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View Full Version : If they’ll do that to me, with my career in law enforcement, they'll do it to anybody.




Anti Federalist
06-10-2014, 09:03 AM
A Former Hammer's Lament: It's No Fun to be the Nail

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-former-hammers-lament-its-no-fun-to.html

Sandy, Utah resident Mark Shurtleff was thousands of miles away when he received the news that his son and daughter had joined the ever-growing ranks of Americans whose homes have been violated, and families have been terrorized, by SWAT raids.

The Berserkers who invaded his home “showed up in masks,” Shurtleff protested, relaying the account provided by the victims. A dozen officers wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles “burst through the door screaming and yelling at my kids.”

Shurtleff’s 17-year-old daughter was in the bathroom when the strangers in body armor burst in and painted her body with the laser sights of their assault rifles. The raiders – a combined force of state police and FBI agents -- “trashed” the home, Shurtleff insisted, seizing the children’s computers and memory cards from his wife’s digital camera. They also intimidated his 20-year-old son into providing them with computer passwords and the key to the family’s gun safe.

“These John Wayne wannabes, freakin’ Clinton Eastwood `Dirty Harry’ tactics were absolutely unacceptable and unneeded,” Shurtleff complained on a local talk radio program. He characterized their behavior as “recklessly negligent,” and accused Scott Nesbitt, the chief investigator who presided over the raid, of making deliberate misrepresentations in the affidavit that resulted in the search warrant.

“When I’m cleared … and I will be cleared, there will be accountability and there will be liability on the part of these people,” Shurtleff promised.

The invasion of Shurtleff’s home followed a similar raid on the home of fellow Utah resident John Swallow. Neither of them is suspected of a violent crime. The treatment they received is increasingly commonplace in Utah and elsewhere in the Soyuz, but Shurtleff and Swallow were somewhat uncommon targets.

Shurtleff served for twelve years as Utah’s attorney general. Swallow was his successor; he was forced to resign amid scandal after less than a year in that position. Shurtleff and Swallow are under investigation for suspected violation of campaign finance laws.

Complaining that the investigation had injured his reputation, damaged his career prospects, and traumatized his family, Shurtleff insists that he is “done standing back and being quiet.”

“I think if they’ll do that to me, with my entire life and career in service to law enforcement and public safety, they’ll do it to anybody,” Shurtleff declares, speaking with the incontestable credibility of someone who made a career out of ruining lives and terrorizing the helpless.

“He knows our procedures, he knows how we operate – this should come as no surprise to Mark Shurtleff,” observed Juan Becerra, a former FBI agent who had carried out SWAT raids carried out during Shurtleff’s tenure as attorney general. “He knows what all law enforcement procedures are because they’re common across the board.”

As in all encounters between the state’s credentialed emissaries of violence and the public upon whose honest income they prey, the primary emphasis during a “door kick” is the sacred imperative of officer safety.

Police who invade a home enter “with authority,” explains Becerra, invoking the statist shibboleth used to sanctify aggressive violence. “What you don’t know is what’s on the other side of the door.”

As it happens, behind the bathroom door in the Shurtleff home was a tiny 17-year-old girl.

“They burst [in on] my little girl – my 17-year-old – going to the bathroom, screaming at her to get out of there,” recalled Shurtleff. “When she steps out there are four men in body armor with weapons pointed at her chest.”

Shurtleff described the assault on his home and children as “unlawful.” The Utah State Police and FBI insist that the raids were carried out in strict compliance with the standard operating procedures that were followed during Shurtleff’s reign as attorney general – during which he saw nothing amiss in the deployment of a platoon-sized contingent of fully militarized officers to attack a an outdoor concert in Spanish Fork Canyon. This took place in August 2005, about four and a half years into Shurtleff’s term.

Utah County resident Trudy Childs and her family are owners of the “Smoky Mountain Ranch,” which would be leased to concert promoters for summer music events. This was done with the understanding that the promoter would comply with county ordinances dealing with public assemblies of 250 people or more. The Childs and their business partners obtained all of the proper permits, hired EMTs, and otherwise crossed all of the myriad t's and dotted all of the requisite i's.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office, burdened with puritanical conviction that any gathering of young people must involve improper conduct, carried out two raids during the summer of 2o05 – one on July 16, the second on August 20th.

The second assault, according to Mrs. Childs, involved “armed and battle-ready uniformed SWAT officers, deputy sheriffs, and other law enforcement officers” as well as the deployment of a helicopter for air support. In a subsequent lawsuit, Mrs. Childs recalls that despite being the owner of the ranch she was “ordered off the land by officers during both raids. During the second one she was arrested without legal justification “because I questioned the authority of the officers to stop the concert and order me off the property.”

Prior to the concerts, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office dispatched undercover officers to purchase controlled substances, which – as anybody with a scintilla of knowledge about popular music culture knows -- are frequently available at such events. This provided the police with an excuse to describe the event as an illegal “rave.”

Few things more readily bring to the surface the latent heroism and sheer martial prowess of a police officer than the prospect of beating down a skinny, unarmed, terrified teenager. Mark Shurtleff’s teenage daughter can attest to this on the basis of personal experience. The same was true of the concert-goers who were on the receiving end of the August 2005 SWAT raid that Shurtleff found to be unobjectionable.

One performer who witnessed that blitzkrieg described seeing “a guy dressed in camouflage … toting an assault rifle…. A few `troops’ rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that everyone `get the f**k out of here or go to jail!”

Some of the Jackbooted intruders held leashes restraining drug sniffing dogs. One of them “alerted” to a concert-goer, who was attacked by four of the officers who “kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in his back and sides,” the witness recounted. Another dog attacked a small, terrified teenage girl: “As she struggled to get away from it, the police tackled her. Three grown men proceeded to kick her in the stomach.” Similar accounts were offered by other eyewitnesses. Scores of attendees were arrested, the youngest of whom was 15 years old.

Seeking to justify this atrocity, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office described it as a didactic exercise. “Police want parents of teenagers to know the dangers of illegal, clandestine rave parties,” explained the Salt Lake Tribune, reciting from an official press release. The chief danger of such gatherings, of course, is that they attract the malign attention of tax-fattened sociopaths looking for targets of opportunity.

In this case, the raid not only offered SWAT operators a chance to kick ass in an entirely risk-free environment, it was an overture to an attempted land grab.

Following the August 20th SWAT attack, the Childs, who had planned to hold a benefit concert in 2006, received a snotty letter from Stephen Sorenson, the gelded hack who served at the time as acting US attorney for Utah.

“The United States has received information that you are again considering leasing your property for an outdoor music concert,” declared Sorenson. “If you choose to lease your land again for another similar event, we can assure you that there will be drug trafficking on your property. You property can be civilly forfeited to the United States if it is merely used for or facilitates the distribution of narcotics.”

“The Childs think Sorenson's sudden interest in their concert plans stems from the federal government wanting to get its hands on their land,” reported the Salt Lake Weekly. “Just one day before the US attorney sent the latter ... Sorenson had telephoned the Childs' attorney to make an offer on their land on behalf of two federal agencies.” The Feds had coveted that property since 1990.

“If they don't want to sell the land, all they have to do is say so,” simpered Sorenson. “If they want to avoid the risk of criminal or civil liability, all they need to do is not allow the rave on their property.”

The Childs weren’t planning a “rave,” but rather a benefit concert for Parkinson's disease research. As Trudy Childs pointed out, politically favored figures aren't put through the same wringer into which she had been fed.

“I attended the Rolling Stones and U2 concerts [in 2005] at the Delta Center, and my guess is there were probably drugs being used and probably people under the influence of drugs at both those concerts,” she pointed out. “Why don't [the Feds] send a letter to Larry Miller [who owned the Delta Center and the Utah Jazz]?”

The obvious answer is that Miller (who has since passed away) didn’t have what the Feds – of whom the petulant fascist Stephen Sorenson was a perfect specimen – were interested in stealing at the time.

None of this aroused the slumbering moral indignation of Attorney General Shurtleff, our newly minted paladin of civil liberties. The lawsuit filed by Childs and her associates was dismissed a year later.

Shurtleff continued to confer his benediction on SWAT raids, including one carried out by a specialized task force that targeted video merchants suspected of copyright violations.

In February 2011, the Statewide Enforcement of Crimes by Undocumented Residents (SECURE) dispatched combat-equipped officers to raid warehouse and homes in search of pirated CDs and DVDs.

“Piracy is stealing and it doesn’t just keep Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie from making a few more dollars,” warbled Shurtleff, supposedly consumed with zeal over the plight of the creative community. “This crime affects artists, writers, directors, backup singers, stage crew workers and every taxpayer in the U.S.”

How, exactly, does music and video piracy injure “every taxpayer in the U.S.”? It doesn’t – but it does deprive the tax-consuming class of its cut. Leo Lucey, the tax-feeder who grandly styled himself the SECRURE Strike Force Commander, explained: “These pirated goods are being shipped by train, truck, and air. This means taxes and fees are not being paid.”

Shurtleff and his SECURE Strike Force commandos – at least some of whom were probably involved in the August 2005 raids that shut down a CD release party in Spanish Fork Canyon – received honorary gold records from the Recording Industry Association of America for their anti-piracy crackdown.

As Attorney General, Shurtleff saw nothing exceptionable about using military tactics to execute warrants dealing with non-violent offenses. All of this occurred, of course, when he was part of the “who,” rather than the “whom” – when he belonged to the exalted fraternity of official coercion, before becoming a mere Mundane.

Shurtleff's perspective on routine acts of state terrorism has changed in predictable ways now that he’s a nail, rather than a hammer.

tod evans
06-10-2014, 09:13 AM
I've got a cyber dime I'll bet that this jokers indignation stops at strongly worded letters.....

Christian Liberty
06-10-2014, 09:30 AM
I've got a cyber dime I'll bet that this jokers indignation stops at strongly worded letters.....Doesn't ours?

What can you do against an organization with this much physical force?

Pray and wait, I guess.

tod evans
06-10-2014, 09:46 AM
What can you do against an organization with this much physical force?




http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/BLM-standoff-bundy-ranch-300.jpg

NorthCarolinaLiberty
06-10-2014, 09:52 AM
http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/articles/BLM-standoff-bundy-ranch-300.jpg





Yes. Force is the only thing some people understand.

Pericles
06-10-2014, 10:48 AM
One reason why politicians never want to leave office - that is the only immunity there is from the system they created.

tod evans
06-10-2014, 10:55 AM
One reason why politicians never want to leave office - that is the only immunity there is from the system they created.

And this is why politicians should be required to stand in front of their armed constituents every 90 days and justify their existence....

ZENemy
06-10-2014, 10:55 AM
SOME IDIOT 2016!!!

He will fix everything including this! He said so himself!

oh please elect me a master in 2016! I cant live without one.

dannno
06-10-2014, 11:34 AM
http://www.aperfectworld.org/clipart/Metaphors/crocodiletears.gif

He did this to himself.

dannno
06-10-2014, 12:48 PM
bump

belian78
06-10-2014, 03:15 PM
And this is why politicians should be required to stand in front of their armed constituents every 90 days and justify their existence....

No, once the shithouse has burnt down and been rebuilt, make it so that it's absolutely in no way financially beneficial to be a representative. Upon a time rep's had farms and jobs back home that provided for them and theirs, make it so again. Then, only those that truly want to serve their fellow man will want those positions. But like I said, only after the entire monstrosity has collapsed will it work.

unknown
06-10-2014, 08:47 PM
And this is why politicians should be required to stand in front of their armed constituents every 90 days and justify their existence....

Need to make it much easier to remove elected reps from office, they need to be in constant fear of losing their "jobs".

Who besides Ron Paul would propose such legislation...

KCIndy
06-10-2014, 09:01 PM
“These John Wayne wannabes, freakin’ Clinton Eastwood `Dirty Harry’ tactics were absolutely unacceptable and unneeded,” Shurtleff complained on a local talk radio program. He characterized their behavior as “recklessly negligent,”


Sucks when you get demoted from an Elite to a Mundane, don't it??

You reap what you sow, pal. You reap what you sow.

Anti Federalist
06-11-2014, 10:08 AM
Balko at WaPo blogs about it today.



Aggressive police raids for thee, but not for me

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/10/aggressive-police-raids-for-thee-but-not-for-me/

Radley Balko 11 June 2014

It’s amazing how quickly a politician can change his position when he becomes a victim of aggressive government policies he previously supported.

Witness Mark Shurtleff. During Shurtleff’s 12 years as Utah attorney general, he set up a unit called the Statewide Enforcement of Crimes by Undocumented Residents Strike Force — or the SECURE Strike Force for short. The unit sent armed police to raid businesses that were suspected of employing undocumented workers, suspected fake ID makers and suspected human traffickers. (To his credit, Shurtleff did actually support fairer immigration policies while in office.)

Some of the unit’s targets have been legitimately dangerous people. Others, like suspected copyright violators, probably weren’t. A video of one of these raids that I posted a couple of years ago (no longer available online) showed armed SECURE Strike Force cops breaking down the door to a home to serve a warrant for pirated CDs. (They did at least knock first.)

In fact, Shurtleff sent his strike force on so many raids of suspected copyright violators that in 2012, the Recording Industry Association of America gave him an award.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) presented the honorary gold record to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and each member of the SECURE Strike Force for their unprecedented numbers of arrests and seizing of pirated music.

“Usually you have to sell a lot of albums to get a Gold record, but this is a great recognition for recovering thousands of forged CDs,” says Shurtleff. “These pirated discs represent lost jobs for businesses and lost taxes for state coffers.” . . .

“Those are real results,” said RIAA Anti-Piracy Executive Vice-President Brad Buckles. “On behalf of the major U.S. music labels, we are pleased to present Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of the SECURE Strike Force with honorary Gold Records as a token of our appreciation for all the hard work they’ve done to meaningfully address piracy on the streets of Utah.”

In an effort to boost the state economy, the SECURE Strike Force was launched in June 2009 to stop major crimes of music piracy, and the illegal aliens involved. Suspects have been undocumented residents charged with forgery, racketeering and piracy, but agents have also seized drugs, fake government documentation, and several thousand pirated movies.

As William Grigg points out, Shurtleff was also attorney general during the massive police raid on a rave party in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah. Here’s a description of that raid from my book:

In August 2005, more than 90 police officers from several state and local SWAT teams raided 1,500 people at a peaceful, outdoor dance party in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah. The police were armed with assault weapons, full SWAT attire, police dogs, tear gas, and dressed in camouflage. Many attendees say that police beat, abused, and swore them and fellow partygoers. Police denied the allegations, though amateur video/audio clearly showed the police barking out orders laced with profanity. In truth, the party was pretty well run. Private security stationed outside the event searched partygoers as they entered, and took any illegal drugs they found. The raiding SWAT cops later arrested the private security guards for the drugs they had confiscated, and charged them with possession.

Shurtleff found nothing untoward about that raid and declined requests to open an investigation into the raid. Shurtleff was also in office during a period that saw a dramatic increase in the use of SWAT teams and the militarization of domestic police in Utah. In 2000, he opposed an important ballot initiative to rein in the abuse of civil asset forfeiture, the absurd legal doctrine that lets police seize and keep cash, cars, houses and other property without ever convicting the owner of a crime. The practice has been a major funder of police militarization.

I bring all of this up because Shurtleff and his successor John Swallow are currently under investigation for allegedly violating campaign finance law. That investigation recently led to a raid on Shurtleff’s home. He wasn’t in the house at the time, but his son and daughter were. And now that it has affected members of his family, Shurtleff has taken an active interest in the growth of aggressive police tactics.

Former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Tuesday accused law enforcement agents of using “Dirty Harry” tactics when they searched his house, breaking through his door and pointing automatic weapons at his children who were home at the time.

Agents with the Utah Department of Public Safety and the FBI executed search warrants Monday evening on the Sandy homes of Shurtleff and his handpicked successor, John Swallow, as part of a sweeping, months-long criminal investigation that appears to be nearing its end.

“It was way overboard, a horrific abuse, an extremely improper abuse of force, given the nature of the alleged charge, the fact there were minors in the home — there was no reason for it,” Shurtleff, who is in Washington, D.C., told The Salt Lake Tribune …

Shurtleff lashed out Tuesday at the conduct of investigators who searched his home Monday evening. He said the raid traumatized his teenage daughter, who was in the bathroom when officers in body armor pounded on the door and ordered her out, a laser sight pointed at her chest.

“To go in and point a gun at 5-foot-3, 117-pound minor who was coming out of the bathroom, for crying out loud, is absolutely wrong,” Shurtleff said. “How do you get that out of the mind of a 17-year-old who is innocent of everything. I don’t care what you think of me or what you’re looking at me about.”

This isn’t the fist time Shurtleff’ has changed his mind about a policy issue when that issue began to affect him personally. In a 2011 interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Shurtleff said that he was “tempted” to use medical marijuana to treat his nausea while undergoing cancer treatment and that the whole experience had made him aware of the drug’s benefits — although even that wasn’t enough to inspire him to push for concrete legislation.

Unfortunately, I still don’t think Shurtleff quite gets it. Even in criticizing the raid on his home, he implied that such tactics are still fine when used on drug offenders.

Shurtleff said he taught search and seizure and the proper use of force and has been on raids of drug houses. In this instance, he said, there was no need for a search warrant, no need for weapons, and agents knew he was out of town when they came.

Drug crimes are consensual crimes. Raids on “drug houses” can also be unnecessarily violent and can needlessly end in tragedy. Just ask the families of Matthew David Stewart and Jared Francom.

It’s swell that Shurtleff now sees the danger of excessively aggressive police raids, at least when they’re waged on people like him. It’s swell that he could see the potential medicinal benefits of marijuana for sick people, at least once he got sick. What would be nice is if politicians like Shurtleff had the capacity to empathize with the victims of these policies without needing to first become victims themselves.

Brian4Liberty
06-11-2014, 10:25 AM
Karma is a bitch.

Brian4Liberty
06-11-2014, 10:26 AM
I've got a cyber dime I'll bet that this jokers indignation stops at strongly worded letters.....

He knows the system. I'll bet he sues the shit out of them and gets a big out of court settlement.

heavenlyboy34
06-11-2014, 10:43 AM
No, once the shithouse has burnt down and been rebuilt, make it so that it's absolutely in no way financially beneficial to be a representative. Upon a time rep's had farms and jobs back home that provided for them and theirs, make it so again. Then, only those that truly want to serve their fellow man will want those positions. But like I said, only after the entire monstrosity has collapsed will it work.
There are so many special interests-political, corporate, and otherwise-that benefit from keeping the Beast alive (*ahem*Collins*ahem*), that it's going to require something really major to change it-for example, a complete collapse of the Regime's resources as you mention.

kcchiefs6465
06-14-2014, 08:41 PM
Bump.

HVACTech
06-14-2014, 09:10 PM
Doesn't ours?

What can you do against an organization with this much physical force?

Pray and wait, I guess.

"Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt."
Gandhi.

each person has to decide what they can or are willing to do.
only YOU know what YOU can do.

the Good Doctor has spoken on this subject many times.
"pray and wait" was NOT on the list. :)