Imagine that a man’s truck with half a dozen guns inside of it is stolen. The man uses the “Find My Phone” app to locate his phone, which is presumably still in the stolen truck. The app tells him that his phone is somewhere within a 4 block radius of a location, so he drove around the area in a rented car and somehow came to the conclusion that his phone, and presumably his stolen guns and truck, were located in a woman’s garage.
The cop assigned to the case somehow bought into this hunch, secured a warrant, and performed a SWAT raid of the house. The resident of the house, a 77 year old woman, opened her door to an armed and armored SWAT team who handcuffed her and placed her in the back of a patrol car, leaving her in there for hours without food, water, or her medication. The search, which lasted for several hours, didn’t turn up a truck, a cell phone, or any guns. In fact, there was no evidence of any criminal activity found there at all. The entire incident happened in Denver.
The woman has filed a lawsuit against the police (pdf alert), as she rightly should have. A search warrant is only supposed to be issued on “probable cause” that evidence of a crime is located on the property to be searched. The circle drawn by “find my phone” is an approximate location based upon the cell tower that the phone is connected to. In this case, the circle was four blocks wide and covered six different properties. That isn’t an indication that HER house was the one where the phone was. It isn’t even an indication that the phone is located within that circle.
The lawsuit alleges that the detective failed to disclose his inexperience using the “Find My” app, failed to explain how the ‘Find My’ app works, identify what technology it uses to produce its results, or establish that the app was working correctly. Going only on a screenshot from the “Find My” app that pointed to Johnson’s home, the search warrant was approved.
The police damaged the woman’s home by breaking her garage door and climbing atop her new dining room chairs to break holes into her ceiling, they also damaged irreplaceable collectables in the home. The detective then told the elderly woman on the day of the raid that the Denver police would pay nothing to cover any of these damages.
People need to have a belief that the police are not just another criminal street gang. The more I interact with and see how police work, the more I come to believe that we would be better without them. I have only called them a few times, and each time they did nothing more than write a report. It was a waste of time.
I have said before: the police need to clean up their ranks. I don’t think you can, because I believe that the bad cops far outnumber the good ones. The police have become just another group of criminals who prey on the people in this nation who actually produce wealth. They are a street gang with badges and qualified immunity.
7 Comments
Big Ruckus D · December 6, 2022 at 4:20 pm
FTP. And I’m not talking about file transfer protocol.
The cops weren’t wrong when they said they wouldn’t pay for the damage. Assuming the lady gets a judgement in her favor (it being Denver, heh) the taxpayers will get soaked for the cost. Sounds to me like a pig roast is in order. Bring your own apples.
The wheels really need to come off this fucked up joint soon, so scores can be settled properly and unimpeded by the official goondom that presently (and yet barely) holds back such an outcome from occurring with regularity.
With each passing day and new outeageous insult I observe that blowback of the horrifically violence kind is the inevitable outcome. May as well embrace that, because it is our future. Anyone who doesn’t like that would do well to die soon, as that will be the only peaceful escape from what is incoming.
joe · December 6, 2022 at 7:09 pm
i’ve recovered property that way over the years but i didn’t take a swat team and no warrant…talking to people once in awhile can get you what you need…normally if they gave me the property i would not file a case on them…everyone is happy, they didn’t go to jail, owner got their stuff back…i would assume in this case the cops were “worried” about what was in the truck and that’s why the swat team went…not saying it’s right, because they are def assholes for what they did…i’m sure they had officers outside while the swat team entered…they didn’t have to cuff that old woman and treat her or her home that way…no reason whatsoever…
Vlad · December 6, 2022 at 11:18 pm
At what point did someone have an aneurysm and decide that above the kitchen table is the access point for the attic??? WTF!
This is why we can’t have nice things.
And the cops seem to get more stoopid every passing day.
Hiding Out · December 7, 2022 at 5:45 am
I can’t help but think of the agony that woman may have (probably did) go through, especially if they handcuffed her behind the back. That position of the shoulders for anybody of a senior age (and possibly of much younger age if they’ve had a shoulder injury) would quickly lead to a lot of pain. I know that for me at 60 yrs old my shoulders couldn’t take it. It would be literal torture. Not to mention the restriction of blood flow to the hands, etc.
It makes my blood boil to think of how they treated this innocent lady.
Baron Von Cut-n-Paste · December 7, 2022 at 8:56 am
For everyone (rightly) pissed off at the cops for this travesty, don’t forget that they had a valid warrant. As in some pig ignorant judge signed off on raiding the woman’s house because it happened to fall within a four block radius.
If you’re looking to clean house, it would be a dire mistake to stop with the police departments. The rot extends far further than that.
Anon · December 8, 2022 at 1:00 am
I take meds for pain mgmnt. In the aftermath of Sessions as AG, it took a signed contract with my Dr before she would continue to prescribe.
The contract stipulated that I file a report with the police if I lost control of the drugs.
Dyring a visit, my drug addled nephew helped himself to my meds. I discovered the theft after he left. I called the police to file a report.
They arrived in three squads. When I opened the door, one cop was running across my front lawn towards the side of the house with his oistol drawn and at low ready. Another was positioned standing behind his squad with rifle slung from shoulder. The cop at the door interrogated me and enteried my personal information in his computer for about ten mintues before he would begin to address the purpose of my call.
In my call to report the theft, I explained it was just that; a theft (of one bottle of Rx) I had discovered one day after the fact and the suspect (nephew) was long gone. I know nephew has prior arrests and contacts with the fuzz, but here at my door they acted as if was the bad guy. Compare that to how very disinterested he was in entering nephew’s information into the system.
Nephew was gone, I was there, could it be they considered I would be any easy bust?Tactical deployment with firearms at the ready?
WallPhone · December 8, 2022 at 10:10 pm
My disillusionment began when I reported teenagers had cracked my windshield with a water balloon full of mud while driving through an residential neighborhood. No interest at all in where the incident occurred, nor the unique characteristics of the headlights that identified the vehicle as a Mercury. They only had an officer walk out of the office to observe the damage and hand me a case number to provide to my insurance company.
Whatever. I wasn’t there for the insurance money.
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