Scenes from a militarized America: Iowa family ‘terrorized’ (WP)

[jsr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2014/02/04/scenes-from-a-militarized-america-iowa-family-terrorized/

Scenes from a militarized America: Iowa family ‘terrorized’
By Radley Balko | February 4 at 10:37 am

Watch this video, taken from a police raid in Des Moines, Iowa. Send it to some people. When critics (like me) warn about the dangers of police militarization, this is what we’re talking about. You’ll see the raid team, dressed in battle-dress uniforms, helmets and face-covering balaclava hoods take down the family’s door with a battering ram. You’ll see them storm the home with ballistics shields, guns at the ready. More troubling still, you’ll see not one but two officers attempt to prevent the family from having an independent record of the raid, one by destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens.

From the images in the video, you’d think they were looking for an escaped murderer or a house full of hit men. No, none of that. They were looking for a few people suspected of credit card fraud. None of the people they were looking for were inside of the house, nor was any of the stolen property they were looking for. They did arrest two houseguests of the family on what the news report says were unrelated charges, one for a probation violation and one for possession of illegal drugs.

A couple other points about this story. First, note that the police say they knocked and announced themselves before the raid. The knock and announce requirement has a long history in U.S. and English common law. Its purpose was to give the occupants of a home the opportunity to avoid property damage and unnecessary violence by giving them time to come to the door and let the police in peacefully. As you can see from the video, the knock and announce today is largely a formality. The original purpose is gone. From the perspective of the people inside, there’s really no difference between this sort of “knock and announce” and a no-knock raid. (The covering of the officers’ faces is also troubling, though also not uncommon.)

Historically, the other purpose of the knock-and-announce requirement is to avoid the inevitable tragedy that can result if homeowners mistake raiding police for criminal intruders. As the requirement has been eroded, allegedly to protect the safety of police officers, we’ve seen plenty of tragedy — and many of those tragedies have been the deaths of police officers. There was another one just last December. And it almost happened here....

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Kick in memory of Officer Friendly. Where did he ever go?

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. My mom used to mention him. I take it he was a '50s character. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Sure, I bet they had credible reports that someone inside was smoking pot.

DROP THE JOINT AND GET DOWN ON THE FUCKING FLOOR RIGHT FUCKING NOW NOW NOW

[SamKnause]

3. Swat Raid

K&R

I am so ashamed and frightened of what is happening in my country.

[Brigid]

8. This is not our country anymore.

It belongs to the 1% and the half of the working class they have hired to kill the rest of us.

[SamKnause]

9. Agree,

and it sickens me.

[okaawhatever]

5. this is so important. Even for those who aren't compassionate from the homeowner's standpoint

they should look at how expensive this is. C'mon 6-7 guys to do what two could accomplish?

[phantom power]

6. "destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens"

Police hostility to being filmed or otherwise recorded is pretty damning, imo.

[demwing]

7. And the Anchor asks why the family has so many cameras installed

As if that, in itself, were suspicious...

The only real answer is "Because it's their damn house and they want them there. Next question?"