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Thread: SWAT Team Raids Idaho Yard Sale; The Public Yawns

  1. #1

    SWAT Team Raids Idaho Yard Sale; The Public Yawns

    William Norman Grigg



    Flo Martinez thought that the 39-year-old man on a motorcycle seemed like an “every day kind of guy, [an] all-American boy” when he stopped to browse at the Neighborhood Angel yard sale in Meridian, Idaho. Troy Wheeler certainly didn’t seem like a threat to any of the neighbors who had gathered to participate in the sale, which had been organized to raise money for a young girl suffering from cancer. Everyone in attendance seemed comfortable in each other’s company, enjoying an opportunity to engage in peaceful commerce with a philanthropic purpose.

    The prevailing mood changed abruptly when a thugscrum of masked, camouflage-clad figures stormed the gathering, pointing assault weapons and barking orders.
    “It scared the heck out of us,” Martinez told Boise’s NBC affiliate, KTVB.

    Wheeler was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, along with a woman who simply happened to be standing next to him when the Ada Metro SWAT team arrived. Police spokesmen described Wheeler, who was paroled a year ago on a narcotics conviction, as a suspect in a “major narcotics investigation.” Boise PD spokeswoman Lynn Hightower insisted that the SWAT raid was necessary because Wheeler was “known to be heavily armed and the arrest was high-risk,” summarizes KTVB.

    The raiders weren’t pursuing a bank robber, suspected murderer, or terrorist. They were serving an arrest warrant and — perhaps most importantly — carrying out the “Use it or lose it” directive that is part of the Pentagon’s 1033 police militarization program.


    The police, who obviously had Wheeler under surveillance, declined to explain how they had tracked Wheeler to the yard sale, or elaborate on their reasons for staging a military raid at a location where innocent people could have been hurt if the subject had actually been “heavily armed.”

    Wheeler pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in 2001. His criminal history is otherwise unremarkable – a collection of traffic citations and petty drug-related charges. He was not wanted for a violent felony, but if he had been dangerous using a SWAT team to confront him at a yard sale placed the public at much greater risk than would have resulted from using more conventional means. But this would have deprived Ada Metro SWAT of an opportunity for a telegenic raid that would help to boost its Q score.

    Martinez — whose initial reaction, understandably, was alarm — proved to be a quick study once one of her armored overseers told her how to perceive what had just happened.

    “Everybody here thought it was great because when they came in and swarmed in like that, he was the target and then there were extras to make sure the people that were here got out of the way,” she told KTVB.

    Yes, in Lee Greenwood’s America – even in Idaho, a supposed haven for “anti-government extremists” – a SWAT raid on a yard sale doesn’t provoke a public scandal. This uncritical acceptance of the visible violence committed by state operatives, and official claims regarding the alleged violence of the suspect, is typical of a population entirely unfamiliar with freedom.
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/...-public-yawns/



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  3. #2
    LOL
    “One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).

  4. #3
    What? They didn't find anyone swapping stuff without adding 'velocity' to their Federal Reserve "dollars"? They didn't bust the perpetrator of this garage sale for failing to collect sales tax?

    Idaho SWAT teams are a bunch of amateurs, aren't they?
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  5. #4
    Oh come on! - this guy was surrounding himself with a "human shield". He's obviously a tea-roar-ist! and what's a little collateral damage here and there

    Thank god he wasn't hanging out at a lemonaid stand or things might have gotten really ugly!

    “Use it or lose it” directive that is part of the Pentagon’s 1033 police militarization program.
    hmmm... anyone got the flu? Be sure to thank the nice officer for "keeping us safe" and shake their hand..., cough, cough...

    tell me about this "Q score"...

    -t

  6. #5
    I can't even make a joke about this. That citizens were put into a potentially dangerous situation just for the apprehension of a suspect goes beyond the pale. They should be fired, fined, jailed and run out of town. And shot if they reused to go.

  7. #6
    Drugs...............................Motorcycle?

    Don't ya' know those brave officers were trembling in their panties?

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by phill4paul View Post
    I can't even make a joke about this. That citizens were put into a potentially dangerous situation just for the apprehension of a suspect goes beyond the pale. They should be fired, fined, jailed and run out of town. And shot if they reused to go.
    I understand these poor frustrated officers of the peace, if in Idaho it's anything like Pasco County here in Tampa Bay. The Sharif's Department is selling health insurance to their own employees and it's $800/month to add your family to the over-priced employer-based health insurance. It's INSANE. Because the County is trying to SELL insurance to their own employees that in itself disqualifies these dependent families, wife and child, from getting Federal Tax Credit to purchase the security of personal and portable health insurance on the EXCHANGE.

    So phill4paul, next TIME you are SWAT teamed have a heart and try and understand their frustrations too. I always just think of these peace officers as Marshal Dillon and that always helps me.

  9. #8
    Who cares?

    Do you think Kate Upton is hot?
    "The Patriarch"



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    Drugs...............................Motorcycle?

    Don't ya' know those brave officers were trembling in their panties?
    It's a miracle they didn't shoot the place up.
    "The Patriarch"

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    It's a miracle they didn't shoot the place up.
    Bikers are scary..........

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    Bikers are scary..........

    Especially when they have a gun and a badge.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    Who cares?

    Do you think Kate Upton is hot?
    Boobs are better than SWAT.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    Who cares?

    Do you think Kate Upton is hot?
    Spot on - there are more important things that are deserving of the public's attention. Like the fact that some women wear makeup, and they look different when they're not wearing makeup! This topic needs some more interesting content - "left turn, Clyde"...



    Gulag Chief:
    "Article 58-1a, twenty five years... What did you get it for?"
    Gulag Prisoner: "For nothing at all."
    Gulag Chief: "You're lying... The sentence for nothing at all is 10 years"





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