Last week I read the shocking account of a Maryland mayor whose home was on the receiving end of a SWAT Team assault last summer. While his mother-in-law washed dishes in the kitchen and Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo was dressing upstairs to go out to a meeting, the SWAT Team broke into his home, shot his two dogs and left his entire family terrorized.As I read the account I wondered how many such incidents occur that we never hear about.
We all know mistakes happen. I read a story once about 29 men who assembled in Chicago to celebrate their releases from our nations' prisons... after new DNA procedures proved they were innocent of the crimes which sentenced them to death row. Those are mistakes with serious consequences.
Dylan's song Hurricane comes readily to mind. Here are the last two verses.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed
to live in a land where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
What I remember, unfortunately, is reading a William F. Buckley editorial twenty years ago mocking these kinds of rock star awareness-raising songs on behalf of criminals. As if the justice system is always just and never makes a mistake.
Ultimately, Rubin Carter gained his freedom and the truth did out, but it's not always so. And it robbed him of many of the best years of his life. (I recommend the movie.)
By fluke I stumbled on the answer to my question this story raised in the first place. In case you're interested, here is a map assembled by the Cato Institute, a libertarian, non-partisan think tank dedicated to limited government, individual freedom and peaceful international relations. Check out this map of unnecessary violent consequences of botched raids.
Another question comes to mind on the heels of this one. Who pays for the damage once it's done? When they shoot your dogs, or accidentally shoot your breadwinner husband, my guess is that you don't quite get back what you've lost. And saying, "Ooops" just doesn't carry a lot of weight in that equation.
>>>>>>As I read the account I wondered how many such incidents occur that we never hear about.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't any incidents listed in Duluth on the map from Cato that you linked to, but I can assure you there have been many. The cops don't really care if they don't find any drugs -- they use the raids as a means of intimidation.
If it's a raid that merely terrorizes an innocent suspect, but no drugs, deaths, or lawsuits result, the MSM doesn't say a word about it.
I've read western criticism of "lack of justice" in Laos, saying that a prisoner's guilt is already decided before he even gets to the courtroom. That's true. Here, the police have to do their homework first, and present an airtight case to the court before they can even make an arrest.
"Probable cause", which USED to be the standard for search or arrest warrants in the US, is not enough, here. The police need PROOF to present to the court. The guy can't be arrested until after he has been proven guilty.
Radical.
More on the justice system here. The US State Department likes to talk about a "secret network of police informers", all over Laos.
ReplyDeleteThey're not "secret", they're the neighbors, and you bet, they're watching everybody.
There's a village policeman for about every 10 households, and it's his job to talk to the neighbors, and to report anything unusual to the village. They also report on anyone having trouble making it go. It's the village's job to take up a collection for anyone who is suffering, and to report anything unusual to the district, and on up. The system is very efficient. It would be impossible for an illegal immigrant to hide in Laos, for example.
And yet the system is not harsh. My visa was technically expired for 6 months last year. My work permit was up-to-date, and I misunderstood, and thought that was the requirement. The fine for an expired visa is $10 a day, and I was sweating in front of the policeman's desk.
The policeman told me with a grin on his face, "That fine is for long-haired tourists who lolly-gag around, and get drunk and forget to leave -- to make sure they don't think they can stay here forever, for free. It's not for an old fart like you, who's working here, with a valid work permit. Don't worry about it. We'll talk to Vientiane." All I had to do was back-pay the regular visa fee for the 6 months, and there was no fine.
But if I came here saying I was going to teach English, and used that as a guise to preach Dominionism, and to encourage the people to overthrow their government for US-style "freedom", yeah, they'd know about it, real quick. Anyone who continued doing that would be deported.
Mutual acquaintances of ours were being investigated here in Thakhek in 2005, for that very reason. They were told that if they don't like it here, they're free to leave and go where they think there IS freedom. Oddly enough, they're still in the country.
One village chief told me, "Basically in Laos, if you're not a thief, a murderer, a rapist, a drug-pusher, or trying to overthrow the government, you're OK with the law."
Minor foibles are put up with, within reason. One of my students told me about some obnoxious drunk who was in everybody's face at a festival. The village police tied him to a banana tree. A banana tree is soft, so the guy worked his way loose and was right back in everybody's face again, so the police tied him to a stiffer tree. When he settled down, they untied him, and that was the end of it. The neighbors happily poured the policemen some beer for their physical effort, of course, and you can bet there was a lot of laughing going on.
I'm not an authority on where to draw the line on what is a SWAT raid and police intimidation. I do know that when I was investigating stolen goods (AMSOIL related) I was able, through research and internet, to locate the guy and I called the police in his community (New York state) and the police would not go talk to the guy without legal papers because it would be construed as intimidation.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the numbers are for level of invasion, there is probably room for improvement in these matters.
Funny story about the banana tree...