Radley Balko has been researching police shootings of innocent citizens during SWAT-style drug raids. It’s surprising how often this happens and how little press it receives.
Recently, Balko was researching a raid back in March that scared the hell out an elderly couple when he came across a letter to the editor from a man whose neice had been killed during a drug raid.
After receiving an anonymous tip, police in Lexington, Tennessee forced entry to the home of Stacy Renae Walker.
Once inside, Deputy Tim Crowe, who had been on the police force for only a week, saw Renae rise from the couch with a child in her arms, and discharged his gun. The bullet struck Renae in the back of the head and exited through her mouth, killing her. Police would later say Crowe’s gun fired and scored a direct hit because he “tripped.”
Police found no drugs or weapons in the home. They later conceded that the entire raid was “a terrible mistake.”
Got all that? Based on a tip from someone who the police cannot identify or prove actually exists, police conducted a SWAT-style raid of a home and found nothing illegal, but a deputy tripped and accidentally shot someone square in the head.
Then, while researching that shooting, he stumbled across two more shootings that happened in Salem, Oregon within a year of each other, one of which was another raid at the wrong location.
If you’re interested, you can read the whole story at Balko’s Blog, where he mentions that so far he’s found 42 cases of innocent bystanders killed in SWAT-style forced-entry raids, another 15 cops killed during the raids, and another 20 people killed whose crimes were non-violent, such as pot smokers and illegal gamblers.
Now here’s something to think about. A few days ago there was a story about two New-York cops convicted of doing contract killings for the Mafia.
Thankfully, cops that crooked are pretty rare, but if the Mafia can buy off a few cops, so can a drug gang. And if Deputy Crowe can shoot an unarmed woman in the back of the head without facing any charges, don’t you think a corrupt drug task-force cop can shoot few known drug dealers during raids without attracting much attention, especially if he’s able to plant some evidence? Don’t you think it’s already happened?
Of course it’s already happened.
Most cops are honest. But from what I’ve seen, the crooked ones are REALLY INTENSELY crooked. It’s seldom limited to “look the other way”.
I’ve been on the Chicago Polcie SWAT team now without incident for over a year. SWAT teams don’t just take random phone calls from anonymous callers, gear up and go smashing in peoples doors. If this were the only criteria people would call in false claims on their neighbor for not picking up their dog crap. Furthermore, SWAT officers are hand selected from a pool of numerous candidates each of whom are vigorously tested and backgrounds checked.
In response to raids including non-violent crimes let me shed light onto the fact that it’s not unusual for a pot smokers and gamblers to have weapons in their homes. Never underestimate anyone’s potential. Timothy McVeigh was in the Army with a reletively minor crimeinal background.
I went to high school with this cop. I didnt like him then and I like him even less now. I live a couple of miles from where he shot this poor girl. He should have been charged but instead he moved to the next county over and went to work for their police dept. He is currently their Chief of police. Hes a terrible human being that hides behind the Baptist church.