Found this over at CopBlock.org, one of the most fearless law enforcement watchdog sites I’ve ever come across. This “standoff” was staged recently by the South Suburban Emergency Response Team (SSERT) in Oak Forest, Illinois in response to a call from a “concerned friend” that a man might be fixing to do himself in with a gun. Turns out the man in question wasn’t home, but watching the entire thing from a bar stool at Beggar’s Bar. Says Copblock, ” Who can blame him for not telling the police, ‘hey, I am down at Beggar’s Bar’ when he can see on T.V. that several heavily armed men and their itchy trigger fingers have come to do what at most should have been a ‘wellness check.'”
Employees at the bar finally called when the news showed the 50 officers surrounding the property breaking the windows and inserting pepper spray into the home.
More from CopBlock:
When it became apparent that (Mark) Fitch was not in the house the media began to call the whole thing a “hoax”, pinning the blame for the botched operation on Fitch, but even Chief Anderson explained that “He didn’t actually dupe us. He just was not in the house at the time when we thought he was based on the information – the best information we had at the time.” …..
…Despite the fact that even the Chief of Police has stated that Fitch did not commit a crime, the mayor and many residents want him to pony up for the cost of the standoff. Estimates for the whole thing have been anywhere from $10,000-$75,000, mostly because of overtime pay for police officers. Courts have rule over and over that the police have no obligation to protect someone, but bureaucrats like Mayor Hank Kuspa seem to think that when they do decide to respond to a call for help, even in the most ridiculous, over the top fashion, the person they were sent to help somehow has a obligation to pay for the cost of that response simply because he was not where the police believed him to be.
I suspect that their outrage is less about taxpayer’s money and more about the fact that the police looked foolish, not because of anything Fitch did, but because of their own over zealous use of their fancy toys.
Fancy toys indeed, the proliferation of which we have seen all over the country, in towns big and small, beginning during the Clinton administration when all that money started flowing through COPS (Community Oriented Policing) grants. It really surged with a vengeance after 9/11 — now law enforcement really had a reason to play Navy SEAL and G.I Joe. If you think it’ll ever go back to the way it was — 9/11 mastermind or no — we have a modest family home to sell you in Abbottabad.…
Waych Betond Treason.
Gestapo boys and their state security apparatus toys. "Ve MUST see your papers! SCHNELL!!!"
Radley's Balko's site theagitator.com is also one of the best at featuring domestic police overkill and abuse.
The police are as insane as the military.
Many are ex-military – it's the most natural transition into 'civilian' life for many ex-soldiers.
Indeed, which is why the emerging Amerikan police state, once it fully metastasizes, is going to make that of Nazi Germany's look benign by comparison.
Hoo haw! You gotta love those two letters visible on the armored car.
I only wonder who was contracted to painted them on the vehicle. God knows none of the cops themselves are literate enough to have done it.
What happens when each such act of aggression costs them personally, painfully, and often permanently?
Osama's legacy? B. Clinton's legacy is more like it. The '94 Crime Bill marked the start of the militarization of policing in even small communities. Suddenly by the late '90's virtually ever little town in the country had military like SWAT teams.
This is also a legacy of mental health law and the refusal of virtually anybody to fight against involuntary commitment laws. Only thing new about the response to somebody accused of being suicidal is how over the top the response was.
"…Despite the fact that even the Chief of Police has stated that Fitch did not commit a crime…"
He was suspected of being suicidal, and you lose all your rights when that happens and you are detained. So he did in fact commit a "crime", and that is the "crime" of having a "loved one" call the authorities for the sole purpose of getting you locked up.
At least they didn't send ED-209…
The citizen in question, Mr. Fitch, is the one who should be demanding money, not the police or the town of Oak Forest, Illinois. Since when do you send a f**king tank to prevent a suicide? I used to tell people a completely bogus story about a guy who threatened to jump off a bridge to his death. The police were called. A cop walked up to the man and said, "Stop or I'll shoot!" THIS is just as stupid, perhaps more so.
Yeah really. What were they going to do? Kill him so he couldn't commit suicide? Brilliant police work.
Well, they were only there to keep him from being killed by himself!!
Mommy, could I get one of those for the sandbox?
Sure. just get elected mayor, &/or appointed police chief, send out for an anti-terror grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Just tell them you've been seeing an upswing in Islamic graffitti, or Moslem littering, or spitting Mohammedans, or something along those lines. In no time, you'll have your very own halftrack, bullet proof vests for your officers and their dogs, surveillance cameras, and discretionary funds.
You're not my mommy! …but how did you know it wasn't really for the sandbox?
It looks like the pigs planned to do him in instead of letting him do it himself.
Bill
gainesville VFP.
No doubt. I'm sure they live for getting 911 calls just like this so that they can take out a "disposable" target.
This is conditioning the citizens for the future. We fully support the police in matters like this.
Ridin' the range, lookin' fer outlaws. Gonna visit ol' George at the ranch.
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