http://www.crossroad.to/…

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

Read More…

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/…

Just north of D.C., in the small suburb of Berwyn Heights, a county SWAT team raided a house last week after a shipping service delivered a large quantity of illegal drugs to the front door.

Good police work in the war on drugs? Probably not.

The house is home to Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic, and their two black Labs (pictured left). Though the package containing more than 30 lbs. of marijuana was addressed to Tomsic, the couple may have had nothing to do with the drugs. In recent months there have been incidents in which large quantities of drugs were delivered to homes in the D.C. area, where they were then supposed to be intercepted by drug dealers — all without the package addressees’ knowledge or involvement. Calvo and Tomsic may have been caught up in just such a scheme.

This would make Calvo and Tomsic the unfortunate victims of an understandable error by the police SWAT team, except…

The police action was yet another guns-ablazin’, no-knock raid, in which the officers (in what seems like SOP) shot the couple’s dogs, even as one of the pups tried to run away. The cops then handcuffed Calvo and Tomsic’s mother-in-law and interrogated them for hours, while the dogs’ bodies laid in pools of blood nearby. The cops later found the package of drugs — unopened, as if it were an unexpected package. No arrests were made.

“My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs,” Calvo told the Washington Post. “They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don’t think they really ever considered that we weren’t.”

Of course, it may end up that Calvo and his wife are part of a drug distribution ring, and the police have gotten their man. But even if that’s true, was a no-knock, shoot-the-dogs raid an appropriate police action for a lousy shipment of pot?

And what if the current, emerging picture is correct, and this is yet another botched police raid and cops-gone-wild? If that’s the case (and I emphazie the “if”), the Prince George’s County SWAT team and its superiors need to be held accountable.

Law enforcement officers have a difficult and dangerous job, and I do not make light of that. But their sworn duty is to protect and serve the public, not blast their way into innocent people’s houses and shoot their dogs. If they cannot fulfill that duty, then they cannot be law enforcement officers.

All this over a plant people like to smoke.

Minneapolis local CBS affiliate, WCCO:

On Monday, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan handed out honors to a team of officers involved in a botched raid at an innocent family’s home more than seven months ago. The family is upset and their attorney criticizes the awards and questions the timing.

Just days before Christmas, the sound of intruders breaking into their home in North Minneapolis prompted Vang Khang to grab his shotgun to protect his six children. His terrified wife called 911.

Khang fired several shots at the “intruders” who turned out to be members of the Minneapolis Police Department’s SWAT team. The officers returned fire. Their protective gear prevented them from being harmed by the bullets.

No one was hurt in the shootout last Dec. 16 and the Minneapolis Police Chief ordered an internal investigation. The house was left riddled with bullet holes and broken glass. Two days later, Dolan apologized to the family and launched an internal investigation to find out how the SWAT team wound up in an innocent family’s house in the middle of the night.

The investigation determined that the team had gone there looking for a gang member’s guns after an informant gave investigators in the department’s Violent Offenders Task Force bad information. The investigation is ongoing.

On Monday, Dolan recognized members of the SWAT team for their bravery and how they handled the raid. With Mayor R.T. Rybak and other city officials looking on, the chief handed out medals and commendations.

“The easy decision would have been to retreat under covering fire. The team did not take the easy way out,” Dolan told the crowd. “This is a perfect example of a situation that could have gone horribly wrong, but did not because of the professionalism with which it was handled.”

The Khang family was upset when they learned of the awards given to the SWAT team.

[snip]

Upset? You think?

http://stopthedrugwar.org/…

Back in January, Sgt. Joseph Chavalia, a member of the Lima, Ohio, SWAT team shot and killed Tarika Wilson, 26, and shot and maimed her infant son, Sincere Wilson, as she held him in her arms as he and other SWAT team members executed a drug search warrant at the home Wilson shared with her boyfriend. The boyfriend was the object of the raid.

Police have presented no evidence that Wilson acted in a threatening manner as the SWAT team burst into her home.On Monday, prosecutors charged Chavalia with two misdemeanors — negligent homicide in the death of Wilson and negligent assault in the wounding of her child — that could see him spend a maximum of eight months in prison if convicted on both counts. Wilson’s relatives and activists, many of whom allege a pattern of discriminatory policing by the Lima police, were outraged.

graphic appearing on Lima SWAT team web site, removed after shooting

Lets here it for the war on drugs and sovereign immunity!! Possibly 8 whole months for murdering a woman by shooting through her child. Dad’s in jail, moms dead. Kid may end up in the state child care system. What’s the likelihood this kid ends up really screwed up?

http://www.dailymail.com/…

Two officers who raided an innocent family’s house on a bad tip were shot at and returned fire, but no one was injured, a police spokesman said.

Vang Khang said Monday that he grabbed his hunting gun to protect himself, his wife and his six children when they heard someone burst through the back door early Sunday. He fired three shots, hitting two members of the SWAT team, but they were unhurt because of their bulletproof vests and helmets.

Officers returned fire, but nobody in the house was injured. Police released Khang after taking his statement.

All six of the children, ages 3 to 15, were home at the time.

Lt. Amelia Huffman said the officers went to the house listed on the search warrant, but it turned out the source was wrong.

These people are really damn lucky their kid noticed the intruders were cops. I’m guessing the SWAT heard the kid too otherwise I would have expected the SWAT members to mow down those behind the bedroom door. This is another example of collateral damage in the war on drugs. It’s completely uncalled for. These cops made no attempt to confirm their source and will probably not be held accountable. Sadly if they had killed someone they also would most likely had not been held accountable.