Posted on 10/18/2011 8:44:26 PM PDT by Immerito
A few victims of the drug war's "standard procedure" are fighting back in court. First, a Colorado Springs woman who suffered a heart attack during a raid has brought a lawsuit:
Rose Ann Santistevan, 71, is suing for medical expenses and noneconomic losses such as pain and suffering.
An emphysema sufferer, Santistevan was alone in bed receiving oxygen on Oct. 6, 2009, when a multijurisdictional SWAT task force with a search warrant surrounded her home in the 200 block of South Prospect Street. They threw in a flash-bang grenade before rushing in with guns drawn, authorities have confirmed.
Stricken by a heart attack, Santistevan was admitted in critical condition at Memorial Hospital Central, where she remained for several days. A search of her home yielded no arrests and turned up no drugs, the family said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I believe that we need laws in every state that say when SWAT teams invade the wrong home and people and things die or are seriously injured, they all need to be fired and their pensions stripped away, and the main leaders of the team need to be brought up on criminal charges.
Seriously. This sh1t happens way too often and there’s just no downside for making lethal or permanent injury mistakes. If it’s important enough to USE a SWAT team for, it’s important enough to gather the proper effing intelligence and double and triple check it.
Totally agree with you.
Agreed. If the only way to stop this wrong house nonsense is to fire EVERYONE involved in planning, researching and/or implementing a raid on a wrong house, then so be it.
I have a more radical idea.
End the unconstitutional war on drugs and restore the 4th amendment.
That won’t get rid of SWAT. Why? Because they are not using it to take down KNOWN drug gangs in their KNOWN drug houses.
They go after an individual. in a normal house. without pit bulls and automatic weapons and fortified walls and such.
Even though that’s how they SOLD SWAT to all of us.
It’s part of State Dept Publication 5277 “Freedom From War” Stage II/Stage III. Militarization of internal police forces. That’s why they won’t get rid of it. It’s a bait and switch tactic. Claim it will be used for one thing but it’s really put in place for another.
Personally I am with you. End the war on drugs. Let the big drug companies make pure safe drugs for sale. Thing is, when people get addicted, they are locked into a big building and given as much free drugs as they want until they are dead.
Too many of these guys think they are super cops. There is no excuse for sloppy work when you are the ones carrying guns and flash bangs and tear gas.... Yep, the firing starts at the top....
I think there are times and places for SWAT (barricade/hostage - the reason it was originally created).
All the SWAT ‘horror stories’ I see involve bungled drug raids. Bad informant info, sloppy warrants, etc.
IMO, Swat teams need to be outlawed, period. As for entering the wrong home, arrests should be made and people terminated regardless if the residents of the dwelling were injured or not. No knock warrants also need to be declared unconstitutional. The judges who allowed these travesties of justice to begin with should be doing jail time. There is nothing in the constitution to justify no knock raids or “probable cause” searches.
Bravo Sierra! When I was a combat infantryman I had a duty to ensure that I was following only lawful orders and had a right and duty to disregard an unlawful order. We need some LEOs willing to stand up to the chain of command and put a stop to these practices.
A bigger question is why there are so damned many local law enforcement agencies equipped with paramilitary equipment and units. You give those clowns all of those toys and they will look for opportunities to use it.
And what about the warrant based on bad intel? Well, we have laws on the books about lying to the cops, right? Enforce them.
We don't need new law. We just need to use the ones we already have.
If LEO's are out of control it is because the commanders allow them to do what they do.
My father was a mounted man in Detroit (during the 30-40's) he retired in 1950. He said if the cop on the beat or in the car is doing crap, its the commanders fault. Not just the guy on the beat. He was in a position of having men under him, I think he knew what he was talking about....even back then cops could get fired for getting out of line....(can we all say unions make that difficult in this day and age)
But as for your being sure you only followed lawful orders, I cannot believe that you questioned every order you were given by the one in charge over you....You wouldn't last long in the military if you did that and probably wouldn't make a very good soldier. Too busy asking your commander if the orders were lawful...Unless you misstated what you meant...
We were very well trained and knew what constituted a violation of the UCMJ and the Geneva Convention. Further, based upon the Nuremburg precedents we knew that "just following orders" wasn't an acceptable excuse and the execution of an unlawful order would result in more than a paid administrative leave. The situation should be even more severe with domestic law enforcement.
BTW - I lasted too long.
But who'll tell us which flowers we can't grow?
Can't be having felonious farming or aggravated agriculture occurring. Why society would collapse into a bunch of illiterate thug gangster wannabees.
But this story is still my favorite so far this year:
The U.S. Department of Education issued the search (warrant) and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student loans.
I know this response is from Huffpoo about the raid on the student loan. I don’t know if any reason for the raid has been found other than the explanation of a criminal investigation.
Department of Education Press Secretary Justin Hamilton confirmed to The Huffington Post that the agency’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) did indeed order the action, although he said it was not about an issue over student loans in default.
“While it was reported in local media that the search was related to a defaulted student loan, that is incorrect,” Hamilton said. “This is related to a criminal investigation. The Inspector General’s Office does not execute search warrants for late loan payments.”
The Department of Education ordered the raid and SWAT raided the wrong house.
The Department of Education just says that it wasn't over student loans. And they won't say why they ordered the raid.
“Personally I am with you. End the war on drugs. Let the big drug companies make pure safe drugs for sale. Thing is, when people get addicted, they are locked into a big building and given as much free drugs as they want until they are dead.”
Thank you, that is the same ideas I have. Restore the 4th Amendment, take away the cartels and street gangs profit, and it would be far cheaper to have clinics where addicts can do all the dope they want for free. The problem will solve itself.
I am glad that more people are seeing this. Crime will drop off greatly.
FWIW, 16 years as a police officer seeing the never ending craziness has made up my mind. Never hit a wrong door but hit plenty of dry holes and even good pops make absolutely no difference.
I’d like to know what it was about. Fraud?
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