Posted on 10/30/2019 12:11:07 PM PDT by Hojczyk
When they were finished, it looked as though the Greenwood Village, Colo., police had blasted rockets through the house.
Projectiles were still lodged in the walls. Glass and wooden paneling crumbled on the ground below the gaping holes, and inside, the family’s belongings and furniture appeared thrashed in a heap of insulation and drywall. Leo Lech, who rented the home to his son, thought it looked like al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound after the raid that killed him.
But now it was just a neighborhood crime scene, the suburban home where an armed Walmart shoplifting suspect randomly barricaded himself after fleeing the store on a June afternoon in 2015. For 19 hours, the suspect holed up in a bathroom as a SWAT team fired gas munition and 40-millimeter rounds through the windows, drove an armored vehicle through the doors, tossed flash-bang grenades inside and used explosives to blow out the walls.
The suspect was captured alive, but the home was utterly destroyed, eventually condemned to be demolished by the City of Greenwood Village.
The suspect, Robert Jonathan Seacat, had stolen a shirt and a couple of belts from a Walmart in neighboring Aurora, Colo., and then fled in a Lexus, according to a police affidavit.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“Some guy is out of pocket for his house the cops blew up. “
He was compensated for his loss.
How is that “Compensation” when the offending party didn’t “compensate”?
And thank you for showing that he got shafted.
Too bad you can’t see it.
The Lechs had sued under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which guarantees citizens compensation if their property is seized by the government for public use.
Insurance paid for the situation, less deductible. City offered to pay the 5,000 deductible.
I know one can get mad about the whole situation, but why sue? Unless he was under insured and that was his mistake.
Also if insurance paid, didn’t he give up his right to sue for damages?
But this implies they didn't pay.
Wasn’t Philadelphia responsible for burning a lot of houses in the process of their official duties? I seem to recall something about that.”
Yes, MOVE Headquarters in Philly. The police fire bombed it and burned down the entire blovk.
More about him being armed and holed up in a house he broke into.
Getting after him was legit. But he was no longer a mere “shoplifter” by the time of the standoff. He was in someones house, armed. You can’t leave him. The effort seems unusually destructive, but they probably needed to do some serious damage to root him out of there and not get some cops killed in the process.
It isn’t always like on TV where a sassy detective leads a swat team in the door and it ends with a confession and a snarky response.
The homeowners insurance should cover it. Any extra costs should be covered by the city. The city can go after the perp through fines. The home owner should not have to cover these charges.
I agree, particularly when the crime may be something that would only net the perp a slap on the wrist. Several innocent people here in Houston have been killed by those car chases.
It’s one shoplifter and maybe $50 worth of goods. Get a key from the owner and enter the house. You could pin the guy down in a room and smoke him out or something. No need for Delta team. I’ve seen houses in Beirut that didn’t look that bad after a bombing run.
“Wasn’t Philadelphia responsible for burning a lot of houses in the process of their official duties?”
Yeah, in Philly the MOVE compound was taken down and it burned a row of joined houses. But be fair here. The communist MOVE cell took over a block. On the roof of their house they built an armored pillbox. They were blasting bullhorn propaganda messages constantly and making like unliveable on the block. They filled the house with moths of garbage and vermin were running wild.
When the cops evacuated the block and tried to make arrests, the pillbox opened up with constant fire, including a decent amount of full auto fire. Over 10,000 rounds were fired in the shootout. At THAT point a police helo dropped 2 one pound bombs on the pillbox. That knocked over some illegally stored gasoline on the roof and the fire was off. Firefighters were held back because the automatic fire didn’t stop.
The attached row houses burned.
Everyone hyperventilates about that, but I have yet to hear a better plan. It was like rooting Japs out of a cave on Iwo Jima. Some people you cannot finesse or reason with. It takes cover fire, maneuver, and explosives.
That’s justa natural fact;
So now this guy has an insurance claim for the damage the police caused to his dwelling. If this is more than a second claim in a couple of years the insurance scam raises rates due to no negligence of his own. Sounds fair to me. NOT!!!
“While governments must pay for property seized under eminent domain, governments don’t have to pay for property destroyed by police in pursuit of enforcing the law, the court ruled.”
So why was Harry Callahan’s Chief always getting on his butt about how much his destructive police work cost the city? lol
Sounds fair to me. NOT!!!
Which begs the question, why do we think it should be fair?
And
what would make it fair? yes, his insurance might go up. Mine has gone up for paying damages on other peoples property, is that fair?
The insurance company should not have to pay for this. This was ridiculous abuse of power by the PD, therefore the city.
Can you imagine if you did this kind of damage?
The perp did not do this damage, the PD did this damage.
“I’m not sure what would be fair under this scenario. All I know is I would probably lose it if it happened to me and the courts gave me the middle finger.”
Well, if the Cat you own is, say, a D-9 or so, you could get a bunch of armor plating and....
Cops and their toys......
“And thank you for showing that he got shafted.”
Being fully compensated is not being shafted!
“But this implies they didn’t pay. “
If all you know is a Washington Compost headline ....
never mind.
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