Posted on 08/11/2013 12:46:09 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
....
The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
One other point. Never ever act on the tip of an ex-girlfriend without a written sworn statement where she acknowledges the criminal and civil consequences of a false statement. "He got weed!" isn't just a Chris Rock joke.
Not sure that would work out well but I think holding them personally accountable for their actions and demanding that they abide by the same standards as you and I are held to would be a good start.
when was the last time you heard of the elected sheriff busting down peoples door with guns blazing and asking questions only when the smoke cleared?
I could comment extensively but...not enough time and it would take things way off topic. Suffice to say that today's local cop in black tactical gear (Batman wannabees) have as much to do with crime prevention as my doctor has to do with death by lighting strike prevention.
Definitely worth armed conflict and folks dying over stopping somebody from smoking pot ... Not.
Happens all of the time, Google it. Crooked sheriffs are nothing new, power can go to anyone’s head.
My point is, how do you go about electing police officers individually? How many thousand cops are in your town?
I hear your sentiment, I just think accountability is a better answer.
Oh, and Christopher Dorner
I wonder if the spiteful wench who set off this entire conflagration feels better now.
“all police officers should be elected like sheriffs, that alone would fix the issue.”
=
You mean like Obama? Yeah,right.
.
One of my friends went out on a similar call. No Warrant, just a complaint from the neighbor about buyers and the strong odor of marijauna from the house across the street. Three cops, no tactical gear, a knock on the front door. The guy answered the door stoned and said “I guess you are here about my plants,” and let them in. He tried to pass it off as a medical grow (legal in WA) but he had too many plants. On a positive note, he was pretty good at growing, they were some of the biggest MJ plants anybody had ever seen.
Mr. Stewart-——31 rds, 6 hits, 1 fatal
“HIGHLY TRAINED” SWAT 250+ -——2 hits???????????????
This is exactly the kind of response I have been waiting for.
A No-Knock-Warrant is, essentially, a home invasion, and was dealt with accordingly. 31 shots vs. 250.
12 against 1.
I think the guy did OK.
Problem is, he was pretty well wasted - falling asleep at 8:30pm - naked - still, he was able to mitigate the threat, despite his lethargic “buzz”...
If this happens only a few more times, then King George’s Dragoons will think twice about quartering themselves, un-invited, inside a Patriots castle...
it’s time,,,
Ask Cheye Calvo about the Prince George's Co. sheriff's dept and his two dead labs:
The Day the SWAT Team Came Crashing Through My Door
Nah. The Left just views at it as a manual.
When conducting operations [particularly in] urban terrain, the defender has the advantage. It is their home turf. They own the terrain and control it.
As another poster mentioned...trying to take down an individual with a belt-fed weapon and body armor......imagine trying to take down a room with a sand-bagged machinegun and an individual wearing body armor.
It is what Marines in Fallujah had to face.....it isn't fun.
Patrolling in a jungle, desert, or even a city street you would want dispersion to avoid multiple casualties from a single mine, machinegun burst, etc.
However, when it comes to breaching, the entry team has to overcome the "fatal funnel." Essentially each defender is looking at a "V" toward the doorway/opening and the total of the defenders' cones of fire is an ^ shape....ie "funneled" at the opening. This essentially provides the defenders with the most optimal class of fire in respect to the target = "enfilade fire."
Enfilade fire = When the long axis of the beaten zone (where the rounds impact or potentially impact) coincides, or nearly coincides, with the long axis of the target. Simply: everywhere your rounds could hit, envelopes everywhere your target is.
An assaulting element that sent dispersed individuals through a breach would easily be picked off one at a time.
By "stacking" the assault element can "flood" the breach, their first task is to clear the "fatal funnel" (ie get through the doorway) and more or less immediately disperse once inside the room. This provides multiple targets that hopefully overwhelm the defenders, gets the maximum amount of firepower on the defender, and immediately disperses to increase the individual assaultman's chance of survival.
Stacking and breaching is the most effective means to take down a structure (short of collapsing it with a JDAM), but it can also be very bloody for the assault element. There's a reason Hue City and Al-Fallujah were such bloody battles.
At least in combat, the assault element will often have the benefit of a base of fire (that suppresses the building), and a support element that can flood more assaulters and assist with casualties.
That's the basic premise behind the "stack."
I understand. I’m just pointing back to a clear transition in the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement officers. There is no room for a “pro-active” law enforcement officer under the U.S. Constitution.
You forgot who was shooting at him. They fired 250 rounds and hit him twice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
