Elderly Couple Hospitalized After Cops Raid Wrong House

Fox News ^ | March 23, 2006 | AP staff

[seacapn]

HORN LAKE, Miss. — An unidentified elderly Horn Lake couple were hospitalized Thursday after police burst into their home thinking it housed a methamphetamine laboratory.

The incident occurred Wednesday about 4 a.m., said police Capt. Shannon Beshears. Beshears said it was the right address but the wrong house.

Beshears said a heavily armed Tactical Apprehension Containment Team stormed the house.

"We had good information from a reliable source that had been backed up by a purchase of narcotics linked to the address. However, when we arrived at the designated address, there were two houses on the lot. We hit the larger of the two houses.

"It was the wrong house," Beshears said. "The house was totally dark and the TACT members went through to the bedroom looking for the suspects."

A man and a woman — both in their 80s — were injured as TACT team members secured the house although no drugs were found. There were children in the house also, but they were not awakened, Beshears said.

[Supernatural]

The Nazi's perfect these tactics when rounding up Jews and other "undesirables".

No wonder we call the people using these tactics today "Jackbooted Thugs".

And they don't understand why and wonder why we are not on their side.

"Those who have not learned the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them".

[mugs99]

And they don't understand why and wonder why we are not on their side

The drug war mentality of law enforcement has caused the people to fear the government...A very dangerous situation.
.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Anyone with a multidigit IQ can figure out that if you have an ambiguous description of the target, you go back and get a clarification.

---

But when you have an adrenaline hard-on, and no real accountability, the urge overcomes.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Militarized police forces have become the "standing army" our founders feared.

[Atlas Sneezed]

In Texas what is forfeited to LE on the state level is used for equipment and training costs only. No salaries are paid.

---

Ever work with a budget? When one item is paid for, there is more money for the other.

[dixiechick2000]

This is terrible!
Bless their hearts for real.

Thanks for the ping.

[dixiechick2000]

LOL!

[Washi]

...were injured as TACT team members secured the house...

"secured the house", (verb, past tense) to administer gun stocks to the ribs, boots to the backs of necks, and make certain that you get the most out of the taxpayer funds spent on military style weapons, flak vests, really cool looking black camo pants, and the several viewings of "Rambo, First Blood" at the squad house.

[MrEdd]

If you want to play soldier, join the Marines. This bounce-them-around attitude just to get an adrenaline rush is getting way old, and is using up any respect us law abiding citizens had. I, and many others, no longer trust you. With 80-year-old couples being hospitalized, and cops arresting people in BARS for drinking, things are spinning out of control.

Do not try to send turds like this guy to the marines!

Semper Fidelis.

[Drago]

"...Beshears said the woman received a dislocated shoulder and the man received bruised ribs.

Hummmm...sounds like one of these was applied:
http://www.police-batons.com/mptc/meb_tech/mebtech_suptakedown.html

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Sorry, come screaming through my door at 4 AM, and see what happens. I violate no laws, and assume that any door crashers are NOT the cops.

[sully777]

"OOPS. OUR BAD!" ~ Official police usual-procedure statement

[Ken H]

This excerpt from Frontline might be of interest:

But equally important, local law enforcement would now get a piece of the pie. Within the 1984 Act was a provision for so-called "equitable sharing", which allows local law enforcement agencies to receive a portion of the net proceeds of forfeitures they help make under federal law--and under current policy, that can be up to 80%. Previously, seized assets had been handed over to the federal government in their entirety.

Immediately following passage of the Act, federal forfeitures increased dramatically. The amount of revenue deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund, for example, soared from $27 million in 1985 to $644 million in 1991--a more than twenty-fold increase. And as forfeitures increased, so did the amount of money flowing back to state and local law enforcement through equitable sharing. [end except]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/forfeiture.html

[BruceysMom]

I live in Southern Oregon. The meth problem here is a nightmare. Just the other day someone used my name and address and someone else's driver's license number to buy something with pseudo ephedrine in it. The people that use and make this drug are a dangerous bunch. These are often the people the swat teams are after. What happened to the old couple is terrible, and every effort should be made to keep it from happening. But I have the sneaking suspicion that many of you condemning the cops would be screaming even louder if your neighbors meth lab blew up and took your home and G-d forbid, maybe your family with it. Stuff like that has happened here, thank your deity if it hasn't happened where you live. Oh and you might want to thank a cop too. (and no I don't say that just cause cops make me hot! LOL!) I got 911 on my speed dial, but you all can call whomever you want.

[Wallace T.]

If the police break down a door in a wrongfull raid and an officer is shot and killed by the occupant but the homeowner isn't, would it be possible that homeowner be vindicated?

One thing LEOs take very seriously is the shooting of a fellow officer. In all likelihood, the homeowner would be killed by other officers. If not, he probably will not survive his arrest and custody.

[BruceysMom]

Oh sorry a brief PS we recently had a 70 some year old arrested for selling meth. Meth, it's not just for kids anymore.

[headsonpikes]

"What we have here is a failure to communicate."

---

As Mao said about his efforts in China, "We are creating Communism with American characteristics."

[Wallace T.]

Many parts of rural America have meth problems. Like the "moonshine" of yesteryear, it can be made cheaply with readily available ingredients and, unlike marijuana, it does not require outdoor cultivation or greenhouses. Like the moonshiners and bootleggers, they are rural gangsters. The cops cannot deal with such people under Marquis of Queensbury rules. That being said, the whole SWAT approach is wrong, as too many innocent civilians are injured and private property damaged. The worst example of the abusive SWAT technique was the Branch Davidian raid in Waco, Texas, 13 years ago, though the target in this case was guns, and not drugs. Additionally, the knockless warrant plays havoc with the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure.

As with the DWI issue, the "War on Drugs" is being used by psuedo-conservative authoritarians as an excuse for expanding government power at the expense of personal liberties.

[BruceysMom]

Waco was a nightmare, as was it's predecessor, Ruby Ridge, Those were both the feds. Not your usual "I live in the neighborhood" police officer. I'm appalled by all the cop bashing on this thread. Are their problems? You betcha. Is slamming all cops the answer? Nada. And where I live meth isn't a 'problem" it's a constant danger. I live in the county seat of Josephine county Oregon. I can look out my front window and (peering down two blocks worth of alley) I can see the front door of the county court house. A year ago a meth lab was busted in an apartment building less the a half block away, had that blown up, especially in the summer, there's a good chance I would've lost my home.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Nice rant, but what does that have to do with militarized police forces? (I'm far more worried about cops blowing up my house than a neighbor's meth lab. doing the same.)

Evidently, the epidemic of SWAT activity seems to nicely correlate with the epidemic of meth problems. Which does not exactly make your case for you.

SWAT budgets NEED meth problems. If not for meth, they'd have to invent something else to justify their union overtime and ninja toys.