absolutely right!!!
Posted on 03/25/2012 7:48:03 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
There are few people less likely to sell drugs than Fred Skinner.
The 76-year-old lives alone on Mc Neeley Road in Victory, getting by with help from neighbors. Much of his home has been quietly abandoned because he can’t get up and down the stairs; his son, also named Fred Skinner, said his mind “goes in and out.”
Since suffering a stroke last July, he speaks haltingly, sleeps with an oxygen tank and has a pacemaker in his chest.
Skinner doesn’t hear as well as he used to, but there was no missing the pair of crashes he heard late in the morning on March 13.
The first was at the outside door to his front porch and the second was at the inner door from the porch to his living room. About eight uniformed police officers burst into his kitchen, finding him at the table with a plate of breakfast crumbs.
“I was just setting there at the table,” he said. “They busted in and said, ‘Don’t move,’ so I didn’t move. I didn’t know what to do — I didn’t know why the troopers were running through the house.”
The officers spread out into the basement and second floor then quickly returned. Someone was handcuffing Skinner’s arms behind his back when they looked through the mail on the table and saw his name.
“They said, ‘Is this your name?’” Skinner said. “I said, ‘Yes.’ Then they said, ‘Wrong house.’”
The officers left as quickly as they came, leaving his doorknob on the porch floor and the two doors broken open. The whole incident took five minutes.
Once they left, Skinner called Barbara Bailey, his neighbor across the street. Bailey saw five or six patrol cars at the house next door to Skinner’s and went out to them.
She asked who they were and what they were doing; they told her they were conducting a drug raid from Rochester, she said.
“I said, ‘What about Fred Skinner’s house?’” Bailey said. “And he shrugged like he wasn’t telling me a damn thing.”
No one was home at the other house, either -- Bailey said the man who lives there is often out of town. The officers left without an apology or information about how Skinner might get reimbursed for the damage.
The raid was conducted by the Rochester Police Department and the Finger Lakes Drug Task Force, which is led by the Auburn Police Department and, in this case, also involved the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office.
No one involved would specify the purpose of the raid or say why the officers broke into the wrong house. No arrests have been made in the original drug case, which is still active.
The Rochester Police Department was the lead agency. Department spokesman Stephen Scott declined to comment but said there is an investigation into the incident.
“We haven’t determined there was a mistake yet; the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.
I'm just sayin.
Victory is a rural community in Upstate New York where pistols require a permit but long guns are very common.
At least they didn’t have any dogs to shoot.
“In my neck of the woods...we are required to stake out the house...get a written description of the residence...verify everything...take it to supervisor...before even applying for a search warrant...been in law enforcement for 20 years...never had a wrong residence hit....”
Mine was slightly different. I foreclosed on a house, and moved in to fix it up. Same smasked doors....cuffed me, and put me on a freezing floor, while they ransacked the house, and left it a shambles. Nobody would listen to me explain that the previous owner no longer lived there.
“If the war on drugs were dropped, we wouldn’t have any of this non-sense. Neither innocent people nor cops would be put into these situations.”
Oh yes you WOULD! These are not all for drug raids.
Not by a long shot.
“If LEO’s lost their job and had to pay restitution for these “mistakes”, they would do their homework and make fewer wrong entries.”
I don’t want them to lose their jobs for this without a chance at rehabilitation. Ten lashes with the Cat-o-Nine-Tails should do it for the first offense.
There is a federal civil rights statute which is designed specifically to obtain redress for such federal constitutional violations perpetrated by state or local government officials.
Hopefully, some attorney or law firm will aid Mr. Skinner in filing a federal suit against the perpetrators for all the damages suffered. And yes, violations of constitutional rights can carry a monetary price tag as well as property or physical or emotional damages.
Constitutionalists and libertarians must encourage and aid in any way they can American citizens who suffer abuses of their constitutional rights from government officials at any level - federal, state, county, or municipal - in seeking legal redress for their deprivations. And we must be persistent at it, until courts are more responsive to these cases.
B U M P
Oh hurray, they will apologize. That makes it OK?
Fire them all, and forfeit their pensions. The existing pensions will fund the victim’s damages and lawsuit winnings so the people who effed up will be accountable.
Seriously.
Anytime SWAT does this crap. They’re done. And hard jail time if they murder innocent people. Enough.
This has little to do with Obama. SWAT teams all across the country have been raiding wrong homes, shooting dogs, murdering innocent people believing they home is being invaded (which it truly is) and then not admitting mistakes, leaving with no apologies or any info as to claim damages.
It’s been going on for over 30 years.
Read State Dept Publication 5277 Freedom From War. It’s about establishing internal paramilitary forces for countries. The regular armies go under the world government, but internal security forces will deal with internal conflicts. that is what it is really all about. War on drugs is largely a cover/plausible denial issue. Many of them believe they are doing it for war on drugs, just gives it all more credibility.
http://www.theagitator.com/2012/01/09/dea-agent-uses-death-of-swat-cop-to-propagandize/
absolutely right!!!
Is this the same Rochester police force who pulled this stunt?
Randy Weaver was under Bush I and the Waco siege started under Bush I. The police state is bipartisan. Don't think so? Name a single time a bad SWAT raid or dog shooting was mentioned on talk radio or Fox News. Name a Republican who criticized the militarization of police.
No, our wonderful rulers all across the spectrum love the police state. And so do the voters.
WARNING: UNINVITED ENTRY INTO THESE PREMISES MAY BE FATAL.
I left Rochester, too, just before the economy of the area collapsed. 2000.
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