7-year-old girl killed in Detroit police raid
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/16/michigan.police.child/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Great job as always, Radley. The message is slowly getting out there that yes it can “happen to you” and you need to care when it happens to others.

I hope that the meeting was recorded and made available online. I would also hope that even if the raid video going viral w/ a million+ viewers doesn’t make national news, then a video of hundreds of angry citizens at a town meeting rightfully bitching about it might.

Maybe.

And with a little luck and due diligence, we can win this war on the war on citizens drugs.

Cheers.

TimTomato | May 14th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Sounds like at least one military man doesnt think SWAT raids are very macho.

Aww, come on! What could be more macho than attacking a sleeping family with overwhelming firepower while clad in full body armor, terrorizing their children and shooting their beloved family pet before their eyes, then handcuffing them and forcing them to the floor with a semi-automatic rifle pointed at their heads while you and your cohort wreck their home?

/snark

The police are civilians. The more people call non-cops civilians, the more that the cops feel that they are not subject to the same set of laws as everyone else.

If anything, they should be subject to more stringent application of the law.”

Great point! They can go home at night. They can quit and go find another job anytime they want to. Cops ARE civilians.

What makes this video different to me is that it was taken by the cops. Playing devil’s advocate here, if the cops show you a video, you can assume it to be edited to show them in the most positive light possible.

Oh absolutely. In fact, that’s what happened here — the cops first presented the victim’s family with a heavily edited video with no sound and with sections missing. The un-edited video was only presented once the media started making a stink (which is one reason why the work of Radley and others like him is so vital).

Do we hold dogs lives above our constitutional rights?

I just think people have a visceral reaction to the sound of a crying dog — we saw (or, really, heard) what it’s like right in that terrible moment. Even the Cheye Calvo story — which had a very similar set of facts involving the dogs — didn’t inspire the same reaction because people couldn’t see it go down.

Plus, when they shoot a family pet, it’s just hard for even the most deferential asshole to give the “that damn dog had it coming” argument, which somehow is more universally accepted when adult humans are the victims. Nobody dislikes dogs and kids though.

Information won’t cure the virus but it helps build immunity.

The police are civilians. The more people call non-cops civilians, the more that the cops feel that they are not subject to the same set of laws as everyone else.

If anything, they should be subject to more stringent application of the law.

Check your local laws first. In some jurisdictions you can video with no problem, but if you include audio you’re guilty of wiretapping or eavesdropping.