On countless occasions since the '90s, drug agents have raided the wrong home - often killing innocent people or their pets, or leaving them seriously injured. These attacks are becoming more common.
This incompetence is too often forgotten after the initial tumult. Reasonable law enforcement officers would not make such a dumb mistake as to go to the wrong home, ransack it, blow someone's face off, and refuse to apologize. But in these cases, the authorities weren't being reasonable.
In the latest story, a police shooting was only narrowly avoided. In Buffalo, New York, drug agents barged into an apartment with a battering ram and terrorized a family of 8. They claimed to be looking for heroin - of which the family had none.
Then the cops beat the man who lives there using a shotgun and brandished guns at the family's children. The drug warriors boasted that they had raided the house before and that they could do it again even without a warrant. (Even if it had been raided before, police still need a warrant.)
Of course it turned out police had raided the wrong home. Oops.
Now the man - who is an Air Force veteran - is seriously injured: His arm was dislocated in the mayhem, and he has to have glass surgically removed from his foot. The door to the apartment is in tatters, and the police won't even apologize. This is how a man gets treated after serving his country?
Then, when the police finally raided the right house, no arrests were made. Which means they likely had bogus information in the first place.
This is what happens when we continue a long-discredited War on Drugs: It corrupts authorities, leads to careless official decisions, promotes unprofessional police behavior, mortgages basic liberties, and terrorizes the public. This war partly funds itself by confiscating innocents' property to sell off so agents can buy more weapons to carry out bigger raids. The system is so eager to carry out its corrupt drug war that it didn't even make sure it had the right house - and then violated the rights of innocents in the home that was raided.
Don't think the same thing can't happen to you - even if you've never touched drugs in your life. The victims in this story are probably as shocked as anyone that it happened to them.
(Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/415938.html)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Drug warriors raid wrong home (again)
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People choose to abuse drugs and some people experience consequences to becoming involved with drugs and some even become addicted. The world we live in is becoming increasingly more stressful and when people get stressed, they drink or try another way of numbing the pain which is their reality. People use drugs to numb pain or due to peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read, people on drugs need education and direction, not jail or police brutality. The "war on drugs" is a slick way to allow the public to feel ok about the brutality that goes on against those who are down in the dumps and using drugs.
I think we can all agree that drug abuse is bad for everyone. The problem is that most of these people are only hurting themselves and in most cases, the rehabilitation services are far worse than the drugs.
The drug problems in this country are fueled by the war on drugs and our failed drug policy. It's no surprise that those at the top making our nations drug policy are getting much richer every day. The DFAF and the Semblers have always been corrupt. they don't care who gets hurt as long as they stay in power, even if they have to lie to America and knowingly institute policies that perpetuate drug abuse instead of shrinking the problem.
Again...
Fascists are at the wheel and we are all being taken for a ride !!!