Posts Tagged police militarization

No-Knocks Lead Only To More Death

From Bearing Arms:

Unfortunately, we’ve seen it more than once. From Breonna Taylor to Amir Locke, people are dying because of this particular tactic.

Each and every one of us has wondered if we were going to be one of the unlucky folks who become the victim of a home invasion. We’ve war-gamed the scenario in our heads. We’ve considered the most likely points of entry and have probably trained ourselves to respond.

Then, one night, the door bursts open. Oh God, we think, it’s happening! We reach for our gun and fire at the shadowy figures storming through our home.

Only, it’s the police.

, , , , , , ,

No Comments

Gun Control Leads To More Dead Innocents

From The American Conservative:

As I reported in American Conservative here and here, a Montgomery County SWAT team launched an unprovoked attack on the Lemp family home at 4:30 a.m. on March 12.  Lemp was fatally wounded by the first shots that the police fired through his bedroom window. His family says he was sleeping in bed with his pregnant girlfriend at the time.
 Police claim that they received an anonymous tip two months earlier that Lemp possessed firearms. The police department asserted  Lemp was prohibited from owning firearms due to a juvenile conviction but there are apparently zero court records or other records to support that justification.  Regardless of Lemp’s juvenile history, there was no evidence that he posed an imminent threat justifying a frontal assault that included throwing flash-bang explosive devices into the family home. 

, , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Third Amendment Argument Rejected in Nevada Case

From The Washington Post:

From the court opinion:

In the present case, various officers of the HPD and NLVPD entered into and occupied Linda’s and Michael’s home for an unspecified amount of time (seemingly nine hours), but certainly for less than twenty-four hours. The relevant questions are thus whether municipal police should be considered soldiers, and whether the time they spent in the house could be considered quartering. To both questions, the answer must be no.

I hold that a municipal police officer is not a soldier for purposes of the Third Amendment. This squares with the purpose of the Third Amendment because this was not a military intrusion into a private home, and thus the intrusion is more effectively protected by the Fourth Amendment. Because I hold that municipal officers are not soldiers for the purposes of this question, I need not reach the question of whether the occupation at issue in this case constitutes quartering, though I suspect it would not.

 

, , , , ,

No Comments

Citizen Arrested For Taping Cops Serving Warrant

From World Net Daily:

“Clearly, when police officers cease to look and act like civil servants or peace officers but instead look and act like soldiers occupying a hostile territory, it alters their perception of ‘we the people.’ However, those who founded this country believed that we were the masters and that those whose salaries we pay with our hard-earned tax dollars are our servants,” Whitehead said.

“If daring to question, challenge or even hesitate when a cop issues an order can get you charged with resisting arrest or disorderly conduct, you’re not the master in a master-servant relationship. If fact, you’re not even the servant,” he said.

, ,

No Comments

Texas “No-Knock” Raid Goes to Supreme Court

From WND.com:

Quinn was targeted by police because his son – who was suspected of possessing drugs – lived in the same home. His son was absent, and police records reveal they knew that fact when officers broke into Quinn’s home in a no-knock, SWAT-team style forced entry.

The state admits the raid was based “solely on the suspicion that there were legally owned firearms in the household.” (emphasis added)

But registration of firearms won’t lead to government abuse of power or confiscation…..

, , , , , ,

No Comments

SWAT Team Invades Iowa Home For Credit Card Fraud

From The Washington Post:

When critics (like me) warn about the dangers of police militarization, this is what we’re talking about. You’ll see the raid team, dressed in battle-dress uniforms, helmets and face-covering balaclava hoods take down the family’s door with a battering ram. You’ll see them storm the home with ballistics shields, guns at the ready. More troubling still, you’ll see not one but two officers attempt to prevent the family from having an independent record of the raid, one by destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens.

http://youtu.be/sNztrA1bwZM

 

, , , ,

No Comments

No-Nnock Warrant Results In Death Of Officer

From Western Center for Journalism:

On December 19th, a sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed during an attempt to serve a “no knock” warrant near Sommerville, Texas. Just before 6:00 A.M. an 8 member SWAT team broke through the door of Henry Goedrich Magee to serve a warrant which would permit the team to search the mobile home in which Magee and his pregnant girlfriend were living.

How many more police officers have to die before we stop these stupid raids?

, , , , ,

No Comments

Military Surplus For Police But Not For Civilians

Police departments all over the country are receiving heavily armored MRAPs from the military at the same time the administration is denying the importation of surplus M1 Garands from Korea.

From the AP on police MRAPs:

For police and sheriff’s departments, which have scooped up 165 of the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPS, since they became available this summer, the price and the ability to deliver shock and awe while serving warrants or dealing with hostage standoffs was just too good to pass up.

, , , , ,

No Comments