Officer Verbally Abuses 5-Year-Old

By K. W. Locke

     Add another case to your list of instances when a police officer acted inappropriately in dealing with a child.

    In an earlier post, I described a troubling incident in Rochester, New York.  Police there pepper-sprayed and handcuffed a 9-year-old girl   The police union's president shrugged it off, saying "there's a good chance she could have been hurt worse."

    That same blog post also discussed Aurora, Colorado police making a 6-year-old girl, and two teenage girls, lie flat on their stomachs on the pavement.  The cops handcuffed the teenagers, but the 6-year-old's wrists were too small.

    Now, there has been another ugly instance, this time involving two police officers in Montgomery County, Maryland.  You can watch bodycam video of one of the cops threatening a 5-year-old boy with beating.

    The boy had acted up in class and walked away from school.  At one point, after the boy started crying, the officer said:

Shut that noise up! You shut that noise up now! Boy, I tell you, I hope your mama let me beat you. I swear to you. I'm gonna [? wig ?] out.

If the cop treats kindergarten-aged children like this, what does he feel free to do to older people?

    Is the officer's behavior an early warning sign of the harm he might do in the future?  

 

 

Banner photograph of child by Arwan Sutanto (via Unsplash).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By K. W. Locke

    Some people can be "intelligent" without having a lick of sense.  But a smart person without any trace of wisdom is like a race car without brakes.  

    Convinced they are doing good, they go full speed ahead.  As for anyone in their path?  Look Out!

     Consider Chris Nocco, the sheriff of Pasco County, Florida, a suburban area north of Tampa.  His bright idea:  Figure out who is likely to commit a crime, and then watch that person like a hawk.

     He calls it "intelligence-led policing."  And how does the sheriff know who is likely to commit a crime?  Does he employ psychics, as in the film Minority Report?  No.  The computer tells him.

    In practice, his plan does more than watch someone.  Deputies make that person's life miserable, so miserable, in fact, that with any luck he will move out of the county and live somewhere else

   How does that differ from the "social credit program" imposed on the Chinese people by its communist government?  Well, in China the government is watching everyone.  In Pasco County, the sheriff only is watching those individuals unlucky enough to get on his list.

     But getting on that list is easy, and you can make the list without ever doing anything wrong.  If you're mentioned in a police report, even as a witness or bystander, your name goes into the computer and you are assigned a score.  According to reports, just being a friend of someone the sheriff deems a bad guy can get you points.

    Accumulate enough points and the computer puts your name on the list of "Prolific Offenders."  It doesn't matter whether you have ever been convicted of a crime.  The sheriff brands you an "offender" because he believes you are likely to commit a crime.

    The sheriff doesn't publish the list and there's no way for a person to get his name removed.  Once you get on the sheriff's list, his deputies will start showing up at unpredictable times and asking you nosy questions.

     Sometimes they will demand to search your house, even though they don't have a warrant.  Refuse, and they have ways of getting even.

    One of their favorite ways of retaliation is to cite you for building code violations, such as having grass that's too tall.   Deputies sometimes measure the grass with a ruler.  Or, they may find that one of the street numbers has fallen off your mailbox.

    With help from the nonprofit Institute for Justice, some of the harassed people have sued the sheriff.   It's hardly the first legal challenge to systems of "predictive policing."  Such systems have prompted litigation across the country, and scholarly criticism.

    One of the plaintiffs in the Pasco County lawsuit is Robert Jones.  He isn't on the sheriff's list but his son is.

    On one unannounced visit, the deputies looked in Jones' window and saw his son inside with another teenager.  The son was smoking.

    But the son wouldn't come outside and the father refused to make the teenager come out.  So, the deputies arrested the father on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and resisting an officer.

    At other times the officers cited him for building code violations such as having grass too long, but no one informed Jones that he must appear in court on a certain date.  So, the deputies arrested him for failure to appear.

    All charges against Jones were dropped, but the arrests are on his record.  Finally, he and his family moved to another county.

    The sheriff keeps track of how energetically his officers are harassing people on the list.  Supervisors ask the deputies how many visits they have made each day to make sure they aren't slacking off.  Some officers have quit.

    When a Tampa newspaper published articles revealing the program, the sheriff defended it vigorously.  He thinks he's doing good.  And that's scary.

POLICE SWAT TEAM RUINS HOUSE
INNOCENT OWNER HAS TO PAY

By K. W. Locke

    Local governments love SWAT teams.

    A recent post on this blog described a South Dakota county with a total population of 28,000 which had two SWAT teams.  One was a part of the police force in Watertown, the largest town in the county.  But the county sheriff's department also had a tactical unit.

    Small towns and counties can enjoy the luxury and prestige of having a SWAT team because of the federal "1033 program." For decades, Congress has authorized the Department of Defense to transfer surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.  A local community can obtain a $700,000 armored personnel carrier and only have to pay for shipping.

    So SWAT teams have blossomed like dandelions in springtime.  But although the equipment is almost free, it may come with side effects.  One study found a statistically significant correlation between having the military gear and an increase in fatal shootings by police.

    It would be surprising if officers who were dressed like military and armed like military also did not begin to think like military.  As will be discussed below, a SWAT team adopted a strategy one cop described as "shock and awe," a term used in the 2003 war in Iraq.

    Military tactics can leave someone's private property looking like a war zone.  That SWAT team from Watertown, South Dakota, inflicted more than $18,000 damage on a mobile home trying to capture someone who wasn't inside.

    The Watertown SWAT team acted rather recklessly, but even when such a tactical unit proceeds with utmost caution, property damage  can result.  The same blog post which described the overly eager Watertown SWAT team also told about the Greenwood, Colorado SWAT team's much more careful approach to capturing a fugitive who had barricaded himself in an innocent person's house.  This SWAT team used explosives only as a last resort, after every other method had failed.

    But the Colorado and South Dakota incidents had one thing in common:  Both SWAT teams did major damage to private property and, in both instances, the local governments refused to repair the damage.

    Here's another recent example.

     In 2019, 74-year-old Vicki Baker received some good news.  Her stage 3 breast cancer appeared to be in remission.  And her son, who had suffered a brain injury, was getting better.

    She decided to sell her home in McKinney, Texas and retire to Montana.  Her adult daughter Breanna would live in the house until someone bought it.

    To prepare the house for sale, they hired a handyman named Wesley Little, but when Breanna noticed him acting strangely, they fired him.

    That was in 2019.  Then, on July 25, 2020, Breanna receives a troubling call from her mother in Montana.  Vicki told her daughter that there was a post on Facebook by a woman who said that a man had run off with her 15-year-old daughter.  The man was the handyman, Wesley Little, they had hired and fired.

    Later comes a knock at the door.  It’s Little, and he has a teenage girl with him.  He says that he needs to stay there, and a place to park his car.  Breanna replies that he can park in the garage after she pulls her own car out.

    Breanna does, then drives to a Walmart parking lot and phones her mother.  They call the McKinney police.

   Officers meet Breanna in the parking lot.  She describes what happened and gives them the keys to the house and her garage door opener, along with the code to the lock on the back gate.

    The McKinney SWAT team comes to the house.  After hours, the girl escapes.  She tells the cops that Little is armed and won't come out.

    Rather than using the house key and garage door opener which Breanna had provided, the SWAT team decides to use "shock and awe," as one officer later described it.  So, instead of pushing a button to raise the garage door, they blow through it with explosives.  Likewise, rather than opening the gate with the code which Breanna furnished, a SWAT team armored vehicle runs over the fence.

    The officers fire about 30 tear gas canisters into the house.  Once inside, they find that Little had committed suicide.  It's not clear whether he had been overshocked or overawed.  Or both.

    Breanna's dog, who also had been in the house, survived.  But the explosions had rendered him blind and deaf.

 

    You be the judge of whether the SWAT team chose wisely in deciding to blast its way into the house.  And did the officers really have to fire 30 tear gas canisters into it?  Or were they so immersed in the moment they just got carried away?

    The McKinney SWAT team is highly trained in doing what SWAT teams do.  The officers can shoot and blow things up.  In fact,  they won the 2017 SWAT team competition sponsored by the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association.

     The McKinney SWAT team appears to excel at skills such as shooting and climbing.  But I have to wonder:  Have they received any training in how to decide when to blow up a garage door and when they should just use the garage door opener?

    Although a buyer had signed a contract to purchase the Baker home, it now was worth $50,000 less.  The deal was off.  And the city wouldn't pay for the damage. 

    This month, the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm representing the Bakers, sued the City of Greenwood.  The legal battle has just begun, but the tenacious lawyers at the Institute are known to take cases all the way to the Supreme Court when necessary.

  We'll keep you posted.

April 25, 2021

 ANOTHER SWAT TEAM DAMAGES HOME

 

(ROANOKE, VIRGINIA)  An attorney has filed a lawsuit against five officers of the Roanoke, Virginia police department alleging that they retaliated against her for winning a murder case.  Her complaint in federal court alleges that a SWAT team caused needless damage to her home, and that one cop lied on an affidavit to obtain the search warrant which authorized the raid.

Along with two other defense attorneys, Cathy Reynolds represented her stepson, who was on trial for murder.  It took the jury only an hour and a half to reach a "not guilty" verdict.

Reynolds is black.  The other two lawyers are white.  Her lawsuit alleged that the police department only targeted her for retaliation.

Along with the Roanoke Police Department, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also participated in the raid.   We'll have more details in a future post.