America’s Troubled House

Like it or not, I do believe that for many police across the United States, the mentality in charge is about power first and principle second (and for those who might want to blame Bush for this, as Mr. Holmes explains below, abuse of police power far predates Mr. Bush's entry into politics and certainly predates his administration). It explains episodes like this, but it's not right.

To me, it's hard to see how we're going to get far as a country in dealing with our violent crime problems until we fix abuses of power like this in our policing. There are certainly going to be violent criminals in humanity no matter what - and policing is absolutely necessary - but when those people who are described as "peace officers" are routinely committing acts of unfair violence themselves (and I do believe they routinely do), there are no role models for those people who might otherwise be turned away from violence to look up to.

Anyone interested, look up "Blue Code of Silence" for more information on something germane to this topic. Police all over the country are mad at the "Stop Snitching, Stop Lying" movement across American ghettoes - but just like the violence itself, it's hard to argue that anyone ought to turn evidence against one of their own when the police have institutionalized a culture that stops them from doing the same thing, no matter how justified.

We've got a long way to go before things get better. By design and from the very beginning, the drug war has allowed the creation of huge industries on the backs of minority and poor populations. For Joe six-pack and his family, the increasingly facist police state is at worst a minor annoyance - and easily distracted by the smallest use of fear-based politics.

Having been a police officer and federal agent for many years, I have been on several raids. I can tell you from personal experience, this situation appears absolutely unjustifiable on so many levels. If half of the facts presented are accurate, these incompetent law enforcement personnel, and the officers above them in the chain of command, must be properly dealt with by an outside authority. I sincerely hope the DOJ thoroughly investigates this case and the local US Attorney carefully weighs the final report. This is just one example of many in this country whereby innocent citizens have been horribly mistreated and abused at the hands of a completely failed "war on drugs." There is no war on drugs people. There is, however, a war against our Constitutional Rights, and we better wake up and do something about it before it is too damned late. Now, more than ever, is the time to become an activist and demand that governmental injustices and the further erosion of our basic rights and freedoms comes to an immediate halt.

First off, this is a stupid mistake. If I made a mistake like this at my job that produced such a disastrous result, I???d be fired. Someone needs to be held accountable. And I disagree with onepoker, this is the end of liberty for the Calvo family. How can they ever feel safe again? This is the type of thing that can traumatize a family for life; especially if there were little kids in the house; not to mention all the clean up and repairs that would need to be made to the house. What really makes it funny, I could google or zaba search that address and tell you exactly who???s living there.

If I made a big mistake like this I would be fired from my job. First of all, it's a stupid mistake. Ever heard of messure twice, cut once? I could sit here at my computer in Chicago and tell you who lives at that address just from googleing it. Just stupid. Someone need to be held accountable!

In 1974 the house I was living in was raided because the police didn't know the difference between North (where I lived) or South (the building they had the warrant for). Then as now, no apologies no nothing; not even an offer to repair the damage from the breaking down the door.