LiberalNation
03-21-2010, 09:57 AM
can someone say overkill
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100321/NEWS01/3210313/1008/rss01
Sharon Ramage, a 57-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was ironing clothes when the police assault on her home began shortly after nightfall on June 21, 2007.
Backed by a helicopter and a $300,000 armored vehicle, 35 members of the Louisville Metro SWAT team stormed her Okolona property, detonated a deafening “flash bang” device, smashed in her rear door, put her on the floor, bound her wrists with flex cuffs and held her at gunpoint while detectives searched the home.
Police were looking for evidence against her 32-year-old son, Michael Ramage, who was under investigation after dropping off film at a Wal-Mart store showing him and his two sons naked. But the search uncovered no evidence, and charges against Ramage for using a minor in a sexual performance eventually were dismissed.
Now Sharon Ramage is suing the department, saying that a risk assessment it claims required deploying the SWAT team violated her right to be free from unreasonable searches.
“I feel like nobody should be done like I was,” Ramage, who owns a restaurant, said in an interview.
Louisville police say they had no choice but to deploy the Special Weapons and Tactics Team because a score sheet it uses to assess the risk of executing every search warrant produced a score of “29” — and under the department’s policy, SWAT must be called out for any score of 25 or higher.
~snip
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100321/NEWS01/3210313/1008/rss01
Sharon Ramage, a 57-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was ironing clothes when the police assault on her home began shortly after nightfall on June 21, 2007.
Backed by a helicopter and a $300,000 armored vehicle, 35 members of the Louisville Metro SWAT team stormed her Okolona property, detonated a deafening “flash bang” device, smashed in her rear door, put her on the floor, bound her wrists with flex cuffs and held her at gunpoint while detectives searched the home.
Police were looking for evidence against her 32-year-old son, Michael Ramage, who was under investigation after dropping off film at a Wal-Mart store showing him and his two sons naked. But the search uncovered no evidence, and charges against Ramage for using a minor in a sexual performance eventually were dismissed.
Now Sharon Ramage is suing the department, saying that a risk assessment it claims required deploying the SWAT team violated her right to be free from unreasonable searches.
“I feel like nobody should be done like I was,” Ramage, who owns a restaurant, said in an interview.
Louisville police say they had no choice but to deploy the Special Weapons and Tactics Team because a score sheet it uses to assess the risk of executing every search warrant produced a score of “29” — and under the department’s policy, SWAT must be called out for any score of 25 or higher.
~snip