Home-invaders posing as cops

[700PSS]

This happening where you live too? Here, it's either criminals posing as cops or cops at the wrong address. I figure since I keep my nose clean, the real police have no reason to come here, so unless they get the wrong address, it must be criminals posing as cops. And since again, I don't expect the real police to come here, my response will be the same anyway. I figure I've got maybe 3 seconds at best for that response. Hope that's sufficient.

As for advice, Ritter cautions Gwinnettians to be perceptive but not resistant when someone at the door claims to be law enforcement.

Now HTF does that help me if it's criminals posing as cops?

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/home/h ... 66544.html

[ArevaloSOCOM]

roughly eight masked, determined men with shotguns, rifles and pistols

the objective is to gain a tactical advantage

a team of up to six men donning FBI T-shirts invaded a woman’s home

a team of rifle-wielding robbers in bulletproof vests posed as police while raiding two Lawrenceville homes

“Usually, when we have search warrants, we’ll have patrol cars in view.

[Hush]

Sorry to say I'm not surprised, I find this happens quite a bit to the elderly, the perps go after pain killers and money which you will find in an elderly person's home and most elderly are easily confused the older they are and if the raid occurs during normal sleeping hours people wake up confused, this includes the non-elderly.
I tell people chances are that if the police have no reason to raid your place then chances are they are not the police so act accordingly.

[generaldisarray]

This is why they made these

[jdj]

I wonder what will happen when a fearful homeowner mistakenly kills a few cops in a wrong-address no-knock raid because he's worried it is a ploy like this. I wonder if the outcome would be different if it happened in a castle-doctrine state.

My guess is it wouldn't matter - the homeowner would be labeled as a cop-killer and prosecuted if he survived the raid. Wouldn't matter if it was a castle doctrine state or if the police had no business at the house in the first place (wrong address).

What if Vang Khang would've been well-trained and had been using a high-powered rifle? Would've been a much more tragic outcome. His fear that his home was being invaded was warranted (and it was being invaded, just by the police).

[MicroGuy]

That area is starting to get pretty bad, and it's moving north, directly at me. I find more and more people moving up here, trying to get away from that crap. I did.

And this is why I've started keeping my gun close. There seems to be a lot more home invasions happening, but the press is suppressing it a bit. I heard about the event with the young girl (first one), but did NOT know it was home invaders dressed as cops!

I have no reason for the cops to come banging on my door either, so if anybody just comes barging through, I'm shooting first. And if ANYbody I don't already know, comes knocking on my door, I have my gun in my hand behind the door. Find out what's going on, then I'll put it in the small of my back and holster it.

The police had better nip this in the bud before some real cops get killed. And I think the press/police are stupid for playing this down. Interesting the cops would say "don't resist". Yeah. Should we just give them our guns to shoot us with too?

[silencertalk]

For the same reason the police can never shoot someone with an orange gun, even if it is a real gun painted orange - you can never shoot someone in a police uniform, even if they are not a real cop. Why? Odds are in either case it is a real cop and a toy gun. So if it turns out to be a real cop or a toy gun, people will say it obviously was a real cop due to the uniform, and obviously was a toy gun due to the orange.

The solution in either case is the other person has to shoot first. They will probably miss.

[CKOD]

Bullet proof vests? Time to get an RFB and keep that for home defense, and sling a dedicated pair of electronic ear muffs on it.

But for robert: Are they in police uniforms, or in black 'tactical' gear? I can go to walmart and come back with enough black clothes, and iron on clothing transfer paper so it says "police"


Either way, the police need to knock it off with the no-knock raid bs because someone innocent (either officer or civi) IS going to get killed, stop dressing up so you can play commando, do some real police work, track the guy, and nail him in somewhere wide open, instead of killing dogs and storming wrong houses.

[ArevaloSOCOM]

With many cops and detectives dressing "down" they simply dress like you or I, sling a bagde on a chain around thier next and when they raid, the toss on some body armor/carrier and a "Police" windbreaker.

Save a bullet for yourself if you are wrong. Many people have kept the intial raid off, once your drinking buddy goes down bleeding and screaming, it brings reality home for the guy right behind him. Sure, some will say they push through, but reality has shown they back down and regroup once a LEO is injured. The same will apply for criminals pretending to be LEOs. In fact thier scatter faster IMHO.

Defending the intial raid is not the problem,it's being wrong that the home owner is afraid of.

[700PSS]

http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/05/w ... ing-b.html

By Jon Lewis @ May 13, 2010 6:52 AM
(WSB Radio) An elderly Polk County woman is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack when drug agents swarm the wrong house. Machelle Holl tells WSB her 76-year-old mother, Helen Pruett, who lives alone, was at home when nearly a dozen local and federal agents swarmed her house, thinking they were about to arrest suspected drug dealers.

"She was at home and a bang came on the back door and she went to the door and by the time she got to the back door, someone was banging on the front door and then they were banging on her kitchen window saying police, police," said Holl.

Holl says her house was surrounded and she was scared to open the door. When the Polk County Police Chief finally convinced her she was safe, she let them in.

"They never served her with a warrant. At that point, she said the phones were ringing with the other men that were in the yard and they realized that it was the wrong address," said Holl.

Chief Kenny Dodd says they realized the subject they were looking for was not there.

"She made us aware that she was having chest pains and we got her medical attention. I stayed with her and kept her calm and talked with her, monitored her vital signs until the ambulance arrived," said Dodd.

"My mother has had a heart attack. She has had congestive heart failure and she is in ICU at the moment. She is not good condition and her heart is working only 35 percent," said Holl.

Holl admits that her mother has had three heart attacks but has been doing well for the past couple of years.

"She was traumatized. Even the doctor said this is what happens when something traumatic happens. He said it's usually like a death in the family or something like that just absolutely scares them half to death, and that is what has happened," said Holl.

Police say they have had her mother's home under surveillance for two years.

Holl says if that's true, how could police get the wrong address?

"We have just found out from a neighbor that they (police) went into some other elderly woman's home who was on oxygen and took her oxygen off of her and scared her half to death," said Holl.

Holl remembers the Kathyrn Johnston, the elderly woman shot to death in a botched drug raid in Atlanta, and thinks thinks this kind of thing happens too often.

"They have totally made a really bad mistake. You would think that with the officers and the SWAT team and the DEA they would make sure that all of their I's are dotted, all of their T's are crossed before they go bursting into someone's home like that," said Holl.

Dodd says he has gone to the hospital to check on Pruett and apologize to the family for what has happened.

Police did end up making seven drug arrests relating to the two year investigation, but the DEA is investigating to see how this mix-up happened.

[Twinsen]

With these home invaders posing as cops and all these cops posing as home invaders, I forsee lots of dead home owners.

[st33ve0]

I'll put it this way...I know I'm not breaking any laws and if LEO's wanted to be smart they'd get me at work where I'm not legally able to carry a firearm. If someone busts my door open I'm shooting.

[Hush]

After reading 700PSS's latest post about another botched police raid that almost kills an elderly woman which anger's me, I'd like to see towns people band together and demand of their mayor and police chief that these raids be stopped and people in authority be held accountable and these SWAT and Drug enforcement teams abandoned.
Nothing will be done to rectify these situations until enough of the public bitches and public pressure with the aid of the media forces the authorities hand to abandon these practices.

[st33ve0]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/16/mic ... google_cnn

[ArevaloSOCOM]

I'll put it this way...I know I'm not breaking any laws and if LEO's wanted to be smart they'd get me at work where I'm not legally able to carry a firearm. If someone busts my door open I'm shooting.

I concur with my PTR91 & 50rd drum.

[pneumagger]

If someone knocks at your door claiming to be LEO you can dial 911 to confirm if there are officers at your door and you suspect they may not be.

If someone dressed in swat gear busts down your door... good luck with your decision.
You literally have 2 seconds to decide are they cops or not. If you choose wrong you die.

IMO, if someone is caught impersonating an officer in the commission of another crime/assault/robbery it should be an immediate life sentence.
Such actions threaten the very social fabric that keeps interactions with law enforcement orderly and well functioning.

[Diomed]

Interesting the cops would say "don't resist". Yeah. Should we just give them our guns to shoot us with too?

They can't very well say it's okay to shoot people in uniforms (or wearing stuff that police sometimes wear). It does not do to get the sheep thinking they may be at risk from their masters, or that it may be okay to act on that fear.

To be blunt, a few robbed/raped/dead "civilians" is a small price to pay to maintain that monopoly of force they are so enamored with, as far as they are concerned.

... I know I'm not breaking any laws...

But that's where you're wrong. You are breaking laws. You may not know it, and the cops may not know it at the time, but they'll find something. They always do, even if they have to make it up.

[700PSS]

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/home/h ... 19009.html

NORCROSS — The trend of home invasion robbers holding themselves out as police before plundering Gwinnett residences continues.

The latest incident happened Thursday on Warners Trail in Norcross, less than a mile from a bloody May 5 attack at a Steve Reynolds Boulevard residence, during which a man was beaten senseless in front of his three daughters.

Victims in the Thursday incident — a self-employed carpet cleaner, 25, and his girlfriend and cousin, both 19-year-old waitresses — told police roughly eight black-clad gunmen kicked in the door and yelled “police.” They carried guns described by the male victim as a Ruger P45, Beretta and a silver revolver “with an unusually long barrel,” according to a Gwinnett police report released Tuesday.

The suspects were brash, high-fiving each other during the 25-minute ordeal and bragging about how much clothing they were stealing, the man told police. They kicked and beat his face with a handgun, demanding the keys to his Hummer H2 in the driveway, the report states.

The robbers made off with a PlayStation 3, several hundred dollars in cash, clothing, and one victim’s Chanel purse, promising to return the next day and pillage anew, the report states.

As in the May 5 robbery, where a young victim counted roughly eight assailants, the robbers stole recording equipment wired to a surveillance camera and punched holes in the walls.

No suspects have been identified, said Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. For now, the most recent case appears isolated, he said.

No serious injuries were reported.

“The only similarity is that, for the past few years, the trend has been to announce some type of law enforcement entity” upon entering, Ritter said. “It’s possible they announce this as a diversion ... to reduce the chances of resistance from the victims.”

The latest home invasion marks the fourth instance in recent months — and the third since April — that armed gunmen either posed or announced themselves as police, FBI agents or other law enforcement in the process of overpowering victims at home.

History shows that a high percentage of this style of crime involves drugs, police and others have said. But victims at all four recent attacks have told authorities they were targeted by mistake, that robbers had stormed in the wrong door.

“These are horrific crimes and are diligently investigated, the same as any other violent crime,” Ritter said.