Una, you are just about the only thing that makes coming to the Barbecue Pit worthwile.
Now there’s a sentiment that even people who hate me can agree with. 
(and yes, I did leave out Ford. Did he actually do anything wrong, other than the Pardon? I guess one could insert a missing few lines, such as:
"The torch then passed to Gerald Ford
Who seemed like Scandal had ignored
- Until he gave his boss a pass -
And Jimmy Carter kicked his ass!"
)
Well, there were no guns actually drawn, but yours truly saw a good friend and a couple of accomplices dragged away in cuffs in High School.
That was Nineteen and Eight Two.
The heck with the Fourth Amendment. I just think they should tell you to keep a change of underwear at school if they are going to rush in waving guns around.
**Lt. Dave Aarons ** That’s the Nazi wannabe that led the raid and was spokesman for the PD. He can justify their actions. He gives cops a bad name. Raped in prison is to good for him.
No evidence of hostages? You’re fucking kidding, right? Quite a few students reported that hostages were taken. They were wrong, of course, but they were also wrong about the “sniper” on the roof, the number of gunmen, and dozens of other things.
In any case, they didn’t wait “hours” to go in.
First 911 call was at 11:23, reporting that someone at the school was injured. A minute or two later, a police officer responds, and trades fire with Harris. The SWAT commander, en-route to the school, pages the SWAT team at 11:33, the teams are reported en-route 2 minutes later. The SWAT commander arrives one minute later, starts setting up. SWAT arrives at 11:49. “Immediate entry” is authorized at 11:52 when the Jefferson Country undersheriff arrives. SWAT quickly gathers gear, and despite being only partially equipped (Several SWAT members have little more than a weapon and basic armor, instead of the more common full tactical rig), commondeer a fire truck, advance under cover and make entry at 12:06, only 17 minutes after arriving, or 43 minutes after the first 911 call is made. Hardly “hours”… Timeline.
</nitpick>
The police handled Columbine quite well, given the situation. Which is in pretty stark contrast to this foul up here…
You’re right about those facts, but clearing the school took forever. I don’t know how many kids bled out during that time. I agree it’s a hijack. And, armored combat being a mutual interest, I’ll admit I was over-stating the case.
The cops were screwed either way: rush in “carelessly, causing more casualties” or “wait for the poor victims to suffer and die.” Spin always works both ways in situations where the outcomes are bad/worse.
I rarely swear. But that? That, Una was fucking brilliant.
:: applause ::
:: throws roses ::
With no real evidence that this happens on a regular basis, or has happened anywhere else, why is it that the general theme of this thread seems to be that it’s a trend all over. Our local high school district does locker searches once in a while, but they keep the kids in the classrooms and take the dogs through the school. Any lockers that the dogs alert on are then opened. The last time I heard about it, they sent a letter home saying that the dogs had picked out ten lockers, but that nothing had been found in any of them. End of story. No traumatized kids, no guns, no problem.
The reason for the letter, by the way, was that by the end of the day there were rumors flying that drugs had been found in ten lockers. They wanted to make sure parents got the straight story.
I’d bet this system is a lot more typical than the one in the news story.
With no real evidence that this happens on a regular basis, or has happened anywhere else, why is it that the general theme of this thread seems to be that it’s a trend all over. Our local high school district does locker searches once in a while, but they keep the kids in the classrooms and take the dogs through the school. Any lockers that the dogs alert on are then opened. The last time I heard about it, they sent a letter home saying that the dogs had picked out ten lockers, but that nothing had been found in any of them. End of story. No traumatized kids, no guns, no problem.
The reason for the letter, by the way, was that by the end of the day there were rumors flying that drugs had been found in ten lockers. They wanted to make sure parents got the straight story.
I’d bet this system is a lot more typical than the one in the news story.
Sorry about that. I really wasn’t trying to be quite that emphatic.
I’m not really seeing a problem here. And dammit, I’m a liberal!
The cops could have had reliable evidence that some kids were dealing dope in school. They could have had reliable information that said kids were often armed and had no compunction regarding the use of violence. They may also have had information that these kids had threatened violence against other students.
Unbelieveable? No. I saw all of that in my High School in the early eighties. If all of the above were true, the police tactics used seem quite reasonable, though unforunate.
That the officers didn’t find anything IS troubling, but that doesn’t mean their information was bad. Hell, one of the kids mave had a ‘bad feeling’ and told his compadres to come to school clean that day. Or one of the kids mave been tipped off that somebody ratted them out. Or they could simply have shown up on the wrong day. Or they did indeed have bad information.
We don’t know enough to say which at the moment.
Well, not on the same day, you understand.
It seems like only yesterday that me and my “gang” were telling the husky, baby-faced “transfer student” (narc) who wanted to “score some pot” that the best place to start looking was in the woods behind the principal’s house.
I forget which Sheriff and Sheriff’s dispatcher were growing acres of marijuana. GA, or FL?
Who gives a shit about aschcroft?
You guys called The OP on the rather silly comment that he might somehow be involved. It’s done with, who cares?
What I’m concerned about is this horrible episode.
The video linked to by the OP clearly shows a student TACKLED to the ground by a police officer when he didn’t get down fast enough for them.
What are the parent’s doing? is my question!
I would demand the principal and anyone else who approved this be fired. I would kick the crap out fo the damned dop that dared tackle my kid to the ground it be worth the day in jail, that’s for damned sure.
I would also be calling for some action against the police department, and for measures against this kind of thing being allowed ot happen again!
What would have happenned if a kid panicked and fled? Would he have been shot in the back? What if one of the dogs attacked one of the students?
ANYTHING could have wrong on that raid and it might have meant the life of a young kid. And that’s the frightening part. It seems to me the police department and the faculty of that school have no problem with that.
Argh! I gotta learn to preview 
I hate to do the “back in my day” thing, but is it common now to have security cameras covering the entire school? If you watch the clip here you’ll see that principal has a bunch of TV screens in his office constantly monitoring the security cameras placed throughout the school.
And I blame Mel Carnahan for this.
forgot to add- I beleive the information that spurred the raid came from something the principal saw on the security cameras.
Which is, in and of itself, proof of nothing.
When the cops say get on the floor, you get on the floor. It’s not a negotiation. This is for the officer’s protection. It’s SOP.
What? You they should have been treated differently because they were students? You don’t think a student can be threat?