Friday, July 04, 2014

That SWAT team that dropped a flash-bang into an occupied crib?

Just ran across this at WeaponsMan; this just gets worse.
Here’s a few fun facts about the incident that wounded “Bou-bou” Phonesavanh.
  • The individual who threw the grenade in Georgia had no such flash-bang certification. Neither did any of the SWAT members.
  • The thrower had not had any formal training on how to use the grenade, or its capabilities.
  • He’d never thrown one before.
  • The individual never looked in the room, but threw the grenade blind into the toddler’s crib.
  • The SWAT members didn’t just lie to the child’s stressed-out mother, Alecia Phonesavanh. They also lied to their superiors about the incident. Many departments will countenance the former, but not many have much toleration for the latter. (There’s also some question of the integrity of the officers in charge, who have previously been found to falsify records in other cases).
  • The SWAT team was all new and had conducted almost no individual and collective training.
  • They claimed they “knew” there were no children in the house, but no policeman had been in the house, and even their informant had not been inside. They actually had to move a baby stroller and walk past a minivan with four child seats to stack up on the house. Four child seats and a stroller are what an intelligence officer might call “indicators.”
  • News stories say the target of the raid was arrested “later,” but supposedly the investigation has uncovered that he was already in custody when the raid initiated. So the raid took place to grab a guy who was already in the back of a cruiser elsewhere. “Why waste a good (?) raid plan?” seems to have been their rationale.
A previous team with some of the same officers shot an innocent man in 2009, and investigation then determined that some of the officers had had no training but did have pencil-whipped training records. That one cost the taxpayers $2.3 million despite DA Brian Rickman’s efforts to cover it up. He was working to cover this one up, too, so the investigation has been taken out of his untrustworthy hands. There were no consequences to Rickman or county police leadership over the falsified records and cover-up attempt. In retrospect, that was probably one of the errors that led directly to the grave injuries visited on this innocent kid.
Start prosecuting and firing people.  From the bastards who faked records to the incompetent fools on the team(whatta you wanna bet they refer to themselves as 'operators'?) to the supervisors and officers who knew they weren't qualified to be doing this.  Every damned one of them.

6 comments:

Dan said...

Since the DA, LEO brass and the courts are ALL on the same corrupt team NOTHING will happen to these criminals. The taxpayer will foot the bill for any settlement and tpit will be business as usual and these assclowns WILL murder another citizen and it won't be that long before it happens.

The system is totally corrupt. Justice is irrelevant to those in charge. If a citizen wants justice he will only get it if he takes personal action to mete it out.

Windy Wilson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Windy Wilson said...

“Why waste a good (?) raid plan?” Clearly they needed the practice.

"Start prosecuting and firing people". Who will do this, though? It is as dangerous as prosecuting the Mafia, and even easier to suborn witnesses, plaintiffs, complaining witnesses, prosecutors and judges.
Quis Custodes ipsos custodiet?

Toastrider said...

It's not going to end well.

One of these days the wrong bunch of Keystone Kops is going to hurt or kill the wrong person. Nobody important, but the relative of someone who's going to decide 'I'm going to collect some scalps'.

And then it gets ugly. Imagine a guy with a hunting rifle, with a huge axe to grind and less stupid. He's not going to issue manifestos or show off. He's going to start killing cops.

Imagine a situation similar to the DC sniper or the Dorner manhunt -- except this time, the cops won't be able to get any help from the neighborhoods.

It'll make that movie with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler look like a walk in the park by comparison.

Cormac said...

After that tragedy with Jose Guerena in AZ, I was a little surprised there was no reprisal...
And, with the way these guys conduct their raids, it seems like they're at risk of walking into an ambush sooner or later...
You'd have to be pretty stupid to want that job.

Firehand said...

Remember the statement from that idiot commander in the baby-burning incident? That they 'have a calling'?

Most dangerous bastards in the world.