That’s because it is the same thing, this article concerns the court cases that are happening now.
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That’s how the cops frequently handle things in my city. They surround the area, and are prepared to wait it out. With frequent announcements on the blow horn to pressure the suspect into surrendering. Unfortunately my neighbor caused the cops to block off my street for 10 hours. 10 hours of a blow horn calling out her name every 15 minutes. But hey, she surrender and nobody died so I’ll call that a success.
People might argue that it’s very expensive to wait it out. But I’d argue that most of the officers blocking off the area are normal uniformed police, and not highly trained (e.i. expensive) SWAT. Assaults are very expensive, possibly more expensive than having dozens of officers stand around for 10 hours. (and realistically people often surrender much faster)
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Meh… they had military type weapons and were just dying to use them. Apparently, any excuse would do.
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I’m sure that “sovereign immunity” is quite powerful however our constitution makes it very clear that they do not have the authority to pass laws or create legal loopholes to get around the foundational laws of our nation.
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From the video it looks like he demolished the house and built a McMansion. I’m sure the cops did damage to the house, but my question is, is that damage of the house seen, where the exterior walls are missing, the damage the cops did, or him starting the demolition process?
Blowing up a house seems a trifle extreme.
5000 dollars is a king-sized middle finger to this guy. That wouldn’t cover the drywall damage.
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The big holes are where SWAT tossed/launched in munitions to clear the room, and then used a ram on a vehicle to punch out/pull open the wall. It opens up visibility into each room, negates its use as a hiding place, and progressively boxes in whoever’s in the house. When the suspect is in the final remaining room SWAT can do whatever they want-- flood it with gas and swarm the room, try to talk the guy out, or amass a wall of armed officers in front of the house and rip off the wall while they swarm from behind (or any number of things I’m probably unaware of).
But yeah, this is ridiculous overkill. GVPD just wanted to use some toys.
Looks like this actually happened around June 4/5th 2015.
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The problem (along with SWAT existing and military gear being given to police forces) is that judges are a bunch of shits who are afraid to state the obvious: that this was a case of wanton and unnecessary etc. action, thus not covered by those “no police liability” clauses.
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The worst part is the governmental unit has probably spent more on legal fees than if they would have just paid the guy’s damage.
This is abusive to the taxpayers too, who would rather have their money spent maintaining the city.
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My basic question there is “when did he shoot at police?”. That seems important. If it was whille still in Wal-mart, then all this is debatably justified. If however they chased a shoplifter to this house, where he fired upon the police during the standoff… well why the hell did they chase him? Farther than the edge of the parking lot and it’s not worth it.
It makes you wonder how they get cats out of trees these days.
Stealth Bomber?
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I don’t understand why this isn’t a fifth-amendment “taking”.
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Again, you would think so, but the Supreme Court has not seen it that way, so gosh darn it.
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When someone hits a parked car they are required to leave a note with details on how to get compensated. Same should be true if your tank hits and totals a parked house.
When a k9 dog scratched up my car in an illegal search involving multiple agencies, I couldn’t for the life of me get anyone to admit they were responsible despite having the names of all the officers involved. Basically you have to sue to get compensated. And know who to sue.
Okay so I can understand that cops need to break private property sometimes to do their job. As a taxpayer I understand sometime it is necessary to pay for such police actions. But you break it you buy it. Or fix it. Be responsible and the police will be seen as responsible. If you just leave a trail of destruction then people will avoid and distrust the police.
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citation needed
That was just the first video I came across and the source has no bearing on the fact that is story is from 3 years ago
From a recent article with a little more info, it looks like Leo Lech’s lawyer is actually arguing a lot of the points that people are raising here: https://www.westword.com/news/greenwood-village-swat-team-home-destruction-lawsuit-update-10412389
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