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Obama’s Military Police DAILY No-Knock Entries, Killing Am. ‘Suspects’, Even Babies

Monday, June 2, 2014 9:35

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(Before It's News)

Obama, in accordance with his 2010 directive on military support to civilian authorities, is using military weapons and force, and has quietly militarized agencies and departments, that have already turned against American “suspects,” mainly innocent targeted individuals whose names have been submitted to the president’s hit-list. The “four-term Bush regime” has rendered both the U.S. Constitution and the term “freedom” meaningless, while rendering U.S. fascism and the term “American dictatorship” ugly realities.

The Obama regime has carried forward Bush policies’ most expansive of government power, quietly militarizing with weapons of war and training, agencies and departments, even including the Department of Education, to target individuals and groups, according to the directive and to daily reports by innocent people, collateral damage on U.S. soil.

“This appears to be the latest step in the administration’s decision to use force within the United States against its citizens,” said a defense official opposed to Obama’s directive, according to the Washington Post.

Obama’s Federal Aviation Administration has authorized using surveillance drones in US airspace. Local police departments are purchasing drones, armored personnel carriers, and other military equipment. These tools for surveillance are invading privacy, suppressing nonviolent protests, “threatening constitutional rights of Americans in jurisdictions from coast to coast,” says the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Furthermore, federal agents are acting on information from tipsters with questionable backgrounds and motives, touching off needless scares and ruining lives of innocent suspects, according to the New York Times. Anyone with the right connections can ensure an individual’s name is on Obama’s hit list. At a 2003 F.B.I academy meeting, one participant warned that officials were overlooking effects that pursuing suspects has had on targeted groups, a warning Bush and Obama obviously dismissed.

Meanwhile, quietly, Obama also has developed the militarization of non-security-related federal agencies, notably Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, according to Defense analysts, and, has deployed them in communities, with local justice departments’ support, now maiming and killing Americans, even babies.

American Collateral Damage on US Soil

Today, an 18-month old baby in Georgia is in a medically induced coma, in critical condition after a SWAT team raided his home and tossed a flash grenade into the baby’s playpen, searing a hole through it and exploding on the baby’s pillow. Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team agents obtained a search warrant with a ”no knock entry” for the residence, approved by Habersham County Chief Magistrate Judge Jim Butterworth.

Unusual? Not at all, according to descriptions in Radley Balko’s book and Raid of the Day article in the Huffington Post.

In 2011, when Greenfield, California police approached a home they believed a shooting suspect named Alejandro Jose Gonzalez was hiding, they had the wrong address. In checking the address, however, they learned a man living in the home, 31-year-old Rogelio Serrato, had two outstanding warrants—both misdemeanors. When Serrato didn’t respond to demands to exit the house, the police forced entry into the home, used a flash grenade, and sparked a fire that destroyed the house and killed Serrato.

In 1989, Minneapolis, Minnesota police used a flash grenade during a nighttime raid on the home of 71-year old Lloyd Smalley and 65-year old Lillian Weiss, asleep. The weapon set a chair on fire that spread to the rest of the apartment and killed the couple from smoke inhalation. The police had raided the wrong home, based on “a bad tip from an informant.” Ten years later, a the same Minneapolis Police Department used a flash grenade, burning a triplex to the ground. Rickia Russell was sitting on the couch when police’s flash grenade rolled under her legs. The blast “burned the flesh off” one of her legs. The police found no drugs or weapons in the house.

In April 1997, a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania SWAT team raided John Hirko, Jr.’s home after an informant claimed to purchase drugs from him. The police tossed a flash grenade through Hirko’s window a few seconds after knocking and shot Hirko 11 times when he appeared with a gun. A SWAT cop then set off a second flash grenade near Hirko, sparking a fire that destroyed the house and burned Hirko’s body beyond recognition. The district attorney determined Hirko’s death was a justifiable homicide. In a lawsuit Hirko’s family filed against the city, expert witnesses testified that the grenade’s disorienting effects and deploying it in such close proximity to the alleged announcement, along with no clear police insignia on the SWAT team’s military-style uniforms made it difficult to determine if being raided police or unlawful intruders.

The family of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones claims a flash grenade a SWAT officer tossed into her bedroom during a 2010 raid ignited a blanket, setting the child on fire. Seconds later, a member of the SWAT team shot her dead.

In 2001, during a raid on a small record label home, a flashbang ignited the foam rubber in the walls, used for soundproofing. It destroyed the master recordings and $100,000 worth of equipment. Sgt. Gary Robbins said afterward, “It’s unfortunate those guys packed that house with materials that were flammable.”

In a 2006 a Sugarland, Texas, police raided a home and deployed a grenade that set a room on fire, causing $5,000 in damage. They shot the family’s golden retriever. Their haul? Two joints.

In 1996, a SWAT team in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (population 39,102) burned down an entire apartment complex with a flashbang during a drug raid. Six police officers were injured and 24 people left homeless. Several officers were cited for bravery.

In 2009, a drug raid team in San Antonio set off a flash grenade, igniting a mattress and burning the entire house to the ground.

In 1997, Camille Vieira, 18, suffered burns over half her body after a flash grenade landed on the comforter she was sleeping under and set it ablaze. Three children were in the home. The police found 20 grams of marijuana.

Tomika Smith was severely burned when North Carolina police threw a flash grenade into a home she was visiting in a 2002 no-knock raid. The grenade landed on the couch where Smith was sitting and set it aflame. Smith was on a date, not a suspect.

In 2005, Police in Niagara Falls, New York, tossed the grenade through a window, leaving Rhiannon Kephart, 18, hospitalized in serious condition with second- and third-degree burns on her chest and stomach. It landed on the bed where she was asleep and set the sheets on fire.

In 2008, Nicole White, 29, suffered burns over 11 percent of her body and was permanently disfigured by an Oakland, California, SWAT officer, who through a flashbang during a raid on a home where she was visiting.

In October 2012, a Montana SWAT team tossed a flashbang through a window into a room where two children were asleep. A 12-year-old girl suffered first- and second-degree burns. The SWAT team was looking for a home methamphetamine operation, known to catch fire and explode. According to the girls’ mother (and a photo she took), the weapon left a large, rounded dent in the wall and “blew the nails out of the drywall.” The police did not find a meth lab. A police spokesman said the officers did “plenty of homework” before the raid, but failed to learn children were in the home.

In 2010, when St. Paul, Minnesota police raided Larelle Steward‘s home, they demanded he and his mother drop to the ground. As Steward attempted to explain his mother had just had surgery, and was unable to lie down, they repeatedly kicked him in the face, broke his nose, put a pillowcase over his head and fired a flash grenade at Steward’s mother, setting her on fire. She suffered third-degree burns on her legs. The police had received a tip that someone was selling cocaine in the house. They found 2.8 grams of marijuana. The city approved a $400,000 settlement in 2012.

In 2004, a man’s foot was gone after a Hempstead, Texas, police officer, tactical team coordinator, and former ATF agent deployed a flash grenade as a prank at a bachelor party. Officers from that department had earlier set off a grenade for fun in a Denny’s parking lot, prompting several people to exit the restaurant with drawn guns.

Obama impeachment

SWAT team buildup and militarizing other agencies is raising questions about whether Barack Obama should be impeached for undermining of civil liberties and basic human rights under the guise of counterterrorism and counternarcotics.

“I’ve yet to see any indication that drugs were found, which usually (but not always) means that the police didn’t find any,” reports the Washington Post. “Frequently in cases where a raid goes wrong, police tend to be quick to point out what they found to justify their actions. (The police did apparently make an arrest.)

In the recent case of the Georgia SWAT team attacking the 18-month old, Sheriff Terrell said the district attorney and Georgia Bureau of Investigation said there was no wrongdoing on the SRT’s part.

A flashbang is a war weapon explosive device. It emits a deafening boom and a blinding flash of light. It’s designed to stun occupants so armed men deployed can “clear” the building. It is part of the militarization of police and other agencies working against the American people.

Police are using these weapons of war against American citizens daily. Even worse, officers are mainly using them while serving drug warrants against nonviolent activity and used against mere suspects.

“And cops are tossing these things through doors and windows with no idea what’s on the other side,” the Post reports. “Indeed, that’s the whole point.”

In 2009, when Wyoming police deployed a flashbang during a drug raid, it set a couple’s bed on fire. In the subsequent lawsuit, police conceded having no idea where the weapon would land when they tossed it through an open bedroom window.

An expert witness, who trains cops in using flashbangs, told the jury that after throwing thousands of grenades, “I’m no better today at tossing one than I was tossing the first one,” according to the Powel Tribune.

The expert said “the potential risk to officers justified not looking in the window to see the exact spot where the device would land.”

To protect Obama’s military police, Americans are suppose to accept that, while enforcing the drug laws, “we’ll occasionally get burned babies and incinerated homes,” the Post reports.

Mass military violence against Americans planned

Other agencies Obama has quietly militarized with access to war weapons along with SWAT teams include the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Education Department.

Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” issued Dec. 29, 2010, states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.” and “Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority.” (Emphasis added)

“In these circumstances, those federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” under two conditions:

1. “to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order,” and

2, “when federal, state and local authorities “are unable or decline to provide adequate protection for federal property or federal governmental functions.”

“Federal action, including the use of federal military forces, is authorized when necessary to protect the federal property or functions,” the directive states.

Military assistance can include loans of arms, ammunition, vessels and aircraft. The directive states clearly that it is for engaging civilians during times of unrest.

The Pentagon directive authorizes the secretary of defense to approve the use of unarmed drones in domestic unrest. But it bans the use of missile-firing unmanned aircraft: “Use of armed [unmanned aircraft systems] is not authorized.”

The directive, signed by then-Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn,is on the Pentagon website: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/302518p.pdf.

The militarization of federal agencies, under little-known statues that permit deputization of security officials, comes as the White House has launched verbal attacks on private citizens’ ownership of firearms despite the fact that most gun owners are law-abiding citizens.

In March 2012, Obama signed into existence “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” an Executive Order affording the president dictatorial powers over the nation and the American people whenever he chooses to implement it.

The first words of the Constitution clearly states whom our government was established to serve: We the People.

But under the guises of a “war on drugs” and a ”war on terror” by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, two administrations from both major parties, our government has committed mounting violations of constitutional rights and liberties.

“The rule of law has withered under warrantless surveillance, rampant racial and religious profiling, and torture—and even human experimentation—with impunity,” BORDC says.

“The People’s Campaign for the Constitution was launched in 2008 to support a transpartisan grassroots movement to take back our constitutional rights and restore our nation’s credibility as a leader of the free world.”

Source: Washington Times, Bill of Rights Defense Committee