http://thefreethoughtproject.com/family-raided-swat-dog-shot-unable-pay-utility-bill/ Angela Zorich was told by police that she was being investigated for failing to have natural gas or electric service; which were both violations of city code. Zorich admitted to the police that she did not have gas, but said she did have electricity. Zorich asked for another inspection to prove that she had the utilities. The officer told her that was fine, but that the investigation would continue. The next day, on April 29, 2014, the home of Angela Zorich was raided by multiple officers from the St. Louis County Police Tactical Response Unit. The woman was at home with several family members and her pit bull, named Kiya. The Tactical Response Unit burst through the door without knocking. The unit had at least five officers with M-4 rifles, supported by at least eight uniformed officers. The officers entered so quickly the dog did not even have time to bark. One of the officers fired three shots into the dog, and the dogs bladder and bowels released and she fell to the floor. The dog was laying on the floor in her own waste and blood struggling to breathe, with a gaping hole in her chest. Zorich raised the dog as a puppy and says the dog had never shown aggression to any person. Zorich claims that one of the officers pointed his gun at her sons head and said One word, mother(*)(*)(*)(*)er, and Ill put three in you. Zorich was subsequently taken into custody at the police station. When she was finally let go and allowed to return to her home, she found the inside completely trashed. Beds had been overturned, and items that were once on shelves had been thrown to the floor. The citations issued to Zorich, which had allegedly justified the militarized raid on her home, were for substandard siding, guard rail, screens, window glass and deck. Although this might seem like a rare occurrence, where excessive overuse of force was clearly used, incidents like these are becoming disturbingly more common in recent years.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2015/06/swat_dog_zorich_police_report.php violent/rude people with firearms and a violent dog? looks like the cops responded appropriately.
And you believe the police version of events? More likely they are just trying to cover their own rear ends.
Not sure how much relevance this has, but here's another story I came across: Revered Jonathan Ayers was a 28-year-old Baptist minister from northern Georgia. Ayers (who was white) had a reputation for being the type of Christian who didn’t spend all of his time on a soap box preaching about sin and salvation—he actually put his money where his mouth was, became active in his community, and did things to help people. Tragically, that cost Ayers his life when, on September 1, 2009, he gave a woman named Johanna Jones Barrett $23 to help her pay her rent. Undercover narcotics officers who had been trailing Barrett suspected that she was selling crack cocaine, and when Ayers gave her $23, they began trailing Ayers. When Ayers left a gas station/convenience store after using an ATM and saw three plainclothes officers pointing their guns at him, he had no idea they were cops. Ayers, who obviously thought they were gang members or carjackers, tried to escape but was shot and killed. Not surprisingly, no drugs were found in either Ayers’ vehicle or on his dead body, although after the fact one of the officers made a dubious claim that before the killing Barrett had sold him $50 worth of crack cocaine. None of the officers were ever charged. Police defend killing of Baptist pastor
There are bad apples in every barrel. Most of these officers were probably just following orders from higher up, because someone else filed a report to intentionally make the family look bad. Officers have been known to do this type of thing when someone shows them disrespect. Passenger asks to file complaint against TSA agent, instead is arrested
their criminal history makes them look bad enough. they are bad for the community, and the police acted appropriately
"criminal history" ? What criminal history? There are so many laws on the books that all sorts of people now have a criminal history. Police are quick to try to dig through a person's past to try to justify what they do. We're not talking about rape, murder, and robbery here.
How do you know? And if they are, then why are so few cops punished for obvious abuses resulted in injury and death? The infamous case of John Crawford is a prime example. Crawford was in a Walmart shopping when a man made a false 911 call and cops murdered Crawford. Despite the review determining that Crawford did absolutely nothing wrong, the cops were completely exonerated. That's typical - cops kill or beat or lie or steal, the system rallies around them to protect the cops and further abuse the victims. Maybe most cops have not been abusive, but all cops are one step away from it.
It doesn't matter, cops jump at the chance to put on their war costume and pretend they are SEALs and go push around helpless people. Its why they became cops.
Why would the victim's and police's versions be so different? Maybe your own source article holds the key: Hoffman says that many people whose pets get killed by police grow upset because when they complain, they don't feel like they're being heard. The police know that there is an aggressive breed of dog on the premises. So, the officers attack with a pre-emptive strike against the dog. Every officer then swears that the dog was about to attack. That way they can avoid having to pay the owner restitution.
At that time, according to the report, Angela Zorich had outstanding warrants for traffic and motor vehicle violations; a Joseph M. Zorich was wanted for several offenses including assault; and Zachariah D. Zorich was wanted for several offenses as well, including two counts of assault. On April 28, police received a call from Angela Zorich, who was "yelling and cursing" (she admits to cursing in her lawsuit). She demanded to know what was going on. An officer told her that police needed to check the inside of the house. She said she wanted to talk to her husband and her attorney first. An officer said the investigation would continue anyway. they were violent people.
Maybe you missed this also from your article: Nearly a year after their arrests, no charges or convictions. Sounds like trumped up claims to me. The cops overstep the use of SWAT tactics for a simple code violations. They then preemptively kill the family dog, and then try to cover the whole thing by making arrests on trumped up warrants. This is what you call "acted appropriately". You need to rethink your definitions, or take a reading comprehension class.
this is why cops need copcams, no reason in this day and age for them not to have them why should we have to settle for a he says\he says..... why not have a digital recording of the event from multiple officers viewpoints they obviously thought they would find drugs... this is just part of the war on drugs, unfortunately for the cops, alcohol was the only drug they found sounds like the cops screwed up and should pay the price.... or more to the point, the tax payers should pay the price .
Most likely the police would simply turn them off before they were about to do something they didn't want recorded. When law enforcement conducts a raid on a business, one of the first things they do is to want to make sure all the security cameras are turned off. It does, of course, make one wonder why they want those cameras to be off... They would probably only want the cameras on when they are trying to collect something to incriminate the suspect.
and that needs to be a crime, if 5 cops enter and all of them turn off their camera it's obvious the cops should not be believes and that should be a sign of guilt camera's should not be able to be disabled and should be cellar and uploading constantly .
These acts against non violent citizens are the norm, not the exception. I had a friend who planted 5 marijuana seeds behind his home. At the time of the "bust" they were aprox. 4 feet tall. According to my friend, the local drug task force ransacked his home, took boxes and boxes of "evidence". A family heirloom (an African red ruby owned by his wife, valued at over $2,000.00) was stolen, a hunting knife passed down from his father was stolen, and none of these things were on any "evidence list". The cops wanted to consfigate his house but he owed too much to the bank so they let him keep it. Of course the prosecutor came down hard on the guy, laid some extra charges on him (all felonies). In the end the guys wife divorced him, he moved back to California where what he did (grow 5 MJ plants) is legal with a card. All in all here was a decent family man, had a good job, even went to church, life torn apart over something as harmless as growing his own marijuana. Is this what we are paying our law enforcement to do? They made a criminal out of an average every day Joe. Congratulations!
