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."
and your mother too!
I have read so many stories of cops going to the wrong house and the first thing they did was shoot the family dog. There was a mayor who was set up and the cops came in and shot one Lab, the other took off and tried to hide ... the cops ran it down and shot it too .... the mayor was innocent ... trouble is no followup by the media ... but then, it always happens the cops are in the right ....
and there is not a damn thing any lowly citizen can do about it.
They may take me down, but I'll send at least 3 of them to Hell first!
Nothing one can do. If 25 armed cops burst into your home and you fire on one of them, you and probably your family are going to go down in a hail of bullets.
That’s why you plan for every possible scenario. Just don’t get paranoid about it.
These are the same pigs who will be coming for our guns someday.
Maybe the cops “thought” it was a cat....
I would call it sensitivity training.
There is no reason to ransack, unless you have a complete and utter lack of respect for the property of others. In such a case you are scum, not worthy of respect.
Sadly, I have a family member who was a former narcotics officer. In one raid (they were raiding relatives of a dealer, none of whom were involved in the drug trade) he held the homeowner down by stepping on his neck as he lay on the couch, with his gun pointed at the man. The man said “If my dog growls don’t worry. He won’t hurt you.”
My relative turned and shot the dog who had not yet moved or made a sound.
Something happens to too many of these guys that I simply cannot explain.
It’s almost impossible for citizens to overthrow a totalitarian dictatorship once it reaches the height of its power. They have to suffer many years until it either collapses under its own corruption or some powerful foreign country goes to war with it.
So what *would* mean you had bad information, ma'am?
The dog was cowering in the owner’s bedroom — he was shot while on the bed.
“Also, if its a couple of weapons, why not send a heavily armed team but do a knock on the door service of the search warrant? You don’t need 25 guys.”
Look, if they don’t get to practice “dynamic entries” how will they get to use all their SWAT toys and other high-speed gear?
Well, at least you looked. Did you get the first line too? Or didn’t you think that one applied to you?
Besides, read the quote you gave me again. This is the quote that has you huffy:
“Before the hysterics start and the gossip between the back fence of the trailer park results in spilled beer, perhaps judgment can be reserved until more is known about the assassination of the Chihuahua.”
Is it directed at anyone? Or is it a way of stomping down on all the “Jack Booted Thug” posters before they get all fired up with their cop hating antics? Who was insulted except cop haters? (FR version of CODE PINK who hate the military)
A closer read means the story needs more info before anything should be said whether the actions were justified or not. Facts are stubborn things.
The original poster supplied two links that were directly related to the story after my first post. In those links, which weren’t provided initially, it says the suspect was the stepson of the owner and also a friend. The stepson had been previously arrested and that the residence of the stepson and another man was also raided. The weapons beings searched for was taken from the police. The stepson hadn’t been living there for three years but from reading the fact the stepson’s house was raided at the same time the cops knew that.
SO, from the links, not posted originally (reason unknown). The cops were searching for stolen weapons and other items taken. They knew the man was friends with his stepson and from information believed he might be involved. The weapon wasn’t indicated as to whether it was capable of full or semi auto. There is no indication of past criminal dealings of this man either yes or no.
Also from the links there were two dogs, both reported to be running away. The dog that was shot was an Australian cattle dog on a bed. The dog was shot at three times and hit twice. It gets murky whether the shooter was the one with the shield or not.
Taking the info at face value, the no knock warrant was justified due to the circumstances. Shooting the dog wasn’t.
But, I wanted facts, many posters here wanted their prejudice reinforced.
I hope you read the rest of my home page.
We need to start holding these "spokesperson's" feet to the fire for trafficking in doubletalk.
If a cop were to ever shoot my dog there wouldn’t be one penny left in their budget by the time I finished with them.
These Gestapo tactics anger and horrify me.
“What is it with swat teams and their penchant for shooting dogs? Is it just that in the absence of anyone or anything else to shoot they just have to shoot the dogs?”
They’re trained that way. And it’s a freebie.
If anyone ever wondered why we called them “Pigs” back in the 60s, now ya know.
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