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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA SWAT Team Blew a Hole in My 2-Year-Old Son (UPDATE...)
Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2014, 08:51 AM - Edit history (2)
Update: As of the afternoon of 6/24/2014, Baby Bou Bou has been taken out of the medically induced coma and transferred to a new hospital to begin rehabilitation. The hole in his chest has yet to heal, and doctors are still not able to fully assess lasting brain damage.
http://www.alternet.org/swat-team-blew-hole-my-2-year-old-son
'After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my sons crib.
Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. Its been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and hes still covered in burns.
Theres still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs. At least thats what Ive been told; Im afraid to look.
My husbands nephew, the one they were looking for, wasnt there. He doesnt even live in that house. After breaking down the door, throwing my husband to the ground, and screaming at my children, the officers armed with M16s filed through the house like they were playing war. They searched for drugs and never found any.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643344/Horror-SWAT-team-throw-stun-grenade-toddlers-CRIB-drugs-raid-leaving-coma-severe-burns.html
2banon
(7,321 posts)The article doesn't mention when this happened, but I have not heard this reported on PBS or NPR. Has anyone else? Maybe I missed it. But this is beyond... BEYOND outrageous.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Here's one link. There were several that day iirc
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025026170
2banon
(7,321 posts)Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)Dealing...they dont swat raid harmless users.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Cops have to just fess up when they are wrong and stop pretending they never make mistakes.
They_Live
(3,287 posts)since they didn't find anything.
Rex
(65,616 posts)I guess it is too much to ask them to please try not to kill innocent civilians while guessing on which house to nuke.
The nephew sold undercover police meth from the door next to the crib....the door they entered on the raid.
Rex
(65,616 posts)A babies life would make it worth the knowledge and I know they have the ability. IMO, just more insanity in this War on Drugs.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Sad but true
Rex
(65,616 posts)Can flush away the evidence...bye bye 4th.
1monster
(11,014 posts)The credibility of LEO ain't what it used to be...
I just read about a settlement in a lawsuit against the police the other day, where a woman heard the commotion of a SWAT (not knowing it was the police) breaking into the duplex below hers. Terrified when she heard these people running up the outside stairs to her unit and breaking in, she hid in the closet and was subsequently shot. The bullet ented into her shoulder, chest and thigh.
The police report said both that the woman was holding the closet door shut which caused the LEO to fall and his gun went off and that she jumped out of the closet startling the officer who then fired... The SAME police report.
This was another no-knock warrant and it was for the lower duplex, not the upper one...
Steviehh
(115 posts)pulled a pistol when they broke down her door by mistake. Tragic accident, like this one. Google it
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)onethatcares
(16,515 posts)they got the wrong address, things like that happen in the heat of battle and all that ya know. Hell, maybe their GPS was reading the wrong satellites.
the militarisation of the police began the same time the war on drugs was declared. There was one sheriff in Montana that was amazed and confounded that someone ordered 40 silencers for his police squad of 8. Why do the police need silencers? Why do they need MRAPS and tanks?
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)it was the right house in the sense that a nephew who doesnt live there did conduct a drug sell earlier in the day. a 50 dollar meth buy to an undercover.
the nephew then left the house and went home. SWAT came back a few hours later thinking he lived there and didnt do any kind of surveilience to see that there were kids living there. 2 screw ups. suspect didnt live there, kids did.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Last edited Tue Jun 24, 2014, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)
police main focus is to seize a huge pile of cash (the police get to keep all the cash) probably plenty of crooked cops steal a lot of this kind of cash.
The current police focus on the CASH-GRAB ONLY. The police search for CASH & LOOT- effects & disrupts our society & innocent persons in a major way.
There should be New Federal Law where local police or Federal police are no longer able to keep any cash/assets they seize in drug busts/loot from 'drug searches'.
That cash, the assets should go to a national pool (never local or state)
navarth
(5,927 posts)...because nobody wants to pay any taxes, the cops have to become, in effect, road agents.
And now they probably need the money they take from these busts. The good ones don't like doing it, the bad ones are.....the bad ones.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)The Phonesavanhs lawyer, Mawuli Davis, said the Swat team should have known that young children were present in the room they were raiding as there were clear tell-tale signs: a playpen outside the door and a van parked outside with four child seats in it. We have to address the way that police in this country are armed as if they are invading a foreign land, Mawuli said. Its disturbing, and innocent people are hurting.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jun/24/military-us-police-swat-teams-raids-aclu
And the whole swat raid was unnecessary (as they usually are) -
A few hours after the raid took place, police located the suspect they had been seeking at a different house in the neighbourhood. The officers knocked on the door, the suspect opened it, and agreed peacefully to come in for questioning.
(from the same link).
hueymahl
(2,625 posts)Far too many power hungry nutjobs in the police. And the war on drugs has made it ten time worse.
It is racist, but also a rich vs. poor thing going on. LOTS of drugs in rich neighborhoods, but they don't stand for this third-world kind of policing there.
pecwae
(8,021 posts)upon a CI for information about who did or did not live there; pets, children. The CI may have had issues with the family, told the police a lie, the police believed it. Shoddy police work with tragic results. The magistrate who signed the warrant after midnight just resigned from office after decades and was just re-certified 3 months ago. The sheriff needs to follow. FUBAR to the nth degree.
Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)It wasnt a wrong address. ..it was the nephews parent house. Honestly, we dont have enough information on this story.....just like the kfc from yesterday.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)News story at the time:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/toddler-critically-burned-during-swat-raid/nf9SJ/
The police failed to do any reconnaissance before their raid. Thus they threw a grenade into a baby's crib.
In their attempt to capture a suspect that had no known weapon, nor any known propensity towards violence.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)KILLING INFANT CHILDREN IS NOT ACCEPTABLE, even if the police do it.
It's basic humanity. Sad that so many Americans seem to lack it.
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)he was only visiting the house when he made his drug sell. after the sell he went home. SWAT didnt even know that he lived somewhere else.
MynameisBlarney
(2,979 posts)They raid innocent people all the damn time.
This is hardly the first time
iscooterliberally
(2,970 posts)They never do their homework, or have any clue as to who is actually on the other side of the door. Sometimes they don't even have the address or description of the property right. They beat the crap out of people. They raid cars that happen to be parked nearby and aren't even covered under the warrant. They steal cash and valuables and then don't report it, or enter it into evidence. Drug cops are just thugs with badges. They kill, lie, cheat and steal with impunity. What needs to happen in this country is the complete and total repeal of the controlled substances act. The DEA needs to be done away with, and all this madness needs to stop. Sure, some drugs are bad, but after over 4 decades the 'solution' is far far worse than the problem ever was. Fuck the drug prohibitionists. They should all be voted out of office. They wanted to get tough on crime, but all they got was really really stupid on crime. Now the so called land of the free has more people in prison than any other nation. I guess we'll have to add this poor baby to the list:
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-war-victim/
CrispyQ
(37,616 posts)Poor baby is fighting for his life over a 50 dollar meth buy.
That site is a national shame. The stories are horrific.
43 years old
San Jose, California
February, 2004
Rudy was a father of five who was passing by a house targeted by narcotics officers attempting to serve a parole violation warrant and the police mistakenly thought he was the one they were there to arrest. They chased Cardenas, and he fled, apparently afraid of them (they were not uniformed). Cardenas was shot multiple times in the back.
Dorothy Duckett, 78, told the Mercury News she looked out her fifth-floor window after hearing one gunshot and saw Cardenas pleading for his life. I watched him running with his hands in the air. He kept saying, Dont shoot. Dont shoot, Duckett said. He had absolutely nothing in his hands.
56 years old
Placerville, California
April, 1991
Rather than being compelled to testify against her 70-year-old boyfriend (Byron Stamate) for cultivating the medicinal cannabis she depended upon to help control her crippling back pain, Shirley Dorsey committed suicide. She saw it as the only way to prevent the forfeiture of their home and property. Despite her suicide, Stamate was sentenced to 9 months prison, and his home, cottage, and $177,000 life savings were seized.
iscooterliberally
(2,970 posts)23 years old
Sunrise, Florida
August, 2005
Anthony worked two jobs to help pay for the house he lived in with his mother. He had permit for a concealed weapon because of the areas he traveled through for his night job. Sunrise police claimed that he had sold some marijuana, and because they knew he had a legal gun, decided to use SWAT. Neighbors claim that the police did not identify themselves. Police first claimed that Anthony pointed his gun at them, and later changed their story. Regardless, Anthony was dead with 10 bullets in him, and the police found 2 ounces of marijuana.
The cops who killed this kid got away with murder and they are still on the force, or at least they were in 2010 when they beat the crap out of my then 15 year old son. They prey on young people in that area. They also entice and entrap desperate people from all over the country. The controlled substances act has nullified our 4th amendment rights in so many ways. I have written all my congress people telling them to repeal this terrible law and restore our rights. We are truly occupied by our own law enforcement at this time.
TransitJohn
(6,933 posts)Don't you read the news?
Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)Right next to the crib in question.
TransitJohn
(6,933 posts)Jesus fucking christ the fellating of authority around here is abhorrent.
There are two sides to the story and the person who wrote the linked article left out some very inconvenient facts out.... like the nephews dealing from that door. I dont think that am one denies that the raid went unintentionally wrong. However the family member did deal drugs there to the cops from that very door.
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)You'd think the guy was freaking Pablo Escobar, the way they approached this.
bluesbassman
(19,670 posts)Yes meth is an absolutely horrible drug, but they had an undercover cop make a buy so they had a line on this guy. What in the hell made this bust warrant SWAT involvement? It just doesn't make any sense at all. This is the definition of excessive force.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Are they supposed to just look at it.... and drool?
I mean, it could be sitting in the weapons room gathering dust for years until Pablo Escobar actually shows up in the county.
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)Terrible (and terrifying) as it is, in some ways we get the police force we deserve.
TransitJohn
(6,933 posts)The cops blew up a baby for a dime bag. Just admit that you're an authoritarian.
pecwae
(8,021 posts)dealt drugs from that door earlier, but the police relied upon a CI to get the 'all clear' to use flashbang. Dealing drugs does not equal an innocent with a hole in his chest...period.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)But they couldn't arrest him in the same fashion?
tblue37
(66,016 posts)kids' toys in the years. The cops knew there were kids in the house. Yeah--little kids were there, but the target of the raid was not, because he did not live there ay more.
But these hopped up adrenaline (and possibly steroid) addicted cops can't take the time to check out even the most obvious things. They want their chance at that macho, chest-thumping thrill.
Pholus
(4,062 posts)They turn their paramilitaries loose on whoever they want, often times without even the slightest idea of what they are doing or who they are raiding.
Fortunately, they are stupid and occasionally raid the wrong person (like this mayor). That's how we know about them, because they are otherwise damned good at covering up their mistakes when they involve mere mortals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302935.html?sid=ST2009013002471
The part I like best was how his own PD decided they had better not leave the victim alone with the SWAT dolts
The scene at the house was so terrible and odd to Berwyn Heights officer Johnson that he planted himself in the living room. He couldn't see a search warrant posted anywhere. The mayor looked so vulnerable that Johnson wanted to make sure nothing even worse happened to him, such as getting shot. "Not that I didn't trust the police," Johnson would later say. "But I wanted to personally witness what is going to happen to my mayor, so if they try to say this guy went for a gun -- and he didn't -- it's not going to happen on my watch."
That last sentence parses out pretty nicely. Officer Johnson "trusts the police" but just wanted to make sure the SWAT ninnies didn't blast the mayor to cover up their own fuckups.
Strange how that case "got settled out of court" almost as if there might have been some wrongdoing or something...
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Keep telling yourself that.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)As near as I can tell, an actual, er, "public service announcement"
democrank
(11,230 posts)That precious child.....
arthritisR_US
(7,344 posts)police? In the article she clearly states that kids were outside so no surprise there were young ones inside. They could see blood under the crib and the cops wouldn't let her go to her wailing and gravely wounded child? Damn pigs, I'd sure as hell try and sue the crap out of them
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)This should not be allowed inside America for any reason
quakerboy
(14,056 posts)I would give them an exception for imminent danger to a hostage or other innocent. Like, the downstairs neighbor let them in, they drilled a hole, and they have a camera on a guy with a gun to someones head imminent. Then and only then would this level of force be appropriate.
For drug crime, not at all. If they have enough drugs to be worth risking lives over, then its too much to flush, and the extra few second between the door opening and getting to the bathroom wont make a bit of difference.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)What a bunch of sick fucks.
America is not a fucking warzone, but keep this up and it will be.
How will the badge sniffers justify this one?
frylock
(34,825 posts)RebelOne
(30,947 posts)by our local Atlanta TV news.
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)the police took down their facebook page too the day it happened. still hasnt gone back up
Dawson Leery
(19,358 posts)tblue37
(66,016 posts)harassment, but in this case they do seem to deserve it.
deurbano
(2,946 posts)Ed Pilkington in New York
Tuesday 24 June 2014 00.01 EDT
<<...Bou Bou is not alone. A growing number of innocent people, many of them children and a high proportion African American, are becoming caught up in violent law enforcement raids that are part of an ongoing trend in America towards paramilitary policing.
...Swat teams were a late 1960s invention that emerged out of the Los Angeles police department. Initially, they were designed to help officers react to perilous situations such as riots, hostage taking and where an active shooter was barricaded into a house.
But they have developed into something entirely different. The ACLU survey found that 62% of Swat team call-outs were for drug searches. Some 79% involved raids on private homes, and a similar proportion were done on the back of warrants authorizing searches. By contrast, only about 7% fell into those categories for which the technique was originally intended, such as hostage situations or barricades....
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using paramilitary squads to search peoples homes for drugs, the ACLU writes. It adds: Neighbourhoods are not war zones and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies.
Research by Peter Kraska, a professor at Kentucky University, has tracked the exponential growth in the use of paramilitary tactics in the US. In the 1980s there were as few as 3,000 Swat raids a year, but by around 2005 that number had leapt to 45,000.
Such a rapid proliferation has been actively encouraged by the federal government, particularly by the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11, and by the Defense Department. The Pentagon channels military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan to domestic police forces under its 1033 programme....
...Once the equipment has been handed over, the temptation is to use it. That certainly was the case for the mayor of Peoria, Illinois, who in April sent a Swat team to search the house of someone who had poked fun at him in a satirical Twitter account.
As the ACLU notes: if the federal government gives the police a huge cache of military-style weaponry, they are highly likely to use it, even if they do not really need to....
...A few hours after the raid took place, police located the suspect they had been seeking at a different house in the neighbourhood. The officers knocked on the door, the suspect opened it, and agreed peacefully to come in for questioning.
theaocp
(4,330 posts)They are wastes of oxygen.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)This incident, and too many others, are a result of paramilitarized law enforcement. Some people in America may violate some drug laws, but that doesn't make them enemy combatants, and their kids collateral damage.
SwankyXomb
(2,030 posts)And easier to achieve after all those steroids.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)Apparently the police like to play Army now. Unfortunately, we citizens are the enemy.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)the drug dealers flush the drugs down the toilet (or otherwise destroy the evidence) instead of coming out of the house.
Still, most no-knock warrants are not appropriate.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)A few hours after the raid took place, police located the suspect they had been seeking at a different house in the neighbourhood. The officers knocked on the door, the suspect opened it, and agreed peacefully to come in for questioning.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jun/24/military-us-police-swat-teams-raids-aclu
Found this while reading another post earlier on DU - http://www.democraticunderground.com/101696102
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)just by doing the same thing? cops think all suspects want to go out in a blaze of gunfire or something.
SaveOurDemocracy
(4,412 posts)SIX officers vs ONE 95 y/o man with a suspected UTI who refuses to leave his room? They confer and decide best course of action is firing bean bags @ close range?? WTF?!
davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)We need to consider who was giving them their orders. Who was in charge of this mission? Who authorized the raid without having all the facts? That is the person that needs to be held ultimately accountable for this. My sister once lived in a house where there was a drug raid, everyone had to get down on their knees with their hands behind their heads, while masked men with heavy weaponry held guns on them. In the end, all the bastards found was a little marijuana, less than an ounce.
This though? It goes way beyond sick. I don't give a shit what drugs or sales were involved here, they have a fucking obligation to do their homework, to be certain that they're getting the right people - BEFORE they go in using stun grenades.
Bunch of assholes indeed. Who ever is at the top of this monkeyfuck circus needs to be shamed in public as being the prick responsible for an infant in a coma.
lexx21
(321 posts)The nature of the police should have been evident during the OWS movement where people protesting were herded and then tear gassed. The protesters were not violent. They were exercising their 1st amendment right. However the cops HAD to be in charge and bust up that hippie group. You see the results.
In the small town of Cary NC, the cops there wear combat gear. Cary is a very quiet town, somewhat affluent, but definitely quiet. Why would cops need to wear fatigue pants, combat boots, and tote around the type of hardware that they do?
Cops have the feeling of entitlement. The moniker on patrol cars "to serve and protect" is laughable at this point. They protest no one, they serve the mayor. Period.
The cops involved in the swat raid on that house should be prosecuted along with their watch commander. If a kid sold an undercover cop meth, then arrest the punk right there. Was a swat team needed to "take him down"?
CrispyQ
(37,616 posts)I heard my baby wailing and asked one of the officers to let me hold him. He screamed at me to sit down and shut up and blocked my view, so I couldnt see my son. I could see a singed crib. And I could see a pool of blood. The officers yelled at me to calm down and told me my son was fine, that hed just lost a tooth. It was only hours later when they finally let us drive to the hospital that we found out Bou Bou was in the intensive burn unit and that hed been placed into a medically induced coma.
These "officers" should be fired.
It's clear that We the People are now the enemy.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,500 posts)These "officers" should be fucking strung up!
I have lost every single ounce of respect I have ever had for just about every single member of "Law Enforcement".
Fucking savages.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...through the US military, and then complain when that police force comes home and continues to carryout the same practices at-home that they we're given medals for in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Chickens, home, roost, etc.....
K&R
''Protecting and Serving''
BobTheSubgenius
(11,725 posts)...for the poor little tyke's medical bills, but it begs the question WHY is the agency responsible for this catastrophe not paying them???
kim06
(1 post)The Sheriff immediately contacted the social worker @ the hospital & had all of the bills forwarded to the county as soon as he found out. I feel terrible for this family! I also fell bad for some of those officers. I hope all can recover from this
ecstatic
(34,000 posts)Uncle Joe
(59,676 posts)Thanks for the thread, Garion.
struggle4progress
(119,433 posts)complaining about this
pecwae
(8,021 posts)but quiet for the most part. It's rural area where retribution is dealt out to those who speak out too loudly for too long.
ReRe
(10,611 posts)... I have new baby great nieces and great nephews arriving monthly these days. Identical boys about 8 months ago. I'm surprised that child is still alive. I know children are resilient, but I can't imagine the little boy every really recovering from this. Too many innocents are killed in the pursuit of one drug dealer. Why can't they wait until the person exits the dwelling and then accost him? Surround the GD place and wait, for God's sake?
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)all for a 50 dollar meth buy.
and the police chief afterwards said they did nothing wrong and would do the same raid the exact same way again.
PIGS!!!!
ReRe
(10,611 posts)That's how I'm going to mark these heinous reports from now on.
Because that is what we are living in. We saved the effing world in WWII, and now the USA seems to have taken on the worst characteristics of our WWII enemies.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)FTFY
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)the war on (PEOPLE with) drugs.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)did not generate this much conversation.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)It was headlined "SWAT team throws flash bang grenade into crib during drug raid", generally.
This is a personal plea by the mother, which brings it tragically home.
pecwae
(8,021 posts)days of it happening the local police spokesman was quoted as saying the "little boy was going to be okay".
Response to Garion_55 (Original post)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Takket
(22,360 posts)Just park an undercover car on the street corner and wait until the person they are looking for comes in or out of the house? Then they can just pounce on him then instead of invading the house. am I missing something?
Garion_55
(1,921 posts)if the cops apprehend the guy on the street they might not get to search his home. if they dont get to search his home they wont get to keep all the cool toys they find.
Takket
(22,360 posts)and why are the cops not required to survey the home for a time to determine who else might be inside? Don't they have to go through some sort of paperwork to define what they would do if there was a baby present?
I'm an engineer and I work frequently for one of the major utilities. ANY TIME contractors are working in their buildings off my design drawings, they must submit a "Method of procedure" that details ALL the existing conditions and exactly what they are going to do. This MOP must be signed off on by the Owner and the general contractor. Shouldn't we make police do something like this too? They should have to detail everything they know about the home and who is in it before they can just kick the door down. 24 hours of snooping probably would have told them there would be a baby in there!