My novels are the loudest warning I can give. 
Posted on 03/15/2012 10:14:05 AM PDT by marktwain
The man shot by Washington County tactical officers in New Columbia Tuesday night had grabbed a gun because he thought intruders were on his property after his wife had checked on their barking dog in their backyard and saw a stranger in dark clothing.
Alberto Flores-Haro, according to relatives and witnesses, did not know that the men surrounding his home and neighborhood Tuesday night were authorities approaching to raid a residence just a few doors down from his home in the 9500 block of North Woolsey Avenue.
"There was someone in our backyard, and my mom called our stepdad," said Daniel Ibarra. "He told me to go upstairs and get the gun."
Ibarra, 17, said he didn't know where it was, and Flores-Haro followed him up the stairs and retrieved it. Ibarra said a stranger came through the home, and left through the front door.
Neighbor Juan Soto Martinez, 16, who lives across a walkway from Flores-Haro's home, said he heard Flores at his front door yelling with a man, who seemed to be outside, on the side of his house. Then, he heard multiple gunshots.
Ibarra found his stepdad collapsed in the front doorway of their home, shot in one arm and twice in the stomach, and called 9-1-1 about 10 p.m.
" I grabbed a rag and put pressure on his forearm," Ibarra recalled, and told his mother to grab a towel from the kitchen and place pressure on Flores' torso wounds.
GS.51SHOT115-02.jpgView full size Ibarra said his family had no idea that the men surrounding their home in tactical uniforms of army green were from the Washington County Sheriff's Office's Tactical Negotiation Team, who were assisting police.
He said of his dad, "I think he just wanted to scare them away. He didn't know who they were."
While his father lay bleeding, Ibarra said he was ordered out of the house.
"Once I stepped outside, I was ordered to get on the ground," said Ibarra, a Roosevelt High School senior.
He said the rest of his family, his mother and four other children from ages 5 and 13, were ordered to get out of the house, and then tactical officers grabbed his stepdad and carried him to a waiting ambulance.
Flores-Haro, 31, remains in serious condition at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
In a release this afternoon, Portland police said three members of the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team were involved in the shooting: one Hillsboro police officer and two Washington County Sheriff's deputies.
While Sgt. Pete Simpson said early today "there was an exchange of gunfire,'' police said later this afternoon that detectives have not determined if Flores-Haro fired any shots at police. Police also said that the officers "repeatedly identified themselves as law enforcement officers.''
"Preliminary information released at the scene was than an exchange of gunfire occurred. However, detectives have been searching for shell casings at the scene, which is lined by a heavily wood area. A handgun was recovered at the scene, but detectives have not determined if the man shot at police.''
Mayor Sam Adams also released a statement: "The City takes incidents such as this very seriously. As with any officer-involved shooting, there will be a thorough investigation and we will make sure every element is examined.''
This morning, Portland police have said only that the man shot by officers had approached police with a handgun as officers were getting ready to serve a search warrant at a nearby, unrelated location.
Simpson said this morning that as police prepared to approach an apartment to execute a search warrant that a man from a nearby apartment emerged with a handgun. Simpson did not know if the man fired first or how many shots officers fired. He said only that "there was an exchange of gunfire." No officer was shot.
Police later in the night did serve a search warrant at a home just doors down from Flores' house on North Woolsey Avenue, and arrested Anthony Bagsby, 20, and Cocoa Tapli, 16, who face accusations of attempted aggravated murder in connection with a Sunday night gang-related shooting and robbery on North Woolsey Avenue.
Portland Lt. Robert King declined to release any more details on the officer-involved shooting. He declined to release the name of the man shot, or explain why police were withholding the name. King also declined to answer whether the tactical officers had identified themselves as police outside Flores' home.
Portland had a mobile command center set up at the site through the night, and left about 10 a.m. today.
Many residents in the neighborhood said they got little sleep after they heard the gunshots. Some reported hearing between four and five, others said six or seven.
Martinez, who lives across from Flores' home, said he was watching TV in his living room, and caring for his younger brothers and sisters because their mom wasn't home at the time.
"I heard like four or five shots," Martinez said. When he looked out his window, "Alberto was laying in the front of his home, bleeding."
Martinez said he told his younger siblings to "get down," and then took them to an upstairs bathroom.
Residents in the area described Flores as a family man and a good neighbor, who worked loading trucks. They described him as in his 30s.
"He's a good neighbor," said Maria Bosyuk, who lives next door to Flores. She said her children heard the shooting and couldn't sleep.
"It sounded like three, then three more" shots, said Michelle Clopton, who lives on North Woolsey Avenue.
As she went to call 9-1-1, she heard police shouting commands to someone on a megaphone."The cops were on a loud speaker, saying 'Come out with your hands up!' Clopton said, who kept peeking out her window.
Another resident who asked not to be named said she was lying in bed when she heard six to seven gunshots. "I grabbed my phone to call police and noticed they were already all outside," she said.
scenephoto.jpgView full sizeMaxine Bernstein/The OregonianHome where Alberto Flores-Haro was shot, pictured far right. Building in foreground is location where tactical officers were readying to raid with a search warrant last night. She said the police orders via megaphone came much later, at least an hour or so: "Come out of the house! Do it now!"
An officer instructed her to stay in the back of her house, she said, and she was worried about the many children in the neighborhood.
"I was sitting in my living room and heard a lot of shots," said Dorine Nafziger, a North Woolsey Avenue resident who lives with her husband and 3-year-old son.
She and her husband went upstairs and looked out their back window.
"We saw the big SWAT tank and a lot of officers in army green suits, helmets and shields," Nafziger said.
She got on Facebook to share information with other neighbors to figure out what was going on. At one point , she said she saw police lead five people from a home in handcuffs.
"It freaks us out," Nafziger said. "It's not the first time something like this has happened in our neighborhood." Sonja Andreas said the gunshots came in what she described as two staccato explosions. Then she said, she heard a lot of yelling and screaming.
She called 9-1-1 and said she was told, "Don't worry, there's a police action happening right now."
But Andreas said she didn't see the usual marked police cars, but a large armored vehicle, and men in what looked like military-type garb.
Tactical teams from Portland, Washington and Clackamas counties routinely rely on each other. Simpson said officers on these teams train with each other and are "fairly interchangeable." Washington County's tactical team is comprised of officers from multiple police agencies and was assisting Portland police last night as Portland's tactical team was in training.
Simpson did not know how many officers fired on the suspect or which agencies they represent.
--Maxine Bernstein
I’m not arguing your point. I am simply saying that I don’t believe the police story.
Why would anyone EVER believe the police?
We know for a FACT that lying to obtain incriminating evidence is part of their training, culture, and professional standards.
Who is so naive as to believe the lying suddenly stops at criminal investigation and never intrudes into protecting themselves from discipline or termination?
Right, I was posting in agreement with you. Even in a kind of “You’re even more right than you’ve posted” idea.
These raids always go as planned...These are merely dress rehearsals for the chaos that is coming...Our ruling elites have been arming and training the police militias since the 90's knowing that the marxist revolution would eventually get nasty...These "accidental" raids are simply a preemptive threat to any of the serfs who may think of resisting when the former Constitution is formally rescinded...
Now they are in the final stages and only the ongoing infiltration and dismemberment of the only other threat to the revolution, the military, remains to be completed...
Thanks for the ping. Portland is my old stomping ground. The cops have always been a bit tetchy out there.
At least they didn’t shoot your dog...
My daughter had armed LEO in her back yard early one morning, they were in her yard because other LEO were serving a warrant on the next door neighbor. I guess they thought he would flee into her yard or it was easier to observe from her yard...not sure but things like this make me real happy I don’t live in town.
This is the Nation we have became. We have went to a Nation comprised of individualists to a Nation of slaves. The new America prefers Governmental control over individuality. Don't believe it? Look at the voting patterns from local to National.
Well written, it spells out in one article a large chunk of what is wrong with our government today.
The only nit I have to pick is that it doesn't really put forth a suggestion for changing this.
Voting? Informed juries? Lawsuits? Armed restoration of our Republic?
Some combination of all of the above?
Everyone seems to have their own ideas of what it will take, and almost no one is out DOING any of it. The current "race" for the "moderate" GOP nod is a farce. As is Issa's lame attempt at the F&F investigation. Good theater, short on results. Heck, I even tried to get involved at a local level with my Precinct Caucuses and the PBOU. What a mess... The inertia against any kind of change was thick as amber. Even the new Party chair was long on cheerleading and short on actual policy points we could take away from the event.
It all kinda makes you think about what Wiemar Germany must have been like.
I suspect they were attempting to surround the residence.
This is where ‘urban’ becomes a problem. You can't surround a dangerous felon without some trespass going on.
It is unfortunate the man was shot, but the SWAT and police were looking for someone who had committed murder and would be armed and dangerous.
That said, the other night at midnight when cars responded in my neighborhood...I remained in my house as to not be confused with any person(s) the police were attempting to take action against.
If all the neighbors saw the vehicles...this guy was lacking some commonsense.
One thing is for certain, everything we've tried in the last 12-13 years.... Hasn't worked.
My novels are the loudest warning I can give.
There is virtually no more separation between local and federal, it is purely an administrative distinction without a difference.
Local LE is now folded completely into the federal LE tapestry. That was the reason for all of the federal grants to local LE, to make them dependent, no different from a welfare mom on food stamps in section 8 housing.
Now, local LE snaps to attention when federal LE makes a “request.” Local LE, including their federally subsidized SWAT teams, serve as force extenders for federal LE. They are the Rangers to the federal “delta force.” They are the “cordon and search” force for the FBI/DEA/ATF “elite units.”
In 2012, we have a National Police Force in all but name. But it exists just the same.
I think your reply #144 is dead on target.
And as we continue to lower standards for police recruits this is what we get, power hungry egotists that believe they are above the law.
I frankly don’t believe there is a clean or easy way out or way back. If Obama wins another term, he will go the full Hugo Chavez route, putting all of his extra-constitutional steps to this time seem like baby steps. His goal is to do to the USA what Chavez did in Venezuela. But we are not Venezuela, so I think we could trip over into CW2.
The enemies of freedom mistakenly think they will be able to use the chaos to install full police state powers. I hope they are wrong. But I sincerely believe that Obama intends to follow the Hugo Chavez playbook from 2013 onward.
Collapse the economy, direct the mobs, create the “revolutionary conditions.” Or, “the worse, the better,” in Lenin’s words.
That is the Obama/Holder game plan. Will it work? Perhaps not.
So no, my books don’t offer a solution, except for perhaps, “Don’t be in a high-rise in Sarajevo when the CW breaks out.”
That is one of those situations where it depends on which way their gun is pointing...
“The police appear to be pretty much out of control in many places.”
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Yep, now would someone please tell us where this does NOT appear to be the case.
EBH, based on your comments, I suspect you won't miss freedom much.
This is what every tyrant strives to do: encourage the peons stay inside behind locked doors while their SWAT Teams/arrest teams/death squads are operating at night. Their intention is to cow the peasants into the "I see NOTHING! I know NOTHING!" mode.
Then, the tyrants will have achieved an utterly free hand. (The fact that false-police home-invaders will also intentionally profile as murky black-clad "SWAT Teams" won't bother the tyrants in the least. In fact, they will just help to cow the peasants into remaining inside at night, because heck, that might be a real SWAT team, or a criminal gang in my back yard.) So just stay inside....until the battering ram at the door is at YOUR door.
And your neighbors will just draw their shades, and say nothing the next day. Maybe they'll think, "I wonder where old EBH went? He must have done SOMETHING wrong...."
If you think I am "over the top," please consider that Obama/Holder already crossed the mass-murder-for-political-gain Rubicon with "Operation Fast And Furious" and other related "gunwalking" schemes. Those 300 dead Mexicans were not "collateral damage" in a well-intentioned LE plan. The dead Mexicans were the entire reason for the operation. So please, don't tell me how it's just awful for me to compare SWAT Teams to death squads.
That is just the next step on the continuum, if these black-clad Ninja cops are not restrained now. Power unchecked, is power abused. Please read this, at some point. This is what happens next. Always. Every time.
http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/efadGG.htm
Gangster Government, and Sakharov's Immunity
Thanks for the ping, I hadn’t read that.
Maybe I’m a fool, but I believe we will eventually win. I believe the battlefield we have chosen is the right one.
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