Posted on 03/27/2007 5:12:46 AM PDT by VRing
The man leveled his gun at Nicole Thompson's face.
Moments later, he had the mother of four on the ground with the barrel to the back of her head. According to her and her husband, the man screamed, "If you move, I'll shoot you in the f-- head!"
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It all began as a drug investigation.
According to reports from police and prosecutors, audio recordings of the incident, and the Thompsons:
A confidential informant for the Anoka-Hennepin Drug Task Force set up what he and cops thought would be a drug sting targeting Ryan Robert Baker, 30, of East Bethel. In fact, Baker's intention was to rob the informant without selling him any drugs, according to theft charges to which he pleaded guilty this month.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Feb. 16, Baker and the informant, who was not identified, drove to Spring Lake Park. The informant wore a radio transmitter, and cops listened as Baker told him to drive to the 8300 block of Able Street Northeast. The police, following from a distance, didn't know where Baker was heading. Baker picked the Thompsons' house, apparently at random.
The Thompsons run a video and film production business out of the house, so they were home. They've never had a run-in with the cops, and neither of them knew the informant or Baker. Wade Cordts, an intern for their company, also was at the house. The Thompsons' four children, ages 8 to 18, weren't home.
Nicole Thompson heard a knock at the front door. She answered it and saw two men struggling over a wad of cash. One of the men asked about drugs. She yelled to her husband, who ran to the door and pinned the two men against a wall outside the house. Cordts helped keep them there while Nicole Thompson called 911.
"I need a policeman please," she says in a recording of the 911 call. "Two gentlemen just rang my doorbell, and they're fighting on my doorstep. No, I don't know them. My husband and another gentleman who lives with us are out there right now trying to restrain this guy, but I don't exactly know what's going on."
Amid the sounds of a struggle over the wire planted on the informant, cops heard him say he was being robbed. A supervising detective called out over the police radio, "This is a rip-off. Bust, bust, bust."
An audio recording given by the Anoka County Sheriff's Office to the Thompsons documents the incident, as heard through the muffled microphone on the informant. A salvo of screamed profanities announces the officers' presence. Some of it is inaudible; some of it is clear, like, "Anybody f-- moves, you get a boot in the head, understand?"
'EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES'
That's hardly the language used by the police - a combination of officers from several jurisdictions assigned to the task force - in official reports.
"I exited the vehicle took my badge out, held it in my left hand as far as I could," wrote Detective John Potter, one of the first on the scene. "I announced that I was the police and ordered everyone to the ground."
To Brad Thompson, the group of plain-clothed men who poured out of a beat-up minivan looked "like bikers," not police. And while he doesn't deny they may have had badges in view, all he saw was the guns pointed at him.
"I didn't know for sure they were police until the handcuffs came out," he said.
Police reports are littered with references of "exigent circumstances," a phrase drawn from legal rulings that give police the authority to enter a home without a search warrant if they fear they could be in immediate danger. The Thompsons didn't understand why a dozen officers were combing through their house; they hadn't been read their rights and no one told them what it was all about.
Every individual has a right to protect his/her life and property. If someone breaks into a house the individual has a right and an obligation to repel the invader by deadly force if needed. If the invader is a plainclothes policeman intruding into the wrong house, the invader may be killed. And that would be justified.
In this situation the homeowner didn't have a chance to protect him/herself and you can see what happens. If the innocent homeowner moves in the "wrong" direction, he/she is shot.
And tyranny and terrorism by government marches forward.
A citizen and bad guys. And the "friends" of bad guys. Who are those "friends": the cops, during the long period of the oppressive drug laws.
"The police, they're going back to their homes, and they're feeling remorse: 'Oh, my God, we could have hurt someone today.' "
Yeah, that's why they were so apologetic and accepted the invitation to visit the folks that got jumped.
Oh yeah, they didn't. Time to move to another town, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. You are on the s%#^ list now for complaining.
Very strange story. And scary that this can happen to anyone at anytime.
"You think you've had a bad day" ping.
"The Thompsons didn't understand why a dozen officers were combing through their house; they hadn't been read their rights and no one told them what it was all about."
Where are the bootlickers to tell me that the police are the guardians of our liberties?
The above is a clip of the necessary context from the article, otherwise how can we discuss it.
ping
Where was this?.......
Ping
Special...
Spring Lake Park, Minnesota.
Call John Edwards...he'll know what to do. (SARC)
Thanks.
"When will we pass a law that allows us to summarily hang these jack booted thugs from the nearest tree?"
Never. The jackboots are here to protect us, remember?
Maybe the historical phrase "Liberty Tree", or "Liberty Pole" might be remembered by the modern Sith Lords of IP.
In other words, they lied.
L
Near Lake Wobegon?.........
It is a well-written article. Kudos to the Pioneer Press and the reporter, Dave Orrick, and editors.
OOps, you're right, I forgot. /s>
Isn't there any way of these cops having a mug of the guy they're after? I mean really, the drug dealer doesn't have a record and picture on the police file?
The guys lucky he didn't greet anyone with a gun or there'd be 4 orphans right now.
I'd hesitate about the lawsuit EXCEPT for the inconvenient little fact that the lead cop allegedly picked the house at random. And the wife is right; if you sue the cops, who are you going to call next time you need help?
This get the drug dealers at all costs cr@p has got to stop. It's not worth what it's doing to innocent citizens.
They KeyStone-cops-on-steroids, evidently, were after a a figment of their bad guy informant's imagination. He wanted to rob someone and pulled the coppers along for cover.
wow, not again
Why don't you try reading the whole article. It isn't hard to do.
Did they shoot the dog?
Oh you know they did.
SOP, the guy who bags the dog gets all his drinks free afterward.
BTW, How do you REALLY feel about Rudy? lol
Posting this without explanation as above did a dis-service to your readers. May I inquire as to why you posted it all?
That'll never happen. It keeps the police, media and the courts busy and blows smoke and mirrors in order to distract the cops and the public.
Just watch shows like Most Wanted, COPS, Most Shocking if you don't think the media loves this stuff...it sells on TV.
Way too many crooked politicians and crooked businesses (lying corporations about their profits that need attention....real attention. The socialist agenda of many in all levels of government who slowly and surely remove almost all rights to the pursuit of life liberty and justice for all Americans.
And Mena, Arkansas is back in business these days too.
I just wish the cops and the government would get a s equally excited about detaining and deporting illegals...especially those that have already been deported and continue to commit other crimes.
I am generally not in support of Giuliani at this time. :)
</B></I> Turning off html tags...hopefully.
What sort of explanation does your average news article require, in your humble opinion?
They shut off automatically when you close out your post.
Near Lake Wobegon?.........
Exactly. I used to live in the area as well - Anoka, Fridley, Columbia Heights. I guess the neighborhood has really gone down hill since the early 60's...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids: An Epidemic of "Isolated Incidents"
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
But...but...then the bad people could flush those drugs down the toilet! The constitution is incompatible woth indoor plumbing!
/drug warrior mode
Compare and contrast:
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
--George Orwell, 1984
It looks to me as if, in this instance, the facts do not fit what appear to be preconceived notions.
When they arrive on the scene, the police only know that their informant and Baker are fighting over a wad of cash with an unkown person at a random house picked by Baker.
What are they supposed to do? Politely ask everyone to calm down so they can figure out what's going on? Should they ignore the likelyhood that this is a drug buy going bad, and gunfire may break out at any moment?
I'm sure that they could have been more polite and they could have refrained from cursing (the article does seem to make a big deal out of the officers cursing). It appears to me from the story that they had probable cause to search the house.
The story posted by bvw reads as if it were written by the Thompsons' attorney, to publicise a lawsuit. While I think the WOD is a total failure and that we should "Get Out Now!" (copyright Cindy Sheehan), this incident doesn't sound totally unreasonable. Nobody was shot, and the Thompsons' were not hauled off to jail.
That was the original idea all right.
I guess nobody told the cops, but plumbers have gone high tech since then. I can reach a snake with a video camera down that hopper and search the pipe right up to the point it hits the public main.
Anything between the hopper and the main is guranteed to come from that house. And I promise you, with a good snake, you WILL be able to retrieve evidence.
But hey, we're here to play Rambo, not roto rooter. How effin sexy is that?
"Nobody was shot, and the Thompsons' were not hauled off to jail"
I can't believe what I'm reading.
Boy, did they get off lucky or what? huh?
Let me put YOU and your family through that wringer, we'll see if you are so sanguine about the outcome.
Like a liberal turned conservative, its all very different after you been mugged.
And the wife is right; if you sue the cops, who are you going to call next time you need help?
Better still, just get in the habit of shooting the bloody hell out of ANYBODY that breaks in your house.
At least the children weren't there to see all this go down. I would get a really good lawyer, be selling my house & moving asap. If that happened to me I would be having panic attacks without a doubt.
Now there's a consolation worthy of any jackboot. They didn't arrest the innocent homeowner, they didn't kill his dog and they didn't shoot him. How hospitable.
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