Mississippi Cops shoot man at wrong address

[The Annoyed Man]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... c9772a7e57

The police report would claim it all kicked off at 7:38 a.m., but Bob Harte later thought it had to be earlier.

His 7:20 a.m. alarm had just yanked him awake. Got to get the kids — a boy in seventh grade, a girl in kindergarten — ready for school. Then he heard, like a starter’s pistol setting everything into motion, the first pounding on the front door of his home in Leawood, Kan., a bedroom suburb south of Kansas City. It was thunderous. It didn’t stop. Should I get up? Bob thought. Should I not? Sounded like the house was coming down, he would recall later.

Wearing only gym shorts, the stocky 51-year-old left his wife in bed and shuffled downstairs. The solid front door had a small window carved at eye-level, one-foot-square. As he approached, Bob saw the porch was clogged with police officers. Immediately after opening the door, seven members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) pressed into the house brandishing guns and a battering ram. Bob found himself flat on floor, hands behind his head, his eyes locked on the boots of the officer standing over him with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Are there kids?” the officers were yelling. “Where are the kids?”

“And I’m laying there staring at this guy’s boots fearing for my kids’ lives, trying to tell them where my children are,” Harte recalled later in a deposition on July 9, 2015. “They are sending these guys with their guns drawn running upstairs to bust into my children’s house, bedroom, wake them out of bed.”

Turns out both the man and his wife are former CIA officers. She is now an attorney, and he's a stay at home dad. Trying to find something fun and educational to do with his son, he and his son set up a hydroponics garden in the basement, where they drew a handful of tomato plants. The police were surveiling the local hydroponics shop, taking down the license plate numbers of customer vehicles. This guy's plate was on their list. That was used to justify searching his trash, where they found "wet glob vegetation" ......his wife's used tea leaves.....

On that basis, they storm-troopered his residence.

This fascist crap has to stop.

[parabelum]

Just imagine when we get another Marxist in the WH, one as AG etc.

These are some dangerous precedents being set, and aside from few LEO's here and there, I haven't seen nor heard a strong outpouring of disgust from LE leadership. All that's said usually is "tragic incident", "we will investigate this matter"... Crap. All crap.

These fascistic raids and shootings look to me like authoritarian Petri dish to see just how far mere citizens can be pushed before a step back is needed. So far, it appears the sheeple are willing to eat whatever is served to them, and more concerned with what some "celebrity" is wearing, Ivanka's latest look/dress (sorry the nepotistic environment in WH right now is getting on my nerves), rather to acknowledge that they / WE are being treated like maggot subservient idiot class where our families are threatened, our homes, our Religion and our kids.

Yea, I'm fuming.

[Liberty]

Just imagine when we get another Marxist in the WH, one as AG etc.

Examples like this, I think prove just the opposite. It's the local politics. Sheriffs are locally elected. The local citizenry determines who is in charge and what the policies are. The Sheriff's department is responsible and should be accountable. If the voters accept these fascist type actions, then they get the government they deserve.

Some times we focus on idiocy of federal government when in reality, our local government are the people screwing us over the most.

[bblhd672]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... c9772a7e57

The police report would claim it all kicked off at 7:38 a.m., but Bob Harte later thought it had to be earlier.

His 7:20 a.m. alarm had just yanked him awake. Got to get the kids — a boy in seventh grade, a girl in kindergarten — ready for school. Then he heard, like a starter’s pistol setting everything into motion, the first pounding on the front door of his home in Leawood, Kan., a bedroom suburb south of Kansas City. It was thunderous. It didn’t stop. Should I get up? Bob thought. Should I not? Sounded like the house was coming down, he would recall later.

Wearing only gym shorts, the stocky 51-year-old left his wife in bed and shuffled downstairs. The solid front door had a small window carved at eye-level, one-foot-square. As he approached, Bob saw the porch was clogged with police officers. Immediately after opening the door, seven members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) pressed into the house brandishing guns and a battering ram. Bob found himself flat on floor, hands behind his head, his eyes locked on the boots of the officer standing over him with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Are there kids?” the officers were yelling. “Where are the kids?”

“And I’m laying there staring at this guy’s boots fearing for my kids’ lives, trying to tell them where my children are,” Harte recalled later in a deposition on July 9, 2015. “They are sending these guys with their guns drawn running upstairs to bust into my children’s house, bedroom, wake them out of bed.”

Turns out both the man and his wife are former CIA officers. She is now an attorney, and he's a stay at home dad. Trying to find something fun and educational to do with his son, he and his son set up a hydroponics garden in the basement, where they drew a handful of tomato plants. The police were surveiling the local hydroponics shop, taking down the license plate numbers of customer vehicles. This guy's plate was on their list. That was used to justify searching his trash, where they found "wet glob vegetation" ......his wife's used tea leaves.....

On that basis, they storm-troopered his residence.

This fascist crap has to stop.

Would like to read the article, but apparently WaPo has decided that I've partaken of too much of their "journalism" without paying.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/cr ... 00778.html Story from KC Star the incident occurred in 2012.

[bblhd672]

Just imagine when we get another Marxist in the WH, one as AG etc.

Examples like this, I think prove just the opposite. It's the local politics. Sheriffs are locally elected. The local citizenry determines who is in charge and what the policies are. The Sheriff's department is responsible and should be accountable. If the voters accept these fascist type actions, then they get the government they deserve.

Some times we focus on idiocy of federal government when in reality, our local government are the people screwing us over the most.

Wrong, without the blessing of the federal police and support of federal courts these incidents would not be occurring at any level.

[Liberty]

Just imagine when we get another Marxist in the WH, one as AG etc.

Examples like this, I think prove just the opposite. It's the local politics. Sheriffs are locally elected. The local citizenry determines who is in charge and what the policies are. The Sheriff's department is responsible and should be accountable. If the voters accept these fascist type actions, then they get the government they deserve.

Some times we focus on idiocy of federal government when in reality, our local government are the people screwing us over the most.

Wrong, without the blessing of the federal police and support of federal courts these incidents would not be occurring at any level.

Seems to me the people should be in charge of policy. The Feds may give permission for such abuse , but it is up to the local authorities to limit these abuses. It is the local voters job to ultimately determine policy. It is the publics acceptance at allowing the local authorities to push to the limits. In this case, it is the sheriff's responsibility and the people who voted him in.

The Federal acceptance of no knock and war on drugs goes all the way to Reagan, no Democrat or Republican Congress or president has weighed in on limiting these abuses since Reagan declared his war on drugs. In fact there isn't even much of a national outcry about these abuses. That is why we need to protect ourselves locally.

[bblhd672]

Just imagine when we get another Marxist in the WH, one as AG etc.

Examples like this, I think prove just the opposite. It's the local politics. Sheriffs are locally elected. The local citizenry determines who is in charge and what the policies are. The Sheriff's department is responsible and should be accountable. If the voters accept these fascist type actions, then they get the government they deserve.

Some times we focus on idiocy of federal government when in reality, our local government are the people screwing us over the most.

Wrong, without the blessing of the federal police and support of federal courts these incidents would not be occurring at any level.

Seems to me the people should be in charge of policy. The Feds may give permission for such abuse , but it is up to the local authorities to limit these abuses. It is the local voters job to ultimately determine policy. It is the publics acceptance at allowing the local authorities to push to the limits. In this case, it is the sheriff's responsibility and the people who voted him in.

The Federal acceptance of no knock and war on drugs goes all the way to Reagan, no Democrat or Republican Congress or president has weighed in on limiting these abuses since Reagan declared his war on drugs. In fact there isn't even much of a national outcry about these abuses. That is why we need to protect ourselves locally.

I agree with what you're saying. My point is that locals wouldn't be doing it without the protection of the feds.

[The Annoyed Man]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... c9772a7e57

The police report would claim it all kicked off at 7:38 a.m., but Bob Harte later thought it had to be earlier.

His 7:20 a.m. alarm had just yanked him awake. Got to get the kids — a boy in seventh grade, a girl in kindergarten — ready for school. Then he heard, like a starter’s pistol setting everything into motion, the first pounding on the front door of his home in Leawood, Kan., a bedroom suburb south of Kansas City. It was thunderous. It didn’t stop. Should I get up? Bob thought. Should I not? Sounded like the house was coming down, he would recall later.

Wearing only gym shorts, the stocky 51-year-old left his wife in bed and shuffled downstairs. The solid front door had a small window carved at eye-level, one-foot-square. As he approached, Bob saw the porch was clogged with police officers. Immediately after opening the door, seven members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) pressed into the house brandishing guns and a battering ram. Bob found himself flat on floor, hands behind his head, his eyes locked on the boots of the officer standing over him with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Are there kids?” the officers were yelling. “Where are the kids?”

“And I’m laying there staring at this guy’s boots fearing for my kids’ lives, trying to tell them where my children are,” Harte recalled later in a deposition on July 9, 2015. “They are sending these guys with their guns drawn running upstairs to bust into my children’s house, bedroom, wake them out of bed.”

Turns out both the man and his wife are former CIA officers. She is now an attorney, and he's a stay at home dad. Trying to find something fun and educational to do with his son, he and his son set up a hydroponics garden in the basement, where they drew a handful of tomato plants. The police were surveiling the local hydroponics shop, taking down the license plate numbers of customer vehicles. This guy's plate was on their list. That was used to justify searching his trash, where they found "wet glob vegetation" ......his wife's used tea leaves.....

On that basis, they storm-troopered his residence.

This fascist crap has to stop.

Would like to read the article, but apparently WaPo has decided that I've partaken of too much of their "journalism" without paying.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/cr ... 00778.html Story from KC Star the incident occurred in 2012.

Weird.....it is in the WaPo "morning mix" with a July 28 publication date. On further investigation, your link says:

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision on some issues but overturned the decision pertaining to the Hartes’ claim that they were the victims of an unlawful search and seizure.

That article has a 7/25/17 publication date.

[bblhd672]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... c9772a7e57

The police report would claim it all kicked off at 7:38 a.m., but Bob Harte later thought it had to be earlier.

His 7:20 a.m. alarm had just yanked him awake. Got to get the kids — a boy in seventh grade, a girl in kindergarten — ready for school. Then he heard, like a starter’s pistol setting everything into motion, the first pounding on the front door of his home in Leawood, Kan., a bedroom suburb south of Kansas City. It was thunderous. It didn’t stop. Should I get up? Bob thought. Should I not? Sounded like the house was coming down, he would recall later.

Wearing only gym shorts, the stocky 51-year-old left his wife in bed and shuffled downstairs. The solid front door had a small window carved at eye-level, one-foot-square. As he approached, Bob saw the porch was clogged with police officers. Immediately after opening the door, seven members of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) pressed into the house brandishing guns and a battering ram. Bob found himself flat on floor, hands behind his head, his eyes locked on the boots of the officer standing over him with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Are there kids?” the officers were yelling. “Where are the kids?”

“And I’m laying there staring at this guy’s boots fearing for my kids’ lives, trying to tell them where my children are,” Harte recalled later in a deposition on July 9, 2015. “They are sending these guys with their guns drawn running upstairs to bust into my children’s house, bedroom, wake them out of bed.”

Turns out both the man and his wife are former CIA officers. She is now an attorney, and he's a stay at home dad. Trying to find something fun and educational to do with his son, he and his son set up a hydroponics garden in the basement, where they drew a handful of tomato plants. The police were surveiling the local hydroponics shop, taking down the license plate numbers of customer vehicles. This guy's plate was on their list. That was used to justify searching his trash, where they found "wet glob vegetation" ......his wife's used tea leaves.....

On that basis, they storm-troopered his residence.

This fascist crap has to stop.

Would like to read the article, but apparently WaPo has decided that I've partaken of too much of their "journalism" without paying.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/cr ... 00778.html Story from KC Star the incident occurred in 2012.

Weird.....it is in the WaPo "morning mix" with a July 28 publication date. On further investigation, your link says:

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision on some issues but overturned the decision pertaining to the Hartes’ claim that they were the victims of an unlawful search and seizure.

That article has a 7/25/17 publication date.

Robert and Adlynn Harte had filed suit alleging that they were subjected to an unlawful search of their home in 2012 based on the erroneous belief that they were growing marijuana.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/cr ... rylink=cpy

I'll have to figure out the WaPo "morning mix" thing because a lot of sites I read link to WaPo articles I can't read.

[Liberty]

It might be blocked and asking for a subcription because it detects an adblocker. I use another browser rather than disable my adblocker on Chrome.

[WTR]

I think part of this problem is of your own doing. We have allow the Police to act as if they are of a separate class from the general public. They are in fact civilian just like all of us and should be treated as such. The Police are actually referred to as a "Civilian Police Force" by the the Military. Just because they have chosen Policing as their profession should not give them additional protections from the law. Police will lie and alter reports in order to protect fellow Officers. These Officers should be relieved of duty and prosecuted (we need to weed them out). We should be concerned with Justice, not covering reputations. I have known Officer who have bragged about perjuring themselves ( under oath) in order to further "their" form of justice. I have known East Tx Officers who have bragged about shooting Blacks. We need to have the intestinal fortitude to hold the Police accountable. As previously said I have know salt of the earth Officers and scum as bad as any criminal. We need to break up the "boys in blue" club and hold everyone to the same standards.

[ninjabread]

I agree with Lynyrd, in that we need to be careful to not paint all LEO with the same brush. The problem the LEO community has is an old one.....the horrible actions of a few bad apples bringing shame and dishonor on the heads and shoulders of good decent cops, making their jobs that much harder. I think we need to remember that there are LOTS of LEO who read these stories, and agree with us that not only is justice not served, but that evil is encouraged whenever a cop gets away with murdering a citizen without any consequences to their own liberty.

I agree and I think we also need to recognize that there are also many LEOs who will close ranks and protect "one of their own" who does bad things. Those who knowingly protect evil doers from justice are not good men, no more than a getaway driver is innocent because he didn't go inside the bank with a gun.

Before somebody accuses me of "cop bashing" (a phrase that's as meaningless as "racist" in political discourse) let me add that I feel the same way about doctors who protect "one of their own" who kills a patient through gross negligence, politicians who have more loyalty to their ostensible opposition than to the citizens who elected them, etc.

[comp73]

Seems like a good place for this.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... nocent-man

Like others have stated, I Back the Blue and I'd be the first guy out of the vehicle if I happened to roll up on a LEO in need of assistance. That being said, I'm interested to get some LEO thoughts on this part.

Third, if and when police do kill or injure innocent homeowners, they should be stripped of qualified immunity — even when the homeowner is armed. There are circumstances where it would improper to file criminal charges against an officer who makes a good-faith mistake and finds himself making an immediate life-or-death situation, but when the mistake is his, then he should face strict liability for all the harm he causes.

To put it in perspective, my wife is a L&D nurse. In Texas, she can be sued for malpractice up to 14 years after the birth of a child that was her patient. Doesn't matter if it's in good faith or not.

Someone explain to me why this should be different for a LEO who has (wrongly or mistakenly) raided the home of a person who has done nothing criminal or illegal, especially when that person ends up hospitalized or dead due to LEO mistakes.