Police raid wrong house, hold circuit court judge at gunpoint

Saturday, April 30, 2011 by: Kaitlyn Moore
Tags: police raid, African Americans, health news

(NaturalNews) The dynamics between the boys in blue and the African American Community were thrust into the spotlight again in South Florida. The incident originated from a concerned neighbor that called 911 to report a burglar at 235 Southwest 4th street. The problem? There was no such address, the responding officers had to choose between 236 and 230 Southwest 4th street.

Instead of contacting dispatch to get a confirmation on location, to determine the number of suspects, the police charged on full speed ahead, guns drawn, with the constitutional rights of anyone in their way be damned. Which begs the question- would the same procedure have been followed in a predominately wealthy Caucasian area?

The coup d'etat is that this would have been just another sad story where an African - American family was illegally harassed and bullied by police under the guise of "looking for an offender". But this time a Broward County Circuit Judge- Ilona Holmes - was also inside, enjoying some down time with her loved ones - bringing a new element to this story.

All over the country, whether they are young, old, or disabled, African Americans are frequent victims of murder at the hands of officers - the 2003 Chicago shooting of a paraplegic http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi... ; the 2006 shooting of an elderly woman in Atlanta http://www.wsbtv.com/news/10374909/detail.ht... the shooting of an 80 year old man in Jacksonville http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2007/jul... and the 2010 shooting of a 7 year old girl http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/police-shooti....

How do you mistake a family wrapping up an Easter Sunday dinner for a potential burglar? The African American community and even those outside the community, are getting sick of the whole "we are just trying to make it home alive" excuse. We all are trying to make it home alive, we are all trying to live our lives, without the fear of police breaking into our house and shooting us "by mistake". Are the lives of officers more important than the lives of the citizens they have sworn to protect?

How easy would it have been for the officers to radio back dispatch and get a confirmation on the address? After all they were there in between the homes, the burglar would have been pretty much contained right? Maybe because of this confusion and the involvement of a prominent Broward County judge these questions will begin to be answered.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Broward-j...