TheAgitator.com
Officer Seth Brundle Was Justifiably in Fear of His Life.
Thursday, February 14th, 2008Police make a violent entry into a couple’s home to execute a search warrant on their son. The son, who was suspected of rape, was already in police custody.
So why the forced entry?
In the process, they used a Taser on the suspect’s father, because he apparently was “cursing and carrying a fly swatter.” A fly swatter is enough now for a Taserin’. They then arrested the man they tasered for “obstructing an officer.”
Best comment so far:
“Think about it . . . Flyswatter, when broken in scuffle, can be stabbing weapon (straw thru orange?).”
It was an assault fly-swatter; didn’t you see the folding handle and the bayonet lug?
How do you spell relief?
L-A-W-S-U-I-T
“I suspect that the police may not have done everything quite as they should have, but the Thompson father and son seem to be trashy humans, so I stop caring if their rights get a little violated.”
This is the disgusting mentality we have to deal with in this country now. Hey you’ve been bad at some point in your life so what if you get violated a little more than a law abiding citizen. I’m cool so long as MY rights are protected. I’s got mine you’s screwed.
I wonder if they get the joke. You’re only law abiding as long as the Cops don’t decide to wrong door raid your house, shoot you, and then plant some pot on you to cover up your mistake. Poor Kathryn Johnston was going to go down as the drug dealing granny until the CI flipped. There is way too much deference to authority in this country now. If the cops arrest you, you must have done something. If you are charged, you must have deserved it. Et. al. It’s disgusting.
I don’t think that’s a new phenomenon. People have always believed that no one would bother to make an accusation if it wasn’t true. That’s why people believe rumors and gossip for it’s own sake.
“Thompson said he was not carrying a fly swatter. Patricia Thompson, a fruit inspector, said she had an oversized swatter she planned to take to work as a joke.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OH! NOW I understand…..it was an OVERSIZED flyswatter!
M. Dantes has hit the nail on its’ head. But a lot of this has been fostered by the media. When you look at popular TV ‘reality’ shows like COPS from a civil libertarian point of view, you find nearly all those the police come in contact with do not know their basic rights, such as refusing an unwarranted search. Anyone who does, and stands upon those rights, is automatically presumed to be guilty; why else would he or she do so? Again, thank the media for helping to foster that “if you have nothing to hide, why not surrender your rights if it is for a ‘good’ cause?” mindset amongst the public. Add to this such abominations as random school drug testing, which only succeed at teaching kids that rights are fictions that may be overturned at some authority figure’s whim, and you create a laboratory for fascism. A whole generation has grown up like this, always having to ’stand and deliver’ their urine on command, never being able to say to nosy Gub’mint functionaries to get stuffed and bugger off. Is it any wonder why we have a police state in all but name?
Cops (and probably many other people) seem to think that all people are guilty and the world is only divided into those who have been caught and those who haven’t. And the fact that some haven’t been caught makes them even more despicable because they are “getting away with it”.
It’s hard to tell what happened just from reading this story. It’s not like cops are the only people capable of embellishing the truth.
But, it’s becoming clear that the sense of security you have in your own home is more illusion than reality. Law enforcement (and their patsy judges) don’t have any more respect for your right to be secure in your home than the criminals they claim to be protecting you from. And merely objecting when it happens is now itself a crime.
When I was a kid, my grandma would spank (or swat me) with a flyswatter when I misbehaved. Maybe the cop is Puerto Rican (or has a Puerto Rican grandmother) who did the same to him as a kid and that traumatized him for life?
If that’s the case, it’s a good thing the guy didn’t come out with a “chancleta” or a branch from a guava tree!
The real question is: WTF are the cops doing serving a warrant for a guy who’s already in custody? How many of Sacto’s finest have a hard-on for this guy and his dad? Didn’t the police that served the warrant get the memo that he was already in the pokey? Holy fucking shit what a joke.
I have been gving this some thought recently and I wonder if this is not the root of the problem.
The current generation of cops have substituted bravado for bravery (or at least confused the two).
It was a search warrant. Not an arrest warrant.
Danno49,
It was a search warrant, obviously they had arrested him and wanted to search his home/room-in-parent’s-home for evidence. That in itself isn’t wrong. But it is the type of thing that an officer should just knock on the door and when the guy’s mom answer, actually say, “M’am, we have a warrant to search the premises,” not come in like Marines in Fallujah.
And “search “means… a full military take down…how dramatic.Remember the police live in fear..so you must also. I have One US citizenship..for sale,cheap.
Alas, google imaging for “fly cop” just doesn’t come up w/ quite the right graphic.
So… Was this a “no-knock” raid?
Those folks should probably be more appreciative. I mean, they’re probably lucky to be alive and still all they see is the down side.
Geez! Am I developing a bad attitude or what?
Dave K is right–very hard to tell from the article who’s telling the truth. It’s not even clear whether the police forced entry into the house. If they did, that seems excessive for a search warrant.
Assume the police are telling the truth and the guy came at them holding a flyswatter. The flyswatter is irrelevant; the guy is built like a linebacker. If he succeeded in attacking one of the cops, either he or the cop or both could have suffered broken bones, concussion, etc. Does that justify using a taser? Hard to say, but if I were a juror I wouldn’t fault the cop for it.
Anyway, it’s just as wrong to assume the cops are always at fault as it is to assume they’re always right.
My bad all. Thank you for correcting my English that stinks.
I guess I am so ready for the worst (and who can blame me? I read the Agitator everyday!) that I saw it fully expecting to be the worst.
I’m still thinking that a flyswatter isn’t a weapon. Call me crazy.
Eric,
The Taser isnt supposed to be a pain compliance tool or a torture device. It is for less than lethal force (unless you have a health condition, then it can kill you). I suppose you could put the fly swatter on the level of closed hand which would allow the officers to use closed hand techniques or go to the baton. It seems that some departments view the use of force as a positive not a negative and if mistakes are made they creatively write their reports. That may keep police out of trouble in the short term, but in the long run you create more and more citizens who do not trust the police and will not cooperate on any level.
On another note, I saw a video yesterday of a cop who was fighting two people (and kicking their ass) when one of them started swinging a shovel. The cop just kept backing up with his gun drawn until help arrived. Nobody got shot. Nobody died. I hope the officer is given a medal.
“Woodland Police Lt. Charlie Wilts, however, said the department did nothing wrong.
“Our position is we didn’t do anything illegal or inappropriate,” he said, declining to comment on the details of the case.”
Fuck you Mr Wilts, fuck you.
“It (Taser) is for less than lethal force”
Then why do otherwise healthy people keep dieing when tased?
Yes there have been several examples.
What gets me is that the police broke into the house. That was just wrong. What in the world did they think the people could “hide” that would have anything to do with arrest of their son on rape charges? The police WANTED a confrontation. They elevated the danger of the situation by THEIR tactics! That is why they told their daughter to with-hold the information from the parents. And how would I react if the cops pulled this bull— in my house! I would be p.o.’d. They would have tazed me, too! And I have never had any trouble with the law! Come on people! Just because the old man has had run ins with the cops before, does not justify invading his house for little, to no, reason. The warrant should have been served with a knock at the door! They knew, before they went to the man’s house, that they were “going to get him”. At least that is the way I see it!