Posted on 08/11/2013 12:46:09 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
....
The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
a) So what? Isn't it their responsibility to ascertain that he actually HEARD it before escalating.
b) So what? Criminals have been proven to be incapable of properly enunciating "POLICE!! OPEN UP!!"? So how can you put the citizen at risk so the citizen's employee can do his job? Why would the burden of making a wrong guess fall on a member of the wealth-CREATING sector as opposed to the wealth-CONSUMING sector??
Bayonets?When you see cops with fixed bayonets then you will know it’s time....
The “warrior cop” gets around the icky Posse Comitatus.
I'm surprised he got off more than three.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piCL8qa9azA
At one time, "law enforcement" was literally just that -- apprehending a suspected criminal for the purpose of: (1) protecting him from armed citizens hell-bent on exacting their own brand of justice; and (2) ensuring that the suspect was afforded a trial by a jury of his peers. In most jurisdictions the law enforcement officer was outmanned and out-gunned by the armed citizenry of that jurisdiction, so he relied heavily on the respect and good will of these citizens to carry out his duties.
The whole game changed once "police officers" became commonplace in America, and the primary role of these officers was crime prevention rather than law enforcement. This seemingly subtle change created an implicit distinction under the law, between "police" and "civilians," that has no place in a free society.
The cops are going to bust down a door someday,and the guy behind it will have a belt fed weapon and body armour.
Well, the cops did shoot off 250 rounds...
The way the assault teams bunch up prior to entry — I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t taken out an entire team with well placed booby trap.
I worked with a major metropolitan police department in one of the largest U.S. cities as a publicist some time ago. All the top brass were sent to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for instruction in community policing, mentioned in the article, and it was very effective.
Well put.
All that over hear say...all that over a few plants...wow!
The Po Po don’t actually have to see it, just take the word of someone with perhaps an axe to grind.
An M1 Garand would really eat into them,bunched up like that.I don’t understand what advantage they hope to get.
The family of Jared Francom should sue the police department for putting their loved one at risk rather than arresting him peacefully outside his job or the grocery store.
all police officers should be elected like sheriffs, that alone would fix the issue.
Good Lord! No wonder they stormed his home in a military style commando attack...
He should be treated like any other murdering international terrorist.
I think it is easier to trace the “warrior cop” to the race riots of the 60’s. that brought the advent of SWAT to deal with heavily armed militants. Then you have things like that LA bank robbery where the police went to a gun shop because they needed rifles. Add in a few city lawyers that want to reduce liability and a duty belt starts looking like Batman’s utility belt. Next thing you know the average street cop looks like an extra from Battlestar Galactica.
They could have save a lot of trouble by just burning the place down.
One other point. Never ever act on the tip of an ex-girlfriend without a written sworn statement where she acknowledges the criminal and civil consequences of a false statement. "He got weed!" isn't just a Chris Rock joke.
Not sure that would work out well but I think holding them personally accountable for their actions and demanding that they abide by the same standards as you and I are held to would be a good start.
when was the last time you heard of the elected sheriff busting down peoples door with guns blazing and asking questions only when the smoke cleared?
I could comment extensively but...not enough time and it would take things way off topic. Suffice to say that today's local cop in black tactical gear (Batman wannabees) have as much to do with crime prevention as my doctor has to do with death by lighting strike prevention.
Definitely worth armed conflict and folks dying over stopping somebody from smoking pot ... Not.
Happens all of the time, Google it. Crooked sheriffs are nothing new, power can go to anyone’s head.
My point is, how do you go about electing police officers individually? How many thousand cops are in your town?
I hear your sentiment, I just think accountability is a better answer.
Oh, and Christopher Dorner
I wonder if the spiteful wench who set off this entire conflagration feels better now.
“all police officers should be elected like sheriffs, that alone would fix the issue.”
=
You mean like Obama? Yeah,right.
.
One of my friends went out on a similar call. No Warrant, just a complaint from the neighbor about buyers and the strong odor of marijauna from the house across the street. Three cops, no tactical gear, a knock on the front door. The guy answered the door stoned and said “I guess you are here about my plants,” and let them in. He tried to pass it off as a medical grow (legal in WA) but he had too many plants. On a positive note, he was pretty good at growing, they were some of the biggest MJ plants anybody had ever seen.
Mr. Stewart-——31 rds, 6 hits, 1 fatal
“HIGHLY TRAINED” SWAT 250+ -——2 hits???????????????
This is exactly the kind of response I have been waiting for.
A No-Knock-Warrant is, essentially, a home invasion, and was dealt with accordingly. 31 shots vs. 250.
12 against 1.
I think the guy did OK.
Problem is, he was pretty well wasted - falling asleep at 8:30pm - naked - still, he was able to mitigate the threat, despite his lethargic “buzz”...
If this happens only a few more times, then King George’s Dragoons will think twice about quartering themselves, un-invited, inside a Patriots castle...
it’s time,,,
Ask Cheye Calvo about the Prince George's Co. sheriff's dept and his two dead labs:
The Day the SWAT Team Came Crashing Through My Door
Nah. The Left just views at it as a manual.
When conducting operations [particularly in] urban terrain, the defender has the advantage. It is their home turf. They own the terrain and control it.
As another poster mentioned...trying to take down an individual with a belt-fed weapon and body armor......imagine trying to take down a room with a sand-bagged machinegun and an individual wearing body armor.
It is what Marines in Fallujah had to face.....it isn't fun.
Patrolling in a jungle, desert, or even a city street you would want dispersion to avoid multiple casualties from a single mine, machinegun burst, etc.
However, when it comes to breaching, the entry team has to overcome the "fatal funnel." Essentially each defender is looking at a "V" toward the doorway/opening and the total of the defenders' cones of fire is an ^ shape....ie "funneled" at the opening. This essentially provides the defenders with the most optimal class of fire in respect to the target = "enfilade fire."
Enfilade fire = When the long axis of the beaten zone (where the rounds impact or potentially impact) coincides, or nearly coincides, with the long axis of the target. Simply: everywhere your rounds could hit, envelopes everywhere your target is.
An assaulting element that sent dispersed individuals through a breach would easily be picked off one at a time.
By "stacking" the assault element can "flood" the breach, their first task is to clear the "fatal funnel" (ie get through the doorway) and more or less immediately disperse once inside the room. This provides multiple targets that hopefully overwhelm the defenders, gets the maximum amount of firepower on the defender, and immediately disperses to increase the individual assaultman's chance of survival.
Stacking and breaching is the most effective means to take down a structure (short of collapsing it with a JDAM), but it can also be very bloody for the assault element. There's a reason Hue City and Al-Fallujah were such bloody battles.
At least in combat, the assault element will often have the benefit of a base of fire (that suppresses the building), and a support element that can flood more assaulters and assist with casualties.
That's the basic premise behind the "stack."
I understand. I’m just pointing back to a clear transition in the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement officers. There is no room for a “pro-active” law enforcement officer under the U.S. Constitution.
You forgot who was shooting at him. They fired 250 rounds and hit him twice.
I just saw that the guy hung himself in his cell. Ya sure he did.
So what did that cost the tax payers? $15,000
3 cops? Cars, fuel, cops wages, jail, food, court time, paper work, processing....Judges wages, jailers wages...Not to mention their bloated pensions.
What a racket...The government created a very lucrative industry.
Excellent post, thank you.
And just to be clear, I was talking about a booby trap outside the door. Mind you, I am just a lowly civilian puke and talking out of my rear end here, but maybe jellied gas of some sort could set the gang of them on fire right as they are lining up to go in.
TXFreeper’s right - in smaller communities we all know where the elected sheriff lives. More importantly, we can still buy matches and he knows it.
,,,Gotta Warrant?
Suffice to say that today's local cop in black tactical gear (Batman wannabees) have as much to do with crime prevention as my doctor has to do with death by lighting strike prevention.
Well said, Bloody Sam Roberts!
That is only because the ceurrent ROE don’t allow for a rocket, tank round, mortar or air drop which eliminates the need for breaching.
250 shots and only two hits? Surprised that no bystanders were hurt.
Sounds like a “no-knock” warrant that went awry.
If the defender can get enough bullets into the funnel fast enough,the entry team gets slaughtered.At least until the police policy becomes pitch a few grenades through the door before entry.
In our battalion, all E4 and above could leverage the full gambit of air and ground assets. You could use, rockets, tanks, arty, mortars, fixed wing, rotary wing, whatever would answer the call at the other end of the hook.
We still had to breach.
We still faced doped up muj with bunkered in machineguns. Cockroaches can survive all kinds of things.
And we damn near leveled the city.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
