Are you going to pursue this?

I certainly hope you pursue some type of action against the officers involved. This type of behaviour is all too common and is usually glossed over or covered up by police officials. A prominent study in the 1960s concluded that there was one profession whose members personalitoes and psychological profiles most closely matched criminals--police officers.

1) Cursing. No, seriously-- it's very bad conduct that reflects poorly on their professionalism. Plus, a polite cop is ten times as scary; any penny thug can cuss.

2) Not having full knowledge of the call they were investigating-- from the sound of it, they didn't even know a woman had placed the call; possible chain of information problem.

3) Unprofessional conduct as far as taking so long to make sure that they were the owners of the house and thus didn't need to be covered.

Counters to the woman's complaints:

When you go into a hostile situation, you're supposed to have everyone down so that you don't get killed by what you thought was a friendly-- being put on the floor wasn't some kind of an insult, it's to keep the number of dead cops a bit lower.

Failing to shut the door and keep her folks inside when she realized the creeps were trying to buy drugs-- come ON, were they TRYING to get killed? "Ooh, I'll go out and wrestle with folks who have already demonstrated that they do not respect the law! They won't have a gun, or a knife, or try to kill me!"

You do not need a warrant when there is reason to believe a crime has been committed; the fact that you kept talking AFTER you found out they wanted drugs doesn't look good.

For that matter... You have someone trying to buy drugs on your doorstep. You call the cops. You hear a bunch of yelling, so you OPEN THE DOOR?!?!

Sorry, lady, but after you made it so the cops had reason to believe that drug dealers could have gotten in-- thus making it possible that you could BE one of them, and the real owners were dead in the basement-- you made it much more probable that you would have a rather unpleasant day. (This is totally avoiding the possibility that you *are* drug dealers and the punks lowballed you.)

Has this gal never watched "COPS"? When druggies "gotta use the bathroom" they tend to try to destroy evidence or get a weapon. Both of those are not very good things to have happen.

I'm just a dumb country kid, but even I can figure this stuff out.

So, according to Andi_Foxfier's comment [What they did wrong--], a cop shouting "STAY ON THE GROUND! I'LL SHOOT YOU IN THE F***ING HEAD!!!" is only trying to protect me. Ah, I missed that fine distinction.

It's blame-the-victim time. Sure, the 911-caller and the two innocent men made mistakes, but this wasn't a call about a bank robbery shoot-out, it was a call about a drug buy.

The cops over-reacted and will probably be rewarded for their fine performance rather than indicted for assault.

Not all cops are thugs, but police performance has coursened to the point where jerks like these are becoming the norm rather than the exception. They don't need an apologist like Andi for acting more like home invaders than officers in the performance of their duty.

The fact that "this gal" asked to use the bathroom told me that she actually didn't know that that's how drug holders disptach contraband. Consider for just a moment that she was utterly bewildered and completely unfamiliar with the world of crime and criminals. Or perhaps she would have realized that ... under different, calmer, circumstances.

Following your arguments, anyone who calls in a crime is subject to this kind of treatment. Is this really how we want everyone to view the police? That any call for law enforcement assistance could result in manhandling and humiliation?

Mistakes were made, but the greater error lies with the police. JMHO.

Signed,

Doesn't Watch "Cops"

No, following my argument anyone who mistakes two druggies for a mail man, lets folks leave the house to wrestle with druggies *while* she's calling 911 and opens the door after calling 911 because she hears alarming yelling outside is being foolish.

Yes, the cops were wrong. The woman, however, is far from innocent of wrong-doing and did a lot of things to cause the situation to escalate to this level.

If you live in the country, you should take steps to protect yourself from common animal threats; if you live in a city, you should take steps to protect yourself from crime. It is not the police's job to protect people. (Seriously, this has had to be stated several different times in a court of law.)

What a BS story.

Please tell us what really happened. Cops dont just show up to break up a fight between 2 people, unknown to the residents and end up detaining, and abusing the 3 "innocent" residents for 45 minutes. C'mon tell us what really happened. What did you guys do to make the Police even need to talk to you rather than just send 2 fighters on their way. Go ahead and admit it; The Police did what they had to do in response to YOUR actions. This does NOT happen to "innocent" people.

I am a police officer with a suburban twin cities department. While I believe there are officers who are "over the top," I also believe this job requires a normally calm person (I like to think I am one) to be overly aggressive in certain situations. Why? Because my wife and three small children (6, 4, 1) watched me leave for work and are, like probably all of your families, excitedly waiting for me to come home after work. Unfortunately, we live in a society with little regard for life and law. If I go into an apparently hostile situation (which, by the way, more often than not took days, weeks, months, or years to develop) with no knowledge or information about who or what I'm dealing with, I go into that situation knowing those four people are at home waiting for me. I will have my gun out and will put whomever I need to on the ground for a period of time to ensure that happens.

While I believe officers must be respectful with people in how they do their jobs, I believe being aggressive is unfortunately part of how the job has to get done. Remember, in most case, officers are running into situations most people are running out of (And, the people running often know what the situation is - a clear advantage).

So, just my opinion - expect respect. But, the next time you are making a judgment about an officer's conduct in a situation you were or were not a part of, please remember those four people waiting for me to come home......

Can you produce this study? If you're going to reference a forty year old study which was probably inaccurate and done by a cop hating liberal you should make proof.

No, she didn't mistake two druggies for the mailman, she mistook the doorbell for the mailman. An important distinction, one that may or may not have colored the homeowner's decision to answer the door. As for the role of police in society, they should prevent crime, but the reality is that they mostly mop up afterward.

While I agree that we should all do our part to defend ourselves against crime, how likely is that in a climate that is so rife with debate over private gun ownership and civil lawsuits brought by criminals against people who successfully defend themselves? The men in the house did indeed try to defend themselves as you suggest we all do, by trying to either run-off the potential drug purchasers or by restraining them until police arrive.

Suppose the responding officers, in their search for drugs in the house, came upon a pistol in the nightstand? Would the first thought going through the officer's mind be: "I see these middle-class citizens are taking their duty to defend themselves seriously," or "Ah-ha! Bad people live here, as demonstrated by their ownership of a moderately priced pistol showing no sign of attempts to obliterate the serial number"? You might argue that the latter (and more likely) attitude falls in line with your point that the police must defend themselves in order to defend the public, but the homeowners are already restrained, and the fictional gun stored in another room demonstrates that there was no threat made or implied. This fictional-but-realistic scenario is but one reason why defending ourselves isn't as easy as it sounds.

Finally, "it's Miller time" are not appropriate parting words after tearing apart the house of the inconvenienced, embarrassed and degraded VICTIM. Police deserve our respect, but that respect needs to flow both ways.

wow.

Obviously, if you're completely innocent, you don't expect the police to treat you like a criminal. But the police aren't mind readers.

I think that if 2 random men came to my door wanting to buy drugs, I would shut the door, lock it, call the police and stay on the phone with the dispatcher until a car arrived. These were my instructions when I was a little kid from my parents: If something happens when we're not here, make sure the doors are locked, call the police and stay on the phone. I don't think I'd send my husband out to inform them that the police were on their way...what would that accomplish?

Also, if there really was a situation in which the police believed there was imminent danger, they have to be able to do their job without stopping to go to court to get an order.

That said, they really did behave unprofessionally by using profanity.

that someone that lives in North Minneapolis is this clueless about cops and robbers. What a bunch of idiots.
Yeah, sue the cops and lessen their budget even more. Maybe next time druggies come to your door they'll have guns and the police won't answer the phone.

And to the anonymous douche bag, maybe you should go on patrol wearing a police uni for a couple days in North. I'm sure after a week you'd have a whole new outlook on life.

When my wife and I lived in an apartment building in Eden Prairie over a decade ago, the neighbors in the next apartment got into a screaming fight. Since their bedroom adjoined ours, it woke us up. I called the police, since I had no intention of going over there, but this was a public nuisance because it was so loud.

We got a knock on our door shortly afterwards. I opened it, and saw no one; I said "Hello?" to what seemed an empty hall. Then two uniformed officers, who had been standing off to either side and out-of-sight, stepped into view and asked if I had called the police. I said I had, indicated the direction of the apartment with the noise, and they went on their way. From that point on, the yelling dropped, but you could still hear folks talking loudly. That faded enough that we were able to get to sleep.

I suspect the problem here was that a report had been made of a drug deal on the doorstep, so any number of people outside were potential participants in that. Lesson: If you see criminal activity, call it in but don't go out and try to intervene.

However, I find it harder to deal with the police coming into the home like they did. The only way I can see that might have improved it would have been to have kept the door shut until the police felt they had stabilized the situation on the doorstep. Police entering a potentially dangerous situation (drug deal on doorstep) are not going to react kindly to a door opening uninvited. Waiting until they knocked might have helped. I want to stress, "might."

Another possibility, and one I'm not sure about, is that staying on the phone with 911 could have helped, too. But the operator may not have wanted to do that. I do not know if they have a rule about staying on the phone with someone in that kind of situation. The only question I can think to ask: Was it reported to 911 that the husband and freelancer were outside as well?

It is definitely worth pursuing all this. One would expect the police to act in a professional and cautious attitude unless there's a clear threat in progress. Hell, you watch "Cops" and you see it all the time, about the only time they get yelling is when someone is trying to run or reach for something.

The bottom line is that regular citizenry should not need to be aware of police procedures before calling the police. Someone who calls for the police is probably already scared, and certainly alarmed, and police intervention should reduce that, not intensify it.

Jacob

Glenn Reynolds has mentioned a few news stories recently of wrong-house raids where people were really shocked by the level of unprofessionalism during the raid, and the total lack of contrition after the fact.

you should try being black for a day.

it is just going to get worse. Our search and seizure laws are upside down today. A warrant was intended to be rarely used because of the freedom it gives police. Today, because our society is more concerned with protecting criminals than innocents, you have to have a warrant most of the time. This leads to police using a warrant on the wrong house and if they destroy it, too bad. While if cops don't use a warrant on a drug dealer's house, the guy gets set free. Our society seems somewhat proud of the "you got a warrant?" mentality but its illogical in practice. Cops should be held responsible for all searches and criminals should never be released because of evidence being thrown out since it wasn't 'properly' collected. To punish cops by releasing criminals is beyond dumb.
Actually, when you think about it, the only thing keeping some areas from rampant crime is the social pressures. If kids in North Minneapolis worried about how a conviction would ruin their life, there'd be a lot less crime.

Welcome to the drug war. You are lucky, to a certain degree, that you werent shot.

I have read this in numerous places including a newspaper article when it had recently happened. According to a follow-up article, the situation was being looked into and the people were upset because they wanted an apology from the cops.

Since then, I have read this same tale in numerous places, including an e-mail list I belong to. I believe municipalities are liable for the damage they do in wrongfully executing a search warrant; however, in this case it seems that the homeowner is holding a serious grudge. All because the cops were doing their job and she wants an apology from each cop.

The 911 operator and dispatcher seem to be largely at fault here. The cops know only what the dispatcher relays. It has to be the 911 operator's job to obtain detailed in ormation, keep the caller on the line, and keep running communication with responding officers. A failure in communication leads to scared and clueless cops running into a situation with scared criminals and scared victims. A recipe for confusion and violence.

I grew up with police officers in my family, and I count several current and retired officers as good friends. So, I don't pretend to know everything about law enforcement, but I may have a slightly-informed opinion.

Police officers never know what kind of situation they may be walking into when they respond to a call. In this situation, they had no way of knowing who was "good" or "bad" when they entered the home, so they secured everyone, and then sorted them all out. They shouldn't have cursed; it is unprofessional, and unnecessary. But they have to be aggressive, in order to get control as quickly as possible. Any one of the people in that house could have had a weapon, and could have tried to kill one of the officers. While I feel bad that the woman wasn't allowed to use the restroom, it would have been incredibly irresponsible of the police to let her leave the room until they knew exactly what they were dealing with--she could have picked up a weapon, destroyed evidence, or fled.

People who choose to become police officers know that it is dangerous, and that any situation could get out of hand and they could be wounded or killed. So they go into each call determined to protect themselves, and I believe some of the behavior described in this post can be attributed to that. Unfortunately, I think that the tactics they use to protect themselves are sometimes misconstrued by the public as over-aggressiveness. When the people who have been detained are innocent, as these people claim to be, then they deserve an apology. But I would much prefer that the officers I know and love do what is necessary to protect themselves, and go home alive at the end of every shift. Of all the cops I've known, none of them were the type who would use more force than necessary just for the fun of it.

While generally the good cops out number the bad cops, the bad ones do exist and this *does happen to good citizens. Sometimes they even get shot and killed by officers who feel they ARE the law instead of representatives of it. God forbid you should have a nervous breakdown, run through the street and not obey their order. You may find yourself fatally shot 7 times in the crotch, the back and the side, while your family has already informed them of your condition and that you are not armed. You could ask Dominic Felder but he won't be able to answer you but from the grave. Good people find themselves in bad spots. Give these people a break and quit judging them poorly just because they don't know how to behave like a criminal and otherwise feel safe in their environment. All cops aren't bad, all citizens aren't criminals. The cop may have a gun and a badge but I/we pay their salary. For that, as a Public SERVANT, I expect/demand respect under all circumstances until or unless I have proven unworthy...white, black, or anything else.

I guess after living at Loring Towers (on Nicollet and Grant St) between 1995-2005, I saw a lot of police intervention that at first seemed questionable, but as the building became a haven for drug dealers, hookers, and heroin addicts passed out in the laundry room with needles lying on the floor, I was very happy to see the cops whenever they showed up. We had our own security that was so corrupt that they were having sex with some of the residents while on duty and one was rumored to be one of the drug dealers creating the majority of problems in the building!

There would be many nights where I would come off the elevator and cops would be standing there with their guns drawn. Later on I bought a police scanner so I knew what was going on around me - and it did nothing to calm my nerves, but it did give me an understanding as to what the cops go through and begin to draw conclusions about after seeing the same people commit the same crimes day after day after day. My only complaint was there were some times we really needed the police to respond and there were so many calls for service downtown that by the time the cops got to the building the incident was over, someone was assaulted or raped, and the assailant was long gone.

Are you an Officer?

Actually, as much as you hate it. The police DO have to obtain a search warrant prior to searching someones house unless consent is given. It is something that you can loce to hate or hate to love. It is a little thing called the law.

This whole thread is ridiculous!
It's like a bunch of crazed web addicts responding to spam. If there were one single entry that wasn't riddled with misspellings and sentences that don't make sense...

Oh, and by the way, I'm a cop, and I bliev that most are run up on the house cuz my kids (1, 17, 93, 4, 7, 28- Powerball) are in the country you guard against animals!

So it's dangerous, ya understand?

The cops were NOT doing their jobs. How DARE you excuse their behavior. This is America and things are done a certain way here. Once things start going awry it is our job as citizens of a free and open society to see to it things change.

We cannot live with this tyranny much longer; a police state in America is unsustainable!

This study:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf

contends that the rise of paramilitary tactics by the police is dangerous and non-productive. It also has some great examples of similar instances to the one in this column.

Several innocent people are killed every in this country during botched police raids. Food for thought.

Unless they have reason to believe a crime is in progress.

Such as, oh, a 911 call from that location, and someone opening the door when they hear yelling?

The problem with paramilitary tactics like the ones used by the police officers in our story is that innocent civilians get hurt, or worse, killed, there's a lot of paperwork to fill out, an investigation must occur, etc. In short, like the study indicates, it is very counterproductive. Sure, the police department may think they're one step forward on the war on crime or drugs, but tactics like those employed by our friendly neighborly officers in our bedtime story tend to set the departments responsible ten steps back.

When I first read the story, the one story that popped into my mind was of the tragic story of Kathryn Johnston, who was killed when police officers raided her home on a no-knock warrant, believing her home to be a central point for buying and selling drugs. They raided her home based on tips from an informant, who was a previously convicted drug dealer/user.

Ahh,if thier not supposed to protect us why do they have the mission statment " to serve and protect"?????

Really... this kind of thing doesn't happen? What city/time/fantasyland do you live in?

They routinely "bust heads" on Hennepin Avenue. The City has paid millions in settlements for police brutality cases. Minneapolis police even shot one of their own who was undercover a few years.

Cops have a very difficult job and put their lives on the line every day, but to think that cops don't make mistakes is just naive.

That's just one of the reasons MPD has internal affairs and civilian review.

This story is a fabrication. There may have been an incident that happened, but not the way it is told here. There are too many details recalled. When a tragic accident like this happens, the victim would not be able to remember all these details.

Here is the problem with this story and all similar type accusations - everyone wants to criticize police officers and their jobs. Probably because they got a speeding ticket one time and are still mad. Until you are a police officer, or a family member of one, you will never truly understand what they do for a living. They cannot come to scene all relaxed, and then start taking action. They are on alert their entire shift and approach every call as if it highly dangerous. If they do not, they will die. Most stories about police offers killed on duty are because they were not on-guard.

My husband is a police office. I want him to come home from his shift. He is out they trying to get rid of the thugs and criminals. Please have the decency to respect him and what his job requires him to do. And to make your life easier, listen to what they tell you to do.

I'm a bacterial geneticist. You're a douche bag. That's my professional opinion.

This is exactly why there is so much crime in black areas. It is deemed acceptable to be a criminal because of perceived discrimination. Higher crime leads to higher incarceration which is shown as proof of discrimination. Rinse and repeat.
Blacks will show up in droves to protest someone hanging a noose but most don't mind when their yooth spend their time killing each other. Most don't mind when their women spend their time killing their unborn. Layton, your attitudes are why blacks suffer so much today.

that would be SWAT. This was cops with handguns. Not SWAT with carbines and body armor. You're also a douche bag.

Wow, it sure didn't take you long to blame the victim.

Layton's point seems to be that blacks are treated as if they are criminals from day one. If you're going to get all the reprecussions of being a criminal, why not start getting some of the rewards? We treat blacks like criminals and then act surpised when they deal a few drugs?! Gimme a break.

Besides, everybody knows cops are not here to protect the weak, poor or the suffering. They are here to protect the ruling class from the rest of us:

http://weblog.timoregan.com/2007/09/police-are-paid-to-protect-and-serve.html

Your circular logic regarding incarceration and discrimination is facile since there's no way to remove discrimination from the situation. Believe it or not, blacks are not inherently criminal, but don't let me disuade you from going to your next Klan rally.

I have no doubt this story is true. I know people who've had similar experiences. Naivete is not a crime, and these people don't deserve this treatment.

I also have no doubt that most police officers most of the time do a wonderful job. But with all due respect to police officers, and regardless of the nature of their job, there's a real problem when the police appear to the public to be more dangerous than the criminals.

As a former police officer, I agree that there are times when you have to "come on strong" in order to contain the situation and keep it from escalating. However, in this case, once the situation was under control and the facts began to unfold, I would expect that the officers would apologize and explain the confusion. That, in-and-of itself, goes a long way toward influencing the perception of the police by the "victims". In the heat of the moment, mistakes can be made. They are often honest mistakes, but they must be admitted and dealt with.

Unfortunately, it was my experience while serving that many officers regard *everyone* as scum (it is easy to get jaded when almost everyone you deal with is in trouble for one thing or another). They had a totally undeserved perception of superiority and took the arrogant attitude of "I don't have to apologize to anyone!". I'll admit, it takes a certain amount of arrogance to be an effective police officer but we have to remember that we are there to serve the public.

If the facts of this case are, in fact, what has been presented, these people deserve an apology and the officers need to be strongly corrected. Behavior like this cannot be tolerated. It only serves to undermine the citizens' faith in the police and their government.

In the past, before ubiquitous cellphone cameras and the internet, much of this behavior was able to be swept under the rug. Not any more. Now, more than ever, the police need to be on their best behavior, in order to maintain or rebuild the respect they've lost.

I left police work, largely because of the attitudes I saw in my supervisors and coworkers toward the public. In many ways they viewed the public as the enemy rather than the innocent citizens who we are protecting from the few who are a danger to it. The general consensus in our office seemed to be that everyone is guilty of something, they just haven't been caught yet. I actually started to believe it. It got to be too much for my wife to take - I chose her over police work and haven't looked back since.

The sudden "surge" of "police brutality" reports don't surprise me. It's not that this wasn't going on before, it's just that, in this climate of eroding freedoms and hyper-reactive public officials, combined with the fact that recording devices are now everywhere, it's bound to come to a head. I just hope that the citizens and the police can agree that we are all on the same side - and that the police remember their true role and place in society. They should be held to a higher standard than John Q Public, for good reason. If you can't trust the police, who can you trust?

You are profoundly naive.

Yeah...no police officer ever does anything wrong. There is no blue code of silence (despite the books written about it by current and former police officers).

Honey, get a clue.

That is 100% your husband's choice to be in that line of work, so don't come to us with that "I want my husband to come home from his shift" B.S. TELL HIM THAT-NOT US!!

The police are not police rather a para-military force out of hand and a secret society to top it off. You need to contact an attorney or the Minneapolis office of the A.C.L.U and sue the city and fire the thugs that violated your constitutional rights.

Remember that the next time you call 911. Better yet, don't call 911 - apparently you'll be better off - regardless of the situation.....

To add an additional insight to your last paragraph...

Not all people at crime scense are thugs, but John Q. Public performance has coursened to the point where many jerks like these are becoming the norm rather than the excpetion.

Cops should be help responsible for their actions, BY ALL MEANS, but should also be given a break for having to deal with an ever-increasing number of crazy people in our midst.......

It's easy to look at a situation from the outside, and make judgements about "shoulda, woulda, coulda", but when you're sitting in your house, on an average day, and HAVE NO IDEA THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN, it's vastly different.

This LITERALLY landed on my doorstep, without warning. For a law-abiding citizen, who is virtually not involved in our criminal court system, this was a seriously frightening and shocking incident.

Have you ever been handcuffed in your own home, and not allowed to use the bathroom? It's extremely humiliating, especially when you're in shock, you have no idea what's going on around you, and you are not involved in any criminal activity.

I hate to burst your bubble, but, yes it does.

I don't live in North Minneapolis.

First of all, you don't know what you're talking about. I didn't "mistake two druggies for a mail man", as you said. When I heard the doorbell from inside the house, I thought, "Oh, must be the mailman." You see, I went TO the door, thinking I would find the mailman on the other side.

Secondly, I didn't "let" my husband and friend go outside to detain these two guys. When I realized that this clearly wasn't the mailman, I called out to my husband for assistance, and he then went outside, called out to our friend for help, and instructed me to call 911.

Remember, this happened in the middle of an average day, and was completely unexpected by us. I had no reason to think that I was answering the door to what I found.

Thank you.

I love the lack of details of the incident, the lack of the name of the Police Department (which was not a single PD), the fact that the person that posted has only been registered for 4 days, etc etc etc.

Did this happen? Yeah, probably did.

Did it happen how it was posted? Nah, probably not.

A few things that others have pointed out:
1. A crime in progress that says, "Someone came to our house, and now my husband and friend are fighting them outside and it is about drugs" which I am sure they didn't get into that sort of detail with 911, and I am sure it was very sketchy EXACTLY what was going on....the cops are going to come and get everyone on the ground, no ifs ands or buts. period. Everyone is a suspect in an altercation. Everyone gets handcuffed. Period.

2. Why in god's name would you go outside and confront the "druggies"? Close the door, lock it, one person watch where they go, the other call police. You created a situation.

3. For every story like this, there are literally millions a day that are good.

4. Every department no matter the size has bad apples. Think about where YOU work - it is no different. There are good workers, great workers, bad workers, and just down right people who should be fired. Law enforcement is no different.

5. You were under arrest, you legally can be searched. Period. They don't need your consent.

6. Even though you weren't charged with a crime, it doesn't make the search any less legal. Do some google searches, a great place to start would be here where you can find all of our state laws:
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/statutes.asp

7. There are a lot of great posts about why they came in the way they did - so no need to rehash.

8. The incident happened in a metro city - do you seriously just blindly answer the door - and upon answering, you continue to stand there making yourself vulnerable to whatever these 2 wanted to do, even though they were mentioning drugs, fighting, etc...and wait for your husband to come to the door? How did you get this far in life? Seems a little naive. I grew up in the outer burbs, and was taught at a very young age to NEVER open the door - period. Look out the window first.

On to the other stuff:
I am thinking there is a lot left out of which she either chose to leave out as being part of the "victim" feeling. Forgetting that the officer said they weren't under arrest, maybe that they DID actually say "sorry" but no in a long diatribe that would make them feel better.

Did the other 2 get arrested?
So the outcome was correct - the cops came, took the bad guys away, and you are ok?

It is unfortunate you feel the way you do, and that it had to happen at such degree, but as someone else said, "Welcome to the American Drug war". There was no way for them to know who you were, who those other 2 were (have you ever come upon a fight of people you didn't know? How do you know who has a knife, gun, other, and who is the good guy bad guy?) and do it safely.

Once everyone was in cuffs, they should have slowed down a bit, that is what they are trained to do. Your pride is hurt, big deal, you feel that you were a victim, big deal, you are just making things worse by posting your incident to a public site and showing the world. (Thus the Chief's response and your retort, which isn't helping things)

I am embarrassed for you.

Is this "Police Misconduct". Nope. It was a high tension situation with law enforcement officers who are trained to deal with the worst of the worst, of which you got lumped into for this situation.

It sucks you had to go through with it - but it could have easily been a home invasion by those 2 "druggies" and could have ended a lot worse. You are alive, you are well, you are healthy, you just need something better to do with your time then to post about this incident.

I would be interested to know your comments to the officers, and your husbands and friend while you weren't in the room. I am sure it was arguing "we aren't the bad guy, this is our home, what the F are you doing here" Just realize, the other 2 were saying the same thing. :)

ok - so I read all of the posts, and listened to the mp3 file.

ummm, at what point did you NOT KNOW it was the cops?

The audio file - heh, I can hear sirens, and after they say, "EVERY BODY ON THE F****** GROUND" they say, "THIS IS THE POLCIE".

So I can't really believe a whole lot of what you say (also after reading the Chief's response) with your blatant disregard for the facts.

The audio file does a great job of making you look a fool.

After the whole deal, it sounds like the cops were really nice to you guys, and calm. So what is the problem?

And, you are mad the cops are swearing - but your husband likes to use the F word. You bigot.

The cops even explain, "We don't know what is going on, but we have to treat you like everyone else, so you have to sit in the car like everyone else" while also asking for id.

They also quoted the homeowner as saying, "Wow you guys got here fast."

Ummm... I don't know what you're talking about. The only thing my husband says on the recording is "Yes, sir." "No, sir." "Bradford Thompson." If you think that is HIM saying the "f" word on the recording, then you are misinformed.

Also, please note, I was INSIDE THE HOUSE when they were OUTSIDE saying, "POLICE". I didn't hear that. When the house was raided, I thought we were being robbed, that these guys were with the strangers who knocked on my door. They did NOT say "police" when they entered the house.

You don't know me, and you weren't there during the incident. Please refrain from calling me names. Thank you.

Please don't make assumptions. You have no idea what you're talking about. It's clear to me that nothing like this has ever happened to you. I pray that it never does.

I hate to say it COLEYLOU, but you're arguing with a police officer. And in case you haven't noticed, that 2 year degree from Central North Dakota Regional Consolodated Technical Junior College has made him an expert at all things, not just police work. For example he's now an expert on physics, chemistry, geometry, cultural affairs, and how to lance a boil. I've been posting on this site for a couple of months and you can spot the low-level law enforcement types easily because:
1) mid-level LE types don't have computers, they have bass boats.
2) high-level LE types are busy picking up bundled cash and planning their political careers.
3) they are the only ones in this country that have "a tough job" and are paid poorly.

But the thing that gives them away most is that you can not argue with them. Just like during a car accident or a traffic stop you can't argue with them. If you try to politely point out how they may have miscalulated something you'll get a ride on the taser. Same thing here except their frustration often results in them getting more angry because they can't haul you in over the internets.
By the way I am very sympathetic to what happened to you and your husband. I can only imagine the helplessness you felt when the ones suppose to be doing the helping are doing the hurting.
Pat Lynch

Police misconduct has destroyed me and my life. I was falsely arrested by a sergeant and three officers. I went to court over 71` times and was found not guilty of all three charges. I spent $75,000 in legal fees. I was in college preparing to become a CPA when I was falsely arrested when I was out one night helping out a neighbor who had family problems. I was bringing the neighbor to my house so that he can have a couch to sleep on when I was pulled over for no reason, jumped and tackled by the police. I am currently suing the police in federal court. I have not worked in 8 years due to a personality disorder that I now have due to the depression that I suffer caused by the malicious prosecution and false arrest and my obsession with this case. I have been diagnosed by many doctors including the doctors from the Social Security Administration. I may become dangerous if I am not financially compensated by the courts. I am living off of my mom's death benefit which will run out soon.