[rdcbn]

The police are. No doubt there.

---

If you are referring to Cornelia Police Department raid you are miscasting what transpired there and it is not at all obvious that the police are responsible

The house that was “raided” was a meth house that an informant had told the police was being guarded by armed men.

The babies crib was allegedly being used by the occupants to block and jam a door in the house to prevent drug and money motivated home invaders from breaking in to steal their stash and cash.

Note, the babies family had moved into this house after they allegedly burned their own house down cooking meth.

Here is the CNN report on the obviously tragic event-

“The SWAT team, made up of six or seven officers from the sheriff's department and the Cornelia Police Department, entered the Cornelia residence Wednesday before 3 a.m.
A confidential informant hours earlier had purchased methamphetamine at the house, the sheriff says. The informant told police that there were men standing guard outside the home, and it was unclear whether they were armed, according to CNN affiliate WGCL.
Because the suspected drug dealer, Wanis Thonetheva, had a previous weapons charge, officers were issued a “no-knock warrant” for the residence, Terrell said.

Wanis Thonetheva is being held without bond.
When the SWAT team hit the home's front door with a battering ram, it resisted as if something was up against it, the sheriff said, so one of the officers threw the flash-bang grenade inside the residence.
Once inside the house, the SWAT team realized it was a portable playpen blocking the door, and the flash-bang grenade had landed inside where the 19-month-old was sleeping, the sheriff said.
A medic on the scene rushed the baby outside to administer first aid, and a nearby ambulance was summoned. Authorities wanted to transport the baby via Life Flight to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, 75 miles southwest of Cornelia, but weather conditions wouldn't allow it. The baby was driven to the hospital.
Mother: ‘He didn't deserve any of this’
A Grady official said it's hospital policy not to disclose patients’ conditions, but the child's mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, told CNN affiliate WSB that doctors had put her son into an induced coma.
She further told the station the family was sleeping at her sister-in-law’s house when police arrived, and the grenade seared a hole through the portable playpen after exploding on the child's pillow.
“He didn't deserve any of this,” Phonesavanh told WSB. “He's in the burn unit. We go up to see him and his whole face is ripped open. He has a big cut on his chest.”
Thonetheva, 30, was not at the home at the time of the raid, but the toddler's mother and father and their other three children were inside. Thonetheva's mother was also at the house, Terrell said.
The baby's family had moved into the Cornelia residence after their Wisconsin home burned, Terrell told CNN affiliate WXIA, and while the family members were aware of drug activity in the home, “they kept the children out of sight in a different room while any of these going-ons were happening.”
Thonetheva was arrested at another Cornelia residence, along with three other people, shortly after the raid, Terrell said. He is charged with distribution of methamphetamine. Habersham County Chief Assistant District Attorney J. Edward Staples said Thonetheva could also be charged in connection with the baby's injuries.
Thonetheva was already out on bond for an October 2013 charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony — the felony being distribution of methamphetamine, Staples said.”

So the facts are a little different than the story circulating and while the use of the flash bang was questionable I'm not sure it documents the case police officers out of control.

[Jonty30]

The police could still have used other methods to do what needed done. They are using tactics that are more suitable for raids on fortified compounds and using them on suburban dwellings. For the amount of drugs that are often confiscated in these flash bang raids, it’s overkill.

[sagar]

So, a meth family uses the crib like Hamas uses civilians. Don’t blame the cops, blame the criminals.

[Slings and Arrows]

A confidential informant is a criminal who seels information to the cops to keep his ass out of jail. They are - shall we say - less than reliable? Also, I’m see a lot of “alleged,” but precious little hard evidence.

That story reads like a lying cop trying to cover himself after he screwed up big-time. I wonder why?

[Gaffer]

Of course there is more here that meets the eye and probably than what got in the paper.

What IS known is that the officer resigned, the judge who issued the warrant announced retirement, and the unit responsible was disbanded the day 20/20 showed up to tape. All of that is in the story.

You said “alleged the crib was being used as....” Who alleges that? Who alleges the family burned down their house cooking meth? There were also claims by the PD that the informant alleged there were “guards” standing outside the house. Where were they when SWAT showed up? Were they, was anyone arrested on scene?

To add insult to injury, Habersham County is hiding against a state immunity law and not even paying the medical bills (they call it a gratuity).

I’ll tell you this. When this case does go to trial, Habersham County and/or all the officials involved will pay dearly for this. A jury is not going to be “gratuitious” to them.

[driftdiver]

What crime did the baby commit? When was his trial?

[Abby4116]

Find the ABC news account. The family's van with family member stickers and 4 car seats was parked right outside of the door and a playpen that was being discarded was outside also, according to the ABC story.

Sounds like the sheriff is in CYA mode and CNN is carrying his water. I did notice CNN keeps saying that he was "not at the home" - not that he wasn't "home" at the time. No drugs were found at the house, but the nephew was found at another house and arrested.

link

[cva66snipe]

It sounds like Crappy/Lazy police work. Good detective work would have determined if he was in fact there, had an undercover cop make a buy not a snitch {who would want to please the officers for his own gains}, know who all was in the house including kids {kids present should have red flagged the raid as a no go}, Apprehended and served the suspect outside, after waited till daylight.

The no knock raid except in a true hostage situation should be strictly forbidden especially at night when innocents are sleeping. All this No Knock RAMBO COP crap started when property confiscations were made law. 0300 am is not a good raid time. It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Yes cops have a tough job but No Knock Raids especially at night are out of hand. This seems more like piss poor detective work lead to a piss poor outcome. If they knew enough about the house {which obviously they didn't} they would have known kids were there. IOW a spur of the moment because an informant allegedly made a drug buy which innated a raid based on the word of an informant.

Gee so if I called in and said my neighbor was selling crack to get even for his dog crapping in my yard I could get his door bashed down in the middle of the night? BTW this same kinda crap dropping a dime to CPS can get a neighbor who made you mad a few official welfare check visits, your kids, your neighbors questioned about you, and lots of questions for you as well. Oh and caller doesn't have to give their name. Confidential informants is not proper police work. It's a clue but should not be the sole basis for a warrant.

One other thing. If the visiting couple had burned down their home in another state a wee bit of detective work could have proven that in a few hours time. Not saying it did or didn't just saying it don't add up. CPS would be on them to grab the kids like flies on stink and a warrant issued for them.

If criminals were inside they deserved arrest coming to them. But the one wanted wasn't there again pointing a lack of stake out to determine suspects location and determine who was in the house to start with. SWAT TEAM has replaced good old fashioned detective and undercover work and the results have far more chance of adversely effecting innocents even endangering them especially when informants give wrong addresses..

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rdcbn. Meth-cookers who didn’t give a damn about their own child? Not exactly like finding a four leafed clover.

[Flag_This]

"When the SWAT team hit the home's front door with a battering ram, it resisted as if something was up against it, the sheriff said, so one of the officers threw the flash-bang grenade inside the residence."

Must have been one of those popular steel, 2-ton cribs to be such an effective barricade. I'm not sure how a flash-bang would make an inanimate object move though, so this solution to a blocked door seems questionable.

[OpusatFR]

I would be very skeptical of those “facts.”

[Ken H]

Note, the babies family had moved into this house after they allegedly burned their own house down cooking meth.

What is your source for that statement?

[Abby4116]

Post some sources for your allegations.

[Flick Lives]

The babies crib was allegedly being used by the occupants to block and jam a door in the house to prevent drug and money motivated home invaders from breaking in to steal their stash and cash.

Yes. Everyone knows that portable baby cribs make better door barriers than a nailed 2x4. *Sheesh*. This sounds like a concocted story by the cops to cover their incompetence.

Did you look at the picture of the couple in the story? Do they even look remotely like a couple of meth heads?

[Altariel]

I find it fascinating that you are willing to accept a criminal informant's testimony (to keep his arse out of jail) above that of the child's family.

But then, the Sheriff's own remarks on the case are pretty damning, so it's no small wonder that you want to focus on the "alleged" meth house and ignore the car seats found in the van outside and the other evidence that pointed to the presence of children.

Anything to protect the integrity of the Agents of the State, Comrade!

Really? Not "take all criminal informants claims with a mouthful of salt until verified by reliable sources"? Not checking the van, in which they would have seen the four car seats

"“They can’t tell me there was no signs of kids,” Phonesavanh said. “My van sits right next to the door that they busted into. My van has family stickers on it, four car seats inside, right next to the door that they kicked in,” Phonesavanh said."

But keep on defending The State, Comrade. The State needed to burn the child's face in order to save him from drug dealers. (That excuse rather mirrors the "we needed to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it" excuse, doesn't it?)

You may want to use a different argument--right now you're using a classic abusive-manipulative argument: "I wouldn't have had to do X to you if Y hadn't _______."

If the police had a healthy relationship with the public, they wouldn't resort to such "arguments", period. That you choose to use them as well is unfortunate.

[Ken H]

rdcbn: "Note, the babies family had moved into this house after they allegedly burned their own house down cooking meth."

You've been asked by several posters to provide a source for that claim.

Can you back it up or not?