The Ogden, Utah, man who killed one police officer and wounded several others during a drug raid over marijuana plants has finally recovered from his injuries enough to speak.

Matthew David Stewart, 37, said he never heard officers identify themselves or announce they were at his home to serve a search warrant. Stewart, in an interview Friday at the Weber County Jail, said his alarm clock woke him, then he heard a crash that sounded like glass breaking.

“Some parts I remember vividly,” Stewart said of the Jan. 4 shootout. “Other parts it was like I was running on instinct.

“When you’re convinced that you are getting robbed and most likely killed by a group of armed men, your instincts kick in.”

Stewart has been charged with aggravated murder for the death of Ogden police Officer Jared Francom, who was a member of the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force. He also has been charged with eight other felony counts. Weber County Attorney Dee Smith has filed notice that he intends to seek the death penalty.

Stewart spoke with a Tribune reporter Friday during one of his two weekly 25-minute visits he’s allowed via a video teleconference system at the jail . . .

Stewart said he “had no idea” he was under investigation by the strike force. He worked a night shift at the Walmart in Riverdale and was asleep as the strike force arrived between 8 and 8:30 p.m . . .

Although Stewart said he didn’t hear officers announce themselves, he didn’t answer whether he had some indication police officers had entered his home.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “All I knew for sure is they were there to rob and kill me.”

Court documents claim Stewart was in a hiding spot as the strike force was searching the house to see if anyone was inside. Stewart then emerged from the hiding spot, court documents say, and began firing a 9 mm Beretta, first shooting Officer Shawn Grogan in the face . . .

As for Francom and the injured officers, Stewart said: “I’m totally devastated that anybody had to suffer over any of this. This never should have happened.”

Stewart thinks two bullets struck him during the shootout, but he isn’t sure. He said he can’t tell what are entrance and exit wounds and he had difficulty getting answers from his doctors and nurses at the hospital where he remained until Monday.

One bullet appears to have struck Stewart in his right hip then entered his abdomen, he said. Doctors had to remove portions of his intestines. He’s using a colostomy bag.

“I’m still having a lot of trouble dealing with the colostomy,” Stewart said. “It’s a big psychological blow, but it’s also real difficult in here.”

Another bullet struck Stewart in his left leg and damaged nerves there. Stewart said he can’t stand in one place long without “blinding pain” in the leg . . .

Near the end of his visit, Stewart implied more facts of what happened Jan. 4 will emerge.

“I’ve always been a big fan of the truth,” Stewart said. “It’s tough for me to stay silent on some issues.”

He’s also looking for an attorney.

This story is starting to look remarkably similar to the Ryan Frederick case.

Details here.

In Dallas:

According to the complaint, which made its way to Courthouse News yesterday, Cantu, a diesel mechanic, was making his lunch January 22, 2010, when he saw a few cops streaking across his yard. A deafening explosion shook the room as a flash bomb shot through the door. Nearly 20 officers crashed in.

“Get on the ground!” they allegedly ordered him. Cantu, according to the complaint, obliged and was zipcuffed. Inexplicably, the filing claims, the officers kicked and punched him until he was unconscious, lying in a pool of his own blood on the kitchen floor. Meanwhile, they searched his house and allegedly didn’t find what they were after. Cantu’s alleged butcher’s bill: a broken orbital bone, a broken nose, a concussion, traumatic brain injury, a loss of vision in his left eye and loss of hearing in his left ear. According to his complaint, the “injuries required surgical intervention and caused significant scarring and disfigurement.”

Cantu was arrested but never charged with a crime.

This one gets stranger, in that there seems to be no record of the incident anywhere. And Cantu’s lawyers didn’t respond to the Dallas Observer’s request for comment.

You now have your very own SWAT team.

“The purpose for creating the UNCC SWAT Team is to protect the community and prevent the loss of life,” said Lieutenant Josh Huffman of Campus Police. “We must be prepared to respond to high risk situations such as those tragedies that occurred at Virginia Tech and Columbine.” . . .

With all this training it would seem these men would be anxious to use it, but they’re not. Considering the conditions needed for the men to utilize their past training, many, including Baker, never hope to see that day.

“I would be the first to admit that I hope we are never placed into action,” Baker said. “However, it is critical to be prepared to respond to a variety of serious/high risk incidents that have occurred on campuses throughout the nation.”

Yes. Virginia Tech and Columbine. Now, let’s look at the numbers: Any given middle school, high school, or college in America can expect to have exactly one homicide on its campus every 12,000 years. So how long before the UNC-Charlotte SWAT team feels the need to justify its existence by expanding its mission? I predict they’re serving drug warrants and raiding frat houses within a year.

The FBI takes the isolated incident into horror-film territory.

It’s going to be a while before things get back to normal for Judy Sanchez and her three-year-old daughter.

Last Thursday, a team of FBI agents swarmed her apartment building as part of a massive citywide drug and weapons gang raid.

Trouble is, Sanchez lives in apartment 2R.

The suspect they were after is in 2F.

At 6:04 last Thursday morning, just before Sanchez’ alarm was set to go off, she heard a pounding outside her second floor apartment.

“I just happened to glance over and saw this huge chainsaw ripping down the side of my door,” she explains. “And I was freaking out. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Within moments, the chainsaw had cut through most of her door, and someone on the FBI’s arrest team kicked the rest of it in.

“That’s when I heard the clicking of a gun and I heard ‘FBI, get down!’, so I laid right on down.

If the purpose of these raids is to take dangerous people by surprise before they can shoot back at police, how exactly does taking the door down with a chainsaw fit that strategy?

Excerpts are from a recent news story. You make the call.

The problem is that they broke into the wrong house . . . Attorney Michael J. Balskus, pointed out.

“They put guns to their heads and threatened to kill them if they did not turn over marijuana,” Balskus said . . .

Judge Barbara Key cited . . the emotional trauma . . .caused [to] the occupants of the house . .

“These were innocent college students going about their business with guns held to their heads thinking they were going to die,” Hart said. “They will suffer the trauma all the rest of their lives.”

Click here to see how you did.

• Sniffing oxytocin could turn you into an extrovert. (That’s tocin, not contin.)
• Judge seals all the search warrants in that fatal Ogden drug raid.
• It’s astounding that after all the DNA exonerations we’ve seen in recent years, politicians will still grandstand about limiting death penalty appeals.
• The latest example of how preventing the “abuse” of controlled drugs often comes at the expense of people who need them.
•  Moronic libertarian-bashing of the day.
• Skip Oliva tells me that a former architect of Plan Columbia now owns the company that runs this creepy service. Seems appropriate.
• Police officer who admitted to snorting hydrocodone on the job, including in his cruiser, won’t face criminal charges.

Don’t even think about trying to smuggle your pot into space.

Along with the formidable force of standard security at Kennedy, a highly trained and specialized group of guardians protect the Center from would-be troublemakers. They are the members of the Kennedy Space Center Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and they mean business.

“We’re here 24-7,” said SWAT commander David Fernandez. “There’s never a point when SWAT is not here, so we’re ready to respond to something if needed at a moment’s notice.”

NASA contracts the 29-member team from Space Gateway Support (SGS) to protect Kennedy’s employees, visitors and national assets like the Space Shuttle from any potential threat. The SWAT team carefully prepares for special events like launch day and the arrival of astronauts and VIPs, but it also stands ready every day for possible problems that may arise.

Additionally, the SWAT team provides support to Kennedy security when special expertise may be needed to diffuse a dangerous situation. Skills like rappelling, defensive tactics, or marksmanship may be used to help keep the peace.

This seems less ridiculous than, say, the Department of Education’s SWAT team. But I still don’t understand the camouflage.

Since we spend so much time looking at excessive use of SWAT teams here, it’s worth pointing out instances where they’re used properly, and really do save innocent lives.

Here’s one such instance:

The terrifying abduction of an 11-year-old girl began with a kidnapper’s gunshots in the early-morning hours Friday as she was grabbed from her San Jose home. It ended almost five miles away and 12 hours later with a single shot, when a SWAT officer killed 42-year-old Tri Truong Le, the alleged kidnapper, during a gunbattle in a narrow staircase.

The girl, who was in the kidnapper’s arms when the gunbattle started, was miraculously almost unharmed and recovering from the trauma at a hospital, police said.

The officer who fired the fatal head shot was identified by police Friday night as Mauricio Jimenez.

Police Chief Chris Moore said the brave rescue by Jimenez and the highly trained team of special operations officers was the result of “what they are trained to do, time and time again, hoping they never have to use that skill set.”

“I am extremely grateful to our officers today for their courage and professionalism under fire,” Moore said. “Today’s events involved a lot of great work by a lot of people. Being able to reunite this little girl with her family was our number one mission.”

Note that the SWAT team didn’t resort to violence first, as is almost always the case with suspected drug offenders.

Police scoured the city looking for the girl and her kidnapper.

At 12:15 p.m., officers from the San Jose police special operations tracked him down. They quickly surrounded a two-story green-and-beige townhouse in the 3400 block of Pistachio Drive off Senter Road.

As officers set up a command post to see if they could get him to peacefully surrender, the suspect appeared in the window of the townhome with the girl in his arms and fired a handgun at officers.

The officers went into instant hostage rescue mode. They forced open the townhome front door.

Le was still holding the girl in his arms at the top of the stairs when he began firing at the officers. Jimenez fired back with his assault rifle, without hitting the girl, and killed the man.

“This type of crisis hostage situation only happens every 10 or 15 years,” said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Dwyer. “When an officer has a chance to save a hostage’s life you get one shot to make it count.”

This is why we have SWAT teams—to use violence to defuse an already violent situation. They saved this girl’s life.

• “Anything dealing with that kind of work, anything dealing with guns and taking down bad guys, I’m there. I love it.”
• Bakery creates TSA-compliant cupcake.
• The second-to-last paragraph of this piece is horrendous. There’s an ethos
• A pretty stunning series of portraits.
• Coddling Joe Arpaio.

Here’s a little visual quiz I put together to illustrate the way cops and soldiers are increasingly difficult to tell apart. There are 21 images. All police photos are from domestic U.S. police agencies. A couple of the “soldier” photos are from foreign military.  I blurred or blacked out insignias that would give away the answer.

In Maui . . .

A Kihei couple is suing the Maui Police Department in federal court after officers allegedly raided their home while executing a search warrant on the wrong address last year.

April and Norman Freeland allege that police forced them outside and searched their home for nearly half an hour, even after they knew they were at the wrong location. Attorney Sam MacRoberts of the Law Office of Philip Lowenthal said the couple still has never seen a warrant for the search.

“Everyone is supposed to feel safe inside their home, and the one person who’s supposed to protect you, the police, are the ones who invaded their home,” he said. “They feel violated.” . . .

According to the Freelands’ complaint, they were at home hosting a dinner for three guests on April 15 when they heard a loud noise from their front lanai at around 9 p.m.

When the Freelands approached the door to their lanai they found armed men who did not identify themselves but were later identified as Maui Police officers, according to the complaint.

“When Norman Freeland touched the door, the men rushed into the Freelands’ home without permission,” the complaint alleges, adding that the officers did not “knock and announce” their presence as required by state law.

The officers “screamed and yelled” as they entered the home, grabbed Norman Freeland by the wrist and forced him and his wife outside, where they were held by a man carrying a “combat-type weapon,” according to the complaint.

The men told the Freelands that they had a warrant but did not show it to them, according to the complaint. It also claims April Freeland told them that they were at the wrong house and pointed out that their address was clearly displayed on the outside fence and door. Still, the officers continued to detain them and searched the house for around 30 minutes, according to the complaint.

The officers “overturned furniture,” “searched the Freelands’ drawers” and “created a mess in the Freelands’ home,” according to the complaint.

The police say they promptly apologized once they realized they had the wrong house, and that the Freeland’s are lying about the search, the time they were detained, and that the police overturned furniture.

“If a chair got knocked down in the process of an entry, that might have happened, but it would not have been done purposely to damage any part of their home,” she said.

Maybe the Maui police are different, but that’s certainly not consistent with the many post-drug raid photos I’ve seen. In any case, there’s no need for concern, as this was just  a, well let’s just let them say it . . .

Lutey said the situation was extremely unusual, but police responded correctly as soon as it was apparent that they were at the wrong address.

“It’s certainly not our practice or policy to go to the wrong house to execute warrants,” she said. “This is the first time I’m aware of this ever happening in all the years I’ve been involved in representing the Maui Police Department.”

• Cribs: The GOP Edition.
• This is the most terrifying thing I’ve read in weeks. And I’m not even a carpenter ant.
• Incredible photos from yesterday’s cruise ship sinking in Italy.
• We may soon have our first picture of a black hole.
• Panic of the day.
• First person account of a bad interaction with the New Orleans Police Department.
• Lawsuit: Family woken, taken outside, handcuffed at gunpoint after neighbor mistakenly reports burglary.
• Responding to a rape call, Louisiana police break down the door, storm the wrong house. Sheriff calls the mistake a “boo-boo.”

So who is the bigger threat to the community in this story?

Eric Stevens and cousin Henry Dondle, both longtime Homewood residents, woke this morning along with many of their neighbors to the sound of explosions and shattering glass.

It wasn’t long before scores of officers clad in military fatigues and brandishing assault rifles ordered Stevens and Dondle to the ground where they were restrained, according to Stevens.

Now, more than 10 hours later, bits of shattered glass lay strewn about the living room and outside perimeter of the residence that Stevens shares with his 74-year-old father. The front door is splintered and at least 17 windows were broken. Heat from the flash grenades left char marks on the walls and burned through a hanging curtain. Stevens’s father, a retired Chicago police officer, was returning home from security duty when the event unfolded.

“It looks like a terrorist attack on my house,” Stevens said.

Dondle said police confiscated 20 grams of marijuana and several water pipes. He claims they had a gathering the night before and that the marijuana was for recreational use.

Derek Copp, the Grand Valley State student shot during a 2009 drug raid, has settled with the city for $144,000.

Police were serving a marijuana warrant (Kopp’s roommate was actually their suspect) when they broke into Kopp’s apartment. Deputy Ryan Huizenga’s gun “accidentally discharged,” striking Kopp in the chest. Kopp was unarmed. Huizinga was convicted of a misdemeanor for reckless discharge of a weapon, but is back on the force.

Huizinga’s lawyer initially blamed Kopp for “startling” Huizinga as Huizinga and the other officers were breaking into Kopp’s home.

. . . both on Matthew Stewart and the Ogden drug raid.

This one, from the Standard-Examiner is headlined “Suspect had a bomb,” and repeatedly, explicitly refers to a “bomb” that police detonated in Stewart’s closet. Meanwhile, this one, from the Salt Lake Tribune, quotes an ATF spokesman.

Earlier Monday, Brad Beyersdorf, public information officer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that bomb technicians detonated “explosive materials” or components found inside Stewart’s house Saturday. Beyersdorf did not specify what was found but said that “to characterize it as a bomb or device is not accurate at this time.”

Emphasis mine. The same article also quotes Stewart’s father on the “device:”

But Stewart’s father, Michael Stewart, told The Tribune he believes the chemicals found by police were used by his son to grow marijuana, which apparently spurred the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force to obtain the search warrant they attempted to execute Wednesday night on Stewart’s house at 3268 Jackson Ave. in Ogden.

Michael Stewart claims police “botched” the initial investigation into his son’s marijuana growing activities.

“It’s possible the authorities may have been relying on an informant who broke the law who was trespassing,” Michael Stewart said.

He did not specify why he believes that but said he has spoken with his son’s attorney, Randall Richards.

I got a little chill at that line about a trespassing informant. Flashbacks to the Ryan Frederick case.

Here’s the Standard-Examiner, once again:

The neighborhood was evacuated, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was called in, said a source close to the investigation speaking on condition of anonymity. The bomb couldn’t be moved and was detonated inside the home, he said.

“They also found a picture of the suspect dressed as a terrorist,” he said. “He was posing in a suicide bomber’s vest.”

The source had no detail on the type of bomb or any indications of a link with Stewart and any terrorist group. “I have no idea what any of it means,” he said.

And back to the Tribune:

But Stewart’s father said the photo actually shows his son in a Halloween costume that he wore three or four years ago.

“He was going to the party as Osama bin Laden,” the father explained.

Amazing the different impression you if you read just one of the two stories. Once again, we know very little so far. But it’s unfortunate that (a) someone “close to the investigation” is feeding the Standard Examiner bad information, (b) that person is requesting—and being given—anonymity, and (c) the Standard-Examiner is running with the bad information, apparently without bothering to get confirmation.

The DA, by the way, has announced that he’ll be seeking the death penalty.

I haven’t had time to write about the awful drug raid in Ogden, Utah just yet. But the gist is that a veteran who apparently grew marijuana to self-medicate for anxiety and depression apparently shot and killed one cop and wounded several others during a nighttime raid on his home. This is the same narcotics task force, by the way, that shot and killed a man wielding a golf club five seconds after breaking down his door during a botched meth raid last year. That cop was forgiven for his mistake. Heat of battle, volatile situation, mistakes were made—you know the drill.

Perhaps we’ll soon learn that Matthew Stewart was a big-time drug dealer hell-bent on taking down a team of cops. We don’t know enough yet to say anything for certain. But from what we do know, it doesn’t appear that way. The guy had no prior criminal record. And the article below suggests that the authorities are already setting expectations for the possibility that Stewart was just a guy who grew for his own use.

Here’s a DEA flack defending the raid and pointing out the (very real, though not in the way he’d have you believe) dangers of pot smoking.

The head of Utah’s Drug Enforcement Administration spoke with FOX 13 about the recent Ogden shooting that left one officer dead and five other officers wounded. There has been evidence gathered that may point to the shooting suspect maintaining a marijuana grow operation.

DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Smith has been involved in the war on drugs all over the globe. He is quick to dismiss any arguments about legalizing drugs like marijuana, especially after fellow officers were shot and killed, presumably trying to take down a so-called indoor marijuana grow operation.

“They’re heroes, they’re protecting the public!” said Smith . . .

Army veteran Matthew David Stewart, 37, is the suspected triggerman. Police will not say exactly why the strike force raided his home, but Stewart’s father says his son has issues and may have been growing marijuana in his home to “self-medicate.”

Smith says that, even if Stewart had allegedly used marijuana to only self-medicate, that his drug use is not a “victimless crime.”

“It’s not a legalization issue, it’s not an immigration issue, it’s a public safety issue. If someone is willing to shoot it out with police, who is self-medicating on marijuana, what’s to say he’s not willing to walk out his house and start shooting his neighbors?” Smith says.

Jesus. How about the fact that he hadn’t harmed a soul until armed government agents broke down his door? Reading these articles is like slamming your head against the wall. People keep dying. And the drug warriors keep taking that as confirmation that they need to double down on the policies that are exactly why people keep dying.

You wonder if Smith’s even capable of comprehending the possibility that it’s the tactics that caused this tragedy, not pot’s sinister—and completely unsupported by any scientific research—effect of turning unassuming veterans into cold-blooded killers. That is, I wonder if people like Smith really believe their own bullshit?

Smith says the shooting case will be reviewed and he hopes lessons will be learned to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.

Oh, there are lessons. But they won’t be what Smith and other drug warriors take from this awfulness. Which is why you aren’t going to “prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.”

No. So long as we have people like Agent Smith in positions of power, the pile of bodies—both cop and citizen—will only get larger.

MORE: Stewart’s father is now speaking out. Here he criticizes the tactics used in the raid.

After four years in the military, Matthew returned to Ogden and got a job as a security officer for the IRS. But he began having problems with depression and anxiety. He didn’t want to use prescription drugs, his father said, and chose to self-medicate with marijuana that he grew.

He eventually left the IRS and got a warehouse job at Walmart, working graveyard shift. About two months ago, he broke up with his girlfriend.

“He was a good guy,” his father said. “He worked hard. He served his country. He tried to live his life his way. He didn’t think he was hurting anybody.”

The Stewarts say they know very little about the Wednesday shootout at their son’s Ogden residence at 3268 Jackson Ave.

“We’re devastated by this whole thing,” Michael Stewart said.

The Stewarts have not been allowed to see their son at an undisclosed hospital. And they don’t know what happened when the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force entered the house with a search warrant.

Michael Stewart said his son kept a handgun for protection. But he said that his son’s shotgun had been in his parents’ possession for years and he didn’t have any automatic weapons.

Michael and Sonja Stewart say they can’t understand why the strike force would execute a search warrant the way that it did, knocking down the door and rushing into the residence….

If Matthew Stewart was sleeping or listening to music in his back room, there is a good chance they would not have heard police announce their arrival.

“If they had done some research, why not arrest him at Walmart?” Michael Stewart said.

“I’m hoping the citizens of this state can look at what’s happened here and rethink the drug war,” he added. “Are we losing the drug war?”

• New Florida Marlins acquisition Mark Buerhle can’t live in Miami because he own an 18-month old Staffie, and Miami-Dade County has a dumb ban on “pit bulls.”  I explain the numbskullery of breed-specific legislation here.
• Ken at Popehat draws the line between recording police, take-down notices, and SOPA.
• Alabama minister sues after his photo was posted to the local sheriff’s “most wanted” web page. It was posted after a tip from an informant.
• U.K. couple cleared in the midst of a shaken baby trial after post-mortem exam reveals the child had rickets.
• Veteran photographer threatened by L.A. cop for violating the cop’s “right to privacy.”
• Tumblr of the moment: Ron Paul meets Ron Swanson.
• The threatening letter that the FBI anonymously sent to Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Seattle policy on dash cam videos: We will happily release the police dash cam videos you have requested for your lawsuit . . . just as soon as the statute of limitations expires.
• The historian Newt Gingrich is apparently unaware that Washington and Jefferson grew hemp. He also seems to think we had a drug war back then. That, or he thinks Washington and Jefferson were just shooting up pot smokers, vigilante-style.
• Utah cop is killed, several others are injured after a shootout during a drug raid. The suspect had no prior criminal record, save for a traffic misdemeanor. The police haven’t yet said if they found any drugs.
• Citing prosecutorial misconduct, a Texas judge has vacated the conviction of man who has served 31 years for rape.
• Illinois police officer writes woman a traffic ticket, then looks her up in the DMV database and asks her out on a date.
• Houston man arrested, jailed for 36 hours for photographing an arrest is looking for representation for a lawsuit.

This is taken from the SWAT team page for the Barton County, Kansas Sheriff’s Department.

The glib sloganeering about how they apply violence is bad enough. But note that they chose the word use, instead of sell or deal.

Thanks to Eapen Thampy for the tip.

Good on Sgt. Parker, as well as the cops who treated him as if he were anyone else.

But it’s unfortunate, and telling, that he’d feel compelled to send this email.

A Maine State Police sergeant accused of drunken driving has asked his law enforcement colleagues not to retaliate against other officers in the department for arresting him.

Sgt. Robin Parker of Sanford, an instructor at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, was arrested Dec. 18 on the Maine Turnpike near the New Gloucester toll plaza, according to a previous report in the Bangor Daily News. Parker is on paid administrative leave. Last week, Parker sent a mass email to members of the law enforcement community taking responsibility for the charge against him and asking his colleagues not to blame the officers involved in arresting him. Parker was not specific about what, if anything, has taken place.

“What I have done to my family, friends and our State Police family has saddened me deeply,” wrote Parker, according to a copy of his letter provided to the Bangor Daily News anonymously. “There is one other thing that has saddened me and that is what I’m hearing around the department. I understand that there are many that are very upset that I was processed by our own and perhaps not ‘treated differently.’ Although this anger may stem from a respect and appreciation for me as a person and Trooper, they are not healthy.”

Parker said the troopers involved in arresting him were the “professionals that we all strive to be.”

• Puppycide. 
• And another one, this time a ferocious Jack Russell Terrier.
• Why Ken White matters. Be sure to read White’s excellent dissection of the culture of prosecutorial misconduct in the criminal justice issue of Reason.
• How many things wrong with this picture can you find?
• Police union fights to reinstate cop who was driving 143 mph with a .089 BAC.
• I always thought this was a joke. It apparently really exists. (It’s also available in a can, but only on your birthday.)
• How to make a Thing in a Jar.
• Headline of the day. (Bonus points: Santorum retweeted it.)
• 2012 will bring the end of Happy Hour in Utah.
• Indiana lawmaker wants to hand out fines for poor renditions of the national anthem.

This is what 54-year-old Tomas Torres looked like after Connecticut State Police served a drug warrant on his home. From the New Haven Independent:

A state police raid on a Winthrop Avenue apartment netted no drugs or arrests—but it left Tomas Torres hospitalized and his apartment in tatters.

Torres, who’s 54, said state cops broke down the door of his first-floor Winthrop Avenue apartment Wednesday afternoon, punched him in the face, stomped on his head, and then laughed at him as they tossed his apartment looking for drugs.

Police said he tried to jump out the window, then resisted their efforts to detain and handcuff him.

They had the wrong guy, said Torres. The police found nothing in his apartment and released him to go to the hospital, where he said he was told he has a fractured arm, he said.

Here comes the comedy.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, spokesman for the state police, said he had no record of state police action anywhere in New Haven on Wednesday. That doesn’t mean that a search warrant wasn’t executed, he said. He’d have a record if an arrest were made, he said.

“That sounds a little suspect right off the bat,” Vance said when told of Torres’ complaints. “We don’t beat people up as a regular course of business.”

The Independent wryly links the second part of Vance’s quote to this story, about another Connecticut state drug cop who recently beat someone up.

“I know that the task force had a lawful search and seizure warrant for that apartment,” [police spokesman] Hoffman said. He said he wasn’t present at the police action. Cops have to convince a judge that they have evidence that drugs are being sold at a location in order to obtain a warrant.

Hoffman said Torres tried to jump out the window when police showed up. Then he resisted detention when police pulled him back in, he said.

Cops always knock and announce when they execute warrants; Torres must have known police were at the door, Hoffman argued.

Police did not charge Torres with any offense . . .

“They way that guy was, they didn’t need to go that far,” said someone with knowledge of the incident. “They had enough guys. They must have had at least seven. I’m talking about big guys, husky, [handling] an old man. Even the short guy [the state cop Torres said hit him]—he was stocky.”

Here’s Torres’ account:

He was cooking pasteles and watching “Caso Cerrado” on TV when he heard someone pounding on his door.

Torres thought it was the crack dealers or users who sometimes hang out in the hallway of the building along with prostitutes. He said he keeps a pool stick behind the door to protect himself because he’s worried for his safety with the dealers hanging around.

He asked who was there. No answer.

Torres looked out the window and saw cop cars. As he moved to the door, it flew open and cops poured in. Someone punched him in the face. They shoved him to the ground. One state cop, a short man, ground his boot into Torres’ face as he lay on the floor.

The cops kept asking him, “Where are the drugs?” Torres said he didn’t have any drugs.

The cops put Torres in a chair and handcuffed him, still asking where the drugs were. They laughed as they teased a cop who had gotten Torres’ blood on his jeans.

The cops started claiming they had fought with him because he had the pool stick nearby and it posed a threat to their safety . . .

His sister, who lives nearby, expressed outrage at the incident.

“He’s a human,” she said. “Not an animal.”

Well, no. He is—or at least was—a drug suspect. That probably does give him more rights than animals, who are summarily executed in these raids. But it still puts him far short of “human.”

Thanks to Mike Magnus for the link.

(Photo credits to the Independent.)

Andrew Grossman has more on the case against Gibson Guitars:

Gibson’s crime, according to an affidavit supporting the search warrant, was the illegal importation of Indian-grown ebony veneers, intended for use as fret boards. A hardwood prized for its appearance and durability, ebony is sustainably raised by certified growers, and Indian law doesn’t bar its harvesting or export. What Indian law does require is that ebony veneers be finished within the country, by local labor, to a thickness of less than 6 millimeters. Gibson’s wood, it happens, was a bit thicker — nearly a full centimeter.

On that basis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents invaded Gibson’s facilities, bringing its operations to a standstill.

(*A commenter correctly points out that this was a raid by armed federal agents, but not a SWAT team.)

The Daily Beast and the Center for Investigative Journalism have put out a new report on police militarization, focusing primarily on police departments stockpiling battle gear in the decade since 9/11. There’s some great reporting here, particularly on the absurd Homeland Security outlays to states and police departments across the country. There’s also a cool interactive map. (I love that the feds gave Oklahoma $2 million for port security.)

And while it’s great to see this issue get more coverage, I do have a couple quibbles. First and foremost, there’s no mention at all of the drug war’s role in all of this. The report does give a few examples of botched drug raids carried out by tactical teams sporting military gear (the Jose Guerena and Cheye Calvo raids in particular). But other than briefly noting that those raids were part of drug investigations, the report never revisits the drug war.

It seems odd to leave the drug war out entirely. It’s true that homeland security spending has accelerated the move toward militarization. But things were already moving pretty quickly in that direction. And that’s because of the drug war. The militarization trend began a good 20 years before September 11, when the Reagan administration ramped up the war on drugs both with rhetoric and with specific policies. By 9/11, SWAT teams had already saturated the country, and the number of annual paramilitary raids had soared (from 3,000 in the early 1980s to about 40,000 by the early 2001). And also by 9/11, millions of pieces of military equipment had already been transferred from the Pentagon to local police departments across the country by way of the Defense Department’s surplus giveaway program.

A few more stats, courtesy of criminologist Peter Kraska:

• In the early 1980s, the average city deployed a SWAT team once per month. By 1995, it was seven times per month.
• In the mid-1980s, less than half of U.S. cities with 50,000 or more people had a SWAT team. By 1997, more than 90 percent had one.
• Between 1985 and 1996, the number of towns between 25,000 and 50,000 people with a SWAT team increased by 157 percent.

The other reason why the drug war is a critical component of this issue is actually contained in The Daily Beast piece, though you have to look for it. DHS gives out these grants, and local police departments justify all this gear, as part of the war on terror. But as the piece indicates, it’s rather unlikely that Fargo will ever face the sort of Mumbai-style terror attack defenders of these policies say shows why all the battle gear is necessary.

But of course now you have all this stuff. You might as well use it. And so it gets used for far more mundane police operations. Chief among these is the service of drug warrants. (See Calvo.) Using all that cool gear on drug raids is further incentivized by federal anti-drug grants and the possibility of asset forfeiture lucre, whereas keeping the gear idle until there’s an actual terrorist attack or school shooting can get expensive.  (Most of this stuff needs to be maintained.) Let’s also not forget that since 9/11, the federal government has gone to great pains to tie drug use and drug distribution to terrorism. Such is why the feds will take a SWAT team to raid a medical marijuana clinic without much pushback. The clinic poses no threat, to the agents or anyone else. You could send a couple bureaucrats with clipboards to shut these down (or you could not shut them down at all!). It’s insane overkill. But we’ve so come to associate SWAT teams with drug raids, the disproportionate use of force barely registers with most of the public. Which is why we’re now seeing SWAT teams used to raid neighborhood poker games, suspected cockfighters, even for regulatory inspections.

The article also quotes and leave unchecked statements from law enforcement officials about criminals armed with war-like weapons, citing school shootings like Virginia Tech, and everyone’s favorite “the criminals have us outgunned” anecdote, the 1997 North Hollywood shootout. I’ve already addressed these arguments in the past (two examples here and here). And in 2007, I asked former LAPD narcotics detective David Doddridge about all of these heavily armed drug dealers:

RB: Police groups say that drug dealers are armed to the teeth. Heavily-armed, military-style SWAT teams are necessary to counter this high-powered weaponry.

Doddridge: I’ve heard that. And it’s just not true. In 21 years at LAPD, I never once saw any assault weapons on a drug raid. Drug dealers prefer handguns, which are easier to conceal. Occasionally you’ll find a shotgun. But having a bunch of high-powered weaponry around is just too much trouble for them. It’s too much for them to worry about.

I’m sure the sentiment isn’t unanimous, but an awful lot of cops I’ve talked to agree.

You could certainly argue that potential terrorists and school shooters are much more likely to be heavily armed. Which is why those are exactly the sorts of situations where SWAT teams are appropriate. But that doesn’t mean such once in a lifetime events justify handing out tanks and APVs to Fargo and Fon du Lac. Prolonged, Mumbai/Beslan/Columbine style attacks are  (a) extremely rare, and (b) not how this equipment is used in the vast, vast majority of police agencies across the country. (The SWAT team did show up at Columbine, but they didn’t go in. They determined the scene inside the school was too dangerous.)

Since I’ve spent the bulk of this post poking at the report, I’ll just conclude by emphasizing that this is still really excellent stuff. Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz have added a wealth of important information to this issue. The grant distribution information in particular is really great, and something I’ve been trying to pry out of DHS for about a year. So an envious tip of my journalistic cap to them on that. Learning to navigate over, around, under, and through the FOIA gatekeepers can be a hell of a challenge.