Home Invasions, Public and Private

by Will Grigg
Oct. 12, 2012

On the morning of October 4, Sandy, Utah resident Clayton Green was greeted at his door by a man displaying a badge and identifying himself as a police officer. Within seconds, the elderly man and his wife were thrown to the floor and handcuffed with zip ties while another man – whose face was concealed – held a gun to their foreheads.

The intruders were not police carrying out a so-called dynamic entry raid; instead, they were armed robbers of a more conventional variety posing as police.

A few days later another armed raid was carried out against an elderly couple in Salt Lake City. Michael and Teresa Ryan were terrorized by an armed gang that busted down their front door and held them at gunpoint. This time, it was the police – specifically, a federally supervised joint narcotics task force – that committed this act of terrorism.

According to Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, the only problem with this raid was that it took place at the wrong address. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Frank Smith, whose agency participated in that assault, blithely explained that “law enforcement, unfortunately, is not a perfect science.”

In fact, law enforcement in contemporary America is practically indistinguishable from organized crime.