A few weeks ago, six deputies and marshals were on a rickety deck to arrest a “sexual predator” and the deck collapsed beneath them, sending them on a ten foot plunge. I can find plenty of news stories about the collapse, but no follow-up. It makes me very curious. For Dopers in the Missouri vicinity, maybe you could shed some light.
Was it ever factually determined that (A) they were after a sexual predator, as opposed to a Guatemalan gardener or a Honduran nanny? (B) the cops had a valid warrant? or (C) that the cops were at the correct address specified on said warrant?
I’m generally supportive of my local police, but we live in an era where these questions really need to be asked.
Seems to indicate he was an actually adjudicated sex offender. Question decisively answered?
Not really. Did they show up at the right house? Is seven armed officers the normal response for this kind of infraction? Was the suspect actually served and/or arrested later? This story raises a lot of questions, frankly.
The text of the first news link actually describes something pretty definitive:
…a task force with the US Marshals Service arrived at the suspect’s apartment on the morning of August 18 to serve him warrant for failing to register as a sex offender.
(Emphasis added.)
Of course, that doesn’t explain why arresting one person required a dozen federal marshals.
Members of the task force were executing 30 warrants for convicted sex offenders who failed to register their addresses, including Munoz who was reportedly convicted for child pornography possession. Authorities said he eventually had gone silent on his parole officer.
So they had so many people because they planned to visit a huge number of addresses, and some of the people were more dangerous than others.
As to Munoz, let’s be precise about what he was guilty of:
Also reads like this was a publicity stunt. So they didn’t necessarily care how many officers were needed. Rather, they figured more officers implies a more dangerous offender and thus makes a better photo op. Especially since the far right has fetishized itself as going after child sexual predators.
Isn’t there a distinction between a gangster with a history of violence and a lone chomo who wasn’t even suspected of additional crimes other than not filing an address change. Don’t get me wrong, he should have been arrested and jailed but it does seem like overkill. I’ll concede that it’s possible that he also had a history of violence that was unreported.
U.S. Marshalls don’t come out just for one random low level dude wanted on local charges. They either help with fugitives that cross state borders, go after dangerous high risk fugitives or work with local law enforcement in large task forces. In the case it was the last one. The article posted above states this:
The band of law enforcement officials, made up of four deputy US Marshals and five Randolph County sheriff’s deputies, were part of Operation Adam’s Watch, a multi-week initiative that has so far resulted in more than 330 arrests of individuals who’ve failed to register as sex offenders or are wanted for other sexual offenses.
No, because it’s not just for officer safety. One bad ass officer might be able to go in there and single-handedly take down a physically resisting suspect. But the chance and severity of the citizen’s injuries will increase. It may be counterintuitive, but a mob of officers all jumping on someone to get them handcuffed often involves fewer strikes, fewer choke holds, fewer Tazer deployments, fewer incidents of lethal force or accidental injury/death of the suspect, etc. It’s even worse if the lone officer is not some bad ass MMA blackbelt. When they are at a mechanical and physical disadvantage, they have fewer options than to escalate to more injurious techniques to subdue the suspect. A swarm of officers reduces injury to the suspect. It looks more aggressive, but it is less violent overall. There are studies analyzing predictors of police shootings and they consistently find that the presence of multiple officers significantly decreases the likelihood of the situation ending in the use of deadly force.
