A Massachusetts mother says the FBI used a chain saw blade to cut through her door and held her at gunpoint for at least 30 minutes before agents realized they were conducting a raid at the wrong home.
Judy Sanchez, of Fitchburg, says she awoke to heavy footsteps in the stairwell on Jan. 26 and walked into her kitchen in time to see a blade chop through her door.
She says she was held facedown on the floor at gunpoint while her 3-year-old daughter cried in another room.
It turns out agents were after the other tenant on the floor of the multiunit building who is suspected of dealing drugs.
Sanchez says she and her daughter now have trouble sleeping.
The FBI has apologized and is paying for the damage.
Awesome work guys! Not only did you traumatize, violate, and endanger two innocent people, but it was all in the name of the “War on Drugs”.
As I like to say: The world would be a scary place if you could buy Heroin at the corner store with as much difficulty as picking up a 6-pack of beer…but I don’t know if it would be as scary as the “War on Drugs”.
h/t Maddmedic
My first thought when I saw that story was that anywhere but MA (or NY, DC, or Chicago) there would be a really good chance of the homeowner looking at charges of capital murder of a police officer, too (if the homeowner survived the ensuing bullet-storm). I’m pretty darned sure that if someone tried to take down my front door in any kind of a “no-knock” fashion using a gorram chainsaw I would start firing ASAP, through the door, no questions asked.
Battering rams and crowbars are bad enough, but a calad eglan chainsaw? Even if they were shouting “police” at the tops of their lungs, you’d never be able to hear them!
This is my worst fear. I can handle myself against 1 or 2 attackers, esp in my own house but a SWAT raid…. I would probably end up a room temp. Its not like you can hear them saying “police” over your door being shattered or cut with a freakin chainsaw. No knock search warrants are the worst side effect of the “War on Drugs” TM.
Nate
I read that. All that work, and they flip a coin at the front door? And use a chainsaw? I thought that was the province of Mall (Zombie? Heh, I may resemble that) Ninjas. From the looks of the door on other sites it was the slowest breach in history- 3 cuts? They could have split the door down the middle vertically and been in.
The War on (some) Drugs™ has been going on since the 1914 Harrison Act.
I’d say the drugs have won every single major battle of the war.
Well given that anybody who has cash can score an 8-ball if they so desire in this country, and its even easier to get off-label pharmaceuticals, not to mention all the crime and “Gun Death” in this country that makes our chosen hobby a royal pain is all the illegal commerce of these banned drugs, I’d say the DEA didn’t even manage to get off a shot.
This reminds me of the case in Indiana in which the State Supreme Court ruled that residents have no right to resist this sort of thing. We live in the land of the free, except when the cops are around.
Sooner or later they’re going to hit the ‘wrong’ place and the firefight will be on, sadly, the occupant will end up dead regardless of right or wrong!
… and only the survivors will get to tell the story – which will be that “all officers acted according to procedure”.
Procedure including goin’ mall ninja with a chainsaw.
Though that really does show the view of people versus police.
If strange armed men break into your house unannounced you better comply completely… unless they’re *not* agents of the state.
If they are, well, it doesn’t matter if they picked the wrong house, because really to the State there are no wrong houses anymore.
Yeah see below, innocent people have been murdered because they killed police officers illegally breaking and entering.
They just kick the can further down the road.
I went absolutely off about this earlier today. People have been shot and died because of this crap on both sides and yet they keep doing it and the courts keep upholding the stupidity.
I won’t weigh in on the War On Drugs; it’s one of many issues upon which I haven’t made up my mind yet. (I reserve the right to do that.)
I’ll simply observe that, to me, the main problem here is the utter lack of accountability. I don’t care if the FBI compensated this woman; that gives them no incentive not to do it again. There should be an investigation of how an innocent family could be terrorized like this — i.e. whose blunder was it — and at minimum, it should cost somebody’s job.
What really bothers me is that I don’t see a good way to get there from here. There are a lot of vested interests at stake here.
This is one of the scariest aspects of Castle Doctrine law. While I am legally allowed to defend myself and my home with deadly force, I may face life imprisonment or the death penalty for exercising my right against an unannounced, and mistaken warrant.
I AM a gun guy, but I am not an internet super-tough, against all odds, ninja bad-ass.
Incorrect addresses seem to happen all too often on these raids and I fear that my 12 gauge won’t change a 2060SE into a 2600NW. Still, it’s there when I need it. (hopefully never except during Quail season)
Frightening situation to be sure and using a chainsaw?????? This is absurd.
If the brady scum were actually serious about reducing the numbers of people shot both legally and criminally in the nation, they’d be campaigning against the war on drugs. Never happen. Lickspittles need jackboots to lick.
That’s because they DON’T care. Its why they also use the metric of “Gun Death”, because dead bodies don’t concern them, nor does public safety. What concerns them is their agenda.