Bad information leads police to wrong house; bullets fly

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | December 16, 2007 | Patrick Kennedy

[El Gato]

What's wrong with presenting a warrant peaceably instead of breaking in one second after screaming "WARRANT, POLICE!" at 2:00 in the morning and smashing in with a gang of ninja-clad armed men?

On the SWAT television shows, the non fiction ones, the police often shout "Police Search Warrant" at the same time, or very shortly after, the door is smashed in. That's not a "reasonable" search in the sense of the Constitution, warrant or no warrant. Many times they either have no warrant, or more frequently don't have it with them to "serve", should someone manage to actually answer the door in that fraction of a second, or happen to notice them approaching and "preemptively" open the door.

[Squantos]

Well at least Lubbock shoots one of their own when this happens.......:o)

All cow crap aside ........ONE (1) wrong house raid is TOO DAMN MANY !

Were this to happen to a US embassy it would be an act of war. Not permissible, not allowed and 100% preventable ......wrong house BS is just that.

[VRing]

This is going to continue until qualified immunity goes away. Police who screw up must be made to pay personally.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Garcia told KMSP that police grabbed the family’s children and shielded them during the incident.”

Wow. That's hilarious. Good thing that the cops were there to shield the children from THEIR bullets at the wrong house.

The sargeant stuck continued on with his idiotic commments by saying it could have been much worse, the cops could have really been hurt, and that he could see why the family would be "upset". Upset?!! Hah. Quite an understatement.

[papertyger]

Charlespg said: "...question the war on drugs"...

I'm curious; how long have you had this opinion?

Since they started requiring more documentation to buy a box of Sudafed than to VOTE!

[Squantos]

Don’t forget the NOAA’s SWAT team.......:o)

Yep they got one too !

[papertyger]

This is going to continue until qualified immunity goes away. Police who screw up must be made to pay personally.

I disagree. Police are always going to be following orders from higher up, therefore someone not directly involved is going to have reason to blame subordinates that can not refuse orders without sacrificing their careers.

This is going to continue as long as the procedure exists.

[papertyger]

Don’t forget the NOAA’s SWAT team.......

*GET ON THE GROUND AND SHOW ME YOUR GALOSHES!*

[Wonder Warthog]

Yeah, I knew I probably had some of the details wrong as I was working from memory, and just too danged lazy to go back and dig them up. But despite my minor errors of recollection, I believe this is still one of the worst "SWAT team" fiascos perpetrated against citizens of this country.

But local police departments seem addicted to this "Rambo" stuff.

[Squantos]

If GM or McDonald’s or Walmart made this many mistakes they’d be sued back to the ice age !

Unacceptable record and risks for current SWAT SOP & ROE at all levels of goobermint.

The SWAT teams are in most cases as bad as the criminals they seek to swoop up.

But we know this already.......

[Squantos]

LOL......The ones I encountered were after a bunch of scuba divers off Florida’s coast on a protected reef where snorkeling was allowed yet scuba would disrupt the habitat of the protected clown fish.

This warranted a M16 / M4 carbine enema on the scene by the NOAA SWAT !

Galoshes ......:o)

[papertyger]

My homies on the Tasty-Freeze SWAT team competed against those guys at the annual invitational. About the only good thing they had to say about NOAA is at least they weren’t a bunch of p*ssies like the Victoria Secret team.

[Squantos]

ROTFLMAO !!

.......that is a keeper !

[Ken H]

About the only good thing they had to say about NOAA is at least they weren't a bunch of p*ssies like the Victoria Secret team.

I've seen the VS SWAT. It's scandalous how much "chin" their facemasks reveal.

[calex59]

Close, they, the BATF, had already arrested him for that. The federal marshals were "surveiling" his property and family because he failed to show up in court.

You forgot to mention that the shotgun charge was a setup, the barrel was less than 1/8" to short and also when he received his notification to appear in court it had the wrong date on it. The reason he was arrested in the first place was to force him to be a spy for the government against other people in Randy's area. He refused and they then proceded to stick it to him. The kid did shoot at the agents but evidently he didn't know what was going on. Also, you left out the part about the FBI killing Randy's wife because, apparently, they couldn't see anyone else to shoot at. She was holding her baby at the time.

Randy did get 3 million dollars for this screw up by the Clintons chief gestapo agent, Janet Reno, and the judge who tried the case wanted to bring action against the agents responsible but was stopped by the Clintons. All in all a gross violation of constitutional rights and well documented.

[hiredhand]

Ceramic plates in kevlar on the LEOs who performed the raid? Not that we're into shooting HRTs carrying out no-knock warrants, but everybody here in the house has a centerfire, hi-cap for "home defense". Everything standing next to a bed is either .308 or .223.

...mainly because badguys come in groups. :-)

[Ken H]

Randy did get 3 million dollars for this screw up by the Clintons chief gestapo agent, Janet Reno,

Happened in August 1992. That aside, I agree with all your points. This problem cuts across parties and administrations.

[Squantos]

Bad guys yell police as well as do the police......bad deal for ALL involved with SWATS current policies.

[hiredhand]

We've actually had a couple of "drills" here involving having to get out of bed...in the dark...and knowing which areas to cover and which way to go if things go wrong. Everybody has fired in close quarters and KNOWS what to expect!

Yes. It IS a bad deal for HRTs and SWAT teams... but unfortunately, the trend is that baddies show up from three to half dozen at a time.

Did you get my message earlier about Sweetie and the Sheriff's Dept. today? :-)

[StnCldTruth]

And the stupidity continues....