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A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son
Salon ^ | June 24, 2014 | Alecia Phonesavanh

Posted on 06/25/2014 3:23:38 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued

After our house burned down in Wisconsin a few months ago, my husband and I packed our four young kids and all our belongings into a gold minivan and drove to my sister-in-law’s place, just outside of Atlanta. On the back windshield, we pasted six stick figures: a dad, a mom, three young girls, and one baby boy.

That minivan was sitting in the front driveway of my sister-in-law’s place the night a SWAT team broke in, looking for a small amount of drugs they thought my husband’s nephew had. Some of my kids’ toys were in the front yard, but the officers claimed they had no way of knowing children might be present. Our whole family was sleeping in the same room, one bed for us, one for the girls, and a crib.

After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my son’s crib.

Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. It’s been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and he’s still covered in burns.

There’s still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs.

(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: abuseofpower; donutwatch; jbt; lawenforcement; policestate; swat; warondrugs
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1 posted on 06/25/2014 3:23:38 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
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To: bamahead; traviskicks; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; Impy; GOPsterinMA; randita; Sun; ...

This is happening too much. The end result of the War on Drugs is an increase in state power. The SWAT team resorted to military tactics to find a young person who might be doing drugs? Ridiculous. Aside from the injury to an innocent toddler, how much did this botched raid cost? There is nothing conservative about the War on Drugs.


2 posted on 06/25/2014 3:26:13 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (The War on Drugs is Big Government statism)
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To: Clintonfatigued

There is nothing conservative about thinking its okay for kids to be on crack either. Conservatives can oppose these para-military tactics without being pro-drugs.

Going to the other extreme is nonsensical.


3 posted on 06/25/2014 3:27:44 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Clintonfatigued

We have lost the war on drugs, but it has lead to a disturbing militarization of our police forces. You are right, there is way too much of this going on.


4 posted on 06/25/2014 3:28:19 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Clintonfatigued

What worries me is this level of violence is now the standard. Decades ago I used to talk to cops in the gym and the neighborhood. Now they act like a separate species. I feel like they’re looking at everybody as “them,” as in “not people like us.” I hope this is just a few negative experiences but I fear we’ve trained a new breed of cop who is does not see citizens as other human beings with rights.


5 posted on 06/25/2014 3:29:35 PM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: GeronL

Well stated. We are often presented with it as an “either or” choice. You are in favor of dope if you oppose light infantry attacks in American cities.


6 posted on 06/25/2014 3:30:45 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Clintonfatigued
We do not treat Iraqis like this; we do not treat Afganis like this. Troops who do, are tried for war crimes. Why are we letting our own citizens be treated this way? Why is SWAT now an integral part of any ‘drug’ bust, even a ‘small amount’? Where is the sheriff and why isn't he, and the folks who elected him, dealing with this dangerous trend?
7 posted on 06/25/2014 3:32:27 PM PDT by blueplum
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To: Clintonfatigued

Jack-Booted thug alert. It is becoming all too common in America.


8 posted on 06/25/2014 3:37:37 PM PDT by AlexW
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To: Clintonfatigued



9 posted on 06/25/2014 3:39:25 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Clintonfatigued

All police involved should be fired...this is runaway authoritarian corruption. They believe they are above the law and they feel this child was simply collateral damage - despicable.


10 posted on 06/25/2014 3:39:41 PM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: colorado tanker

It was lost because it was dependent upon trying to change human behavior.


11 posted on 06/25/2014 3:41:43 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: Gen.Blather

The full blown fbi manhunt with choppers et al for mr. Winters here in lithia turned up an pitiful arrest warrant most of which was nothing for which he was originally accused off.
Btw he was a prepper.
Looked like santa claus.
Neighbors said he read the bible. Grew food for the poor. Thought he needed to prepare.
Fearful of government.


12 posted on 06/25/2014 3:42:19 PM PDT by Donnafrflorida (Thru HnodredscottIM all things are possible.)
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To: GeronL

This baby’s blood is on the hands of all who support the war on some drugs.


13 posted on 06/25/2014 3:42:36 PM PDT by SpeakerToAnimals (I hope to earn a name in battle)
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To: blueplum
The sheriff was/is ok with it[the throwing the grenade in the bed with the child in it]. But what the hell, they were not politicians, muslims, or celebrities, just ordinary joes and janes, A/k/a peasants so who cares if tree or four hundred of them get killed. The important thing is that the cops went home safely.
14 posted on 06/25/2014 3:43:20 PM PDT by sport
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To: SpeakerToAnimals

That is just Pathetic, just pathetic.

Are you a Crip or a Blud?


15 posted on 06/25/2014 3:45:19 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Clintonfatigued

But if you run over to DU, they will all be in lockstep on “Big Government”. Somehow, it doesn’t get to them that a government big enough to give you everything you want, can not only take everything you have, but has you in its power and can absolutely drown and destroy you.

I’ve talked to libs about this and they are absolutely delusional about this. They are far more afraid of, say, Walmart, than of the government taking something from them. If you tell them, for instance, you were delayed almost a year from starting a business because of a government bureaucrat who had it out for you, it simply doesn’t compute. And yes, that happened to someone I know.

Watch these people complain about the power of the “police state”. Maybe they’ll get far. But for every one that does, a hundred just get run over.


16 posted on 06/25/2014 3:46:48 PM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
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To: Gen.Blather
a new breed of cop who is does not see citizens as other human beings with rights.

Whole lot of that going around. I regularly go out and talk to groups of people who are predominantly Democrats and liberals. Some of them are interested in examining new information, and making rational decisions based on that information. This attribute is what separates humans from lower classes of animals and liberals.

Many of these younger people have been terrorized into never questioning the liberal propaganda. It is liberating for them to learn that they don't need permission to use the brains God gave them.

Many of the others are less than human, precisely because they refuse to do their own thinking. I tell them this frankly and clearly, and explain precisely what makes this so. They are not amused.

17 posted on 06/25/2014 3:47:00 PM PDT by meadsjn
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To: Clintonfatigued

This country is plagued with SWATs, and we need to make ending them a political issue. Free people shouldn’t stand for this kind of government brutality, much less support it.


18 posted on 06/25/2014 3:48:41 PM PDT by pallis
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To: Gen.Blather
ecades ago I used to talk to cops in the gym and the neighborhood. Now they act like a separate species. I feel like they’re looking at everybody as “them,” as in “not people like us.”

This is EXACTLY who they are. They are 'them', not people like us. They are a domestic enemy of the American people.

19 posted on 06/25/2014 3:50:01 PM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: Clintonfatigued

For the Record:
Pleas STOP calling them Swat Teams, they were GESTAPO AGENTS


20 posted on 06/25/2014 3:51:55 PM PDT by eyeamok
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