SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the good-thing-no-one-was-jaywalking dept.
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:
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @10:05PM
Mandate that every cop carry liability insurance.
The department could pay the portion of the premium equal to the total that is charged for their officers with a clean record.
Any portion of the premium that is over that is paid by the dirty cop.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @10:19PM
Bad idea - if every cop thinks "hey, no problem - I'm insured!" the damage will be unending. Accountability and responsibility are required, not insurance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @11:11PM
Currently, taxpayers have to pick up the tab for abusive cops.
That's not fair.
Malpractice insurance will curb the bad behavior, just as it does in medical practices.
Cops who find themselves charged for their own excess coverage will adjust their behavior or (more likely, I'm sure) quit and find work more suited to their skillset|temperament.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:14AM
You're confusing "accountability and responsibility" with "taxpayer foots the bill." It isn't the taxpayer that needs to take responsibility, it's the cops.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by CirclesInSand on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:15AM
Why shouldn't the taxpayer be on the bill for abusive cops? It's taxpayers that are tolerating the police behavior anyway. It wasn't just the cops who destroyed that guy's house, it's the taxpayers that raised and employed and armed and excused those cops who made reckless choices.