Posted on 06/26/2014 9:43:47 AM PDT by Altariel
HOMESTEAD, FL — EXCLUSIVE — A Florida couple was traumatized after a dozen heavily armed SWAT agents crashed through their front door, flash-banged their cat, aimed rifles at them and searched their home without explanation.
* * * * *
The raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of June 10th, 2014. At approximately 6:16 a.m., Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were intruded upon by men dressed in full SWAT gear and wielding rifles. After smashing down the couple’s front door, agents tossed concussion grenades and proceeded into the home.
“They busted in like I was a terrorist or something,” said Ms. Edwards.
SWAT enters Kari Edwards’ residence with rifles drawn. HOMESTEAD, FL — EXCLUSIVE — A Florida couple was traumatized after a dozen heavily armed SWAT agents crashed through their front door, flash-banged their cat, aimed rifles at them and searched their home without explanation.
* * * * *
The raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of June 10th, 2014. At approximately 6:16 a.m., Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were intruded upon by men dressed in full SWAT gear and wielding rifles. After smashing down the couple’s front door, agents tossed concussion grenades and proceeded into the home.
“They busted in like I was a terrorist or something,” said Ms. Edwards.
Broken door. (Source: Kari Edwards) Personal belongings tossed everywhere. (Source: Kari Edwards) “[An officer] demanded that I drop the towel I was covering my naked body with,” Ms. Edwards said, “before snatching it off me physically and throwing me to the ground.”
“While I lay naked, I was cuffed so tightly I could not feel my hands. For no reason, at gunpoint,” Edwards said. “[Agents] refused to cover me, no matter how many times I asked.”
Ms. Edwards said her boyfriend told her that an agent holding an assault rifle to her back was gawking at her exposed body. “Eying me up and down like I was eye candy,” she said.
The house was equipped with a surveillance system, which captured video of the agents from a couple different angles. Here is the first angle of the exterior of the property:
“I have never been in any trouble before,” Ms. Edwards told Police State USA. “Haven’t even had a traffic ticket in over ten years.”
In fact, she said she used to work for the Department of Homeland Security, but became disabled from an on-the-job injury in 2006. She identified the raid as a DHS operation.
“I know I saw ‘ICE’ on one shirt and my boyfriend saw ‘Gang Task Force’ on another,” she told Police State USA. “Someone’s just said, ‘Special Agent.’”
Edwards requested to see the agents’ identification but was not obliged. One officer pointed to his uniform that read ‘POLICE’ and allegedly said, “Isn’t this enough ID for you?”
“When I told him that I could buy that [uniform] up in Miami, he called me ‘retarded’ and ‘f***ing stupid,’” Edwards recalled.
Shattered shower door. (Source: Kari Edwards) A scorch-mark from the flashbang. (Source: Kari Edwards) Edwards said that the SWAT team threw a flashbang at her cat, Dusty. She says that Dusty normally had a friendly personality and greets everyone, but now is “fearful and hard of hearing.”
When agents discovered that they were being recorded by home surveillance cameras, they forcefully twisted the cameras, saying that they “can’t be recorded.”
In the below clip, a flashbang was detected and an agent is seen spotting the camera and jarring it so it faced a wall.
“My boyfriend, who is asthmatic, started having trouble breathing from the lingering smoke created by the flashbang grenade, and asked for his inhaler. The agent said, ‘Do I need to call paramedics?’ My boyfriend said, ‘No, I just need my inhaler, can someone to get it for me?’ Again he was answered with the paramedic offer,” Edwards said. Finally another officer gave him his inhaler.
The agents “trashed the house,” and reportedly smashed some clear glass shower doors and broke a vintage statue.
Broken door jam. (Source: Kari Edwards) Broken door jam. (Source: Kari Edwards) A broken statue. (Source: Kari Edwards) Ms. Edwards said a warrant was finally given to them after 2 hours. She said it lists her address and was signed by Jonathan Goodman, a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The warrant says the agents were authorized to look for computers & electronic media.
Curiously, Ms. Edwards said the agents ignored most of the electronics in the home. “They didn’t take any and didn’t even look at most of it,” she said. “We have a lot [of electronics] because my boyfriend fixes up broken computers to resell.”
“I still don’t know why,” Ms. Edwards told Police State USA. “I called the judge’s chambers today and the secretary said he or someone else would get back to me.”
Say it once, and don't say another word.
We all have to remember....keep the cameras as hidden as possible in order to successfully record the horrendous actions of the jack booted thugs.
That is SOP these days for police but I read an article the other day by someone in the military who said that simply tossing concussion grenades to clear an area is not the right procedure and is reckless. He said its fairly easy to get a line of sight to see what you are tossing the grenades into, and if the room is empty, you don't toss them simply to "clear the area." It sounds like our militarized police are acting recklessly with the military toys they've been getting over the past decade.
:: they forcefully twisted the cameras, saying that they “can’t be recorded.” ::
But, they had a warant signed by a judge to do this...everything was being done according to the 4th Amendment.
Why would the SWAT-team think that recording their perfectly legal acitvities...so as to prove their activities were perfectly legal...would be a difficulty?
You would surmise that the SWAT-team would welcome such an “unbiased” view of their activities in serving a warrant...yes?
And have a set of “throwdown cameras” the thugs can find and remove, so they feel comfortable.
I am of the opinion that the execution of any search warrant should be accompanied by a surety bond or insurance, where the searched will have means of recovering the cost of damages.
If they weren’t planning on doing anything wrong they wouldn’t have minded the comeras.
30 minute loop, load to cloud.
May G-d grant them justice.
I find it ODD that her front door opened INWARD.
This is South FLORIDA. Hurricane codes require the door to open OUTWARD. Makes me wonder, I have a steel front door that opens OUTWARD. How much more difficult would it be to “kick in” an outward opening door. Plus I have the security doo-dads around the lock holes etc. I think I would hear them trying to break in my front door. Enough time to get the 12 ga.
No APC's, no battering rams, no grenades, no AR-15 assault rifles, no dog shooting, no foul language (which by the way is a crime in most states), no killing grandpa when he reaches for his teeth by the bed.
Keep it up and a whole lotta folks will bite back. It's just a matter of time.
Any agent of the government acting this way should spend 20 years in a federal penitentiary.
We are on the same wave length. Get their names and form up a posse of your own. Deal with these cretins.
Not likely the wrong address. She did say she used to work for Homeland Security. Could be a starting point.
” That is SOP these days for police but I
read an article the other day by someone
in the military who said that simply
tossing concussion grenades to clear an
area is not the right procedure and is
reckless. He said its fairly easy to get a
line of sight to see what you are tossing
the grenades into, and if the room is
empty, you don’t toss them simply to
“clear the area.” It sounds like our
militarized police are acting recklessly
with the military toys they’ve been getting
over the past decade.”
For these guys, it is just a toy. Like giving a gun to a 10yo. The 10yo will likely be more responsible.
If it comes to a real us vs them fight, people are going to have to adopt different tactics than they’ve been talking about.
You don’t stand and fight on their terms.
Keep stuff stashed somewhere and plan to escape when they attack.
Your only chance of “victory” is engaging them on your terms with your numbers and not theirs.
Very very good. They would go crazy looking for the camera. But they would likely temper their actions. Mind games...
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