Free Republic

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - Hunter S. Thompson's body was found in a chair in the kitchen in front of his typewriter with the word "counselor" typed in the center of the page, according to sheriff's reports. The word was typed on stationery from the Fourth Amendment Foundation, which was started to defend victims of unwarranted search and seizure, according to reports released Tuesday. It was not immediately known what, if any, significance the word had to the founder of "gonzo" journalism or to his family. Juan Thompson found his father dead Feb. 20 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the...

Breonna Taylor was an award-winning EMT and model citizen. She loved her family and community, working at two hospitals as an essential worker during the pandemic. Nearly four months ago, a division of the Louisville Police Department performed an illegal, unannounced drug raid on her home. Not a single officer announced themselves before ramming down her door and firing 22 shots, shooting Breonna 8 times, killing her. Not only were the police at the WRONG HOUSE, but the man they were looking for had already been arrested earlier that day. 1. Charges must be filed immediately. The officers involved, specifically...

“And it seems like we’ve given that now to the doctor and the parent no longer has the say, or they risk the SWAT team taking all of your children and potentially the newborn,” she said, adding that the police action was a “mistake” and that the system needs to be reviewed.

Editor's note: The following is an adapted transcript from “The Flipside with Michael Loftus,” a new comedy show that’s debuted on TV stations across America.You know what I did? I invented an app for your phone. Now here’s what you do when inventing an app, you look around and try to figure out what everybody needs; so I’m watching the news, turns out everybody’s getting killed by cops. So everybody’s gonna need my new App, “Michael Loftus’ How Not to Get Killed by the Cops.” It’s super easy; you just press a button and it tells you what to do. Let’s...

When the San Antonio Police Department’s Tactical Response Unit busted through his front door, 52-year-old Adrian Perryman says he opened fire because he believed a home invasion was underway. He wounded a police officer, but claims he tossed his firearm once he saw they were cops and not criminals. It took a jury in San Antonio, Texas, nine hours of deliberation to find Perryman not guilty on four counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer earlier this week. The raid occurred at Perryman’s home back in October 26, 2010. Police officers testified that they shouted, “Police! Police!” as they...

KILLEEN (May 14, 2014) Documents released Wednesday including search warrant affidavits and a lengthy evidence inventory provide details of both the drug raid that left one Killeen police officer dead and another injured and of the crime scene investigation that followed the deadly shooting. Police Detective Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie, 47, and Officer Odis Denton, 37, were shot as they and other officers served the narcotics search warrant just after 5:30 a.m. Friday at 1104 Circle M Dr. Apt. 3 in Killeen. Dinwiddie died at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the intensive care unit of Scott & White Hospital. Denton, who was...

A 12-year-old girl suffered burns to one side of her body when a flash grenade went off next to her as a police SWAT team raided a West End home Tuesday morning. "She has first- and second-degree burns down the left side of her body and on her arms," said the girl's mother, Jackie Fasching. "She's got severe pain. Every time I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes." Medical staff at the scene tended to the girl afterward and then her mother drove her to the hospital, where she was treated and released later that day. A...

Paul Brown was working on his computer in his north suburban home when police smashed in the front door, pointed guns at and handcuffed him and other family members, and ransacked the house in a search for drugs. The authorities had burst in immediately after a postal worker delivered a package to the home that they said contained marijuana. But a search of the house found no further contraband, and officers left without making an arrest. Brown, outraged, said he was sure the cops had the wrong house. Police maintained they had the right place, but the target of their...

There are few people less likely to sell drugs than Fred Skinner. The 76-year-old lives alone on Mc Neeley Road in Victory, getting by with help from neighbors. Much of his home has been quietly abandoned because he can’t get up and down the stairs; his son, also named Fred Skinner, said his mind “goes in and out.” Since suffering a stroke last July, he speaks haltingly, sleeps with an oxygen tank and has a pacemaker in his chest. Skinner doesn’t hear as well as he used to, but there was no missing the pair of crashes he heard late...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Senate committee voted unanimously Tuesday morning in support of a bill that would allow homeowners to use force to resist an illegal police entry. The bill comes after a controversial Supreme Court decision in May that held that current Indiana law didn't allow homeowners to violently resist police officers under any circumstances. The bill specifies under what circumstances police could enter a home: with a warrant, in pursuit of a fleeing criminal suspect, to prevent someone from being harmed or at the invitation of a resident. Otherwise, a resident could use reasonable force, including a gun if...

Six police officers were shot by Matthew David Stewart on January 4, one of them died. Officer Jared Francom was laid to rest today with thousands of mourners in attendance. Police are being pretty button-lipped about some of the basic questions about the case, though there have been strange reports in the last few fays that Stewart had a "possible bomb" in his house. CNN reported: "There was a device that was fashioned in a way that concerned those who found it that there were materials that could have been used as a bomb," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith told...

The Minneapolis City Council approved a $1 million settlement Friday after a botched drug raid in 2010 in which an officer threw a "flash-bang" grenade into a Minneapolis apartment burning the flesh off a woman's leg. The payout to Rickia Russell, who suffered permanent injuries, was the third largest payout for alleged Minneapolis police misconduct on record. --SNIP-- On the night of Feb. 16, 2010, 18 officers were executing a search warrant on the apartment at 5753 Sander Drive based on a tip that narcotics were being sold at the address by someone named David Conley. In what Bennett called...

The part-time mayor of an upper middle class Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. found himself and his mother-in-law handcuffed in his own home by a Prince George’s County SWAT team one July evening three years ago. His two black Labrador retrievers had been shot dead, the second one from behind as it fled the officers who had broken into the home in a ‘no knock’ raid as part of a drug investigation. Five months later, Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his entire family had been cleared of all wrongdoing and suspicion, but the county police were still refusing to...

“He [a federal agent] had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there.”--Anthony Wright, victim of a Dept. of Education SWAT team raid The militarization of American police--no doubt a blowback effect of the military empire--has become an unfortunate part of American life. In fact, it says something about our reliance on the military that federal agencies having nothing whatsoever to do with national defense now see the need for their own paramilitary units. Among those federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions are the State Department, Department of Education, Department...

It’s a difficult time to defend SWAT teams. On May 5, 2011, during the morning hours, a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (Tucson, AZ) raided the home of Jose Guerena, his wife Vanessa, and their four-year-old son. Guerena, 26, a Marine veteran of two combat tours, worked in a nearby copper mine. Vanessa, seeing armed men in their yard, warned Jose, who sent her and their son to hide in a closet. Taking up his AR-15 rifle, Jose waited in a hallway, ready to defend his family. Within minutes, despite never taking his...

Gannett. Link only per FR posting rules. Link here.

The Guerena Shooting: Initial Analysis As regular readers know, I’m a USAF veteran (I was a security police officer in SAC during the cold war) and have extensive civilian police service, including SWAT duty. I have been writing on the Erik Scott case In Las Vegas since August of 2010. Those extensive posts are available in our Erik Scott archive. The Jose Guerena shooting, which took place on May 5, is similar in many ways. My co-blogger, Bob’s May 25 story on the Pajamas Media site (here) has stimulated considerable interest in the story on the Net. What I’ve yet...

CALLING ALL OATH KEEPERS, ALL VETERANS, ALL PATRIOTIC POLICE OFFICERS, ALL GUN OWNERS, AND ALL LIBERTY LOVING AMERICANS. This is an urgent call-out to all Oath Keepers, all veterans, all patriotic police officers, all Americans who cherish our liberty and our Constitution, and to all liberty leaders and patriotic organizations to join us in Tucson, Arizona this Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 to take a stand in defense of our Constitution, which our war dead fought to defend, and to take a stand against the egregious policy of using SWAT teams to serve search warrants on veterans and gun owners...

...no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (emphasis added) The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land…. No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law. Sections 3 and 8 of the “Declaration of Rights” from the Arizona State Constitution’s “Declaration of Rights” People seeking to defend the manifestly indefensible often sabotage themselves by disclosing critical details...

Three police officers were shot early Monday evening and a suspect injured during a drug raid at 12 Hollis St. in the city’s West End, the police said. Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said the officers were wearing coats and jackets labeled Providence Police and were making a forced entry at an address for which they had a search warrant. Two were shot just as they crossed the threshold, Esserman said from Rhode Island Hospital, where the police were gathering in droves in a show of respect for their injured colleagues.