# Yet another SWAT raid death and no charges filed **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278 "2011-01-20T02:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/481 "2011-03-25T13:27:01Z")
> [@Digital\_Stimulus](#): > > From yesterday in Missouri City, TX, we have an [example of exactly that](http://www.khou.com/home/Alleged-police-impersonators-suspected-in-Missouri-City-home-invasion-118569554.html). Kind of amusing that the criminals appear to be less trigger happy than the cops. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/482 "2011-03-25T13:34:33Z")
> [@Digital\_Stimulus](#): > > As I recall it, there was a question of whether home invaders ever attempt to pass themselves off as police. From yesterday in Missouri City, TX, we have an [example of exactly that](http://www.khou.com/home/Alleged-police-impersonators-suspected-in-Missouri-City-home-invasion-118569554.html). > [@](#): > > MISSOURI CITY, Texas—Missouri City police are warning residents to be on the lookout for a group of suspects who impersonated police during a home invasion early Thursday. So. . .the police are warning citizens not to assume people dressed as cops and screaming, “open up, police, we have a warrant” are cops.? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/483 "2011-03-25T14:50:42Z")
The police are in a no-win situation they’ve partially created. They have gone into this full militarization scheme of “boys with toys”, treating every single person they meet as a potential criminal, and mentally putting themselves on a higher plane by calling every non-cop a “civilian” (despite the fact that the police themselves are civilians), and so people expect that violent, destructive, seemingly psychotic behavior by home invaders might very well be police just “being aware that guns may be present.” In a city near me, Olathe, back in the 1990’s (about the height of “the war on drugs”) there were some kids driving around in a Crown Vic with a flashing dash light who were pulling over people late at night and robbing them. So the chief of police got on the TV and was interviewed, and told everyone to “drive to a well-lit area where other people are around” before pulling over. Yeah, that worked. What do you think happens when a cop signals you to pull over and you keep on driving? What made the news the next week or so, which was very much glossed over, was a woman who filed a complaint against the police. She was driving on K7 and had a cop try to pull her over for an expired license plate. So she kept driving down 56 highway until she got to the **police station** there, where she was then subjected to a full-felony takedown, cops dragging her from the car, knee in the back of her neck, guns against her head. For doing exactly what the cops said. Because these militarized cops who are not well trained, given handguns and even fully automatic weapons and near impunity to do anything so long as they use the convenient excuse of “there might be guns” were too…I don’t know, stupid? Hyped up? - to assess that a single woman driving at the speed limit to the parking lot of their own motherfucking police station - and following the stated advice of the chief of police - was not T-Dog the Tri-State Cop Killer. :rolleyes: Her complaint went to court, and a jury found for the cops. After all, gotta support the police, right? You should have heard the howls of protest of our local police when Concealed Carry was near passing. The chief of the OP police solemnly predicted that “it will encourage vigilantes and cops will be at risk.” Any chief of police who believes cops will be at risk from people vetted by their own department, the sheriff, the FBI, the local and State attorney general’s office, etc. is a man who probably needs to find an exciting career as a night watchman at a dental floss warehouse. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/484 "2011-03-26T00:53:57Z")
After watching the video I have to say, the cop(s) were wrong. I don’t have an issue with cops, hell, I had them sent to my house two nights ago because the security company called me and said my alarm went off and my wife didn’t answer the phone (I was 600 miles away and stranded…theres a thread in MPSIMS about it). This guy probably was rousted from sleep, heard shouting, tried to figure out what was going and grabbed the golf club only to be capped what, THREE times? Then the cop says “Get on the ground!” Jeebus. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/485 "2011-03-26T01:03:07Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Take a look at the fucking video, you idiot. Yeah, it’s five seconds between the first sound and when the drug-dealing scumbag gets himself shot. Except, take a look at the video. He’s not standing there for five seconds debating whether to get on the ground or to start swinging his golf club at the cops. How much time is there between when when the drug-dealing scumbag comes into view and when he gets shot? > And this is an amazing statement. I’m not talking about whether this guy was a drug dealer or not. I assume he was. And so the fuck what? The cops had absolutely no way of telling whether he was a drug-dealing scumbag who as you seem to believe deserves summary execution, or a decent human being who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. > > Whether this particular dead guy was a drug dealing scumbag who deserved to die is irrelevant, _counselor_. > Lying? Are you fucked in the head today, Bricker? He was armed with a golf club. He didn’t swing the golf club, he didn’t have time because the second the cop saw him, he was shot. So the fuck what if the cop who shot him thought he had a sword. What if he did have a sword? What if he had a gun? It’s not unreasonable for a person, when woken out of a sound sleep to grab a weapon, is it? > > The cops have to figure that a sizable percentage of people, who when woken in a midnight raid, will try to defend themselves. What you YOU do? You talk all the time about how you’ve got a gun for home defense. Is it unreasonable for you to grab your gun in such a moment? > > What should cops do in such a raid when the homeowner is holding a gun? Shoot him down the second they see him? Because that’s what happened in this video. They saw him, they shot him. They didn’t tell him to drop the gold club, they just shot him the second they saw him. The cop didn’t think, he reacted, by his own admission. > > If a homeowner with a gun just reacts and opens fire on the cops and kills a couple of them, would you defend the homeowner? Or charge him with murder? I’m not a cop, but aren’t cops supposed to at least say something along the lines of “Put the weapon down” or “Show me your hands!” Before pumping you full of lead? I guess if the cops bust in my door tonight and walk out of the den holding anything like a beer bottle, toothbrush, spoon, etc they have right to gun me down and it’d be because I deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/486 "2011-03-26T01:47:32Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Kind of amusing that the criminals appear to be less trigger happy than the cops. Of course. The criminals face _penalties_ when they gun people down. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278/487 "2011-04-07T15:10:04Z")
Another robbery where perps were acting like police: [http://articles.philly.com/2011-04-06/news/29387629\_1\_man-pistol-home-invasion-robbery-duct-tape](http://articles.philly.com/2011-04-06/news/29387629_1_man-pistol-home-invasion-robbery-duct-tape) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-swat-raid-death-and-no-charges-filed/568278.md?page=24)