Free Republic

Police in Berlin have raided ten apartments because residents may have posted “anti-migrant” views online. Berlin Police completed a large scale raid on internet users Wednesday. The officers ransacked ten separate apartments in the German capital in the suburbs of Spandau, Tempelhof, Marzahn, Hellersdorf and Pankow.

It was still dark outside when “Jonah” (not his real name) heard the pounding on his front door. As luck would have it, he was awake — or mostly awake. He’d gotten up at 4:00 a.m. on October 3, 2013, to see his parents off to the airport. They were leaving on a quick trip to raise money for the children’s charity his father runs. Jonah was 16 at the time, old enough to stay home alone for a short time, but not old enough to deal with what awaited him on the other side of the door. The pounding...

Botched Paramilitary Police Raids: An Epidemic of "Isolated Incidents" "If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown . . . there would be reason for grave concern." —Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in Hudson v. Michigan, June 15, 2006. An interactive map of botched SWAT and paramilitary police raids, released in conjunction with the Cato policy paper "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," by Radley Balko. LINK TO MAP OF BOTCHED PARAMILITARY POLICE RAIDS Map Credits:Research and concept by Radley Balko Programming by Lee Laslo. Additional research and editing by Victoria Kurzweg and Killian Lapeyre.  

Aided by informants planted in protest groups, authorities raided at least six buildings across St. Paul and Minneapolis to stop an "anarchist" plan to disrupt this week's Republican National Convention. From Friday night through Saturday afternoon, officers surrounded houses, broke down doors, handcuffed scores of people and confiscated suspected tools of civil disobedience. The show of force was led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office in collaboration with the FBI, Minneapolis and St. Paul police, the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and other agencies. But a St. Paul City Council member described it as excessive, while activists, many of whom were...

Police said they recovered firearms linked to the slaying of an Oakland journalist during a series of early morning raids Friday targeting members of a Black Muslim splinter group that operates a chain of bakeries. Colleagues said Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain Thursday morning near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland. Before dawn, officers raided the Muslim group's headquarters at the original bakery on San Pablo Avenue, as well as three houses in Oakland. They arrested seven people on charges including...

CONTROVERSIAL Melbourne cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran has expressed concern 17 men arrested for allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks are being publicly vilified. Sheikh Omran stated his alarm and unease over the arrests in a statement posted on the website of the Islamic organisation he heads. "The Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah Association of Australia considers the security of our nation with high priority," he said. "We hope all those accused receive a fair trial and the presumption of innocence is preserved. "We have concerns over the discrepancy between public allegations and actual charges laid in court." "In these uncertain...

The Muslim community has reacted with surprise at the overnight counter-terrorism raids, in which 16 people have been arrested. The raids were conducted by as many as 400 police in Melbourne and Sydney. Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association, was in south-western Sydney on a street where some of the arrests were made. He says it was both traumatic and dramatic for neighbours. "A number of people gathered on the front yard of their homes not knowing what to do," he said. "Just the impact of something like this can leave people confused and dumbfounded for a period of...

Family feels violated by Chandler cops' raid Staff Reports, Florence Reminder February 03, 2005 A Florence family said they were shocked when Chandler police broke down their door as they slept and barged in with weapons drawn, supposedly looking for a bad-check suspect. Male family members were handcuffed, and one was stunned with a Taser weapon. He claimed he was not resisting or threatening. Clifton Jones said his family has always been law-abiding and didn't deserve this treatment. No arrests were made. A Chandler police spokesman declined to comment on a continuing investigation. The family was left on its own...

German police have arrested two suspected al-Qaida terrorists – one who was allegedly trying to buy enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb and other planning a suicide attack in Iraq. According to a German prosecutor, the arrests, which occurred early Sunday, came after months of investigation, Knight-Ridder reported. The suspects were nabbed after early morning police raids in Mainz and Bonn. President Bush is scheduled to visit Mainz next month, which heightens the security concerns in the city. It was determined today there was enough evidence to keep the pair in custody pending possible charges. Authorities described one suspect, Ibrahim...