Cops Use Flash Grenades, Kicks Man In Groin, Handcuffs Wife - Oops, Wrong Apt.

[DeSwiss]

Cops Raid Wrong Place, Kick Man In Groin

AP
Thu Jun 7, 8:31 PM ET



ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Annapolis police raided the wrong apartment Wednesday night, using flash grenades and kicking a resident in the groin before they realized their mistake, police and the family said. Police spokesman Hal Dalton said something must have gone amiss in the briefing beforehand. "We don't know how the mistake was made," Dalton said.

Silvia Bernal, 30, told The (Annapolis) Capital that about 15 officers burst through the front door of her apartment while she was cooking dinner about 8:20 p.m. She said the officers kicked her husband in the groin while she fled into a bedroom and barred the door with her body.

Then she said both of them were taken to the ground and handcuffed. The Capital said a police officer went outside and realized they had raided the wrong residence. Dalton said they were supposed to have raided a different apartment and said the incident was regrettable.

Spa Cove apartment manager Latisha Marshall says there is a large dent in the front door. And she said there are two large black stains from the flash-bang grenades police deployed after entering the apartment. When officers and the city's tactical squad went to the right unit, they said it was empty.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_fe_st/odd_mistaken_raid

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[n2doc]

1. America: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

:sarcasm:

[dkofos]

2. This kind of story is appearing way to often these days.

[Beelzebud]

3. Thank the Right Wing court for no-knock warrants.

And thank a certain group of Democrats for sitting on their fucking asses, so they could keep the powder dry, while these fascist scumbags dismantled another constitutional right.

[dogday]

4. Could not of said it any better mysefl...

And thank to that POS document The Patriot Act for making us less safe in our own homes...

[Spacemom]

5. Why do they hate Amerika?

This is the price we all must pay to stay safe from Terra!!!

(I hope this isn't neccesary, but I'll add it anyway)
:sarcasm:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Hopefully, the "wrong people" will end up very wealthy.

And, (far less likely) a few of those that committed the crimes will end up behind bars.

[Trillo]

7. Why doesn't this ever happen at the White House?

Or at the many corrupt corporate offices?

It's always little people in their homes and apartments that mistakenly get beat up by police. There must be a truthful reason for that. I wonder what it is.

[Roy]

29. Oh.. That question is too easy.......

It doesn't happen to those type of folks because when there is a complaint, they don't get no knock 'raids'.

They get a letter:

Dear Sir/Madam, We know the allegations against you are most likely false but, if you have committed a crime recently please report to our office for talking points at your earliest convenience.

If you have your own scapegoat please bring them with you.

If you feel that you have not committed any offense please ignore this correspondence. We will send you notice of the arrest date of your accusers and a round trip ticket in case you want to visit them at Guantanamo Bay.


Deepest regards,
Karl Rove appointed Attorneys Association, LLC

[medicis]

8. In not so many days, perhaps,

after martial law, after full implementation of the police state, the police will be clearly your enemy. They won't be the guy from down the street. They'll be from 'elsewhere', from Blackwater, etc. They'll be pleased to kill you, to suppress you. The happy dupes of the NWO.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi medicis!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Jed Dilligan]

23. In many places this is

already the case. Welcome to DU.

[DemGa]

9. Hey, stuff happens in a police state nt

[Cronopio]

10. A scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" just came to mind.

'A-HAAAAAA! ... sorry, I just get carried away."

[DemoTex]

11. Reno 911

Lt. Dangle and crew.

[VelmaD]

12. with all the castle-doctrine laws...

that have been passed...the combination of the castle doctrine with no knock warrants is going to get somebody killed when an innocent home-owner is wakened in the middle of the night by cops breaking down the door and opens fire. I'm hopeful it will jump-start the debate on both issues...but I'm not holding my breath.

[hootinholler]

20. Already has, there was an 80 yo woman killed after shooting 2 cops who no-knocked her house. n/t

[entanglement]

47. I remember that....too bad she couldn't take one of those assholes with her

n/t

[opihimoimoi]

13. They made enough noise the real bandidos ran away....LOL

[Ezlivin]

15. I'll bet it made the guy next door spill his bong water

Dude, your neighbors are getting busted!

Fucking Drug War...

[High Plains]

16. Was this another drug raid gone bad?

The article doesn't say, but I would wager heavily on it.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Whatchu gonna do when they come for you?

The Bushtapo never sleeps!

[High Plains]

18. This is standard police thuggery.

We only hear about it when they hit the wrong target.

Come crashing through my door unannounced and I'll shoot your ass.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Fucking cops. Tthe family thought they we being burglarized; tried to barricade.

Fucking cops.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-te.ar.raid08jun08,0,7646124.story?coll=bal-local-arundel

"The botched raid startled a Salvadoran immigrant couple with limited English who were cooking dinner. They thought their home was being burglarized when about a dozen police officers converged on their Annapolis apartment about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday.

Police acknowledged their error at a news conference last night.

Earlier yesterday, the occupants were still shaken. They cried as they gave their account to a lawyer and a past president of the nonprofit Hispanic assistance organization Centro de Ayuda in the group's offices.

"I cannot even imagine how these people must have felt when they saw these police point their guns at them," Mary Schumaker, a past president of Centro de Ayuda, said yesterday."

[DeSwiss]

46. More from the Baltimore Sun article....

"When police realized their mistake, they asked a resident to sign a piece of paper, but she refused, McCabe said."

[jollyreaper2112]

21. I want to see them do a no-knock on a gun nut's place

Maybe if they lose a whole SWAT team to someone with the firepower to defend himself they'll reconsider their strategy.

[pnorman]

28. That would be a Harmonic Convergence!

"No Knock", meet "Gun Nut"! Darwinian Selection at work!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

pnorman

[DirtyJersey]

31. No, then you'll just end up like this guy:

http://www.reason.com/news/show/36869.html

[flying rabbit]

43. Thanks for the link n/t

[jollyreaper2112]

44. Not me, I don't have guns

Can't stand 'em, too dangerous. Won't stand to have a table saw in the house, either. I don't like tools that can turn on you like a rottie the moment you stop paying attention.

As for the situation, the cops are lying out their asses, as always. Pigs is pigs. There was that other recent case of the granny with the gun, the cops no-knock, burst down the door, she puts one bullet in the ceiling before they gun her down. The pigs then planted drugs on her to make it look like she was the criminal there.

I'm not sitting here saying I'm a militia member or a gun nut, I'm not saying the gun nuts have got the right idea, I'm just saying I know damn well the pigs are in the wrong and they might change their tune if they lose a SWAT team. One cop isn't going to change their tune, they need to lose a lot of them.

Feh, the cops say they announced themselves and they had good intel. Right, just like Bush and WMD's. Lying through their fucking pig tusks.

[Jed Dilligan]

22. It happens every day.

Things have changed. I was in a wrong house raid once--two longhaired dudes in tie-dye with handguns from the DEA. I'd be dead now if this had happened last year instead of fifteen years ago.

I had a lot more respect for law enforcement before they resorted to these chickenshit tactics.

[slowry]

24. One serious question.

If you're flashbanged, thus rendering you temporarily effectively blind, and then kicked in the groin, do you still see stars?

:dunce:

Seriously though, this is quite fucked up.

[paparush]

38. My god, its full of .......BANG!!!

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Well. someone just won the lottery.

[firefox_fan]

26. Hypothetical scenario: the owner of the wrong apartment had a gun

And started shooting to defend himself and his family. What would have happened? Would that be considered legit. defense?

[Recursion]

30. Black-letter law, yes

AFAIK that's been a clear justification for self-defense for ages

[northzax]

33. probably, but he'd be dead

from when the police shot back.

now here's an interesting question: what about the cop who shoots back? is that justifiable force?

[firefox_fan]

35. My head is spinning now... :)

[benEzra]

41. Depends on the circumstances, but often no...

if someone is in your house illegally, he/she has no legal standing for self-defense; they are the aggressor in that scenario.

Practically speaking, though, the homeowner will be guilty until proven innocent, and the officer doing the shooting innocent until proven guilty, simply by the way the deck (finances, legal counsel, credibility with the media and the courts) is stacked. Look at the Kathryn Johnston case, for example; had the police informant not come forward and blown the whistle on the situation, the lawbreakers in that case would have gone unpunished.

That type of scenario is PRECISELY why the FBI used to warn against no-knock or yell-as-you-enter raids, because of the likelihood that such raids, if mistaken, will create a scenario in which law-abiding homeowners and police will, in good faith, end up in a gunfight. Unfortunately, the War on Non-Approved Herbs has driven a more militaristic, confrontational approach to serving routine warrants, as in this case, the Johnston case, the Cory Maye case, etc. etc.

[pacalo]

27. Gee, what a "regrettable" error.

[ieoeja]

32. I worry about the person they were trying to save.

I assume they wouldn't do something like this unless someone's life was in jeopardy. If this was close enough to the proper location and those people hearding the commotion took off with their victim, then I hope they don't decide to get rid of that poor individual.

:sarcasm:

Yes, I realize the police frequently employ these tactics for routine arrests nowadays.

[lpbk2713]

34. DOH!!

"Book em Danno. We'll decide what they're guilty of later."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Initech]

36. Didn't I see this on an episode of Reno 911?

:rofl:

[LibertyorDeath]

40. Gawd I love that show

[BikeWriter]

37. Hey, they didn't kill them or send them to Gitmo!

[RL3AO]

39. woopsies

[nealmhughes]

42. Back in 1980 I was 19 years old and in Navy Nuclear Power School in Orlando, FL.

I had a rare day off as I had had a cast off a broken arm taken off earlier that day and went to the dry cleaner on base to have my white shirts laundered and starched, and had the bag with the dirty laundry in my non-casted hand, walking in the sunshine, past a bank when cops burst out from every direction, yelled "Freeze, drop to the ground!" I did and got a cop boot in the back of my neck and one to my back. The bag with dirty laundry was ripped open and then suddenly a teller came out and said, "I set the silent alarm off by mistake! It's OK!" The cops left with no explaination of "I'm sorry, you understand, bag, silent bank alarm and all . . ." Nope. Nada. I went on to the laundry then to the hospital and got my cast off, went to Daytona for the day and no one believed me when I got back to Orlando the next day!
Then two years ago I was walking home at 9pm in the uber middle class hood in Montgomery, AL from a pizzaria. I did not take my dog out that night, as the owners did not like me tying him to "their" parking meters. So off I went afoot, and then suddenly 2 blocks from my house, a car screeches to a halt, and 3 guys with ski masks put a 22 pistol to my temple and relieve me of all my money, wallet, telephone, keys, etc., including my brand new Skagen watch. I was terrified, having lived in NY for 5 years and never seen an act of violence once, and my apt. only robbed once and my car's trunk another. I just considered those accidents of living in the city. Well, after crawling thru the dog door to get inside and calling 911, I was amazed that an armed robbery less than 5 mins. before, with a description of the car took over half an hour to get to my house. Their main line of questioning: Why were you walking to get a pizza?

[kurth]

45. Autopsy: Suspect Shot Twice in Back by APD Sargeant

Autopsy: Suspect Shot Twice in Back by APD Sargeant
Last Edited: Thursday, 07 Jun 2007, 4:42 PM CDT

AUSTIN -- The Travis County Medical Examiner's Office says the man shot and killed by an Austin Police Sergeant died of two gun shot wounds to the back. The ME's office ruled the official cause of death for 25-year-old Kevin Brown as homicide. APD Sgt. Michael Olsen shot Brown after a brief foot chase early Sunday morning.

The autopsy results were released Thursday morning after East Austin community groups threatened protests if the results were not released soon. The ME's office says more details information of Brown's injuries and toxicology results will be released in the complete autopsy report. The office says that autopsy will be available in two to four weeks...

According to an internal affairs investigation, Sgt. Olsen had been investigated for using excessive force during an arrest in Downtown Austin. The City of Austin was sued when a man was knocked unconscious when Olsen threw him to the ground during an arrest. Olsen served a 60-day suspension for the incident. In 2002, a grand jury also indicted Olsen on three felony counts of tampering with government records...

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3396660&version=9&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[Aviation Pro]

48. It's about high time we started to hire LEOs on intelligence....

...rather than steroid enhanced muscles. Concurrent with that, we should remove all exercise equipment from prisons so they won't feel so physically threatened by the criminal element that pays the former's bills. Think I'm kidding? Why does every police department feel the need to have a special "door buster" unit? The answer is fear and intimidation, which is not the hallmark of good police work.