Captain’s Journal – by Herschel Smith
In a slight twist of the SWAT team raids the wrong home theme, Austin American-Statesman has this report.
Driving in the early morning hours to his job at a metal shop in Buda, Miguel Montanez at first thought the approaching lights were a school bus or a tow truck.
But Montanez says it was a Hays County SWAT truck that rammed his car head-on. As they collided, another police vehicle pinned him from behind, he says.
He heard a shot.
“I saw my windshield crack, and I ducked down as low as possible,” Montanez said. “I really thought I was going to die.”
Seconds later, he says, three deputies were pointing assault rifles at him. “That’s when I heard one of the officers say, ‘Oh, (expletive), we got the wrong guy,’ ” Montanez said.
Montanez, 39, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on May 6 against Hays County, the city of San Marcos and nine law enforcement agents for injuries he says he sustained that morning last summer, July 13.
Even after officers realized that he was not the suspect, he said, they kept him in handcuffs for half an hour while they questioned him and ran a warrant check that came up with nothing. Then they let him go.
Montanez, who lives in Guadalupe County, said that one of the officers told him they were looking for one of hisbrothers, who lives at a different address.
Sheriff’s officials in Hays County and San Marcos police declined to comment.
The county’s insurance company paid about $3,700 for the damage to the car, which was totaled, but has never offered an apology or to cover his medical bills. Montanez said he suffered a herniated disc in his back …
Out of control. These are the only words that I can think of to express the situation and supply some analysis, albeit brief. This SWAT team is completely out of control and off the chain.
When we have SWAT teams ramming cars and shooting at innocent people, it’s way past time for the concept of SWAT teams to come to a timely end or at least focus on the much less frequent instance of active shooters or kidnappings.
But no court anywhere will hold the police accountable. Welcome to Amerika!
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2013/05/20/swat-team-rams-wrong-mans-car/
“This SWAT team is completely out of control….”
NO…..It’s not THIS swat team. It’s EVERY swat team, because it’s the result of the “idiots only” hiring policy that police departments insist upon.
Does a week go by when these morons don’t shoot the wrong person, raid the wrong house, or ram the wrong car? They always try to portray these incidents as isolated mistakes when it’s obviously a systemic problem.
A violation of 42 usc 1983 and 18 usc 241 , just these will get him a 30 to 40,000 dollar settlement and then move on to criminal filings
Idiots.
Overpaid idiots at that.