Posted on 11/21/2007 7:28:37 AM PST by TSgt
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A SWAT team raids the wrong home in Lawrenceburg, Ind., now the homeowner wants some answers.
Police said they were led to the Village Apartments on the trail of fugitive Sean Deaton.
Convinced he was inside apartment 407G, the Lawrenceburg SWAT unit surrounded the building.
"It looked like they were ready to go to war," one neighbor said. "Some of the ones out here had AR15's and shotguns."
Neighbors said police spent hours, ordering Deaton to surrender. But when that didn't work, they responded with tear gas and forced entry.
"It looked like my apartment was on fire. The smoke was just blowing out of my windows," Kayla Irwin, the tenant of 407G said.
Irwin, a single mother of two, said she is unable to live in her apartment and didn’t even know the man police were searching for.
Now, she said, she has been left with the mess and no apology.
"It's all covered with poison. I don't know where to start over with two kids," said Irwin. "How do you start with replacing the items that your kids have had since the day they were born?"
She said one of her pet guinea pigs was also killed during the incident.
Neighbors said the police action was simply overkill.
"Overpowered. In my opinion it looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. They did not need to do all this," Emanuel Brightwell, an Iraq veteran and neighbor said.
Irwin said she appealed to the police, but hasn’t gotten anywhere.
"They basically just said, sorry for the inconvenience. Go ahead and clean it up. Clean up our mess," Irwin said.
She said she's had to borrow everything from family in the week since the incident. She also said she can't stay in the apartment because of the acrid gas residue.
An assistant chief and another officer were at the Village Apartments talking to Irwin within 30 minutes of Target 5 asking them about the incident, telling her that they would try to get some money so she could clean her clothes and furnishing on her own.
"This is the first time this has happened. I'm surprised the incident has not been remedied. We will take care of it the best we can," the assistant chief said.
Until the incident is remedied, the manager of the apartment complex said he has put Irwin, her kids and her pets in another apartment.
“If these clowns want to play at being a special operator, then they can join the armed forces spec-ops group of their choice.”
EXACTLY. I’d rather be arrested by Marines than the local SWAT, I know I’d have a better chance of making it out alive.
I still say SWAT teams need to be held to a UCMJ standard.
“but it’s better than the alternative.”
Having an oppressive police state is better than anarchy? Thats a tough call there, kinda like ‘do you want me to cut off your left or right arm?’.
Drugs are evil and a scourge on society. The War on Drugs has resulted in enormous abuses and done little to stop the drug use.
51% of the people in federal prison are there for drug crimes. we have one of the the highest % of our population in prison of any modern country. The WOD is not working. Militarizing our police forces is not working. Perhaps its time to look for alternatives instead of supplying the police with bigger guns.
Wait a minute, the police spent hours outside the apt, demanding that the fugitive surrender, and no one tried to tell the police that the man wasn’t in that apt?
It just sounds a little weird.
Thanks for doing the dirty work. More cops need to recognize that lots of other people pick up a rifle to go to work... with a lot greater expectation of using it.
Most cops will never see as much in one lifetime as a lot of military will see in one day.
I’m not anti-cop, but we need to keep things in perspective.
Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against - then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
They spent hours asking her to surrender. This is weird. It’s weird she wouldn’t let them in to end the thing quicker as it was apparently just dragging on for HOURS. It’s also weird that SWAT spent hours negotiating a surrender - you don’t need SWAT to do this if the person you’re going after may just let you in.
This was not a no-knock like some of the other examples. This whole thing strikes me as overkill on the PD’s part, and stupidity on the woman’s part.
And the reason why you (and I, and perhaps many other people who have seen the results of investigations into wrongdoing by both police departments and the USMC) think this way is this:
When someone screws up in the USMC, the USMC doesn’t let it slide. They come down like a ton of bricks on cowboys and screw-ups. You bring dishonor upon the Corps, the Corps does not ignore it.
Most all of the investigations into wrongdoing in these wrong-address/wrong-person raids by cops result in “nothing improper found.” If the USMC executed the same sort of raid, at the very least, the lowest-level officers in charge of the team would be catching some major heat, possibly even discharge from the USMC.
This is a sincere question, I’m not being a smart-ass or anything. When was the last time a SWAT team responded in force and had to use the force the brought to the scene. I honestly can’t recall a single incident where, when it was all over, it turned out the bad guys had the kind of weapons and ability that would call for what the average SWAT team responds with these days. Well, actually I can’t say that because now I recall the shoot out in LA (?) where the bad guys had body armor and automatic weapons, but that’s the only incident that comes to mind.
I think in most cases, this one included, it pays to wait and see what the full story turns out to be. Granted, on the face it seems pretty much, but it could turn out quite different from how it was initially reported in the press.
Thanks!
I preferred the good old days when a pair of plainclothed detectives went in and retrieved their man (on the coroners gurney)
Somebody has to stuff your bloody carcass into a body bag.
I think if you’re calling them ‘law enforcement officers’ as opposed to ‘officers of the peace’ this illustrates the problem with the shift in thinking that has occurred at our police departments. It’s not about keeping the peace anymore. It’s about enforcing laws and whether the peace is kept and common-sense dealings with citizens occurs is ancillary.
The libertarian ping list tries to ping to these types of stories, we probably do a few a week, if you’d to join it.
No, I wouldn’t. There is nothing good about being in this kind of scenario. But if the team is trying to talk to someone for hours before busting in, it seems there is a window of opportunity to talk with them and maybe get them to double-check the doggone address.
If they were busting through my door without any announcements, yeah, there’d be no chance to try to talk with them.
Leaving the home they just trashed in shambles without so much as an apology has nothing to do with officer safety. Kick in the door if you have to but there is no excuse for not fixing everything you broke afterwards
Please add me to this ping list. I had clicked on the freepmail link provided earlier...
thanks and keep up the good work
Sheriffs are still the highest peace officer of any county/parish. Techincally the feds have to get their permission to be there (federalism thing).
That’s why I never want sheriff’s to ever go away. They are the state’s check on the feds in each county. The only one higher in authority in the state is the state’s Attorney General.
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