Posted on 03/05/2011 5:14:47 PM PST by Glenn
When Gary Adams heard a series of "booms" early Thursday, he figured one of the kids had left the TV on overnight. He had no idea, he said Friday, that law enforcement agents were about to flood his Bellevue house, looking for an accused member of the Manchester OGs gang who once lived there.
A few clock ticks later, agents broke open all three doors into his Orchard Avenue home, shattering glass. Then some 15 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and state and local police entered his home.
"When I hit that bend and turned," he said, pointing toward the staircase that lands near his front door, "there was a laser sight on my head."
An hour later the agents left, without their suspect, Sondra Hunter, who remained at large. An FBI agent apologized and promised the bureau would pay for the damaged doors, he said. These days, agents don't hesitate to break doors. Several federal agents have been shot in recent years, and some of the 29 accused gangsters whose indictments were unveiled Thursday are accused of gun violations.
The entry to Mr. Adams' house, though, raises the question: Absent a search warrant, when can law enforcement knock in a door?
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
And now it's Zero's hammer to wield.
The sheep need to think a little harder about the ramifications of handing more power to the wolves.
I presume they had an arrest warrant. That allows them entry if they BELIEVE the suspect is present. Believing means more than he lived there a few years ago. There should have been some background info garnered such as a mail view, phone records, utility and tax rolls, and perhaps a surveillance to put the person at that residence. Anything short of that is misfeasance and rises to the level of a constitution violation of their resident’s rights. In such situations, agents and their supervisors can be sued personally and in this case they should.
“break-in attempt”
Break-in ATTEMPT? Seems to me the moment they crossed the threshold, it ceased being an ATTEMPT at breaking in.
“...Any time they damn well please...”
“Any time”?? Well sometimes, stupid actions have dire consequences.
“Some say” if they LOOK like terrorists, masked, in black, brandishing guns, kicking in doors and screaming etc., they might just get TREATED like terrorists by “some” who aren’t inclined to just lie down and take the abuse.
And that will be a Bad Day for ALL concerned.
We USED to have laws in this country...like “Presumed Innocent until found guilty”...”Due Process”...the right to be secure in your own home...
Quick...what do you call it when law ENFORCEMENT breaks, disregards, and otherwise pisses on the law and the people they’re supposed “to serve and protect”???
Well, you call it years of conditioning the sheeple from “CSI”....”Cops”...”SouthLAND”...”The BADGE!...”NYPD Blue”...” etc. We’re supposed to just take it as a matter of course that they’re allowed to do this, shut up, roll over, and accept the tie wraps on our wrists, the knee in our backs, and the Little German Submachine Gun shoved into our head. All for “the safety of the Officers”, you understand....
This ain’t “Barney Miller”...it’s more like “1984”.
And this sh*t happens too often and too quickly. That’s how people die. On BOTH sides of the badge.
One time they showed up when my brother was home. He asked what would they have done if he wasn't home, and his rottweilers started barking. “Shoot them” was the answer.
Fortunately they never stormed the place.
I don’t evidence for it but it would not be in the least bit surprising. Obama is exactly like any other brutal dictator across the globe. What he can’t yet do with guns he does with financial corruption.
If we become too weakened, this bastard will begin murdering entire families.
LOL ironically the character Barney Fife actually left the show to join the FBI. Otis became town mayor & Andy of course was a FED too.
Many too many of these “wrong door”, “wrong residence”
“no warrant” LEO breakins. Just many too many.
“Did the family pet make it out alive?”
The only reason the pet lived is because the BATF missed out on this raid!
I don't know where you got that, but you couldn't be further from the truth. Law enforcement is legally protected from lawsuits arising from anything that happens in the pursuit of their duty, even if they are in err.
Wanna bet on that?
[quote]Absent a search warrant, when can law enforcement knock in a door?
When they have more guns than you do.
Which is always.[/quote]
I must have been misinformed when I was sued personally in Texas sometime ago for something one of my agents did. Fortunately, the gov settled.
Sorry, but the case law is well established, and there is absolutely no wiggle room.
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982)
Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341 (1986)) Romero v. Kitsap County, 931 F.2d 624, 627 (9th Cir. 1991)
Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526 (1985).
Act-Up!, 988 F.2d at 871; see also Tribble v. Gardner, 860 F.2d 321, 324 (9th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1075 (1989).
Alexander v. City and County of San Francisco, 29 F.3d 1355, 1363-64 (9th Cir. 1994).
Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
Backlund v. Barnhart, 778 F.2d 1386, 1389 (9th Cir. 1985).
Romero, 931 F.2d at 627.
There is no Federal tort law from what I gather and the law of the state, Texas in this matter, becomes binding in a tort action. We were subject of a malicious prosecution suit. You may see no wiggle room, I know what I went through so something does not compute, either we are talking of something different or your research is not complete.
Our building gets mail now and then for a relative of
occupants who left 2 plus years ago; the relative never
lived here, the occupants warned us “he is not welcome here”
Local PD visited once, asking about him. They were civil,
visit was in working hours.
Absent a search warrant, when can law enforcement knock in a door?
When they have more guns than you do.
Yes. If the conditional was "may", the answer would be different. The conditional was "can".
It’s lengthy, 47 pages (I’ve read it en toto) but here is everything that you ever wanted to know about qualified immunity. http://www.njd.uscourts.gov/atty/3dCirqual06.pdf
Yeah, I agree these things happen.
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