thisislocallondon.co.uk
In The Name of the Law

Another horrifying story about a Nightmare Raid in Brooklyn. The police busted into the right apartment number, unfortunately in the wrong building. As a result, 84-year-old Martin Goldberg suffered facial injuries and his 82 year old wife, Leona - who uses a walker - is in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat. Small wonder.

Goldberg, a World War II vet, said he and his wife were alone in their apartment Wednesday when six cops knocked on the door and yelled, "Police, open up! This is a drug bust."

Goldberg said that when he opened the door, they shoved him out of the way and rushed inside, bruising his cheeks with their shields. "It was a very threatening experience," he said. "They charged in like an army. They knocked pictures off the wall."

Goldberg said they told him and his wife of 59 years, who was lying in bed, to get on the floor, but dropped the demand once they realized how old the couple was.

You would think they would have also realized that they were in the wrong apartment but instead they interrogated Mr. Goldberg and executed their search warrant, ransacking the couple's home for two hours in search of a "6 foot tall black man". Apparently they didn't believe he doesn't hang around doing drugs with a 24 year old and genuinely did not know the "perp".

It brings to mind another recent victim of the NYPD.

Browne said a deputy inspector was present during the raid. After a Harlem woman, Alberta Spruill, died of a heart attack on May 16, 2003, after cops burst into her apartment and exploded a flash grenade, the NYPD decided to assign a ranking officer to all drug raids.

In Spruill's case, they also had the wrong apartment.

What are these cops pumped up on? Wouldn't you think when they bust in and find bedridden elderly people they might consider the possibility they had bad information? The 'crack house granny' notwithstanding, how many 80 year olds do you know that are dealing cocaine? It's just outrageous.

[Link via Bob Armstrong]