| No human being has the right -- under any circumstances -- to initiate force against another human being, nor to threaten or delegate its initiation. The Zero Aggression Principle |
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Please
send any A raid
gone wrong Published: Friday, September 19, 2008 It's sad, of course, that Cheye Calvo's dogs were blown away, left for hours in two pools of blood on the floors of his living and dining rooms. It's unfortunate, to be sure, that Calvo's front door had to be burst open, that it was necessary to plant his mother-in-law on the floor, arms bound, a high-caliber weapon pointed at her head, or that his house had to be trashed, every drawer flipped over, his belongings strewn about. Tragic, really. But no apology is necessary, you see. Even though Calvo and his wife were exonerated of any criminal act almost instantly after their house was raided in July, even though the officers had done next to zero investigative work before smashing into the Calvo house, "The guys did what they were supposed to do," Prince George's (Md.) County Sheriff Michael Jackson says. "They had a legitimate court order to be there." Never mind that the dozen or so officers from the county police and sheriff's SWAT team didn't have a warrant with them when they stormed Calvo's house in Berwyn Heights, Md. Never mind that the authorities seem unaware that a 2005 Maryland law spells out exactly when "no-knock" raids are permitted. (Read the rest here!)
The Richland County, SC SWAT team just got a LOT more firepower... Follow the link to see the nice new TANK and .50 cal automatic turret gun the nice SC Sheriff has! Sheriff
Lott's New Toy The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff's Department (that's them above) just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun. Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle "The Peacemaker," and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it's generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will "save lives." Can we call this overkill, yet? Is there any weapon people like Sheriff Lott would consider inappropriate for use against American citizens?
Video
shows police punching teen 13 times in face, then tasering him GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- An 18-year-old was punched in the face 13 times by a deputy police officer, whose dashboard video camera caught the incident on tape, WYFF Channel 4 News reported. The video shows undercover Deputy Brian Tollison pulling over a truck driven by a drug suspect and beating the teenage driver while what appears to be a back-up deputy held him down.
Did he jump, or was he pushed? Missouri
Police taser injured boy 19 times KY 3 News' Sara Sheffield reports on an injured teen from Ozark, Missouri who was tasered up to 19 times by police. Passing motorists called Ozark police out of concern for the teen as he walked along the busy overpass. When the police arrived, the young man was lying on the shoulder of the highway directly underneath the 30 foot high overpass with a broken back and foot.
Abetting
Police Aggression: The 'COPS Effect' They really didn't have to wreck the house, but they did it anyway. There was no tactical advantage to be gained by perforating the house with tear gas grenades (one of which remained, for a long time, embedded in an attic vent), blowing out five windows, leaving part of the ceiling collapsed and the whole house uninhabitable because of the suffocating residue left by the gas attack.
Paralyzed man claims Chicago police dragged him from car when he didn't get out quickly CHICAGO - A paralyzed man claimed in a lawsuit Thursday that seven Chicago police officers dragged him from a car and beat him unconscious when he was too slow to obey their order to get out of the vehicle. Daniel Casares claims the officers engaged in excessive use of force and battery. His federal lawsuit against the city and seven officers asks for unspecified damages. [Yes, really! He's paralyzed, yet he was charged and CONVICTED of "battery and resisting arrest." Just how much resistance, let alone "battery" is one paralyzed person capable of, especially against armed cops? Insanity squared!]
Is it just me, or are these "wrong house" things getting more common? And "misled?" I don't think so. ML Troy
raid based on a faulty tip TROY -- Police were acting on a confidential informant's report when they raided a South Troy apartment, stunning a resident who was not involved in any illegal activity, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. District Attorney Richard McNally said the confidential informant who supplied the information that led to the 6 a.m raid Thursday at 396 First St. will be interviewed to determine why officers were misled.
Man
killed in Pembroke Pines drug raid is identified By Andrew
Ba Tran | South Florida Sun-Sentinel Pembroke Pines - A 46-year-old man who was shot and killed by police executing a search warrant for drugs was identified Friday as Vincent A. Hodgkiss. Hodgkiss was shot in his home at 6824 SW 10th Court about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, said Deputy Police Chief David Golt. The Pembroke Pines police department's Special Response Team and narcotics detectives had entered the home to look for drugs, officials said. Hodgkiss was shot when he confronted officers, police said. (Or... was shot while trying to protect his family from supposed armed intruders?)
The
new terror... forget
SWAT: They're
on the frontline of Homeland Security, with an approach that's unique
in the nation. They have members from federal, state, and local law enforcement
across the Valley. Crime Tracker 3 takes you on a rare trip behind the
scenes of ARMOR.
Police
raid Ashland house / Operation part of investigation into drug trafficking "This could get ugly," Lt. Geoff Thomas said, as about 20 officers gathered at the City Police Department Wednesday morning for a briefing before executing a search warrant at a suspected drug house. No arrests were made as a result of the Special Response Team operation, which was part of an ongoing investigation into alleged drug trafficking. Things didn't get ugly. But they could have. Sgt. Joel Icenhour painted a bleak picture at his 7 a.m. briefing. Earlier surveillance operations indicated there were guns, pit bulls, young children and a pregnant woman inside the house at 402 W. Main St. One resident is or has been affiliated with a street gang and some of the residents were suspected of dealing crack cocaine from the house, Icenhour said.
Death
Wears A Badge: SWAT Teams Gone Wild
Last month in Atlanta, a SWAT Team raided the home of--a DJ? Last night, a federal SWAT team assisted the RIAA in a raid on the studio of Atlanta musician DJ Drama. Assuming for a moment that RIAA and federal officials do indeed know the difference between a mash-up DJ and a bootleg operation, and that they did find evidence of actual piracy in the bust, there’s still the problem of why RIAA officials were participating in a police action, and why a SWAT team was used to raid a professional studio under investigation for a nonviolent, white-collar crime. Every two weeks, on average, somewhere in the U.S., a SWAT Team breaks into the house of an innocent person--in many cases, killing them. (Read the rest here)
Who
Wills the End, Wills the Means A serious effort to stamp out illegal immigration in this country would face much the same problems—and, for the power-hungry, offer the same opportunities. Like drugs, illegal immigration is easy to conceal, creates no victims to go to the police, is in high demand, and pours over the border in massive quantities. This is important, because it shows how the government can be expected to act. The prohibitions on immigration and immigrant labor that some libertarians favor would not be enforced by some idealized minarchist constitutional republic. They would be enforced by the state that actually exists today, with the personnel that state has and the incentives those personnel face. In other words, any real-world program to clamp down on illegal immigrants and those who employ them would be run by the same people who brought you no-knock midnight SWAT raids on suspected drug users, property forfeiture without trial, the gutting of the right to privacy and due process, and the deaths of dozens of innocents at the hands of the increasingly militarized police. Much as pro-war/interventionist libertarians forget everything they know about the state's competence and benevolence when warfare and the idea of transforming foreign cultures into modern democracies comes up, anti-immigration libertarians often seem to switch to an uncharacteristically rosy view of the government on this issue.
9/11
Toxic Dust Whistleblower Raided By SWAT Team A 9/11 toxic dust whistleblower, a ground zero hero and one of the individuals influential in the release of documents proving a government cover-up that deliberately put police, firemen and rescue personel at risk, has been raided by a New York SWAT team - who ransacked his home for three hours after he was arrested. Major Mike McCormack is a hospital technician and civil air patrol pilot who worked the ground zero site for eight days after the collapse of the twin towers. He is one of the real heroes of 9/11 and was the man who found the American flag that was later displayed as a token of unity atop the rubble. (See the rest at the source)
Home
Invasion: Racial Disparities in SWAT Raids There are past cases in Urbana-Champaign where the use of SWAT teams has ended in tragedy. On December 11, 1998, the News-Gazette covered the story of an 81 year-old African American woman who claimed she was grabbed by the neck and thrown to the floor by Champaign’s SWAT team and had to go to the hospital for injuries. The Champaign SWAT team was there to serve a outstanding warrant from Wisconsin to the woman’s grandson, who was not even in the house at the time. Last year, on May 11, 2006, Champaign police received a call from Garden Hills, about Carl “Dennis” Stewart, a suicidal black man alone in his car with a gun. The Champaign police called out the SWAT team and rolled out their prized Armored Personnel Carrier. After a four-hour standoff, Stewart was chased down the street by the APC. Cornered by police, he put the gun to his head and killed himself. According to one study, in cities with a population of at least 50,000, 90 percent have at least one SWAT team. This figure has doubled since the mid-1980s. In Champaign-Urbana, with a population of around 100,000, we have two SWAT teams, Champaign’s and the County’s. The first SWAT team in Urbana-Champaign goes back to 1985, when the University of Illinois and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office formed the Tactical Response Unit. In 1991, the Urbana Police Department joined and the name was changed to the Metropolitan Emergency Tactical Response Operations (METRO) team. Today, METRO is a multi-jurisdictional operation that also includes police from Rantoul, Mahomet, and Champaign. The Champaign Police Department has the resources to maintain its own SWAT team, information on which is hard to find. After 9-11, Champaign purchased an Armored Personnel Carrier with funds provided by Homeland Security. It is essentially an armored truck converted for police use. Although it is not marked as a police vehicle, it can be identified by the gun slots in the doors. Champaign has recently purchased a second armored tank, innocuously called a “Rescue Vehicle,” as if it were the same as a fire truck or ambulance. (See the rest at the source)
Overkill:
The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America “These elite [police SWAT] units are highly culturally appealing to certain sections of the police community. They like it. They enjoy it. The chance to strap on a vest, grab a semi-automatic weapon and go out on a mission is for some people an exciting reason to join. The problem is that when you talk about the war on this, and the war on that, and police officers see themselves as soldiers, then the civilian becomes the enemy.”–Prof. Peter B. Kraska “Polite, Professional, and Prepared to Kill”–Title of article by Chris Barfield published in SWAT Magazine in December 2005 “Power is a heady thing.”–Justice William O. Douglas At 9:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006, in Fairfax county, Virginia, a police SWAT team, armed to the teeth, decked out in battle fatigues, helmets, flak vests, and other military accouterments, arrived at the townhouse of Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi, Jr., a 37-year old optometrist. Culosi was a suspected bookie who had been making illegal sports bets from his home, and Fairfax police had obtained a warrant for his arrest and a search warrant to search his residence for gambling paraphernalia. Culosi had no history of violent behavior and his alleged crimes were nondangerous, but the practice in Fairfax county is for the local SWAT team to serve almost all search warrants. The unarmed, unresisting Culosi was in front of his residence when they arrived, weapons drawn in accordance with police protocol. As they began encircling Culosi, one of the officers, apparently accidentally, fired his large .45 cal. Heckler & Koch handgun, striking Culosi in the chest and killing him instantly. Predictably, the fearsome, fascistic trend towards militarizing American police by, among other things, transforming the serving of warrants into paramilitary commando operations, had resulted once again in lethal police violence and the unjustified death of an American citizen. (See the rest at the source)
Published in slightly abridged form in Flagpole Magazine, p. 8 (July 30, 2003). There is a caselaw update at the end of the article. For additional information on the dangers posed by the militarization of the police, see Radley Balko, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America (2006); Peter B. Kraska (ed.), Militarizing the American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Roles of the Armed Forces and the Police (2001); Tony Jefferson, The Case Against Paramilitary Policing (1990); Koplow, Tangled Up in Khaki and Blue: Lethal and Non-Lethal Weapons in Recent Confrontations, 36 Geo. J. Int’l L. 703 (2005). See also Wilkes, SWATstiska Policing, Flagpole Magazine, p. 7 (September 6, 2006). “If this were happening in any other country in the world, this incredible militarization of the police, the incredible expansion of police power, the increase in police weaponry, the decrease in defendants’ rights, the incredible stockpiling of bodies behind prison walls, we’d be screaming.”–Fletcher, “I Shall Hear You No Further,” 27 Vt. L. Rev. 565, 582 n. 52 (quoting Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights). At 6 a.m., on Friday, May 16, 2003, 57-year old Alberta Spruill was in her residence, Apartment 6F at 310 W. 143rd Street in the Harlem section of New York City, preparing to leave for work. Spruill, a quiet, church-going lady, was a municipal worker, employed at the Division of Citywide Administrative Services. She had been a city employee for 29 years, and each weekday would take the bus to her job. To her, that Friday morning must have seemed like the beginning of just another ordinary day. She mercifully did not know that she would never again head for work, that she had in fact but two hours to live because she was soon to be killed by the police even though she was an innocent citizen. (See the rest at the source)
Send us any SWAT stories you find! Include title and link. |
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage
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