“Nobody said sorry to us, that’s what hurts the most."
Another day, another "no-knock" raid gone wrong. The latest incident took place in Worcester, Massachusetts where police bashed in the doors of an apartment looking for a man who did not live at the residence and did not know anyone living there. Marianne Diaz was asleep, nude in her bed (to combat the overnight heat, but who cares - her bed), when police
broke down the doors:
At about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Hillside Street woman awoke to the sound of somebody busting down her apartment door. Moments later, the 23-year-old found herself kneeling, her frightened daughters huddling close to her, as police officers with helmets and shields pointed "big guns" in her direction.
“Stop (expletive) crying and take care of your (expletive) kids,” she quoted one officer as saying. It would be 10 minutes, she said, before officers allowed her to cover herself up.
Diaz was not allowed to cover up or explain and was both humiliated and violated during the search:
Ms. Diaz said when the female officer arrived, she conducted a pat frisk of her nude body, including asking her to spread her legs.
“She questioned (the others) why she had to search me if I was naked,” Ms. Diaz said. “They were like, ‘Search her anyway.’”
Although the person they were searching for, Shane B. Jackson Jr., had lived at the residence a year before, there was apparently no surveillance to prove he was still there. The Diaz family, with no connection to Jackson, had been living there since May. Making matters for police even worse, Jackson was arrested only two weeks before the raid and listed his home at a
completely different address.
Tough questions remain for the police officers who requested the warrant, despite apparently not having done any surveillance on the house, and the judge who signed off on the warrant.
The family’s attorney and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said police failed to determine whether they had the right home.
“At the very least, the police should have verified that the [person] they were looking for was living in the home and was present at the time of the raid,” said Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “For this kind of thing to happen, a lot of people can share the blame and a lot of people should step up and try to fix this.”
Segal said officers can usually verify that the target of a raid lives at a certain location by conducting surveillance of the home, checking arrest reports, and speaking with the landlord.
See the victims of the wrongfully executed no-knock raid describe the horrifying details and the effect it has had on their children at
CBS Boston.