This is a wild story & a crash course in the powers police can so easily abuse: from the drug war, to surveillance, to botched warrants, to no-knock raids.
Texas cops raided the wrong home. They kept searching anyway.
Police got a warrant to raid Lucil Basco's home for drugs based on a confidential informant who told them the residence had meth.
She did not, in fact, have meth, but the police failed to do a basic investigation. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
They *did* surveil her thoroughly, however.
Officers conducted a traffic stop where "they searched her vehicle and learned that she is a nurse." And they watched her home where she lives with her small child. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
Based on false info, deputies broke into her house, damaged her property, put her in handcuffs, and removed her & her child from the home.
They soon realized it was not the right place. Video evidence shows they continued the operation anyway. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
It sounds hard to believe: that cops would fail to probe an anonymous claim. But this isn't an isolated incident.
Chicago, for ex, has a pile of similar suits, including from an innocent woman who was cuffed naked while cops ransacked her home in 2019. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
For all the power cops have, it's incredibly hard to hold them accountable. Consider Onree Norris, a 78-year-old innocent man who had his home blown up by SWAT agents when they targeted the wrong home.
Whether or not Basco will meet the same fate remains to be seen, but it's unfortunately likely.
Three officers were denied qualified immunity. But she has a long way to go & accountability is anything but certain. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
That's because state will appeal, dragging this nightmare on for years.
The 5th Circuit will hear it—the same court that gave QI to prison guards who put an inmate in a feces-infested cell, & to another guard who pepper-sprayed an inmate for fun. Cool. reason.com/2021/07/30/qua…
Let's review. We have:
1) A drug raid on the wrong house 2) ...Put in motion w false info 3) Surveillance on an innocent woman 4) Forced entry into her home, destroying her property 5) Possibly no accountability.
This bill would let cops sue protesters for *harassment*. And yet these same people say the public shouldn’t be able to sue cops who steal, destroy property, shoot children, & set people on fire. See the problem?
Gabriel Olivas was having a mental health crisis when police came to help. They knew he was doused in gas—and one warned that tasing him would set him on fire.
The other cops did it anyway. He was burned alive, & his family’s home burned along with him. reason.com/2021/06/28/qua…
Here’s where it gets rich. The 5th Circuit said the officers didn’t violate Olivas’ rights—when they set him & the home ablaze—because he posed a threat.
But the fire that endangered others was set in motion *because* of the cops…not in spite of them. reason.com/2021/06/28/qua…
An autopsy ruled it homicide by asphyxiation. The court was tasked with deciding whether or not it was "clearly established" that cops cannot apply such extreme force to a subject who isn't resisting.
Is there anything more ridiculous than qualified immunity?
What's most amazing is that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the original ruling.
This is the same court that gave qualified immunity to prison guards who locked a naked inmate in cells covered in human feces & raw sewage. reason.com/2020/06/25/qua…
Here's a doozy: A group of cops knowingly violated the First Amendment when they tried to force a man to delete a video of them beating a suspect, a federal court said this week.
That same court gave them qualified immunity anyway.
The story: A man named Levi Frasier sees a group of cops making an arrest in an alleged drug deal, & he films them punching the suspect 6 times in the face.
The cops find Frasier afterward, surround him, search his tablet without a warrant, & try to delete the video.
The kicker: The cops had *specific training* on this issue. The public has the right to film an arrest, and the cops knew it. The city had explicitly told them so.
The 10th Circuit acknowledged this & agreed it was a free speech violation.
@justinamash's bill from last June would've ended qualified immunity for all state actors. It had tripartisan support. It never received a vote. reason.com/2020/06/06/jus…
I talked with a man who came to the U.S. legally from India. His student visa was running out, so he applied for a master's at the University of Farmington.
The university's website, secretly set up by ICE, claimed to be approved by DHS's Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
So he enrolled, paid $15,000 in tuition, & got his visa. He then got a letter telling him it was all a lie & he needed to leave the country.
600 other students are in the same boat. Some left right away. About 250 were arrested & deported.