Common Folk Using Common Sense

From USAToday:

A Minneapolis police SWAT team kicked in the wrong door yesterday during an early morning raid, prompting the man of the house to grab his gun and open fire on the officers who entered the house.

“He took out his shotgun and he said if they are bad guys I’ll shoot, I’ll scare them away,” Dao Khang, the brother of the homeowner, Vang Khang, tells the Star Tribune. “He fired first, he told me it was two shots.”

Dao Khang says his brother was trying to protect his wife and six children. No one from the family was hit during the exchange of gunfire. Vang hit two officers, but the Pioneer Press says they were protected by ballistic vests and helmets.

“I must’ve heard over 20 or 30 shots, I swear, it was scary,” Ruth Hayes, the family’s next-door neighbor, tells WCCO-TV. “It was like 30 SWAT guys out here … it was crazy it was just like havoc.”

So this guy is resting comfortably in his home one morning when, all of a sudden, 30 guys in black come storming into his home and waving guns. And he gets his shotgun to defend his family and himself.

With no warning and with no preparation he fires twice in the chaos, hitting two of them, with his shotgun. The well-trained SWAT team, all 30 of them, fire 30 rounds out of their assault weapons (some probably automatic sub-machine guns) and hit nothing. What’s wrong with this picture, huh?

“It was some bad information that was received on the front end that kind-of trickled all the way through,” police Sgt. Jesse Garcia tells the station. “It’s unfortunate because we have officers that were hit by gunfire and this truly, truly could have been a much worse situation.”

“It’s unfortunate…”
“…could have been a much worse situation…”

Gee, ya think?! WTF?!

But the priceless quote comes next:

Police haven’t decided whether they’ll try to charge Khang with a crime. KMSP-TV says the Khang family is consulting with a civil attorney.

Haven’t decided whether they’ll try to charge Khang with a crime? What crime? The poor soul thought a team of gang-bangers were trying to snuff out his life and the lives of his innocent family? What did you goons think he was supposed to do? Roll over and die for you?

This is starting to happen more frequently. I fully understand the cops wanting to get the drop on the bad guys, but before sending out a fusillade of bullets you’ve got to be absolutely sure you’re shooting at a bad guy and not an innocent civilian.

I live in Georgia. Here’s is how some No-Knock Raids have gone down here:

• November 21, 2006
  Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, police conduct a no-knock raid on the home of 88 year old Kathryn Johnston. Johnston, described by neighbors as feeble and afraid to open her door at night, opens fire on officers as they burst into her home. Three of the officers are wounded before Johnston is shot and killed. Relatives say that Johnston lived alone, and legally owned a gun because she was fearful of intruders. She lived in the home for 17 years. Police claim that they find a small amount of marijuana in Johnston’s home, but none of the cocaine, computers, money, or equipment described in the affidavit that was used to obtain a warrant. There are now allegations of a police cover-up.
• March 23, 2006
  On March 23, 2006, 12 officers conduct a 1:30 am no-knock drug raid on a house in Macon, Georgia. During the raid, Dep. Whitehead is shot and killed by residents Antron Dawayne Fair and Damon Antwon. Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena told the Macon Telegraph that once the suspects realized the raiding party was law enforcement and not gang members, they surrendered immediately. Nevertheless, prosecutors charged five of the residents with murder, including one who wasn’t in the building at the time. The two who actually fired weapons during the raid face the death penalty.
• September 30, 2005
  Early in the morning on September 30, 2005, police in Stockbridge, Georgia conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Roy and Belinda Baker. Officers break down the couple’s front door with a battering ram and toss in flashbang grenades. They hold the couple at gunpoint, handcuff them, and then send them out onto their porch, only partially clothed. Police ruin a family Bible and antique coffee table during the raid. Police eventually realize the intended target of the raid lives next door. Police Chief Russ Abernathy called the raid “inexcusable” and “not acceptable,” and blamed poor street lighting. But Abernathy added that no one would be fired, and that the raids would go on, albeit after “reviewing procedures.” The Bakers are considering a lawsuit.
• September 22, 2000
  On September 22, 2000, police in Riverdale, Georgia shoot and kill Lynette Gayle Jackson in an early morning, no-knock drug raid. Less than a month earlier, Jackson had been at home when burglars broke into the house. She escaped out a window and called the police while the intruders ransacked her home. When police arrived to answer the burglary call, they found a small bag of cocaine in the bedroom that belonged to Jackson’s boyfriend. While the quantity of cocaine wasn’t sufficient to press charges, police began a subsequent investigation of Jackson’s boyfriend leading to the September no-knock raid. As that raid transpired, Jackson, believing she was being robbed again, was holding a gun in her bedroom as the SWAT team entered. Her maintenance man later told reporters she had been frightened by the previous burglary. Jackson had asked him to install new locks, security bars on her windows, and a motion-detecting security light. The man told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, “I think she was scared and she probably thought it was another break-in.”
• November 13, 1991
  On November 13, 1991, police in Dekalb County, Georgia conduct a 2:30 am drug raid on the home of Kathy and Bobby Bowman by knocking down the Bowman’s door with a battering ram. Police say they announced themselves, though the Bowman’s say they never heard it. Bobby Bowman, who says he thought he was being robbed, heard the commotion and came out of his bedroom with a gun. As police and Bowman exchanged fire, one bullet struck and killed Bowman’s eight-year-old stepson, Xavier Bennett. Police found cocaine in Bowman’s possession. Bowman’s lawyer would later tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “the [police] plan of action contributed to the results and outcome of this situation.” The prosecutor called Bennett’s death “the tragic culmination of drugs and guns.”

Minneapolis, police, SWAT, Vang Khang, Kathryn Johnston, Antron Dawayne Fair, Damon Antwon, Belinda Baker, Lynette Gayle Jackson, Bobby Bowman

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