The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on July 22, 2013, 04:52:57 PM
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A couple of articles on police overkill and the current upswing of what one article calls "Warrior Cops"......
Thanks to David Codrea.
Law enforcement overkill, arrogance displayed in wrong apartment raid
All Louise Goldsberry was doing was washing dishes, Tom Lyons of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune told his readers last Thursday. After working her shift as a nurse and then coming home and making dinner for herself and her boyfriend, the last thing she expected was to see a man outside “aiming a gun at her face, with a red light pinpointing her.”
More at link:
http://www.examiner.com/article/law-enforcement-overkill-endangerment-arrogance-displayed-wrong-house-raid
Rise of the Warrior Cop
Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?
On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
The police found 16 small marijuana plants in Mr. Stewart's basement. There was no evidence that Mr. Stewart, a U.S. military veteran with no prior criminal record, was selling marijuana. Mr. Stewart's father said that his son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have smoked the marijuana to self-medicate.
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In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily). These victims were bystanders, or the police later found no evidence of the crime for which the victim was being investigated. They include Katherine Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed by an Atlanta narcotics team acting on a bad tip from an informant in 2006; Alberto Sepulveda, an 11-year-old accidentally shot by a California SWAT officer during a 2000 drug raid; and Eurie Stamps, killed in a 2011 raid on his home in Framingham, Mass., when an officer says his gun mistakenly discharged. Mr. Stamps wasn't a suspect in the investigation.
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More at link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
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So why not just stop him pulling out of his driveway or at the mall or something and arrest him and serve the warrant?
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So why not just stop him pulling out of his driveway or at the mall or something and arrest him and serve the warrant?
This is always the question that nobody wants to answer.. Maybe we're supposed to stop asking, (or thinking to ask)..
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while that is a very good question, I highly doubt that artical had all the facts. I would bet there are a few key points that were left out on purpose,( all news media is like that) thats not to say how they went about things was right, just that there are always 3 sides to every story.
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I think what needs to be fully understood here is this: we have militarized our civilian police forces.
Look, we arm our SWAT teams with M-16s, body armor, black uniforms, Kevlar helmets, and masks. We train them to move with military precision. We transport them to a suspected crime scene in armored personnel carriers and accompany them with light tanks. And then we act surprised when they raid some innocent's house like a military raid and someone gets killed.
It's what we asked for, people. It's what we paid for. And it is definitely what we got.
We are using this militarized force to fight a theoretical war on drugs that should not be fought in the first place.
Who owns your body? If the answer is that you own your own body, then who has any realistic right to say what it is you do with or to that body--unless you harm others.
Get government out of the business of controlling personal behavior that has no direct impact on another.
After all, it has been succinctly noted by better minds than mine: Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Now, what are we the people going to do about it?
I weep for my country.
Crusader Rabbit
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The way I see it, that kind of raid is illegal.
He needed to be served a search warrant before entry was made since there was no sign of violent behavior.
That being the case, since they feel they are justified in charging Stewart with the murder of Officer Francom, every officer and supervisor involved in this criminal act should be tried and found guilty (barring any evidence not presented in the story) of the murder of a Police Officer.
Stewart should be acquitted of the murder on self defense grounds and pursue criminal and civil charges against the jurisdiction that allowed this criminal attitude to exist.
I remember years ago when I first became aware of police wearing the US Flag on their uniforms. I think it was back in the '80s or 90s maybe, and I have no idea if that was when the flag started to appear or if that was just when I first noticed the practice. Anyway, while it is seems benign, it caused a "mental tick mark" at the time as a step towards militarization of police.
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So why not just stop him pulling out of his driveway or at the mall or something and arrest him and serve the warrant?
Because we have a SWAT team, dammit, and we will bloody well use any damn time we want!!!! >:(
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So why not just stop him pulling out of his driveway or at the mall or something and arrest him and serve the warrant?
That would screw 16 members of the SWAT team out of a couple of hours of OT! We can't have that with all the money sitting in the bank ::)