Officers in botched raid awarded medals

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At first I thought I was misreading the title but the story speaks for itself......spoils of war I guess....gotta love the last line of the article..

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BOTCHED_RAID?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US


Minn. officers involved in botched raid get medals


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Eight police officers who raided an innocent family's house last year, trading fire with the terrified husband, have received medals - and that has outraged the family.

Three officers involved in the Dec. 16 raid, which stemmed from bad information from an informant, received medals of valor from Police Chief Tim Dolan on Monday. The other five got medals of commendation.

Yee Moua said her family is "a mess right now," and her 9-year-old son, who saw the shooting, "still has nightmares and has needed therapy."

Police entered the home expecting to find a violent gang member. Yee Moua's husband, Vang Khang, thought they were being robbed and shot at the officers through a bedroom door.

The officers, members of the Minneapolis Police Department's SWAT team, were wearing protective gear and were not injured. But they returned fire.

Members of the family also were not physically injured, but the house was left filled with bullet holes and broken glass. Two days later, Dolan apologized and started an internal investigation.

"They were outraged and they were hurt. ... To this day this family continues to suffer," said their attorney, former U.S. attorney Tom Heffelfinger.

The investigation found the team had gone there looking for a gang member's guns after an informant gave investigators bad information. Authorities are still looking into how the case was handled before the raid, but Dolan said the SWAT officers themselves have been cleared.

Heffelfinger said the family has notified the city that they plan to file a lawsuit. He questions the timing and motives for the award.

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."

---

Information from: WCCO-TV, http://www.wcco.com

© 2008 The Associated Press.
 
Incredible. Didn't they do this kind of idiocy in Vietnam?

Hopefully this will be used as evidence in the civil suit against the police, to show willful and reckless disregard of people's rights, and to increase the damages payable.
 
Bizarro world has come to America.

Maybe if I shot U.S. troops instead of insurgents, I would have gotten the MOH and a promotion.
 
Wow..... just .....Wow..... I wonder what medals they have for cops who actually shoot someone in a "botched" raid.
 
I also wonder about the caliber of officers who would stand in front of their peers and the public to recieve an award under such conditions.

Personally I would have been too ashamed to even let them put me in for an award, let alone accept it.
 
A similar thing happened in Portsmouth, VA earlier this year. Police received a tip that a guy was growing marijuana in his garage, and sent a plain-clothes officer to have a look-see. The officer looked through a window in the garage, and saw several long tables covered with small leafy plants, with grow lights providing artificial sunshine.
Several hours later, a swat team showed up and stormed the house. It was after 8PM, and the guy who lived there was already in bed. He heard the commotion, and says that he thought some gang members were trying to break in. He fired several shots through his front door, that the police were in the process of smashing down, and one shot hit an officer standing in the yard, killing him.
The guy has been charged with capital murder, and is facing the death penalty. He has no prior criminal record, although a small amount of Marijuana (less than 1 ounce) was found in his house.
The plants growing in the garage were identified as Japanese Maple seedlings that the resident of the house was growing for sale to nurseries.
 
He fired several shots through his front door, that the police were in the process of smashing down, and one shot hit an officer standing in the yard, killing him.
Click to expand...
Never a good idea.
 
I wonder if the marijuana found in the guy house in Virginia came to be there under the same circumstances the pot was in the 92 yr old womans house in Atlanta.
 
I wonder if he had died he would have been made into a legit criminal, and the raid valid.
Not hard to find some crackhead confidential informant that can claim whatever is needed to have been said after the fact to substantiate a necessary story.
Because he lived he can actualy defend himself against wild accusations, and they decided to admit it was an accident.

It could have been worse though. He could have lived, but instead been like Cory Maye sent to deathrow for killing one of the 'accidental' home invaders wearing badges.

The number of cover ups in some parts of the nation is huge, so you have to at least respect that the story came out honest. If it had happened in Chicago or LA for example it could have been much worse for the innocent man, even if he lived.
That they can admit to such a wrongdoing in Minneapolis, and didn't still charge the home owner and create a story in an attempt to deflect or eliminate blame speaks good about the department.
In some parts of the country you would have never known it was a botched raid to begin with.
 
Quote:
He fired several shots through his front door, that the police were in the process of smashing down, and one shot hit an officer standing in the yard, killing him.

Never a good idea.
Click to expand...

I think it is quite reasonable if evil men are attemting to break into your home and do you harm that you fire through the door before they successfully breech it.

If it turns out it wasn't evil men, just lazy people believing the lies told to them by evil men, same holds, and the fault is on the heads of whoever is actively kicking down honest people's doors
 
any officer worth the scrap price of thier badge would not expect that medal.
 
This is about RKBA...how?

The homeowner had a gun. OK. The cops weren't there to take it, they were there(they thought) for a gang member. A gun being at the scene of a story doesn't make the story gun-related.

Interesting story? Yes.
Hotly debatable issue? Yes.
Fit the requirements for the Legal forum? Nope.
 
This is about RKBA...how?
Click to expand...
Well, the police are being given medals for invading the home of an innocent family, and thus initiating a firefight with the residents.

Seems apropos to me.
 
I can't even begin to imagine why the PD thinks this is a good idea.

But, stupid is everywhere.

I predict thread lock is imminent.
 
I often wonder, when I read about incidents like this (a lesser degree for sure) and incidents like Waco's ATF debacle, if the precedents set by the Nuremburg trials and the ongoing hunting of third reich war criminals by Israel don't give military and law enforcement pause before they "follow orders" into an action they know might be a bad thing.
Like this case. Sure, they followed protocol. But, in the coming years, what's to keep the political wind from shifting into a much more citizen oriented stance?
Could there be time when these medals are seen as a Hitler Youth Knife or SS badge is now?
Certainly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Secret Police and Stassi had a very hard time convincing people they were "just following orders."
This is not to say that a botched raid is Stassi-like or that they are somehow conducting KGB style black bag abductions. But, I think there's a parallel.
Anyway, I'm pretty shocked that they would get medals.

Maybe someone in Law Enforcement could shed some light on the nature of the medals or why they were awarded, given the circumstances.

I would also point out that the whole point of a raid like that one is to make a display of overwhelming force so an instant surrender happens and lives on both sides of the door are saved. So, I feel I understand the point of it.
 
I would also point out that the whole point of a raid like that one is to make a display of overwhelming force so an instant surrender happens and lives on both sides of the door are saved.
Click to expand...
I am unconvinced it is about saving lives so much as it is about the use of naked force itself as a weapon to cow the populace.
 
I'll agree to that as well, Bob.

It's asserting dominance with superior firepower and technology. That can be seen as cowing the populace subject to the raid. And, certainly the SWAT acronym is now clearly in the average American's vocab as part of the force continuum of the Police. So, it could be said that it's a high profile tactic meant to stick in the minds of anyone and everyone.

Good point.
 
I would liken this to giving a Distinguished Flying Cross to the American pilot who shot down Butch O'Hare.
 
I would liken this to giving a Distinguished Flying Cross to the American pilot who shot down Butch O'Hare.
Click to expand...
Or a VC to the British pilot who shot down the C-54 carrying the first sets of divebrakes for the P-38s in Britain.
 
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