SWAT raid on Missouri family ignites outrage

"Officer Safety" Puts Children at Risk
by William Norman Grigg The SWAT stormtroopers who invaded the Columbia, Missouri home of Jonathan Whitworth on February 11 knew a seven-year-old child lived there. This didn't stop them from invading the home late in the evening, when the child would be put at risk. Nor did the invaders see anything amiss in shooting at two dogs that presented a "tactical obstacle" to the raid, even though the first shot missed the target. Had things turned out just a bit differently, Whitworth's child could...

Police search several homes in Quincy looking for murder suspect
Around 4:30 AM a person was shot to death in Quincy, IL. The incident took place on the Hardee's Parking Lot located on Broadway. The shooter was involved in an altercation at a local night club, which was broken up by the victim; who was employed there. They both, apparently by chance, wound up at Hardee's at the same time, and the night club employee was murdered. According to the Quincy Herald Whig , "Police Sgt. Mark Folkenroth said several residences were searched as Officers...

Gene Healy: President Obama's war on his own 'youthful irresponsibility'
Maybe that explains the rest of young Barry's yearbook page, with its "still life" featuring a pack of rolling papers and a shout-out to the "Choom gang." ("Chooming" is Hawaiian slang for smoking pot.) Far be it from me to condemn our president for harmless (and amusing) youthful indiscretions. As his predecessor put it, "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." But Obama's older now, and he's responsible for administering our nation's Drug policy. Surely he can't...

Tom Knapp: 'Confessions of an Increasingly Skeptical Libertarian Partyarch'
Posted by Tom Knapp at c4ss.org . In addition to writing for IPR and numerous other places, Knapp is: Chair, St. Louis County (Missouri) Libertarian Central Committee; Appointed Libertarian federal officeholder (Selective Service System); Five-time Missouri Libertarian candidate for Congress, State legislature and local office. The views expressed are his own, not IPR’s. “The [Libertarian Party],” wrote Samuel Edward Konkin III in a footnote to the third edition of The New...

New at Reason: Radley Balko on the Death of Aiyana-Stanley Jones
On May 16 with a camera crew from the A&E series First 48 in tow, a Detroit SWAT Team deployed a flash grenade through the window of the family of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. According to the family, the grenade ignited the blanket Jones was sleeping under. What happened next is in dispute, but the raid ended with Officer Joseph Weekley shooting Jones in the throat, killing her. Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko examines the series of bad policies that governed the raid, and urges...

"Officer Safety" Puts Children At Risk
The SWAT stormtroopers who invaded the Columbia, Missouri home of Jonathan Whitworth on February 11 knew a seven-year-old child lived there. This didn’t stop them from invading the home late in the evening, when the child would be put at risk. Nor did the invaders see anything amiss in shooting at two dogs that presented a “tactical obstacle” to the raid, even though the first shot missed the target. Had things turned out just a bit differently, Whitworth’s child could...

Lessons from the Death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones
On the morning of May 16, a Detroit Police Officer fatally shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the throat during a Police raid on her home. The Police were looking for a homicide suspect. They found him in the apartment above the one where Stanley-Jones was shot, where he surrendered without violence. In response, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing cautioned last week not to put the blame squarely on Police. Bing is right. We should also put a good deal of the blame on him. Or, to be fair, on his...

Reason Writers on the Air: Radley Balko Discusses SWAT Teams and Police Militarization on Russia Today
This week, Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko discussed SWAT Teams and police militarization on Russia TV's The Alyona Show.

Krauthammer: Obama Refuses To "Stand Up For His Own Country"
Charles Krauthammer: "You can't have it both ways. Particularly coming from Mexico, a country where if you enter illegally  it's a felony and you get up to two years in Prison. And if you do it a second time, you get 10 years...So he's got a country which is extremely strict--draconian, if you like--about illegals entering into Mexico. And he's lecturing us on our laws here where it isn't a felony, it's only a misdemeanor. And then, even worse I think, is to see our president refusing to...

It Would Have Been Better If They Had Smoked Meth Beforehand, but I'll Take It
Today is Mark Souder's last day as a congressman. The moralistic Indiana Republican, one of the most vocal drug warriors in the House, this week announced he was resigning due to "a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff" (the same staff member who worked with him on a video urging sexual Abstinence). Some highlights from Souder's career: Souder also co-sponsored the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and the Military Honor and Decency Act , which would ban Playboy ...

Rand Paul and the Kooky Fox News Judge
Napolitano's bizarre views on a range of issues have taken on more importance and significance because he has a close personal relationship with not only Rand Paul but his father, Rep. Ron Paul. Rand Paul, the Republican Candidate for the Senate in Kentucky, says he backed out of Sunday's "Meet the Press" appearance because he was fearful of liberal Media attacks. But avoiding the Media won't stop the questions about the Candidate's controversial views and associations. These...

The Great Republican Rollback
For years, retail giant Wal-Mart and its smiley face logo have lured American shoppers to its stores with a campaign to " rollback " Prices. Now, as Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul was just the latest to make clear this week, the Republican Party is waging a rollback campaign of its own. From Health Care, Social Security and Medicare to Civil Rights, Abortion and the U.S Constitution itself, Republicans are trying to turn back the clock to 1964, or 1933, or 1861 or even before...

Glenn is O'Reilly's meat shield?
Glenn: Bill O'Reilly is on the phone with us now. Hi, Bill. O'Reilly: Hey, have you recovered from the Bold Fresh show last Friday? Glenn: Me, they practically carried me out on their shoulders. You, on the other hand, they were — O'Reilly: You know, you planted a lot of them in the audience, Beck. It was a sold out show. Glenn: We got 10,000 people. How many were plants? How many were plants, Bill? O'Reilly: I don't know, but a lot of people were saying, well, I'm way in the...

Raid Reignite Afghans Outrage Over Civilian Deaths
U.S. and Afghan Forces staged a midnight raid May 14 on a farmhouse near the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing nine Military-aged males. Looking back at the operation, those facts are about all that the Americans and the Afghans agree on. U.S. officials say they killed a Taliban operative after days of Surveillance and shot only armed men. Afghan eyewitnesses say it was a botched raid that killed only Civilians, and just another reason why the U.S. is losing a Counterinsurgency in...

AP IMPACT: Deadly, ultra-pure heroin arrives in US

Places race to outlaw K2 'Spice' drug
Nearly a dozen states and several cities are banning or debating bans on K2 — a packet of herbs coated with a synthetic chemical that mimics a Marijuana high when it's smoked — amid fears that its use is spreading among Young People. K2, also known as "Spice," is sold online, in convenience stores and in herbal or spiritual shops, and is usually marketed as incense. The herbs, which sell for as much as $35 an ounce, have emerged as a popular, legal alternative to Marijuana among...

Columbia, Missouri Police Chief on Board With Legalizing Marijuana?
I've been fairly hard on Columbia, Missouri Police Chief Ken Burton since video emerged of his department's SWAT raid on a Marijuana offender. But to be fair, though the reforms he proposed missed the most important point-the misapplication of force in using SWAT raids on people suspected of nonviolent crimes-he has at least shown more concern than other Police officials in similar situations. And I suspect even the reforms he did propose weren't popular within his department. The video...

AP IMPACT: Mexican drug smugglers peddle ultra-pure form of heroin that can kill instantly

Arkansas To Conduct Study On K2 Effects
Across the nation, City, county and state officials are taking action to deter the use of K2, which is referred to as a synthetic Marijuana, and produces a Marijuana-like high to those who consume it. Arkansas cities (Alpena, Greenwood, Ozark, Paris and Springdale) along with Benton, Crawford and Sebastian counties have joined the ranks of Kansas, Missouri and a number of nations which have banned the substance. K2 presently is not classified as an illegal drug, making it legal to purchase,...

Deadly, ultra-pure heroin arrives in US

Afghanistan: Night raid by U.S. elicits outrage, satisfaction
Reporting from Surkhrod, Afghanistan The father's eyes reddened with tears as he hefted an English textbook that had belonged to his ninth-grade son, Habibuddin. The boy, along with eight other people, was shot dead this month when American Special-operations Forces swooped down on the family's remote mud-brick compound in the dead of night. "There were no Talibs here — none," Rafiuddin Kushkaki, the owner of the sun-yellowed wheat fields ringing the rural compound, declared in a defiant...

Bloodshed as Jamaica hunts drug lord
Running battles between Jamaican authorities and Drug gang members turned part of Kingston into a warzone, with the death toll rising to at least three as gunmen fired on Security forces hunting an alleged Drug kingpin. One soldier was killed when Troops supporting Police plunged into the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood, breaking through barricades erected by supporters of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who authorities want to extradite to the United States. Explosions shook the impoverished...

Jamaica cops attack drug lord's slum stronghold
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - More than 1,000 Police and Soldiers assaulted a public housing complex occupied by heavily armed gangsters defending an alleged Drug Lord wanted by the U.S., waging a major offensive in the heart of West Kingston's ramshackle slums. Security forces broke through barbed-wire barricades and fought their way into the warren-like Tivoli Gardens neighborhood Monday afternoon. Sporadic gunfire could be heard into the night echoing across the darkened slums, where authorities...

Deaths as Jamaica unrest spreads
Gun battles have escalated in the streets of the Jamaican capital, Kingston, after Police raided the stronghold of an alleged drug kingpin wanted by the US. Panicked residents, who tried to flee as fierce fighting erupted between the security forces and gang members loyal to Christopher "Dudus" Coke, said they had seen bodies lying in the street. After a second day of fighting on Monday at least four people are known to have been killed, including one Police Officer. Several Airlines have...

Nebraska man gets year in federal prison for 'Anonymous' cyber attack on Scientology websites
Los Angeles — A Nebraska man has been sentenced to a year in federal Prison for his role in a Cyber Attack on the Church of Scientology's websites two years ago. Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, of Grand Island, Neb., was also ordered Monday to pay $20,000 in restitution and serve a year on supervised release after he gets out of Prison. The Cyber Attack was orchestrated by an underground group that calls itself "Anonymous" and Protests the Church of Scientology, accusing it of Internet...