Radley Balko, policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute and columnist for Foxnews.com, who always has an eye out for these types of stories, writes on his “The Agitator” blog about a few more mistaken police raids that have taken place recently, one with near deadly results.
What they all have in common, besides shoddy police work and little sympathy for the innocents affected by their rough tactics, is an inability or indeed unwillingness to learn from mistakes made:
When a few cops do something stupid, no, it oughtn’t reflect poorly on all police officers. But when the cops who do behave poorly aren’t held accountable, it does and should cast suspicion on all police officers. It’s the lack of accountability and the “we’re above the law” mentality that’s troubling, and that undermines the public’s trust in policing in general.
No doubt. My question though is how much coverage do these types of stories get on local and national television in the U.S. - whether it be the news or drama shows - compared to the images and sounds of successful raids followed by bags of drugs on a table in front of smiling police and politicos? Are the botched raids by heavily armed police commonly seen by those not affected as the price to pay for the downing of drug dealers?
Here is a summary of the three cases:
1) Alexander “Sasha” Alhovsky, a face-painter and balloon-animal maker from Manhattan, left a rainbow-striped balloon pump behind at Starbucks one day, which a worker tipped police off about. Four days later police jumped him as he was riding his bike home from Central Park. They proceeded to stick two guns in his face, manhandle and verbally abuse him, and then throw him in jail for four hours. He got released after simply explaining that it was just a pump he used for work and not a bomb as police suspected. Forget an apology from police though. Instead, a written statement from the Police Chief was released: “It appears the officers took prudent steps to handle what may have been a dangerous situation.” But wouldn’t a prudent step have been to first verify whether the air pump was a bomb?
2) In the case of Steven Blackman police did apologise and plan to repair the extensive damage they caused him, but it has still been hard for him to resume his regular life. Police had mistakenly raided his house in Fort Worth, Texas when in fact the alleged drug dealer they were looking for lived elsewhere; Blackman luckily wasn’t in at the time. The basis for the raid was a tip from a “reliable confidential informant” that hadn’t been corroborated. An investigation is being undertaken as to why this could have occurred. And while they admit their mistake in targeting the house, they will not publicly accept that the SWAT team themselves did anything wrong in their execution of the operation.
3) Kenneth Jamar of Huntsville, Alabama ended up in hospital in a serious condition after being shot four times by a SWAT team during a raid on his house, despite his nephew being the target, not him. While an investigation is under way into the shooting, which police claim occurred after they “were met with aggression” by a gun-wielding man, the four SWAT members have already been assigned to normal duties.
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