Disjointed Digression

Here’s a headline that makes you wince Cops Raid Wrong Place, Kick Man in Groin.  Apparently the police burst into the wrong apartment, denting the front door and using flash grenades that left two large stains and “subdued” the two people in the apartment. 

From the article:
Police spokesman Hal Dalton said something must have gone amiss in the briefing beforehand. “We don’t know how the mistake was made,” Dalton said.

Silvia Bernal, 30, told The (Annapolis) Capital that about 15 officers burst through the front door of her apartment while she was cooking dinner about 8:20 p.m. She said the officers kicked her husband in the groin while she fled into a bedroom and barred the door with her body.

Then she said both of them were taken to the ground and handcuffed. The Capital said a police officer went outside and realized they had raided the wrong residence.

Dalton said they were supposed to have raided a different apartment and said the incident was regrettable.

What kind of threat do you have to pose to a police officer for him to kick you in the nuts to take you down?  My guess is that the cops were so pumped up that anyone in the apt was a threat in their minds, so the took everyone down and asked questions later.  At least they didn’t shoot first, then ask questions. 

Also from the article:
When officers and the city’s tactical squad went to the right unit, they said it was empty.

No shit? What criminal would see their neighbors apartment getting raided, and say “Sucks to be them, I wonder if they meant to come here?”  I bet they took off as soon as they saw the police cars gathering in the parking lot.

I know not every police officer is represented by this behavior, some really are here to serve and protect, but it seems that more and more often we are seeing stories about police doing things like this… 

As they said in Hot Fuzz “there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Current? events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.