Did you hear about some mayor's dogs being shot in his house????

[go-veggie]

About this recent SWAT raid that's all over the news:
This happened to my mom down in FL too...they obviously had the wrong people, as they did in this case, but thank GOD my mom's dogs were locked in another part of the house! These SWAT dudes are covered head to toe in enough armor to protect themselves from ARMED, crazed criminals! A couple of dogs couldn't even scratch them in that gear, esp. a couple of trained pets who have a place in a family like human children do! These two dogs were shot in the back as they were running AWAY from these jerks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and I have always been a huge supporter of the work that cops do) Where did the "shoot first" figure things out later thing come from??????????????? I am so angry about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It happens too often! We have to get a law in place that protects these INNOCENT, defenseless dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I found this link online...I'm sure there are others with more details out there too:

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/07/swat-team-raids-mayo.html

Thanks for letting me VENT!
I hope all the BYC-ers get on a letter writing campaign to get something started to prevent this from happening again!

 

[texasreb]

That's a crazy story. Poor family. Here's another bit on it:

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/545/another_day_in_the_drug_war

 

[Pullet Pimp]

Quote:
I am a drug investigator with 11 yrs SWAT training and former K9 officer (don't know if that makes me a dude or a jerk, or both) and I am not judging what these people have done, without knowing all of the information. That article is vague at best. SWAT are not head to toe in armor, we have a helmet and vest and occasionally the first guy has a shield and/or shin guards. I have been first in the door on many raids and you get limited information about the layout of a house and the possible threats inside. Sometimes it is accurate and sometimes it is not. There are many people who have trained dogs to attack an entry team or distract them enough so they can destroy evidence or arm themselves. There is no time for SWAT to safely contain an animal to deal with suspects. Most of the times dogs will run and hide and not be seen again, but occasionally some will run as if to hide but turn and bite you, it has happened to me. You have seconds to make a decision, but everyone else has all the time in the world to criticize what you have done. There are many unanswered questions that come to mind from this BRIEF article, but the bottom line that all humans went home safe was a good thing. It is sad for the dogs (guess my years of K9 handling comes in here) but glad it wasn't a person.

I am not making a judgment either way but it could have turned out a whole lot worse.

The article said the package was outside and unopened, but that doesn't mean the package wasn't his. He denied knowing it was there but that is to be expected, most of the time they do.

FYI they should have waited and conducted surveillance until the package was claimed to make a better case.


On another side note here in Ohio is what could have been worse. A SWAT raid occurred here where Lima Police entered a drug house on a warrant. A 31 yr veteran of the PD shot and killed a mother holding her baby. The baby was shot in the hand and survived. The shooting started because the downstairs SWAT team was shooting pit bulls when he heard the gunfire and thought she was firing at him, she was unarmed. He was acquitted of all criminal charges this week.


Edited to ad one of many articles you can find in their news

http://www.limaohio.com/news/chaval...RecommendedOnly=0&oncommentsPage=3#slComments

 

[SterlingAcres]

Quote:
Well that makes me feel AWESOME about our justice system

 

[tiffanyh]

We expect our cops to protect us, under the most stressful circumstances, in the line of fire daily, never knowing when someone may attack them, always on guard 24/7--yet when they make a human mistakes or have faults among them we are suprised and disappointed in them. Who else do we hold to those standards? Oh, the military. We send them away to kill for/protect our country, then are suprised when the line between right and wrong gets blurred over seas

That is a sad sad story. My heart is heavy for that child and her (the mothers) family. I am not saying I agree or disagree with the situation, just a thought.

I am closing my can of worms. Sorry

 

[LV426]

They didn't have a proper warrant to burst in on these people.

Sorry but you aren't protecting people if you don't follow the law. If this had been a real drug bust these people would have walked because the terms of the warrant weren't observed which violated their rights which in turn sets them free. So just because these are cops that are supposedly protecting us, if they break their own laws it lets the criminals loose to wreak more havoc and only wastes taxpayers dollars.

 

[Pullet Pimp]

Quote:
Where did it say they didn't have a warrant? I read in the article that they did not have a "No knock" warrant, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a warrant. That just means the warrant (if they did have one) they were serving required to knock and announce their presence.

I'm not saying what they did was right I, there are just too many facts missing for me to rush to judgement. Are there more articles with facts? Not the obviously bias pro-drug website of the second article with an obvious agenda, but real media reports.

Quote:
Again, not enough facts from the article to make that determination either. There are many exceptions when executing a search warrant because of it being a fluid situation. They may not have violated any laws regarding the execution of the warrant. There are not enough facts to make that call.


Thank you tiffanyh, seem like you understand.

 

[ncgnance]

It always amazes me that in a case like this, people always rush in to judge the cops. We all know how newspaper articles get the facts mixed up, don't we? If you don't realize that by now, you're pretty gullible. Yes, I know there are bad cops out there, but God help us if they are in the majority. I, for one, do not believe they are. This is indeed a sad story, because it ended the way it did, but snap decisions have to be made in such instances. And I would hate to have to make such decisions. Let the investigation, and I'm sure there will be one, make the final decision...

 

[Windy Ridge]

They have apparently arrested the real perpetrators (not the mayor and his wife) and the police chief admits that the mayor and his wife are "likely innocent."

AP article


LV426 was correct in saying they did not have a proper warrant. Most warrants require that the police knock on your door and show you the warrant ("We have a warrant to search the premises") before entering because you have rights and you need to know they are being respected. No knock warrants are rare, because it's dangerous for the police. If you're in bed--or, heck, anywhere--and someone comes busting into your house without knocking, the first thing you think of is probably not going to be: it's the police come to protect me! You may think it's some random thug breaking in to hurt you. You have to be especially sure of your facts to get a no knock warrant, so you don't break in on innocent people and violate their rights.

So the police did not have the proper warrant to do what they did, and I daresay even if they had a no-knock warrant, shooting family pets is probably frowned upon.

Or should be.

 

[dogzrule5]

OMG - I don't even know what to say about this!!!

Why in the world would they even shoot pets?!?