Posted on 03/02/2010 4:26:15 AM PST by marktwain
LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. -- In Lawrence County, deputies with their guns drawn handcuffed two men they thought were selling drugs only to learn they were at the wrong address.
Related: Watch This Story
John Tidwell told Channel 4 he was watching television at his apartment in Lawrenceburg Thursday night when he saw a van full of men arrive.
"Once they ripped the handle off the door, they kicked the glass in,” Tidwell said. "The next thing I know, there's a gun pulled on me, and people screaming, 'Get down on the ground.'"
Members of the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department Drug Unit handcuffed Tidwell and his father, who was in bed recovering from cancer surgery. A moment later, deputies realized they were in the wrong half of a duplex.
Sheriff Kenny Taylor admitted his deputies made a mistake.
"When they realized they were in the wrong part of the house, they took the handcuffs off the suspects and apologized to them," Taylor said.
Taylor said the county will pay for the door. But that isn't all there is to it.
Tidwell believes that after the raid, the deputies intentionally scratched the letter "A" off the other side of the house to make it look as though their mistake was unavoidable because it looked like all one house.
Their neighbor, Michael Polk, pointed out where the letter had been for years, right below three numbers on the porch’s support post.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsmv.com ...
No knock raids have only very limited usefulness. 95 percent of them would be served better by a uniform officer knocking at the door.
I agree 100%
Over the last 10 or so years, police have turned into jack booted thugs.
Even the smallest of towns now have cops that act like they are in Detroit or Chicago.
My small town of under 400 in west Tennessee went from a night watchman in 1972, to a small police department with a chief and a deputy, to a circus.
When I left in 2004, they had a gang of thugs with full riot gear, wanting to use one of my buildings for swat raids.
It is all a big joke until they get out of hand.
In some of these small suburban towns, just a minor traffic stop may bring 2 or 3 cars with young green cops acting like
they had just caught John Dillinger.
That happened to my son when he was 17. Tiny little town in the boonies. Young man (of 17) driving a car. Must be drugs, right??
Only... son doesn’t smoke, do drugs or drink. Darn!
Car had been given to him by a Christian couple and also sat for a year in between, but oddly enough, the dog alerted on the back bumper. How conveeenient eh?! Don’t we all keep our illegal drugs on the back bumper?
4 cars were called. It was a big hairy deal. (for the cops) I’m sure it was their excitement for the entire night.
Smaller, More limited government, A lot of these problems will go away.
Sue their @sses off. This is the kind of crap that gets innocent people killed.
This happened about 15 years ago to a friend of my sister living in Atlanta. They raided #53 and they were supposed to raid #58. It was at about 5AM and they did over $5k damage to the front of her house by ripping off her security gate and steel front door using a truck. Sis’s friend and two small childrem were absolutely terrified. They ransacked her house for about an hour before they realized they had hit the wrong place.
Fortunately, in her case, the DEA agent in charge did a good job of handling the mistake according to my sister. They put her up in a hotel for a week and paid for all of her meals and laundry while they had a contractor come in and repair all of the damage they did. They even replaced her frig and some furniture. Her poor friend had problems sleeping for a couple of years after that.
This happened about 15 years ago to a friend of my sister living in Atlanta. They raided #53 and they were supposed to raid #58. It was at about 5AM and they did over $5k damage to the front of her house by ripping off her security gate and steel front door using a truck. Sis’s friend and two small childrem were absolutely terrified. They ransacked her house for about an hour before they realized they had hit the wrong place.
Fortunately, in her case, the DEA agent in charge did a good job of handling the mistake according to my sister. They put her up in a hotel for a week and paid for all of her meals and laundry while they had a contractor come in and repair all of the damage they did. They even replaced her frig and some furniture. Her poor friend had problems sleeping for a couple of years after that.
Eventually one of these erroneous no knock raids is going to encounter someone who intends to defend himself and his home. It will not end well.
I've had the police kick in doors at a rental property I own a week after they assisted me in evicting the same person they were looking for. I sure never got treated as well as your Sis. I'm still waiting for the repair check from the city, 3 years later.
The problem is when police make mistakes people all too often innocent people die. A prime example is the 95 year old woman who was shot to death by Atlanta police a year or so ago in a "no-knock" raid on a suspected drug house. Turned out to be the wrong address, clearly a mistake, but the lady who lived there is dead.
Some years ago a disgruntled drunk barricaded himself in his trailer in a rural area near me. This is about 40 miles north of Chattanooga, TN. This guy wasn't holding anyone hostage. He was just mad at the world and was begging for attention. If they'd have left him alone he would likely have calmed down after a while and no one would have gotten hurt. Instead, the Chattanooga SWAT team responded, escalated the situation by threatening the man, then shot and killed the guy in his own home. The question I asked was why is it that the Chattanooga SWAT team responds to a domestic disturbance 40 miles away from their jurisdiction, but the Chattanooga Fire Department doesn't respond to house fires in the same area? The answer is you don't get to shoot somebody when you respond to a house fire......
Get it right on the Atlanta raid. Those were bad cops who planted the drugs in her house, busted in not knowing she had a revolver in her lap. She fired at them once and they killed her in return. All three bad cops are now in prison.
Are you sure we're talking about the same raid? The one I'm talking about happened in West End, about 5 doors down from a house my mother used to own. It had nothing to do with cops planting drugs. They simply showed up at the wrong house.
Almost sounds like the scene from “Alice’s Restaurant” where they are investigating the litter.
“And the judge wasn’t going to look at the 27 8X10 glossy photos, with the pictures and arrows, and a paragraph on the back of each one ... :
*********
Agreed. Police should think of negotiating first, kicking down doors last.
I'm old enough to remember when police wore white shirts and got to know the people in their neighborhoods. Now they wear black, with masks and helmets and full rock-n-roll weapons and act like a military strike team. That is just wrong.
Seriously, how often do we REALLY need an armed and armored strike team in the suburbs? If the bad guys shoot back, call in backup. But unless there is a known terrorist cell behind that door, a SWAT team is just way too much overkill.
There ARE good guys, you know!
People better wake up, they are only inches away from a police state.
It has already happened. Typically the reward for defending yourself is life in prison.
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