SWAT team raids homeschooling family home
January 9th, 2008 by COD
How’s that for an inflammatory headline? Unfortunately, it’s 100% true.
Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family’s home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.
The boy’s parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy’s father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.
The boy apparently took a fall. Neighbors called the paramedics, and dad said the boy was fine and refused to let him be taken to the hospital. The paramedics called the police, the police sent social workers who determined that the boy was near death, or something. That is when the SWAT team was called to save the boy’s life.
As it turns out, the kid was fine. After the raid, a doctor examined him, and told him to drink some fluids and take a Tylenol.
Oops. Hopefully, a plague of civil rights attorneys are descending upon Colorado even as I type.
The sheriff said the decision to use SWAT team force was justified because the father was a “self-proclaimed constitutionalist” and had made threats and “comments” over the years.
The family also homeschools. Does anybody here think the SWAT team would have been called if mom was President of the PTA?
17 Responses to “SWAT team raids homeschooling family home”
As usual, World Nut Daily leaves out some important facts. http://cbs4denver.com/local/To.....25138.html
What detail? The court order?
OK, right. If I was the guy’s pastor and/or personal friend I would have told him he shouldn’t be stupidly defiant. I think you should treat people nice who have guns and are able and willing to point them at you.
But, looking at it on principle, this is a just response?
Say what you will about the World “Nut” Daily, I don’t feel the least bit fearful that they are going to send gunmen to break into my house and terrorize my family. It seems odd to me when an incident involving inaccurate reporting and state-sponsored terrorism that an observer would rather criticize the press than the jackboots.
Is the fear of being associated with the “right wing” really that rational?
In what universe is the implementation of a police state less “right wing” in a threatening sort of way than an arguably reactionary internet mag?
What detail? The court order?
Yes. And the fact that they sent two deputies to enforce it. And the fact that he refused to comply. All BEFORE they called in the cavalry.
Do I think the police handled it properly? No. Is WND misleading their readers (again)? Absolutely.
The opening paragraph of the WND article mentions the court order resulted from the paramedics call to the sheriff and social workers. I’m no fan of of WND but I’m not seeing a whole lot they got wrong in this particular case. Even the National Enquirer is right once in a while.
Reason cherry picked some of the facts from the WND article while avoiding the more inflammatory stuff that isn’t rooted in fact. There isn’t anything in the link provided from Daryl that contradicts the basic facts. The paramedics over reacted by calling for the Sheriff, and the sheriff way, way over reacted by sending an assault unit against a double wide.
Something I did miss the first time is what the hell is HSLDA doing getting involved? Are they expanding their range of services to become a general legal aid service for fundies?
They don’t mention that the sheriff sent two deputies to the home and that he refused to comply with a court order.
“Someone, apparently the unidentified paramedic, called police, the sheriff’s office and social services, eventually providing Leoniak with a report that generated the magistrate’s court order to the sheriff’s office for the SWAT team assault on the family’s home in a mobile home development outside of Glenwood Springs, the father, Tom Shiflett, told WND.”
It reads like a phone call to the sheriff’s office led straight to the SWAT team.
How is it relevant to the SWAT team busting down his door? That is no more appropriate just because he ignored two deputies. Obviously WND is looking to fire up the fundie base, but in this case the facts pretty much handle that one their own.
We don’t know what he said to the deputies when he refused to comply. Given the reaction, I’d say there’s a good chance it wasn’t “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.”
We’re missing some important info, here. And WND did their best to make sure that their readers remained ignorant.
WND could have included live video of the entire event and most of their readers would still be ignorant.
Here’s another telling of the story.
Well you know, the primary job of law enforcement is keeping those “self-proclaimed constitutionalists” in line. Especially the ones that make “comments.”
We certainly can’t have people going around asserting their constitutional rights. The whole system would collapse.
/sarcasm
This happened right down the road from my (thankfully) former home of Grand Junction. I’m wondering if this apparent overreaction had anything to do with a series of events in recent years where several children of local members of a fringe Christian church (Church of the Firstborn) died because of their parents’ refusal to provide them with medical care.
And if this part is true:
…then I can see why the sheriff, er, brought an army.
That said, I’m more than a bit terrified by the idea of any law enforcement officer considering someone’s being a “constitutionalist” a sign that that person poses a grave danger.
Doesn’t matter, it’s not a home education freedom case. Medical privacy and self-determination maybe, like Terri Schiavo, but not home education. Why we’d strain to make it one, when usually we work so hard and so credibly to do the opposite (when it’s Andrea Yates, the Pearls, etc.) can only be explained by political arousal.
Sounds like he was willing to give assurances and allow them through his door.
I wasn’t there, but this is as believable as any other version reported. If he did shout it wouldn’t be the first time officials work overtime to provoke a reaction and then use the reaction to justify categorizing the victim as a threat.
Sorry, RedMolly and I posted at the same time. I wasn’t responding to her comment, which I agree with.
Aah! I would describe myself as a “Constitutionalist” if it weren’t for those who seem to have taken over the term. (I don’t live in a trailer in the backwoods of MI, so might not qualify). And I’ve made a lot of comments. The black helicopters are coming to get us all!
I am curious about the alluded to threats, however. If you make enough, it isn’t a surprise when someone finally thinks maybe you really did something.
I just love all the references to the fundies and World “Nut” Daily. These folks will surely make the anonymous call to any state agency simply because they don’t agree with your faith or your parenting decisions.
To be sure, these are the brilliant apparatchiks of the leviathan state! For these people, Hegel’s maxim is true: “The state is God walking on earth”.
Your right to NOT send your children to government schools (to learn to think like them) is looney! Your right to immunize or NOT is looney! In fact, you shouldn’t have any rights at all because you are a fundy! Freedom & liberty for them is their right to porn and free health care and to whether to like the Yankees or the Mets, Budweiser or Coors.
What these intellectual giants fail to understand is that they are just committed to their god whether it be Darwin, the state or a combination thereof. When these people are being consumed by their beloved beast, to whom will they reach? Oh, that’s right, it’s the survival of the fittest.
I just love all the references to the fundies and World “Nut” Daily. These folks make lemmings look like free thinkers. They’re the ones who make the anonymous call to any state agency simply because they don’t agree with your faith or your parenting decisions.
These are the brilliant apparatchiks of the leviathan state! For these people, Hegel’s maxim is true: “The state is God walking on earth”.
Your right to NOT send your children to government schools (to learn to think like them) is looney! Your right to immunize or NOT is looney! In fact, you shouldn’t have any rights at all because you are a fundy! Freedom & liberty for them is their right to porn and free health care and to whether to like the Yankees or the Mets, Budweiser or Coors.
What these intellectual giants fail to understand is that they are just as committed to their god whether it be Darwin, the State or a combination thereof. When these people are being consumed by their beloved beast, to whom will they reach? Oh, that’s right, it’s the survival of the fittest.