Critically burned toddler in coma after SWAT team drug raid on home

[davide405]

Here is a lovely, interactive map of botched raids.

Police Tactics and Misconduct

Edited to add the following link.

Investigation into botched Habersham County drug raid growing

[Mister44]

No-Knock raids are waaaaayy over used, and using SWAT to raid either the wrong house or a house where the person they want isn’t there happens waaaaayy too often. Some shitty police work, Lou.

IIRC there has been a case or two of home owners shooting cops because they had no idea it was them and not criminals busting in.

[grimloki]

Sue the fuck out of the manufacturer of the gas grenade.

They set shit on fire… when they should just produce gas.

If they have to have a protective sheath around the grenade so be it. They have to be safe to be used. No more ‘accidental’ deaths.

Before any self-righteous folks get pissed I didn’t mention the tragedy about the little boy, or the shitbox SWAT team… I can’t say what I think about this anymore without ending up on a watch list.

[iquitos46]

@grimloki

I can’t say what I think about this anymore without ending up on a watch list.

My exact feelings because I would really like to offer some therapy for those cops

[bolamig]

This is the first time I’ve seen a cop say they are going to rethink their procedures. Sad that it takes this much darkness for a light to go on.

[peregrinus_bis]

Here in the UK you can bring a private prosecution in criminal matters, which is rare but does happen.

[L_Mariachi]

A flashbang isn’t a gas grenade. An exothermic reaction creates the flash and the bang, and incidentally burns anything too close to it.

(Actual gas grenades (or possibly gas piped in through the ventilation system) were used in the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis and wound up killing 130 people, most of them hostages. So, also not a great option.)

[jsroberts]

It can’t be stressed enough that phrases like the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror” are meaningless abstractions. These are wars against people involving the same innocent casualties, removal of rights, loss of security and due process, profiteering and immunity in place of investigation of crimes by those in control.

But the good news is, America is winning the war on drugs. Wait, what?

[dacree]

It seems quite clear. Until we start jailing cops for any and all infractions of the law, they will continue to behave like this.
Most jurisdictions elects their chief prosecutor or district attorney. For those politically inclined and who enjoy voting, this is a good place to start if you want change. Insist on bringing up the topic in electoral debate. Make it part of the media landscape by demanding a prosecutor that will try every case in which police accused of committing a crime.
After all, what right do that have to try us as citizens when they refuse to hold their officers up to the same standards.

[IronEdithKidd]

Way too damned much pink and blue on that map.

[davide405]

Indeed!

And green (death of a non-violent offender) should be included in that imbalance. Further, when we note that orange specifies “death or injury of a police officer” whereas blue denotes “death of an innocent” excluding mere injuries, it is clear that the SWAT teams are far more concerned with protecting their own lives than with anything else.

@anonymaus

Remember, an Officer’s first and only duty is to come home alive.  Little people don’t enter into the calculation.

Presuming that young Bounkham (sp?) survives, his little pin on this horrific map will only show under the category of “other examples of paramilitary police excess” Rather banal, IMO.

@anonymaus

Never mind that the baby wasn’t a risk, and Police work isn’t actually a particularly dangerous job.

Until orange is the vastly predominate color on this map, all such claims (that police work is especially dangerous) are not just hollow but actually deceitful.

[IronEdithKidd]

Here’s the 10 most dangerous jobs for 2012:

1. Logging workers
2. Fishers and related fishing workers
3. Aircraft pilot and flight engineers
4. Roofers
5. Structural iron and steel workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
8. Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers
9. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
10. Construction laborers

There’s a noticeable lack of “law enforcement” on this list.

[iquitos46]

Well I hope you’re happy now cause you’re gonna make them feel all butt-hurt and they’ll be sniveling… They’'ll probably have to kick some homeless person just to cheer up [quote=“IronEdithKidd, post:48, topic:35413”]
There’s a noticeable lack of “law enforcement” on this list.
[/quote]

[crenquis]

@kyle_c

It is awful that these SWAT raids have become so commonplace. Here is a direct link to the report described in TOA.

I see that at least one jurisdiction realized that one needs to get rid of the hammer if you wan’t to protect the nails…

Even though the actual suspect didn’t live in Stamp’s home and was already in custody, the SWAT team still decided to carry out the raid. Framingham has since disbanded its SWAT team.

[petzl]

You fatuously post a list to claim LEO is not a dangerous profession?
The first list I happened to google has LEOs on the top 10 list.

Edit: So it seems like the argument is going, “Well, it’s dangerous, but it’s not the most dangerous” (so what?) Or: “But steelworkers don’t use flashbangs.” (really, wtf?)

Look, it’s disgusting when LEOs are brutal and sloppy and trample innocent people’s civil rights, so address that; saying they do not have dangerous jobs is just being contrary and false.

[crenquis]

@IronEdithKidd’s list is based on 2012 data – the most recent data

Your list appears to be using data from 2007 – every stat has this qualifier

…fatalities in 2007

edit (one stat cites 2008 data)

I will leave the list veracity determination up to the denizens of BB.

'nother edit:
it appears that roughly 1/3 of police deaths are the result of interactions with “violators” (apprehending/chasing/fights) – I assume that the rest are deaths due to being in an occupation that puts in long hours behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Fatal occupational injuries by selected characteristics, 2003-2012 - all_worker.pdf

[myke]

I notice that even on your list, LEO’s are number 10. Call me when, without repercussions, fishermen can break into my home and shoot me with a spear gun, or maybe a logger can climb in my window and chase me around with chainsaw, or plane can crash land onto my house, or a steel worker can start pouring molten iron into my bedroom in the middle of the night, or a farmer can drive through my living room on a tractor, or it’s okay for a roofer to randomly shoot a nailgun through the windows, or truck driving crashes into my home, or a gang of recyclable collectors can break in and take everything that can possibly be recycled. That should all be reasonable since those guys have dangerous jobs, and number 10 on the list is allowed to soften up my house with grenades in the crib before storming the entrances with a platoon of organized, heavily armed men trained as soldiers.

PS English teachers should probably be allowed to stab me with a pen for that run on sentence.

[peregrinus_bis]

I have to say, your list says “Transportation incidents are a common cause of death.” under the LEOs.

[L_Mariachi]

@myke

or a steel worker can start pouring molten iron into my bedroom in the middle of the night

Wait, they’re not allowed to do that? I knew there was something fishy about that guy.

[davide405]

From the very list you linked, I infer that a taxi driver is more likely to be shot “in the line of duty” than is a police officer. But they don’t get to preemptively toss flash-bangs into the back seat.