Priorities

Sunday 24 April 2011 - Filed under Authoritarianism + Dumbassery + Law enforcement + LE

So important, ICE agents didn’t even have time to investigate before SWAT teaming a guy with an unprotected wireless network. Yahoo News:

People who keep an open wireless router won’t necessarily know when someone else is piggybacking on the signal, which usually reaches 300-400 feet, though a slower connection may be a clue.
For the Buffalo homeowner, who didn’t want to be identified, the tip-off wasn’t nearly as subtle.

It was 6:20 a.m. March 7 when he and his wife were awakened by the sound of someone breaking down their rear door. He threw a robe on and walked to the top of the stairs, looking down to see seven armed people with jackets bearing the initials I-C-E, which he didn’t immediately know stood for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“They are screaming at him, ‘Get down! Get down on the ground!’ He’s saying, ‘Who are you? Who are you?'” Covert said.

“One of the agents runs up and basically throws him down the stairs, and he’s got the cuts and bruises to show for it,” said Covert, who said the homeowner plans no lawsuit. When he was allowed to get up, agents escorted him and watched as he used the bathroom and dressed.

The homeowner later got an apology from U.S. Attorney William Hochul and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Lev Kubiak.

But this wasn’t a case of officers rushing into the wrong house. Court filings show exactly what led them there and why.

Not the wrong house, you say? So why did they get the wrong house?

Investigators could have taken an extra step before going inside the house and used a laptop or other device outside the home to see whether there was an unsecured signal. That alone wouldn’t have exonerated the homeowner, but it would have raised the possibility that someone else was responsible for the downloads.

After a search of his devices proved the homeowner’s innocence, investigators went back to the peer-to-peer software and looked at logs that showed what other IP addresses Doldrum had connected from. Two were associated with the State University of New York at Buffalo and accessed using a secure token that UB said was assigned to a student living in an apartment adjacent to the homeowner. Agents arrested John Luchetti March 17. He has pleaded not guilty to distribution of child pornography.

Nice of you law enforcement boys to do your job, basic fucking investigation, after you send in the paramilitary goons, terrifying a family. Way to have your priorities straight, especially when just a few minutes of work would have led you to the real culprit.

And just as a question: child porn necessitates paramilitary forces conducting a no-knock SWAT raid? I thought these raids were reserved for situations in which normal law enforcement tactics are inadequate and overwhelming force I the only alternative . . .

2011-04-24  »  madlibertarianguy