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Posted on 07/28/2005 8:42:34 AM PDT by skyman
A family says on a quiet May evening members of the Utah County SWAT team erroneously invaded their Springville home and roughed them up without cause.
The next day, the Chidester family, including Lawrence, his wife Emily and their adult son Larry, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Utah County and six SWAT team members.
According to court documents, the Chidesters say the SWAT team arrived on the street outside their home May 25 at approximately 10:30 p.m. They say the officers then proceeded to man-handle them in the execution of a search warrant -- albeit for the wrong address. The police unit's intended target, the suit claims, was the residence next door.
"Larry Chidester was asleep in his residence when he heard a loud bang or crash outside and exited to investigate the source of the noise," court documents say.
He observed Utah County SWAT team members departing their police vehicle and heading toward their neighbor's home. The sound he had heard was flash-bang devices detonated by the officers. However when SWAT team members saw Larry, they went after him, the suit claims.
"The officer pointed his firearm at Larry and started running towards him, yelling, 'There's one!,' " the document states.
Despite the fact that Larry had his hands in the air and told the officer repeatedly "I'm not resisting," the suit states the SWAT member continued to run over or tackle him, "and shoved his face into the ground and rocks."
The suit claims Larry Chidester was later transported to the emergency room at Mountain View Hospital in Payson to be treated for injuries.
Two officers then kicked open a side door of the home and entered Lawrence Chidester's bedroom as he was dressing, according to the suit.
"A law enforcement officer grabbed Lawrence and threw him to the floor ... the officer held a firearm to the back of Lawrence's head in the presence of his wife, Emily Chidester," the documents say.
Afterward, when the family was questioned about their names and address, the suit claims SWAT team members "admitted ... they were in the wrong house and they had made a mistake."
The Chidesters said the addresses of both homes were clearly marked by curbside mail boxes.
In the federal suit, the Chidesters claim that the members of the Utah County Sheriff's Office were "grossly negligent ... and acted with deliberate indifference" of their rights. They say the SWAT team members had no probable cause for their arrest or detention.
The family is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages to be determined at trial.
Though Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said the Chidester home was not the SWAT team's original objective, he said the Chidesters became involved in the raid "as an ancillary issue."
"The warrant was for the house nextdoor but in the service of that warrant they became involved ... they had contact with us," Tracy said.
He said he could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit since he had not yet reviewed it.
"We dispute the accuracy of their version of the events," Tracy said, regarding what's been reported to date about the nature of the incident.
And most of it justified by the WOD
Could be just as easily justified by the WOT.
No, I'm saying perhaps someone else instigated it by giving bad information to the police, then contacted the family about the lawsuit. ACLU and other such groups wouldn't be above that sort of thing.
One of Sheriff Tracy's Deputies had a pedophile problem also:
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/47600
Although I believe, with every fiber of my being, that no act is so repulsive, disgusting or repugnant that a lawyer will not do it, I find that a rather far-fetched theory.
Perhaps, but it's one we will probably never see examined, so we will never know if it is true or not.
I do now the ACLU has been involved in orchestrating events before, just to generate lawsuits.
That is true. Why no one has ever served time for that is a travesty.
I only wish I was. It's partially demilled from what I heard. Still has the FLIR cameras on it, but no advanced weaponry. You see it flying around here every now and then. Last time I saw it was just last week. They used to have a Eurocopter AS 350B2 that had a FLIR set up mounted on it. The Cobra is a recent addition.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
I have no problem with holding professionals of any discipline to high standards but these brownshirt comments are no different than Durban's despicable comments about our troops.
Now, do you think that some of our troops are gung-ho as hell and go over the top? Well yeah.
Any reason to slander the entire military for it? Hell no.
Like I said earlier, a lot of the comments on this thread sound like those 60's hippies that thought all cops were Nazi pigs and needed to die.
Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone
Couple of guys do a home invasion and abduct you and yours. Might be nice to have a little 'assistance' under those circumstances.
So your saying that I should be glad we have swat teams because someday I might get kidnaped and then the swat team can come and save me?
How often does that happen?
...I'm really trying hard not to just be a smart ass here, but I have a harder and harder time finding examples of law enforcement actually protecting or serving citizens.
It's getting out of control, and it's getting worse.
That is the difference between "peace officers" and "law enforcement officers".
Breaking into a person's home is serious business and they shouldn't be stupid when they do it.
The gestapo deserves to lose.
Maybe the neighbors are drunk again, yelling and fighting, and she runs into the street with him chasing and wailing on her.
No! No! NO! NO! That is exactly the problem.
Ex-military types are trained for military situations where the rules of engagement are ... when in doubt, kill the enemy. There is a presumption that anyone you see will be trying to kill you. If he has something in his hand, shoot to kill - it might be a gun (and not a cell phone). If you make a mistake, call it "collateral damage" and go home. THIS IS NOT THE CULTURE I WANT FROM MY "POLICE"!! This is the culture that led Horiuchi to take a sniper shot at Ruby Ridge and kill a woman holding a baby! This is the culture that led to the Waco massacre!
Apply the quality culture to this situation for a moment - if there is a serious problem, it is probably not the fault of the men, but the fault of the system. What is the system?
Let's start with "no-knock warrants". They were originally justified because perps would get rid of evidence if the police knocked on the door. Bookies would touch a cigar to flash paper and burn up the booking slips. Dealers would flush drugs down the toilet. To fix this problem, police requested "no-knock" warrants to stop the perps from destroying the evidence.
So police did this -- and found that drug dealers and some bookies worry about being robbed, so they have guns, and are ready to use them instantly against people who bust in on them. When police busted in the door, some of them got shot by the perps. Soooo...
The police decided that, rather than get shot, they should have SWAT teams to bust in with overwhelming force and "secure" the situation. When some of them get shot, they go get taught by the military (OK, the military teaches the FBI, and the FBI teaches the SWAT teams), so you get militarization of the police; and the tactics are based on the fact that you shoot to kill anyone who has something in their hand that MIGHT be a danger to you when you surprise them in their own home. So when you learn the tactics, you absorb the culture - suprise the perps, and kill them under the slightest perceived danger.
After a few perps get shot by these guys, some bad guys decide they are going to get even -- so the SWAT team now wear their black ninja suits and ski masks so you are unable to find out who they are, and thus further reduces their sense of accountability.
The culture is re-inforced by the fact that not a single police officer who has killed a citizen this way has been convicted of manslaughter or murder; the Police management support their people. It's just collateral damage. This happens much more than we would like to believe -- read the "Whack and Stack" pages of Sierra Times and become appalled.
Conclusion: the system is wrong. Solution: change the system.
For example: Only use SWAT teams AFTER shots have been fired at police, or in hostage situations, where the presumtion of guilt is more applicable. And eliminate "no knock" warrants.
That's the funniest comment I've read on Free Republic in a long time.
You see, quite a few of us; either because we're news junkies or through personal experience (AHEM!) have learned that cops have a new thing these days. If they show up for ANY reason, somebody is going to jail. It doesn't matter if you are 80 years old in a wheelchair, a 9 year-old who has drawn a picture of a gun at school, or a junior high school kid carrying a burrito that a nosy somebody thinks might be a weapon.
If you attract the attention of Law Enforcement, you are likely to be physically subdued, tasered, tear-gassed - maybe even shot, and then transported to the "Law Enforcement Center" (formerly known as jail) and incarcerated until somebody cares enough to raise sufficient hell to get you out. Then you will be deprived of a significant portion of your net worth (even if you are innocent) and wind up under the supervision of the criminal justice system forever.
The day I purposely alert law Enforcement to my whereabouts and identity, I need to be committed.
I have two grown children. Not too many years ago, I warned them to be careful and have a good time every time they left the house. Now, I tell them "Whatever you do, do not attract the attention of law enforcement".
I cannot imagine any circumstance or set of circumstances where I would need a cop or SWAT team to come to my "assistance".
No, you're right -- something isn't passing the sniff test here.
They may not be brownshirts, but too many of them sure act like they are... and, in your "home invasion" scenario, how are you gonna get a cop there without calling? And how you gonna call if you got some punk with his pistol in your face (a la the cops in this case)? Further, according to the Supremes, cops are not obligated to protect individuals in any case. You might just wanna rethink things a bit, laddybuck.
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