I’m just curious about a news item reference in This Modern World:
I think I recall something about the 68 year-old grandfather.
But what about the two year-old having experience a flash-bang grenade going off in his crib?
I’d really like cites for these two items, especially the second one, in case I refer to them in person and then have to defend the truth claims.
And did the little toddler live? (I hope.)
Well, Google “baby grenade crib” brings up this on the first hit.
Dear Lord.
It’s a miracle the kid lived.
Engineers designed the flash bomb with the intention of limiting physical injuries.
It seems a lot of engineers have performed miracles in this world. They’d be saints 1000 times over if people realised this truth.
:rolleyes:
It’s still an explosive device that went off inches from an infants head. The child is currently in a medically induced coma and very lucky to be alive
The device was clearly never intended to be used in anything approaching these conditions and the engineers did not design it so.
A slight more recent update. There’s also some pictures online if you look for them. Nice war on drugs.
He got burned pretty bad, still, and is currently in an induced coma. But way to see the bright side of things…
I wonder what one of those things does to your hearing when it explodes next to your head…
They’re intended to temporarily deafen/disorientate anyone in the room (no idea how far that might apply in a house). The flash is to blind them.
Even so, that’s a hell of a shockwave inches from an infant. I didn’t read the article but I assume he was burned, too.
And of course, it’s the police who are the bad guys here, not the people dealing method out of a house with a baby in it.
It’s unfortunate that the baby got hurt, but this narrative of “cops bad, drug dealers and other criminals innocent victims of society” is just irritating.
Did you bother to read the story? No drugs or suspects were found, and the baby that was injured belonged to a family visiting the home. So, yeah, at the moment, I’m going to put this at the foot of the police. Is the war on drugs worth that? I say no. YMMV.
So then it’s the doctors who get the credit. Still no miracle involved.
Yeah, I mean I think we can all agree that if the police raid a house or make an arrest someone must be guilty of something, and deserve what they get. The police don’t make mistakes, and aren’t incredibly careless of the rights of civilians because they themselves can’t be touched by the law.
Oh, wait a minute, none of that is true.
Did you bother to read the story? Drugs were sold to an informant at that address. It’s unfortunate that the dealer wasn’t there at the time of the raid, but they were operating on a solid lead.
And yes - the war on meth is worth it.
Smapti, how many injured infants are worth it? Clearly, to you, one is.
What if this infant was your child or grandchild, but drugs had been sold to an informant at that address–would that be okay?
What if the informant was mistaken? That happens. Or the police got the address wrong. Still good?
One of the articles I saw on this said that the baby is brain-damaged now, and has a hole blown in his chest that exposes the ribs. He may be debilitated or needing of professional care for the rest of his life.
Did any of those articles mention exactly what drugs were supposedly bought there, that the cops were looking for? Did it say meth somewhere?
This article concludes with this update:
How many infants are injured as a result of meth every year, because a family member has a problem, or is involved in the manufacture or distribution of it, or because they’re in the wrong place and the wrong time when drug-related violence goes down? Thousands? Millions? I guarantee you it’s more than the number who get flashbangs thrown into their cribs. I can tell you personally that my sister and I were victims - my mother’s meth addiction nearly killed her more than once, and it was the reason my sister and I spent most of our childhoods homeless and underfed, and why we never got proper medical or dental care until we could afford to pay for it ourselves. And our story isn’t unique.
I’d be furious at the drug dealer who used my family’s safe haven to carry out their criminal activities, and I’d want them hunted down and given a fair trial followed by a speedy execution.
Then it would have been irresponsible of the police to act in that matter and I would sue them and likely win, but the blame would still lie with the dealer.
Smapti, in the interests of staying on the right side of the rules, I will just say that your opinions stated in this thread are incredibly ignorant, foolish and downright ridiculous.
A family lost their house in a fire, so they went to stay with the father’s sister. Police decided to look in the house for a man suspected of a $50 drug deal, but the man did not live there. There were toys and a minivan with child seats outside, but police still threw a flashbang - a weapon for the fucking military, not Deputy Wannabe - through the window and right next to a baby. Recent news is they won’t pay the medical bills.
A big part of the damage done by drugs is caused by the war on drugs, not the drugs themselves.
And it’s very unfortunate that the child was injured and that they didn’t catch the dealer, but I don’t know where you got the idea that a flashbang is “for the fucking military” - they’ve always been intended for and used in room breach scenarios by civilian police forces, going back to the 1970s. The city isn’t paying the medical bills because they’re not legally allowed to - IMO, they should find a way to pay them, but that decision is above my pay grade.
This isn’t some happy go-lucky drug like marijuana or LSD here, where you can legitimately say it doesn’t hurt anyone and its users are perfectly capable of being fully functional members of society. This is meth. Meth kills. Meth destroys the lives of people who never even touch the stuff. It’s a public health hazard and a threat to public safety and it needs to be stomped out. Make no mistake, this is a war.
From a discussion on this, that I saw elsewhere -
the municipality whose police are involved in the raid are refusing to pay the medical bills, which is what also brings up the notoriety of the case. Apparently, a town government cannot just arbitrarily decide to pay medical bills without a court judgement, so they also come off looking even more callous. Apparently, a town cannot simply pick and choose “For you, we’ll pay the medical bills because you asked. But you, file a lawsuit and wait.”
The problem being commented on above is precisely the one with Ferguson - militarization of police forces. Thirty years ago a no-knock warrant was a rare and extreme measure - today it seems unannounced military-style invasions complete with explosives tossed in blindly are routine for simple drug raids.
the question is whether qualified immunity kicks in here - are the police immune from a lawsuit because they were simply doing their duty? or is tossing a flashbang blindly(?) into a house sufficiently negligent that this removes that immunity? That’s something the courts will have to decide, and I’m guessing the bills won’t be settled for several years.