Swat raid Kansas home. Couple spends $25k to find out why.

[planetdoc]

http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/...o-familys-home

Full story at the link. Summary with excerpts below.

SWAT raids a leawood couples home with guns drawn. Put them and their young kids on their couch. Find nothing illegal, and seize nothing. Kansas law prevents them from finding out why they were raided.

After the raid, the couple thought they could access public records to find out why law enforcement suspected drugs were in their home. They told 41 Action News they were shocked to find out they could not access any of those records under Kansas law.

Turns out they were raided because they made a LEGAL purchase from a Legal buisness that was under LEO observation.

Records show on Aug. 9, 2011, a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper observed a man leaving the Green Circle hydroponics store in Kansas City, Mo., in a KIA with his children and a small bag.

Bob said he had been to the store to get supplies for a science project he was working on with his son: a basement hydroponic garden.

LEO performed field tests of tea leaves in the couples trash, prior to the swat raid, that was a false positive for marijuana. They only sent those samples in to the crime lab AFTER the swat raid that indicated they did not contain any illegal substances.

The embarrassing misstep for deputies would have remained hidden if the Hartes had not had the means to spend money to gain access to the records. The family has also been contacted by people across Kansas trying to figure out how to access records about themselves. Addie said many of the people who have reached out to her do not have the same resources financially to fight to get records released.

“This not what justice in the United States is supposed to be. You shouldn't have to have $25,000, even $5,000. You shouldn't have to have that kind of money to find out why people came raiding your house like some sort of police state,” Addie Harte said.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

For all we know the ex CIA agents are actually growing and selling the stuff and the cops didn't find the false wall where it's at, the cops got a warrant for more than tea leaves I'm sure. If that's all they took to the judge and got the warrant, then turn your angst on the judge.

All I'm saying, is I am pretty sure we do not know everything. If we do, I expect heads to roll just like you do.

Sometimes it's Occams Razor. No false wall. No drugs. Even so, you could arrest in daylight and use the warrant to not find anything without endangering life and limb.

And I've got plenty to say to the judge, but I have more to say to the poor over zealous schlubs who sift through the trash fabricating evidence.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

... I'm in a well to do suburb of St. Louis, population about 30k, and half those houses would be high school kids.

Webster Grove?

[planetdoc]

didnt want to start a new thread for this, but still think its important people read it. Maybe we need a general "Cops behaving badly" thread. I dont know.

Here is the summary: guy gets beaten by a bunch of cops and thrown in jail for 15 months unjustly. Internal Affairs exonerate the cops. Video shows perp was innocent, that cops lied in reports, cops talking to other cops to turn off cameras. DA refuses to prosecute the cops. Guy beaten gets $1.1 million settlement by the city (taxpayer pay for police misconduct).

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Dallas police dash camera video shows incident that led to man's $1.1M settlement with city

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by planetdoc

didnt want to start a new thread for this, but still think its important people read it. Maybe we need a general "Cops behaving badly" thread. I dont know.

Here is the summary: guy gets beaten by a bunch of cops and thrown in jail for 15 months unjustly. Internal Affairs exonerate the cops. Video shows perp was innocent, that cops lied in reports, cops talking to other cops to turn off cameras. DA refuses to prosecute the cops. Guy beaten gets $1.1 million settlement by the city (taxpayer pay for police misconduct).

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Dallas police dash camera video shows incident that led to man's $1.1M settlement with city

Wow cops are bad.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by planetdoc

didnt want to start a new thread for this, but still think its important people read it. Maybe we need a general "Cops behaving badly" thread. I dont know.

Here is the summary: guy gets beaten by a bunch of cops and thrown in jail for 15 months unjustly. Internal Affairs exonerate the cops. Video shows perp was innocent, that cops lied in reports, cops talking to other cops to turn off cameras. DA refuses to prosecute the cops. Guy beaten gets $1.1 million settlement by the city (taxpayer pay for police misconduct).

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Dallas police dash camera video shows incident that led to man's $1.1M settlement with city

The mafia's tradition of omerta has nothing on the police's blue wall of silence.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by planetdoc

didnt want to start a new thread for this, but still think its important people read it. Maybe we need a general "Cops behaving badly" thread. I dont know.

Here is the summary: guy gets beaten by a bunch of cops and thrown in jail for 15 months unjustly. Internal Affairs exonerate the cops. Video shows perp was innocent, that cops lied in reports, cops talking to other cops to turn off cameras. DA refuses to prosecute the cops. Guy beaten gets $1.1 million settlement by the city (taxpayer pay for police misconduct).

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Dallas police dash camera video shows incident that led to man's $1.1M settlement with city

Walking while black...

The officer was in a squad car and was supposed to be responding to a call about two white males. Jones is black and was walking alone.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/la...a4bcf6878.html

A University of Virginia student charged last year with assaulting ABC agents attempting to stop her for underage possession beer that turned out to be sparkling water has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the state and seven agents.
Instead of beer, a friend of Elizabeth K. Daly, now 21, had purchased a case of canned water from a Charlottesville grocery. Daly said she was terrified when plainclothes agents surrounded her car and banged on the windows ordering her to roll them down.
After one agent drew a gun and another jumped on the car hood, she said she panicked, unsure they were really agents, and fled the scene in her car, grazing two of the agents. The charges were later dropped, and her record was expunged.
Among other things, her 47-page suit, filed Tuesday in Richmond Circuit Court, alleges malicious prosecution, failure to train ABC agents appropriately, and six counts of assault and battery.
Michael Kelly, director of communications for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, said, “It’s incredibly unfortunate that the situation that night in Charlottesville occurred at all.
“As this case proceeds, the Attorney General’s Office will defend the commonwealth’s interests and work to ensure a just and reasonable outcome,” Kelly said.
The suit states that Daly, of Henrico County, “does not and never has consumed alcohol or abused drugs, and/or her parents, on her behalf, have incurred significant legal, medical and other costs, and will continue to do so in the future due to the malicious, intentional, and/or grossly negligent actions of the (d)efendants.” She has a tremor in her right hand, intense anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems as a result of the April 11 incident, the suit alleges.
According to the suit, Daly and two friends went to a Harris Teeter store in Daly’s Chevrolet Trailblazer, arriving shortly before 10 p.m. Among other things, they wanted to purchase cookie dough to make cookies for a charity fundraiser the next day.
Among other items purchased by one of Daly’s friends was a case of canned LaCroix sparkling water. The women walked into the parking lot, one of them carrying the clearly visible sparkling water.
Seven ABC agents were in the parking lot watching for young-looking individuals and checking their identification to ensure no state laws were bring broken. Two agents followed the three to their car.
Daly got behind the wheel, one friend sat in the front passenger seat and placed the sparkling water on the floor and the other friend got in the back seat. Before starting the car, Daly saw two people approach the car and begin banging on the windows.
The two agents, says the suit, “allegedly displayed their badges hanging from necklaces which at the time and under the circumstances were not clearly visible or readable.”
The agents warned Daly not to turn on the car, but she and a friend were unable to open the windows using buttons because the car was not running. Other agents ran to the car.
The suit alleges that Daly called 911 on her cellphone, which she handed to a friend. The friend told the operator that they could not tell if the agents were real law enforcement officers.
Daly “was shaking and saying, ‘I don’t know what to do!’” One agent suddenly drew a gun, pointing it toward the ground, which caused the friend in the front seat to jump into the rear seat.
When an agent tried to break a passenger window with a steel flashlight, Daly drove off with some of the agents chasing on foot. She drove out of the parking lot and stopped at a red light intending to drive to a police station.
While at the red light, the 911 operator confirmed to the women that they were real ABC agents, according to the suit.
Police arrived on the scene and drove Daly to the police station, where an ABC agent swore out a criminal complaint that led to Daly’s arrest for assaulting two agents and for failing to stop when ordered.
Daly spent the night in jail and was released the following afternoon. On June 27, the charged were dropped by the Charlottesville commonwealth’s attorney. On Oct. 22, the arrest and court records were expunged.
On Nov. 7, alleges the suit, ABC released an investigation of the incident that said two agents violated policy concerning the drawn weapon and striking the passenger window with a flashlight.
“The agents acted with actual malice, out of embarrassment and disgrace for their own intentional and grossly negligent acts and charged (Daly) with three felonies and did so out of anger and personal spite,” alleges the suit filed by Richmond lawyers James B. Thorsen and John K. Honey Jr.

[htismaqe]

$40M?

**** that. Start taking these rogue cops and put them in the ring with some MMA dudes. ****ing terrorize THEM for a couple of hours and let them deal with it for the rest of their lives...

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

$40M?

**** that. Start taking these rogue cops and put them in the ring with some MMA dudes. ****ing terrorize THEM for a couple of hours and let them deal with it for the rest of their lives...

Alchy Beverge Control. When I was a young drinker, ABC seemed to have a more passive role. They checked ID's and made sure the bar/club owners were compliant with licenses.
Now, they jump out like ****ing FBI.
Start at 40$ mil and negotiate down.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Alchy Beverge Control. When I was a young drinker, ABC seemed to have a more passive role. They checked ID's and made sure the bar/club owners were compliant with licenses.
Now, they jump out like ****ing FBI.
Start at 40$ mil and negotiate down.

The taxpayers are going to foot that bill.

Our rights get violated and we get to pay for the punishment? I don't hardly ****ing think so...

We need to go Singapore for this stuff...

[crazycoffey]

PTSD? Really?

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

PTSD? Really?

Yep "Payme Tons Stress Disorder"

[philfree]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

For all we know the ex CIA agents are actually growing and selling the stuff and the cops didn't find the false wall where it's at, the cops got a warrant for more than tea leaves I'm sure. If that's all they took to the judge and got the warrant, then turn your angst on the judge.

All I'm saying, is I am pretty sure we do not know everything. If we do, I expect heads to roll just like you do.

Oh c'mon that's just silly. "For all we know"

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by philfree

Oh c'mon that's just silly. "For all we know"

Cops think everyone is criminals, The public thinks all cops are crooked.

Even trade off I guess?

[oldandslow]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

PTSD? Really?

When those agents stop acting like 12 year olds with machine guns, things like this are bound to decrease.

Until then, well....

....arrested for bottled water. Good grief.