Heather Digby Parton
Posted on 04/23/2015 11:52:06 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Among the many questions I’ve received in response to my article on the Wisconsin “John Doe” raids is, “What should happen when executing a search warrant on a home?” If the police are asked to search a home, and there’s no indication of a physical threat, how should they conduct themselves? While the Left has been mostly silent in response to the story, some lefty commenters have responded by asserting that’s simply how searches are conducted. In other words, if the police search a home, that’s how they do it. I reached out to Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. (subject of the most recent National Review cover story) for comment. Clarke said, “A simple knock on the door by a couple of suit wearing investigators with one…one uniform back-up to verify who they were was all that was necessary to execute this search warrant.” He added, “Would they do this in this fashion at a day care center with kids there if they were looking into a drug operation? The answer is no.”
He also had choice words for Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the architect of the John Does: “Chisholm has turned into a hyper-partisan politician instead of being a law enforcement officer by abandoning his duty to protect law abiding society. He has turned the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office into an institution of government that puts partisan politics ahead of protecting society from violent career criminals. He has gone soft on criminals and tough on political adversaries.”
Yet while Clarke’s approach would accomplish the twin goals of executing lawful warrants while respecting citizens’ rights and sense of security, it seems that the “show of force” method of law enforcement is gaining increasing traction. Here’s an account of the federal raid on Gibson Guitars, seeking — of all things — contraband wood:
>>>While 30 men in SWAT attire dispatched from Homeland Security and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cart away about half a million dollars of wood and guitars, seven armed agents interrogate an employee without benefit of a lawyer. The next day [Gibson CEO Henry] Juszkiewicz receives a letter warning that he cannot touch any guitar left in the plant, under threat of being charged with a separate federal offense for each “violation,” punishable by a jail term.<<<
And here’s the story of a man raided by the feds after being accused of throwing excess fish off his fishing boat:
>>>Commercial fisherman John Yates and his crew were fishing for grouper in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico when Florida Fish and Wildlife officer John Jones boarded the boat.
Jones, suspecting that the fishermen were keeping fish smaller than the 20-inch minimum, measured some of the catch and found 72 grouper that were undersized. As fisherman Yates tells the story, he got “a citation for short fish; it’s like a speeding ticket.” Jones, who had been deputized as a federal officer, ordered the fish kept, but when the boat arrived on shore he determined that the fish in the crate were not the same ones he had measured. Yates professes surprise at what happened down the line.
“Three years later, all of a sudden they come with bulletproof vests and guns. They put me in handcuffs and they took me to jail,” he says.<<<
What happened in Wisconsin is particularly egregious, but until more law enforcement officials adopt Sheriff Clarke’s approach, the process will continue to be punishment — a punishment imposed without due process and without the possibility of appeal.
Heather Digby Parton, Salon - April 23, 2015: The National Review’s police-state hypocrisy: Ferguson protesters deserved it, but Scott Walker probe crosses the line
".....................Members of the right are shocked and stunned to see nice, white conservatives being treated disrespectfully by police, as if they are some kind of a “perp.” Early morning raids, screaming police, tasering protesters — it’s all creepy. But it’s equally creepy when it’s done to people who aren’t nice, white conservatives, and it happens every day of the week in America. Now that their own ox has been gored, maybe this incident can raise the consciousness of some of those conservatives who far too often see the police as the one agent of the government that can do no wrong."
A cursory glance at the opinions on the thread of any FR article involving police excesses would quickly disabuse them of this belief.
....”nice, white conservatives”....
Her whole reason for penning this was to insult.
Apparently this idiot Heather doesn’t comprehend the difference between a violent and non-violent crime (said Ferguson “protestors” were more like terrorists, and the MO Governor who failed to do his duty in sending in the National Guard to halt the rioting).
Nevermind the fact that the real issue here is a D.A. who has gravely abused his office - and complicit with his wife who pushed for it and a judge who approved it - all of whom violated the civil rights of the victim here. They should be subject to the same swat team middle of the night arrest, fair is fair.
Heather comprehends - she just hates “nice, white, conservatives.”
With that posh, upper-crust name, I wonder how dahling Digby would enjoy being dropped in the middle of Ferguson during the recent unpleasantness. See how long before she’d have gone running for the cops to get away from #ThugLivesMatter.
It would seem logical that the county DA would be using the County’s Sheriff Dept to be doing the SWATing, but no info about whether Sheriff Clarke was involved.
Heather Digby Parton
Dolly Parton she ain’t.
HA! HA! HARDYHARHAR!!!!!!
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