Posted on 01/07/2008 10:12:34 AM PST by JSDude1
Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak. The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves. Someone, apparently the unidentified paramedic, called police, the sheriff's office and social services, eventually providing Leoniak with a report that generated the magistrate's court order to the sheriff's office for the SWAT team assault on the family's home in a mobile home development outside of Glenwood Springs, the father, Tom Shiflett, told WND.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
It’s good to know that the SWAT team was probably fully outfitted thanks to some Homeland Security funds to help them fight terror. I’m sure that family won’t ever experience terror...again.
*shrug*
“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”.............
This procedure violates the principal of a jury trial with the right to face the accuser.
When are people going to fight this type of tactic in court?
And people wonder why pepole object to the tactics, behavior and mindset of many of today’s “peace officers.”
Ping.
TODAY; I SAY THE TIME IS RIGHT “TODAY”: These good citizens of both the State of CO, and the USA ought to take this thing fully to the US Sup. Court, and their State Sup. Ct!
However, the sheriff declined to provide a single instance of the father's illegal behavior. "I can't tell you specifically," he said.
"He was refusing to provide medical care," the sheriff said.
Un-effing-believable. I hate non-thinking small town SWAT teams. unreal. I hope they get a multi-million judgement out of this.
I guess that justifies a no-knock raid by the local SWAT guys as a follow-up visit. Did they kill the dog?
However, the sheriff declined to provide a single instance of the father's illegal behavior. "I can't tell you specifically," he said.
"He was refusing to provide medical care," the sheriff said.
Un-effing-believable. I hate non-thinking small town SWAT teams. unreal. I hope they get a multi-million judgement out of this.
Sorry didn’t know it was already posted. Feel free to have the moderator delete/move.
Ah, read on - he’s HOME SCHOOLED and probably a cHritsian family - BIG No-NO’s.!
“According to friends of the family, Tom Shiflett, who has 10 children including six still at home, and served with paramedics in Vietnam, was monitoring his son’s condition himself.”
“The paramedic and magistrate, however, ruled that that wasn’t adequate, and dispatched the officers to take the boy, John, to a hospital, where a doctor evaluated him and released him immediately.”
“The accident happened during horseplay, Tom Shiflett told WND. John was grabbing the door handle of a car as his sister was starting to drive away slowly. He slipped, fell to the ground and hit his head, Shiflett said. “
“He immediately carried his son into their home several doors away, and John was able to recite Bible verses and correctly spell words as his father and mother, Tina, requested. There were no broken bones, no dilated eyes, or any other noticeable problems.”
“The family, whose members live by faith and homeschool, decided not to call an ambulance. But a neighbor did call Westcare Ambulance, and paramedics responded to the home, asking to see and evaluate the boy.”
Nah...just messin’ with you...;-)
So they justify use of possibly deadly force because of unspecified “comments”? Ever heard of the First Amendment, you loser of a sheriff?
Hope this guy lawyers up and gets some good attys who understand civil rights, both on the civil and the criminal side. Sounds like he is, too...
This type of tactic is used in many states. Conservatives should do what the liberals have been doing for years: pick a clear cut case of abuse in a federal district where their is a chance of winning; e.g., NOT the Ninth Circuit. Make it into a Federal civil rights case. Suits against the individuals involved can be brought.
But I recall reading stories where parents have not permitted a child to receive some sort of life-saving treatment, and the child has died (i.e. not allowing a blood transfusion, not permitting a diabetic child to take insulin). Would I have been in favor of the cops doing this in those cases? Hmmmm. . .I'm not sure.
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