A SWAT Team Destroyed This Innocent Woman's House While Chasing a Fugitive. The City Refuses To Pay.

[Nevilledog]

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Billy Binion
@billybinion
THREAD: A SWAT team decimated this innocent woman's home while chasing a fugitive. The city says it's not their problem—and has refused to pay for any damages.

Let's talk about police accountability.

My latest @reason:

A SWAT Team Destroyed This Innocent Woman's House While Chasing a Fugitive. The City Refuses To Pay...
"I've lost everything," says Vicki Baker.
reason.com
2:27 PM · Mar 5, 2021

https://reason.com/2021/03/05/swat-team-destroyed-innocent-womans-house-while-chasing-fugitive-city-refuses-to-pay-fifth-amendment/


Unrolled thread here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1367949802793619456.html

THREAD: A SWAT team decimated this innocent woman's home while chasing a fugitive. The city says it's not their problem—and has refused to pay for any damages.

Let's talk about police accountability.

My latest @reason:

A SWAT Team Destroyed This Innocent Woman's House While Chasing a Fugitive. The City Refuses To Pay for Damages.
"I've lost everything," says Vicki Baker.
https://reason.com/2021/03/05/swat-team-destroyed-innocent-womans-house-while-chasing-fugitive-city-refuses-to-pay-fifth-amendment

The story: A man barricaded himself inside the home of 76-year-old Vicki Baker, whose daughter gave police the keys & a garage door opener.

Instead, agents used explosives to blow off the garage entry, and drove right on through the front door in an armored vehicle.

The city quickly told her that they don't owe her anything under the 5th Amendment & that she's not a victim.

"I've lost everything," she told me. She is battling cancer & was looking forward to retirement. So much for that.

This story is a microcosm for the debate around police reform.

There's the SWAT response itself, which was more suited to a battlefield. There's the obvious constitutional violation. And yet again, there is no accountability.

This isn't the first time this has happened, & it likely won't be the last. In 2015, a SWAT team totaled an innocent family's $580k home in Colorado while chasing a shoplifting suspect.

The city gave them $5,000. SCOTUS declined to hear the case.

A SWAT Team Blew Up This Family's House While Chasing a Shoplifter. The Supreme Court Won't Hear the Case.
And no, it wasn't the shoplifter's home.
https://reason.com/2020/06/29/swat-team-police-leo-lech-supreme-court-5th-amendment

This isn't even a commentary on police brutality.

Good: Police keeping the public safe

Bad: Police expecting the public to just shut up & take it when their tactics leave the little guy thousands of dollars in debt.
Baker is suing.

She says she'd primarily like to see courts state the obvious: that the gov't shouldn't be able to blow up your house & cite "police power" to get off the hook.

Dare to dream.
• • •

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Something similar.

While I was at work, the police broke down my locked front door. They were on an investigation for someone yelling for help. They saw a light in my window and had to confirm I wasn’t dead. Police and town wouldn’t pay — and it was a vintage 19th century door. The best thing I could get was to get a council member tell the police to have a squad car outside my house until the door was secured again.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Something similar happened in a Denver suburb

The homeowner went to court afterwards and lost.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/30/774788611/police-owe-nothing-to-man-whose-home-they-blew-up-appeals-court-says

[Ilsa]

3. How does insurance work with this?

Does homeowners insurance have to restore the home? Could they then sue the city or individuals responsible for the damage?

[Nevilledog]

4. Insurance refused to cover.

[Ilsa]

7. I wonder how the mortgage holder is handling their collateral

being destroyed? Of course, with the elderly woman, her mortgage was probably already paid. Maybe defaulting, if there isn't much equity, is the way to go to get the banks involved.

[flying_wahini]

6. I have a neighbor with a Trump 2024 sign in his yard that could use some bruising like this.

Tell the city ‘see you in court.’
and get an extra million for emotional distress.

[PatSeg]

8. "A SWAT Team Blew Up This Family's House While Chasing a Shoplifter"?

For a shoplifter? That is quite an overreaction and a very dangerous one as well. The over militarization of our police is terrifying. It feels like some police want the opportunity to play with explosives.

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

Vicki Baker's home


The Lechs' home

[Nevilledog]

11. That's the house from the other case....the shoplifter one.

For some reason it won't let me download the one from this case shown in the article.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. PrOtEcTiNg AnD sErViNg