Police Commandeer Homes, Get Sued

[The Straight Story]

Police Commandeer Homes, Get Sued

LAS VEGAS (CN) - Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.

Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell sued the City of Henderson, its Police Chief Jutta Chambers, Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley, and City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister, in Federal Court.

Henderson, pop. 257,000, is a suburb of Las Vegas.

The Mitchell family's claim includes Third Amendment violations, a rare claim in the United States. The Third Amendment prohibits quartering soldiers in citizens' homes in times of peace without the consent of the owner.

"On the morning of July 10th, 2011, officers from the Henderson Police Department responded to a domestic violence call at a neighbor's residence," the Mitchells say in the complaint.

It continues: "At 10:45 a.m. defendant Officer Christopher Worley (HPD) contacted plaintiff Anthony Mitchell via his telephone. Worley told plaintiff that police needed to occupy his home in order to gain a 'tactical advantage' against the occupant of the neighboring house. Anthony Mitchell told the officer that he did not want to become involved and that he did not want police to enter his residence. Although Worley continued to insist that plaintiff should leave his residence, plaintiff clearly explained that he did not intend to leave his home or to allow police to occupy his home. Worley then ended the phone call.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/03/59061.htm

[Jenoch]

1. This quite interesting.

I have never heard of a lawsuit based on the 3rd Amendment.

[atreides1]

2. Makes you wonder

Where were those "good" cops that people keep claiming exist?

[Jenoch]

3. There are a lot of good cops out there.

I have two brothers who are good cops. I have met many of their colleagues. I only knew of a couple who I thought weren't suited for the job.

I read the story about this case. Of course that's just the plaintiff's side, but I think if just a little of it is true, the city of Henderson is going to have to write a very large check.

[Mariana]

6. It's just that whenever we hear about

police abusing citizens, or see video of it, or read about it, there were usually other cops present while the abuse is taking place. What we don't see is those other cops protecting the victims. Just about every time, those other cops either watch their colleagues abuse people and do nothing to stop it, or they join in and actively participate.

When we see that happen again and again and again, it's reasonable to conclude that good cops are few and far between.

[Jenoch]

12. No, the good cops are not few and far between in most jurisdictions.

You are describing situations that while are too common, they are not happening everywhere or all the time. It is not reasonable to conclude that all cops are bad or that good cops are few and far between. The daily deeds of good cops don't make it on the news.

[ieoeja]

22. Yet, here we find a half dozen bad cops in a single incident with not one good cop around.

How does that happen if bad cops are rare? How do we get so many bad cops in one place at the same time?

And why does it seem that 9 incidents out of 10 involving a bad cop, there is more than one bad cop involved?

These rare bad cops certainly don't seem to have any problem finding other bad cops despite their rarity.

[Jenoch]

34. Bad cops come from

bad management. I might get flamed for this, but it is sometimes tough to get rid of bad cops because of their employment contracts.

I can't believe you think all or most or a large majority of ALL cops are bad. There are regional differences. It was apparent that the New Orleans Police Department had suspect cops when the hurricane hit. I found out why. The average pay for a street cop in NOLA was $10 - $12/hour. Think of all the cops that save peoples' lives. It happens every single day. You just don't hear about those situations. My brother went into a burning house and brought out an elderly couple in their mid 80s. He got local recognition for doing that, but you certainly did not hear about it. (It wasn't like in the movies where he leaped through flames. It was quite smokey and they would have likely died had he not been there.)

[SomeGuyInEagan]

23. Not just the city - I'd go after the officers individually in civil court as well

Want to change behavior, go after the money.

If proven true, these officers should be fired, lose any pensions and then get prepared for the civil cases coming at them.

Officiers have tough and demanding jobs, but also need to be held to a higher/professional standard.

[NaturalHigh]

29. Not just civil court, IMO. These cops are criminals.

These guys need some jail time. Remind police officers that they work for us.

[Jenoch]

37. I agree with you.

[NaturalHigh]

28. That's true, Jenoch, there are lots of good cops.

I know several personally. They consider themselves public servants, which they are. The ones who don't think they answer to the public, though, like the cops in this article, need to be slapped down and reminded whom they work for.

Knowing the dangers they face and the stressful environment in which they work, I try to give police officers every benefit of the doubt. There is absolutely no justification for what these officers did, though, and I can't think of any reason they shouldn't be treated like the criminals they are.

[MindPilot]

35. Well, ask those "good" cops this...

Last edited Wed Jul 3, 2013, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

If your commander ordered you to go pepper spray those peaceful protestors sitting over there, would you do it?

If a couple other officers are beating a suspect, would you intervene?

If your partner decided it was necessary to beat and arrest someone for recording police activity, would you help?

What are the upper and lower age limits for suspects to be tazed?

I'd like to hear those answers.

Edit to correct spelling: a pepper "spay" would be too painful to even think about.

[Jenoch]

36. You are asking some interesting questions.

I suggest you find an officer and asked those questions yourself. You would probably get better information first hand rather than second hand.

I never thought about the age thing for tazers. I saw a training video where my brother was shot with a tazer. He's a big man and it brought him down, or it would have had not two other cops been hanging on to him so he did not hit the floor.

The police recording thing is sort of new. I think it might be illegal in Chicago or even the state of Illinois to do that. I'd like to see someone challenge that law.

There was a situation where somebody was recording a medical on the street not too far from me. The cops took the phone (they did return it) and said it was for privacy reasons. (They were putting somebody into an ambulance.) The videoing thing is not about rogue cops. That's about department policy.

Again, you are asking questions about behavior that cannot be attributed to ALL cops.

[RedCappedBandit]

46. They would just lie.

I'm sure almost every cop would say they would intervene if they witnessed wrongdoing.

But how many actually do?

[ret5hd]

52. Do your two brothers work with any bad cops?

[Jenoch]

53. I know they have worked with some bad cops,

as in they don't know how to do their job or are lazy cops.

I remember one of their colleagues was fired for insurance fraud. He said his garage was broken into and stuff was stolen and he filed an insurance claim. He was going through a divorce and needed money. Even cops can't get away with that.

They have not had any experiences as depicted in the film Serpico (drug payoffs, beat on perps, etc.).

[LanternWaste]

14. One was at home that evening.

One was at home that evening. I was having BBQ with his wife, his kids, and him. But then... I'm not really too dogmatic.

[Downwinder]

4. There goes the third amendment.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Wow, the full article is hella crazy! nt

PB

[beachgirl2365]

11. YOU ARE NOT KIDDING!!!

This really needs to go viral! It took my breath away just reading some of the crap they pulled......... Oh, well. yet another state I will never set foot in again, if at all possible.

[MrScorpio]

7. Yay, Cops! They're the best.

99% cops most certainly make the rest look bad.

[skydive forever]

8. Holy s**t

This needs to go viral. What if it had been a teabagger and took a shot at the ops. Absolutely no good out come.

[RandiFan1290]

9. Wealthy whites getting treated like the rest of us

NOW it makes the news. Welcome to the club! We will see more of this and the shit we saw in Boston.

[Gman]

10. They'll never win this on these grounds

Police are not the military. It'll get thrown out soon. They need a better basis to sue.

[OnlinePoker]

13. Here's the most interesting line from the article, I think

"All criminals charged were dismissed with prejudice" - emphasis mine. They are called criminals, but the term dismissed with prejudice means "If the case ends with prejudice, the effect on the defendant (for the purpose of punishment) is the equivalent to a finding of not guilty and they cannot be retried." - from wiki. This means they are not guilty and therefore are not criminals.

[1monster]

19. It should have read "all criminal charges were dismissed with prejudice..."

Obviously, someone doesn't know the lingo.

[DeSwiss]

15. The ''left-behind'' police.

The don't know their country's history, they don't understand the Third Amendment, but they're given guns to rule over us.

- Damn.

K&R

[Savannahmann]

16. Are you kidding me?

Those assholes don't need to be wearing badges, they need to be wearing prisoner garb for at least ten years.

[1monster]

17. I hope their lawyers are the abslute best and that the plaintiffs are awarded AND

collect a humongous award.

And then move out of the jurisdiction.

Criminal charges should be filed against the cops for armed home invasion.

[Th1onein]

18. How many rights do we have left?

Jeebus, the Third is down the drain now.

[Shrike47]

20. One can only wonder where these officers thought they got their authority.

I suspect the city will end up paying out quite a lot of money.

[Ed Suspicious]

21. I swear we had a revolution over this kind of crap.

[Diclotican]

24. Ed Suspicious

Ed Suspicious


1776 Is a long way ago - and I guess most americans have no clue why it was going down as it did in the late 1700s anyway this days...


Diclotican

[A Simple Game]

25. Never, never, never allow two classes of people into your home.

Vampires and police. If given a choice, allow the vampire, less harm will probably come of it.

What would have happened if the police were met with bullets when they broke down the door? Would they then break into the next house to gain a "tactical advantage" on the one they were just repelled from?

[Dawson Leery]

26. There needs to be a severe crackdown on the power of pigs.

[NaturalHigh]

27. Glad to see the lawsuit...

but there need to be criminal charges too. These cops need to go to jail.

[X_Digger]

30. Holy fucking hell! n/t

[HiPointDem]

31. read the story. wow.

[Logical]

32. If bad cops got fired this country would be a better place. n-t

[99th_Monkey]

33. This new being pushed here is to "SNITCH ON YOUR NEIGHBORS, OR ELSE.."

A tactic often used by angry mean people as a weapon against others (who may be completely
innocent and above suspicion of any actual crime), others who the mean person wants to "get
rid of" or to simply harrass.

They are trying to force-feed us with a toxic "snitch" meme that is like throwing acid into the
face of any real sense of community or solidarity, much less any real sense of authentic liberty,
i.e. freedom to assemble and in order to address certain grievances. (Exhibit A: see Occupy Wall
St. and ACORN)

Our Secret Overlords have been working on perfecting this dark art of covertly corrupting and/or
destroying certain communities (Exhibit B: see CIA-backed force feeding crack cocaine in Black
Communities across the nation, and then imprisoning most Black males to boot).

[pnwest]

38. And meanwhile, was anyone doing anything

about the domestic violence happening that caused the police to be called in the first place? These idiot cops are busy haranguing the fuckin neighbors, for a "tactical advantage", but did any of them actually go to the location of the beat-down that was taking place?

[lv_winorlose]

39. I live in Henderson

....and I haven't read or heard of any such lawsuit. All stories about this are from blogs not local papers or even the Las Vegas Review Journal has reported this. People will believe anything that is posted online. Shame on you!

If anybody can supply a reputable link from court files or even the LVRJ, let's share it.

[The Straight Story]

40. ok:

Go to the link, scroll down, click on the Doc file

And here is the docket (You need access to PACER):

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nevada/nvdce/2:2013cv01154/95379/

[The Straight Story]

41. You can read the actual complaint here for free

http://randazza.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/third-amendment-case-in-nevada/

[The Straight Story]

42. Now I have shared the links (which you could have found had you wanted) you were saying? (nt)

[lv_winorlose]

45. This is bogus

Anybody can file a lawsuit if you pay the appropriate fees. Generally, when replying to a topic that asks a simple question, it should not be a smart ass answer. I did look moron and I even have an attorney friend looking into this matter for me. This lawsuit doesn't make any sense since North Las Vegas is an entirely different city from Henderson. This smells.....no further comment from me. I usually prefer to have a common sense and civil dialogue with someone.

[RedCappedBandit]

47. "I usually prefer to have a common sense and civil dialogue with someone. "

...Clearly.

[The Straight Story]

48. From the police report itself:

“Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to…attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.’”

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/in-rare-third-amendment-lawsuit-nevada-police-accused-of-forcibly-occupying-a-private-residence-130708?news=850501

[The Straight Story]

44. Oh, and - Welcome to DU :) (nt)

[enlightenment]

54. Thr R-J reported on this on the 5th.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/henderson-family-sues-police-breaking-their-homes

Perhaps you would like to pull back on calling people morons and shaming them for credulity. You have been given links to the Federal Court docket and still don't believe it, which places the problem entirely in your court, not those who are trying to oblige your skepticism.

Maybe you should just wait until your lawyer friend explains it all for you.

By the way - the NLV officers were working with the HPD, which is why they were included in the suit - that's in the R-J article.

[Chan790]

43. I wonder if that falls under the 3rd Amendment?

One thing that has to be remembered is that at the time of the founding police-action was the jurisdiction of the military in most cases.

[Lurks Often]

49. If true the police should be prosecuted n/t

[Dash87]

50. They also shot rubber bullets at their dog as punishment

for not allowing them to use the home. This was more like a gang hit than a police action.

But these days, what's the difference?

[gopiscrap]

51. Excellent fucking god damn pigs

have way too much power as it is!!!