Up to the minute Amber Alert Information

Monday, January 07, 2008

POLICE STATE, USA

SWAT officers invade home, take 11-year-old at gunpoint
Cops demand boy go to doctor because of fall during horseplay


By Bob Unruh

Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.

The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.

Read more....
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Pray that a bunch of do-gooders never try to help you out. It will always lead to some mess. Power hungry bureaucrats always think they know best. Action commensurate with the initial action is becoming more and more rare. Endangering a whole family is hardly justified for medical intervention for another.

It is worth reading the comments at the end of this article.

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Update: 01-08-08

An updated article with more information is available here.

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Update: 01-10-08

For some reports from local Colorado newspapers, click here, here, here, here, here and here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The headline on this ticks me off. It should say "Judge orders SWAT Team to remove boy from home." Why are the cops made to be the bad guys and the judges never face any of the blame. We are so quick to judge the cops for what they did wrong.

Elephant Herd said...

If this judge were in my county, I would work hard to get him unelected. But the social workers must share the blame too. These do-gooders think they can invade private matters far too often. And the sheriff must share some blame and so should the neighbor who reported it.

Busybody neighbors set a whole nanny state into motion. If the neighbors were that concerned, they should have paid the injured child’s family a visit and made suggestions about the child’s welfare. The neighbor’s probable good intentions most likely have destroyed any neighborliness. This was the neighbor’s way of forcing their own desires on the family. Where has neighborly compassion gone?

If the social workers planned to sic the cops on the family, they should have warned them of their legal authority to do so. That may have influenced the family.

The judge gave the order. But did he give the order for the sheriff to use a SWAT team? Doesn’t the sheriff have a responsibility to use the least force possible and discuss that with the judge? Instead, this sheriff treated the case as a highly volatile criminal hostage situation. If this sheriff were in my county, I would work hard to get him unelected. And certainly somebody in the 12 member SWAT team should have told the sheriff his plan was overkill.

If some social workers actually talked with the family and saw the child, how is it not possible for one plainclothes, PR cop to revisit the family with the social workers to talk things out and explain the government’s concerns?

Why is it the nanny state wants to negotiate with hostage-takers, but invade this home with a 12 member SWAT team? They put this child and family at high risk (much higher than the bruise). They traumatized the 11 year old and his family. People whose homes have been robbed feel violated even though they never see the felon. This family will never trust cops again because they were violated. They will never trust the system again. We all should put ourselves in the place of the child and the family.

The lesson for all of us: don’t be a do-gooder; do good the old-fashioned way–personally. Think before you call social services or the cops. It might happen in reverse to you.

Unknown said...

In response I am sure there is more to the story than the article reveals. I know this from experience.

Also I am sure the SWAT Team did a threat assesment before kicking the door in. They do have policies to follow.