Accidental SWAT raid
I wonder how often it happens SWAT team knock under wrong address
I quote my self from other thread http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5977461 ... t=#5977461
You ever hear the old lawyer's adage, 'extraordinary cases make extraordinarily bad case law'? Similar principal, a handful of incidents has been used to justify a wholesale shift in the culture of policing, and not in a good direction. The best example is the SWAT team, once limited to large urban centers and only called out in the direst emergencies, now every small town has one 'just in case', and since people like to play with their toys, now they get called in to deliver misdemeanor pot warrants and bust up poker games, often with tragic results. Google "police militarization" some time, it's enlightening in a rage inducing sort of way.
Maybe if you're talking truly rural areas, but in the burbs and cities, there's no reason that beat walking couldn't be reemphasized, especially if they stopped treating every traffic stop like a possible terrorist incident and sending three cars for backup, or pulled the guys off of speed trap and meter minding and had them do something worthwhile for a change..
As for SWAT, we had complain about Polish SWAT team too.
A few years ago, SWAT squad raided the house of one Polish businessman, they had to arrest him because the tax office finds that there are inaccuracies in the income tax, and that is a member of the Russian mafia, the guy lived in a detached house. It was decided to send SWAT squad, they shot his dog, frightened his children, and then it turned out that they arrested the wrong guy, mobster they were looking for lived in the house next door, a Centralne Biruo Śledcze CBŚ -Central Bureau of Investigation Polish Police General Headquarters, they compare them self to FBI and Scotland Yard
I've heard of accidental SWAT raids in America and similar raids in the UK.
One of the more worrying things I've read about in America is "murder by SWAT" where somebody gives a tip off to the police that they've heard gunfire in a house (of someone they don't like) and SWAT / armed cops bust the door down and kill the innocent home owner, who happens to be holding a kitchen knife (in his kitchen cutting up some veg) or some other weapon (e.g. a hair dryer).
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I've left WP indefinitely.
Not explicitly the wrong address, but after our countries "secret service" being informed by russian "secret service", that there would be a potential dangerous, terror-suspicious person in an airplane, doing a stop in my country, our SWAT teams actually raided the airplane, after it landed.
On board was the new Ukrainian premier.
It seems that KGB actually decided to celebrate 1th April a bit too early. ![]()
If a police department has a SWAT team they're going to use it. I have no issues with a big city PD or the state police having SWAT teams but in most cases I do not see the justification for small cities and towns having them. It only leads to abuse and excessive force under the cloak of "officer safety".
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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- Thomas Jefferson
The local St.Patricks day parade went down the road by my house; it was mostly people carrying signs, walking their dogs, kids throwing candy, people riding horses... and public service vehicles: police, fire trucks, ambulances. And a SWAT van. It gave me chills to see that going by in a parade.
It's not just dogs and homeowners that they shoot 'accidentally,' either; there have been cases of children and little old people being shot, too. I very, very rarely have meltdowns, but I can totally see myself losing it if someone burst into my house and shot my dog in front of me; I'd want to kill them regardless of how well armed they were and what it said on their vest. I think that my brother would be the same way if someone was threatening my nieces.
It's not just dogs and homeowners that they shoot 'accidentally,' either; there have been cases of children and little old people being shot, too. I very, very rarely have meltdowns, but I can totally see myself losing it if someone burst into my house and shot my dog in front of me; I'd want to kill them regardless of how well armed they were and what it said on their vest. I think that my brother would be the same way if someone was threatening my nieces.
That's one thing you and I can actually agree on.
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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- Thomas Jefferson
Incidentally, I believe that is exactly how the Ruby Ridge fiasco started, with a federal SWAT team shooting a dog and being shot in turn by the dog's owner, a 14 year old kid IIRC. Then there was the time a Utah SWAT team raided a veteran's home pot grow and got the crap blasted out of them, and any number of ill advised raids where cops or civilians have been needlessly killed because the tactics used by SWAT cause so much escalation and confusion that people aren't aware that it's the cops kicking down their door and not criminals (or criminals shouting "police!") and the bullets start flying.
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Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer.
- Rick Sanchez
it happens more than you think
in the darker parts of the net its known as swatting where you call the police through a proxy phone and say theirs a hostage situation, its gotten harder to do as years go by but its still very easy to do
another way to get someone raided is know as psyching
it where you call the police on someone saying they are threatening to kill themselves the majority of the time it results in them being locked up for 3 days
