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Thugs Disguised As Police

Mike

Well-known member
March 27, 2014

David and Connie Johnson were asleep when they heard a noise Connie later described as the “walls caving in.” Seconds later their front door was forced open and two armored strangers burst into the two-room apartment the middle-aged couple share with their adult son, Aaron.

Several other assailants were clustered behind the two who had forced open the door. One of them was a female holding a leash that barely restrained a large, snarling dog. One of the intruders pointed as assault rifle at David’s head and threatened to shoot him. Another invader, a female, bellowed, “Put your hands up! This dog will bite you!”

David was seized and shackled. Connie and Aaron were also dragged from their home. Neighbors who were drawn by the commotion poked their heads out and were ordered to go back into their rooms.

At no point in this encounter did the intruders identify themselves as police officers.

Two minutes later, the SWAT team that had terrorized the Johnsons arrested the Johnsons’ neighbor, Bill Gerst, who had been accused by a woman of threatening her. Gerst was forced to crawl on his belly toward the officers in order to be handcuffed.

“What’s going on?” Gerst repeatedly asked, plaintively explaining that there was nobody else in his apartment.

Gerst persisted in trying to find out why the cops had laid siege to his home.

“You shut your mouth!” one of the raiders snapped.

The police later told the Johnsons that they were dealing with a “homicide in progress.” No firearm, and no evidence of any criminal activity, was found during the February 21, 2013 raid.

According to a lawsuit filed by the Johnson family, “The information used to justify the no-warrant raid on Mr. Gerst’s apartment was shaky and legally suspect.” Specifically, it was a hearsay allegation made by someone who knew a woman named Hilda Valle, who is described in the suit as “a petty criminal who had reported to police that she had argued with Mr. Gerst and that he had threatened her with violence.”

At the request of the neighboring Nampa Police Department, which received the tip, a tactical team from the Caldwell Police Department conducted what they call a “welfare check” that was actually a guns-drawn, no-knock, SWAT-style raid. The Caldwell PD claimed knowledge of “the presence of guns at the premises” – which, according to the standard “threat matrix,”supposedly justifies a paramilitary assault.

Although the officers claim they were dealing with a “homicide in progress,” Police audio of the incident documents that the officers didn’t know the specific apartment number – which means that the door-kick on the Johnsons’ home – which could easily have resulted in a homicide — was the product of a whimsical guess.

Gerst is a young black man. The police had his description, but they didn’t have his address. David Johnson is a middle-aged white man. This distinction was so obvious that it wouldn’t have been missed even by the typical police officer within a few seconds of the door breach.
If the police had knocked on the door and announced their presence – as they are required to do, by law, unless there is evidence of imminent danger to an innocent person – they wouldn’t have terrorized an innocent family in a near-midnight raid, nor would they have inflicted significant and expensive damage to the property of an economically marginal household.

Furthermore, if the warrantless, no-knock raid was supposedly justified for “tactical” reasons, by hitting the wrong apartment door the cops surrendered the element of surprise.

In the legal response filed on behalf of its local enforcement caste, the City of Caldwell denies that the unlawful attack on the Johnsons’ home inflicted “damages” to their property, or violated their rights in any way. Because this near-midnight raid was carried out according to established “policies and procedures,” the City insists, the assailants are swaddled in the impenetrable cloak of “qualified immunity.”

A police officer who kicks in an innocent person’s door unannounced is a home invader. The victim has the moral and legal right to use lethal force to protect his home against such criminal aggression – something explicitly recognized in an enlightened measure recently enacted by the State of Indiana.

“Not acceptable,” an emotional David Johnson told the Boise NBC affiliate. “Being put in handcuffs. Kicking our door in. What’s that all about. No. Not acceptable. Not acceptable.”

The Caldwell and Nampa police departments, rather than apologizing to the victims of this atrocity, are impudently insisting that there is no need to alter their policies. They want the local population to believe that it is entirely fitting and proper that police can kick in doors at midnight and terrorize entirely innocent people on the basis of hearsay, as long as they can claim the suspected presence of a firearm nearby.

After all, that’s the reason why the Nampa PD recently acquired an MRAP.
 

loomixguy

Well-known member
Reminiscent of Ruby Ridge. Same state, even. Is something in the water out there?
WTF is WRONG with these nitwit cops? OT/God complex?
One day, they will pull another stunt like this only to meet someone who is ready for them...and some of those cops could go home in a body bag.....
 

Broke Cowboy

Well-known member
Am MRAP??

LOLOL!

Citizens need to study up on ways to disable this machine - in the wrong hands an MRAP could be deadly to the locals.

That is amazing - an MRAP - what will they want next - fighters equipped with sniper pods and LGBs?

bc
 

Mike

Well-known member
My local sheriff's dept has an MRAP.

Don't think they've ever used it but still.................

Takes a pretty good lowboy to haul it.

I asked the sheriff why he has it and he said it didn't cost anything from the military so why not have it just in case.........
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
loomixguy said:
Reminiscent of Ruby Ridge. Same state, even. Is something in the water out there?
WTF is WRONG with these nitwit cops? OT/God complex?
One day, they will pull another stunt like this only to meet someone who is ready for them...and some of those cops could go home in a body bag.....

Actually I agree- I think SWAT Teams are used too often- and should be used only as a last resort... Especially in the bigger cities... I've seen where patience and a little talking and investigation can sometimes handle a situation much better...
An Example- I got called one night that a Highway Patrolman had picked up a lady walking down the highway about a 1/4 mile from her house all beat up... She said her husband was drunk and had beat her... She had ran out the door, but he was still in the house with their about 8 year old son... The Highway Patrol and some of the young Deputies said we had to go in get him and arrest him under Montana's required arrest Domestic Abuse law- and wanted to kick in doors ...

I knew the house was full of guns, and he had night vision goggles... I also knew he was the nicest guy in the world when sober but nutso when drunk... But the wife said he would never harm his son...

So I called off the troops- had the WIFE Abuse folks get the lady a motel room- and waited til morning, when I called the suspect up and asked him to come down and see me...Which he did- was arrested, charged and taken to court then jail...
Worked out without anyone getting hurt- and within a few weeks the two of them were back together again (altho eventually they did split- he retired and moved back to the Philippines and drank himself to death)...

Did this with several of the Freemen too that were either being arrested or evicted... Far better than kicking in doors and getting people hurt...
 
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