S08.E03: Police raids and No-knock warrants in the United States

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic:  Police raids and No-knock warrants in the United States

Also:  Andrew Cuomo's Covid response;  Liz Claiman's Peloton love 

Original air date 2021.02.28

[Annber03]

That Cop Rock clip. What. The actual. Fuck? 

I've heard of that show, but I was a young child when it came out, so even if it had lasted longer, I would've been too busy watching cartoons to care. Clearly I missed something...very bizarre :p. 

Only one thing comes to my mind as I'm watching those guys bragging about the "big bad wolf" vehicle and the weapons they get to use and all that: They are very clearly heavily overcompensating for something. Also, man, Riviera really does fancy himself a badass news reporter getting down into the nitty gritty, doesn't he? 

I love that police want to have as little time as possible to break in because they're afraid that people will try and get rid of evidence if they wait. But apparently wandering around aimlessly and going to the wrong home won't put them at risk of losing important evidence in a case, John's right about just stopping police raids for drugs altogether and finding a whole new, safer way to handle those situations, but yeah, if police are going to continue to insist on doing raids, make them be held financially responsible for any damage and injuries and deaths that result from them. And make those financial punishments steep ones, too. I guarantee once they have to start paying out funds, this sort of insanity will stop very fast. 

That Republican politician is also right that people will naturally feel compelled to defend themselves, and given how many people own guns in this country, you'd think that would've occurred to people more often. But of course, the rules are naturally different when a white person defends their home versus someone of another race doing so. Maybe they should just try and use that "Stand your ground" rule defense. Sure seemed to work for other certain high profile cases, after all. 

As for Cuomo, aside from the stupidity of making up random quotes in and of itself...for the love of God, can we please get back to politicians talking about things and people that actually exist in general? Can we stop with this fake everything that seems to have infiltrated our politics in recent years? 

I appreciate John bringing attention to the nursing home scandal and the recent sexual harassment allegations, too. I hope the investigations into those cases lead to some much needed accountability and charges if possible. 

[Robert Lynch]

I was six when Cop Rock aired. Jeez.....I think I remember that show. Scary as to how dated it was. 

[paigow]

See what is trending on YouTube now...

24 minutes ago, Robert Lynch said:

I was six when Cop Rock aired.

 

[Annber03]

I was that age, too :p. 

[FoundTime]

I was holding my breath through most of tonight's show waiting for John to mention the no-knock raid here in Houston just over a year ago that killed an innocent couple. I guess Breanna Taylor was a more high-profile version of that, but it was a terrible thing here and John made a good case overall. That poor woman who was told not to shout?! Not enough words 😢

[Lantern7]

Right now, I’m getting ready for work. I watched the episode on HBO Max during breakfast, and I have to feel bad for anyone who watched it “live”and wound up having bizarre nightmares about a singing, self-professed “baby merchant.”

The episode itself? Basically thirty minutes of stuff that’s only funny if it’s Reno 911! So much absurdity in stuff like SWAT guys trying (and failing) to locate a target, offset by the misery and death they bring with them.

Weird question: is there a place that keeps track of the last thing displayed in an episode’s credits? Like, this week was Mr. Potato Head, because they’ve been declared not having a gender.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Lantern7

[ahisma]

The bad CI info and wrong address thing happens so often. I always wondered, how hard would it be for the police to put an undercover cop out to determine, yes, I saw that person in that house before doing a raid. But better yet, stop doing raids for drugs. 

There was a Canadian (fictional) tv show called Flashpoint that dealt with an elite squad in the Toronto police department. They had SWAT equipment and skills, but they were all also highly trained in negotiation and considered it a failure if they had to use their weapons (preferably a single sniper shot). The cases were human-in-peril (kidnapping, domestic violence, terrorism), not drugs. There was a lot of after-action discussion of what went right or wrong, and psychological follow up. It was 10 years ago, but I knew even then it was some combination of sooo Canadian and if-only fantasy.

[SnideAsides]

I regret to inform you that someone's made a two and a half hour supercut of all the Cop Rock musical numbers. And from a quick skim it looks like the "would you agree this case has racial overtones?" song is one of the LESS terrible ones.

Edited March 1, 2021 by SnideAsides

[arachne]

Sadly, I remember watching Cop Rock. The best part of the show was Randy Newman's opening theme song. The show itself was forgettable at best.

Typical of the late Stephen Bochco's track record. For every Hill Street Blues or Doogie Howser, there was at least one Cop Rock. 

[Victor the Crab]

Oh God, I remember when Cop Rock was about to debut on ABC. Critics were hailing it as a ground breaking, original series that looked like it would be the big hit of the new fall shows, and that Stephen Bochco does it again. One look at this Dragnet does MTV, and I thought the critics were full of shit, as did the rest of the viewing audience. I can't imagine they'd be showing it in the UK, otherwise we wouldn't get Ollie's take on this hot mess!

[swanpride]

Well, Cuomo was the guy who thought that the best use for self-made masks which were send to New York by Americans who wanted to do something to help was to tacker them to his wall for a photo opportunity instead of, you know, giving them to people so that they could have at least some protection/protect others by wearing them. I disliked the hype which was made around him from the get go because let's face it, the situation should have never gotten that bad in New York in the first place and his handling of it was okay at best. It's not really surprising that the hype around him is now falling apart, now that everyone has time to actually take a breath and take a closer look at what happened so far during the pandemic. It was kind of fun that LWT didn't focus on what has already been covered but instead called out the simple fact that this guy is an a-hole in pretty much everything he does. I still don't quite understand how the media hype around him started in the first place.

 

The Peleton (wtf is that even) thing...is she getting paid to advertise them????

 

The raids...just to summon this up if I got this right: In the US the police can actually break into the wrong house, do a bunch of property damage and then walk away without any consequences and without even reimbursing the victims? Or did I misunderstood? Please tell me that I misunderstood….(not that it is okay if the police just messes up anyone's house to a degree that there is serious property damage in the end, but that set-up is pretty much an invitation to abuse power).

[paigow]

11 hours ago, ahisma said:

The bad CI info and wrong address thing happens so often. 

A similar situation came up in U.S. drone strikes allegedly directed at Al-Qaeda targets were actually personal enemies of the informants.

[xaxat]

8 hours ago, swanpride said:

The raids...just to summon this up if I got this right: In the US the police can actually break into the wrong house, do a bunch of property damage and then walk away without any consequences and without even reimbursing the victims? Or did I misunderstood? Please tell me that I misunderstood….(not that it is okay if the police just messes up anyone's house to a degree that there is serious property damage in the end, but that set-up is pretty much an invitation to abuse power).

Unfortunately, you understood correctly. One might be able to file a civil lawsuit to get compensation, but there's no guarantee you can find a lawyer or win the case. In addition, the money for civil suits comes out a city's general fund, so there's no financial incentive for police departments to adopt better practices.

I have a relative who lived in public housing in Pittsburgh, low rise apartments with a long courtyard shared by the residents. One day, he and his sister were watching his niece play with some other kids in the courtyard. A tactical team rolled up into yard and everyone knew it was a raid. My relative ran to grab his niece to get her to safety, but his actions made him a suspect in the eyes of the cops. The tackled him to the ground, causing the loss of several teeth, and arrested him. The charges were later dropped, because they were bullshit and it turned out that the raid was based on info that a confidential informant had made up.

Bonus show connection. This all happed a couple of blocks away from the Old No. Five police station. That station that provided some of the inspiration for the show Hill Street Blues. Which was produced by Steven Bochco who later went on to create. . . Cop Rock.

9 hours ago, swanpride said:

The Peleton (wtf is that even) thing...is she getting paid to advertise them????

Peleton is like Tesla. There are people who genuinely love the product and can't stop talking about it.

Or she owns the stock and is trying to pump it. 

22 hours ago, Robert Lynch said:

Scary as to how dated it was. 

A jovial song about human trafficking. Yeah, that's not good.

10 hours ago, Victor the Crab said:

Oh God, I remember when Cop Rock was about to debut on ABC. Critics were hailing it as a ground breaking, original series that looked like it would be the big hit of the new fall shows, and that Stephen Bochco does it again.

Thank you for confirming what I thought I remembered. The clips John showed were so bad I wasn't sure that actually happened.

[Annber03]

14 minutes ago, xaxat said:

I have a relative who lived in public housing in Pittsburgh, low rise apartments with a long courtyard shared by the residents. One day, he and his sister were watching his niece play with some other kids in the courtyard. A tactical team rolled up into yard and everyone knew it was a raid. My relative ran to grab his niece to get her to safety, but his actions made him a suspect in the eyes of the cops. The tackled him to the ground, causing the loss of several teeth, and arrested him. The charges were later dropped, because they were bullshit and it turned out that the raid was based on info that a confidential informant had made up.

Good lord. I'm so sorry to hear your relative went through all of that. How horrible. Thank goodness they dropped the charges. 

[lynxfx]

 Whenever they do a topic like this I want to immediately rewatch the first 2/3s of Law Abiding Citizen and root for Butler. (Stop it before the ending Jaime Foxx required)

The amount of abuse that people in authoritative positions get to inflict without so much as a slap on the wrist is just heart breaking and maddening.