Police shake up daycare workers, kids (Who's at fault - you decide)

KFOR ^

[chance33_98]

OKLAHOMA CITY, January 3, 2002 - They say police from Forest Park came to their daycare trying to serve a warrant -- and left with children and employees in a state of shock and fear.

Angry at what they call “unneccesary force” those workers called our public defenders in to investigate.

Employees of the playtown daycare center say they've never had any trouble. That is until recently. That's when Forest Park police came to serve a traffic warrant for a daycare employee.

Employees say they told police that particular employee wasn't there -- and that's when things escalated out of control.

When Forest Park police showed up at the door of the Playtown Daycare looking to serve an $80 traffic warrant, employees told them the person they were looking for wasn't there.

“They kept getting persistent, they started kicking on the door, bamming on the door and we said ‘We're not going to let you in because we have kids in here,’” said Beverly Gewinn, an employee of the daycare center.

Gewinn says she was hesitant in the first place, because the officers were in plain clothes.

“There's people pretending all the time, knocking on your door, especially a place of business,” she said. “I mean, it's two women and we have about 15 kids, so that's why I didn’t let him in.”

They shuttled the terrified kids downstairs.

“I said, ‘Flo get the kids downstairs, get the kids downstairs,’” she said.

And finally let the officers in.

“They came through here and started searching the facility,” she said. “Again, they never showed any paperwork, they just came in.”

Employees called the owner's son who rushed to the scene.

“I asked what was going on. I was concerned about what was going on at the daycare because my mother and me are the owners here,” said Marshall Cudjo, co-owner of the daycare.

He says officers immediately assumed he was the man they were looking for.

He says they handcuffed him, hit him and threw him to the ground, injuring his shoulder, leg and chest.

“The one that had his foot on top of my head kept asking ‘Is it him?, Is it him,’” Cudjo said. “The other officer pulls out and says, ‘No, this ain’t him, we got the wrong one.’”

The daycare officials are furious. They say they understand police have to do their job but the way they handled it crossed the line.

“They wouldn't have went to La Petite or any of the other big centers,” Cudjo said. “I think its very sad because this is a business place and not only that, there's children.”

Forest Park police refused to comment on camera, saying the chief is the only one who can comment, and he's out of town. They did say they never kicked or banged on any doors. In fact, they say they went, looked around, and politely left.

As for Marshall Cudjo, police say they arrested him for "refusing to comply" and add that no one ever touched him.

[headsonpikes]

"Do-nuts"

Mmmmmm...do-nuts.

This whole story looks like SOP to me, and the citizens failed to show proper respect.

Should have shot the two b*tches, too! That'd teach 'em!

(sarcasm off)

[Sloth]

I'm not stupid, but this notion that most cops go around planting evidence is nonsense. Most cops arent going to show up at your house, if you dont have a record and plant evidence.

It doesn't take 'most cops', just the one in your house.

[takenoprisoner]

True, but do we tell the police that they can no longer chase suspects??

What's this, a slider outside? Nothing I said would indicate such resolve. Besides, it makes for great TV ratings!

[babygene]

"individuals had a warrant"

From the article they had an arrest warrant. Sorry, that doesn't get them in the door. Courts always issue bench warrents in such casses. This is not a warrent to enter any private property to search for the target.

[Space Wrangler]

This is another case of the cops taking the "how dare you question my authori-tah!!" attitude. They went in and tossed the place because they were pi$$ed that the workers wouldn't let them in. Whether or not the daycare workers were right or wrong, why would officers risk such a situation on an $80 summons? They showed extremely poor judgement. Daycare workers don't deal with the cops everyday, so I can give them a pass on them not letting the cops in. The cops do, however, deal with the public everyday, and I expect better than this out of them. These are the kinds of situations that get out of control before you know it.

[zog]

--I don't know one way or the other about what sort of ID, but right off the bat they should have been minimum in uniform and driving a marked car, that would certainly help, yes? Me, personally, been there, done that with no knock, no ID, plain clothes "cops", then having the privelege of having them lie on the stand and show some crap they pulled out of the pantry as "high grade marijuana and lsd", when it was oregano straight out of a spice jar, and some vitamin capsules. Screw those lying piece of crap goons. Took me years to beat that, too, but I did it. Big wake up call for a poor teenage kid that I was then who grew up rah rahing john wayne and elliot ness on the teevee, to see how low they will slink to to avoid embarassment when they make a mistake, one of the reasons I speak out about it all the time, it REALLY sinks in when it happens to you. And over the years I have found out how pervasive it has gotten, it's a LOT more common than most folks think.

. Sorry, what they did in this case, that's bogus-ness, nazi crapola we really don't need in this nation, at least not anywhere's near what they are doing now with it.

As to the other situation you mentioned, no idea, sounds weird to me. Maybe if all the people in the nation were armed, scumbags wouldn't live long enough to breed more scumbags? I wouldn't mind a full return to second amendment vermont style carry, and a coupla years of sorting out the decent folks from the crooks, wouldn't bother me one bit. Wouldn't bother me one bit either if all the national police "brotherhoods" would go on strike until the constitution was restored, either, and refuse to follow any more illegal orders.