Lyons: Federal agents' raid wasn't first blunder that day

[The Straight Story]

Cookie decorator Elliott Stiner left his job at Westfield Sarasota Square mall on Wednesday afternoon last week and walked to the bus stop.

The 22-year-old sat on the curb and started reading a book.

He didn't notice then, but Stiner thinks he was followed out by several men. He had no clue they were there until a man spoke behind him.

“Hey, buddy!” the voice said.

As Stiner turned, the men were on top of him and tackled him, pressing his forehead into the pavement.

Next thing he knew he was in handcuffs.

....

The men who tackled him didn't ever identify what agency they were from before they left, Stiner says. And he wondered if the man they were looking for was such a violent, dangerous guy that six cops had to tackle him first and ask his name afterward.

...
[link:http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130718/COLUMNIST/130719612/0/FRONTPAGE|
Lyons: Police raid felt like home invasion]

By about 8 p.m., he had a clueless and terrified Doctors Hospital operating room nurse, Louise Goldsberry, pinned down in a gun-to-gun standoff at her Hidden Lake Village apartment.

Wiggins had opened her front door and aimed his gun inside at the woman and her boyfriend who — not believing the demanding, cursing armed men outside were really cops — had refused to open the door. Afterward, Wiggins blamed Goldsberry for the mix-up. She should have known they were cops and just come out, he said.

....

I had just talked to another Sarasota woman who said she and her boyfriend were manhandled and insulted and held in their front yard after they awoke to marshals breaking down their door on a Friday morning a few weeks ago.

She said they were startled and confused but opened the door before it was knocked down, yet were grabbed, yanked outside, handcuffed and put on the ground at gunpoint. The woman said they were called liars, and more, during a long session in front of neighbors.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130726/COLUMNIST/130729767?p=1&tc=pg

[PDJane]

1. This is a police state tactic, and I've watched this happening.

Let me know when I can officially call the US a police state. Doesn't look much like democracy at the moment.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. I'll say it again: We need a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices.

The cops are out of control.

[Dawson Leery]

5. Law Enforcement must be placed under civilian supervision.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. kick

[bemildred]

4. Arrogant and avid bullies. nt

[frylock]

6. FEDERAL agents..

welcome to Obama's America, mutherfuckers.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

7. Guilty until proven innocent.

And we want local, state, and federal agencies having our information so they can misuse that, too?

Fuck That Noise.