Posted on 01/30/2023 6:53:25 AM PST by Morgana
GALVESTON, Texas – The city of Galveston’s police chief has been placed on administrative leave as an investigation into a raid at a family’s home begins.
Police Chief Doug Balli has been placed on a 10-day administrative leave by the city manager.
This comes amid an internal investigation being conducted, focusing on a possible failure of communication surrounding a raid at a house on Avenue O exactly one week ago.
Galveston Police Department officials are keeping quiet, but home surveillance footage points to what’s been described as a disturbing sequence of events one family says should’ve never happened.
“My kids and I were home sleeping,” said Erika Rios. “About 2 a.m., we were awakened by wooden pellets flying through our doors and sounds of the Galveston Police Department [saying] ‘Come out with your hands up.’”
Family members can be seen exiting the home one by one in the video.
Officials say they were there looking for a suspect involved in a murder from Jan. 20 where 25-year-old, Malik Dunn was found shot on the 3900 block of Sealy and later died.
They say the suspect was a man by the name of Cameron Vargas who had visited Rios’ home but left hours earlier.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s office now saying Vargas was misidentified and is not a suspect.
“The original suspect, Cameron Vargas, is no longer a suspect. After the DA’s Office consulted with Galveston PD, they decided not to move forward with charges against Mr. Vargas,” said Kevin Petroff with the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office.
Rios says the damage for her and her family had already been done.
“I was scared, screaming,” said her daughter Chelsea Peralez. ”I ended up going to my brother, asking what they were doing, and they continuously kept shooting the wooden pellets.”
(Excerpt) Read more at click2houston.com ...
“..Yet, the police chief in Memphis is still on the job ...”
Uhhh....well.....ummmm.....ya see, that’s a different “situation”.
That “chief”...ahhh...is of the “protected species”...and ahhh...you know, the thing.....
Ya, there haven’t been enough bad SWAT raids over the last 10 years for PDs to grasp the importance of double-checking addresses and targets.
SWAT should ONLY be under the control of the local elected Sheriff. No police swat teams.
All SWAT actions should require the Sheriff to sign off and approve.
All “no knock” raids should also require the signature of a Judge and require a warrant (search or arrest warrant)
If any damages or injuries occur as a result, the Sheriff’s department should be liable for actions outside of the warrant. So if wrong address, Sheriff is liable.
The police are an increasing nuisance to society more than they are a help. I think most of them should be disarmed and become “peace officers” and only a cadre of highly trained and verifiably intelligent individuals would remain armed as they are today. Unfortunately, a large number of the current office corps are typed-aggressives who only went into their trade to lord over their fellow man and play with guns.
“About 2 a.m., we were awakened by wooden pellets flying through our doors...”
Wooden pellets, what the heck is that?
I am all for no knock SWAT Raids in the dead of night, so much that in order to perfect the practice, every Judge in the County should be SWAT Raided in the dead of Night at random, at least twice a year.
Its got me scratching my head.
No knock raids should be illegal. Period. There is no reason you can’t catch these people coming and going from the house and detain them there.
Do kids have to die before that is the law not just that woman in Louisville, Ky?
I don’t care about that woman’s background I can see how she thought she was being invaded, anyone would think so.
No catch these people out side their house, in broad daylight and then go to their house.
I gently disagree with your suggestion to disarm most police officers. It’s not 1950 in Sheriff Andy Taylor’s Mayberry anymore.
But by golly, you’ve hit upon something with your “peace officers” comment. Years ago, if you asked an off-duty cop what he did for a living he’d likely say “police officer” or “peace officer”.
Now you might get “I’m in law enforcement“. It’s a significant change, from “peace” to “enforcement”. And that change ain’t good. Too many cops now act as if they are soldiers operating in an occupied country.
This mindset will not be easy to reverse. Especially because the job is so much more difficult these days.
It was not a no-knock.
“The Louisville police officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s shooting death ‘knocked and announced’ themselves — and did not execute a ‘no-knock warrant’ as previously believed, Kentucky’s attorney general said Wednesday,” per the New York Post. “At a press conference, AG Daniel Cameron said a neighbor corroborated cops’ claims that they knocked on Taylor’s apartment door and announced themselves as police in the early hours of March 13.”
So-called "rubber bullets" are frequently rubber coated wood cores. That is the only thing I can think of.
If the police chief had to personally pay damages this crap would stop.
Of course, fairness demands that the city make up any shortfall in funding from the chief's personal wealth, with any advance the city makes becoming a debt owed to the city.
>> “I’m in law enforcement“. It’s a significant change, from “peace” to “enforcement”. And that change ain’t good.
I agree. It’s an attitudinal change. And it AIN’T good.
In the same way what used to be “teachers” are now “educators”.
Because the peace doesn’t need to be kept and children don’t need to be taught; instead, the LAWS of the state must be ENFORCED, and children must be EDUCATED to obey the DOCTRINES of the state.
> In the same way what used to be “teachers” are now “educators”. <
Funny you should mention that. I’m a retired teacher. And that was one way to tell if someone was good at the job or not. The ones who called themselves teachers could be good, could be bad. But the ones who called themselves educators were almost always bad.
The chief is certainly guilty of being an advanced degree doughnut muncher.
An arrest warrant is NOT a search warrant nor does it allow cops to storm into any place they want at any time they want.
This is a huge 4th Amendment violation and I hope they pay through the nose for it!
Even out own house was raided by a swat team shortly after we moved in. They messed up our front door jam, made a huge mess and upset my wife and dogs. I was at work. We never got a credible explanation or an apology. My wife was held against the wall with a gun pointed at her head while they yelled at her and threatened to shoot our barking dachshunds who were contained in an enclosure.
Pretty sure I’d make a loud public outcry via print media and TV.
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