Police raid wrong house, gun pulled on 13-year-old child

According to the source it wasn't the wrong house, it was bad info:

"We do like to think that we get it correct most of the time but this was an anonymous tip that came through Crime Stoppers and we had another source actually, two tips, within about an hour, that the individual was at that house," said IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson.

Now let's look at this logically. What if the perp WAS at that house terrorizing the family. He could have been in another room. Not going in armed may have been deadly for the cops, then the family. I know this is ATS and there's a lack of respect for the police here but c'mon, think about this.

reply to post by BigTimeCheater


Actually, for a given value of good, that is good action.

They have a duty to each other that they perceive as outweighing their duty to the populous. Although they should not hide each others' crimes, there is something respectable about that kind of unity.

I am not defending this action at all, nor am I actually defending the wrong action of cops. I'm just saying, put yourself into their shoes, and you'll see why even good cops can do bad things like that.

And for the most part, on the national average... Cops are good people. Or at least morally neutral people. They are, with a sadly large number of exceptions, a group of genuine, flawed human beings who want to protect the general populous and their own families at great risk of life and limb.

reply to post by Xiamara


Oh, well, Canada, that doesn't count. You guys are all sunshine and rainbows, and corruption is taking extra pudding!

/joke

(but you are all afraid of the dark, right?)

reply to post by thecinic


But you were taught how to accurately handle a gun against a trained law enforcement officer at age 13?

Your family is scary.

Originally posted by intrepid
According to the source it wasn't the wrong house, it was bad info:

"We do like to think that we get it correct most of the time but this was an anonymous tip that came through Crime Stoppers and we had another source actually, two tips, within about an hour, that the individual was at that house," said IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson.

Now let's look at this logically. What if the perp WAS at that house terrorizing the family. He could have been in another room. Not going in armed may have been deadly for the cops, then the family. I know this is ATS and there's a lack of respect for the police here but c'mon, think about this.

Or there was no "anonymous tip" and the cops are just covering their buts.

There's always 2 sides to every story.

Even worse if the "tips" were anonymous! We are moving into a time where peeps are being encouraged to call in tips and report "suspicious activities". Not to mention pranksters or enemies of the family out to cause trouble ... I tend to agree with the poster who pointed out they are covering their butts.

Regardless, I don't think it is rational to point a gun on an unarmed 13-year-old girl. Cops do suck, reason being they hire lower IQ psychopaths and make life miserable for anyone with a functioning moral compass who eventually quit the dept. My mom worked for the NYPD for 20 years. She taught me never to call the police under almost any circumstance. There are good cops, sure, but it is too heavily weighted in the other direction, IMO.

It often amuses me at the armchair bravado in threads like this. How many times do I have to read about someone 'being prepared' for this to happen to them, as if they are permanently staring at their doors waiting for the cops to bust in with weapon in hand. How many of you actually are sitting there now, watching your front door with a weapon at your side?

And then to top it off, it is followed with mutiple replies about how every officer is corrupt and should be victimized by the homeowners.

I feel very sorry for each person who has made these statements here.
I would not want to be a family member of any officer that was 'shot first' while the shooter was asking questions later because of a perceived violation of their 4th amendemnt rights. ( by the way this was a leagl raid, with warrants in hand, issued by a magistrate, so actually your 4th amendment rights were not violated).

Originally posted by Solasis

And for the most part, on the national average... Cops are good people. Or at least morally neutral people. They are, with a sadly large number of exceptions, a group of genuine, flawed human beings who want to protect the general populous and their own families at great risk of life and limb.

We each have our opinions.

Good people do not go into a career that enables them to wield the power of imprisonment over others.

Good people do not go into a career that basically turns them into a revenue agent for the jurisdiction.

Good people do not harass an allegedly free people for made up crimes with no victim.

Police departments do not want intelligent individuals, they want mindless drones who will do the bidding of those in power. They want mindless degenerates who will actively raise money for their department through the issuance of citations.

Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected

reply to post by GirlGenius


The person they are looking for is dangerous. They have to take any tip on that seriously. As to the tipsters anonymity, that's how Crime Stoppers works.

You wouldn't call the cops if you were in a situation that was beyond your control and you were in danger. I highly doubt that. Who would you call? Ghostbusters?

As to those that say that there wasn't any tips and the cops are covering for themselves. Again, look at this logically. How did they get the warrant? The judge has to have something to go off of to issue one.

reply to post by BigTimeCheater


Good people do go into a profession which seems to give them the ability to take dangerous criminals off of the streets.

Good people do go into a profession which they feel will allow them to protect their daughters and sons from rapists and murderers.

Good people do go into a profession whose intent is to protect people from grievous harm.

Good people don't go onto a forum and decry an intent to protect as an intent to wield power.

reply to post by Solasis


I'd like to add:

Good people defend the good cops, and acknowledge the bad.

Good people don't only look at the bad and try to find the silver lining.

And no I'm not scared of the dark but mimes are scary....

reply to post by Solasis


One does not need to be a cop to protect their family.

If the cop is so interested in protecting his family, perhaps he should spend time at home and not on 10 or 12 hour shifts as a cop.

The police have no obligation to protect anyone who isnt in their custody, so the whole protect and serve thing is just a nice catchy little motto designed to placate the sheep who are being fleeced.

Do you honestly think the power that comes with being a cop isnt an attraction to a large number of cops?

reply to post by intrepid

The person they are looking for is dangerous. They have to take any tip on that seriously.

Yes, but they need to do their homework first. Not terrorizing an innocent family should be top priority.

You wouldn't call the cops if you were in a situation that was beyond your control and you were in danger. I highly doubt that. Who would you call? Ghostbusters?

My exact words were, "My mom worked for the NYPD for 20 years. She taught me never to call the police under almost any circumstance." But, no, I would not call the police. Their response time is too slow to help in a real emergency. Anyone who is counting on the police to help in an emergency is going to be disappointed or worse.

However, I live very rurally and, thankfully, there are no police around here so I couldn't call them even if I wanted to. We have a sheriff's department and they are mostly nice, regular people. No busting into homes around here. In this area, every home has lots (and I mean lots) of firearms and ammo. I don't see anyone infringing our 4th amendment anytime soon. Folks in the city are just prey, IMO. We left NY eight years ago and thank God we did. I didn't realize, at that time, that things were going to go downhill quite so fast.

And I am looking at it logically. Their info was bad and this was a failure that should not have occurred.

reply to post by GirlGenius


You know what sucks about the boonies? Dial up..

No broadband unless you get satellite internet.

Other then that if you got dsl or cable your not in THAT rural of an area.

Stuff does happen so if you can not call the cops (and they be there in a reasonable amount of time) the only option you have is to defend yourself...

I can't figure out how they got a search warrant?

Did they have a search warrant?
(I will re-read but either I missed it, or there was none.)

If a stinkfist cop tries to enter my house without a warrant, well yeah I can't type more because it makes me a bad guy.

And I agree, cops are ALL 100% bad from my perspective. They continue to work for an entity that is the US Government, they condone my rights being stripped. All of them condone it, or they would quit their job.

Alas security is way more important to freedom to them. That makes them "less than" as Americans.

So yeah, put your life on the line. That appeal to emotion won't work on me, because you put your life on the line to take away my rights.

Oh, and nothing will happen to the cops. Nothing ever happens to the cops, they get red wrists from all the slapping, other than that though. (Based on my small experiences, I am sure there must be one cop that got what they deserved when they broke the law.)

reply to post by thecinic


I have dsl. We were the first house to get dsl in the area, lol. I work online and was always calling my provider to ask when it would get here. They gave it to us first to shut me up, no doubt

We have 140 acres, which is kinda average for these parts. My nearest neighbor is a mile away, maybe a little closer as the crow flies. The farm we bought did not have piped water until the mid 90s! We do not have trash pick-up and no sewer. Folks around here burn trash and pipe their sewage into ditches. There are no building codes, for now. I would call it extremely rural. And quite a difference for me having grown up in NYC.

It's inconvenient in some ways, but I love it out here. I really appreciate the lack of police and regulations.

reply to post by Solasis


The only protection you need to defend yourself and your family, is the understanding of the 2nd Amendment,
The understanding of the 4th Amendment....and the means to purchase a weapon..refer to sentence #1.

There is no need for cops when the only ones they can in fact protect are the ones in custody. Everything else is fair game.

Nothing new.

4 or 5 years ago cops raided a house I was in, looking for a couple guys who hadn't lived there in weeks.

Came in with guns, red laser sights, full task force armor, screaming, kicking doors down. And what did they find? Me, a 15 year old, and a 10 year old, who I was watching over.

Made us lay down, stepped on us, handcuffed us for a couple hours while they ransacked the house - even after we told them the people they are looking for don't live here. They tore apart furniture, dumped drawers out, the mess took the entire night and entire next day to clean.

They confiscated a baseball cap that said "Police" on it that the 10 year old had.

Then they pulled me over when I tried to leave after I helped clean the place up, and continued pulling me over and searching me and my car for weeks on end whenever they saw me.

So in short, yeah, I can believe this story.

Originally posted by againuntodust
Me, a 15 year old...



Then they pulled me over when I tried to leave after I helped clean the place up, and continued pulling me over for weeks on end whenever they saw me.

Is the driving age in your area 15 or were they pulling you over on your bike?

reply to post by intrepid


I'm sorry, they found me (a 20 some year old at the time), a 15 year old and his 10 year old brother.