War on Drugs Leads to SWAT Team Invading Home of Innocent Family with Kids

SWAT Team Breaks into Wrong Home Where Family with Small Children Reside

by Aya Katz

It could have been worse. Someone could have gotten killed, maybe even a child. But the most recent episode of the War on Drugs, in which a SWAT team broke into the wrong home, in Clifton, Mesa County, Colorado,  this Wednesday, September 14, 2016, ended only with broken glass and a house full of terrified children and adults trying to understand why the peace and safety of their home had been breached. These are the daily casualties of the ongoing “War on Drugs.”

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, the incident all resulted from a false report of a large stash of methamphetamine being present in the home:

In the early hours of this morning, officers with the Grand Junction Police Department received information about a large amount of methamphetamine at a home in Clifton. The reporting party provided detailed information regarding the amount of drugs in the home and where they were located, as well as information regarding firearms in the home. The reporting party was able to provide an exact address of the home, using a GPS map.

Based on this information, surveillance was conducted on the home, while officers with the Grand Junction Police Department, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, and the Western Colorado Drug Task Force waited for a search warrant to be prepared and signed by a judge. Once that was obtained, officers served the search warrant early this morning.

Upon initial contact at the residence, officers received no answer at the door. As is standard protocol when probable cause has been developed that illegal or dangerous activity is occurring, and armed with the signed search warrant, officers forced entry into the home, using a breaching tool. During entry into the residence, several windows of the home were broken.

We live in an era when a mere report by some unidentified source against any citizen is enough to obtain a search warrant that is then used as an excuse to break into any home at any time of day or night, if no one answers the door. By creating a war zone within our own communities, we have allowed innocent people to come under fire and experience the same kind of collateral damage that civilians in war zones abroad experience every day.

The Sheriff’s Department went on to say:

We are deeply regretful of the experience to which this family was subjected. We have met with the family, including the children, to explain in detail how such a mistake was made. We are currently in the process of replacing the windows that were broken, repairing the front door, and arranging for new carpet to be installed, as we are concerned about possible glass in the existing carpet.

Even though the Sheriff’s Department in this case understands that a mistake was made and is trying to make amends, the damage to the children who had to witness this terrifying attack on their home in the wee hours of the morning will never be undone. The faith in law enforcement has been eroded, too. It is unlikely that these children will grow up the believe that if they do no wrong, then they have nothing to fear from the police. The right of the people to be secure in their persons and property has been infringed. The damage is not something that can be undone by replacing the carpet and the broken glass in that home. Broken trust cannot as easily be replaced.

The Sheriff’s Department writes:

Ultimately, the most important thing law enforcement can do after an incident like this is carefully evaluate what happened, and determine how we can prevent such a mistake from happening again. We will be doing just that.

The only thing that can be done to make sure that something like this never happens again is to do away with the War against Drugs, which is a war against civilians in the United States. No stash of methamphetamine is worth terrorizing children, whether at the “right” address or the “wrong” address. No unnamed source should ever be allowed to point the finger against anyone and make the authorities break into another person’s home. We don’t need to live in a police state, where it is standard protocol to break into houses, just because no one answers the door.