Posted on 12/18/2014 11:03:27 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
Alecia and Bounkham Phonesavanh never imagined their family would be at the center of a controversy over the militarization of police. But that’s exactly where they found themselves when their toddler was seriously injured by a SWAT team, also leaving them with a $1 million medical bill they have no hope of paying.
“They messed up,” Alecia Phonesavanh told ABC News' "20/20." “They had a faulty search warrant. They raided the wrong house.”
In the spring of 2014, the Phonesavanh’s home in Janesville, Wisconsin, was destroyed by fire. Homeless with four young children, they packed one of their last remaining possessions – their minivan – and drove 850 miles to the home of Bounkham’s sister in Cornelia, Georgia.
The family crowded into a former garage converted into a bedroom: parents Bounkham and Alecia, 7-year-old Emma, 5-year-old Mali, 3-year-old Charlie and 18-month-old Bounkham Jr., known as “Bou Bou.” It was a tight squeeze but only temporary. After two months the family had found a new house in Wisconsin and was planning to return home.
At approximately 2 a.m. May 28, the family awakened to a blinding flash and loud explosion in their bedroom. A Special Response Team (aka SWAT team) from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office burst unannounced into the bedroom where they were sleeping. According to police reports, Habersham Deputy Charles Long threw a “flash-bang” grenade – a diversionary device used by police and military – into the room. It landed in Bou Bou’s pack-and-play.
“Bou Bou started screaming,” recalls Alecia Phonesavanh. “I immediately went to grab him.”
But Alecia says Habersham Deputy Jason Stribling picked up the child before she could reach him. “I kept telling him, ‘Just give me my son. He's scared. He needs me. The officer wouldn't. And then he walked out of the room...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Gloria Allred is otherwise occupied by forty year old rape allegations against an octogenarian comedian.”
Is Jerry Spence still alive?
Another glorious victory.
Of course it okay to catch the perps by surprise. Do you want the cops to send the perps an email about the upcoming raid?
The meth head family should be charged with endangering children and second degree murder.
Well the cops sure caught that baby by surprise, didn’t they?
But then, the Sheriff's own remarks on the case are pretty damning, so it's no small wonder that you want to focus on the "alleged" meth house and ignore the car seats found in the van outside and the other evidence that pointed to the presence of children.
Anything to protect the integrity of the Agents of the State, Comrade!
Really? Not "take all criminal informants claims with a mouthful of salt until verified by reliable sources"? Not checking the van, in which they would have seen the four car seats
"“They can’t tell me there was no signs of kids,” Phonesavanh said. “My van sits right next to the door that they busted into. My van has family stickers on it, four car seats inside, right next to the door that they kicked in,” Phonesavanh said."
But keep on defending The State, Comrade. The State needed to burn the child's face in order to save him from drug dealers. (That excuse rather mirrors the "we needed to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it" excuse, doesn't it?)
You may want to use a different argument--right now you're using a classic abusive-manipulative argument: "I wouldn't have had to do X to you if Y hadn't _______."
If the police had a healthy relationship with the public, they wouldn't resort to such "arguments", period. That you choose to use them as well is unfortunate.
Yep. All followers of Yeshua know that He is *always* on the side of the innocent and the defenseless (the widow, the orphan, etc. are mentioned in Scripture.)
That anyone would *dare* justify this is unconscionable. Lord, please open their eyes.
Stop bringing up inconvenient matters like the innocence of the victim.
Reported for not defending The Glorious State!
< /sarc >
As others have pointed out, the family is lucky that he didn't get as much "saving" as those folks at Waco.
You've been asked by several posters to provide a source for that claim.
Can you back it up or not?
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