Sorry, but if I see someone selling drugs in my neighborhood I am all over it "snitching". You can kiss my grits w/ your don't snitch.
Posted on 09/28/2011 4:19:25 PM PDT by Notary Sojac
A massive drug raid in Roswell last week targeted dozens of people at homes across the city.
But one of those homes didn't have what police were looking for, and their unexpected visit left the people inside shaken and upset.
It started shortly after Nancy Parker's husband came home from work Friday evening.
"There came this huge bang on the door, front door, sounded like the door was going to fall in," recalled Parker.
She said her husband opened the door to multiple officers in raid gear with guns drawn.
"We were completely shocked, upset," she continued. "I was panicked because I've never had anything like this happen to us before, never."
She said the officers demanded to come inside her home.
"And my husband asked, 'Do you have a warrant? Who are you looking for?' and they said, 'Gerald Sentell,'" Parker said. "We don't even know this person."
DEA agents said Sentell is one of the fugitives officers were looking for during last week's drug bust.
A DEA spokesperson told News 13 the agents were following up on a citizen's tip that Sentell was at the home.
Parker said she and her husband were wary of cooperating because they weren't sure what was going on.
When asked if she thought the officers could have been imposters, Parker replied, "Yes. That's very much what we thought, and that's why my husband said no, you're not coming in this house without a warrant."
The DEA spokesperson said the agents left when they were denied entry by the couple.
Parker said she's still not over the incident.
"I felt like I was in a nightmare, you know this doesn't happen to us," she said. "All I could tell you is I couldn't move, I couldn't even hardly think, I was so afraid."
DEA officials said every officer involved in the raid had vests with the word, 'Police' clearly marked, and that guns were out of their holsters but were not directly pointed at anyone in this case.
The DEA said all of the officers involved in the raid were following procedure and did nothing wrong.
Police are still looking for Sentell, along with many other suspects from the drug raid.
Hmmm....
I couldn't move, I couldn't even hardly think, I was so afraid
You think so, huh? What side are you on exactly?
Is Bowser OK?
They were refused entry and they left. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?
Gee, crooks would never think of doing that. Duh. Why was there no follow up question asking the spokesman just that?
That’s a fair point. I was thinking more about “show me your warrant, or leave”
“What side are you on exactly?”
Sounds to me like Notary Sojac and the Parkers are on the side of the Bill of Rights, IE: The Rule Of Law.
I hope their dog felt little pain when it was shot.
They are lucky the husband didn’t go to the door armed. If he had she would be paying for a funeral now.
So there are a bunch of dudes in full riot gear, who get turned away by asking for a warrant? Why were they ready to go in heavy like that if they weren’t even doing a dynamic entry? They just felt like playing dress-up?
What this tells me is that a deputy could have politely knocked on the door, asking if the occupants had seen the suspect. It’s an old, pre SWAT technique. Had it been used at Waco, we probably wouldn’t know anything about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. We’ve gone SWAT crazy.
Give the man credit: if he was going on instinct, his instincts were exactly right.
You are right. Americans have been snookered by these police state wannabes. We have a constitution and if we don’t use it, the Federal government will kill it and us.
True courage is doing the right thing even when you are afraid to.
You might just be on to something.
All of this chaos from an anonymous tip without any backing evidence. Shameful.
No dogs or residents killed? Wow. Lucky. /not sarc
Show me the warrant and I'll let you in.
It's a long funny story I'll never type into this or any other internet site; Bottom line is I let them into my old party house for a search based on a tip from a girl in a mental hospital.
I was too young & stupid to ask to see a warrant, which never would've been issued. I knew it was a huge mistake seconds after I let them in. Luckily they were looking for body and what was under the sofa I was sweating on wasn't enough room for a body.
Lesson learned. The hard way, but lesson learned.
Kids with toys are gonna play with them. Much like Barney Fife's one bullet, swat kids need to be limited.
Edited for clarity.
Looks like in this case everyone did the right thing.
Sorry, but if I see someone selling drugs in my neighborhood I am all over it "snitching". You can kiss my grits w/ your don't snitch.
And you are so outraged that you'll make a false accusation against an innocent third party.
How the System works: Drug cops search a "confidental informant" and find certain substances. It looks bad but the search can go away if he gives them a bigger fish. He gives them an address, doesn't matter what it is. When it turns out to be a bust, they want words with him. By this time he's managed to gather some good info, which he supplies, apolgising for the inaccurate previous.
Everybody gets what they want, and where's the harm?
Click the link to be added to the "Whoops. Sorry, citizen. We thought you were someone else" PING list.
The war on drugs has become another business and crony farce that has made many people rich including every aspect of our so-called justice system from the private prisons to government employees that are supposed to protect and serve. We can’t afford it anymore. One reason is that liberty and the rights of the majority are much more important that having cops break down doors of innocent citizens based upon some lying opportunist low life confessions.
There needs to be another strategy than this costly “war” than adding more cops, more weaponry and longer $40K per year sentences that make corporations that run the private prisons rich.
Guess it’s more cost effective to run around busting things, shooting dogs and terrorizing peace loving citizens.
Really....Would it be too much to have cops use their friggin noggin and stake a place out, to ensure the suspect was indeed at the address?
You know, cuz then you could play cops and robbers, catch the bad guy and smile proudly as your fellow citizens thank you for a job well done....
They got an anonymous tip and that’s all thet acted on.
Things could have turned out very different if the husband, upon hearing the bangingon the door, had armed himself.
Yep, an officer might think something wuz up, since they are “suppose” to be there and they could performed a forced entry, to stop who they thought was the suspect and prevent him from injuring or killing anyone or even a cop.
It happened two months ago and the youtube visaster their tactics were
Ye
HG! In da House!
Woot! Woot!
Why do you assume I would make "false" accusations. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, is etched in my heart. Also why do you assume that the people in the story didn't hide a fugitive and that the report against them was not fabricated. They could of as easily of been people lying as well as not. They were well within their rights to not consent to a search, but later on claiming they knew not the person wanted is just speculation on all parties here.
I have personally seen the destruction of drugs (meth) on families here. I have seen where they cook it in the house with small children and have it explode and burn the house down (fortunately the kids lived). I have seen the firsthand the traffic such houses bring in. I have had items stole off my carports when a renter house neighbor (w/ kids) were dealing drugs. I have went out in the yard with a gun to tell these creatures not to cut across my yard and stare in the windows at my wife and children. These are drugs that no amount of libertarian pressure would get legalized. These are drugs that ruin lives with one taste of their poison.
Damn right I will fight it in my neck of the woods. This is my neighborhood and I claim it for my children's future too.
Well, if you have nothing to hide you shouldn’t worry about this kind of raid.
ping
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What's sad is that's all it apparently takes to get a warrant. Both the judges and the DEA can go to hell.
Whoops, reading is fundamental. They didn’t have a warrant...at this point I’m not sure what they’re doing. Why come to a person’s door with guns drawn without a warrant?
Whose side are you on?
Just askin’.
Precisely. You get it, unlike some others here, apparently.
There was a article here a few days ago by a SWAT leader. One of the things in it was that SWAT should go on every call they could talk their way into even drug raids and serving warrants. He thought it made the brass and the public understand how "useful" SWAT was.
It sounded like a recipe for disaster to me, providing that you have a actual need for a SWAT you should not be using them all the time. It will either blunt the edge they should have or, worse yet, they will keep that edge and react to what is at most petty crime as if it were a major felony.
Either way you are going to get people killed needlessly.
What, without shooting any cockers or grannies?? Some bad letters going in some jackets, I'll warrant.
I was a victim of SWAT in July 2006. I had recently forclosed on a house where I was the mortgage holder. I had just entered the house, when I heard screams from outside the front door.....” Police! Open the door....then I swear not 5 seconds later, before I could ever reach the door...B A M.... B A M.......CRASH! I was rushed, and pinned to the floor, and cuffed. I was wearing shorts, and no tee shirt, and the travertine floors were ice cold. They left me there for 20 minutes while they ransacked the house. Then they checked my arms for needle tracks (I have never even smoked a marijuana cig in my life, and I grew up in the late 60’s-early 70’s : )
The female cop told me that the cops could see I was only slightly clothed, and had no weapon, because there was a 3 foot narrow window on my front door. I then asked her: “ then why the overkill? These guys have watched too damn many episodes of “ Cops “
She just smiled, and shook her head.
Note: The former owner was wanted for rape.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the mastery of fear. He mastered his fear and said the right thing. He was in a new, unfamiliar, potentially lethal situation and he did well.
Hopefully he’ll soon join FR and learn how to be better prepared.
Yes, unfortunately, many who do resist wind up with dead dogs, fatal injuries and a lot of government-issued casings laying around.
“Got a search warrant?”
“No.”
“Then you can't come in.”
“Well, if (subject person) isn't here, then surely...”
“You are on private property and you have 30 seconds to get lost.”
“We'll be back.”
“No you won't.”
And they left & never came back.
Good for this couple for asserting (and knowing) their rights, a lot of people would just be afraid and let the cops in to mess up their house looking for the phantom drug dealer.
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