SWAT Team Busts Through Door Searching for Drugs, No Arrests Made

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Police in SWAT gear busted through a door and searched a Cedar Rapids home for drugs Thursday morning, but came up empty.

At least 12 officers surprised the tenants at 1135 33rdSt. NE when they arrived around 7 a.m. with a narcotics search warrant. Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, a police spokeswoman, later confirmed that nothing was seized from the house.

No one was taken to jail, but the tenants of the house, Justin Davis, 28, and his girlfriend, Erica Lewis, 26, were charged with disorderly house and signed a promise to appear in court, police said. No one was injured during the raid.

Davis said his 5-year-old daughter was in her room when officers busted a hole in the front door. He said he came to the door when he heard a K-9 unit dog barking, and was pulled outside, where he was told to lie face down in his front yard. He said the officers had him at gunpoint.

“What do you think my neighbors think about me now?” Davis said. “My character has been assassinated, and I’m really upset about that.”

Davis said he and Lewis were handcuffed while officers searched. They were told police had information that there was drug activity at their house.

Hamblin said search warrants are issued only after a judge reviews the evidence collected and signs the warrant. In general, police investigate tips about drug activity by interviewing neighbors, looking through trash and using a drug-sniffing dog, Hamblin said.

“We don’t take just one person’s word, under normal circumstances,” Hamblin said.

Davis said he is on probation and it would be stupid for him to be involved with drugs.

“They should have made sure they had concrete evidence before they knock in someone’s door,” Davis said.

Disorderly house is described as a building or room where someone “resorted to for” illegal activity involving drugs, alcohol, gambling or prostitution, according to a city ordinance.

Yeah, I’ve never heard of that as a crime (”disorderly house”).

Good grief, the raid probably turned it into a disorderly house after the damage.

Think of the SWAT we could disband by legalizing drugs.

I think we should legalize the drugs now given the paramilitary police tactics and money being spent to terrorize society. We’ll get high quality safer drugs from the large drug companies and the gangs and thugs will no longer have a huge revenue source to keep them funded.

I also propose getting rid of the drug addicts as well.

Simply give them unlimited supplies of their drug (inside a locked govt building) and every week, clear out the bodies. They can take as much as they want but they have to stay in that building while high. People that aren’t addicts and pay for their drugs can remain in the population. First time they ask for free drugs, you ship ‘em to the government building and lock em in with all the free drugs they want.

They don't even need a warrant. Happened in my neighborhood. Team of narcotics agents swarmed a house. One came to a basement door, and asked the wife if he could come in and look around. She said sure and asked what was going on.

They went upstairs and the house had about 8 officers milling around inside and 8 or more outside in the front yard. They asked if the husband could come out and see if he knew the guy outside that had pulled in the driveway. So the wife asked the husband to come out of the room where he was at the computer.

While the polite policeman was giving her the details, the husband came out and opened the front door to see the person that they were talking to; he was stopped by an aggressive, rude, agent who drew down on him with a revolver.

Cop then asked if he had anything in his pockets. He said yes and pulled out a closed pocket knife to hand to the cop who started screaming and became extremely agitated. The wife asked him to calm down, said we are cooperating so why are you treating my husband like that?

The cop got nasty with the wife, and shook the pocket knife in her face, and said you think he couldn't hurt me with this? Then he asked if husband knew the person. The husband said I do not recognize him. Cop says you are lying, because he knows your name. Wife points out that husband is a retired school teacher, and lots of people know where he lives, but are not necessarily recognized 10 years after graduation.

Then they drag out the housekeeper and stand her in the sun under grilling for over an hour, but finally gave her a bottle of water. Bad cop states that both housekeeper and guy in handcuffs are involved in making meth-guaranteed no doubt about it.

After about 3 hrs. bad cop comes over and says do not fire housekeeper, she is probably innocent. Guy was followed for 80 miles with suspected meth precursor. Guy said he picked up boxes of matches for a friends wedding.

No arrest, they confiscated the matches, told neighbors they doubted the DA would do anything. No apology. Wife called them out on bad behavior, bad cop tried to justify, and stomped off.

The person of interest does handyman chores. Housekeeper had called him to help her at her house, and told him where she would be to talk about it. Neighbors house was on the way to his girlfriend's house, he decided to stop by instead of phone.

Next day, granddaughter was taunted at school that her grandmother's house was raided for drugs, etc. etc. Neighbor visited all the houses on the block that could have seen the fiasco, explained what had happened, and asked if everyone would help set the record straight.

School rumor was traced to teenager in the neighborhood whose mom believed that they have to have some sort of evidence to swarm a house. Father knew better, and told the daughter to set record straight and not be spreading gossip.

So a suspect who for any reason pulls into your driveway is enough for an unauthorized search, pat down etc. etc.

I've moved on. Suffice to say they used us (then fiance and myself) as a practice run and then denied everything. Attack dog in my face, 4 or 5 pistols drawn, etc. Internal affairs said, "the officers you mentioned said it never happened."

And that was that. Pinellas County, Florida. Same place Terri Schiavo was starved to death. Same place the Church of Scientology calls home. Same place a kid wearing a "LAPD" t-shirt was busted for "impersonating an officer." Satan's winter home.

I'm just one person and I have even more stories from that place that I don't tell anymore. Just imagine if everyone spoke up...

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