Posted on 11/10/2004 12:48:29 AM PST by esryle
DALLAS -- Six men, dressed in black fatigues with the word "Police" stenciled on the backs of the shirts, stormed a house in Southeast Dallas Tuesday morning at about 10:30, according to police. The men reportedly were armed with automatic weapons, broke windows and terrorized the family living in the 9400 block of Bermuda Road.
Witnesses said the men spoke English and Spanish. They shouted, "Policia," or police, and manhandled the family's patriarch. Two of the men used weapons to assault Maria Lopez (pictured, left), who tried to protect her 3-week-old infant.
"Well, the female, she was pretty much assaulted with a gun," Officer Y.M. Abrom said. "With one of the AK-47s. She was pistol-whipped to the face."
The men reportedly were looking for marijuana at the house, which also serves as a welding business. They failed to find any drugs at the location, and moved on to a vacant house on the same street.
There, they allegedly accosted five construction workers. The contractors were forced to the ground, and the robbers took the workers' wallets. The suspects fled in two vehicles.
Lopez received stitches at an area hospital.
Investigators called the suspects "take-over bandit copycats," referring to a recent case involving robbers armed with automatic weapons who stormed businesses.
There needs to be something more vital than 'we think they might flush drugs down the toilet' to justify a no-knock raid.
An ounce might be successfully flushed, but not a kilo. The No-Knock is now used more as a psychological ploy to overpower and temporally stun the suspects. The shock of all the noise (breaking door frames, windows, screaming etc.) and confusion will make most people freeze for a few seconds, increasing officer safety. Officer safety now overrides all other considerations.
That's what the garbage disposer in the kitchen is for.
No knock raids are not confined to illegal drugs.
All too true. They are now used routinely for most raids including IRS looking for computer records.
I don’t blame the individual officers. I blame the bureaucracy that has made it the norm, the courts that have allowed it and The People that accept it.
Well the current practice has done a pretty good job of that, according to statistics which show that a gardener is more likely to die on the job than a cop. Of course taking stupid risks are wrong but what ever happened to the old code of chivalry? Nobody ever put a gun to a man's head and forced him into the police force.
But some people prefer to suit up and do a dramatic raid to justify their existance rather than nab somebody another way.
It also gives the local chief some good PR. What is better TV, a uniformed officer knocking on a door, or a squad of paramilitary troopers storming a building?
An interesting side to this is a raid a few years back where the suspect still pulled a gun and tried to shoot it out with the police. A fatal mistake, he was killed. A local Seattle area reporter did an expo piece claiming that the police had stormed in an executed the suspect; she even had a witness.
Fortunately there had been a couple of reporters doing a ride-along with the officers and who not only knew the truth, they recognized the witness who showed up on the edge of the crowd later asking questions. By the way, that lady reporter was the producer for Dan Rather's forged document hit piece on the President.
Or making a no fuss arrest at the local McDonald's...
Evading the question? Not at all, I answered your question. In reality I live in a place where the local authorities know who I am, I don't need to be worried about being mistaken for otherwise.
That’s fine with local authorities, what about State or Federal? They don’t always bring in the locals.
It wouldn't even cross the Washington State Patrol's mind.
But, it's simply not possible to wipe a disk that quick. There is no 1-second panic button.
You obviously don't know any freakers.
Granted; I only have a 28 year background in computer science.
Fortunately there had been a couple of reporters doing a ride-along with the officers and who not only knew the truth, they recognized the witness who showed up on the edge of the crowd later asking questions.
Very fortunate indeed. Our “esteemed” media would have had a field day without them. That is one of the reasons I like the cameras mounted on patrol cars, and I’d like to see SWAT with camera equipped helmets. Not only would it keep the bad cop honest, it would protect the honest cops from unjust criticism.
I guess you learned something new then.
Common on the East Coast.
Well, there could always be a "malfunction" of the camera.
No, I have learned it is devilishly hard to destroy data beyond recognition.
So what about the East Coast, what he worry, it ain't him having to live there.
I like the SWAT camera idea and would extend that to have footage reviewed by a citizens review board that had a GOOD understanding of what is and isn't necessary force and situational dynamics.
And yet people do it anyway. Go figure.
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