Gratuitous Destruction By Cops Searching A Home
Anybody seeing a pattern? Police abuse of power in traffic stops, searches, and on so many other occasions?
Via @RadleyBalko, the state police destroyed a woman's home searching for her estranged husband -- who wasn't even there. Stunning photo at the link.
This seems like revenge destruction more than anything else.
Matt Miller writes at Pennlive:
Michelle Thompson tells a horror story in a lawsuit she has filed in Dauphin County Court more than a year after a heavily-armed state police Special Emergency Response Team raided her Hummelstown-area home.The police aren't the heroes of her account.
They are the villains, destructive ones at that.
There is no doubt that the SERT team left Thompson's Handshue Drive house in ruins after the May 2012 raid. The physical evidence was there after the team, which was searching for Thompson's estranged husband, Gerald, packed up and left empty-handed.
At issue in Thompson's lawsuit is the matter of justification.
Thompson claims police had no reason to attack her house, blast it full of holes, ram it with an armored vehicle and fill it with noxious gas, especially since she had readily agreed to allow officers to enter the home and look for Gerry.
She even left the front door open. And she contends that police should have realized that Gerry - who was being sought on solicitation to perjury, obstruction of law and witness intimidation charges - wasn't at the house because his lawyer, Roger Laguna, had told them that her husband was in Maryland.
Laguna, a former police officer, said Wednesday that he's still appalled by what happened. It was just gratuitous, unnecessary destruction, he said.
"As a cop I participated in many searches. I've kicked many doors open," he said. "But that was nothing like this."
...Immediately after the raid a state police spokeswoman told PennLive that officers acted as they did because Michelle Thompson had been uncooperative. Police had to ensure that they weren't walking into an ambush, the spokeswoman said.
...A restoration firm told Thompson it would cost $70,000 just to repair the exterior damage, and that the gas-polluted interior would have to be gutted.
That is unbelievable. She shouldn't have to put up with the inconveniece of repairs. They should at least give her a check for full replacement value if her home and the contents within.
Jen at September 1, 2013 8:38 AM
If it were not illegal to do so I'd advocate killing such cops
lujlp at September 1, 2013 9:02 AM
If this is the result of cooperating in a search, imagine what would have resulted from a non-consensual search. They might have burnt it to the ground to see who came running out.
I collect these stories - they are scarier to me than Stephen King writing of his worst nightmare.
This one is right up there with the man in Nv whose house was stormed, dog tortured and parents also arrested because he did not want the police to move into his home to spy on some alleged domestic abuse next door. Refused a favor by the citizen, they ripped him and his elderly parents a new asshole.
Americans need to get intensely angry, but they aren't yet. The Cops are doing more damage than the criminals. The entire "Justice" system is preying on us all.
bmused at September 1, 2013 1:34 PM
These stories are straight out of Solzenytsen's "Gulag Archipelago". He describes how "The Search" takes on life and meaning of its own, wholly outside the needs of law enforcement.
One of my clients had her house likewise stormed by Vallejo cops. Her now-deceased husband had riled the local druggies, who were in league with the cops. When she moved in a new male companion, a registered felon, the cops raided her home for exe's firearms. She described open doors being shut and then kicked open, along with the usual trashing. Her companion had been a body-builder but was in process of shoulder surgery and treatment. The cops wrenched his arms so tightly behind his back for handcuffing that all the surgery was destroyed. She's sueing the city for $1.2 million, but IMO that's only half what she deserves, since her lawyer will take the first million.
jefe at September 1, 2013 4:59 PM
That is totally disgusting. How they can even think it was justified is totally beyond comprehension.
Jim P. at September 1, 2013 9:13 PM
"Police had to ensure that they weren't walking into an ambush"
Love this angle. By that logic, anything they do is justified, as it's "for their own protection."
"The entire "Justice" system is preying on us all."
You're assuming that there actually IS a justice system, and that said system is in place to protect us, rather than providing jobs for all the lawyers.
Justice and the legal system are two very different things.
wtf at September 2, 2013 9:31 AM
If these cops wanted to wreck places, why didn't they just become a rock band and go on tour?
mpetrie98 at September 2, 2013 1:57 PM
to become a rockband and go on tour, you need to be able to play an instrument (triangles are not accepted)
nico@HOU at September 2, 2013 10:21 PM
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