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What is up with some policemen?

What is up with some policemen?

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by: Chrisinkingwood Active Indicator LED Icon 8 OP 
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 7:57am  
Video shows Texas deputy force entry into home, handcuff homeowner without warrant


Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle
 

Published 3:38 pm, Thursday, August 13, 2015
Video shows Texas sheriff's deputies forcing entry into a woman's house for an unwarranted search.
In the video, the young homeowner in Pflugerville screams at Travis
County deputies, "you don't have a warrant, I need you to get out of my
house" before a deputy is heard saying "put her in handcuffs." The
episode raises concerns over constitutional protections against
unreasonable search and seizure. Tori Thayer, 23, said she thought she was dreaming when her doorbell
rang at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning. But it rang again, and she woke up. By
the time she got downstairs the door was open and one deputy had put
his foot into her house, she said.
"He started right off the bat yelling at me and trying to push his
way into my door," she said. "He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw
me to the side."
Deputies were there conducting a welfare check, requested by a
caller, on Thayer's roommate, Carly Christine (who was not home), said
Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman Roger Wade. He said he "can't
get into the specifics of what happened or why things happened" because
an investigation is ongoing.
Before the video begins, Thayer said, she spent about 10 minutes
using her body to block deputies from entering the bedrooms of her
house, careful not to use her hands to avoid felony charges.
"They start going towards my door, and I told them no, my dogs were in there," she said. "I didn't want them to shoot my dogs."As Thayer's protests dissolve into sobs, she said two deputies
grabbed each of her arms and a third got behind her and pushed her to
the floor. She was handcuffed while one deputy held his knee on her back
and another held his hands on her shoulders, she said. The video goes
black as the camera apparently falls, but audio recording continues.
Deputies then search the bedrooms of the house and don't find
Christine. They release Thayer about five minutes later when she asks,
"Am I being detained?"
Santinder Singh,
a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said
the deputies didn't appear to have any legal right to enter Thayer's
home.
"The general rule is that law enforcement needs a warrant to enter a
house," he said. "Once [deputies] were told immediately that [Christine]
was not there, that should have ended the situation."In the Pflugerville case, Thayer said deputies later explained to her
that someone had called the sheriff to report Christine had made
suicidal threats.
Singh said, "there are a handful of exemptions" under which law
enforcement doesn't need a warrant to enter a home, "and they all
involve some sort of emergency situation."
"If they can see or hear a fight or struggle—that would be a
situation where they could enter," he said. "But if they come and
nothing is ongoing, no immediate threat, then the officer must go back
to a magistrate judge and get a warrant."
When Wade with the sheriff's office was asked if officers were right
to enter the home, he said the investigation was ongoing and that "as
far as constitutional law, people study for years trying to figure that
all out."
Since the video was posted on Tuesday and reported by local media
Wednesday, Thayer said she's gotten thousands of encouraging messages
through Facebook, Twitter and the phone, urging her to get a lawyer.
"I actually want to do something about this. It's out of hand," she
said. "There needs to be reformation in this police state. They can't
continue to travel down this path."
4951
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buffaloglenn Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 8:03am  
I guess the flip side of it is the police being called out for a welfare check on the family here in Houston several times, not entering the house, and finally going in later and the whole family is already dead.  Had they barged in, as they apparently did in this house in Pflugerville, could they have saved some of the family?  I can assure you, that if the police were already in my home, I would not go stand in front of doors like a tackling dummy and refuse their orders.  It's too late to try and "claim your rights" at that point. 4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 8:43am  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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soxs mom Active Indicator LED Icon 3
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 8:55am  
Is there a link to the video referred to in the article? 4951
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CBP210 Active Indicator LED Icon 10
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 12:55pm  
This would be a nightmare case for me if i was in these officers union. 4951
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GoldenGirl Active Indicator LED Icon 15
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 2:13pm  
I am sure there is more to this story.... 4951
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SwimSwim Active Indicator LED Icon 2
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 2:24pm  
I am sure there is more to this story....
 
@GoldenGirl: Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing
4951
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Chrisinkingwood Active Indicator LED Icon 8 OP 
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 2:26pm  
I am sure there is more to this story....
 
@GoldenGirl: Well I am sure there is more... but I don't see how if someone calls the Sheriff's office and reports that someone has made a suicidal threat it deserves this treatment. Hostage crisis or similar I guess so. I appreciate that there are many tough decisions to be made by are law enforcement  but ignoring the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is a slippery slope I hate to see us go down. I  hope this gets the review it deserves and if they did wrong they are corrected so it doesn't happen again.
4951
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Retired_Engineer Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 3:11pm  
The Police are people too, and sometimes they are not the best choice for that job.  A guy in high school was one of the smartest kids in the school, but he was made fun of and sometimes bullied.  He could have gone to any college he wanted, but he wanted to be a policeman so he could carry a gun and people would have to respect him.  In other words, he wanted to get back at people for the way he was treated in high school.  I don't know how, but he made it into the Louisiana State Police.  He even showed up at a reunion in full uniform.  Hopefully, his attitude about people got better. 4951
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ProblemAgain Active Indicator LED Icon 10
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 4:37pm  
the fact that your former classmate showed up for a reunion in full uniform makes me doubt his attitude had changed.   one of the unspoken troubles we have  been encountering is the fact that, after 14 years of being a military occupier in war zones, we have quite a number of vets who may or may not fit the bill to transition to a police force from a military function.  it does appear to me that our law enforcement organizations have shifted more toward an occupying presence and less that of serving and protecting the public. this does a disservice to both the public and the officers who are  there to serve and protect. 4951
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chilladahun Active Indicator LED Icon 2
~ 8 years ago   Aug 14, '15 5:38pm  
the fact that your former classmate showed up for a reunion in full uniform makes me doubt his attitude had changed.   one of the unspoken troubles we have  been encountering is the fact that, after 14 years of being a military occupier in war zones, we have quite a number of vets who may or may not fit the bill to transition to a police force from a military function.  it does appear to me that our law enforcement organizations have shifted more toward an occupying presence and less that of serving and protecting the public. this does a disservice to both the public and the officers who are  there to serve and protect.
 
@ProblemAgain: how so? how are they an occupying force?
4951
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