guy, even after it should have been clear for some time now that they made a mistake.Posted on 05/07/2008 9:13:08 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
About a month ago I got a call from a reporter for the Arkansas Times inquiring about my research into paramilitary drug raids. He'd been reporting on a raid in North Little Rock involving a 40-year-old man named Tracy Ingle. When he told me the story over the phone, I was floored, even given all the abuses and mistakes I've reported and read about over the last few years. What makes the case especially egregious is not that the police may have gotten the wrong home, that they shot a man, or that they were covering it up or going silent. We've seen all that before. What's mind-blowing about this one is that they've continued abusing the poor guy, even after it should have been clear for some time now that they made a mistake.
From the outset, it should be noted that Tracy Ingle has had some trouble with the law in the past, though nothing violent, and nothing drug-related. He has had a couple of DWI's, and a citation for failing to appear in court. He apparently also agreed to do some repair work on a friend's car that later turned out to be stolen.
That said, what's happened to him over the last few months is pretty outrageous.
Here's the Arkansas Times piece, which I'd encourage you to read in full. And here's a follow-up interview with North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley about SWAT tactics.
I've since spoken again to the reporter and to Tracy Ingle's sister, Tiffney Forrester, who herself is a former sheriff's deputy. I've also had a chance to review the warrants and return sheets (pdf).
The North Little Rock Police Department wouldn't discuss the case with me.
Here's a quick rundown:
• On January 7, 2008 a paramilitary police unit in North Little Rock, Arkansas conducted a drug raid on Tracy Ingle's home. Ingle says he had fallen asleep for several hours, and was asleep when the raid happened. He awoke when the police took a battering ram to his door. Another team of officers approached form the outside of the house, and shattered the window to his bedroom.
• When he awoke, Ingle says he thought his home was being invaded by armed robbers. He reached for a broken gun, a pretty clear indication that he had no intention of killing anyone, but rather was trying to scare away the intruders. When he grabbed the gun, an officer inside the house fired his weapon. The bullet hit Ingle just above the knee, shattered his thigh bone, and nearly severed his lower leg. When the outside officers heard the shot, they opened up on Ingle, hitting him four more times. According to Ingle's sister, one bullet still rests just above Ingle's heart, and can't be removed.
• Ingle was taken to the hospital, and spent a week-and-a-half in intensive care. He was then removed from intensive care—still in his hospital pajamas—and taken to the North Little Rock police department, where he was questioned for five hours. He was not told he was suspected of a crime, and his family wasn't allowed to speak with him. After the interrogation, he was arrested and transferred to the county jail.
• Ingle spent the next four days in jail. He says he was never given his pain medication or his antibiotics. Though hospital nurses told him to change his bandages and clean his wounds every 4-6 hours, Ingle told the Arkansas Times that jail officials changed them only twice in four days. Ingle's wounds became infected during the time he was in jail.
• Police found no illegal drugs in Ingle's home. They did find a scale, which Ingle's sister tells me was an extra she was given when she worked at a medical testing facility. She used it in her jewelry-making hobby. They also found a bunch of small plastic bags. Again, Ingle's sister says these were part of her business. "I was leaving the country for a while, and I stored a lot of my stuff at his house," she told me. "The scale and bags were mine, and are both common things to have for anyone who makes jewelry." Police also found the broken gun and a broken police scanner.
• From those items, the police charged Ingle with running a drug enterprise. They also charged him with assault, for pointing his broken gun at the police officers who had just barged into his home. The judge set Ingle's bail at $250,000, explaining that it had to be set high because Ingle had engaged in a shootout with police—never mind that Ingle didn't fire a shot. Ingle was able to sell his car to pay a bail bondsman. But
with no car, his injuries render him basically immobile. He had to walk two miles on crutches and an infected leg to his hearing last week.
• The police obtained a no-knock warrant for Ingle's home about three weeks prior to the raid. The warrant itself (pdf) reads like boilerplate, with no specific references to Ingle (other than his address), or why he specifically posed a risk to police safety, or of disposing of drugs before coming to answer the door. It mentions no controlled buys. It doesn't even mention an informant. In fact, someone scratched out "crack cocaine" and hand-wrote in "methamphetamine" on the type-written warrant, suggesting a cut, plug, and paste job. The Supreme Court has ruled that police must show case-specific evidence of exigent circumstances in order to be issued a no-knock warrant. The mere fact that it's a drug case isn't enough. The warrant for Ingle's home contains no such specific information.
Many times, information specific to the investigation is contained in the affidavit the investigating officer files for the search warrant, not in the warrant itself. Forrester says she has called the North Little Rock Police Department more than 20 times in an effort to obtain a copy of the affidavits. She says they at first refused to return her phone calls. When she was finally able to speak with a lieutenant, he became angry when she told him she had contacted the media. She then says he told her to "dream on" when she asked for copies of the affidavits.
• According to Forrester, Ingle's neighbor had a direct line of sight into the bedroom, and saw the entire raid. His account initially matched Ingle's. But that changed. "We have a witness, a next door neighbor that saw the entire incident," Forrester told me. "He came forward on his own to give a statement to the family. Police never questioned him until a month or so after the shooting, at my insistence. They kept this neighbor in his home, and questioned him for at least four hours, refusing to let the man's wife come home, of for other people to see him. When the police finished intimidating the man, they told him specifically that 'he did not see what he thought he saw.' The neighbor is now afraid to talk to the media." I have not yet been able to speak with the neighbor.
• Ingle's family was able to put up $1,000 to retain an attorney, but can't afford the extra $6,000 the attorney has asked to represent Ingle. Ingle is therefore still looking for representation. He has no health insurance, and no money to pay for medication, or to continue treatment of his injuries.
• Last week, after the Arkansas Times article appeared, the judge in the case issued a gag order, preventing Ingle and any future attorney he may have from talking to the media about what happened to him. This is puzzling. Before today there had been exactly two articles about this case—not exactly a media circus. It's hard to understand why a gag order was necessary. It's only real purpose is to prevent more people from learning about what's increasingly looking like a railroading. And it's only effect is to lend more support to the possibility that it is, in fact, a cover-up and railroading.
As noted, the police aren't talking. And the prosecutor is now bound by the gag order. Perhaps there's some piece of information damning to Ingle I'm not yet aware of—though it's hard to imagine what that might be.
Barring that, what's happening to Tracy Ingle is pretty outrageous.
Amen.
I’m hoping the irony is intentional.
Anyone who can't see that those that support the war on drugs are idiots, is himself one. The war on drugs is analogous to prohibition. Anyone who can't see we are on a dangerous course, with the rights of many, many people in this country already being stomped on by so called "swat" teams who are merely looking to increase the coffers of their cities is an idiot, plain and simple. Yes, I use a broad brush because one is required to cover all the idiots who refuse, because of a sense of self righteous, and wrong headed, morality to acknowledge the war on drugs to be senseless and useless.
excellent quote of an outstanding mind
and a great unapologetic post.
out
standing!
I love you...marry me!
Are you a RuPaul supporter? Your constitutional doom and gloom is a little over the top.
Easy, take the asset seizure at the local level out of the equation. You cannot stop enforcing drug laws or legalize it. If that is your logic then we need to allow fissile material in every home. Evidently you have never been affected through crime, theft or DWI offenses by someone who is using.
statement of the Day:
Every governmental bureaucracy exists to consume and consumes to exist, solving nothing and it will often abuse the individual in an exercise of the power of the state.
Arkansas huh? Did he have some dirt on the Clintons?
On second thought, he couldn’t have, otherwise he would be dead.
We do not need swat teams in the USA, we do not need the war on drugs. We do need honest politicians(I know and oxymoron)in place so they will not take bribes. Fool yourself all you want but you will not fool me. Idiots and fools are the only ones who think the war on drugs is actually doing any good and not causing unrepairable harm to the USA.
You are the one that lives in a dream world. The WOD is being fought wrong but it is a necessary war. I love you citizens that think everything should be legal damn the consequences. They call that anarchy.
So you like asbestos, mercury in your water, unlimited illicit drugs for those that want them, pornography in schools and libraries, radioactive material in every garage... am I missing anything?
yup. There is also a huge contingent of "drug war" supporters right here on FreeRepublic.
The war on drugs is the main tool used to subvert the constitution, though the 'war on terror' is trying hard to catch up.
They can start talking to me about a "war on terror" after they close the border.
The worst I ever heard was a California case a few years ago. A 72 year old ranch owner was killed in a mistaken drug raid—bad info and no drugs—but the kicker was the emails and memos of the “legal authorities” prior to the raid.
They had the smell of big dollars in their noses via confiscation of the man’s ranch. All their their proceedings and plans were predicated on the confiscation of the property.
I presume the drug agents were not prosecuted and received medals and raises.
You need glasses! The man can’t AFFORD representation! Is everyone on this site completely out of touch with that concept? Some people ain’t rich! Why, when something like this happens, doesn’t the old America raise it’s long-lost head? You know, the America with the Lone Ranger, or Lash Larue riding over the hill to help the little guy - pro bono? Why do we have no Lawyers who can abandon the mirror long enough to roll up their sleeves and kick some crooked court-house ass? This country will soon totally reach it’s end; probably overdue.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Most cops over the age of 35 are fine. It's this younger breed who suffer from major SDS.
And who was in control of our government at the time of Prohibition, as well as in the 1930s when the end of Prohibition brought the roots of the WOD?
Progressives.
Some “progress”.
Sometimes Rambo is the answer.
But I won't be so indirect as your posts leave no room for doubt.
If that is your logic then we need to allow fissile material in every home.
Flippin' idiot.
Well, the article is dramatized but I’ll say this. There is little or no due process now for jackbooted thugs to conduct a raid based on circumstantial evidence. I’ll tell you my quick story:
My wife own’s a little red sports car. She is a licensed phlebotomist (draws blood at hospitals and such). She dropped a friend off in a drug neighborhood about a mile away. This friend wanted to partake as a user but my wife had nothing to do with anything but give her a ride because this friend was drunk. My wife’s license plate is ‘envein’. To stand for phlebotomy. After dropping the friend off, she pulled into the driveway. I saw a TON of blue lights pull into my driveway and I thought a neighbor had an emergency. DEA & SWAT plus a half dozen cruisers were in my driveway, on my lawn! There was three DEA’s with body army with rifles drawn behind my wife’s car. She saw all the blues, but did not see the shotguns drawn behind her. I was in my bath robe and I said, “I am unnarmed, please let me say something to my wife”. The police said “go ahead”. I told her to put her hands on the steering wheel and make no sudden moves.
I knew if my wife saw the drawn weapons she would freak and probably been shot. The police lowered there weapons. They asked me to stand back in my doorway. Then they asked her if they could search the vehicle. My wife said no problem. They of course found nothing but it illustrates the point of overreaction and lack of due process before they draw the weapons.
I would not call Calex views anarchist. Calex seems to be a Libertarian. Simple as that. I don’t know if a Libertarian government is better then a Republic.
What did we have after the Revolution? Libertarian government until the system grew more organized.
I don’t seem to see reports of mass chaos when morphine was legal, it seemed people killed themselves by being addicted. The Chinese smoked opium for decades, the Romans drank it with wine. But they did not shoot other people to get it because they were addicted as they do now.
So it’s a mixed argument and one that would not be resolved unless we became Libertarian again for a time. The ananology about nukes and radiation doesn’t really belong as such things are not easily obtainable. How about cigaretts by the way? They kill more people then all illegal drugs combined and it is legal and widely available. Suppose those, we made nicotine illegal. I would wager people would shoot someone else to get it but it’s just a hunch based on the prohibition days/20’s gangster behavior.
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