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View Full Version : Scenes from a militarized America: Iowa family ‘terrorized’




CaseyJones
02-04-2014, 03:45 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2014/02/04/scenes-from-a-militarized-america-iowa-family-terrorized//?print=1

By Radley Balko


Watch this video, taken from a police raid in Des Moines, Iowa. Send it to some people. 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.

From the images in the video, you’d think they were looking for an escaped murderer or a house full of hit men. No, none of that. They were looking for a few people suspected of credit card fraud. None of the people they were looking for were inside of the house, nor was any of the stolen property they were looking for. They did arrest two houseguests of the family on what the news report says were unrelated charges, one for a probation violation and one for possession of illegal drugs.

A couple other points about this story. First, note that the police say they knocked and announced themselves before the raid. The knock and announce requirement has a long history in U.S. and English common law. Its purpose was to give the occupants of a home the opportunity to avoid property damage and unnecessary violence by giving them time to come to the door and let the police in peacefully. As you can see from the video, the knock and announce today is largely a formality. The original purpose is gone. From the perspective of the people inside, there’s really no difference between this sort of “knock and announce” and a no-knock raid. (The covering of the officers’ faces is also troubling, though also not uncommon.)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNztrA1bwZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNztrA1bwZM

green73
02-04-2014, 03:50 PM
Shouldn't live near Des Moines. They did this to themselves.

fisharmor
02-04-2014, 03:53 PM
Shouldn't live near Des Moines. They did this to themselves.

If they don't like it, they can just GTFO.

green73
02-04-2014, 04:03 PM
You just know when the feds give these bozos all this gear they're just itching to use it. Suspected gram of mj? Let's raid them! Suspected stolen CC? Let's raid them HARD!

jkr
02-04-2014, 04:05 PM
#occupiedUSA

tod evans
02-04-2014, 04:23 PM
Will they wise up or drop to their knees?

twomp
02-04-2014, 04:53 PM
Good on Radley Balko for reporting this on the Washington Post. We need more stories like this to wake people up. Our media has failed us.

Natural Citizen
02-04-2014, 05:05 PM
Am I the only one who has a trap floor inside the foyer? :eek:

NorthCarolinaLiberty
02-04-2014, 05:40 PM
The police are definitely your enemy.


enemy
\e' nə mē\
noun
one that attacks or tries to harm another

Schifference
02-04-2014, 07:44 PM
"Why do they have all those video recording devices?" They must be up to no good

jct74
02-04-2014, 08:26 PM
here's a tube of the news report


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNztrA1bwZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNztrA1bwZM

DFF
02-04-2014, 08:59 PM
Not surprised.

US police are some of the most hyper-aggresive police in the world.

They use excessive force at the drop of a dime.

Anti Federalist
02-04-2014, 09:18 PM
My search fu is weak, I wish I could find that article written by some asshole cop that stated, in effect:

"Don't want police breaking down your door? Don't be poor and live in a bad neighborhood."

ClydeCoulter
02-04-2014, 11:27 PM
2146

kcchiefs6465
02-05-2014, 12:14 AM
My search fu is weak, I wish I could find that article written by some asshole cop that stated, in effect:

"Don't want police breaking down your door? Don't be poor and live in a bad neighborhood."
No worries.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?381476-Inside-the-mind-of-a-SWAT-cop&highlight=Inside+mind+SWAT+cop.


Don't want to have negative contacts with the cops, don't live in the war zones of America.

kcchiefs6465
02-05-2014, 12:39 AM
It's a shame these folks lived in a war zone.

I hear the ghost of what was the Republican Party in the wind saying, "Just move."

Indy Vidual
02-05-2014, 04:10 AM
My search fu is weak, I wish I could find that article written by some asshole cop that stated, in effect:

"Don't want police breaking down your door? Don't be poor and live in a bad neighborhood."

My neighborhood has nice police. :p

Spikender
02-05-2014, 05:11 AM
People make light of the hardships people in foreign countries have to endure when we occupy them.

What they don't realize is that this is only going to get worse, because we too are occupied, and most are just too ignorant to see it.

Henry Rogue
02-05-2014, 09:18 AM
Criminal perpetrators wear masks.

Christian Liberty
02-05-2014, 10:36 AM
If they don't like it, they can just GTFO.

I know you're kidding, but I get the logical equivalent of "love it or leave it" every time I mention the concept that taxation is theft. What's illogical about it is that the person saying it usually has problems with our government as well. But say you want to get rid of it entirely and its "you consent by choosing to live in this country." Its absolutely absurd, but it seems so obviously absurd to me that I can't really explain to people why its wrong, much like I can't explain how 2 + 2 = 5 is wrong ,it just is.

jjdoyle
02-05-2014, 12:03 PM
"Why do they have all those video recording devices?" They must be up to no good

Exactly. Why do they need all those "eyes" on their own property. They don't trust the government officials? Glad to see the officers took a proactive measure in removing at least one of them. It really was a waste of electricity, especially considering the police and government are watching everything we do. Who needs those? Waste of electricity. Funds. Materials to build them.

IF ANYTHING the local government should look at licensing cameras to the home owners and charging them a good fee, that way they can make sure the video signals aren't wireless and installation is done properly. That way, it won't interfere with first responders' equipment.

JK/SEA
02-05-2014, 12:19 PM
the dog lived?...

Steve-in-NY
02-05-2014, 01:40 PM
https://www.facebook.com/events/457783464348891/457838347676736/?notif_t=like

jct74
02-05-2014, 08:22 PM
Troubling new details about the violent police raid in Iowa

BY RADLEY BALKO
February 5 at 3:42 pm

The Des Moines Register has the latest on that volatile police raid that I wrote about yesterday. The raid was apparently for suspected credit card fraud. Ankeny Police Department officials are now speaking out. But I’m not sure they’re helping their cause:


Ankeny police are defending the raid, saying they needed to use that approach to protect officers’ safety.

Ankeny police Capt. Makai Echer said officers knew at least one person in the house had a permit to carry a firearm. She said the department isn’t currently investigating how officers handled the search, nor does the department have a written policy for executing warrants.

So they see nothing wrong with how the raid was handled, and the department has no stated policy for executing warrants. All of that is troubling enough. (The lack of a written policy also suggests a lack of training.) As is the “officer safety” justification, as if that in itself trumps the rights of the people inside the house.

But citing the fact that one of the occupants in the house — Justin Ross — had applied and was approved for a gun permit is probably most disturbing of all. First, hardened criminals who are a threat to kill cops tend not to be the sort of people who bother with permits, or to register their firearms with the government. I don’t think that point needs more elaboration.

...

read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2014/02/05/troubling-new-details-about-the-violent-police-raid-in-iowa/

brushfire
02-05-2014, 08:34 PM
Pots and pans, people. Pots and pans.

Origanalist
02-05-2014, 09:22 PM
Armed Mundanes: The Reason Why SWAT Teams Exist;

William Norman Grigg

ost gun owners are familiar with the maxim “Gun registration is a prelude to confiscation.” Relatively few understand the role of gun registration in threat assessments used to justify paramilitary police raids.

Last Thursday (January 30), Police in Ankeny, Iowa deployed a 12-member SWAT team in full battle array to execute a warrant in an investigation of alleged credit card fraud. The invasion pf Sally Prince’s home was captured on camera, despite the efforts of at least two of the jackbooted marauders to destroy the home security cameras used to record their crime.

One member of the household, Justin Ross, was in the bathroom when one of the raiders arrived. When one of them tried and failed to kick in the door, Ross reached for his handgun. After he heard one of the intruders identify himself as a police officer, Ross – a military veteran who has a firearms permit – re-holstered his gun and sat down with his hands in plain sight. If the overconfident and inept SWAT operator had succeeded in kicking in the bathroom door on the first attempt, Ross would have been murdered.



The invaders did not find any of the items listed in the search warrant. They did manage to precipitate of well-earned public hostility. Speaking on behalf of the department Captain Makai Echer insisted that the military-style assault was necessary and justified because the department was aware that an occupant of the home had a firearms permit.

Gun ownership is one of the key considerations in the standardized “Threat Matrix” used in planning SWAT operations. A representative Threat Matrix form lists a number of individual criteria that dictate “mandatory” SWAT deployment; in most circumstances, the confirmed presence of firearms falls into that category. This is particularly true if a home has “fortifications,” such as burglar bars – or, in the case of the home targeted in the Akeny raid, security cameras. Additional points are added to the threat assessment score if one or more residents of the targeted dwelling have a military background, as was the case with Justin Ross.

The purpose of the “Threat Matrix” is to assess the danger to officer safety – not the potential threat a subject poses to the public at large. This is why supposed crimes against police officers, such as resisting arrest, are weighed more heavily than actual crimes against persons and property. Police in Ankeny pointed out that one resident of the targeted home had a criminal record that included assault charges more than a decade ago, but this was almost certainly less important than Ross’s registered gun and military experience.

Obviously, the practice of compiling a Threat Matrix presupposes an ability on the part of the police to obtain detailed intelligence on potential targets. In that sense it is distant but unmistakable kindred to the analysis methods used by the CIA and the military as part of the “Disposition Matrix” — the system used to compile “kill lists” for drone strikes and other forms of summary execution.

All of the information about a potential SWAT target is collected, a “Threat Assessment Score” is then compiled, and the appropriate response is chosen from three options. The higher the “Matrix” score, the more militarized the response. A total of 1-16 points means that the supposed threat is considered “SWAT optional”; 17-24 points means that the SWAT commander should be consulted; if the score is 25 points or higher, SWAT deployment is “mandatory.”

As noted above, the confirmed presence of firearms at the targeted residence will usually dictate the use of a SWAT team. The same is true of enforcement actions precipitated by public expression of “anti-law enforcement sentiments.” In June 2012, a SWAT team – accompanied by a camera crew from a local TV station – kicked in the door of a home in Evansville, Indiana, terrifying an old woman and her teenage granddaughter. The SWAT raid was carried out because of supposed “threats” made against police officers in an online forum.

Captain Andy Chandler of the Evansville PD explained to me that prior to the raid, the department had been “notified by informants on the street about postings on a website that threatened officers.” What this means, most likely, is that someone read the internet posts and called the department. On the basis of that information, Chandler continued, the department “obtained a number of subpoenas associated with that address,” then conducted “surveillance and intelligence collection” on the address and that neighborhood.”

They learned that there had been a number of shootings in that part of the city during the previous months, but apparently learned nothing of value about the people who lived at the targeted home. In this case, the only Threat Matrix criterion that mattered was the paramount issue of Officer Safety. As Chandler told me: “Every SWAT raid involves an element of risk, and we chose the method that would ensure the safety of the officers serving that warrant.”

This was how idle trash talk posted by someone who piggybacked a WiFi signal led to a raid in which a squad of bold and valiant SWAT operators in bucket helmets and body armor flung flash-bang grenades into a house where a harmless grandmother was cooking dinner.

A similar, but less dramatic, incident of this kind took place in Letha, Idaho in August of that same year. Gem County Sheriff Chuck Rolland and several of his deputies, with guns drawn and wearing body armor, assaulted the home of a couple of organic farmers in response to an anonymous report of a “domestic dispute.”

cont......http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/armed-mundanes-the-reason-why-swat-teams-exist/

green73
02-05-2014, 09:25 PM
Armed Mundanes: The Reason Why SWAT Teams Exist;

William Norman Grigg

Do we seriously need any more LRC goons around here?


You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Origanalist again.

Origanalist
02-05-2014, 09:31 PM
"Why do they have all those video recording devices?" They must be up to no good

That one really blared out didn't it? I wanted to reach in the screen and bitch slap that idiot.

Origanalist
02-05-2014, 09:37 PM
Do we seriously need any more LRC goons around here?

We certainly don't.

http://www.ogmundur.is/files/Labour-represent.-comm.-LSR_1375124685.gif

CPUd
02-06-2014, 09:49 PM
He says the surveillance video was edited, or selectively played:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTuT4_Hf3Og