Lawsuit: Police Destroyed Farm House To Capture Homeless Man Armed With An Ice Cream Bar
from the USE-ALL-THE-TOYS!!! dept
Is it possible to arrest an unarmed homeless person without destroying the residence he's hiding in? To the Fresno County Sheriff's Department and Clovis PD (and far too many other law enforcement agencies), the question remains rhetorical.
David Jessen's farmhouse felt the full, combined force of two law enforcement agencies and all their toys last June. According to his lawsuit [PDF], a homeless man was rousted from a nearby vacant house after he was discovered sleeping in the closet. He left peacefully but was soon spotted by the construction crew breaking into Jessen's house. The construction worker, god bless him, called the police because he thought they could help.
Jessen was notified shortly thereafter. He returned home to find four sheriff's office cars parked at his residence (one of them "on the lawn," because of course it was) and a deputy yelling at his house through a bullhorn. According to the deputies, the homeless man refused to come out and threatened to shoot anyone who came in. Jessen was asked if he had any guns in the house. He replied he did, but two were unloaded and had no ammo and the third was hidden so well "only he could find it."
Jessen was asked to move his pickup truck and leave the area for his own safety. The deputies also asked for a house key and for the garage to be opened before he left. Jessen and his family went to a friend's house about a quarter-mile away. Several hours later, he was told he could return home. This is what Jessen returned to:
As David was driving toward the home from Jensen David counted approximately fifty-five (55) or more law enforcement vehicles. David was then ordered to park along Rolinda Avenue north of his home and instructed to walk to his home. On his way to his home David was stopped by a SWAT person who told him the “operation” was concluded, A second Fresno County Deputy Sheriff, that Jessen’s are informed and believe and upon information and belief allege was a Lieutenant, handed David a card and said “we have insurance for this.”
We'll pause there for a moment and consider the effect this must have on recipients. This is basically a message telling them their stuff has been damaged/destroyed. Not that the law enforcement agency cares. It might end up with higher premiums, but each officer involved still has an undamaged residence to go home to, unlike "civilians" like Jessen, whose houses happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Insurance in the hands of officers like these is a permission slip, rather than a liability buffer.
Continuing on…
A third Fresno County Deputy Sheriff showed David the damage and David was overwhelmed by the severity and extent of the damage to the residence. The damage to the Jessens’ residence was massive and extensive. The magnitude of the damage to the Jessen’s’ home was unreasonable and unjustified, needlessly implemented to capture a singular, surrounded, unarmed, hungry, homeless person who posed no danger to anyone, and cooperated in leaving the neighbors residence earlier.
Here's the full list of what local law enforcement deployed to handle a single, resistant homeless person:
a. Utilized over 50 vehicles;
b. A K-9 unit,
c. Two helicopters;
d. Two Ambulances;
e. One Fire Truck;
f. A Crisis Negotiation Team arriving in a large motor home, that Plaintiffs are informed and believe included communications equipment and other support equipment;
g. A Robot;
h. SWAT Team; and
I. Back Up SWAT Team — Clovis City Police.
Now, the officers might have been concerned the homeless person had armed himself with one of Jessen's weapons, despite his assurances they were well-hidden/unloaded. Even so, they had plenty of options available that didn't include doing all the things they did instead.
a. Ripped out the wrought iron door and interior door to the Jessen’s home office;
b. Pulled the wall of the office off the foundation;
c. Broke the window to the office;
d. Teargassed the bathroom near the office;
e. Shattered the sliding glass door to the home for “robot” entry;
f. Ripped the wrought iron door off the laundry room;
g. Teargassed the laundry room;
h. Flash bombed the laundry room and the business office that resulted in breaking six (6) windows;
i. Teargassed the kitchen;
j. Teargassed the master bathroom;
k. Teargassed the sewing room;
l. Teargassed the bedroom in the northeast corner of the home; and
m. Destroyed over 90 feet of exterior fencing with a SWAT vehicle.
For reasons only known to the Sheriff's Department, a deputy continued to search for hidden handgun on Jessen's effed-up residence. He was only able to "recover" after receiving specific directions over the phone from Jessen to locate it. All guns were immediately returned to Jessen, making this last search -- which occurred nearly two hours after Jessen was given an insurance card and a broken home -- especially pointless.
In total, the interloping homeless person cost Jessen one window, an ice cream bar, some milk, and half a tomato. According to the lawsuit's allegations, the two law enforcement agencies rang up more than $150,000 in damaged property. Jessen alleges a long list of constitutional violations but also something a bit more whoa if true:
All of this military-like activity was implemented and completed without Jessen's request, approval, or consent. Jessens are informed and believe the training operation was undertaken because the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and/or Clovis Police Department had found, by accident, the perfect location to conduct a training exercise on a rural home, on a dead-end street, in rural Fresno County, where “civilians” were not present, “civilians” were not going to congregate, “civilians” were not going to observe or interfere with the military training assault on the Jessen’s home and the situation posed no risk of injury to the officers. The Fresno County Sheriff‘s Department and Clovis Police Department seized upon this fortuitous opportunity to engage in a real-life training exercise.
Unless something amazing comes out of discovery during litigation, this claim is unlikely to survive. And chances are it won't survive an initial reading. Jessen is probably safer staying the Constitutional lane. But there is a hint of truth to the allegation, even if there was no provable intent to use Jessen's house as a SWAT team training ground. Law enforcement agencies spend a lot of money on tools and tactics which are rarely deployed. Recognizing a chance to take all the toys out for a spin isn't necessarily a conspiracy… it's just what happens when you have more power than restraint. That's what turns a "standoff' in which the suspect is armed with half an ice cream bar into a mostly-unusable house.
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Filed Under: clovis, david jessen, fresno, police, police overreach
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Bad or worse
I think the really messed up thing is the idea that they trashed his house by using the excuse for a 'training exercise' is the less insane option.
The alternative is that they are so incompetent, so incredibly trigger happy with their toys that they were completely incapable of showing even the slightest bit of self-restraint in apprehending the fiendish homeless person that they totaled his house by accident.
When sociopathic corruption is the better option, you know things are all sorts of wrong.
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Well, not if you read more carefully:
See? The only witnesses for the homeless person having stated to shoot someone are the deputies.
Jackpot.
Well, if the judge does not hand out severe penalities here, it may be his house that is razed to the ground next because people reported a raccoon in his attic.
If it was a training session, there have to be penalties. And if it was best practice, the police departments have to be disarmed (and probably most officers fired) in order to avoid this kind of damage in the future because clearly the cure is worse than the ailment.
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Imagine how frustrating it must feel to terrorists to travel all the way to the U.S. and find out that they won't be able to make a difference.
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To be fair, that's hardly something that started under the current administration, and has been true for many years now at this point. 'Terrorists' don't actually have to do anything anymore, just making threatening noises is more than enough to have governments tripping over themselves to sacrifice public rights 'for the protection of the public'.
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Re: Bad or worse
American police seem especially trigger-happy and desperate to use their toys without care for the innocents they affect, but they probably don't get that way immediately. Why not, then, take the opportunity to train them in doing such things without pesky "civilians" being involved (it should be noted that police are also civilians, but they love the military that much they use their terminology).
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Re: Re: Bad or worse
Given he left the previous place after simply being asked to, I'd say pretty high. Shouting at him with a bullhorn, and given how trigger happy they were I really doubt that they didn't mention how many guns were pointed out the house, in his shoes I might not have been too keen to risk it either.
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Given we are on a tech site... what did the robot do?
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Well, that would have certainly been more useful than anything else a robot could do in the situation described.
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Officers had to "shatter" a sliding door for the robot to enter the house. What good is a robot that can't open or break a door on it's own? They are going to deploy this thing to disarm a bomb or something and their entire plan is going to be foiled by a bedroom door being closed?
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Yes, he was a bad man who had killed people but he was also trapped and unable to harm others.
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Fun facts:
"d. Teargassed the bathroom near the office;"
that would be a war crime
g. Teargassed the laundry room;
-> war crime
i. Teargassed the kitchen;
j. Teargassed the master bathroom;
k. Teargassed the sewing room;
l. Teargassed the bedroom in the northeast corner of the home;
->>> mu-mu-mu-multi war crime!
Tear gas affects breathing and under either late 19th or early 20th treaties that means stuff is a war crime.
But a house filling war crimes against a pd would be so much 21rst century.
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Re: Fun facts:
Tear gas is specifically exempted for civilian law enforcement use under the Geneva Convention. It's illegal to use it in a military engagement but the treaty doesn't bar the use of tear gas against civilians by civilians (law enforcement or otherwise).
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That falls apart in practice if that oversight isn't applied or if the supervision doesn't care / is "in on it", but the basic idea doesn't seem entirely bad.
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The Hollywood Syndrome Strikes Again
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Re: The Hollywood Syndrome Strikes Again
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Remember this when copsuckers tell us how brave cops are
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Re: Remember this when copsuckers tell us how brave cops are
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now the million dollar question
What would YOU do for a Klondike bar?
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Same old, same old
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it makes me wonder
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Fear the might of the ice cream!
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Re:
They did the same thing repeatedly. Cost: millions of dollars in disruption. Arrests: one drunk (unarmed), one homeless person (unarmed), one student (unarmed and actually on his way to class), one staff member (unarmed and doing his job). Meanwhile, during the same time period, muggings, assaults, and robberies continued unabated and slowly increased in frequency. But you see, dealing with those requires quick thinking and fast reflexes, something as utterly beyond these lumbering baboons as nuclear physics is beyond my dog. Whereas shutting down the entire campus just means blindly executing a playbook and showing off -- gratifying their bloated egos by trying to prove how essential they are -- and getting to play with all their toys and pretend that they're a pseudo-military force.
If an actual armed active shooter ever turns up on campus, and is at all competent, a lot of people will die before these clowns have the slightest idea what's happening. I think it's much more likely that a student, faculty or staff member will take them down than the clowns calling themselves police.
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Actual Justice
Then the police department refuses to pay up resulting in foreclose on the police station and it's assets.
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Re: Actual Justice
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So it seems that Jessen was correct when he said that it was hidden such that "only he could find it."
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Benny Hill episode?
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we really need a "common sense" ice cream bar ban now!
Think of the children!
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Cheaper to wait him out
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Not sure if a trebuchet would have helped to reduce the dmg. But would have been awesome to see the picture.
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'police militarization' taken to the next step
http://www.denverpost.com/2015/06/05/owner-standoff-house-in-greenwood-village-is-destroyed /
It's looking an awful lot like this could be the start of a new trend in policing, to the point that the public will be begging for the return of the 'old fashioned' SWAT tactics whose only damage they leave behind is generally just a busted door and a dozen bullets in the wall.
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The magic coding strikes again
Well, it forced you to read and comment didn't it? I'd say that's a pretty impressive show of tech on TD's part.
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More Peace Officers and Fewer LEOS
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Or was it to capture footage for America's funniest home videos?
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Ummm
Police seem to be TO SCARED to talk to a lone person..
Also, 50 Vehicles??
You could surround the HOUSE COMPLETELY and still have Extra vehicles..
50 vehicles with 1 person IN EACH...THIS IS NOT A LUNCH BREAK, this is NOT A DONUT SHOP..
Did the DOG not like how the Trespasser SMELT??
2 swat teams and they JUST GASSED EVERYTHING??
What about that NICE bullet proof shield they have?? Let the person SHOOT a few shots FIRST..then YOU KNOW he found the gun..
How many police officers IN these 2 towns?? Working at that time??? and how many EXTRA called in?? OVER TIME..
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The times, they are a-changing
Nowadays the constables and horsepowers are more invested in tearing them apart.
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Re: The times, they are a-changing
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I think Isaw a video of this somewhere
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Police are SCARED and LIE
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Wow - World Of Warcraft with real eapons
Ref: https://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/files/juristdocs/Anderson_on_Sheriffs_Vol_1.pdf
The Sheriff, in this case, is where. Election year? Boozing it up with the County Executive?
We are a police state for sure is there is no Elected Sheriff to stand with us.
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bunch of "Negrus's"
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