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posted by martyb on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the dividends-of-cooperating-with-cops dept.

TechDirt reports:

Previously, [TechDirt reported how] police officers pretty much razed a residence to the ground searching for a shoplifting suspect.

In another case, law enforcement spent nineteen hours engaged in a tense standoff with an empty residence before deciding to send in a battering ram.

Now, they're reporting another "standoff" with a lawsuit [PDF] following.

On August 11, 2014, after registering her child for first grade, Ms. West returned to her home to find multiple City of Caldwell police officers in her yard searching for a Fabian Salinas. Wanting to cooperate, and uncertain whether Salinas was in her house, Ms. West gave the police a key to her house and gave them permission to use it to enter her house to arrest him. During a ten hour long standoff, police repeatedly exceeded the authority Ms. West had given them, breaking windows, crashing through ceilings, and riddling the home with holes from shooting canisters of tear gas destroying most of Ms. West and her children's personal belongings. The only occupant of the house was Ms. West's dog. Ms. West's home remained uninhabitable for two months.

[...] So, when given a key and consent from the occupant, officers instead chose to grab an armored vehicle and go through several windows and the attic.

[...] This happened back in 2014 but there's been no coverage of the Caldwell cops' 10-hour, one-dog standoff until now. Thomas Johnson of Fault Lines suggests that might have something to do with the local paper of record.

If you're wondering why it took a couple of years for this event to make news outside of Idaho, it's because the local paper apparently only checks court records or their exclusive police source, resulting in some very incomplete reporting. Why bother getting out there and talking to the homeowner or neighbors when you can sit on your chunk?

[...] From all appearances, the suspect was never in the home during the 10-hour standoff.

[...] The police did give her a three-week stay in a hotel. Too bad it took more than two months for her to be able to return to her residence. This raid on a house containing nothing more than a dog is the natural side effect of police militarization, which encourages law enforcement to escalate in questionable situations, rather than use more measured tactics to ensure occupants aren't deprived of a place to live simply because a suspect might be hiding somewhere behind closed doors.

Previously: 19-Hour "Standoff" Ends With Cops Destroying an Empty House


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Noldir on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:18PM

    by Noldir (1216) on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:18PM (#391001)

    That was his point, it's what military training gives you. And I know at least over here police training as well. Its part of your job, don't like it? Get a safer job. Its like firefighters not wanting to go near a burning building.

    No, I wouldn't approach a house with a possible armed mad man. I don't have the training or gear. But police do.

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