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.
