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  • mrjarrell

    Shooter
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    Jun 18, 2009
    19,986
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    Hamilton County
    As usual. Hoosier pundit Radley Balko reports on a SWAT team raid that happened back in February in Missouri. It's events like this one that point up the fact that we don't need SWAT teams in most locations and that those that do exist are being misused. It's only going to get worse. The search warrant in this case could have been served by a couple of regular officers and a knock on the door. It didn't have to include the deliberate killing of these peoples pets, (which seems to be SOP, as often as it happens). If you watch the video, do be warned there's some bad language and overall it's a horror story if you like dogs. This could happen to you, your family, your friends. Even if you're innocent.

    via The Agitator

    In February, I wrote the following about a drug raid in Missouri:
    SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family’s pit bull and corgi (?!) as a seven-year-old looks on.
    They found a “small amount” of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment.
    So smoking pot = “child endangerment.” Storming a home with guns, then firing bullets into the family pets as a child looks on = necessary police procedures to ensure everyone’s safety.
    Just so we’re clear.
    Now there’s video, which you can watch below. It’s horrifying, but I’d urge you to watch it, and to send it to the drug warriors in your life. This is the blunt-end result of all the war imagery and militaristic rhetoric politicians have been spewing for the last 30 years—cops dressed like soldiers, barreling through the front door middle of the night, slaughtering the family pets, filling the house with bullets in the presence of children, then having the audacity to charge the parents with endangering their own kid. There are 100-150 of these raids every day in America, the vast, vast majority like this one, to serve a warrant for a consensual crime.
    But Jonathan Whitworth won’t be smoking that pot they found in his possession. So I guess this mission was a success.
    I’ve exchanged emails with the mother of the family, who was in the home at the time of the raid. I’m waiting on her permission to publish her account of what happened.
    YouTube - Columbia Mo SWAT Raid 2/11/2010. Cops Shoot Pets With Children Present
     

    smoking357

    Shooter
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    0   0   0
    Jul 14, 2008
    961
    16
    Mindin' My Own Business
    As usual. Hoosier pundit Radley Balko reports on a SWAT team raid that happened back in February in Missouri. It's events like this one that point up the fact that we don't need SWAT teams in most locations and that those that do exist are being misused. It's only going to get worse. The search warrant in this case could have been served by a couple of regular officers and a knock on the door. It didn't have to include the deliberate killing of these peoples pets, (which seems to be SOP, as often as it happens). If you watch the video, do be warned there's some bad language and overall it's a horror story if you like dogs. This could happen to you, your family, your friends. Even if you're innocent.

    +1000

    It's a pity that so much of the gun owner base doesn't share our alarm.
     

    level.eleven

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    May 12, 2009
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    Only 1 state in the nation keeps records on how often and for what SWAT teams are deployed. When pressured for statisitcs departments really push back on handing over the data. Well, after raiding the home of the MAYOR of a town in Maryland, legislators decided that maybe they should take a look at these invasions.

    Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day. In Prince George's County alone, with its 850,000 residents, a SWAT team was deployed about once per day. According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, 94 percent of the state's SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended.

    In Maryland, SWAT are deployed 4.5 times a day, 94% of which are to only server warrants. Over have of those, were for misdemeanors and non-serious (victimless) felonies.

    The sample size is small (thanks to agencies not wanting to hand over data and politicians not pressuring them to) but I don't think one needs hard data to realize the level of militarization of an agency that not to long ago was referred to as Peace Officers. Much of this is a result of the War on some Drugs. Its turning into a War on Citizens.

    4.5 SWAT Raids Per Day - Reason Magazine
     

    thej27

    Master
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    Mar 15, 2009
    1,915
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    Crawfordsville
    I am guessing the departments use them for pointless stuff like this to try to convince people their "need" to keep funding it. So the tax payer and city/county government doesn't ask why they spend so much money on something that is used very little.
     

    Colt556

    Grandmaster
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    65   0   0
    Feb 12, 2009
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    Avon
    I can see the need in certain situations but that was not one of them. I'd be so pissed if they shot my dog.
     

    tuoder

    Expert
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    2   0   0
    Oct 20, 2009
    951
    18
    Meridian-Kessler, Indianapolis
    I've read a few stories about searches like this, but never seen a video. I've heard of them shooting dogs before. They're likely worried that the dogs are trained to attack or will instinctively act to defend their family. This video is the stuff of nightmares.
     

    jjlaughner

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    54   0   0
    Apr 19, 2010
    448
    16
    Brownsburg
    I read about this the other day. If the tag on the youtube video is true, the pitbull was CAGED in the kitchen and the Corgi was not. It does clarify it the story that it was not.

    Family questions SWAT drug search that led to dog’s death | ColumbiaTribune.com

    Youtube video tag
    "This video shows a search warrant served by the Columbia Mo. police department. The cops bust in this guys house in the middle of the night and shoot his two dogs (one a pit bull that was caged in the kitchen and the other a Corgi) with children in the home. it turns out that rather than a big time drug dealer, this guy had a small pipe with some resin in it, a grinder, and what the cops here call "a small amount of marijuana" (meaning less than a few grams). We here in Comlumbia want everyone to know what kind of police department we have here, check out our "finest" in action."
     

    level.eleven

    Shooter
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    0   0   0
    May 12, 2009
    4,673
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    PUT THE ****ING DOG OUT OF ITS MISERY IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHOOT IT.

    My god, hearing that dog yelp like that just pisses me off.

    Family questions SWAT drug search that led to dog’s death | ColumbiaTribune.com

    All of that for a little bit of weed, he ended up getting misdemeanor charges.

    Legislators in Maryland, per the article I linked, have worked on resolutions that would bar the use of SWAT style military tactics in dealing with misdemeanors. Enforcers probably aren't keen on the idea as it may compromise the numbers game that agencies play. In the case of Maryland, that would mean they would be using their assault teams about 50% less.

    The dogs don't really bother me. They are property just like the smashed in door. What does bother me is using these military units to enter a home where you know children are present. I think that is highly irresponsible.
     

    Colt556

    Grandmaster
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    65   0   0
    Feb 12, 2009
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    They shot the Corgi! I have a Corgi and they are small friendly dogs, mine would lick you to death before biting. Was the pitbull caged or not? Those dogs are a different story.
     

    E5RANGER375

    Shooter
    Rating - 100%
    15   0   0
    Feb 22, 2010
    11,507
    38
    BOATS n' HO's, Indy East
    cowards. this is a perfect example why police SWAT teams should be illegal. and i believe are un-constitutional. if i were him i would own that city, and all the trigger pullers would lose their jobs. i hope he gets a GOOD lawyer. the first dog didnt even bark before they shot it. real men huh?? SUCK IT SCUM BAGS!!!
     
    Last edited:
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    0   0   0
    Oct 29, 2009
    2,434
    36
    "They shot my good dog, they shot my boy - my one and only, my pride and joy - they shot my wife dead on the floor, wounded our baby in the cabin door. Don't shoot me down, don't shoot me down: got a wife and kids on Ruby Ridge, please don't shoot me down." - Steve Earle, 'Ruby Ridge'

    If someone shoots my pet, they're indicating hostility towards living beings in my household and will be treated accordingly.
     
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