carbuff
Well-Known Member
Possibly I am overreacting to the article, but...some of those people seem to be saying that if the parents had been drug dealers, it would have been okay to drop an incendiary device on their baby??? My God.
Possibly I am overreacting to the article, but...some of those people seem to be saying that if the parents had been drug dealers, it would have been okay to drop an incendiary device on their baby??? My God.
There was a similar incident in New England a couple of years ago, too.
Unfortunately what one LE unit learns in one part of the country does not often carry over to other agencies in other states. And it seems like the feds are the biggest offenders.
It makes me feel ill. And very very angry.
A 2012 study by the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness concluded that if weed were made legal in just three American states — Oregon, Washington and Colorado — Mexican cartels would lose $4.6 billion dollars.
The federal agencies who hold $1.6 billion in seized assets; the local police forces that make millions off confiscated cash, property and cars; the lucrative private prisons fed by drug convictions? All of them stand to lose millions if drugs are made legal.
According to Mark, a former cop who worked narcotics for 18 years, the Albuquerque Police Department — like many local police departments — counts on asset seizures to increase its budgets. He said that when he was an officer, the emphasis was on property seizures rather than drug seizures, because the department could then use the profits to buy equipment and cars. Such forfeitures happen before the suspect is convicted, meaning that even if they are innocent, they can still lose their property. The average amount seized annually by police departments of APD’s size is worth more than a million dollars, according to a 2007 Bureau of Justice Statistics report.
At a news conference Tuesday, the tot's father, Bounkham Phonesavanh said the officers who lobbed the explosive into his sleeping child's playpen showed no remorse afterward, and lied to he and his wife about the extent of his injuries, saying the boy had only lost a tooth, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"The officers cursed and yelled at us and threatened to arrest me after we expressed our concern for our son," Phonesavanh said, according to NBC Atlanta.
"We love our children and would never put them in harm's way by involving ourselves in drugs," Alecia Phonesavanh said.
Thanks for the suggestion SilkySifaka.
I'll work on it Friday when I get home.
The more I read, the angrier I get.
I'm really surprised more people aren't challenging the Feds on this. I can see the headlines now. "From the people that brought you Ruby Ridge...."
Just from the articles, it seems to hint that LE are going to weasel out of paying damages to the family by saying the nephew was at fault, that LE wouldn't have been there is he hadn't been a drug dealer, therefore he should have to pay damages. Low level drug dealers don't really seem to make that much money, so the nephew won't be able to raise any cash. (http://www.salon.com/2014/03/09/the...hats_the_point_of_surviving_if_you_cant_live/)
I've been all for legalizing drugs for a long time--the money from taxing the manufacturers would help the economies in a lot of countries, the quality of drugs would be assured and therefore the safety of users would be increased (just like bathtub gin became illegal and was replaced by higher quality alcohol), the safety of LEOs would be increased, and so on. So I began reading a bit more about it and learned that a lot of people believe the legalization of drugs, federal/state/civic control, would be problematic for both sides of the equation. On the cartels' side, legalization would lead to loss of profits.
As far as LE is concerned, money would also be lost and investment by governments of different levels in narcotics units would decline.
And arrests count, whether or not the person is guilty or innocent.
This reporter continues his article interviewing LE officers (and former officers) and drug dealers. Very interesting, but depressing. One of the LEOs was a devout Christian who left the narcotics squad because he felt uncomfortable with the tactics. He believes drugs won't stop being a problem, even if legalized, until the underlying problem of poverty is solved. Huge issues raised. It's an overwhelming issue on many fronts, but, to me, this horrible incident has focused attention on the ethics and morality of Narcotics Units tactics. Isn't the motto "To serve and protect"?
...in a previous plea agreement, the suspect, Wanis Tthonetheva, waived his 4th amendment right of search and seizure. Essentially that means the police could have legally searched him and his residence with or without probable cause....
“The pin from the grenade is still in the driveway so there has been absolutely no collection of evidence and that first and foremost is an issue,” said the family’s attorney, Mawuli Mel Davis.
Possibly I am overreacting to the article, but...some of those people seem to be saying that if the parents had been drug dealers, it would have been okay to drop an incendiary device on their baby??? My God.
I got that impression as well and it sickened me. IMO, that's part and parcel of the failed War on Drugs propaganda machine. (http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/mike-riggs) Again, JMO, but it seems to desensitized people to the point where somehow anyone touched by the drug trade, is less than human, less worthy of common decency. It seems to have made "decent" people just fine with LE blinding and burning a toddler. How bloody barbaric! Apparently the SWAT team members who may have killed this baby are very upset that it happened. (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/toddler-hurt-swat-drug-raid-georgia-23926974) In the interview the chief seems to promise they'll be doubly careful in the future.
Obviously they learned nothing from a similar incident in which a 12 year old girl was terribly burned by a flash bang grenade in Billings, Montana in 2012. LE was going to be more careful then too. (http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_71d1f226-1474-11e2-b4b4-0019bb2963f4.html)
Is there any word on how the baby is doing?
He is still in a coma.
Is there any word on how the baby is doing?
Bou is now in Grady Memorial Hospital's burn unit in Atlanta. A spokesman for the family said Bou has lost the use of one of his lungs and remains in a medically-induced coma fighting for his life.
1. Georgia state Sen. Vincent Fort has said that he will call for a federal investigation into this drug raid.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/02/toddler-injured-flash-grenade-raid/9893021/
2. From the information in this article, it appears to me that is was Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell was the person who stated that the parents knew about the drug deals but kept the children in another room. This seems to be in contradiction with what the mother said more recently.