And If There Hadn't Been Any Clouds, They Could Have Said the Sun Was in Their Eyes

An elderly Indianapolis couple is demanding an in-person apology after police raided their home while trying to serve a drug warrant for a house three doors down the block. According to a local TV news report, the numbers on both houses were "clearly marked," but police claim "officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies."

[Thanks to Solanum for the tip.]

Comments

[wayne]

sullum, this is balko's beat.

depressing never the less.

[Pro Libertate]

Hey, man, they were in a hurry! Can't waste precious time making sure you're breaking into the right house! God will sort it all out in the end.

[Kyle Jordan]

"officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies."

Really? I mean, really!?

Wow. You can almost feel the contempt in that statement. As if everyone knows just how ludicrous it is and the police are just rubbing it in their faces that no one will really do anything about it.

[Episiarch]

The police have been bald-faced lying for years. The "we don't do quotas for speeding/parking/other tickets" mantra has been around forever, for instance, and everyone knows they're utterly lying, but they get away with it. Why not lie in every case? That's what they've learned.

[Xeones]

Robinett said even though an apology was made Thursday morning, that someone will go back to the home soon and offer and apology in person.

"Oops, sorry" from some flunky doesn't cut it. The Mintons should demand that the sheriff himself come out and kiss the floor at their feet. Sloppy, wet kisses. The bastard should be picking floor lint from his teeth for weeks.

[Pro Libertate]

Being a citizen seems less and less important these days. Maybe they should allow us an upgrade, like Citizen Plus. If you're a Citizen Plus, you get the old rights and everything that ordinary citizens don't get.

[Ska]

This is why I never order chinese food when it's cloudy. And I'm always getting my neighbor's mail when the skies are overcast. Apparently reading a house number is like trying to read a fax of financial information.

Oh that's a 6 and not an 8.....damn clouds.

[Tommy_Grand]

If I were running a municipality, I'd make it policy that the police always apologize in person if they raid the wrong house. That wouldnt matter to the feds, but the local cops at least.

[redbeardrum]

@Pro Libertate

I thought being a policeman or politician is being a Citizen Plus.

[Jozef]

Someone over at the Agitator suggested a Web site that mocks cops for being pussies and feeling the necessity to defend themselves from Chihuahuas or old ladies. I'd like to expand on that idea and add an "Illiterate Cops" category.

[Invisible Finger]

Being a government employee means never having to say you're sorry.

[Zeb]

Isn't it easier to see things when skies are overcast and there isn't any glare or dark shadow?

[monkey on juice]

Oh, come on people!

You can't blame the cops for getting this wrong. They're NUMBERS for god's sake. Thats pretty complicated stuff for a cop. And there were probably at least two or three numbers on that house. How can you expect a cop to read and understand something as complicated as two or three numbers?

What do you think they are; 3rd graders?

[Forty-Two]

think Bobby Broom:

They asked me how I knew the target was true,
I of course replied, drugs there inside cannot be denied.
They said someday you'll find all justice is blind,
When SWAT's blood's afire, you must realize,
Sun get in your eyes.
So I chaffed and then I gaily laughed.
To think that they could doubt my troops,
Yet today, my credibility's flown away,
I am without my badge.
Now citizens deride the sneer I cannot hide,
So I smile and say when the smoke and flame dies,
Sun gets in your eyes.

[monkey on juice]

I just read the article - there were actually FOUR numbers. You people expect cops to read and understand FOUR numbers? Thats a lot to expect of cops, isn't it?

Geez, next thing you'll be expecting cops not to shoot innocent people.

[Wicks Cherrycoke]

Can we use the overcast skies defense too??

"That said 40 MPH!! I thought it said 80! Damn those overcast skies!"

[J sub D]

No dead people? No flash band started fires? No planted drugs? No dead micro-dogs? Heck, they didn't even taze the old man.

This ain't even a blip on my out of control cops radar.

Like others have said, we're inured to the lies.

[Ben Kenobi]

Those overcast skies prevented them from shooting dogs or tazing the old man. They just couldn't see well enough.

[Dello]

Since the cops get handed old military gear (and armored cars) every year anyway, can't we get the military to surplus some old GPS units?

[TrickyVic]

""" but police claim "officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies.""""

Man, these guys have an excuse for everything.

""""can't we get the military to surplus some old GPS units?"""

Yeah, the GPS told me to make a right turn and I drove in this ditch. Just what they need, another excuse.

My bet is when they are hyped up to do a raid, the numbers on the house become insignificant.

[TrickyVic]

Actually I think the cops names should be printed and anytime they ticket or arrest someone "the sun in their eyes" should become a defense issue.

They will stop using stupid excuses when those excuses can come back to screw them up.

[TrickyVic]

Sorry, I'm meant overcast skies, not sun in their eyes.

[monkey on juice]

"can't we get the military to surplus some old GPS units?"

You're joking, right?

These imbeciles can't figure out FOUR NUMBERS painted on the side of a house. I'm not sure it can get any more simple than that. And you think that same bunch of lobotomized meatheads is going to be able to use an electronic device like a GPS?

[Ska]

And you think that same bunch of lobotomized meatheads is going to be able to use an electronic device like a GPS?

If you can cause physical trauma (or intense fear) with it, you bet your ass they would.

[monkey on juice]

"If you can cause physical trauma (or intense fear) with it, you bet your ass they would."

True...but they'd just be using the GPS to bludgeon an old lady at the wrong house, not to actually FIND the right house.

[JB]

Everyone knows pigs can't read.

[hmm]

Who wants to take odds on no apology and a good faith argument for not fixing any shit the tards in black broke while serving a warrant at the wrong address.

[jtuf]

Some people beleive that carry a gun means never having to say "I'm sorry." People like that should not be officers.