases. The purpose of SWAT teams is to give police departments a specially trained unit to react to a violent situation, not to create one. This should not happen in America. To me you can't justify carrying out simple, routine police work this way."

Source:

Brian Huber, "Man says he was mistakenly targeted in drug raid," GM Today, January 5, 200

Cheryl Lynn Noel.

January 21, 2005—MD

Baltimore County, Maryland police descend on a home in the Dundalk neighborhood at around 5 a.m. on a narcotics warrant. They deploy a flashbang grenade, then quickly subdue the first-floor occupants -- a man and two young adults.

When officers enter the second-floor bedroom of Cheryl Llynn Noel, they break open the door to find the middle-aged woman in her bed, frightened, and pointing a handgun at them. One officer fires three times. Noel dies at the scene.

Friends and acquaintances described Noel as "a wonderful person," who ran a Bible study group on her lunch breaks. One man collected 200 signatures from friends, neighbors, and coworkers vouching for her character.

Officers conducted the raid after finding marijuana seeds in the Noels' garbage can.

Sources:

Joseph M. Giordano, "Woman is shot, killed by police in drug raid," Dundalk Eagle, January 27, 2005.

Joseph M. Giordano, "Petition reflects anguish," Dundalk Eagle, March 31, 2005.

Alberta Spruill.

May 16, 2003—NY

On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers storm an apartment building in Harlem on a no-knock warrant. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant, who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor.

There is no felon. The only resident in the building is Alberta Spruill, described by friends as a "devout churchgoer." Before entering the apartment, police deploy a flashbang grenade. The blinding, deafening explosion stuns the 57 year-old city worker, who then slips into cardiac arrest. She dies two hours later.

A police investigation would later find that the drug dealer the raid team was looking for had been arrested days earlier. He couldn't possibly have been at Spruill's apartment because he was in custody. The officers who conducted the raid did no investigation to corroborate the informant's tip. A police source told the New York Daily News that the informant in the Spruill case had offered police tips on several occasions, none of which had led to an arrest. His record was so poor, in fact, that he was due to be dropped from the city's informant list.

Nevertheless, his tip on the ex-con in Spruill's building was taken to the Manhattan district attorney's office, who approved of the application for a no-knock entry. It was then taken to a judge, who issued the warrant resulting in Spruill's death. From tip to raid, the entire "investigation" and execution were over in a matter of hours.

Spruill's death triggered an outpouring of outrage and emotion in New York and inspired dozens of victims of botched drug raids, previously afraid to tell their stories, to come forward.

Still, the number of real, tangible reforms to result from the raid were few. Though the number of no-knocks in New York has by most indications declined, there's still no real oversight or transparency in how they're granted and carried out. And victims of botched raids still have no real recourse, other than to hope the media gets hold of their story.

Sources:

Austin Fenner, Maki Becker, and Michelle McPhee, "Cops' Tragic Grenade Raid; Storm wrong apt., woman dies," New York Daily News, May 17, 2003, p.3.

William K. Rashbaum, "Report by police outlines mistakes in ill-fated raid," New York Times, May 31, 2003, p. A1.

Fernanda Santos and Patrice O'Shaughnessy, "Snitch had shaky rep," New York Daily News, May 18, 2003.

Leonard Levitt, "Focus on Kelly, Race After Raid," Newsday, May 19, 2003, p. A2.

 

[protectmd]

Yeah its outta control. But what can ya do? They wear masks, throw grenades, have full auto hi cap weapons, sniper rifles, vicious dogs, tanks, APC's, helicopters, They have long battering rams, shields that can stop most if not anything, and uh, theres nothing you can do about it. lol. Call the ACLU and the NAACP. They'll get right on that.... lol.

 

[RadioPatrol]

I'm a little concerned at the accused police hatred in the 'Max' thread. I don't see the hatred some posters have lately remarked about, I see concern...

That is: Confusing police hatred with police mistrust.

Why is there an increase of no-knock raids on non-violent offenders?

Why do police trust informants who are usually career criminals & liars trying to save their own ass to get a better bargain for their crimes?


From the book 'Overkill'




Check out this map. Set the parameters and read the stories.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

Look @ WACO ...... Ruby Ridge(oh but thoose were nut jobs that deserved what they got) its the Cowboy we're gonna kick your ass, bust some caps, your the bad guy ( not even convicted ) Mentality ..... once the feds started offering up money for weapons and training even small towns that never had a SWAT team stepped up top the Federal TIT ..........