Swat team called out because car runs into gun shop.

[powderman]

by WHAS11
WHAS11.com
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 7:35 AM

Updated today at 12:26 PM

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - Hurstbourne Parkway reopened after a SWAT situation snarled traffic during Tuesday morning’s commute.  Police shut down Hurstbourne Parkway from Interstate 64 to Taylorsville Road after a person slammed a car into a gun store.

Police responded to a burglar alarm at the Gun Works store on Hurstbourne just before 4 a.m. to find the car in the store, but the driver was nowhere to be found.  Louisville SWAT was called to assist.

“We erred on the side of caution because it was a firearms store,” said LMPD spokesperson Dwight Mitchell.  “We don’t know for sure if it was a burglary.  Obviously they were going there to get the guns if that was the case.”

Jeffersontown police shut down a perimeter while the SWAT team surrounded the store.  They staked it out for five hours, sending in a robot and other surveillance before giving the all clear around 9 a.m.  No one was found besides one man who was questioned, but later released.  Meanwhile drivers were backed up for hours during rush hour.

“I know a lot of people are asking why would we shut down Hurstbourne Lane; we were fearful there might be someone inside,” said Jeffersontown Police Chief Rick Sanders. ‘”There could be a gunfight.  We just didn't want anyone getting hurt."

The gun store is located in a heavily populated business area of Hurstbourne Parkway.  A daycare sits just about 25 yards away.  The store has been there about 6 months and just a couple months ago a man went inside, bought a gun and shot himself in the parking lot.  Some parents we talked to said gun stores should be better regulated.

“There's kids that catch the bus right there at that corner,” says Kim Loranger, whose son lives in the apartments nearby.  “You've got a playground right next door.  That's insane why they allowed that to happen."

“There are a number of gun stores throughout the city.  I don't think that's a problem. I don't think that's a safety issue,” says Chief Sanders.  “But anytime we have somebody breaking into a business, we want to catch those people to stop that."

Police are still looking for suspects.  If you have any information call the Jeffersontown Police Department at (502) 267-0503.



What a bunch of pantywetters. POWDERMAN. 

[Conan The Librarian]

The amazing thing is that SWAT teams are used as much as they are. I can understand why they were created, to deal with heavily armed groups of criminals, but it seems like there is way too much use of these teams today for ordinary police activities. (I'm pretty sure that "attack" was the original A word in the acroynym.)

My guess is that there is part of police procedure that requires cops to call a swat team for a long list of events. Do you happen to know the facts of the matter?  I seem to recall that the cops  that showed up at the Columbine massacre didn't do anything because they were required to call a swat team, which took over an hour to organize and arrive. By that time it was all over.

The idea that we have law enforcement that routinely makes mistakes like killing innocent people, destroying the property of innocent people, and otherwise making mistakes for which there is no recourse by their accidental victims is fundamentally wrong.

There's one county in Maryland that deploys SWAT teams literally thousands of times per year. St. George's I think. What the heck justifies that?!?

[us920669]

There is a magazine called Reason that gives the Libertarian perspective - very good on gun rights - and they covered this in detail a few months back.  The figured that SWAT teams are deployed about 150 times a day in this country today.  That is just way over the top.  I can certainly understand that a patrol officer doesn't want to knock on a door if he thinks a load of 00 buck might come through it, but there has got to be a better way than sending a commando team out for everything.

[Conan The Librarian]

I had to laugh recently when I discovered that there were episodes of the old Dragnet TV show out on the internet for free viewing. I was watching one and the two cops, in suit and tie, opened a door of a drug den to gain access to the scene. Guns were not drawn. It seemed ficticious but my father was a cop detective sergeant like Joe Friday during the 1960s and that's the way they did it back then. Today the same scene would certainly involve armored cops and a battering ram.

[Pat/Rick]

I'm thinking that the para military style groups are way overused as well.

Though I have no reasons to give anybody a opportunity to break in my doors in at any time to serve a warrant,  I know I would treat it as a home invasion. Why can't they knock on the door like men? I've even had a couple of my cop friends (5) tell me that they think overpowering force is over used and indiscriminatory.

[BUGEYE]

It seems to me that swat teams are best at hiding in the bushes while people are being killed inside buildings.  up at VT, the swat team said they couldn't get in because the door was locked??
they have the equipment to overcome those obstacles. why don't they use it??
at columbine, they were just too chicken to go inside and face the shooters.
swats are useless.

[powderman]

News said they were afraid somebody might be inside well armed, nobody was there. They even sent a robot in first. After 4 hours they found nobody was there, released traffic after 5 hours. Nitwits. All because somebody MIGHT have a gun. I believe they even evacuated an apt building. POWDERMAN. 

[BUGEYE]

Recently in atlanta, the cops were loooking for a murder suspect in a residential neighborhood.
the regular cops were spread out beating the bushes and the swat team was doing their stomp
 march up and down the middle of the street???  ridiculus.

[Conan The Librarian]

Although no people were killed in this raid, it's a great example of the abuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_Heights,_Maryland_mayor's_residence_drug_raid

[dukkillr]

Oh you guys have it all wrong.  People only become police officers (and then SWAT team officers) because they want to serve the public and make a safer society.  They in no way want to dress up and abuse their power by kicking in doors and pointing guns at people.

Several years ago they were doing just such a community service here in Kansas City when they did a "no knock" breach at 1:30am on an older married couple and their 16 year old daughter.  The 16 year old cried for help the dad grabbed a rifle headed to the door of his bedroom to protect his kid and was "made much safer" by being shot to death.  Nothing found in the house...  But don't worry, these are all secretly bad people (they live in urban areas after all!) so who cares?  It could never happen to me or you...
http://ron.dotson.net/gov/govkills.htm

Just last year same story only this time the person who was "made safer" was a elderly lady... "Oh, wrong house... sorry about the burning living room and flash grenades... Our bad...  Don't you feel much safer though?"
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?271565-KC-cops-SWAT-raid-with-quot-flash-bang-quot-grenades-home-of-84-y-o-woman-for-cel-phone.Ron Pauls website!

The local KCK score unit was recently busted in a high profile deal that involved the FBI... We were told they were placed on leave pending charges...  Now a few months have gone by and some people keep wondering where the charges are...  Some who know better know it will all be quietly swept under the rug of the blue wall...
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2011/01/four_kck_cops_are_suspended_af.php

I posted the story here of the KCK officer forced into retirement because he refused to lie in his reports about a road rage incident where an undercover DEA agent made our community safer by beating the crap out of someone in the middle of the street after the cop's reckless driving caused a wreck.  Only an angry federal judge kept this from being swept under the blue wall.  Did the police do anything to right the wrongs?  Are you kidding?  Offending officer promoted, reporting officer denied permission to even serve as a security guard after being forced into retirement.  Thank God they've made our community so safe... whatever would we do without them?
http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php?topic=216401.0

People who love working on engines tend to become mechanics.  People who love teaching tend to become teachers.  People who love studying nature tend to become Biologists.  People who love the feeling of power they can exert over others (some would say “Bullies”) tend to become what?  The Founding Fathers made those pesky middle Amendments in the Bill of Rights for a reason, even if modern Americans have forgotten those reasons…

[Conan The Librarian]

dukkillr:

Very reassuring. I feel safer already. Aren't they starting to call them reincarnation facilitators in some places?

[powderman]

A few years back lou city police kicked in a door at 3am, kids screamed, Daddy appeared with shotgun, Daddy shot dead. Sorry bout that, wrong street. POWDERMAN. 

[yellowtail3]

Several years ago they were doing just such a community service here in Kansas City when they did a "no knock" breach at 1:30am on an older married couple and their 16 year old daughter.  The 16 year old cried for help the dad grabbed a rifle headed to the door of his bedroom to protect his kid and was "made much safer" by being shot to death.  Nothing found in the house...  But don't worry, these are all secretly bad people (they live in urban areas after all!) so who cares?  It could never happen to me or you...
http://ron.dotson.net/gov/govkills.htm

a roster or horrors, that link

Oh you guys have it all wrong.  People only become police officers (and then SWAT team officers) because they want to serve the public and make a safer society.  They in no way want to dress up and abuse their power by kicking in doors and pointing guns at people.

Yes, Officer Friendly is here to help.

I think SWAT is probably fun. They probably get to shoot more - what's not to like about that? Given the choice between issuing traffic tickets and condescending speeches, or dressing up and playing commando, which sounds like more fun? But then there's the problem with citizens killed, brutalized, and humiliated by LEO, with near-impunity.

My personal feeling is that gov't agents who kick in a man's door with weapons drawn, cussing brutalizing him and his family... ought to be shot, sometimes.

Here you go: Feds thinks someone is downloading naughty pictures, so... out come the weapons, the profanity, the thuggish tactics WITH AN EXPECTATION OF ENTITLEMENT TO IMPUNITY. Scoundrels.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42740201/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/

Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

"We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum."

"No, I didn't," he insisted. "Somebody else could have but I didn't do anything like that."

"You're a creep ... just admit it!" they said.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

'Cautionary tale'?

[dukkillr]

I love the immunity they've somehow convinced the courts to give them.  Here in town we've been working through a case where a "detective" framed a man for child abuse because he was sleeping with the man's wife.  The guy did real time, in a real prison, for a crime he really didn't commit.  Glad we had someone there to protect and serve us...

Charges against the crooked, uh, officer?  You must be kidding me!  He's immune, of course.  If he wasn't it would have all been swept under a rug somewhere. 
http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/missouri/article_a7828b07-cecb-5b9e-ad97-dea71da0af49.html?print=1

(The link goes into the complicated story of the civil appeals - It appears the quality individual who is just helping serve his community will never pay a dime - the City tax payers will, you know, immunity!)