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."
L
A guy I used to shoot with was the entry man on a tactical team, and he carried an H&K MP5 submachine gun. Others on the team carried shotguns and CAR-15s. I'm not sure about the CAR-15s (they could have been semi-auto only), but I know for a fact that the MP5 was capable of both 3 shot burst and full auto.
They regularly "served warrants" in the "no-knock" style.
Mark
That's a very bad start. They are not. By nature, that's biological mind you, they are intractably vicious attackers, that mount their attacks with very little, or no provocation.
"That being said, it is SOP for the cops to kill the dog not because of the threat or potential thereof to the police. The reason they kill the dog is to get maximum shock affect on the family whose home they are invading. "
I don't believe that's generally true whatsoever.
"No knock raids are an abomination to our Constitutional freedoms."
That's besides the point. It's true though.
Busted in the door, killed the dog, traumatized the kids, for something equal to a parking ticket...
Whatever would AMI do for stories?
Ah, how very statist of you.
Hildy, Pit Bulls are no more aggressive than their owners allow them to be. It is the same with any dog of any breed. The trouble is that pit bulls are breed to be physically imposing creatures, and when they are trained to be aggressive they do so with all of that physical ability behind them. You can train a chijuajua to be equally aggressive, yet they will be much less dangerous for obvious reasons.
Lurker, try to be nice won't you. I mean we are all adults here aren't we? If you're not, I appologize, continue being childish.
The reason you don't believe in that sort of "fairy tale" is because you don't hear about those dogs in the news. For instance, you'd think that you're taking your life in your hands every time you get into a car, since all you hear about on the news are traffic accidents.
I know of 2 pit bulls (real ones, American Staffordshire Terriers) who are wonderful pets (well one still is, the other was killed by a car. In both cases, they're well trained, and have terrific dispositions. Maybe part of it is that they were purchased through reputable breeders. The surviving dog would probably show a burgler around the house, pointing out the valuables, all for a scratch behind the ears. BTW, that house has the one dog and three cats. The dog plays with 2 of the cats, and is terrified of the third cat.
Mark
So if you have 600 dollars worth of drugs, then the police can raid your home?
And how do the cops determine how much you have?
Observe this. How fast over the speed limit should the police issue tickets? Should they issue a ticket at 1 mph over the limit or 10 miles over the limit. after all who knows how fast they may go if they arent stopped.
Priorities need to be established.
These police broke down the door, at 6 am---they always strike early in the morning before their culprit is fully aroused.--They may have shouted Police at the top of their lungs and hit the door. They handcuffed juveniles and killed a dog and made a lot of people angry. they immediately turned this whole block against the police.
$200 bucks for a door another $200 for the dog,$1.50 for the bullet, salaries for the cops $2,000 several patrol cars taken from other duties, and bad publicity all for 60 bucks. Whoever planned this raid should be sent to the boonies working radar for the next year.
Yes, that would be nice. Probably not gonna happen, tho.
What if you just don't deal drugs out of your house? That is against the law, correct?
Yep, let's blame the cops for doing their jobs not the criminal. Did I accidentally log onto DU?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Duly observed. So you are saying that a certain amount of illegal drugs should just be overlooked, right?
I would ask you how the police should know, beforehand, what amount of drugs are present?
"Think" is the key word there.
If the dog attacked the police, then it was doing it's job. Dogs are supposed to attack intruders kicking in your door.
Hey! You stole my question from post 90 ;)
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