"Whoops... Sorry, citizen. We thought you were someone else" PING
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Posted on 09/18/2009 9:30:23 AM PDT by George - the Other
"I remember thinking, as I kneeled at gunpoint with my hands bound on my living room floor, that there had been a terrible, terrible mistake."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I meet Cheye a few months ago when I testified before the Maryland State Senate Judiciary Proceedings Committee, concerning the SWAT team reform bill.
While my false arrest incident didn't involve SWAT, there were many similar characteristics to his ordeal, and similar ordeals that have plagued Maryland residents.
What I find extremely worrisome is that I was told that the State Attorney General, Douglas Gansler, is not prosecuting these detectives because he is "too busy," in spite of the fact that they committed multiple instances of misconduct and perjury and were in blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment.
As demonstrated by their actions, that they think that they are above the laws that the rest of us are bound to.
And apparently this is true, because they are still loose in our society, to rain their misconduct upon other unsuspecting citizens. Plus they serve as an example to others of like disposition, that they can get away with these crimes.
What's especially disturbing is that the D/Sgt Aaron Chapman, who lead the team and oversaw the falsified statements and planting of evidence to wrongfully incriminate me, is now working for the Department of Homeland Security. As an example, the MD Transportation Authoriety Police News release that announced my arrest said that these detectives had conducted an Internet investigation before descending upon my house. During the course of our lawsuit, our deposition revealed that there was NO investigation. This was just one lie of dozens.
It is a terrifying thought that a person of this ilk, who thinks nothing of ruining someone's life with lies and false evidence, is able to do this over and over.
As Cheye Calvo states, "You think this can't happen to you - Think again.
George F. Spicka Baltimore, MD
But I've always been something of a trendsetter.
WHAT? You didn’t take them out with your CLAYMORE?
Falling down on the job! ;-)
This needs to stop.
SWAT types are using home invasions for simple arrests and someone is going to get hurt and or killed.
I hope the guy is able to buy a small island after this lawsuit is settled.
If your account of the incident is accurate you can bring a civil action in Federal Court under 18USC242.
Going to get hurt? These morons have been killing people for years.
Am I proposing killing police officers? Of course not.
Am I proposing that SWAT behavior is oftentimes illegal and a violation of civil rights? Yes
I AM proposing that if someone dies in one of these unfortunate incidents, it should be the person(s) who illegally and incorrectly instigated the incident, not the innocentt person.
Follow-up on your area of interest?
The deterioration of personal freedom is a problem in this country. There is a certain random cruelty inherent in our existence which no amount of lawsuits will ever correct. The universe, God, the devil trickster, random chance, call it what you will but we are subject to forces beyond our control. If the police are idiots in your locale then perhaps that can be addressed, but police will continue to make fatal errors until the end of our time on this earth.
I have a friend that got a ‘visit’ because a neighbor saw him bringing his new basement flourescents inside. The cops kicked his shins until he fell and forced his family to the ground at gunpoint. Not even a ‘sorry’ and he probably won't win the lawsuit.
Prosecuting people for possession practically guarantees corruption since an object turns one into a criminal. Since there is no victim and such a small burden of proof, it can be easily planted on you and turn you into a criminal.
For example:
Think of someone jealous tossing a crack pipe under your seat. You get pulled over and simple indisputable possession can be a felony. That’s all it takes and I’ve seen it ruin people’s lives more than once.
As you well know, that's BS.
Prosecutors, as officers of the court, are SUPPOSED to be on the side of the law. Cops are too, for that matter. But most prosecutors view themselves as being on the side of law enforcement, that they're on the same team and the actual, written law is secondary.
First and foremost, they protect each other. The law and citizens be damned.
“The universe, God, the devil trickster, random chance, call it what you will but we are subject to forces beyond our control.”
In many (but not all) cases, carelessness and lying are the main factors, and they are within human control.
“If the police are idiots in your locale then perhaps that can be addressed, but police will continue to make fatal errors until the end of our time on this earth.”
True. But perhaps they should be limited to only one opportunity to do so.
Police departments have demonstrated time and again that they cannot properly meter the use of SWAT teams. Therefore, SWAT should be ended nationwide.
When we have long, low-intensity wars, cops become soldier-like, and soldiers become cop-like.
Bad for all.
Oh brother! Drop the Ouija board and get a clue - these attacks are a coordinated, country-wide POLICY of public desensitization to government home invasions. SWAT teams do not follow the movements of the stars (except sometimes when they're trying to find the right house).
“First and foremost, they protect each other. The law and citizens be damned.”
It has been a bitter and an eye-opening experience as to just how helpless the average citizen is when seeking justice for crimes committed by them by the state or its agents.
However, just like Cheye Calvo, I am not through with this. I’m going to keep pushing, probing, and investigating.
George
Exactly.
We gave the cops a “war” and they’re fighting it like one.
WE MADE THIS POSSIBLE.
End the “War on (Some) Drugs” and incidents like these will diminish. You never see these things happening over zoning ordinances, noise disturbances or parking. Well, not mostly.
3 weeks ago here in New Mexico we had a man hunt going on 9pm to 1 Am city,state police and county sheriffs.
Fearing a repeat of what happened to my parents I turned on every light stepped out under the light hands out and asked what was going on.
After a great talk with a non swat sheriff, I told him to search my barn and the property but not the house and if he needed anything else knock on the front door under the light because any other door would be met with a shot gun., just an LEO doing his job and respecting those he served, as we respect them.He thanked me laughed and continued on, my point being, he was a regular guy, not hopped up as a assault team member
I don’t think you understand what “random” really is.
Nearly every one of the incidents can be traced to the fact that we declared a “war”, and the cops are fighting it.
One of the few things I agree with in the badly-made and badly-acted Billy Jack movies was where Billy says something like “When the police break the law there is no law but a fight for survival.” Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more systemic, which indicates a grave pathology in our social and political system. Where do you go for justice when the courts are unjust? Where do you go for protection when the police are corrupt? Where do you go for honest political representation when the election system is bereft of integrity?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I do tend to be a pessimist and fatalist, I look at these units as a something that will be hard to ever reverse. They have become the American Cossacks.
WTF? How could bringing in a bunch of 8-footers lead one to suspect crinimal activity?
I have never been “swatted” but in high school I shared an apartment with a roommate and a guest friend, one night Houston police came in while we were asleep, woke us, arrested us for disturbing the peace and when we got out the next day and returned home our locks had been changed and the apartment was empty.
Not me!
County leaders are just like any other elected official in office too long.
They become accustomed to power and come to look at the common citizen as merely a supplier of tax dollars and unfortunately someone to kiss up to for votes occasionally.
What is a little surprising is that they do not seem concerned about one of their own being violated. This guy was a fairly important person.
Perhaps he wasn’t popular in the county power structure or maybe he was of the wrong Party. Is he perhaps one of the much despised R’s.
Our militarized “law enforcement” agencies are the standing army our Founders feared.
I would think it natural for a bureaucracy slapped with a lawsuit to hunker down and confess nothing. That’s the nature of the beast.
wow...I’m sure that was “justice” for somebody.../s
Do any of you Freepers remember a case in the Malibu hills several years ago. An LA County sheriff’s helicopter noticed what it thought was marijuana growing in the hills above Malibu. They checked out the ownership and found out who the owner was. The deputies raided the guys house on the property early in the morning. As the cops moved in the owner, not knowing what was going on, grabbed a gun, and was shot dead by the police. It was later found there was no marijuana growing on the property and the house was actually in Ventura Country. For a few days it got a lot of publicity but then the story died down. It was later revealed the deputies never made a ground inspection of the property to determine if Marijuana was actually growing on the property. Talk about sloppy police work.
Sounds like the same type scam. Driver was the drug courier, and somehow the "package" got misrouted to our office.
Complicating matters is that our company IT gets all sorts of weird deliveries from clients and workers in the field, so we're the "catch-all" for unmarked/mislabled/whatever packages. Fortunately, I hadn't done the pickup that day and the package was just sitting on the dock. I'm assuming that there was just drugs in the box, who knows, though.
No SWAT teams, no drawn weapons, no real stress, though. Just a lot of really curious detectives wanting to talk to me, my boss (who fortunately for me wasn't there because he's a complete idiot that likely would have gotten me tossed in jail), my boss's boss, boss's boss's boss and so on.
The detectives were PISSED when they found out there was nothing nefarious going on. I think that they'd been setting this up for awhile, and the screwup in delivery, screwed up their plans. Dunno though. Figured that it was best not to get too interested.
The National Park Service wanted that mans land as it adjoined a National Forest. So the NPS found an 'informant' who said the guy was growing weed figuring they'd get the property after it was 'forfeited'.
So the lie was told, a bogus Warrant based on a lie was issued, and a man was murdered in cold blood. His widow sued and won but not one single Government employee ever spent a single day in jail or paid so much as a five dollar fine.
Welcome to the War on (some)Drugs.
It sure served the apartment management, that was before SWAT teams existed by the way.
Law enforcement has always been casually and unselfconsciously corrupt, it wants to collect it’s pay, serve those in power and authority and in return receive it’s thrills from being massively powerful and terribly feared among the weak and invisible.
When you wonder how the system at the top can be so corrupt and incestuous (forever), think low hanging fruit.
Throughout our entire lives generation after generation we watch as our massive law enforcement budgets go towards the crime at the bottom of the food chain, at the final criminal transaction level. I wonder what would happen if about 20 or 30% of law enforcement energy in a place like Philadelphia was directed at the men and women in suits and offices.
Badge-lappers on deck in 3... 2... 1...
It lasted two years.But my former chief gave a good reference to my next (private) employer.I am of the opinion NO ONE should be permitted to spend more than half his working life in government funded service of all types combined.
We can’t ‘win’ the war-on-drugs without turning this country into a police state it is becoming. The drug warriors will disagree and think more militarized police and prisons are needed. We should decriminalize all personal possession like Portugal did. They’re having good results, less crime, less spent on cops, courts, and prisons; more citizen cooperation and trust and their druggie problems haven’t gotten worse to the chagrin of the drug warriors.
You are about to learn that there are legions in number on this forum that will tell you that the police can do no wrong. Whatever happened to you you brought it upon yourself.
Furthermore, if you have the gall to say that some cops may be crooks, you hate all law enforcement and cops. Not only that but you also hate your mother, grndmother, and probably the family dog also.
Probably the closest that a blue collar man gets to being a part of the "system" is to be a cop, he is only a servant but he is still serving inside the palace gates.
The use of SWAT teams to arrest a single person IS getting out of control especially when all they have to do is waiting for the guy to come out of the house. Alot of innocent people and cops are going to get killed when they start acting like soldiers. They stop thinking and start using their muscle. That’s what happened at Waco and Ruby Ridge. And, I’m big a law enforcement admirer.
You gotta watch for those assault light bulbs. Tricky devils.
A police raid in Norfolk, Va., in the early 70's killed the city police chief's son.
It was before vest use became common and before SWAT tactics became widespread. Stoned drug-investigation informant, wrong address, and soon four or five uniforms were kicking down the upstairs bedroom door of a retired AME preacher who was in bed with his wife. The preacher opened fire with his big-bore revolver and caught the police chief's son square in the chest, killing him. How the preacher and his wife survived, I don't know, but they were no-billed after the bad raid.
Gee, gosh, wow, who knew?
And the owner's still dead.
Admittedly, when I posted the initial arrest incident on Free Republic, there were some here who displayed that attitude, assuming I was guilty based on the lies contained in the MdTA Police News Release.
But so what? People like that, who jump to conclusions without bothering to investigate what really happened, are not worth the time of day.
What was important was that my friends knew I could never have done what I was accused of. They stood by me in my time of need,
George
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It is their homes who should be raided by another police department and subjected to the same 'shoot first and ask questions later' tactics.
An Eye for an Eye.
Maybe then they will be a lot more careful about how they do things and whether it's worth the risk.
Right now, as typical of the government, there is no risk for a judge and SWAT team that conduct a No-knock warrant raid on a person's home.
Maybe they wouldn't be as quick to act if they knew that their family and pets might be subjected to the same type of storm trooper tactics by people in their 'SWAT' costumes.
Two police officers came to my front door and delivered their message. In addition they said a SWAT team was on the way.
Without thinking I said to them "Oh My Gosh, they are going to kill Charlie". It was a statement not a question.
The officers hesitated and did not reply. After a pause they repeated the evacuation order.
My gut reaction: SWAT Team = Kill !
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