Posted on 08/17/2008 12:46:00 PM PDT by ellery
Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight.
The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.
And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Schavon Pennyamon, who lives at the mistakenly raided apartment on Sherwood Street with her husband, Terrell, and six children.
Pennyamon alleges that after wrongly breaking into her apartment, police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment.
She says she’s left with a broken door, an injured husband, jittery children and — what bothers her most — still no apology from police.
“They know they did something wrong and they were still ignorant,” said the 29-year-old Pennyamon. “At first, I just wanted an apology. Now, because they want[ed] to be ignorant and rude, I have to take it to the next level.”
She filed a report with the department’s Professional Standards Division and also contacted Mayor Byron W.
Brown about the incident. Pennyamon said Friday evening she also has retained a lawyer and intends to pursue legal action.
Police brass acknowledge that officers with the Mobile Response and Narcotics units entered the wrong apartment.
“As the officers were in the lower apartment, one of the detectives reviewed the search warrant application and realized it was for the upper [apartment],” said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives.
“It appears to be an honest mistake and we certainly apologize to all involved,” added Michael J. DeGeorge, Buffalo police spokesman.
Police declined to comment, however, on Pennyamon’s allegations of assault and other police impropriety. The internal investigation with the Professional Standards Division is now under way to determine exactly what happened.
“We wouldn’t be comfortable discussing the internal investigation,” Richards said. “We can say comfortably that over 1,100 search warrants were executed last year and 580 to date this year and that, with such a high volume and such a fast-paced environment, it is understandable that mistakes could happen.”
Pennyamon remains unconvinced it was a mistake. She says officers told her they had “raided the house before” and she believes they felt entitled to do it again — warrant or not.
“The way they make it seem is ‘we can do whatever we want,’ ” she said.
Pennyamon’s troubled by what she says is an arrogance by police officers and an unwillingness to “serve and protect” those who need it.
“It’s a sad situation. I’ve always looked up to the police. I’ve always expected them to be on my side.”
Pennyamon was called home from her job as a certified nursing assistant at a local health care facility at about 6:30 p. m. Wednesday to find police at her house, her children partially dressed on the porch and her husband — a U.S. Air Force veteran — injured. She said police were rude and unapologetic.
It was a harsh welcome to the neighborhood for the family. They’ve only lived at the apartment on Sherwood Street, on the far West Side just south of West Ferry Street, for two weeks after she says they moved from the East Side to escape crime. Now, Pennyamon said, the family already is looking to relocate again.
“I don’t know what was going on upstairs, but it gives police no right to bust in my doors,” she said. “That’s just ridiculous.”
Richards said police protocol dictates that search warrants are executed by police first announcing their presence and then quickly and forcefully entering a property with guns drawn for their own protection.
“Police have been faced with fortified doors and windows. In numerous locations, they’ve been met with individuals armed with weapons or attacking animals,” he said.
Pennyamon said the event left her husband with physical injuries and left a lasting impression on the children.
She said her husband, Terrell, suffered a dislocated arm after he was yanked up by police during the raid and is expected to return to his doctor Monday to possibly have glass — left behind by the door window police broke to get into the apartment — surgically removed from his foot.
Pennyamon’s 5-year-old daughter now sleeps with her.
“My 12-year-old and 6-year-old don’t want to be home at all,” she said, adding that her younger children cower or run to the back of the house when they hear anyone approaching.
“ ‘That’s the police,’ they say,” Pennyamon said.
Police said no arrests were made in the subsequent raid at the upstairs apartment.
Which reminds me - did Liddy weigh in on the Berwyn Heights fiasco?
I'm simply amazed there are no incidents in Vermont.
Must be that the citizens are armed
I have watched some of their classes at police “academY’ they look like Nazi Stormtroopers - more like a paramilitary force than a constabulary - it IS scary.
“Beginning” began with the “War on Drugs” which has turned into a war on all of us.
I had a gym teacher who said “drop all the drug addicts on some remote island in the tropics with a bunch of poppy seeds and no way to get off” Much wisdom in that statement.
How about we treat them thusly: A nice long bath in a vat of boiling oil would be OK. Or, for some of the lustier lads there, perhaps a week or three in the embrace of the Iron Maiden would be appropriate. Then there’s Drawing and Quartering. Or, for the Modernists amongst us, perhaps some of the treatments some of our guys had prescribed for them by the VC/NVA. Many of which involved huge rats and fire.
Well said -- I agree! (I think you meant to address another poster :))
People like you are why I utter despise all cops today. They will make up any excuse for their outright assault on innocent Americans.
Maybe they were enforcing unjust laws, or maybe they were conducting an unauthorized toll booth.
Cops are civilians, employed (unfortunately) by their fellow citizens.
Maybe they should all just sit at the station until one of us calls them to help us out with an intractable problem (although I would not recommend it).
Good thing they didn’t own a dog.
Then they should just hang out at the station house until somebody calls them. That's the way it used to be.
Then they should stay in the station or Dunkin Donuts until somebody calls them.
Then, they should show up in marked vehicles wearing a uniform.
The actual terrorists or the LEO's?
Then they should be good gumshoes and wait for whoever is on the other side to come out.
Duh!
The sanctity of these peoples' home was violated.
The encroaching LEO's should have those injuries or worse.
And as such, they would be targets, except for those ninja masks they wear.
Get the hell out of my county, and go find one more to your liking, such as Germany circa 1939.
You're a waste of breathable air.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Careless disregard for citizens and their property in the name of drug enforcement is not and has never been acceptable. Fear that someone might dispose of evidence should not be justification for murder of pets, verbal and physical assault on individuals, destruction of property, or terroristic acts or threats. But too few are willing to stand up and say so, for fear of intimidation and retaliation.
These cases should no longer be characterized as an ‘honest mistake’ or brushed aside with an ‘oops, I’m sorry (that we killed your dog, damaged your home, and beat your wife and kids)’. Enough of them have happened that police departments know the risks of incorrectly executed no knock warrants. Given the current visibility of the issue, an incorrectly executed no-knock warrant merits charges of criminal negligence at least.
Such criminal negligence should be identified, aggresively pursued, and seriously punished. Officers are not protected by their badge if they act in a criminal manner. Knowingly entering a private residence without permission or a warrant is a criminal act — for you or I it would be breaking and entering, or felony home invasion.
It’s time to use the law as it was intended. We need to aggresively pursue those that violate our constitutional rights. Remedies of sufficient scope should be sought so as to make potential offenders averse to such violations.
The next poor SOB that becomes victim to this BS needs a really good lawyer and the stones to push it all the way.
So no, I don’t think they should be boiled in oil, or drawn and quartered. But I do think they should be sued into abject poverty, and incarcerated for their acts in the same way you or I would be if we performed them. Just think of all of the well-meaning but careless officers we can save by making some very visible examples of the current round of offenders. If the penalties are large enough the officer might double-check that address, or think twice before breaking and entering without a warrant.
another one for the “sorry citizen, wrong house” ping list
And that fact alone is sufficient to make the point. Who wears face covering at events?
Hamas. Violent Anarchists. In short, enemies and criminals.
yes, I did. I cut the comment out of your reply, sorry....
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