Swat Raids Gone Wrong

Following up on the Detroit Swat raid resulting in the homicide by the Detroit police of sleeping 7 year old,   Aiyana Stanley-Jones--the Cato Institute has compiled a report and an interactive map showing SWAT raids nationally that have gone wrong.  If the abuse of police power concerns you even a little bit, this is a tremendous visual aid for appreciating the extent of the problem.

The Matrix Says, Kick Your Ass. Grandma!

The Lousiville Courier-Journal is relating the story of the 57 year old Okolona, Ky. grandmother, Sharon Ramage, who was ironing clothes in June of 2007 when a flash grenade exploded at her back door (pic of home) , the door was shattered with a 45 pound ram, and a SWAT team stormed in.  The team comprised of Lousivelle Police threw Mrs. Ramage to the ground and handcuffed her; oh yeah, they seriously re-injured her post surgical knee.  A helicopter was hovering in the sky over the house and a $300,000 armored vehicle was at the stand-by.  Why? 

No reason. 

Well, not quite, the Louisville police were looking for her son, because he had processed film at the local Wal-Mart snd it contained a non-pornographic nude image of her son, Michael Ramage with his two young sons.   By the way, Michael Ramage was nowhere to be found. 

Ultimately all charges against Michael Ramage were dropped for the simple reason that he had not committed any crime.

Why did this occur?  Well apparently, the Lousiville Police and police departments around the country use a "scoring matrix" to assess risk assessments in serving warrants, which explains why we've been seeig these ridiculous looking armored vehicles pop up all over he internet that local police are acquiring as the toys, er, tools of law enforcement.  As explained in the news account, the police are "slavishly" using these scoring matrixes to determine when to go commando, and God forbid if you're in the way, or for that matter the wrong person, they will kick your ass. 

Grandma is suing, and the U.S. District Judge has given the Louisville Police until Monday morning to submit a response to her motion for summary judgment for violating one or two of her Constitutional rights.  

Let's be rational for a second, if justice is nothing more than a computer algorithm we are in a whole lot of trouble--the great late Phillip K.Dick forecast this dystopian future in Minority Report.