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.
I agree that not everyone needs a SWAT team in their local police dept and this story seems to be an example of overkill.
But when raiding a meth lab armed with soulless thugs with guns, you’ll want these guys going in first, believe me.
um, i think he meant that it was the first time it happened in his department. not in the entire US...
What? They were outside her apartment for hours and she never spoke to them? That doesn't make sense. Either the reporter got it wrong or...
“She said one of her pet guinea pigs was also killed during the incident.”
They couldn’t find a dog so they offed the Guinea pig.
And?
There is also another dynamic at work. The city manager looks at that big SWAT budget and calls in the police chief.
“Chief, I see we spent 1.2 million on SWAT gear and training last year. How many times was the SWAT team actually used.”
“Um, I think it was about 25 times.”
“Chief, I can’t justify spending this much money for SWAT.”
(Next year)
“Chief, I see we spent 1.5 million on SWAT gear and training last year. How many times was the SWAT team actually used.”
“SIr, the SWAT team was called out 459 times last year!”
“Great work Chief!”
(Nothing gets a cat out of a tree like a $4,000 SWAT sniper rifle.)
that's all i need to see. dopey.
next time you or anyone you know is the victim of a crime, call a firefighter.
“What? They were outside her apartment for hours and she never spoke to them? That doesn’t make sense. Either the reporter got it wrong or...”
Or nobody was home. Seems likely from the article as it would be pertinent to note they had arrested her at gunpoint if she had been there. Not to mention those dangerous youngsters and the hamster.
no biggie.
She just better be sure she doesn't have a cell phone or a hair brush or a wallet in her hands when she leaves cover.
“Then the police could have gone to Starbucks.”
Sorry, that would be Dunkin’ Donuts.
I was a combat infantryman and it was understood that the first priority was the successful accomplishment of the mission and that risks were necessary to do that. If the LEO's don't want to take the risks then they should choose another line of work.
I once took a shooting course from Jim Cirillo, who had (at that time) been in more face-to-face armed shootouts (something like 17) with criminals than any other cop in the nation when he was a member of NYPD’s “Stakeout Squad.”
He didn’t have an especially high opinion of SWAT teams. As a taxpayer, neither do I. The record of SWAT teams from a taxpayer’s perspective is very poor. They’ve resulted in very high costs for very little upside or results, and in some communities, they’ve just resulted in tremendous pay-outs in lawsuits for damages, distress and wrongful deaths.
If these clowns want to play at being a special operator, then they can join the armed forces’ spec-ops group of their choice.
What is really needed here is a change in LEO recruiting. My first suggestion is to hire some people that know how to read, and use this skill at the appropriate time: before they execute a raid. If police departments would recruit better people and give their rank-and-file officers better training, there would be no need for SWAT teams.
A pretty grim indication of the state of LEO recruitment in this nation was seen in CT years ago, when an applicant was rejected for having too high an IQ:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF93AA3575AC0A96F958260
As for LEO’s that make false entry, or commit wrongful manslaughter serving a warrant: they should lose their sovereign immunity. The cause of these mistakes rests with the people making the raids, and the taxpayers should insist on strict liability falling upon the LEO’s involved and responsible, rather than tapping the taxpayer’s pocket to pay the damages in lawsuits.
“that’s all i need to see. dopey.”
glad to hear it Grumpy
“next time you or anyone you know is the victim of a crime, call a firefighter.”
and what will the cops do? Clean up and look for something to arrest me on? As I’ve posted here before the cops here aren’t interested in taking reports or chasing criminals. Takes 90 minutes to get a response for someone breaking into my house.
Then when I was trying to get my CCW it took them 5 tries to get my fingerprints. It only stopped at 5 because the state law put a limit on the number of attempts they could require. The 3 stooges could do a better job.
“When your life is on the line and every second counts, the police are only minutes away.”
Sorry, I’ll protect myself, thanks.
Huh? What's the cop gonna do, pat you on the shoulder and comfort you.
The firefighter's probably better at that anyway.
Oh wait, you probably mean the police officer's going to make a personal pledge to you to do whatever it takes to locate, apprehend, and prosecute the perp. Uh huh.
society may not care about officer safety, but the officer's family does. if it's between officer safety and suspect safety, i'll take the cop. if it's between officer safety and property damage, i'll take officer safety.
Wow. We got a wrong house ping list, now? Oh yeah. Add me to that one.
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