Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
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.
A “Yet another one” ping.
The Law ENforcement Establishment in America is begining to act and look more like the Geheimstatpolizei (GESTAPO) than anything that existed here years years ago. Overpaid, overpriviledged, arrogant, corrupt and incompetent.
Say Scooter, don't you think it might be a good idea to 'review' your Warrant BEFORE you break the door down and wave shotguns in innocent peoples faces?
Just a thought.
Oh and by the way Det. Richards. You're fired.
L
Another example of how the war on drugs has evolved into a war on the civil liberties, private property rights, and dignity of the American people.
That about sums it up.
Sure there may be a good cop or two here and there, but 98% of them ruin the reputation of the rest.
Too bad they didn’t shoot back at these Jack Booted Thugs.
I think this is only the third or fourth isolated incident in the past week or so.
So, apparently their information was faulty on multiple fronts.
I think what really galls people the most when they hear of these things happening is the fact that the jack-booted...er...um...cops display such an incredibly arrogant and unapologetic attitude. They make it seem like it is the fault of the people living there, instead of their own incompetence.
These midnight raids by hooded officers needs to stop and stop now.
It's time to hold the Chiefs of Police responsible for their actions.
And the more they get away with it, the worse it's going to get.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Well, it was when people started shooting at cops in regular uniform and with regular weapons making drug raids that they started going to SWAT tactics. You can’t have it both ways.
Police said no arrests were made in the subsequent raid at the upstairs apartment.
Was this before or after asset forfeiture laws allowed police to keep the booty they seized?
YEA!
Good work NW NY cops!
sign.. it happens everywhere unfortunately. I am still steaming over the wrong house raid that ended up killing two house pets this past week
yeah I noticed they kind of glossed over that imporntant fact. mothing like being doubley wrong,except they’re never wrong just mistaken.
Call them what they are: goons.
now this would NEVER happen in your neighborhood, would it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.