Couple in shock after drug raid

KRQE ^ | September 27, 2011 | Gabrielle Burkhart

[arthurus]

that I'm armed, and if they do break in, I'm going to shoot. Maybe some other cops will arrive in time to stop the nonsense.

No. Your call will be routed to the SWAT at your door and they will immediately level your house with all the bullets in all of their guns and the explosives they also carry.

[skinkinthegrass]

After the door was pounded like that, many would
have answered the door with a gun in hand.
If this man would have done so, his right
...btw, he would be dead today.

...that's exactly, what happened to Donald_P._Scott, Heir to the Scott Paper.
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_P._Scott

Early on the morning of October 2, 1992, 31 officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol, National Guard and Park Service entered the Scott's 200-acre (0.81 km2) ranch. They planned to arrest Scott for allegedly running a 4,000-plant marijuana plantation. When deputies broke down the door to Scott's house, Scott's wife would later tell reporters, she screamed, "Don't shoot me. Don't kill me." That brought Scott staggering out of the bedroom, bleary-eyed from a cataract operation -- holding a .38 caliber Colt snub-nosed revolver over his head. When he emerged at the top of the stairs (note: this was a one-story residence), holding his gun over his head, the officers told him to lower the gun. As he did, they shot him to death. According to the official report, the gun was pointed at the officers when they shot him. Later, the lead agent in the case, sheriff's deputy Gary Spencer and his partner John Cater posed for photographs arm-in-arm outside Scott's cabin. Despite a subsequent search of Scott's ranch using helicopters, dogs, searchers on foot, and a high-tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory device for detecting trace amounts of sinsemilla, no marijuana -- or any other illegal drug -- was found.

The fallout
Scott's widow, the former Frances Plante, along with four of Scott's children from prior marriages, subsequently filed a $100 million wrongful death suit against the county and federal government. For eight years the case dragged on, requiring the services of 15 attorneys and some 30 volume binders to hold all the court documents. In January 2000, attorneys for Los Angeles County and the federal government agreed to settle with Scott's heirs and estate for $5 million, even though the sheriff's department still maintained its deputies had done nothing wrong. Michael D. Bradbury, the District Attorney of Ventura County conducted an investigation into the raid and the aftermath, issuing a report on the events leading up to and on October 2, 1992. He concluded that asset forfeiture was a motive for the raid. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department issued their own report in response, clearing everyone involved of wrong doing while California Attorney General Dan Lungren criticized District Attorney Bradbury. Sheriff Spencer sued D.A. Bradbury for defamation in response to the report. The court ruled in favor of Michael Bradbury and ordered Sheriff Spencer to pay $50,000 in Bradbury's legal bills.

[El Cid]

Re 18

Wow, it sounds like your poison episode topped mine.
It's that kind of brainwashing that these TV shows engage in that is very dangerous to Society. Not necessary to the story line, but you get the constant theme that: citizens who possess firearms are evil (or foolishly stupid); a police state is desirable; Constitutional rights don't exist, except in the mind of whackos; Christians are evil; Muslims are always good; homosexuality is 'cool' - and they are unfairly oppressed by evil Christians.... It goes on and on. These TV writers ruined NCIS, Without a Trace, the Unit (or the Eunuch). Law and Disorder was always biased - but it was a fair premise that some decent writers could have produced some watchable episodes. TV is nothing but an open sewer into our homes. I use it mostly nowadays to watch DVDs of stuff I like.

[Immerito]

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if your hypothesis was correct.

[magslinger]

This happens so often that you would think the real bad guys would sometimes have the front door rigged with antipersonnel explosives. After a couple of SWAT teams got blown up, tactics would change.

Which may explain why you never hear about SWAT teams going up against actual tangos.

[Little Ray]

This was actually pretty good behavior for drug cops.

They didn’t shoot the dog, abuse the residents, or cause property damage. Thet left when challenged for a warrant that they didn’t have.

I’d give ‘em a A for procedure, but an F for actual pre-raid intelligence. I know I wouldn’t have knocked on the door without a warrant.

[JoeFromSidney]

You may be right, but at least I gave them warning.