SWAT Raid on Missouri Family (including violence towards a dog BEWARE)

[Kanada Kev]

sick

http://digg.com/politics/Video_of_SWAT_Raid_on_Missouri_Family

This is the result of modern prohibition in America. The Drug War is, was, and always will be a total failure. What would you do if this happened to your family?

Edited May 6, 2010 by Guest

[Schwa.]

that is the saddest thing i have ever seen. no exaggeration.

[Velvet]

Dude in the bottom video is certainly barking up the wrong tree.

[Kanada Kev]

a little more info:

http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/05/video-of-swat-raid-on-missouri

In February, I wrote the following about a drug raid in Missouri:

SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family's pit bull and corgi (?!) as a seven-year-old looks on.

They found a "small amount" of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment.

So smoking pot = "child endangerment." Storming a home with guns, then firing bullets into the family pets as a child looks on = necessary police procedures to ensure everyone's safety.

Just so we're clear.

Now there's video, which you can watch below. It's horrifying, but I'd urge you to watch it, and to send it to the drug warriors in your life. This is the blunt-end result of all the war imagery and militaristic rhetoric politicians have been spewing for the last 30 years—cops dressed like soldiers, barreling through the front door middle of the night, slaughtering the family pets, filling the house with bullets in the presence of children, then having the audacity to charge the parents with endangering their own kid. There are 100-150 of these raids every day in America, the vast, vast majority like this one, to serve a warrant for a consensual crime.

But they did prevent Jonathan Whitworth from smoking the pot they found in his possession. So I guess this mission was a success.

I've exchanged emails with the mother of the family, who was in the home at the time of the raid. I'm waiting on her permission to publish her account of what happened.

[Deeps]

This video has pretty much ruined my day and should be disclaimed off the top that it contains violence towards animals...smarten the fuck up before you post stuff like this.

[phishtaper]

This video has pretty much ruined my day and should be disclaimed off the top that it contains violence towards animals...smarten the fuck up before you post stuff like this.

i have to agree. kev, please put a warning on it.

i didnt watch it and instead scrolled down to read, only then discovering what was in it. im glad i did that. i dont need some things in my head.

[Kanada Kev]

This video has pretty much ruined my day and should be disclaimed off the top that it contains violence towards animals...smarten the fuck up before you post stuff like this.

Did the video not have a warning at the start?

[color:purple]I have "smartened the FUCK UP for ya" and changed the subject.

Edited May 6, 2010 by Guest

[Deeps]

Thanks for stating the warning ... sorry 'bout swearing, but that seriously screwed my head up...I presumed the violence was in the SWAT take down aspect of all of it. The reality of it ... I was not prepared for.

I am still not really sure what I'm to learn from any of this, or what debate it's supposed to provoke that isn't already hashed out a bunch of times with no answers coming forth, but I guess it's something that is something.

Anyway.

[Deeps]

This video has pretty much ruined my day and should be disclaimed off the top that it contains violence towards animals...smarten the fuck up before you post stuff like this.

"Disclaimed" is used in the wrong context here altogether (should have said Warning), and the smarten the F* up is not respectful.

Either way this video affected me. I think mostly because I could relate to the victims in it and obviously animal stuff or kid stuff is always particularly difficult.

Trying to sort out why there is a camera behind the SWAT team and how this footage became publicly available.

If it's real it's probably best we know this happened and for that matter guys on SWAT team to know that this aggression on the whole is unnecessary and a horrible response to anything illegal or not.

Back on the Warning! front, I think it only needs to be at the top above the video - maybe underlined. The issue is worthy of discussion and all should not be deterred.

Sorry again about my initial response.

Peace

Steve

[Kanada Kev]

Steve, no worries. Thanks.

This video hit me hard too. From what I've gathered (and what I posted http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showpost.php?post/645432/ ) this seems to be a blatant use of excess force. Sick is how one should feel after watching that. If just for one second, we are to put ourselves in that house and imagine what it would be like to have somebody knock on your door and give you only a few seconds to answer it before they bust it down and come in guns a blazin'. Discharging a firearm in that confined space to simply knock out a dog? And there's a small child too?

I hope that more details do emerge from this and i hope it spreads around the net fast. People have to see this. I like how it was equated:

They found a "small amount" of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment.

So smoking pot = "child endangerment."

Storming a home with guns, then firing bullets into the family pets as a child looks on = necessary police procedures to ensure everyone's safety.

[edger]

Well I couldn't bring myself to watch the video (warning appreciated) this thread came to my mind this morning while watching the Hamilton news. The police kick the shit out of an old refugee man when they bust down the doors of the wrong apartment during a drug bust.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/764809

The police chief later apologized for the mistaken identity, but seemed to skirt around the issue of excessive force/abuse.