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On a gray, rainy morning last month, Jon and Barbara Scoll calmly sipped coffee on their private dock while 100 feet away a SWAT team broke down the front door to their Edina home and swarmed across the threshold, guns held high. The team's breach man had to pound the door five times with his steel battering ram before it finally gave way. "He should have gotten in with two hits," said St. Louis Park police officer Mike Merwin to the Scolls. "You had a good door." "Who knew?" said Barbara Scoll. Most people, of course, are anything but nonchalant...

SALAH AD DIN PROVINCE — Whooping and whistling like children on a roller coaster ride, Iraqi Police soared through the sun-soaked July sky on their way home from a successful mission. Their enthusiasm was not borne of the high-speed helicopter ride, but of the hard day’s work, which helped save the lives of countless Iraqi citizens. In the predawn hours of July 12, Iraqi Police, along with Soldiers from the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, conducted an air assault into the arid farmlands north of Balad. Throughout the burning July morning, the Iraqi SWAT...

BALAD, Iraq – Hillah Special Weapons and Tactics team captured a suspected terrorist in Mosul May 29. ISWAT conducted the operation based on a warrant issued by a Mosul judge to arrest a suspected terrorist operating in the area. The suspect is reportedly responsible for kidnapping, murder of Iraqi Policemen, and improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces. Two additional suspects were detained. “This operation is expected to disrupt terrorist activity and reduce attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces in the greater Mosul area,” said Col. Bill Buckner, MNC-I spokesman. -30- FOR MORE INFORMATION OR FOR HIGH-RES PHOTOS,...

About a month ago I got a call from a reporter for the Arkansas Times inquiring about my research into paramilitary drug raids. He'd been reporting on a raid in North Little Rock involving a 40-year-old man named Tracy Ingle. When he told me the story over the phone, I was floored, even given all the abuses and mistakes I've reported and read about over the last few years. What makes the case especially egregious is not that the police may have gotten the wrong home, that they shot a man, or that they were covering it up or going...

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. -- Federal agents on the hunt for criminals on Thursday raided the wrong house while searching for drugs. Police and federal agents raided 50 marijuana grow houses around Florida on Thursday, calling it "Operation D-Day." They seized $7 million worth of pot plants, but they also kicked in the door of Noel Llorente's Opa-locka home and found nothing but bewildered homeowners. "I was frightened for my husband because they threw him on the ground," Llorente's wife said. "I was scared. Llorente said he was just leaving for work when unmarked cars pulled up, Drug Enforcement Administration agents jumped...

MIAMI -- Officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives barged into a South Florida home Wednesday only to discover they had the wrong address. The ATF agents were supposed to conduct a raid at a home in the 2600 block of Northwest 49th Terrace in northwest Miami-Dade County, but they were off by one block. They entered a house on Northwest 49th Street instead. A mother and her 2-year-old boy were among the innocent people inside the home when the agents came in

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Two SWAT officers are being counseled after bringing their young children along with them on a drug raid. The Orange County SWAT team searched a house on Napoleon Street Friday, arresting three people and recovering guns and drugs. The two officers who brought their children on the raid will not be disciplined. Both officers said the incident will not happen again, Local 6 reported.

LIMA, Ohio - A white police officer accused of fatally shooting a black woman as she held her 1-year-old son during a drug raid was charged with two misdemeanors Monday, outraging activists and relatives of the woman who said he should face tougher penalties. Sgt. Joseph Chavalia was charged with negligent homicide in the death of Tarika Wilson, 26, who was killed in a January SWAT raid at her house while looking for her boyfriend. He was charged with negligent assault in the wounding of her son Sincere Wilson, whose finger had to be amputated. Chavalia pleaded not guilty Monday...

The LAPD's assault on SWAT Would you rather have an elite fighting force made up of the best cops, or of officers who 'look like L.A.'? By Robert C.J. Parry March 16, 2008 On a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2005, Jose Peña fueled himself with cocaine and grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol. Waving the gun at the head of his 19-month-old daughter, Suzie, he told the LAPD officers who arrived at the scene that he was Tony Montana -- the character played by Al Pacino in "Scarface" -- and that he was going to kill his daughter and himself....

Citing recent killing rampages in the United States, a federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a Maryland firefighter’s claim that Gaithersburg police unreasonably searched his home and took his collection of 41 guns and ammunition after responding to a report that he was armed, suicidal and could be a threat to his co-workers. In a 3-0 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the police were justified in conducting the warrantless search and seizure in an era of unprecedented domestic carnage at schools, workplaces and shopping malls. “Police, then, simply must be entitled to take effective preventive...

HOBOKEN - The city has issued disciplinary charges against "a number" of police officers connected to the SWAT scandal, but is keeping mum on the details. "This is a personnel matter . and it's not appropriate to say more than we're saying," Hoboken Corporation Counsel Steven Kleinman said yesterday. Kleinman declined to say how many people are to be disciplined, who they are, or what the disciplinary actions are.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bombing at a funeral for a police officer killed at least 30 people and wounded 62 others Friday in northwestern Pakistan, a police official said. The attack occurred in a government high school in Mingora town while funeral prayers were being held for a police officer killed in a roadside bombing earlier in the day, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Syed Akhtar Ali Shah. Mingora, in Swat Valley, is 105 miles from Peshawar, a town at the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan's army was deployed in Swat earlier this year to quell an uprising led...

RYAN FREDERICK is no hero, no matter what they're saying about him on the Internet. He's the 28-year-old Chesapeake man being held in the Jan. 17 shooting death of Detective Jarrod Shivers. Shivers, 34, was executing a drug search warrant at Frederick's residence the night he was killed. According to police, the eight-year police veteran was hit in the arm and chest by a shot fired from inside the house. In a jailhouse interview, Frederick said he was in bed when the police came to his door about 8:30 p.m. Awakened by his barking dogs, Frederick said, he thought his...

Hello All, I wanted to pass along some observations for people that weren't able to make it to Randy's funeral yesterday. I don't think I ever met Randy, but had heard of him from others following his death. I think like a lot of officers, we wanted to show up to pay our respects. I figured out some years ago that a lot of the funerals are really for the families, since we are really writing the last "chapter" of our officer's professional life, from the perspective of their family. I figured that if a lot officers show up, and...

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley on Tuesday used the floor of the Superdome to display more than $1 million in new armament and other equipment, largely for use by the SWAT squad in emergency and riot situations, including a fully equipped mobile command post, two armored cars and modern assault rifles.

It's a typical morning in the court system designed to protect California's children from abuse and neglect: Justice is being strangled by the clock. In this Sacramento courtroom, attorneys spend two minutes on the case of a 3-year-old sent to the children's shelter after being found in a filthy home.

LOS ANGELES - One veteran SWAT officer was killed and another wounded during a shootout with a man who called police and said he had killed three members of his family, police said Thursday. The standoff with the barricaded gunman continued at 5 a.m., first-assistant police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference. The standoff started at 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man called police and said he had killed three members of his family, McDonnell said. When the SWAT officers arrived, there was a shootout and the pair were shot.

LOS ANGELES - One veteran SWAT officer was killed and another wounded during a shootout with a man who called police and said he had killed three members of his family, police said Thursday. The standoff with the barricaded gunman continued at 5 a.m., first-assistant police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference. The standoff started at 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man called police and said he had killed three members of his family, McDonnell said. When the SWAT officers arrived, there was a shootout and the pair were shot.

In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday. Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Officials said the operation would begin in March. Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will...

Mother warns community about 'Nazi' home invasion Officers told her 'rights' were 'only in the movies' Posted: January 10, 2008 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2008 WorldNetDaily.com The mother of an 11-year-old boy abducted by SWAT team members and taken to a hospital after he was bruised while horsing around is warning members of her community of the "Nazi" tactics she endured, including a statement from the officers that her "rights" were "only in the movies." The case involves Jon Shiflett, who injured himself while trying to grab the handle of a door on a car his sister...

The Colorado sheriff who dispatched a SWAT team to break into a family's home, hold them at gunpoint and take custody of an 11-year-old boy for a medical exam sought by Social Services is defending the actions, saying the boy's father told officers to "bring an army" if they returned.

The mother of an 11-year-old boy abducted by SWAT team members and taken to a hospital after he was bruised while horsing around is warning members of her community of the "Nazi" tactics she endured, including a statement from the officers that her "rights" were "only in the movies."

World Net Daily reports: Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak. The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves....

LIMA, Ohio — Darla Jennings walked through the streets of south Lima last night sobbing as hundreds of people behind her called for justice after the shooting of her daughter, who was killed by police as she held her baby. Tarika Wilson, 26, was shot and her 1-year-old son was wounded when Lima police conducted a drug raid on their home Friday night, prompting members of the black community to organize a candlelight vigil and demand answers from police. "They shot my daughter and her baby," Ms. Jennings said through tears while being consoled by other family members.

Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak. The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves. Someone, apparently the unidentified...

Dispatch for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office received a call June 12, 2006, by a man claiming to be Jim Proulx of Alvarado. The caller said he was high on hallucinogenic drugs and had killed several family members with an AK-47 submachine gun. He threatened to kill remaining family members unless he was given $50,000 and safe passage out of the country. Sheriff’s deputies and Cleburne police, including the police SWAT team, surrounded Proulx’s home about 1 a.m. Proulx hadn’t shot anyone and had no hostages, officials soon discovered. Instead, he was sound asleep when officers arrived. It was a...

Police blamed bad information for sending a SWAT team into a north Minneapolis house early Sunday morning in a raid that ended with shots exchanged between police -- who were struck by bullets -- and the resident, who said he was just defending his family. The homeowner, who does not speak English, told his brother that he thought the police were the "bad guys" after they broke through the back door of the house, where he lives with his wife and six children. He fired and hit two police officers, who were not injured thanks to their bullet-proof vests and...

MINGORA, Pakistan - The Pakistani army has driven Islamic militants from all the towns in a scenic northern valley and killed 290 of the followers of a pro-Taliban cleric who has called for a holy war against the government, a general said Saturday. The militants, followers of firebrand preacher Maulana Fazlullah, had taken control of at least eight towns in the Swat valley since July, scattering outgunned police and erecting "Taliban station" signboards outside former police stations. Officials accuse them of imposing a reign of terror, shuttering schools for girls and beheading locals who opposed them. Their seizure of the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2007 – Iraqi special weapons and tactics police targeted two known insurgent bomb makers during raids near Nasiriyah today, officials said. Nasiriyah’s police are working to disrupt several extremist networks operating near the municipality. These networks are responsible for multiple roadside-bomb and explosively formed projectile attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces. One individual is reported to be an extremist company commander and a primary facilitator for a bomb network. The second targeted individual reportedly is a key bomb builder in the area. He is believed to be involved in at least eight attacks between April and November....

Cops wrecked her door, nerves in botched raid The cops were at the right spot, but at the wrong time. A SWAT team from the Milwaukee Police Department burst into Denise Berndsen's apartment and turned the place upside down looking for evidence of child porn. Oops. The man they were targeting had moved out five weeks earlier. Instead they roughed up Berndsen, who had returned home from back surgery that day, her 74-year-old father, and a man she had just started dating and who for a few terrifying minutes wondered what he got himself into. Pray you don't follow any...

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A SWAT team raids the wrong home in Lawrenceburg, Ind., now the homeowner wants some answers.Police said they were led to the Village Apartments on the trail of fugitive Sean Deaton.Convinced he was inside apartment 407G, the Lawrenceburg SWAT unit surrounded the building.

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A SWAT team raids the wrong home in Lawrenceburg, Ind., now the homeowner wants some answers. Police said they were led to the Village Apartments on the trail of fugitive Sean Deaton. Convinced he was inside apartment 407G, the Lawrenceburg SWAT unit surrounded the building. "It looked like they were ready to go to war," one neighbor said. "Some of the ones out here had AR15's and shotguns." Neighbors said police spent hours, ordering Deaton to surrender. But when that didn't work, they responded with tear gas and forced entry. "It looked like my apartment was on...

WNYW-TV: What you're about to see raises serious questions about the character and reputation of an elite and highly trained part of the police department.

Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms. more stories like this Witness intimidation ruling upheld Trooper says police halted his gigs as DJ Police chief pledges probe 26 arrested after Red Sox win pennant Fans celebrate Sox' World Series berth The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it...

11/09/2007 PAKISTAN Another attack on the giant Buddha of Swat In the valley of Swat, north western Pakistan, Islamic militants have launched a second attack in less than a month on the gigantic sacred statue. The head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed while the militants threaten a third and final attack. Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A group of Islamic militants have attacked for the second time in less than a month the giant Buddha carved in the rocks of Swat Valley, in north western Pakistan. Despite the many requests for greater protection, the government has failed to intervene in any...

Islamic militants paraded 48 men on Friday described as government troops who surrendered during fighting — an embarrassment to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as he struggles to regain control of a mountainous region from Taliban and al-Qaida-linked extremists. Islamic militants said Saturday they had taken control of a police station in the volatile northwest region, hoisting their flag over its roof. Officers fled the police station in Swat late Friday, said Sirajuddin, a spokesman for a radical cleric who leads the militants. "Our flag is hoisted above Matta police station now," said the spokesman, who only goes by one name....

Around 70 militants killed in Swat * Militants claim 40 security personnel surrounded, two ‘NATO soldiers’ held MINGORA: Up to 70 militants have been killed in the Khawzakhela area of Matta tehsil in Swat district after up to 600 pro-Taliban militants attacked security personnel near Dheri Bagh at around 4:00 am on Thursday, NWFP Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told reporters. Clashes between security forces backed by helicopter gunships and militants near Khawzakhela continued on Thursday, with 11 civilians reported to have been injured in the crossfire. Online reported that the militants had taken control of the Khawzakhela Bazaar, while...

SWAT, Pakistan - Muslim extremists are expanding their control of northern Pakistan, challenging the U.S.-backed government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and adding to the lands where terrorists allied with Osama bin Laden find refuge. Once restricted to pockets in the mountains along the Afghanistan border, radical mullahs and their followers now wield power in vast areas of northwest Pakistan. They have moved in the past few months beyond the tribal regions and into northern Pakistan cities and the Swat Valley. The increased influence of the Islamic radicals was highlighted this week by intense fighting between local gunmen and government...

Video above. Sorry if this has posted in the past, I searched and did not see it. Sometimes there is a fine line between being an operator and nearly being a suicide bomber. (video is not graphic)

It's been a year and a half since Texas police raided Guillermo Urquiza's home, looking for proof that he tried to order a hit on a police officer. Urquiza, who was asleep, grabbed a gun and fired when he heard the commotion. Officers fired back, hitting him in the crotch and stomach. He had to be castrated as a result. He's been sentenced to five years for firing at the officers -- they were never able to prove the original accusation. He says it's unfair because he didn't know they were police. The authorities say they clearly announced and identified...

Richmond police put SWAT teams on the streets today after two more people were shot, bringing the number of shootings in the city since Tuesday to 11. The violence, which investigators believe is the product of a gang war, has claimed the lives of three people. Two people were wounded, one critically, at 10:17 a.m. today when someone fired 30 rounds from a small-caliber pistol at Gertrude Avenue and Filbert Street just across the border from unincorporated North Richmond, police Lt. Mark Gagan said. Gagan said investigators believe that gangs from northern Richmond and the central district are feuding and...

TEMECULA ---- A special team of police officers who are supposed to target the more serious crimes and criminals in the city has been temporarily disbanded and an internal investigation into their actions is under way, Police Chief Jerry Williams confirmed Friday. While Williams said he could not discuss specifics, he did confirm that a raid conducted by the Street Enforcement Team last week ---- which ended up at the wrong Temecula house ---- is part of the administrative investigation. "We received several allegations (involving the team) and I felt it was necessary to initiate this investigation," said Williams, who...

The incident happened in December 2004. According to a recent summary judgment, police have what is called “Qualified Official Immunity” in the case. That means police will not be held responsible for a mistake Calvin Roach said still haunts his family.

OAKLAND -- Police, SWAT teams and bomb units from throughout Alameda County detained more than a dozen suspects after raids at Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue and three related locations this morning, police said. The people are being held in connection with murder, kidnapping, assault and robbery investigations, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said. San Pablo Avenue was cordoned off for several blocks near the bakery at 5832 San Pablo Ave. Police said the North Oakland raids are part of an ongoing probe of businesses related to prominent Black Muslim leader Yusef Bey, who died in October...

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak today. I’m here to talk about police militarization, a troubling trend that’s been on the rise in America’s police departments over the last 25 years. Militarization is a broad term that refers to using military-style weapons, tactics, training, uniforms, and even heavy equipment by civilian police departments. It’s a troubling trend because the military has a very different and distinct role than our domestic peace officers. The military’s job is to annihilate a foreign enemy. The police are supposed to protect us while upholding our constitutional...

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 18, 2007 – The battle against the Taliban is an ongoing fight throughout Afghanistan. One of the groups leading the charge against the terrorists and insurgents is the Afghan National Police. Afghan National Police officers go through advanced tactical training for the Afghan National Civil Order Police. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Cohen, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A new capability is being added to make the Afghan police an even stronger force. The Afghan National Civil Order Police will be an elite group of police officers filling a variety of roles....

Last week, we were asking how police found themselves in the bedroom of a naked couple in Lancaster, Calif., in 2001, guns drawn. This led to a discussion of the problem with "no-knock" -- or even "shout-once-and-storm-in" -- search warrants. On Nov. 21 of last year, Atlanta police planted marijuana on Fabian Sheats, a "suspected street dealer." They told Sheats they would let him go if he "gave them something." Sheats obligingly lied that he had spotted a kilogram of cocaine nearby, giving them the address of the elderly spinster Miss Kathryn Johnston, who neither used nor dealt drugs, but...

HENDERSONVILLE, NC (AP) - Hendersonville, North Carolina's police chief promises to discipline members of a SWAT team who raided the wrong house with guns drawn. Chief Donnie Parks says the three officers entered the wrong residence while executing a search warrant. They were responding to complaints of illegal drug sales in the area. Parks says the police department is obligated to make restitution and is prepared to do so. The raid occurred around 1:30 Saturday morning. Sandra Braswell says officers threw two smoke grenades into the house while her 16-year-old grandson and several friends were having a party on the...

LAPD Acts Against Elite Police Squad Los Angeles Police Chief Says Elite Officers In May Day Melee Off The Street, Will Face Consequences LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2007 This video image provided by KVEA/Telemundo shows KCAL cameraman Carl Stein on the ground during a police response during an immigrants rights rally, Tuesday May 1, 2007, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/KVEA/Telemundo) (AP) Police Chief William Bratton said Sunday that up to 60 members of an elite squad that swarmed into a park and fired rubber bullets during a May Day immigration rally are no longer on the street. Bratton said he spent...

Feds detail woman's death, officers' plea Published on: 04/27/07 According to federal documents released Thursday, these are the events that led to Kathryn Johnston's death and the steps the officers took to cover their tracks. Three narcotics agents were trolling the streets near the Bluffs in northwest Atlanta, a known market for drugs, midday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Eventually they set their sights on some apartments on Lanier Street, usually fertile when narcotics agents are looking for arrests and seizures. Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods....