Police: Oops, wrong house.

K

kkb

New member
Just how often does this happen?

From CBS News:
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jun. 7, 2007
(AP) Annapolis police raided the wrong apartment Wednesday night, using flash grenades and kicking a resident in the groin before they realized their mistake, police and the family said.
...
Silvia Bernal, 30, told The (Annapolis) Capital that about 15 officers burst through the front door of her apartment while she was cooking dinner about 8:20 p.m. She said the officers kicked her husband in the groin while she fled into a bedroom and barred the door with her body.
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Full story at link

I fear I'd make a wrong threat assessment were I in this situation.
 
I fear I'd make a wrong threat assessment were I in this situation.
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What would that be
Courts have repeatedly found in favor of homeowners who shot officers in instances of wrong address no knocks
 
Is it really that hard to stake the place out with binoculars for an hour or so before the raid? I mean unless this was an episode of 24 they wouldn't need to have the guy that exact second would they?
 
I'm not so much asking Why or How this sort of thing happens but more a question of frequency.

There have been a few news stories regarding mis-adventures with warrants etc. I was wondering if these were "Tip-of-the-iceberg" or "Just-so-seldom" to get mentioned in the press and wanted to find out what the statistics are.
 
Now I want someone to go to these people and tell them how all of this was -their- government making them -feel- safer :barf:
 
Shoot first, asks questions later.

If some one, or some few, burst into my house without warning I will shoot first and ask questions later. Even back in the old days here in Texas, before I could legally carry a firearm I carried one anyway. Better that I go to jail than see my family die at the hands of criminals.
 
pax, I had never heard of Corey Maye. That's a sad story.

This is a weird situation.. could happen to anyone. At least no more violent force was used than a kick to the groin, I guess.

Do cops normally kick men in the groin to take them down? That's kind of ridiculous. I guess they thought they were dealing with some dangerous people.
 
The person in charge of these raids should be charged with the crime(s) they committed. There is no excuse for breaking and entering into someone's home without a warrant. If you have the WRONG house you DON'T have a warrant. If someone dies, murder charges should be filed.

This irresponsible police work makes me sick.

Sad thing is many of us would shoot thinking its a robbery - we would probably be killed.
 
If you dress in all black and hide your face, smash down the door and enter with drawn guns,

YOU ARE NOT POLICE, YOU ARE DOMESTIC TERRORISTS.

Decent, honest LEO need to police their own ranks!
 
I agree. There was a thread on "the high road" about the "militarization" of the police.

My own comments from post #43

Having said that, I have absolutely no problem with the police having military grade equipment. As I have stated many times the job is SERIOUS and the most important thing to any cop is to go home, unharmed, at the end of the day if at all possible. It's no damn video game and there is no "reset" switch if things go wrong.

HOWEVER

I do have a real problem with departments that don't "civilianize" (for lack of a better term) the equipment that they do get.

Police officers should be in a civilian uniform that obviously indicates they are members of a police force (not some military ops unit). Vehicles and equipment used by the police need to be painted appropriately in department colors the same as their cruisers and such for the same reason.

I used to get really annoyed with fellow officers who wanted to "play soldier" and had a terriffic Sergeant who always clamped down on that behavior the instant he found out about it. We got LOTS of reminders about the goal of our job (protect and serve the law abiding citizens of our jurisdiction).
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Tell that to Corey Maye.
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OK I will after you reread my post
Courts have repeatedly found in favor of homeowners who shot officers in instances of wrong address no knock
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s

Police had a warrant for his home, and also claim that they did knock.

No where did I say that courts had ruled that it was OK to shoot a cop with a stolen gun while they were serving a valid warrant on your home

But while we're at it why don't you call up Mario Barcia and tell him that he can't get away with it;)
 
Courts have repeatedly found in favor of homeowners who shot officers in instances of wrong address no knocks
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Um, well, the ones who live to go on trial, yes... Several no-knocks in the Austin area a few years ago ended up with homeowners DRT because they were unaware of who they were facing, and pulled a gun. Not saying it isn't the right thing to do, but it's pretty high risk. Once you start shooting, you've just confirmed to the police that you're a BG, even if they are in the wrong house. Same thing happened not long ago northwest of Houston. Kid pulls a knife because a no-knock is going on, to defend his mom and sister...he's dead. Cops were no-billed.

I don't know what the answer here is except for the police to stop no-knocks. As long as they continue this practice, this kind of mistake will happen, and law abiding homeowners and renters will end up injured or dead (as will police).

Springmom
 
Um, well, the ones who live to go on trial, yes... Several no-knocks in the Austin area a few years ago ended up with homeowners DRT because they were unaware of who they were facing, and pulled a gun. Not saying it isn't the right thing to do, but it's pretty high risk. Once you start shooting, you've just confirmed to the police that you're a BG, even if they are in the wrong house. Same thing happened not long ago northwest of Houston. Kid pulls a knife because a no-knock is going on, to defend his mom and sister...he's dead. Cops were no-billed.
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Thank you for proving my point
Um, you can go back and actually read the comment that I responded to if you like
 
That Corey Maye case is unbelievably disturbing. The man is scheduled for execution.

No criminal background, a child in the home that he apparently went to protect from the intruders. It sounds like a rough area. Why would he not assume he was being robbed or gang-banged?

Here is an interesting article on it: Railroaded onto death row?

"What what would you have done? You have no criminal record. You aren't a dangerous person. You have no reason to think police would break into your home in the middle of the night. You awake to find that your home is under attack. The door flies open. Do you wait to see who it is? Or do you defend your family?"
 
If Tookie Wilson's execution bothered you, Maye's should terrify you. And if you're troubled by Waco, you should be outraged by Prentiss.
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Comparing the Tookie Williams execution to Waco destroys the minimal credibility this reporter had with me
 
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