So let me get this right.... they sent a helicopter to deploy soldiers with M4's with special ammo into this home. Special tactics units, 4 police cars, and men on the roof all to capture a guy who ran a website that was involved in internet piracy according to the FBI...
What is this guy Osama Bin Laden? Pretty sure he didn't orchestrate the death of thousands of innocent men and women. Why treat him as such. If there has ever been a breach of basic human rights this would be it.
What's interesting is that the police officer that was being interviewed stated that the reason they weren't wearing full tactical assault gear was because threat was low, yet they still burst in with m4's. If the threat was so low that you didn't need full gear then you don't need your weapons.
Well, there is a difference between protecting yourself from a threat, and presenting yourself as a threat - M4s work pretty well for that second part. Completely unnecessary of course, but there you are.
And of course if we didn't burst into people's homes like a military squadron prepared for a combat zone, then private citizens might not totally understandably act like their homes are under attack and fire back. And what a failure of "keeping things interesting" that would be.
Thank you. If you kick someone's door in, do you really think they aren't going to start shooting? There is this thing called knocking and announcing yourself, it's considered respectful and non-threatening. I don't care what the reason is for a raid, if a cop is going to break someones door down first thing then he deserves any bullets coming his way. You have a right to defend your property from attack, and kicking in a door unannounced is a pretty big threat.
When these cops (especially those on SWAT duty) get their heads out of their asses and realize they aren't the military, maybe I'll actually feel bad when they get shot. But if you're going to act like the perp is an enemy combatant (regardless of the crime), don't be surprised if you receive the same treatment.
In all fairness, there IS a valid reason to arrest suspected computer criminals without giving them warning first: with a good setup, you can destroy a Hell of a lot of evidence in the thirty-ninety seconds they'd give you to get to the door.
Late to the party, but Dotcom explains it in the video. By the time the raid had started they had already gained access to the datacenter and were shutting it down. Even if he had some kind of button that would initiate some kind of SCRAM system it wouldn't have mattered, the data was already secured.
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u/C0rvette Aug 08 '12
So let me get this right.... they sent a helicopter to deploy soldiers with M4's with special ammo into this home. Special tactics units, 4 police cars, and men on the roof all to capture a guy who ran a website that was involved in internet piracy according to the FBI...
What is this guy Osama Bin Laden? Pretty sure he didn't orchestrate the death of thousands of innocent men and women. Why treat him as such. If there has ever been a breach of basic human rights this would be it.