techdirt: Cops: People In Their Own Homes Are In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time Whenever A Cop Enters Unlawfully

techdirt: Cops: People In Their Own Homes Are In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time Whenever A Cop Enters Unlawfully by Tim Cushing:

“Wrong place, wrong time” is living in your own house when cops show up unexpectedly. And that’s almost always how cops show up: unexpectedly. In Julian Betton’s case, cops served a warrant by crashing through his front door unannounced and shooting at him 29 times (hitting him nine times) when he confronted the home invasion with a gun in his hands. The gun was at his side but it made no difference to officers who kept firing until they felt he no longer “posed a threat.” Betton was paralyzed from the waist down and suffered numerous injuries to his internal organs.

What the task force failed to notice during its “dynamic entry” was Betton’s security camera. The recorded footage flatly contradicted multiple officers’ sworn testimony. They claimed they knocked and announced their presence before entering. The tape shows no knock, no hesitation, and not a single officer moving their lips to announce their presence. A total of nine seconds elapse between the officers’ arrival and their entry into Betton’s home.

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