Posted on 06/09/2006 7:38:19 AM PDT by VRing
A Stockbridge couple whose home was mistakenly raided by Henry County Police last year as they sought a drug suspect is seeking $8 million in damages from the incident.
In a lawsuit filed last month in Superior Court against county officials and police, Roy and Belinda Baker say they were roused out of bed by police who used a battering ram to knock down their door and threw concussive grenades into their home around 1 a.m. Sept. 30.
“The Law Enforcement Defendants accosted the Bakers in the hallway to their bedroom, where they had been sleeping, and yelled at the Bakers, threatened, assaulted and unlawfully touched the Bakers, and placed the Bakers face down, at gunpoint ...” the suit says.
(Excerpt) Read more at henryherald.com ...
Yeah...we have to be sensitive here...take the guns away so nobody gets hurt...
And the Taxpayers who vote on the councilmen, mayor, etc. have NO CONTROL over the Union-directed appointment process in the ranks. How does the taxpayer select the police recruits? How does the affirmative action plan allow the taxpayer to select the police recruits?
How does the TAXPAYER remove an APPOINTED Judge?
No. They work for the city and the city is then responsible for damages they inflict. The exception my be if it was done intentionally by one individual directing the others. But even that would be a gray area.
Then the taxpayers should elect competent folks to make these decisions. Otherwise, they will have to pay for the incompetence they tolerate.
As you can see from the Rambo-style posts, some think it's an everyday event that these "assaults in one's own home" are happening, and that overboard rewards to lawyers is the answer (funded, again, by the taxpayer, while the guilty parties are not harmed or penalized in any way).
That's the point: why do taxpayers ALWAYS have to foot the bill for incompetence and stupidity of public "servants"?
For what?
A broken door, being handcuffed and about 15 minutes of mistaken identity?
Where they permanently injured, crippled, legs broken?
Jury verdicts and awards are all over the map in part because juries have lost perspective.
If this was done intentially, you are right, 20 million would be a starter. If this was an honest error, then 8 million is probably too high.
You're telling me that the police getting the wrong address in a middle-of-the-night raid where they're invading somebody's home at gunpoint is EXCUSABLE?
I don't care how dark it was or how poorly marked the addresses, unless the innocent victims had the wrong number painted on their house this should NEVER have happened. It's not like an officer accidentally hitting a pedestrian in a frantic firefight with twelve armed thugs. They had plenty of time, plenty of administrative and city information resources AND THE RESPONSIBILITY to get it right, not just go, uh, this looks like it's probably the place, let's send in a s***load of guns and take down whoever we find in there.
Somebody needs to be in the unemployment line, and if I were on the jury I'd be very sympathetic to the victims of this completely incompetent raid. We can't treat this crap lightly. And never mind the fact that the victims here were lucky this time -- next time somebody may well get killed. And it could be you or one of your family members.
Bash the door in at my house in the middle of the night and see what happens.
Henry county is south of Atlanta - still considered in the Atlanta metro area
No 8 million sounds just about right and first every jbt and admin type involved in the screwup should be forced to put his assets into the pool before it goes into the taxpayers pockets.
what's with the porn in the side bar?
Trouble is, the millions won't be paid by the guilty parties, because they don't have that kind of money. It'll be paid ultimately by all the innocent citizens of the county.
"For what?"
Let me ask you this.. Do you believe that a man's home is his castle, that he has an absolute right to be free from government searches, except upon probable cause? This is a perfect example of trampled rights and I suspect that the good people of Henry County will pay for the error of the people they chose to "protect" them.
I suppose you are a big defender of the good faith exception as well.
I think the main reason for these types of raids on drug operations is that the operators tend to be well-armed, and often paranoid from meth use as well. They're likely to respond to a knock on the door and a "Police! Please open the door!" request with a hail of gunfire through the door.
"Trouble is, the millions won't be paid by the guilty parties"
Very true, but I suspect the only way to change that is....Well, it involves lots of gunfire...
Where?
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