The Gun Counter

Police officers in Southaven, Miss., were trying to serve an arrest warrant for aggravated assault on a man named Samuel Pearman,

...and...they obviously didn't succeed.

instead they showed up at a trailer owned by an auto mechanic named Ismael Lopez

I'm willing to bet these two gentleman don't look anything alike.

It was nighttime

Heaven forbid they serve a warrant during the day. Seriously. It's summer. They have 13 hours or so of daylight to choose from. But, no, we have to go at night...because reasons.

Lopez opened his door and a pit bull charged out

Imagine that. They scared someone at night and his dog runs out of the house.

One officer opened fire on the dog, the other officer fired on the man allegedly holding a gun in the doorway, pointing it at the men approaching his home.

I bet they were wearing dark clothes. At night. Obviously, they're out collecting for the Red Cross.

it was only after the smoke cleared that the officers made their “heart-dropping discovery: They were at the wrong home.”

Apparently, it's too much work to actually look at the address before you go pound on the door and wake some guy up at night.

First, extraordinarily dangerous and kinetic no-knock raids should be used only in the most extreme circumstances.

Gee. Guess what. If you show up and knock on someone's door, and they flush the drugs down the toilet, oh well. It's still a victory for the war on drugs, because those dealers have flushed their product. Of course, that doesn't look all high speed.

If you're looking for some dude, why not just camp out at his house until he goes to leave for work and collar him then? Hey, have someone go through the neighborhood and ask approximately when that guy leaves for work. Catch him then.

Innocent men and women are left with no recourse

There actually is a recourse. It doesn't end well for anyone, though.

How hard would it be to figure out what shift a police officer works by sitting outside their station for a couple of days. (It's not illegal to sit on the sidewalk with binoculars and a notebook.) Once you know where and when he works, one could, for instance, obtain a cargo van for less than $2000, construct a shooting platform in it, park, and wait for your target to start his shift.

How long did it take them to catch the DC snipers?

Jered wrote:There actually is a recourse. It doesn't end well for anyone, though.

How hard would it be to figure out what shift a police officer works by sitting outside their station for a couple of days. (It's not illegal to sit on the sidewalk with binoculars and a notebook.) Once you know where and when he works, one could, for instance, obtain a cargo van for less than $2000, construct a shooting platform in it, park, and wait for your target to start his shift.

I like the irony of using actual investigation against those who couldn't be bothered with it in the first place.

Everyone involved in it should be charged manslaughter.

I love how it was a "heart dropping discovery" for the cops that they were at the wrong home. Poor cops. It was also a heart-STOPPING event for the home-owner, but who cares about little things like that.

I'm sure an internal investigation will show that they followed their procedures (spit).

Wait till they stumble on someone who knows what they are doing. Reminds me of the home invasion of a Grand Master IDPA guy... it didn't go well for the intruders.

scipioafricanus wrote:Wait till they stumble on someone who knows what they are doing. Reminds me of the home invasion of a Grand Master IDPA guy... it didn't go well for the intruders.

Wait until they do this to someone with a relative with nothing to lose and some motivation. It doesn't even take someone with a clue. Just motivation.

It's more about the Fourth Amendment than the Second.

And a few manslaughter convictions would work wonders.

BDK wrote:It's more about the Fourth Amendment than the Second.

And a few manslaughter convictions would work wonders.

They'll be building snowmen in Hell before that happens. No DA will go after a cop, especially for things done while on duty, because that'll piss off the other cops, who will then start mis-handling evidence and causing the DA's conviction rate to plummet.

It is kinda silly that cops often fail to perform a task my mail-man handles just fine every day, i.e. making sure you're at the right frikkin' house.

My question is why they bothered with a high-speed-low-drag entry on an arrest warrant anyway? Why not just camp outside and grab him when he leaves to go buy groceries? Oh wait, that's not sexy and requires actual police work. Besides, SWAT teams are expensive, you have to USE them for something.....