According to reporting in AlterNet, the Denver Channel, Westword, and others:
A standoff between SWAT team members and an armed shoplifting suspect who barricaded himself in a Greenwood Village home ended, but now the home owner thinks police destroyed his house. Greenwood Village Police said the 19-hour standoff ended with no injured officers or citizens, but the home looks like a bomb went off.
There is a large hole in the front of the house, broken windows and glass are littered everywhere and shrapnel is stuck in the walls. Leo Lech said, "It looks like Osama Bin Laden's compound." Lech is no terrorist but an unlucky homeowner whose property was caught in the cross fire when the suspect broke into the home. A 9-year-old child who was in the home at the time was able to escape.
Greenwood Village Police say that the suspect had four active warrants out for narcotics and had a large amount of narcotics with him. The suspect tried to steal a car at the home and fired at police from the garage, Greenwood Village Police say. Negotiations with the suspect failed after police met two of the suspect's three demands, but the suspect severed communications with police. Police used explosives and a ramming device to gain entry into the home after negotiations failed.
"This is a complete atrocity," said Lech. "This is a paramilitary force used in a civilian environment ... for one gunman? To use this kind of power?" Lech said the Greenwood Village Police Department claimed it was not responsible and the city would not return his calls.
Additional sources:
(Score: 1) by captnjohnny1618 on Wednesday June 10 2015, @09:12PM
In fact, I'm not sure ANY one group is in favor of police militarization... other than the police of course.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday June 10 2015, @09:52PM
The police unions, like all public employee unions, agitate for more money, newer gear, and whatever else may benefit them. The most egregious example is in California, where the prison guards union spent a significant amount of money to lobby against liberalized cannabis laws. More prisoners means more work for them.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @11:05PM
Yes, because private employees never want new equipment, we're all happy with 20 year old shit that barely works some of the time.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday June 10 2015, @11:24PM
That's all fine and dandy when your business model doesn't depend on incarcerating people. But soon it will be your turn, and then you'll have plenty of time to lick the shiny new boots of the prison guards once they lock you up for smoking marijuana or torrenting Justin Bieber's new album. Those happy prison guards will be sure to thank you for those shiny new boots and riot shields as they throw you unprotected into a cell with a large Black man who was imprisoned for serial anal rape.
The guards will go home to their wives and kids happy that punks like you keep breaking the law, and then they will shine those nice new boots your incarceration paid for. They will be eating dinner with their families while you are biting the pillow and being opened up by a monstrous Black cock the thickness of a 24 oz. can of Miller.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @11:35PM
You believe Hollywood prison is an accurate portrayal of real prison. That's cute.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:00AM
My brother has been to prison multiple times. Rape happens but not nearly as much as depicted in media. However, you will get the shit beat out of you if you fart before walking yourself to the bathroom and actually sitting down on the pot with your pants dropped. Think about that next time you illegally steal that Katy Perry album.
Or were you talking about white-collar prison?
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:27AM
IMHO, that's what it boils down to. There are a few systems like hard-line communism where you can blame the system as the primary cause. We see Democratic Socialist states that are run humanely. We even see fairly hard right states that are not too bad. Of course both of these systems can turn quite sour. Good ol' republics can too. Any system. Laissez-faire capitalism? Worker exploitation. School system? Pass illiterates on to the next grade. Prison system? Let 'em run amok. Computer system? My God, it's full of malware. Why? Human scum.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @03:16PM
As opposed to legally stealing it?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @10:53PM
In fact, I'm not sure ANY one group is in favor of police militarization
Authoritarians? I see people who support the police no matter what they do.