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8 officers honored in raid gone wrong

3K views 44 replies 35 participants last post by  rottkeeper 
#1 ·
That's the headline in today's paper (Richmond [Va.] Times-Dispatch) in the "from wire reports" section on the back page of the front section.

"MINNEAPOLIS- Eight police officers who raided an innocent family's house last year, trading fire with the terrified husband, have received medals.
Three officers involved in the Dec. 16 raid, which stemmed from bad information from an informant, received medals of valor Monday from Police Chief Tim Dolan. The other five got medals of commendation.
There were no physical injuries to anyone involved. Two days later, Dolan apologized and started an investigation.
But Dolan said in a statement: 'The officers put themselves in harm's way. They were shot at and shot and deserved to be recognized'."

HUH?

What's worse, police cannot hit their target? {Thank goodness!}
An innocent man having to protect himself and family from the police in the privacy of his own home?

Of course the officers were correct in defending themselves, but medals???

Is the PD going to fix any damage to the man's house?
 
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#2 ·
Another fine example of why this country is headed down the toilet. I'd say the homeowner has good merit for a lawsuit now!
 
#18 ·
+1 Yep. We should not be honoring Police Officers who enter a house unannounced.... and shooting back at a homeowner defending his home from unknown invaders.

Unless it's the ... "Stupidest Police Dept " award.

The same situation happened here to someone I know. He had the "person" crawling thru the window of his house... "cold".... and when the police officer reached for his gun... almost lost his life, until he thought better and instead yelled out... I'm a police officer. That saved his life.
 
#3 ·
I don't know about medals, but nor do I think most of the officers had anything to do with choosing their target. I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong, that most of the team or sometimes all of the team would simply be told where they are serving a warrant today.
 
#20 ·
I am sure the LEO's were just doing their job, and had no idea they had bad info.

The problem I have is the medal thing. Not for doing their job, but surviving a shootout.
Or is this a move to give medal producing companies something to do.

This is an inexcusable idea.
 
#5 ·
But Dolan said in a statement: 'The officers put themselves in harm's way. They were shot at and shot and deserved to be recognized'."

a) I thought putting oneself in harm's way was part of the job description.....

b) Getting "shot at" doesn't strike me as particularly heroic, nor does returning fire after being shot at......kind of what we expect.

This is a shame.
 
#28 ·
They put themselves in "harms way"....



because they screwed up and raided the wrong home. They should be reprimanded for not checking things out more thoroughly before attacking the innocent homeowner and his family. Someone should give him a medal for defending his home against an invasion.
 
#6 ·
(sigh) I been a logger, commercial fisherman, and garbage collector. All are more dangerous than being a cop, or were back then, and there wasn't any big drama about "Oooo, the guy I just shot at shot back". It was more getting blind sided by something falling, getting scratched by something sharp and filthy, sink holes hidden by berry bushes, chainsaws kicking back off blueberry bushes, being careless about stepping in a bight of line, and so on.

Big whoop. Maybe I'll make up a medal to award myself, after all, I put myself in harm's way to remove what the rats fed on!

Garbage control is probably more valuable to the health of the public than crime control, take a look at how many people have died of disease as opposed to being killed by criminals.

(Parenthetically, organized crime being allowed to grab control of garbage collection... I don't know how to describe that.)

Okay, cops do a necessary and somewhat risky job. Just don't go getting all puffy chested thinking you are the only ones that can get killed doing what you get paid for.
 
#8 ·
I am speechless, they go into the wrong house and then get medals? I think the family should sue the police dept and the informant!
 
#9 ·
I was reading this yesterday...

The only problem I have with the cops getting medals is that they accepted them. It reminds me of a story my Dad told me.

He got his first purple heart in the field, he accepted that.

The second he was supposed to get when someone dropped a case of mortars on his foot and broke it - but they wanted to award it because the injury happened during an attack on their base. His answer, "No way in Hell, ... Sir."

I'd like to think that I'd do the same.
 
#10 ·
They accepted the medals? Speaks a bit about personal character doesn't it?:hand1:
 
#12 ·
I wonder what Jesse Ventura would have done if he were still governor?

furthermore, what if the gun owner responded to the invasion with deadly force? Poor guy would be in jail for killing a cop...
 
#13 ·
If it's the case I'm thinking of the homeowner was shooting at the cops thinking they were thugs breaking in his house,the cops shot the house up but thankfully didn't hit anybody,they raided the house on a tip from an informant with no corroborating evidence drugs were being sold out of the house.The homeowner didn't speak much english and his son was yelling at him after the shooting started that they were cops,Oh yeah this was one of those special no knock warrants
 
#21 ·
I agree about not accepting the decorations, knowing a few things about how warrants are served, it is very unlikely that it was the guys who damn near got killed were at fault for the blunder. Who knows what the political climate is like there, I won't be so arrogant to say it reflects poor character, but I will admit superficially it does look that way.

The those who say its "part of the job" might want to remove their heads from there posterior... I suppose nobody should be acknowledged for doing there job exceptionally well, or the military guys should not receive purple hearts stars or whatever for "doing their job" Give me a break. :rolleyes:
 
#22 ·
I guess I don't really have a problem with the police giving out any awards/medals they feel like. The guys were just doing their job. My issue is with no knock warrants/entries. I know the job is dangerous, but no knocks sound an awful lot like secret police. I guess I also dislike cops in camo, and the ones that wear masks to protect their identity. These two things alone sound like something you would see or read about in another less free country.
 
#23 ·
True enough, but fiction is just that. Until you have done the job and received the death threats or actual attempts on your life, one can't possibly understand the importance of the masks and proper gear to do the job properly.

People fear what they do not understand.

Serving search warrants is no game. The stakes are high, and the bad guys don't play nice or fair. When you are shutting down what are often million dollar tax free criminal enterprises, a lot of people get pissed; people who don't have much of a moral compass to begin with.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Lost: One moral compass. Looks new and unused.

Integrity and Honor are fairly simple. Nobody involved can possibly see this for other than what it is.

1. What recognition has been paid to the person or people who failed to investigate or corroborate the claims made by the druggie/banger informant?

2. What support of the family has been given?

3. What about the medical/psychiatric assistance needed, let alone damage to the home?
 
#26 ·
Damage control.
The civil suit is coming up and they wanted to paint their people with the prettiest possible brush.
 
#29 ·
I was going to stay out of this one, but I have to add some comments.

· This whole incident was a failure of leadership in this department. This isn’t the first time Minneapolis PD has had problems with warrants/dwelling entry. (State v. Housley, 322 N.W.2d 746, 751 (Minn. 1982). There should have been policies and procedures in place by the Minneapolis PD to prevent incidents like these from occurring. After one such incident, you would think double and triple checks would be in place to prevent mistakes like this from happening. And as Sky Pilot has said earlier in this post, I am sure the brass of the Minneapolis PD are doing this to cover their backsides.
· The guys on the SWAT team were not the ones who requested the warrant. They were doing their jobs in serving it. As far as they knew they were doing everything right. I am sure the SWAT officers feel horrible about the entire incident, and it’s lack of professionalism. If I was a member of that team I would probably feel used by the whoever requested the warrant.
· And finally, after reading an article on the ceremony, it appears that the mayor was present.
“On Monday, Dolan recognized members of the SWAT team for their bravery and how they handled the raid. With Mayor R.T. Rybak and other city officials looking on, the chief handed out medals and commendations. “
If I were a citizen of Minneapolis I would let the Mayor know that attending the award ceremony was not the greatest PR move he could have been a part of, question his competence as Mayor, and that maybe he needs to examine his choices of political appointees (Chief of Police).
 
#30 ·
i think im ok with the cops getting metals- im sure it wasnt their fault they were pointed to the wrong house. but of course who ever is responsible should get more than a slap on the wrist and that they should do everything they can to pay the family back for what they did to them

(although i also agree that they shouldnt have accepted them)
 
#31 ·
I understand any time shots are fired, there is an investigation. Often that takes some time, and the officers don't know if they'll keep their job, go to jail, or get a medal.
I don't know if they were "told" to accept them or not.
It has got to be soul searching to kill someone else.
 
#32 ·
I don't have a problem with raid teams wearing masks... The medics on our team are the only ones who do wear masks... We are not LEO's. We are performing a lifesaving service for the community and the Sheriff's department by being part of the team, and we put ourselves in harms way by doing that.

Unfortunately, the BG's don't see that. As far as they are concerned we are all cops. If we run into those same bad guys as part of our regular jobs on the ambulance when we are "unarmed", and they were to recognize us as part of the group who kicked their door in 2 months ago, it could get ugly.

See, unfortunately the scumbags don't share the same moral character as all you fine upstanding law abiding citizens. And reality being what it is... A lot of the scumbags our team arrests do in fact end up back out on the street for one reason or another.

So, I really don't care if some people feel those who wear masks on swat teams have no reason for hiding their identities and remind them of "secret police." I'd rather they just say thank you for doing a job they wouldn't do and go about their business.

As far as the officers getting medals for hitting the wrong target house... Well, we don't have all the details, but I do think the officers should be recognized "privately" for "thinking on their feet" in the middle of a bad situation and not killing the homeowner who was shooting at them. At least something went right. Or maybe it didn't... We don't have the whole story... but I do know that Warrant Teams have gotten the wrong house on more than one occasion and usually if the homeowner shoots at the cops, they end up getting dead.

I do feel (and this is my personal opinion) the department/city has to take the liability for getting the wrong house! The homeowner had the right to defend his family while in his own home. Absolutely no doubt about that.

And while the individual officers probably were not to blame for having the wrong address, it doesn't release the city of their liability. JMHO

I know our team goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure getting the correct house! In rural areas, it's very easy to be at the wrong house. We usually perform an extraordinary amount of "eyes on" surveillance prior to raiding a house. We like to have eyes on the suspect so we know when we do kick the door, that our guy is going to be there. Also if the warrant is based solely on an informants say so, we do a lot of background prep work. I do know that how we obtain our warrants is way above my pay grade so I don't all the details.
 
#33 ·
As far as the officers getting medals for hitting the wrong target house... Well, we don't have all the details, but I do think the officers should be recognized "privately" for "thinking on their feet" in the middle of a bad situation and not killing the homeowner who was shooting at them. At least something went right. Or maybe it didn't... We don't have the whole story... but I do know that Warrant Teams have gotten the wrong house on more than one occasion and usually if the homeowner shoots at the cops, they end up getting dead.
a good point - I actually was supprised that the home owner/shooter didn't get killed.

I'd actually like to know how they managed that.
 
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