Here’s a troubling story out of Washington DC. A veteran suffering from PTSD made a call to a suicide prevention hotline, and before he knew it, a SWAT team arrived to ransack his home and take him to jail. And that was just the first time that day!
While speaking to his interlocutor on the hotline, the man was asked if he owned a gun over and over. Though he answered in the affirmative, he said he didn’t have one “at the ready,” according to The Washington Post. But that was of no comfort to his interlocutor who immediately called the police who sent in the SWAT team. The man surrendered once they arrived and an initial search turned up nothing. A couple of hours later, police returned and turned the man’s home inside out and still no weapon. It is also alleged that officers left the stove on and the front door unlocked for two weeks while the veteran sat in a jail cell.
Thankfully, a DC circuit court ruled that the warrantless second visit to the home violated the man’s Fourth Amendment rights. I’m not sure why the first visit was absolutely necessary, but the second visit was just downright egregious.
In touchy situations like these, it’s good to proceed with caution but if the man said he didn’t have a gun on him, and the first visit from officers confirmed that, what possible justification could they have had to come back to the home? This is a clear-cut case of government overreaction.
Unfortunately, it is stories like this that will keep suffering veterans from reaching out for help. The police have a been charged with a duty to protect and serve, not harass, intimidate, and destroy personal property.
H/T The Blaze