Still image from television report covering a January 27, 2010 massive police raid operation in Riverside California showing militaristic-looking police returning from raids on 100 homes in an armored personnel transport.
From April to December of last year the NPMSRP tracked 61 reports of raid-related police misconduct ranging from wrong-door raids, faulty search warrants, warrantless raids, sexual assaults during raids, robberies committed during raids, injuries to innocent homeowners as well as children during raids, and even five questionable raid-related fatalities.
In January of this year we tracked 2 raid-related reports of police misconduct including a wrong-door raid on a Washington DC home that resulted in $3,000 in damages that police refuse to pay and a search warrant served on a Salt Lake City residence where homeowners granted police permission to search only to see them cause $25,000 in damages by pumping their then-empty home full of 10 canisters worth of tear gas.
But, we missed one big raid-related story last month. On January 27, 2010 a multi-agency 650 officer raid operation involving 34 agencies including the FBI, ICE, DEA, and Riverside Police Department targeted alleged members of the “East Side Riva” and “1200 Blocc Crips” gangs in the Riverside California area. This series of raids hit an estimated 100 homes and resulted in about 50 arrests…
Of course, if you’re skeptical like me, you might be wondering what happened at the other 50 homes hit by this massive wave of heavily armed cops?
As our fellow police accountability blogger at Five Before Midnight informed us, several residents of Riverside California’s east side community are saying many of the search warrants were based on flawed information which resulted in at least 11 innocent residents being raided, threatened, and even injured.
A spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney, the agency said to have led the raid, says the operation was handled appropriately and that reports of wrong door raids, injuries, and children being threatened are all false. Though, it appears someone’s math is off if those 100 raids resulted in 50 arrests because this means that at least 1/2 of the homes invaded during the operation were potentially done by mistake.
Indeed, according to Five before Midnight’s author, one home was raided to capture an alleged gang member who had been dead for over a year and another home in Moreno Valley was targeted even though the suspect had moved out a year earlier. She also says that over 30 residents packed a city council meeting on Tuesday to complain about officers pointing guns at kids, women being dragged out of homes in their underwear, and one 46 year old developmentally disabled man with the mental capacity of a 6 year old who was cuffed during the searches but was never charged.
Additionally, in one case that appears to refute official claims of nobody being injured during the operation, photographs show images of a heavily-bruised 87-year-old man who says the pictures are of injuries he suffered at the hands of raiding cops who detained him during a raid on his home but never charged him with any crimes.
Other residents allege that the raids focused entirely on the Latino community and ignored the 1200 Bloc Crips gangs mentioned in the press. They say the raids came at a time when crime had actually fallen in their community recently despite the Riverside County District Attorney’s claims that the raids were needed due to a community plagued by gang violence.
The investigation leading up to this apparent invasion into a primarily Latino community was said to be 18 months in the making, but it seems a stretch to presume this was the case given some of the errors alleged so far. With what appears to be only a 50% success rate on the raids, it seems to be that a coin toss to decide which homes to hit would have been equally effective.
A meeting has been scheduled for February 4 by Riverside County, the police, and the US DOJ Community Relations team for the region to discuss community concerns about the raids.
In the meantime, yet another raid-related report has been added to our NPMSRP database for this year, courtesy of Riverside County California and the 43 other agencies that took part in this “Operation Promise”.
-Hat Tip to Five Before Midnight for letting us know about this one.
I bet it was portrayed as a massive success in the media. Same old story for those cops. The militaristic actions… par for the course.
Well, that’s the thing. A militaristic-looking battalion (a battalion is generally considered as being a unit of soldiers 600-1500 strong) of heavily armed men in armored vehicles storm a neighborhood and start busting down doors left and right at the same time that elementary school aged kids are just leaving home to get to class. Imagine that scene in your neighborhood, men in fatigues with assault rifles everywhere, partially clothed women being dragged out of homes and children having guns pointed at them being told to go back inside.
That, in it’s own right, would be traumatic even for the people’s homes that weren’t raided…. but then imagine being an innocent person and having your home burst into like that, people in camo with their faces covered, guns leveled at you while being shouted at and ordered to lay down… Then think that this was the scene in as many as 50 of the 100 homes they invaded with this battalion!
This wasn’t a police action, this was a war on a community, an invasion… an invasion with a 50% success rate.
Hey Packratt, This one goes down in the WTF category.
No media coverage except for the Cha. 7 (on the photo) of an event tanamount to a frigin envasion. This should have trumped everything with breaking news. We saw what they did with balloon and a lil boy for weeks yet nothing about this.
I’ll do my part in getting this outrageous BS out to the public at large in Texas. I still can’t believe this was funded, planned & executed in 2010. Not to mention in a state with so many money problems as Cal. has. Please do us all a favor by conducting some follow ups. Thanks.
Thomas,
There was plenty of coverage on the day of the raids, all favorable to the raid and spoon-fed to the media through the county attorney’s office. Since then there was only one media article, linked within this piece, that follows up with the complaints made by community members alleging that many of the homes raided were mistakes by the police.
But, that’s the way it usually goes I’m afraid.
Thanks Thomas.
[...] Massive anti-gang raid in Riverside, California involved 650 local, federal, and state law enforcement personnel. Looks like they hit a number of innocent people, too. (Via Injustice Everywhere.) [...]
The current DA of Riverside County has switched from the revenue base of his predecessor (War on Meth Labs) to war on GANGS. One of my questions as a resident of Riverside County is; who is signing all of the search warrants…just one Judge or do their Honors flip a coin to see who will do the bidding of the DA?…..Perchance one day the Judges will get fed up with the abuse of warrants and demand that affidavits set forth be true, and if not true, then the person swearing to the Affidavit be prosecuted….Right,Like that is ever going to happen. Oh well at least I can dream of a just Judicial system that allows the Judiciary to JUDGE.
This is very reminiscent of raids conducted by the S.S. during ww2 is it not?
Well, the meeting took place and neither the DA nor the police chief showed, just the deputy chief who unlike the DA calling everyone liars, did say that mistakes took place and were more likely the more officers were used for an operation. A bit unsettling to hear that accountability decreases with an increase of the numbers of officers onscene which sounded like what he was saying.
I did speak with him about the elderly man and they are sorting through the eight agencies in the county task force but since IA’s been out on it, it looks like they were local officers.
A couple more stories of people being ordered out of their houses including one while in the shower where no warrant was taken out or served.
There were lawyers at the meeting so litigation has or will be filed in at least several cases. But so much litigation is being initiated against the city and department right now. The same night as the meeting was a press conference about yet another lawsuit filed. And the arrest rate of officers in my city’s department is about 1 out of every 50. One officer convicted had a prior and is still looking at probation and time served for sexual assault and the one who engaged in armed robberies including hostages is getting ready to plead out. Wonder what he’ll get. Anything less than 10 years is a gift.
Then the Neo Nazis were so thrilled by the raids which primarily targeted Latinos that they will be protesting in another neighborhood again later this month.
Lots of issues coming to a head but people seem to be more intent on getting involved in addressing them which is about the only good sign.
Hey Packratt, I noticed that this was re-posted and wanted to thank you for keeping this one fresh. If this were to happen in Texas, we’d read about 600 plus cops getting shot in 100 plus homes. Then again, maybe it has and it was kept quiet?
Mr. Greenfield over at Simple Justice posted “A Bad Decision” regarding some scary krap. This will undoubtedly have an impact on the NPMSRP numbers. *This “bad decision” & the “decision” to send troops to Riverside must be connected? False arrests will skyrocket & wrongful convictions via plea bargains will swamp the country. So if anyone gets time, let him know the word is out and we are not standing for this.
We need to spread the names of those that make and carry out these bad decisions so as to have a printable public record. Thanks.
Thomas,
Thanks, but actually I didn’t re-post it, it seems that the news feed service we use (feedburner) occasionally re-sends articles that I published in the past of it’s own volition without any real rhyme or reason. Sorry about the confusion, but it’s the same old article that it was when I published it originally… just a glitch that subscribers to the feed will suffer from time to time I’m afraid.
Thanks!
Thank you for bringing these details to light. The mainstream media has decided to spin this story in a highly suspect manner. Does anyone know who coordinated the Riverside raid, how many innocent people were injured or traumatized, whether people were actually sexually attacked and robbed, how many mistakes were made where innocent people were targeted, and why the DA/Police Chief couldn’t be bothered to show up for the meeting. This sounds like a military operation being used against the people and highly unconstitutional and outright illegal. Who did the investigation that led to this? What agency and/or agencies coordinated this? Who should be held accountable for what happened. Does anyone think the latest Riverside Police issues are a result of this raid?
I would really like to know what happened here – particularly with respect to injured and traumatized innocent people. Hopefully the corrupt criminal defense bar won’t sell their clients down the river in their attempts to litigate this and obtain “hush money.”
Kelley Lynch
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/police-booby-traps-california_n_505453.html
lol You know, as someone who has had the ‘displeasure’ of coming face-to-face with Riverside’s “finest” (I use the term LOOSELY), when I opened the front door and foundnd a cop, I can say FROM EXPERIENCE that yeah.. It’s true.. They are nothing more than a gang with a badge..
I won’t pretend that I’ve lived an exact “straight” line all of my life here in Riverside, but if I’d known ahead of time, that my at-times poor decisions, would’ve given the RPD the right to STRIP me of MY CIVIL RIGHTS, or Strip me PERIOD,( as in strip SEARCH ),I may have thought twice about some mistakes I’ve made.. They’ve STRIP-SEARCHED females (searches were NOT conducted at station, but in a BATHROOM with the DOOR OPEN..BY a MALE officer.. officer “Lackey”–FUCK IT! I’LL PRINT THAT!!), or the time they frisked me in the cold, (I got stopped while WALKING to my car.. I didn’t even SEE they were cops because they had NO HEADLIGHTS ON while they sped toward me.. that was Lackey too..) unfortunately, I didn’t get his partners name..
Then there was my STALKER cop, Officer Keene, who harassed me everytime he caught sight of me, driving down the street, or riding passenger, it didn’t matter.. He stole the keys to my house, stopped his car in the middle of a busy street in my city, cuz he saw my car parked in the grass.. At my daughters dads house.. withOUT any reason.. Just because he knew it was me.. I have been NEVER been arrested, altho you wouldn’t think so, the way these bullies act when they get bored, or whatever.. They’ve been seen stopping people walking down the street, confiscating drugs, and sending the people on their way.. Cuffs-free.. It’s a wonder what becomes of the confiscated drugs, since no charges have gotten filed..Not by the two individuals I just mentioned, but others.. I’ve seen a friend of mine in cuffs, and an officer taunting him, making the remark of how ‘pretty’ his twin daughters are, and asking how old they are.. They were FOURTEEN at the time.. Obviously, my friend tried jumping off the couch to get in his face, when he was met with the barrel of the officers gun in his face, with the officer laughing and telling him to not move or he’d blow his f)+%n head off in front of his kids, leaving them parent-less, as their mom passed away from cancer sum 8, or 9 yrs ago.. I can go on and on, and ONNNNNN…..
Personally, I KNOW of at LEAST a dozen or so, WARRANTLESS SEARCHES they have conducted..Of course, I call them COP-Invasions, since the only difference between a home invasion, and an RPD search, is the word ‘home’..
When I couldn’t take the harrassment of Officer Keene anymore, I filed three.. yes THREE complaints at the main station downtown, where I was met with argument by the clerk officer, suggesting I was LYING, so even tho she’d taken my complaint, I never heard anything back in response..(I guess that was probably a GOOD thing! lol)
When I went to finally speak to an attorney about filing a restraining order against the officer, he laughed and said’ “Patty, when a cop in Riverside has a hard-on for you, your best bet is to just MOVE..Move outta the city, the county.. If you leave the state-even BETTER.” So much for that.. Oh yeah, Did I mention I DO NOT even HAVE an arrest record?? So I’m NOT some repeat offender, convicted criminal or parolee, where they have the “RIGHT” to search me, as they see fit..
The ONLY tickets I have EVER received, where for traffic violations.. When I DID get them.. Otherwise, if I’d gotten a ticket ea. time a cop harassed me, it would be called EVIDENCE..
Keene said to me one day, that he’d stopped my ex boyfriend and I, that if I didn’t stop giving him attitude, that he wasn’t going to arrest ME “you know I won’t take YOU to jail.. but I’m going to take HIM” referring to my ex.. Funny tho, I have a strange feeling he’ll put me in the back of his patrol car, alright, -given the chance- But he won’t be taking ME to no JAIL..
At least that’s the first thing that came to my mind when we discovered the pictures of me I’d seen in our car, were suddenly missing after they let us go..
RPD.. yeah.. I been a victim..