To protect and serve?
For many years, visitors to my former business location might have noticed a picture on the wall– torn from a newspaper– of a “police” checkpoint in Serbia. What captured my interest was the caption telling the reader that the picture was of a “police volunteer” manning an urban checkpoint in the early days of the gradual anarchy that was to come in that country. It always struck me that this so-called policeman, finger on trigger, had an AK47 in the nostril of some hapless guy at the wheel of his Honda Civic, and was, according to the caption, checking his identification papers.
The poor fellow in the car, aside from the fact he had the muzzle of a machine gun literally stuck in his face, looked like he could have been your average American thirty-something on his way to work at the office. In fact, the background of the photo looked like it could have been downtown Anywhere, USA, even including a uniformed police officer in the square directing traffic. Except, more striking than all of the elements of the scene, was the fact that this “policeman,” dressed entirely in black, was wearing a ski mask. “Not good,” I always thought, when looking at the picture.
That picture hung stapled to the old shop wall for years, and many conversations were held about it. When events like the Elian Gonzalez seizure and the Branch Davidian raid took place, parallels were drawn. As it turned out, most that viewed the old picture agreed, if we ever come to a point when the police here in the States were to start wearing ski masks to hide their identities during the conduct of their duties, things would be getting pretty bad. Thankfully though, we were in America, where such things could never happen, right?
According to documents filed at the U.S. District Court in Concord, NH at the end of July, a family from Grafton County is suing for a series of civil rights violations that allegedly occurred during an early morning raid of their Bristol apartment.
“On August 2, 2006, twenty (20) members of the CNHSOU”
(Central NH Special Operations Unit) and three members of
“the Bristol Police Department, executed an arrest and search warrant at 36 South Main Street, Bristol, New Hampshire. The residence was occupied by Thomas Mlodzinski, his wife Tina Mlodzinski, their 15 year old daughter JM, Tina Mlodzinski’s son, Michael Rothman, and Michael’s girlfriend Amy Furmanic and their two week old daughter.”
The filing states,
“Police were seeking to arrest Michael Rothman, who was then 17 years old, for assault and were looking for a baton (night stick) allegedly used in the assault. The warrants authorized the arrest of Michael Rothman only and the search of the residence and the person of Michael Rothman only.”
If you’re like me, you should be wondering why it would take TWENTY-THREE law enforcement officers to arrest a seventeen year old. He must have been heavily armed or something, right? Apparently not— nor were any of those sleeping in the apartment, either.
The lawsuit details the events as they unfolded just before 4 in the morning two years ago:
“The entire Mlodzinski family was in bed and asleep just prior to police officers executing the warrants at approximately 3:54 a.m. Thomas Mlodzinski was awakened by shouting and loud banging. In fact, police officers had broken down the entry door to the apartment. When Tom Mlodzinski opened his bedroom door into the central hallway, he was confronted by several masked persons who were pointing assault rifles at his face and ordering him to get down on the floor. Tom Mlodzinski was forced face down to the floor, knee in the back, and handcuffed.”
Did you catch that? “Masked persons.” In Bristol, NH, no less.
It doesn’t end there. Keep in mind that there were TWENTY masked law enforcement personnel involved… As Mr. Mlodzinski laid on the floor, he watched officers pointing firearms at his daughter and
“screaming at her to get down on the floor and place her palms in the air.”
The girl,
“who was attired only in thong underwear and a tee-shirt was forcibly pushed to the floor, striking and injuring her left knee and right wrist. Police officers then handcuffed the 15 year old.”
Are you getting the picture here? One wonders if the poor family even knew, at this point, whether these were policemen, or some sort of terror attack.
The wife was still in the bed
“when police officers first came in. Several police officers pointed guns at her head and she was ordered to lay face down on the bed, palms in the air.”
The woman,
“who was clad only in bikini bottoms, complied and was handcuffed.”
Officers then apparently went upstairs and arrested their intended suspect, in bed with his girlfriend and two week old child, without incident. And yet, for those left at the house after the removal of the wanted subject, the ordeal was STILL not ended. Instead, they were all herded, still scantily clad in bedding attire, into the living room where they were
“then held against their will, three of them handcuffed, and interrogated, for approximately one and one-half hours. The family was threatened repeatedly with being taken to jail and having the infant child taken from them if they did not cooperate.”
As the group sat handcuffed,
“all in their own home, Sgt. Michael F. Lewis of the Bristol Police Department strutted about the room, threatening repeatedly ‘I am not leaving without the stick’. Police officers searched the residence and did not find a night stick.”
After approximately an hour and a half, the family members were released and police officers left. One wonders if they wished them a good day as they withdrew.
Last month in Charlestown, NH, a man was shot and killed by members of the Western New Hampshire Special Operations Team and the New Hampshire State Police during a raid in which the man’s son was arrested in a next-door residence. It has been said that officials thought the man might be armed, so they stormed his trailer and ended up killing him. Yesterday’s Union Leader reported,
“Authorities have not said whether Anthony Jarvis, a convicted felon, was in fact armed.”
His death was caused by “multiple gunshot wounds.” No word whether these were in fact the masked kind of police, or otherwise. But hey, at least they didn’t kill any dogs like the SWAT team in Maryland did a couple of weeks back in a botched raid on a mayor’s house.
I’m glad we still live in Amerika, a free country that protects its citizens against an encroaching government and its legions…
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