Poll: Police State USA: Boston Area Raids

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xDarc

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Feb 19, 2009
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I don't know if you guys have been seeing the the house to house raids that were conducted in and around the Boston area, but it disgusts me. They were looking of course for the 19 year old Boston marathon suspect, who was found hiding in a boat outside the cordon, and later it would be admitted he was unarmed.


The video shows just one of the raids that were taking place all over town. It is shot from a neighboring home across the street. Wide cordons are being set up where these raids are taking place and the media are being kept FAR back. You won't find many videos, but these are happening everywhere. There are some other pictures out there, officers taking cover behind squad cars, taking aim at an old lady being forced from her home.

There are people who have been barred from re-entering their homes and were interviewed hanging around outside the cordons, with nowhere else to go. Families, senior citizens, being forced out of their homes through threats and intimidation. No warrants, no discussion, you are greeted with a gun in your face and shouting upon opening the door.

Now I have had guns pointed in my face before, I have been shot at before. It's a scary thing. But I would not let these thugs into my home. I would kindly ask for a warrant and if they did not have one, to get the hell off my property.

There are rumors floating around that anyone who resisted was threatened with being charged of interfering with a police investigation, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine... I'm pretty sure police investigations require a warrant, but hey, what do I know. So far there are no reports of anyone being charged. There are some rumors of people refusing and the police backing down, because they could easily be sued if someone clearly does not give consent.

What about you? Would you let these people kick you out of your home because you happened to be in an area where a suspect was last seen? No warrant? No explanation? Just- "Hands up! Let's go!"

Undoubtedly people will say this all justified when searching for a big, scary terrorist- but how far is too far? Who decides who's a terrorist? In one of the videos, there's some guy standing in the street, barred from his home, holding his young daughter- talking in front of the camera, but really talking to himself- looking conflicted and trying to convince himself, that this is keeping them safe.

In America, it's a disgrace.
 

mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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It isn't justified. The only way would be if this terrorist had a nuclear device or some nerve gas, maybe some crazy virus, on a timed release detonator. That's it. Otherwise, no. Not even if it was the president they were looking for. What do people think this is, 24?
 

Dirty Hipsters

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xDarc said:
and later it would be admitted he was unarmed
I really don't see what that has to do with anything. Police wouldn't have known that he was unarmed at the time, and it was a pretty fair assumption on their part that he would be armed considering he'd just detonated 2 bombs.

But yeah, there's really no justification for this kind of police action. We have the 4th amendment for a reason, and the only way that a police officer should be allowed to enter a house without the owner's permission or a warrant is through the exigent circumstances of being in hot pursuit, that's it.

If the police really needed to they could ask the homeowners to search their house, and if they refused they could post officers to keep watch outside those houses which refused, and attempted to get warrants. What they did instead was intimidate and bully American citizens, which is completely unjustified, no matter the reason.
 

Pandalisk

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Gotta love how gun-hoe they were about these raids, most videos and pictures I've seen always have some soldier pointing his gun at them needlessly, settle the hell down Urban commando.

 

xDarc

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kiri2tsubasa said:
You do know that the police ASKED for peoples permission to search their houses in Watertown right? IF the person said no they just left.
Define ask. See what this resident has to say about being asked for permission at 1:28 in the video below. He doesn't seem to be aware that "no" was an option, as I'm sure many of the people who were raided weren't. Fear and intimidation.

 

Nielas

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Dirty Hipsters said:
xDarc said:
and later it would be admitted he was unarmed
I really don't see what that has to do with anything. Police wouldn't have known that he was unarmed at the time, and it was a pretty fair assumption on their part that he would be armed considering he'd just detonated 2 bombs.
More importantly, the manhunt started when they shot and killed a police officer. Assuming that the man was unarmed would be suicidally stupid.
 

Thaluikhain

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Well, if there was a terrorist hiding in my neighbourhood, and the police asked if they could come in and look for him...unless they were in hot pursuit of him and they lost sight of him just as he turned the corner into my street, tat doesn't sound very effective. They'd have to search everywhere. If I'm at home to give police permission, I'd probably know a terrorist had broken in.

But...I guess so.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Sep 8, 2011
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No I would not. And the fact that this thing is totally OK now in America makes me so glad that I left that shithole. Land of opportunity my ass. More like an Orwellian nightmare. Closing down the entire city to search for one unarmed, sleep deprived and exhausted teenager. Scaremongering is also a form of terrorism if you ask me. And that's what the American government with it's mass media did to it's own people after the Boston incident. It's despicable.
 

Gilhelmi

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I have always been opposed too warrant-less raids (as they are unconstitutional), but what is worse is the "No-Knock" raids. I honestly believe that someone (civilian or police or both) will get shot someday because a false tip was called in, police charge gun-hoe bustin' down doors, and get shot/shoot an innocent resident who does not know these people but just had his front door knocked down.
 

Bertylicious

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I think Boston was a bit of a unique situation and I imagine a lot of people who live in Boston were quite happy with the robust police response. Besides, it isn't as if they rugby tackled a brazilian student to the floor and shot him in the head 5 times because he was running for a train.

What about all the Bostonians cheering at the end of it all? Came off as a little gauche if you ask me. Probably would have been better if they'd have done a cricket clap towards a passing policeman, but on the proviso that nobody looked anybody else in the eye.
 

Gilhelmi

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Adam Jensen said:
No I would not. And the fact that this thing is totally OK now in America makes me so glad that I left that shithole. Land of opportunity my ass. More like an Orwellian nightmare. Closing down the entire city to search for one unarmed, sleep deprived and exhausted teenager. Scaremongering is also a form of terrorism if you ask me. And that's what the American government with it's mass media did to it's own people after the Boston incident. It's despicable.
It is not that way in Kansas. In fact, depending on how you interpret the law, a police office might get shot for a warrant-less raid by the homeowner. Do not misunderstand, lawyers will be involved out the wazoo, but most Kansans would fall on the side of the homeowner.

"How was I suppose too know it was the police? They just barged right in."
 

Thaluikhain

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Adam Jensen said:
No I would not. And the fact that this thing is totally OK now in America makes me so glad that I left that shithole. Land of opportunity my ass. More like an Orwellian nightmare. Closing down the entire city to search for one unarmed, sleep deprived and exhausted teenager. Scaremongering is also a form of terrorism if you ask me. And that's what the American government with it's mass media did to it's own people after the Boston incident. It's despicable.
Not saying you're wrong, but the mass media's scaremongering is at least partially independent of government scaremongering.
 

Fappy

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The only time I'd ever deem this as even remotely acceptable is if the city was actually under some kind of attack that threatened the safety of the entire populace. They had already cornered the guy and it was clear he wasn't going to do anything else short of run away. They could have given the citizens the benefit of the doubt and simply questioned everyone in the neighborhood. Considering how pissed off everyone in the city was at the bombers, I don't see how any of the civilians would decline assisting their investigation.
 

Jetsetneo

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This is a rare exception, IMO. The guy (and his deceased brother) detonated two bombs, then later, killed a police officer @ 2 in the morning, and from what I remember they were on the run, supposedly involved in at least 1 firefight that I recall, as well as having stolen a vehicle where they were jettisoning explosive material.

As to how much of that is 'for real' I don't know, This is everything I heard the day of. considering that much 'action' or media hyperbole, seems like a raid might be legit.

All in all heres how i see it: We had a bombing, the people were scared, memories of vulnerable time in american history reared its ugly head again. The Media preyed on those fears for ratings, the people reacted more and demanded action. They got this from the government which was trying to placate them as well as conduct an investigation. There is a lot of fault here, but truthfully i think its our own fault. We got scared so such action was acceptable for the circumstances, at least it was at the time. I don't hate those officers, they were trying to do their job with an american mob encouraging them.

We overreacted. Our bad. Maybe next time we'll do it better. The sky isn't falling. We got the bad guy(s), lets focus on Justice now.
 

Product Placement

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The fact that an entire capital of Massachusetts was shut down, for a short while, while searching for this guy, always struck me as bit excessive. This door-to-door tactic of forcing every resident out of their house, at gunpoint, strikes me as rather excessive. Finally, the idea of charging the guy with using weapons of mass destruction (which I've always associated with Nuclear weaponry or of similar scale) is also a bit odd in my books.

But then again, I don't understand the evil behind the intent to blow up a downtown full of people so I'm not gonna pretend to know the best way to deal with situations like these. Right now, all I can say that I'm simply glad I don't live there. I wouldn't have appreciated this kind of treatment from people who are supposed to be protecting me, not treating my like a suspect in my own home.
 

Milanezi

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xDarc said:
kiri2tsubasa said:
You do know that the police ASKED for peoples permission to search their houses in Watertown right? IF the person said no they just left.
Define ask. See what this resident has to say about being asked for permission at 1:28 in the video below. He doesn't seem to be aware that "no" was an option, as I'm sure many of the people who were raided weren't. Fear and intimidation.

Damn right fear and intimidation, the cop's work in this case is done better and faster if you DON'T know you can say "no" and let them in. That's not only intentional, it might also be a simple "cop/militaristic" response to being tense in a situation no one really expected.
Personally, I'd feel better with the cops entering my place, if only for they to be sure I'm not hiding anything; it's a public threat, all privacy goes to ground, that's what I believe in, even when the law says otherwise... Unless the law is Judge Dredd...
Question: can't a judge issue some sort of special warrant to search a whole area?
 

The_Echo

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If an officer of the law doesn't have a warrant to search my property, then he doesn't have a reason to search my property.

If this happened to me, I'd say "you're welcome to come inside and visit, maybe watch some TV or whatever. There's a Regular Show marathon on right now, that show's awesome. But by no means are you allowed to search my house without a warrant."

The way they seemed to be acting, I'm sure they didn't treat these people's homes with care. I'm not gonna let the cops make a mess of my house looking for someone who isn't there.
 

Fappy

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After watching the video I just realized something. What about the people who had indoor cats? I would be terrified one of those assholes would leave a door open or something and let them out :/
 

Scolar Visari

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Gilhelmi said:
I honestly believe that someone (civilian or police or both) will get shot someday because a false tip was called in, police charge gun-hoe bustin' down doors, and get shot/shoot an innocent resident who does not know these people but just had his front door knocked down.
Oh boy... do I have some news for you.

Ismael Mena, Jose Guerena, Kathryn Johnston and countless pet animals are just a few of the avoidable casualties of no-knock raids.

Countless more have survived but suffered various legal and economic repercussions due to the police mistakenly raiding their residence rather than the correct one.

EDIT: I forgot to shit-talk these officers and how fucked up they all looked. I'm no Tier-One body slayer myself, but they pretty much just handed BDUs and a rifle to every swinging dick cop in the area and told them to go play army. No sense of urgency or coordination, no aggression or speed during searches, no sense of tactical movement or awareness.

Also, that one FBI loser who was filmed on national TV trying to be a big-dick operator trying to jump a tiny gate, only to practically fall off the thing and then have it casually swing open a second later.