Newsbrief: Paramilitary Drug Raid Tactics Anger Eugene Residents

DRCNet ^ | 12/13/02 | DRCNet

[Pahuanui]

Eugene, Oregon's, Whiteaker neighborhood sounded like a war zone around dawn on October 17, and residents are fighting mad. It wasn't a terrorist attack, though, just another example of a drug war run amok. Police serving a search warrant for an alleged marijuana grow enlisted an armored personnel carrier and 45 SWAT team officers armed with shotguns and automatic rifles to raid a cluster of houses in Whiteaker.

But after throwing flash-bang grenades, kicking in doors, and handcuffing four people -- including one nude woman and one woman dressed only in underpants and a t-shirt -- for hours in a room in one of the houses, police came up empty-handed. Police also admitted to placing a black bag over one of the women's head until she agreed to cooperate with them, the Eugene Register-Guard reported on December 5.

Neighbors are not impressed. Since the raid six weeks ago, resentment has only mounted. "It was completely inappropriate to have that kind of militaristic action there," said Whiteaker Community Council president Majeska Seese-Green. "We don't want it to happen in Whiteaker again, or any other neighborhood," she told the Register-Guard. The community council will issue a formal statement condemning the raid, she added. Seese-Green and three other residents also took the complaints to the Eugene Police Commission, where they questioned the wisdom and safety of such raids.

Not that the police are listening. Instead, officers involved trotted out their tired old excuses for treating the people they are supposes to serve and protect as if they were enemy combatants. "We rely on the element of surprise and speed," said Captain Steve Swenson, head of special operations for the Eugene Police Department. "The third element is the overwhelming display of force when you come through the door," he added, sounding more like Colin Powell preparing to invade Iraq than a police officer making a marijuana bust.

Except it was a marijuana bust that wasn't. No drugs were found, nor any weapons, nor have any formal charges been filed against the victims of the raid. Police have returned all items seized, and the county DA told the Register-Guard the case won't go to the grand jury unless more evidence is developed. Oops.

[Pahuanui]

More like "We rely on not killing someone in one of these botched raids, and then rely on not getting sued into bankruptcy"

Resident Drug War goons, come out to play.....

[Fish out of Water]

bump

[TXBubba]

Sometimes I put on my tin foil hat and wonder "are they practicing for something in the future?".

[swarthyguy]

Fascist Drug Gestapo Goons who can't read addresses or maps strike again.

Yippeee!

Maybe they need to take those DarthVader helmets off so they can read apt/house numbers.

[HELLRAISER II]

What get's me is if someone shot these b@stards as they wrongfully entered their house they would go to jail for murder. But these Gestapo M**her F***ers can kill people with immunity and face no charges what so ever. It's just flat out wrong.

[dead]

"We rely on the element of surprise and speed," said Captain Steve Swenson, head of special operations for the Eugene Police Department. "The third element is the overwhelming display of force when you come through the door,"

This is Monty Python’s “The Spanish Inquisition” sketch almost word for word.

Is this story fake?

[per loin]

When you turn in the Constitution as a downpayment on a drug war, this is the beginning of what you've bought.

[Nick Thimmesch]

Maybe some day people will fight back.............

[dead]

Chapman: "*I* don't know - Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition..."

Cardinal Ximinez: "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again."

[agitator]

When people fight back, the result is a Texas Barbecue.

[IronJack]

It's pretty easy to overwhelm a gaggle of defenseless civilians. But one of these days, these Gestapo wannabes are going to kick the door on some well-lubricated loon who's going to blow them, their MP5's, and their bad intentions right back out of the room. If the civvies ever start fighting back in kind, these Kevlar Kowboys are street meat.

[MrB]

Monty Python’s “The Spanish Inquisition” sketch

That's what I thought, this is just...
It would be funny if the consequences and the implications weren't so horrendous.

I think we are facing a new "Inquisition" these days, in the form of the DEA and the BATF.

[IronJack]

And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope ... er, ... to the War on Drugs.

[xrp]

The War on Drugs sucks, especially in regards to marijuana.

Expect the anti-Libertarian retards of FR to start posting shortly.

Maybe they'd like their doors kicked in --Elian Gonzalez fetching style-- then have the cops offer a simple "oops, wrong house".

[libertarian guy]

would you please add me to the WOD ping list?

[HELLRAISER II]

Why do think they keep trying to take our guns away, they don't want us to have any way to defend ourselves. They just want us to bend over and take it.

[Karsus]

But drugs are bad, mkay? I have seen the commericals on tv where the tell me it is true that drugs are bad. :->

[HELLRAISER II]

Yeah well they used to say that Margarine was better for you than butter to, but it was lie.

[xrp]

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." --President George Washington, 1794

Those stormtroopers would have even blown away George Washington!

[robowombat]

I am afraid i am going to sound like a classic liberal whiner here. This community is mostly low income and significantly black. There have been, over the years, many arrests here for both drug charges and all the other sorts of felonies and misdemenors that happen in what are called hig crime (for Eugene anyway) areas. That said it is unlikely that the police would have conducted operations more suited to the IDF tackling a suspected terrorist cell than a drug bust if the venue had been a mostly wide upper middle class development. There are times when police agencies in the US do mirror the behavior of a colonial army of occupation. This is one such example.