Posted on 12/29/2015 6:06:30 PM PST by Twotone
In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home. He was told to lie on the floor. When Addie Harte came out to see what was going on, she saw her husband on his stomach as SWAT cop stood over him with a gun.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
His point is the most innocuous of activities can have far-reaching consequences.
I doubt you’d be feeling enthusiastic about law enforcement after being held at gunpoint and they ransacked your home looking for evidence of a crime and they came up empty.
Cops could care less if you’re a model citizen as long as they have probable cause... which is exactly what this federal judge ruled.
If they make a mistake, it happens and this is often the result of failing to investigate a person of interest thoroughly prior to effecting an arrest. And Kansas was good-faith law enforcement.
So that’s what they’re doing when they’re not protecting us from terrorists.
That judge needs a tune up.
If this couple lived in my state, it wouldn’t even have triggered a raid.
Marijuana is legal in Colorado and there is a marijuana store in my small town.
They are largely “Revenuers”.
I have been following this case for several years. To imagine what life is like in Leawood, think Beverly Hills Cop on the Prairie. It’s no hotbed of crime and the cops can concentrate on failure to properly dispose of your trash in the City Park.
Unfortunately, the influx of Federal Dollars that have fueled the War on Drugs have corrupted the Law Enforcement system, the legal system, and the politicians. Stunts like this are done to impress the Feds so that they can get more money. The the very latest cruisers and other toys. The Johnson County Sheriffs Department is ditto.
The law abiding citizens are being treated with contempt by an arrogant and out of control local government apparatus. We need to stop rewarding this kind of behavior and it’s largely the Conservatives who have been cheering this on.
Yes, but it is tolerated here in the US. Much more than we are made aware of. They even kill people.
LOL!
They can dig through trash and they don’t need to get a warrant to find probable cause.
One man’s trash is another man’s gold mine. Especially to cops.
looks pretty accurate here:
http://www.kctv5.com/story/23951053/leawood-family-seeks-7-million-for-swat-style
They’re just there to answer a Craig’slist ad offering to clean your firing pins for free.
They use Craig’s List and other sites like that to attract men that hire prostitutes. Then they get to show mugshots of all the johns in the next day’s newspaper. It’s like they’re taking a big bite out of crime. All it’s really about is they want their funding. It’s their jobs that rely on it and they know that sleaze sells.
I know hiring hookers is against the law and it is sleazy but I don’t believe we need to invest so much in resources for that kind if stuff when we have people getting murdered all the time on our streets.
And I don’t believe that it helps the people that get arrested because it destroys their families and reputations. I know law enforcement may get off on those stories but I believe there are better ways to handle it.
Just going to the local Wal-Mart is now considered probable cause to violate our God-given right of privacy in our own homes.
is that smoke on the left from gun fire?
I don’t know. I am not even 100% sure it’s from the same house.
I just did a google image search on the family and the arrest and this is the story that came up ...
The authorities in Leawood are very busy. It’s already New Year’s and they only have six plus months to get ready for all of the potential law breaking at the 4th of July Fireworks display.
He includes a link to the court opinion which confirms everything he wrote.
Note to self: Always use a rented car if I’m going to be making purchases related to the production of illegal substances. Let the SWAT team raid Enterprise instead.
“We need to stop rewarding this kind of behavior and it’s largely the Conservatives who have been cheering this on.”
Same folks who cheered on the “Patriot Act” and continue to cheer on the “War on Drugs”.
Cops are so damn bored they are trying to make criminals of everybody. Meanwhile ISIS and MS-13 continue to operate with impunity. But it’s those pesky Americans they keep going after?
Without any demonstrated evidence that the people targeted were violent, why was a SWAT team sent? It should have been two detectives knocking on the door.
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