Posted on 02/07/2009 3:04:18 PM PST by ellery
"They hit the door right here and the door flew open," says Mike Hasenei, standing outside his Elkridge home.
His wife, Phyllis, was watching television with her 12-year old daughter when members of the Howard County Police Tactical Team came through the door.
"They had guns pointed at us. You have 25 guys coming in here all dressed in black and all that we saw were their eyes, and they're screaming 'Hands in the air!'"
Members of the team were acting upon a tip that an assault rifle, magazines and hollow-point bullets stolen from a marked police car the night before may be located inside.
Adding insult to injury, when the search led police to a back bedroom where they encountered the family’s dog, they opened fire.
Officers found no evidence of the stolen goods after ransacking the house.
At this point a complaint has been logged against the department, but Howard County Police aren't about to admit they were wrong or to apologize for their actions.
"No. We didn't find a weapon in this particular case,” said Sherry Llewellyn, a spokeswoman for the department, “but that doesn't mean that there wasn't good information that there were weapons there before we had a chance to get inside the house."
Now, Mike Hasenei is waiting on an Internal Affairs investigation into the raid before deciding whether he and his family will take the department to court.
"I'm not gonna sit down and let people walk all over me and say 'sorry' and walk out of my house."
I never suggested you did, I only posted the statistics. You seem to be jumping to conclusions there.
I don’t CARE about the most dangerous jobs in the world. I was only making a statement that law enforcement is still a dangerous job.
I never implied it was not.
I’m not going to sit here all night and argue statistics with you
I'm haven't argued with you about anything. I merely posted some statistics.
Very well done. Bravo!
I’d like to see that stat too. Seems to me, a lot of “innocent” people get arrested all the time. Everyone is “innocent” in prison too. I’m sure you’d agree with that statement too.
If I misunderstood, I truly apologize to you. For some reason, I’ve become very sensitive tonight. I appreciate the facts that you posted the statistics from the other jobs. Perhaps, I’m taking this all too personal because I knew two good men (one had just gotten married, the other had 3 small daughters) who got killed. Didn’t mean to come off like I was jumping on you.
Why, because you think that everyone whose house is violently invaded by LEOs is really guilty (even if nothing is found)?
Or are you stating that you and the people you know are a protected class (as LEO families) -- so the things that happen to ordinary "civilians" would never happen to you?
Because the whole point here, the whole reason for the outrage, is that cops are beating in the doors of innocent, law-abiding citizens, killing our dogs and sometimes even human family members, brutalizing us in their own homes.
I abide by the law, work hard, own a home, raise a family, and pay my taxes. In America, I should not have to worry about the government breaking into MY HOME and terrorizing and/or killing me and my family.
If you believe that this could never happen to you or anyone you know, then you either believe that this only happens to people who deserve it, or that LEO families have special privileges so it's no skin off your nose.
Either way, your statement speaks volumes.
Brilliant analysis, Sherlock.
Maybe that's why something a bit more intelligent than neanderthalis responses is warranted. Maybe a solution that addresses the criminal element as well as the JBT one?
“Very intelligent. I can see why you’re not in law enforcement anymore, IF you ever were to begin with.”
I responded to that in a subsequent post. But since you mentioned it, I am struggling to find any intelligence in LE these days. It’s as if some cops are on steroids gone insane. This discussion of the home invasion and pet killing is a prime example. I get it. You don’t. The difference can only be attributed to a derivative of intelluctual capacity.
What puzzles me is how you can be SO pro-criminal to the point of wanting mobster control over people...did you grow up with your thug-buddy Obama to develop such criminal-authorian attitudes?
Problem: criminals have no respect for the law ...and no fear.
Problem: judges give suspended sentences rather than immediate punishment.
Response: more aggressive police tactics.
I disagree. Here are the annual number of LE deaths from shootings for 1998-2007. The following series begins with 2007's numbers and ends with 1998's: 68 54 60 59 50 60 72 53 46 63. This data came from nleomf.org
If you included only the ones who were killed serving conventional warrants, the numbers would be smaller. This was during the years SWAT raids became more common.
While I'm very much against the JBTs, you should note that many good cops are, too, and that you'll likely find cops in the trenches with us as 0bama's offensive gears up.
How many good cops are speaking out against this thuggish behavior? Has their union ever made any critical statements? I do not share your optimism.
That’s what the judges need to be told.
Well said!
I don't understand why some FReepers don't get this. If you look the other way when you know a "brother in blue" is terrorizing people and trampling Constitutional rights, that makes you a bad cop, too.
You see Gondring, this thread is not about criminals. This thread is about innocent victims of a LE gone mad on power.
The ability to recognize this is what seperates us.
I guess you can take that statement any way you want to. The fact is, everyone I know are law-abiding citizens, and oddly enough, they’ve never had that happen to them. I was stating a fact. If you want to read more into it, then go right ahead. And if you would read my whole post, I said that if those cops in this case are wrong and did the wrong thing, then they need to be fully prosecuted. Apparently, you only like to read what you want to read and make assumptions. If that means that I think I’m privileged for some odd reason, then I guess I am. I fully expect that when I would even get stopped for speeding, I would accept that. Do you want me to lie and say, “Oh, yeah, I know people that have had the SWAT come in and shoot their family dog all the time?”
My God, if you’re that naive and afraid of the government busting in on you, then you seriously have a problem. I get the point that a dog was killed, and the wrong house invaded. That’s tragic. But anyone in their right mind wouldn’t think that the police are in some big “government plot” to raid and terrorize innocent families. To me, that just sounds like how some of those extreme wacko militias think. Too radical for my taste. And before anyone happens to mention Waco, I feel that the government was terribly wrong with what they did.
I don’t think she realizes that she’s proving our point.
After making a few tut-tuts about the SWAT team in the article, she’s gone on to make several statements that imply that she (like too many LEOs), believes that these victims must have had it coming.
Scary, when LEO assumptions are so ingrained that they don’t realize they’re doing it.
No, the differences is, I am looking at root causes and solutions. You are complaining.
Seems we’re surrounded by cop - hating folks on here tonight. They are so delirious and afraid that they’re going to have their doors kicked in tonight, and their dogs shot, they simply are past the point of no return.
It is a logical fallacy to work from a general (overall) risk number and assign that to an individual subtask such as bursting into a room where criminals are waiting in ambush. It doesn’t matter how much time a cop spends doing paperwork or sitting in a speedtrap, that doesn’t mean serving a warrant is low-risk.
You can’t say, “don’t worry about dodging bullets, cuz writing up the report will be safe.” You have to realize that the approach being used for these entries is developed for protection against ambush, not for donuts.
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