Why do cops wear Masks while serving warrents?

today | Self

[Robbin]

I saw the local police are angry about the swat team going into the Mayors house. Not only are they Friends of the mayor, the local Police Chief said that if one of his guys had been driving by when 5 heavily armed men in plain clothes and masks were kicking in the Mayor’s front door, they would have been fired on them thinking they were terrorists attacking the mayor’s home.

Besides the shooting of dogs for no reason, which is bad enough, why do they have masks over their faces? Bad guys were masks so they can’t be identified after they rape and kill. How is a home owner suppose to know they are cops? No uniforms and Masks on their faces???? So I’m suppose to take their word for it when they yell “Police Officer” over the sound of gun fire in my house while they kill my dogs?

Now I expect an excuse that only a cop, protecting another cops actions could believe, but there has to be SOME logic behind wearing masks while serving a KNOCK warrant. I mean surly the average citizen would throw open the door to five armed men in plain cloths wearing masks because they said they had a warrant wouldn’t they??? There are a lot of cops on the board, So what is it? Why would cops serving a warrant wear MASKS?

Robbin

[B4Ranch]

American citizens ARE the government. WE determine just what is legal and acceptable and what isn't. If a bunch of power hungry Quislings get in where they don't belong it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to remove them. We will use the voters box and the Courts first. If the voters box and the Courts have been taken over by the power hungry Quislings that's what will start the next civil war.

It is cowards such as yourself who want to yell BAA BAAA BAAAA (I WON'T FIGHT FOR MY RIGHTS) instead of SUPPORT THE CONTSTITUTION! that got us into this mess.

[Dick Vomer]

so they can look like "special operators"...

It looks "cool" to have a black balaclava.... that way the "bad guys" can't id you.... yeah, uh-huh.

It's all about trying to look like spec op troops and be cool. They couldn't or wouldn't sacrifice 4-6 years in order to earn the spec op tag, so they get to dress up... get MP-5's, body armor and run around and pretend they do CQB.

I've said this on another thread but I'll repeat it here. I'm waiting for the first gang-banger to get out of the armed forces that knows how to protect a perimeter with trip wires, pressure plates and some home-made nail bombs and napalm....then we'll see how many no-knock warrants get served.

All of these could have been done by snatching the bad guys. Dragging them over with zip ties and turning off the water, electricity and phones.... heck you can even jam the cell phones if you wanted to.

But it doesn't look "cool" for budget presentations to be dragging a guy up, putting a key in the door and just walking in.

Has to be a "dynamic" entry. doncha know?

[Dick Vomer]

So no one can retaliate.

Can’t really blame them.

so why don't ALL cops wear masks?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

American citizens ARE the government.

I'm sorry, the US is a Republic, not a Democracy. Please read the Constitution.

[School of Rational Thought]

ITs been popular since the Munich Olympics.

[wastedyears]

Has anybody been sentenced for that?

[Ron H.]

Thugs with or without a badge come busting through my front door dressed as black robed ninjas brandishing guns late at night especially in this day and age and not wearing clearly marked and identifiable police markings will be in for a rude awakening and it would be a shame if someone should die because the police refuse to act in a clearly responsible manner. I for one will protect and defend at any costs my home and my families safety against unidentified assailants in the middle of the night kicking in my front door.

Chance are everyone involved will get only one chance to get it right from the get go. There is absolutely no excuse for police not wearing proper marked clothing and properly identifying themselves when making a raid. If they don't then they should be fully prepared to accept the consequences of their ill thought out and clearly irresponsible actions. If keeping secret an officers identify is that important then let him/her sit out the raid and let uniform officers do the heavy lifting. Using secrecy is a poor excuse for exercising good judgment and is just begging for a catastrophe to happen.

And if I were chosen as a juror to sit in judgment of my neighbor under similar circumstances in a trial or proceeding then I'll only have one real choice. I'm all for protecting officers in the line of duty but there are lines that must not be crossed in order to protect us against out of control police.

[Ron H.]

Veterans; There is no expiration date on our oath, to protect America from all enemies, foreign and domestic!

And that oath does not only apply to congressionally defined war zones.

[Dead Corpse]

Good God. You sound like a 5th grader.

[theDentist]

Obviously that's your call. And when they fill you full of holes, some FReepers will be outraged, others will note that 1 gun against 10 was not a winning roll of the dice.

The question remains: Why doesn't the original author just write a letter or call the police and ask: "Why do police raiding a house wear masks?"

[Hatteras]

"There has to be some excuse for wearing masks, I want to know what it is..."

Because they are EEEEEVIL and they are out to get... YOU!

[Arpege92]

I appreciate you sticking up for the cops.

[Ron H.]

That's your call as well citizen if you don't mind out of control police kicking in your door at 4am and beating you and your family into submission just because you don't comply with their demands fast enough to suit them and then killing your dogs without provocation but not this law abiding, patriotic constitution loving American citizen. I prefer standing up to the police state mentality that is growing in America that people like you seem to be bringing on and approve of and even seem to worship. Just know that these colors don't run and cower. I will not be cowed by the likes of you or any of the police state lovers around here as you seem to be.

You can hide behind our apron if you like while I and others like myself defend our God given and constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure by an out of control police state. And if you can't tell the difference then you are not worth the effort.

[Ron H.]

The question remains: Why doesn't the original author just write a letter or call the police and ask: "Why do police raiding a house wear masks?"

The premise of your question is diversionary and invalid. You are simply trying to obfuscate the real problem involved with the being why do police seem to think they cannot act any better than the bad guys they claim to be trying to take off the streets and for citizens to not be outraged by their heavy handed and overtly thuggish behavior and violate citizens constitional rights against unreasonable search and seizure and an increasingly civil rights violating police state. Just remember this: if left unchecked today they came for me, tommorrow they come for you.

[archy]

OK guys, you go and shoot it out with the US government. I’ll send flowers!

You misunderstand: most of us ARE U.S. Government federal employees....

And should you choose to shoot it out with the U.S. military, we won't send flowers, you'll just get about what Saddam's Medinah Republican Guards Brigade got. It only took about 40 minutes.

[archy]

Has anybody been sentenced for that?

There've been several cases of police being sentenced under 18/242, Deprivation of Civil Rights under Color of Law, the most well-known being the L.A. cops involved in the Rodney King beating and the prosecution of sheriff's deputies involved in 1960s civil rights-era killings. Former Long Beach police officer Joseph Ferguson was sentenced for both 18/241 and 18/242 violations during a series of home invasions over a two-year period, noone was killed in those incidents, so Ferguson received *only* 97 months in federal prison. There were other LAPD and LASO officers similarly charged and convicted.

A Prince Georges Co Maryland K9 officer who thought it would be amusing to let his K9 partner chew on a homeless man was convicted under 18/242 and got 10 years, though a conspiracy violation under 18/241 would have been possible for the conversatiuon with another officer about asking if the dog could "take a bite" out of the victims, and a swecond Prince George's Co officer also beating the man afterward. Again, the victim didn't die, so the full penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty wasn't called for. There have been others as well.

There is an ongoing case in which police may have been responsible for the death of a handcuffed and hogtied captive who was tasered, all after having been peppersprayed/maced and beaten, and a EMT/paramedic at the scene was kept from treating or examining the victim at the scene. That may become a 18/241 or 18/242 case, or may be handled by the state as being a death resulting in the commission of a felony, by the cops, who need not be first convicted of the federal felony to face the state *death during a felony* murder charge. But if they're convicted under the federal charges, the *Safe Streets Act* which kicks in if a weapon was used during the commission of a federal Civil Rights violation [as with the Ramos/Compeon Border Patrol Agents case in Texas] then it's mandatory that the maximum penalty be applied...which could be either life imprisonment or a trip to the gurney and needle at the federal pen in Terre Haute. We shall see how that one goes.

[theDentist]

No. I agree it's a problem. I too don't see why they'd wear masks except for either they also work undercover and don't want someone taking a photo that could be published, or more likely, so light doesn't refelct off exposed skin and make them an easier target to the bad guys.

But that doesn't mean he cannot ask the question.

[wastedyears]

Wow, I didn’t think anybody was ever charged.

[Alas Babylon!]

Someone needs a good, old home banning.