Posted on 10/03/2011 6:20:37 AM PDT by Immerito
The Harris family's life began to unravel around dawn on the last day of August.
R.J. Harris, who is 77, was in bed when a noise jolted him awake.
Bam. What was that?
Bam. It sounded like an explosion.
Bam. The front door swung open and officers in masks swarmed inside, pointing rifles.
Police! Hands up! Police!
Harris' wife, an aunt, a son, a grandson, a granddaughter, a great-grandson and a cousin all bolted awake. From the floor above, where one of the Harris daughters lives with her family, came the blast and stench of smoke bombs.
Mr. Harris, standing in the middle of the house that he bought 41 years ago, that has lodged his large family through the neighborhood's gentrification, kept thinking: All you had to do was knock.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
So SWAT barges in with some animal crimes officers, go through all this hullabaloo and take 2 people and 4 dogs away for misdemeanors?
No wonder people are pissed at the cops. All of this time and money spent to bring in 2 people on misdemeanor animal cruelty/abuse charges? Sad.
NAZIs.
The War on Drugs is increasingly lookiing like Prohibition on steroids.
Innocent Americans are being harassed and devastated by a law-enforcement establishment drunk with power and Federal Funds
These cops REALLY hate dogs, don’t they?
The Harris family appear to be a nexus of bad news in an otherwise-gentrifying neighborhood. Some neighbors finally decided that they were bad for property values and had to go.The "facts" in your article- -at least 3 dogs were malnourished in this kindly home -a veterinarian reported the situation to authorities, not neighbors -a public park was co-opted as the "yard" of some adult Harris children -two with current criminal records -a house full of adults had major building code and sanitation violations Please tell me what neighborhood would ignore the obvious problems here? Why should they? Mr. Harris had long ceased to be neighborly and had retreated into his own troubled world. Taxpayer money developed the park and maintains it. Neighbors clean it. But only the Harris' use it.
Something seems to be missing from this article. 40 officers do not gas-bomb a house and storm it at night, over misdemeanor offenses listed. Futhermore, you cannot seize a home, over housing violations; there is this little thing called ‘due process’. If there were violations, you would simply arrest the violators; not seize the home. If there are dozens of housing violations - you provide sifficient time to address these violations (clogged gutters? really?)
Did the parents not pay their mortgage; and this was a raid/eviction effort? This article seems biased, in the extreme.
This is disgusting. I hope there is a happy ending to this and they get appropriate $ for this obviously desirable location.
Is there any recourse for this family?
Yes, and absolutely ANY level of force is JUST FINE. Shoot, dawg, they should have nuked the site from orbit.
Just to be sure.
“The Harris Family is guilty of owning a neglected home in a coveted neighborhood. They’re guilty of being in a different social class of the new neighbors.”
Absolutely...this is so unfair.
It seems like, these days, they do.
98% of cops give the other 2% a bad reputation.
Like most other cities there are just too damned many police that have too damned much time on their hands!
This would never had happened if there was a good community organizer on board like our esteemed president.
Politeness doesn’t get you cool toys and more funding. I mean who wants to know which fork to use for the salad when they can kick in a door instead?
Chicago thuggery at it’s finest.
This isn't just a Chicago problem, if it's successful there, it will happen everywhere.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.