Officers threw a flashbang grenade in my son's crib -- and left a hole in his chest. It gets worse .
Holy shit this is crazy. Something else to read from The Guardian on this event.The ACLU found that 79% of Swat team raids were on private homes, and only 7% were meant for intended for missions in line with Swat teams' original purposes.
i dont think "fight fire with fire" is to be taken that literallythe victims include Aiyana Stanley-Jones, seven, who was killed in 2010 when a Swat team threw a flashbang grenade like the one that injured Bou Bou into the room where she was sleeping. The device set fire to Aiyana’s blanket and when officers burst into the room they shot at the flames and hit her.
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Followed that link, and here is further reading for anybody interested. Since when is it acceptable to treat that middle class blue collar family of innocents like they're literally domestic terrorists? Surely that's an indicator of how bad things have gotten, if there people killing themselves in the process of these "raids" - which we should just refer to them as home invasions, which is what they really are. Especially if they're throwing military grade suppression elements into rooms with babies and blowing them open. That is a home invasion with malicious wounding (and in my internet level knowledge of things) probably felonious wounding (tacked onto child endangerment).. In short I would think that once the dust settles those home invaders (cops if you will) should get the worst punishments that the system they're so maliciously "enforcing" can dish out. So now they're getting away with murder? What the fuck is wrong with these people? This guy didn't even drugs and they were "searching" the neighborhood. I call bullshit on "searching" I think they were out gunning for a Hispanic to murder and what better in their convoluted minds than a vet? 22 times is a bit excessive, especially because he was innocent and didn't have any drugs or contraband.
Back to the original point though -
How the fuck do you get the address wrong?
Sorry this is all a slightly gibbered rant, I'm a tad bit drunk. At the very least, the ACLU finds, the growing use of battering rams to smash down doors is causing property damage to the homes that are raided. At worst, people are dying or being injured by police teams deploying the techniques of the battlefield. The survey, which covered only a small snapshot of what is going on around the country each year, found seven cases where civilians died in connection with the deployment of the Swat teams, two of which appeared to be suicides. A further 46 civilians were injured, often due to use of force by officers.
Then there was Tarika Wilson who was shot dead by Swat officers as she was holding her 14-month-old son in Lima, Ohio; the baby was injured but survived. And Eurie Stamp, a grandfather of 12, who was sitting watching baseball on TV in his pajamas in Farmington, Massachusetts, in January 2011 when a Swat team battered down his door, threw a flashbang device into the room and forced him to lie facedown on the floor. One of the officers’ guns discharged and killed Stamp, who was not the man they had come to apprehend, as he lay there.
Also in 2011, Jose Guerena, a veteran of the Iraq war, was shot 22 times in his kitchen at home in Tucson, Arizona, by officers in a Swat team that was searching the neighbourhood for drugs. Nothing was found in the Guerena home.
A few hours after the raid took place, police located the suspect they had been seeking at a different house in the neighbourhood. The officers knocked on the door, the suspect opened it, and agreed peacefully to come in for questioning.
Those corrupt motherfuckers. I don't think they gave a shit about the presence of drugs or not. I think they just wanted to murder babies. Yeah I said it, I think the cops just want to murder babies now for imagined slights or crimes committed (allegedly) by their parents or families.
They told the mom the kid had lost a tooth, and by tooth they meant they blew a hole in his fucking chest. This and something I read about a dog getting senselessly killed. Goddamn, this just makes me sick. I bet you that motherfucker (the one who threw the FB) is going to get rewarded. I hope this family sues the shit out of that department and takes the commanding officer's job and the offending officer's balls on a silver platter. Side note: I give up on taking the justice system seriously, time to take my American rights to buy a gun and look into the legality of citizen arrests. So that I can just bust someone if they're legitimately trying to do me harm. I think I'm going to throw up now.
EDIT: Fixed a word
The police are losing track of their mission. The people are the ones we need to protect. They aren't the enemy.
I value my anonymity. That being said, no I am not an officer.
If you were you would be the good kind going exclusively from your comment.
The Habersham County Grand Jury has submitted its report on the incident. The grand jury is "the only body of citizens who have heard all of the evidence and all of the facts rather than only portions of it." Findings: • "Nothing can be more difficult and heart wrenching than injuries to one's child." • Law enforcement officers experienced "very real sadness, regret, and anguish." They are not "un-feeling or un-caring robots;" rather "they are human beings as well." • "The drug investigation that led to these events was hurried, sloppy, and unfortunately not in accordance with the best practices and procedures." • "Some of what contributed to this tragedy can be attributed to well-intentioned people getting in too big a hurry." • "no amount of drugs is worth a member of the public being harmed, even if un-intentionally, or a law enforcement officer being harmed." • "one agent failed to appropriately act calmly when interacting with the father of the baby. In this emotionally charged situation, the agent should have calmed the situation rather than screaming." ("This agent is no longer at the drug unit.") • "The Grand Jurors wish to praise the quick action of the two officers with paramedic training and the foresight of the S.R.T. commander to make available an ambulance in case of injuries." • "There is no available evidence that shows that the parents of the child participated in drug sales at the residence. There is evidence that they were aware of criminal activity and drug sales on the part of persons at the residence, and specifically Wanis Thonetheva. The Grand Jury considered whether any criminal charges were warranted against the parents or any other persons living at the residence, and have found insufficient evidence upon which to base any criminal charge." Recommendations: • When militarized police teams execute a search warrant, "it should be assumed that children ARE present unless strong evidence suggests otherwise." • Officers who prepare search warrants should get "advanced formal instruction and education." • "We do not recommend criminal charges based upon the totality of the evidence." Awkward closing: • "The way to avoid tragedies such as this one in the future is to learn from them. The easiest way for a tragedy to repeat is not to learn from it. The Grand Jurors hope and pray for a full recovery for Baby Bou Bou, and for the entire family including the other children impacted."
The new settlement — to be paid by insurance policies held by Rabun and Stephens counties — brings the total awarded to the family of Bounkham Phonesavanh to nearly $3.6 million. It also brings an end to civil proceedings in the case.A federal judge awarded Friday a $1.65 million settlement to the parents of “Baby Bou Bou,” the Georgia toddler injured in 2014 by deputies using a flash-bang grenadewhile serving a no-knock warrant.
None of the officers involved in the raid were charged, but a sheriff's deputy was named in a federal indictment for providing false information in order to get the warrant that led to the raid. The deputy was acquitted of all charges. The kid looks to be doing okay, with high-fiving and nose-picking starting around 7:50 in the news video.
"A few nights ago, my 8-year-old woke up in the middle of the night screaming, “No, don’t kill him! You’re hurting my brother! Don’t kill him.”" How do police officers (or SWAT) deal with this? Sure they are doing their job, but have they become that detached that a flash bang in a babies crib is an acceptable incident on the "field" when searching for a young persons drugs? Who thought it was a good idea to use military flash bangs against civilians in the first place? Is this not all just breeding a generation of people who view their own government as tyrants?