Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

"A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • "A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son"

    Originally posted by Salon
    A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

    After our house burned down in Wisconsin a few months ago, my husband and I packed our four young kids and all our belongings into a gold minivan and drove to my sister-in-law’s place, just outside of Atlanta. On the back windshield, we pasted six stick figures: a dad, a mom, three young girls, and one baby boy.

    That minivan was sitting in the front driveway of my sister-in-law’s place the night a SWAT team broke in, looking for a small amount of drugs they thought my husband’s nephew had. Some of my kids’ toys were in the front yard, but the officers claimed they had no way of knowing children might be present. Our whole family was sleeping in the same room, one bed for us, one for the girls, and a crib.

    After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my son’s crib.

    Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. It’s been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and he’s still covered in burns.

    There’s still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs. At least that’s what I’ve been told; I’m afraid to look.

    My husband’s nephew, the one they were looking for, wasn’t there. He doesn’t even live in that house. After breaking down the door, throwing my husband to the ground, and screaming at my children, the officers – armed with M16s – filed through the house like they were playing war. They searched for drugs and never found any.

    I heard my baby wailing and asked one of the officers to let me hold him. He screamed at me to sit down and shut up and blocked my view, so I couldn’t see my son. I could see a singed crib. And I could see a pool of blood. The officers yelled at me to calm down and told me my son was fine, that he’d just lost a tooth. It was only hours later when they finally let us drive to the hospital that we found out Bou Bou was in the intensive burn unit and that he’d been placed into a medically induced coma.

    For the last three weeks, my husband and I have been sleeping at the hospital. We tell our son that we love him and we’ll never leave him behind. His car seat is still in the minivan, right where it’s always been, and we whisper to him that soon we’ll be taking him home with us.

    Every morning, I have to face the reality that my son is fighting for his life. It’s not clear whether he’ll live or die. All of this to find a small amount of drugs?

    The only silver lining I can possibly see is that my baby Bou Bou’s story might make us angry enough that we stop accepting brutal SWAT raids as a normal way to fight the “war on drugs.” I know that this has happened to other families, here in Georgia and across the country. I know that SWAT teams are breaking into homes in the middle of the night, more often than not just to serve search warrants in drug cases. I know that too many local cops have stockpiled weapons that were made for soldiers to take to war. And as is usually the case with aggressive policing, I know that people of color and poor people are more likely to be targeted. I know these things because of the American Civil Liberties Union’s new report, and because I’m working with them to push for restraints on the use of SWAT.

    A few nights ago, my 8-year-old woke up in the middle of the night screaming, “No, don’t kill him! You’re hurting my brother! Don’t kill him.” How can I ever make that go away? I used to tell my kids that if they were ever in trouble, they should go to the police for help. Now my kids don’t want to go to sleep at night because they’re afraid the cops will kill them or their family. It’s time to remind the cops that they should be serving and protecting our neighborhoods, not waging war on the people in them.

    I pray every minute that I’ll get to hear my son’s laugh again, that I’ll get to watch him eat French fries or hear him sing his favorite song from “Frozen.” I’d give anything to watch him chase after his sisters again. I want justice for my baby, and that means making sure no other family ever has to feel this horrible pain.

    Update: As of the afternoon of 6/24/2014, Baby Bou Bou has been taken out of the medically induced coma and transferred to a new hospital to begin rehabilitation. The hole in his chest has yet to heal, and doctors are still not able to fully assess lasting brain damage.

    Alecia Phonesavanh is the mother of Bounkham Phonesavanh, nicknamed "Baby Bou Bou." She and her family live in Atlanta.
    http://www.salon.com/2014/06/24/a_sw..._year_old_son/

    Wha.... But seriously what..? The police use ****ing flashbangs on drug raids on houses they haven't even properly carried out surveillance on?

  • #2
    More info..

    Originally posted by NY Daily News
    Parents of toddler injured by flash bang grenade during raid on Georgia home call for justice after meeting with feds

    Bou Bou Phonesavanh remains in a coma two weeks after he was severely injured in a botched raid on the Georgia home where he was staying with his family. His parents met with feds in Georgia on Tuesday.

    The parents of a 19-month-old severely injured when police threw a flash bang grenade into his playpen during a raid met with federal authorities in Georgia Tuesday to plead for justice.

    The toddler, Bou Bou Phonesavanh, remains in a medically induced coma two weeks after he was blasted in the face and chest during a botched drug raid on the Habersham County house, where he and his parents were staying following a fire at their Wisconsin home.

    So far, state and federal agents, including the Georgie Bureau of Investigations and investigators from two district attorneys' offices, have found no wrongdoing in last month's predawn raid.

    At a news conference Tuesday, the tot's father, Bounkham Phonesavanh said the officers who lobbed the explosive into his sleeping child's playpen showed no remorse afterward, and lied to he and his wife about the extent of his injuries, saying the boy had only lost a tooth, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

    "The officers cursed and yelled at us and threatened to arrest me after we expressed our concern for our son," Phonesavanh said, according to NBC Atlanta.

    The tot suffered severe burns and wounds to his face and chest, and was in critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

    Phonesavanh recalled the horror of seeing the boy's blood-spattered crib and hearing his horrific screams. They didn't realize how bad he was injured until they got to the hospital a short while later.

    Habersham County authorities were searching for alleged drug dealer Wanis Thonetheva, 30, when they broke down the door of the darkened Corneila pad, located some 90 miles northeast of Atlanta.

    Thonetheva, who was not at the home, was wanted for selling meth to an undercover officer.

    Cops have said they had reason to believe there were armed men inside and were told by a confidential informant that no children were at the home.

    But Phonesavanh, his wife, Alecia, along with Bou Bouand his three older sisters, were inside; they'd been staying with Thonetheva, Phonesavanh's newphew, for about two months after a fire destroyed their Wisconsin home.

    No drugs or weapons were found at the house.

    The family met with Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the FBI for three hours on Tuesday.

    At Tuesday's conference, Mawuli Mel Davis, the family's attorney, discounted the authorities' account of the raid, saying the SWAT team had mistaken the house for a fortified drug den complete with armed guards stationed at the entryway.

    Davis also said the team should have known there were children inside because a minivan with four child seats was parked in the driveway, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

    He also said a TV was on in the room where little Bou Bou was sleeping, disputing police claims that the entryway was dark but appeared empty when they tossed the stun grenade inside.

    The Phonesavanhs said they never saw any drugs at the house. Thonetheva hadn't lived there since they moved in, Davis said, according to the newspaper.

    "We love our children and would never put them in harm's way by involving ourselves in drugs," Alecia Phonesavanh said.

    Comment


    • #3
      Oh and the police are apparently considering charging the guy who the raid was targeting with the injuries to the child. Despite him not being there, or having thrown the device, or having been involved in the actual raid in any way..

      Seriously, there aren't enough WTF smilies to do this **** justice.

      Comment


      • #4
        This happens quite a bit. Mostly, it's cops shooting dogs.



        You know what the solution is? Obviously, it's to disband the police and allow responsible gun owners to protect us.
        To us, it is the BEAST.

        Comment


        • #5
          Disarm the police.

          If the cops need to serve a warrant, they should organize a posse of local armed citizens. If the local armed citizens don't want to help serve the warrant, then that can be taken as proof that the warrant is bull****.
          John Brown did nothing wrong.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Felch View Post
            Disarm the police.

            If the cops need to serve a warrant, they should organize a posse of local armed citizens. If the local armed citizens don't want to help serve the warrant, then that can be taken as proof that the warrant is bull****.

            Wow. A solution that both hurts law enforcement and the rights of other people. You aren't disappointing lately.
            To us, it is the BEAST.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Felch View Post
              Disarm the police.

              If the cops need to serve a warrant, they should organize a posse of local armed citizens. If the local armed citizens don't want to help serve the warrant, then that can be taken as proof that the warrant is bull****.
              Or that they're *******s. Or that the person served by the warrant has power over the posse. But you know, maybe the bull**** thing, too.
              Click here if you're having trouble sleeping.
              "We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones." - François de La Rochefoucauld

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Felch View Post
                Disarm the police.

                If the cops need to serve a warrant, they should organize a posse of local armed citizens. If the local armed citizens don't want to help serve the warrant, then that can be taken as proof that the warrant is bull****.
                Or that the drug gang has thoroughly infiltrated and intimidated the neighborhood.
                “It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.”

                ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by pchang View Post
                  Or that the drug gang has thoroughly infiltrated and intimidated the neighborhood.
                  If drugs were legalized there wouldn't be any drug gangs.
                  John Brown did nothing wrong.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Felch View Post
                    If drugs were legalized there wouldn't be any drug gangs.
                    I'm surprised you don't support prohibition.

                    An independent group of small business owners who handle their own personal security? Drug cartels are like your wet dream.
                    To us, it is the BEAST.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Why would a libertarian support prohibition?
                      No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I'm talking about Felch, not a libertarian.
                        To us, it is the BEAST.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          if the cop wanted meth why didn't he just go to Walgreens?

                          believe it or not Ripley, the supreme court has said the cops are fine with the 4th Amendment when setting off bombs in our homes and shooting dogs...they consider that reasonable...until it happens to them, which it wont.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            what time did you start drinking today?
                            To us, it is the BEAST.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I had a beer - Black Butte Porter - about 6 hours ago.

                              Another habit I gotta change, I still drink far too much on the golf course

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X