Posted on 09/28/2006 5:26:29 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
Children handcuffed in police drug raid Dog also killed during bust; 18-year-old charged with misdemeanors, violation
By MIKE GOODWIN, Staff writer First published: Wednesday, September 20, 2006
SCHENECTADY -- A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust. The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there.
The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m.
"I heard a big boom. My first reaction was to jump out of bed. We were trying to find where our kids were at and all of a sudden we had guns in our faces," said 40-year-old Anita Woodyear, who rents the second-floor flat.
During the ensuing chaos, police handcuffed two of the woman's children, Elijah Bradley, 11, and 12-year-old Victoria Perez, and shot at her dog in the kitchen before killing it in the bathroom, Woodyear said.
"That seems like an awful lot of firepower for marijuana," said Fred Clark of the Schenectady chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "That's like spending $125,000 for $5."
Woodyear said she suspected police had intended to search a neighboring home, but had the wrong address on the search warrant. Neighbors said they suspect illicit drugs are dealt at other homes on the block.
"No apology, no 'sorry about your dog,' " she said.
But police said they have no reason to apologize. They said they raided the house because Woodyear's 18-year-old son, Israel M. Bradley, sold three plastic bags of marijuana there for $40 on Sept. 15. They allege he sold two other bags of marijuana in the house for $20 on Aug. 28, they said.
In addition, police said Bradley was carrying marijuana in the home on Sept. 1.
"We had the absolute right house. We had the absolute right target," said Assistant Chief Michael Seber.
Police said Bradley was one of several drug dealers they have under investigation on Prospect Street.
"The whole street is a mess right now. We'll be back," Seber said.
Bradley was arrested and charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal sale of marijuana, an offense punishable by up to one year in jail. He was also charged with unlawfully possessing marijuana, a violation.
Police Lt. Peter Frisoni said Bradley admitted he sold from the apartment in a statement to investigators after the raid.
"The moral of the story is: If you don't want officers barging into your house with their guns drawn, don't let drug dealers stay with you and deal drugs out of your apartment," Frisoni said.
Woodyear said she is appalled about the way her children were treated -- and said her 12-year-old daughter was hit with pepper spray.
The dog, a pit bull terrier named Precious, urinated on the floor in fear and tried to run from the police before it was killed, Woodyear said.
Police said the animal was aggressive and left them no choice but to shoot.
Elijah Bradley said he awoke to find armed men in his home. "They had the shotgun in my face," the 11-year-old said. "I punched at him. I didn't know who he was."
Police said they had reason to have weapons drawn. Their search warrant noted that among the things they planned to search for were firearms, although no handguns were found.
The NAACP has previously criticized how police conduct raids, most notably during an incident earlier this decade when a Hamilton Hill girl was held at gunpoint and handcuffed after her mother agreed to allow police to search their home for an armed man. The family later sued the city, but the jury awarded no damages. But Paul DerOhannesian, a defense attorney and former Albany County prosecutor, said such a response may have been warranted if police believed there were guns in the house.
"This type of search warrant execution can be very dangerous from a law enforcement point of view," he said.
"You're going to have a heightened sense or need for security for officer safety. You literally have no idea what you're walking into."
Another victory in the War on Drugs.
Huh?
Any stranger who breaks into my house like that dies, end of story, whether they're screaming "Police!" or not. I have three fully loaded guns (a .22, .38 and 12 gauge shotgun) lying at easy-hand right now, and this sort of bullshit doesn't fly with me.
No, I don't sell or smoke marijuana (at least, I've not smoked it in many a year, and I've never dealt), but it's this sort of thing that more and more drives me to identify myself as a libertarian, and not a conservative.
Most likely, I've broken ten laws the past week without even realizing it; we're legislated to death, and the WoD is one of the worst offenders. Free country? My ass.
If marijuana was legalized, the value of it would be pennies per pound. If the parents chose to smoke it, then their children probably would too. But the economic incentives would be gone. When is the last time you heard of a police swat team busting down a door, killing a pet, and terrorizing children over the manufacture of alcohol? Even with substantial taxes added, it would be very difficult to compete with commercial producers of alcohol.
The War on Some Drugs is costing us all of our freedoms. Gangsterism has led to anti-gun laws. Cash is assumed to be ill-gotten until proven otherwise, with no lower limit to the amount. Police forces are adopting militaristic processes to oppose heavily armed, heavily financed drug cartels.
The drug laws have created zones in the inner-city areas where it is possible to make a better living outside the law than by seeking education or productive skills. The cultural decay which results have doomed many of our minorities to the worst social conditions imaginable, simply because there will never be a way to eliminate substances that so many people will break laws to obtain.
"America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs".
Nonsense...The stats are distorted because certain Asian and Arab countries execute drug dealers. We keep them alive to be released and deal again.
Of course, you'll be dead to, but maybe someone will write a folk song about you.
Not that any of this justifies the heavy handed tactics the SWAT team used in this case. The boy who faced a lawman's shotgun in his face will probably never serve his country in uniform voluntarily, even if he does not fall into the drugs and crime lifestyle.
I agree with you. When I first started reading about the abuses of no-knock raids, one story stood out : A BATF agent who was so angry when they didn't find drugs in a raid, that it stomped a 9 year old boy's pet kitten to death before leaving . It (the BATF agent who commited that act) has a vagina attached to its worthless carcass, which I supposed shouldn't make a difference in how I perceive the event, but it does. So far as I'm aware, it incurred no penalties for an act which can only be explained as a temper tantrum-it was mad because there were no drugs in the household, so no praise, no brownie points, no medal, or whatever it expected to gain from the raid. Unprofessional as well as vicious-a GREAT combination with a badge and a gun!
Can't argue with you on that. Something should be done. I think too many people are making money by not making it legal for sure. I know I would rather be around a person smoking pot then drinking. I myself, do neither though when I was younger I did. What I have seen first hand now with drugs is alarming. I had 2 of my older kids go thru terrible addictions with heroin. Spent over 40 thousand on one of them for rehab. Jail is what finally did the trick. Thankfully both are clean & sober and married . The system is in need of change but I don't know when that will happen. I often wonder why we don't bomb the opium fields during this war. I don't have any answers but in regards to why the police come at night and why the dog was shot I know thats how they do things. I am not pro cop though with dealing with my 2 children I sure learned quite a bit. Some truly care and others just have the attitude the kids are worthless.
I'm thinking that if the dog ran into the bathroom, they could have just shut the door.
Excellent link to the CATO institute's interactive no-knock map. I love CATO!
If strangers broke down our door and ran into our house no matter what the time, my 5 year old would be swinging. He wouldn't understand what was going on, he would hear yelling, see guns, etc. Now imagine the reaction when being woken up to that chaos. It would most certainly be my reaction too.
"Do you have children? Do you know what they do, if you have them? If you don't know what you're children do under the roof you provide them then, IMO, you are subject to the fate that they incur. Let's step away from personal attacks, since you know I am not dense at all and realize that from the article you have absolutely no idea how involved the son was in drug dealing. In addition, the officers, regardless of the amount of drugs that were found, had enough of a reason or they wouldn't have had the raid."
Alrighty then, let's see whatcha got. First, I have grown children and know from that experience that I could not have possibly been aware of their every move as teenagers. Later in life they have told me things they did I would never have suspected. If you have kids, and believe otherwise, then you are living in a fantasy world...that or you are abusing their rights and privileges to experience life...keeping them under lock and key 24/7.
Course then again, if they are just the perfect little angels, then aren't you the lucky one...that one in a million parent of teenagers.
I am also speaking from my own experience as a teenager doing things then I would never do today, and my parents never knew and never will. Maybe you lived this quiet sheltered life as a teenager, but that is not the common experience.
Actually we do know what the kid sold and the amounts he sold as asserted by the chief. You did read the article right?
Regardless, this assault was way over the top for the alleged crime. Therefore, I have an opinion already expressed regarding anyone unable to comprehend that.
That is reason enough to shoot a Pit Bull.
The agent stomped a kitten? Sick. I'll get flamed for this, but I would support life in prison for that agent. People like that shouldn't be walking the earth freely.
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