SWAT officers invade home, take 11 year old at gunpoint.

SWAT officers invade home, take 11 year old at gunpoint.

wnd.com

Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is enough to infuriate anyone. I think the magistrate should be brought up on charges.

wnd.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Reads like an over zealous paramedic didn't like its authority challenged and had a friend in social service write up some legal smack, rush it before a judge who probably had better things in mind and signed off just to get em off his back and sig the cops to do there dirty work.

Absurdity of authority: cops, firemen, social service, paramedics, and DA, prosecuters, judges, all have the homeland security blues with the patriot act to dispose the populace at there wim.

UGH!!!!! Man that just makes me so damn mad I cant even tell you, I just made some tea, and I am fairly certain that I could have boiled the water on my head after reading that. God help me if someone burst into my house and tried to remove my child.

I have really been trying to look at the positive in life, look at the beauty instead of the crap going on. Everytime I think I am out of it, something like this just gets my anger pumping again. You know what really just scares the F ing crap out of me? The fact that the sheriff said his justification for sending in swat was that the man was a constitutionalist, goddamnit!! what the hell is going on in this country? I am sorry I cant even post a reply that has any sense, I am seeing red after reading this.

that also caught my eye. it's pretty f'ed up that being a constitutionalist has become something that attracts suspicion.

Wow....I can't believe the violation of the family's rights in this case if everything said is true in that story. The paramedics just came into the house after he refused them entrance and then the SWAT team bashed his door in and took his child at gunpoint! I hope his lawsuit goes through and he gets everyone on the paper trail involved in this stomping of his constitutional and parental rights.

I would be interested to hear if he has had any other problems with child services though....may be more to the story than we know.

-B

This is yet further proof of what we are moving towards. This truely does sound like the actions of a "police state." Does anyone care to refuse or deny what Big Brother is turning into?

Hold on guys and gals.
I too was irate when I started reading this story. That is until I clicked on the link and discovered that the source was WorldNetDaily.
They are an EXTREMELY unreliable news source. Many on the net refer to them now as World NewsDaily but rather WorldNUTDaily.
These are the same people who put out the stories of BatBoy and : I was abducted and Violated by Aliens"
Until I can find another source for this news article.... I cannot give it any credence.

ah yes, good catch. i guess we can all take our fingers off of the panic button for now. or at least stop whacking it with a hammer.

The only way to stop this garbage is to sue the hell out of every last one of them in Federal court. the filthy pig Sheriff even has the nerve to say that the reason he used a SWAT team and all that violence was because the father was a ' Constitutionalist ".!! Can you believe that? Does that not turn your stomach? Because the man loves the Constitution and no doubt knows far more about it than any redneck sheriff, the pig had a SWAT team break and enter and point weapons at them, and kids.

Handcuffed at gunpoint for being a home schooler and ' Constitutionalist '. Goodby America!! Nice knowin ya!! I pray that the father gets some attorney that hates the pigs as much as I do and sues them for everything they own. Just dragging them to court will mean them hiring lawyers and it will cost them a bunch no matter what happens down the line. It is the process that can eat them alive, and if you are really poor, or no attorney will take the case, you can file PRO SE if you study some and have filing fees, which is cheap.

then they really start to sweat. many times the insurance company will settle to keep it low, and if the cop's and others do not get qualified immunity for their actions, they have to face it all alone, paying out of their own pockets. NOTHING on earth is more effective for reigning in bad cops and others then when they have to foot the bills for the attorneys and the case themselves. That alone could ruin them!! And, think of the rush, the thrill, of looking triumphantly at them as you stride from a courtroom with a hefty verdict in your favor and seeing them downcast, heads hanging, knowing they face ruin...payback time!!

This is just another case of some local slug of a magistrate that bends over for the sheriff every time he whistles and some disgruntled ambulance driver who knows he will never see the letters " M.D. " on his shirt, and thinks he knows more than the parents with no obvious signs of trauma. I hope they all get what they deserve: Ruin financially and shame and humilation from the public, forever. That should settle things rather nicely, I would think.

reply to post by an0maly33



Anomoly, I thought the same thing, too, until I Googled "Tom Shiflett". ALOT of various news agencies and websites have picked up the story, many of them appear to be Fundamentalist Christian. But it looks legitimite to me, so far.

I don't doubt this story, since the news has been full of this type of thing for the last 2 years or so. Parent's rights are being eroded and overriden. This should never have happened to this poor family. Geez, sometimes I hate Social Services. They're supposed to protect the child, but how is being held at gunpoint and taken from your family, being protected?

reply to post by forestlady


I did that too. And all they are doing is is copying/pasting the original link/story. So, really there is only one "news" source so far.

Yes there is only one news source so far, in my opinion there arent any credible news sites, but it would be nice to see it in another media outlet. It wont suprise me a bit if it is true though, this seems to be a growing trend around this country. But now that the anger has subsided, it is time to do a little digging, see if it did occur and if this guy had a history of violence with his children.

I think the story is slanted a bit, but true.

This stuff is happening all over the place and it hardly ever makes it into the news. I was beat up and repeatedly tazed on my own front porch by local cops at two o'clock in the morning, because a neighbor claimed I broke her window (after I had complained to the landlord about her cats.) I was hauled of to jail on multiple charges including resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. I am a uniformed guard, or I was now I should say, so I know better than to do something as idiotic as those cops are claiming. I was denied water and medical treatment during processing despite the fact that I had been kicked in the head multiple times.

I couldn't find one lawyer to take the case, on the civil end anyway.

The Constitution is dead. Long live the Patriot Act.

It sounds like they are going to have good legal grounds for lawsuits.

I can honestly see this issue from both sides but I think the Sheriff’s department screwed it up. The problem is that I don't think they train law enforcement officers how to negotiate and deal simple problems anymore. Direct force is the only thing being taught. There is no reason that a SWAT team was needed. Why doesn't a couple sheriffs go over to the house and talk to the father first? All they have to do is knock on the door, tell the father that the paramedics were worried about the child because a child with a head injury of any kind should be looked at by a doctor. Ask if they can see the child. Ask if the father would reconsider taking the child to a doctor. Ask to see if the father would let a doctor volunteer to come out and look at the child in the house. There are all kinds of things that could have been done before a SWAT team needs to be called.

As a husband who's wife works for a Children's Hospital I know that any child who has a head injury should be examined by a doctor as soon as possible. It sucks that these people did not have health insurance and did not want a lot of medical bills, but you have a child and it is your responsibility to maintain the health and wellbeing of that child regardless of money issues.

The kid was lucky in this case but so many children die from falls like this one. The brain swells, blood cots develop, etc. Everything might seem fine but internal damage cannot always be diagnosed by how the patient is acting. Everything might seem fine at first and then the patient passes out, goes into a coma, suffers brain damage, dies.

Would this story be different if the child died the next day because his dad didn't let the paramedics take him to the hospital? If that were the case should the father then go to jail?



[edit on 7-1-2008 by zerotime]

If the parents were monitoring the child for signs of trauma, as they WERE, then taking them to the hospital to run up a few thousand dollars in bills would accomplish nothing. All the doctors can do is to monitor signs, as the parents can do is they know how, and these parents did.

No one could predict if the kid had any hidden damage, and in fact after all the stupid force was used, the hospital released the kid right away, as there were NO SIGNS of any serious trauma!! Speculating on what might have happened is useless and obfuscatory; what happened was that a kid bumped his head and showed no signs of it being serious, and after being told that there was no signs of problems, it should have ended.

But the ego of one rescue moron caused all this: I would sue his rear especially. How DARE some ambulance driver assume that everyone that bumps their head should go to the hospital to be seen by yet another set of eyes that say the same thing that all the rest do: Nothing seems to be wrong. The parents should have been listetend to, and all this was totally wrong on the part of all concerned from the cops to the magistrate to the rescue idiot. I hope he sues them all, for all they have, for all their lives.

reply to post by eyewitness86


I guess I probably disagree with the flow of the article. WorldNetDaily.com articles have agenda and are written in a certain way to push high emotions from only one side of an issue. Even the article's title seems misleading: Cops demand boy go to doctor because of fall during horseplay. Horseplay? The kid was knocked on the pavement by a car that his sister was driving. He accident looked bad enough that his father carried him into the house and a neighbor rushed to call 911. Head injuries can be bad very quickly. An emergency room could have run test like CT so see if there was brain swelling or bleeding occurring. I guess while I have faith, I don't rely on it to solve every problem in life.

reply to post by Solliz


too bad the neighbours couldnt mind their own buisness and worry about their own problems---our government has the same problem when it comes to the worlds countries/governments.the extremist muslims in gaza will continue to murder each other and the jews no matter how much foreign aid the usa and other countries provides.

the egytians/kenyans/algerians/afghanistans/lebanese/coloumbians/mexicans/iraqis/etc. etc. just the same way--its pointless to try help those that dont want or appreciate it

why cant we just mind our own buisness?we do need to look out for our own homeless and feed our own hungry and secure our own borders and support our own industries and give jobs to our own citizens--we have our plate full--let the rest of the world look after its own problems---please.

Originally posted by zerotime
As a husband who's wife works for a Children's Hospital I know that any child who has a head injury should be examined by a doctor as soon as possible. It sucks that these people did not have health insurance and did not want a lot of medical bills, but you have a child and it is your responsibility to maintain the health and wellbeing of that child regardless of money issues.

The kid was lucky in this case but so many children die from falls like this one. The brain swells, blood cots develop, etc. Everything might seem fine but internal damage cannot always be diagnosed by how the patient is acting. Everything might seem fine at first and then the patient passes out, goes into a coma, suffers brain damage, dies.

You're kidding right?!

When I was growing up, if you bumped your head, you cried a bit, got some witch hazel rubbed on it, and then went back to playing.

Streuth, now we gotta send our kids to the hospital or we are bad parents?

If this family was home schooling, they probably don't trust the education system and so probably don't trust allopathy either, and rightfully so in my opinion.

[edit on 7-1-2008 by RogerT]

Originally posted by RogerT

You're kidding right?!

When I was growing up, if you bumped your head, you cried a bit, got some witch hazel rubbed on it, and then went back to playing.

No, I'm not kidding. Hundreds of thousands of children die every year from head wounds. Just because we were ignorant in the past doesn't mean we have to keep being stupid.

A traumatically brain injured individuals may appear normal and fine on the surface and not exhibit obvious signs of a head injury, An individual may have a complete medical recovery from the physical symptoms and yet continue to endure some lingering (and chronic) functional problems (e.g., reasoning, problem-solving or memory capabilities) in his or her attempt to resume normal life. It is important to remember that symptoms vary in type and severity, depending on the degree of the injury and the portion of the brain involved.

accident-law.freeadvice.com...

If you haven’t already had a child with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in your classes, chances are you will before you end your teaching career. Approximately 1 million children and adolescents receive a head injury each year. Of these injuries, 16,000 - 20,000 will be serious enough to cause lasting effects, and one in 500 will be severe enough to cause hospitalization.

www.lapublishing.com...

Every year hundreds of thousands of American children die from head wounds that they have received in car accidents and falls, or from gun shots or being shaken, struck or thrown. No fewer than 1,000,000 are head-injured each year. Traumatic Brain Injury is called The Silent Epidemic because so many cases go undetected

www.authorsden.com...

[edit on 7-1-2008 by zerotime]