March 29 1997 MCKEES ROCKS Pa. Fully armed DEA agents terrified around 30 young children when they burst through the bushes during an Easter egg hunt in progress on the way to a drug bust. None of the children age 4-10 were charged. Police said the raid was by the book. It seems there are no rules against traumatizing grade school children during a drug bust.

5/10/95, Beaver Dam, Dodge Co, WI, Wisconsin State Journal. Scott Bryant (29) was killed by Dodge County Sheriff Detective Robert Neuman. Neighbors claim that the door was kicked down without warning and Bryant immediately shot. The cops claim that they knocked and announced that they had a warrant for marijuana, but Detective Neuman also claims that he does not remember shooting Bryant!

3/26/94, Dorchester, Boston, MA, CNN. Hazaline Williams, a 75 year old retired minister died under the attentions of 13 narcotics agents who raided his home. No drugs were found. Rev Williams was handcuffed and thrown to the floor. This was considered necessary, even though he was a frail 75 year old. After ransacking his apartment and finding no drugs, it was noticed that the perpetrator had died choking on his own vomit. William's crime was to have his address confused with that of a drug dealer fingered by a confidential informant. The police have apologized to his widow, but maintain that because their informant was right twice before, they were within their rights. They even said that this shows just how dangerous drugs are to the community!

Nancy Wall, is one of the best/worst examples I know of abuse of forfeiture laws. Her husband and son were forced to plea bargain with no drugs in evidence

3/31/87 Louisville, KY, KET. Jeffrey Miles of 2401 Coolridge Ave, Okalona, age 24 or 25, is shot and killed by Louisville cop, John Rucker (Rutger) in a raid on Miles' home. Miles' crime was
to be living in an apartment inhabited two years ago by a suspected drug dealer. (The correct address was available in the phone directory.) The murderer was sentenced to paid leave and consultation with the chaplain.

PARAPLEGIC HOSPITALIZED AFTER RAID
Florida paraplegic Charles Inscor was breathing through an oxygen machine when a Pinellas County SWAT team shattered his window, put a gun to his head and - despite a "No Smoking" sign warning that an oxygen machine was in use - blew up a smoke bomb. Then they realized they were at the wrong house. The suspect was black: Inscor is white. Gasping for breath, Inscor was taken to the hospital. The sheriff's dept. agreed to pay the hospital bill. Tampa Tribune, March 18, 1995.

Charles and Dorothy Smith of Valparaiso, IN, are suing a local multi-county drug task force for $1 million for ransacking their empty home while they were away on vacation. Police left the house open with smashed-down doors after realizing that they were at the wrong address. Munster Times, Feb. 11, 1995
Karen Messer of Springfield, OH, is suing for $1 million after local and state police with drawn guns raided her home and threatened to take her two children away if they found anything. Police obtained the warrant on the basis of high electricity usage and thermal imaging surveillance at the Messer home, but found no pot. Messer attributes the electricity usage to four air conditioners, four TV's and a washer and dryer. Police insist the warrant was valid. Cox News Service, Aug. 13, 1995

12/27/95, Los Angeles, CA, LA Times. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, beset in recent years by charges of racial discrimination and harassment, was accused Tuesday of falsely arresting and routinely planting evidence on minority group members in heavily black and Latino communities. Aurora Alonso Mellado, a five-year deputy says that in seven weeks of being trained as a patrol deputy last summer, she found that her trainer was "engaging in illegal activities, including planting evidence, using throwaway guns, transferring drugs, assaulting and battery of civilians, and violating of suspects' civil rights." The race- related allegations are reminiscent of testimony by a lead prosecution witness in a string of federal cases in recent years involving drug money skimming. Robert R Sobel testified that as a former sheriff's sergeant in Lynwood and nearby communities, he frequently arrested African Americans who were simply walking the streets and had committed no crime. Sobel later acknowledged in court lying more than 100 times in his testimony in such cases.

U.S. v. GRANDMA
book Review: by Kathy Bergman

In October of 1989, Mary Miller's youngest son was indicted by a midwestern
grand jury for trafficking in marijuana. Over the next four years, Mary was
forced to pay, literally, for her son's crimes.

Never charged with a crime herself, 75 year old Mary Miller had $70,000 in
cash, her home and several pieces of rental property seized by the federal
government, because they believed she knew of her son's crimes. Her money,
the government said, was not her life's savings as she claimed, but rather,
the ill-gotten gains of Toby Miller's life of crime. In fact, she couldn't
use the old dates on the cash for her own evidence because the FBI had
destroyed it by depositing it into a bank. Her real estate, the government
went on to reason, was used to "facilitate" Toby's crimes when he lived as a
tenant in Mary's duplex, and therefore should be forfeited also.

From October 1989 through August 1995, 122 newspaper headlines in a small
midwestern city focused on Mary Miller's troubles. Her oldest son, Charles,
and his family were subjected to local scrutiny and discussion also. In an
attempt to regain his mother's property by producing an accurate chronologic
record, Charles Miller set about detailing the facts surrounding Mary
Miller's forfeitures, which eventually resulted in a book he titled U.S. v. Grandma.

Because we were so impressed with Mr. Miller's first-hand account of his
battle with the forfeiture squads on behalf of his innocent mother, F.E.A.R.
has agreed to publish a soft-back version of U.S. v. Grandma. Please
get this book and use it to educate yourself to the realities of how our
country's forfeiture laws are being used. Then, call or write your
Congressman and Senators and demand they change the law. In fact, why not
get a second book for your legislators, and request they read it!

U.S. v. Grandma is available from F.E.A.R. Foundation, 20 Sunnyside,
Suite A-204, Mill Valley, CA 94941. 1-415-388-8128 http://www.fear.org

This book without all of its self explanatory political drawings about the
forfeiture squads may also be downloaded from GRLR@aol.com if you request it.
Thank you.

In California thirty-one state and federal drug agents raided
Donald P. Scott's 200-acre Malibu ranch on the pretext that marijuana
was growing there. Scott was inadvertently killed during the raid. No
evidence of marijuana cultivation was discovered, and a subsequent
investigation by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office found
that the drug agents had been motivated partly by a desire to seize
the $5 million ranch. They had obtained an appraisal of the property
weeks before the raid. .

May 1997 Suzanne Levy is facing fifteen days or $250 dollars for building a birdhouse without a building permit.. She says she won't pay... we'll keep you informed.. Else where people being arrested right and left for feeding birds...

Oct. 24 1996 Ohio Sylvia Stayton age 63 was arrested for feeding parking meters
March 3 1997 UPDATE Sylvia was found guilty and fined five hundred dollars.
The Judge said she had it coming for making such a big deal out of it. Justice is served..

.BUSTED FOR GROWING TOMATOES
Sheriff's deputies in Davenport, WA, received a warrant to search the home of Ken and Karen Olds for marijuana cultivation, noting a boarded-up basement window and a "vicious-looking" dog tied up in front. The couple were gun point as cops searched the house. Plants growing under a lighting system in the basement proved to be tomatoes. Spokesman-Review, Feb. 23, 1995.

The Illinois Multi-County Drug Enforcement Group admits it made a mistake when it threw a stun grenade through the front window of 84-year-old Rosie Lee Boyce, burst in with drawn guns and ordered her to lie on the floor as they handcuffed her son. They now admit that they were at the wrong address. Harrisburg Daily Register, Feb. 6, 1995

Santa Busted?
Washington, D.C. city police are accused of punching, kicking and tackling a Latino man dressed as Santa Claus at a holiday party for the handicapped. Salvatore Gonzalez was leading a chorus of Christmas carols when police, responding to neighbors' noise complaints, wrestled him to the ground. "You would have thought they were collaring a murder suspect," said one witness. AP, Dec. 14, 1995. (Don't fret little children, this was not the real Santa... )
Livingston county New York. A man called State Police to help an elderly man who said he was being cheated by his landlord / employer who paid him nothing and kept his social security checks. 15 minutes later local police arrived and demanded to know why he had called, He stated that he did not call them, he had called the State Police. They said that this was their territory and had intercepted the call. When said he had nothing to say to them, the situation became a shouting match. Then the officers asked him to step outside where he was told he was under arrest for disturbing the peace. When he said he was unwilling to go with them and wanted to speak to the State Police and an attorney, he was thrown to the ground pistol whipped and repeatedly kicked by the two officers before being handcuffed and tossed in to the police car... All in front of his four children ages 7 - 12. The only charge filed was resisting arrest. The man was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to six months of weekends in the county lockup.

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