TheAgitator.com
Tales of a Dallas Poker Raid, II
Thursday, December 20th, 2007Here’s another firsthand account of one of those Dallas SWAT poker raids. Highlights:
There was a tournament and two cash games in process at the time of the raid. I was at a table with two grandmothers and a school teacher.The SWAT team busted out the window with a sledge hammer and came charging in the room with MP5 machine pistols shouldered.
When I heard the window being pounded, I thought it was a shotgun in the parking lot. Everyone inside dove to the floor and scrambled away from the window. About 20 police officers came in and told everyone to sit down. Two undercover officers identified the dealers and the sweep, who were taken away, charged with running a gambling room (a potential felony in Texas) and questioned by the IRS. The rest of us got gambling citations, which is a class C misdemeanor in Texas - the same as a speeding ticket.
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None of the people accused of operating any of the rooms have been prosecuted and all of the contested gambling citations have been dismissed.
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In my case the state announced [they had insufficient evidence to go to trial] and my case was dismissed.
Now, my larger point. The foregoing means that the city attorney could get the arresting officer to trial, but there was still insufficient evidence to go to trial. So the Dallas PD managed to bring a camera crew, have perhaps twenty officers on the scene, have the SWAT team bust through the window, destroy thousands of dollars in property, and risk injury to officers and everyone in the room, but they could not gather enough evidence to prosecute the offense which was the ostensible reason for the raid. They risked the lives of the officers and the people in the room, but did not even try to gather evidence to be used in a trial.
So the stated reasons for the raid are an obvious sham and some bureaucrat was willing to risk lives and destroy property when no one had any intention of actually going to trial. Who is the degenerate gambler in this story?
Excellent question.
Another firsthand account of a Dallas SWAT poker raid here.
I fail to see why they couldn’t just knock and serve the warrant like civilized people. I mean, all you have to do is cover the exits and surround the house before knocking (so nobody runs out the back door), which they do anyway. I’m sure they can call raiding a home poker game low risk so treat it as such.
Yeah, but nobody wants to watch a boring old “warrant service” on TV. They want dynamic action, with harrowing tales of uniformed heroes placing their lives on line for the public good!
Then go raid a meth lab or a crack house if you want “action” and “life-risking” excitement.
Nah, those things carry an actual risk. These guys prefer “canned hunts”, so to speak.
Or better yet, join the army. Plenty of excitement and danger to be had there these days.
But that’s actually dangerous and would require some real sacrifice on their part.
What is the government doing raiding a poker game in the first place?
Oh, thats right protecting the children from those evil degenerate gamblers.
Our tax dollars at work.
I don’t have that big a problem raiding private clubs. If you’ve ever been to one of these, it’s pretty obvious there’s some major tax evasion going on. These aren’t quarter ante stud games. Of course I think it should be legal, but it’s not.
But what’s the point of the undercovers if they’re not going to relay whether an all-out raid is necessary? I’ve been to a few craps games (which are infinitely shadier than poker clubs) where having a few guys with automatic weapons might not be a bad idea, but even there the Normandy Beach method seems like it would cause many more problems than it fixes.
I used to love watching COPS because of all the one-sided conversations with crackheads and the like. The SWAT show on A&E is a whole different animal. Several members of my family (who are much more Republican-type conservatives) have even mentioned how bizarre it is. That show just might be doing some unintentional good.