Comments on: Here We Go Again

By: deadcenter

deadcenter — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:21:00 +0000

I think it’s just a percentage thing, if 10% of 100 raids go bad you have 10 bad raids, if 10% of a 1,000 raids go bad, you have 100 bad raids. And, the number of raids has been increasing every year.

By: maxnnr

maxnnr — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:39:51 +0000

I’m sure the whole thing was totally justified and the shooters should get a medal; it takes a lot of courage to shoot unarmed people. /s

By: Matt Moore

Matt Moore — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:14:35 +0000

Is it just me, or have there been an unusually high number of botched raids in the news of late?

Key word: in the news. I think they’re happening at the same rate as before, but people are finally starting to notice. And a certain Mr. Balko can take a lot of credit for raising the profile of reports on paramilitary policing.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:22:04 +0000

All three professors quoted in the article are former police officers.

Clearly objective sources with no biases at all…nope. Nothing to see here, move along…move along.

By: chris horton

chris horton — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:29:10 +0000

“attest to the importance of using overwhelming force while serving drug warrants, and who talk about the “disadvantage” police face when they bust in unannounced to a house with a battering ram, flash grenades, body armor, and weapons.”

Yeah, Uh-huh. That sure is a “disadvantage.” What do they expect by using such Nazi Tactics? Nixon’s failed war on drugs he started decades ago hasn’t done anything to stop it. Billions have been wasted though. Go figure.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:52:59 +0000

Propaganda at its best. How to make a botched raid not look like a botched raid. The article doesn’t make clear that neither Sacred Heart University nor Housatonic Community College are not law schools, so you kind of get the impression that these “professors” actually know something about law, when they are probably more likely just seasoned ex-cops who know a lot about kicking down doors and coordinating their stories for the lawyers and juries. So what you hear is the official party line from an ex-cop, and you know what that is. (Ahem — impenetrable blue curtain — ahem.) And one of the cops involved saved a person from choking while he was working at a fundraiser (in an unrelated event)! WTF. It seems like it’s the cops that actually do the writing for the Connecticut Post and not the newspaper reporters.

By: Zeb

Zeb — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:35:09 +0000

So this raid was basically just for a possession offense? A small tin of crack (which had probably already been smoked if my stereotypes of crack smokers are correct) justifies this kind of force?

By: crack

crack — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:27:54 +0000

Actually Radley, you’re the person I’d go to to find out if it’s an unusually high amount. So if you think it is, it likely is.

By: Highway

Highway — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:14:10 +0000

Well, is it ‘unusually high’, or is it an increasing trend, as more and more departments get more and more ‘militarization’, and more and more of this ‘training’ gets out, so they use it for more and more warrants, where in the past they wouldn’t have gone for the farcical ‘show of overwhelming force’, and instead done something reasonable, like just arrest a guy.

We can hope for ‘unusually high’, but I rather fear it’s the other.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:18:41 +0000

“Is it just me, or have there been an unusually high number of botched raids in the news of late?”

Practice makes perfect.

By: Skip Oliva

Skip Oliva — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:13:30 +0000

“Is it just me, or have there been an unusually high number of botched raids in the news of late?”

Well it is an election year…