Trigger Happy Swat Team Assaults the Wrong Car
During the early morning hours of July 13th, 2012 Miguel Montanez was driving to work when a Hayes County, Texas Sheriff’s Office Swat Team truck hit him head-on. Before he had any clue about what was happening, a second police vehicle hit him from behind, a flashbang grenade went off in his passenger seat and a bullet went through his windshield. It seems that Miguel had been the recipient of a SWAT team assault that totaled his BMW.
In no time he was surrounded by assault rifle-wielding police officers. Within seconds the officers realized they had the wrong person (the suspect they were looking for drove a green BMW; Miguel’s is blue), but that didn’t stop them from handcuffing and detaining him for the next half hour while being questioned.
Hayes County’s insurance carrier paid for the totaled car, but when Miguel’s medical bills started showing up the county stopped communicating with him. Miguel suffered a herniated disc in his back and psychological trauma (ya think?). A lawsuit has been filed against the county as well as the nine officers who were involved in the incident.
I can’t believe SWAT police are now attacking unsuspecting cars while they’re driving down the road, ramming into them and throwing grenades in the vehicles. They even shot a bullet at him, attempting to kill him. This is unbelievable police abuse.
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One woman called 911, telling the operator: “The guy was laying on the floor and eight sheriffs ran up and started beating him up with sticks. The man is dead laying right here, right now. I got it all on video camera and I’m sending it to the news. These cops have no reason to do this to this man.”
Something is seriously wrong with the California police, their training, and officer accountability. Every time I turn around there’s a cop beating the shit out of someone in California. There needs to be more done to correct these types of abuses. What we saw in the Chris Dorner situation was indicative of a much larger problem and complete lack of respect for the public trust. California has been plagued with the image of police brutality. The number of instances that I can think of off the top of my head is overwhelming, and I don’t even live in that state.
Wisconsin Alert: Remind lawmakers of the 4th Amendment -
Last week, the Wisconsin Campaign for Liberty blasted Governor Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ proposal to expand the DNA database to include individuals arrested for but not convicted of felonies.
This measure spends $6,000,000 to expand DNA collection for a permanent database. It provides that anyone simply arrested, not convicted, for a felony would be forced to submit their DNA for a government database. It would also enable government to forcefully collect DNA for conviction of any crime whatsoever.
“This proposal allows anyone who would be arrested and subsequently acquitted to ‘ask’ to have their DNA removed from the database,” said Wisconsin C4L State Coordinator Todd Welch. “But a free person in a free country does not have to ‘ask’ to have their most intimate personal information removed from government databases, where it should not have been to begin with.
“I call on every Wisconsin citizen to contact Governor Walker, Speaker Vos, and their State Representative to remind them about the presumption of innocence, and the notion of consequences being proportionate to an offense. They need to be reminded that arrest, even for a felony, does not justify the state seizing our DNA,” Welch continued.
Wisconsin Campaign for Liberty is actively urging citizens to call and email their state legislators and remind them and Governor Walker about the Fourth Amendment and the presumption of being innocent until found guilty.