So much for the 4th amendment. Think it couldn't happen to you?

[Gabriel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302935_pf.html

This story angered me tremendously. I'm shooting first.

[Spider-Dan]

That story is disturbing.

Gabriel, if you shoot first, then you won't live to tell anyone about it.  They have more bullets and more bodies than you.

[run_to_win]

Every person with authority should be sued to death in civil court.  Pensions should be forfeited.  Homes lost.  There should be no limit.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

Every person with authority should be sued to death in civil court.  Pensions should be forfeited.  Homes lost.  There should be no limit.

For once, I have to agree here. 

[Gabriel]

Gabriel, if you shoot first, then you won't live to tell anyone about it.  They have more bullets and more bodies than you.

They'll never take me alive!

[run_to_win]

Who was that crazy radio host who said "jack booted thugs" and "headshots"? 

Things are getting worse for Prince George’s County, Md. police officials, after last week’s botched no-knock raid (previously chronicled on C@L here).

Not only did the police not have a warrant to conduct a no-knock raid, but it now appears they were well-aware that a drug ring was delivering large shipments of marijuana to innocent addressees’ homes in the D.C. suburbs. The packages would then be intercepted by other members of the ring, all without the addressees’ knowledge or involvement. Nonetheless, the cops executed their guns-ablazin’ raid on the home of Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic, where the cops shot the couple’s black Labs and detained Calvo and his mother-in-law in handcuffs for hours.

Astoundingly, P.G. County police refuse to admit that they did anything wrong in the raid. As police chief Melvin C. High said in today’s Washington Post:

In some quarters, this has been viewed as a flawed police operation and an attack on the mayor, which it is not. This was about an address, this was about a name on a package . . . and, in fact, our people did not know that this was the home of the mayor and his family until after the fact.

I correct Chief High: When police officers execute a no-knock raid though they have no warrant or cause to do so, when they blast and shoot their way into a home without first learning who lives there, then they’ve carried out a flawed police operation. That’s the case regardless of whether Calvo and Tomsic are guilty of trafficking drugs.

In Prince George’s County, flawed law enforcement isn’t unusual. At least, in this case, the victims of the botched raid may have the social stature to fight back.

http://blogofbile.com/tag/cheye-calvo/

How incompetent do you have to be to not know the name of the Mayor of a town in your jurisdiction?

Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo on the police raid on his home earlier this month:

"The reality is that this happens all the time in this country and disproportionally in Prince Georges county and most of the people to whom it happens don’t have the community support and the platform to speak out. So I appreciate you paying attention to our condition but I hope you’ll also give attention to those who may not have the same platform and voice that we have."

This happens disproportionally in that county?  Did someone set him up?  Perhaps a loved one of another victim tired of the thuggery decided shed light on this by getting a mayor involved?

[MaineDolFan]

The one thing that I think about while reading this article is the movie "Training Day."  Any time a search and seizure is served without a warrant one really needs to think about corruption.  Coupled with the fact that it sounded like this SWAT team was riddled with rookies and black and whites making a cameo...

Plausible deniability. 

Things that make you go hmmmmm.  The three wise men indeed.  This story stinks on levels where the article doesn't even go.

One of these days a raid like this is going to take place in the home of someone that is highly training to defend himself against multiple intruders and the end result is going to be much, much worse than the lives of two innocent animals.  Personally I would most likely follow SWAT instruction on a raid in my home due to the lives of my wife and child.  But then I think of people like my commanding officer, 35 year CID / counter terrorism / Green Beret-Ranger and the stuff this guy has in his house...no one would leave that SWAT alive.  Period.  I have no doubt in my mind that he could single handedly kill a small platoon by himself.  And I would have to think of those lives lost in that potential raid, young SWAT members "doing what they are told" - and then think about how much corruption was to blame versus "the war on drugs."

One day it's not going to be a Mayor of a town with organic veggies in the garden.  It's going to be a strung out veteran of four wars and countless combat tours that has finally had enough.

Makes you re-think Waco, doesn't it?

[YoFuggedaboutit]

The one thing that I think about while reading this article is the movie "Training Day."  Any time a search and seizure is served without a warrant one really needs to think about corruption.  Coupled with the fact that it sounded like this SWAT team was riddled with rookies and black and whites making a cameo...

Plausible deniability. 

Things that make you go hmmmmm.  The three wise men indeed.  This story stinks on levels where the article doesn't even go.

One of these days a raid like this is going to take place in the home of someone that is highly training to defend himself against multiple intruders and the end result is going to be much, much worse than the lives of two innocent animals.  Personally I would most likely follow SWAT instruction on a raid in my home due to the lives of my wife and child.  But then I think of people like my commanding officer, 35 year CID / counter terrorism / Green Beret-Ranger and the stuff this guy has in his house...no one would leave that SWAT alive.  Period.  I have no doubt in my mind that he could single handedly kill a small platoon by himself.  And I would have to think of those lives lost in that potential raid, young SWAT members "doing what they are told" - and then think about how much corruption was to blame versus "the war on drugs."

One day it's not going to be a Mayor of a town with organic veggies in the garden.  It's going to be a strung out veteran of four wars and countless combat tours that has finally had enough.

Makes you re-think Waco, doesn't it?

And then hopefully a guy like that will send a message to the corrupt source....... "You've fucked with the wrong man."

[Gabriel]

Maine, I agree with you totally. The manner in which the house was entered seems to be asking for someone to get killed. This sort of thing will probably continue happening until a bunch of cops get killed kicking down the wrong door.

The second amendment doesn't have a damn thing to do with hunting.

[bsmooth]

This problem will only get worse as more OIF and OEF vets leave the military and are greedily snatched up by police departments around the country.

[MaineDolFan]

This problem will only get worse as more OIF and OEF vets leave the military and are greedily snatched up by police departments around the country.

True dat.  And how many of those guys shouldn't be in that position due to untreated PTSD?  I know that I was in no condition to carry a sidearm when I came back from DS1 - and I didn't see / experience a fraction of what those people are going through.

[bsmooth]

True dat.  And how many of those guys shouldn't be in that position due to untreated PTSD?  I know that I was in no condition to carry a sidearm when I came back from DS1 - and I didn't see / experience a fraction of what those people are going through.

Probably more than are willing to to admit. I have a friend that I deployed with that jumps at every loud sound, even though we have been abck almost two years and he never got hit. You are going to have SWAT teams with members who have kicked down doors and lost friends doing it, and could flashback during one of these no knock raids.

[Defense54]

Horrible story.

 

[MaineDolFan]

Funny you say that.  I got back and was walking down the street to get a Slushi and 7-11.  A car drove by and backfired and I dove head first into bushes without even thinking about it.  It was at that time I thought "yeah, I might want to get some help."  And I was pretty lucky - my unit had a three month R&R after we got back and cleared Devens.  I didn't have to do much of anything when I got back except learn how to mold back into "real life."  I can't imagine what I might have done with a sidearm, I dx'd it when we got back.

[StL FinFan]

I have two questions?

1. Are they legally allowed to enter the home without a warrant in hand?

2. What are the criteria for a "no knock" raid, rather than knocking first?

The whole thing reeks of excessive force to me.  I think you could execute a warrant without such a show of force, especially in an area where there isn't usually much crime.

Modified to add: Is there help for soldiers coming home?  If so, would they take advantage of it or do most of them fall through the cracks?