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Homes, property, and even individuals were literally unlawfully under siege in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after the recent heavy rains that swelled the Cedar River.
Some homeowners experienced as much as four feet of water in their basements, while others four inches. Nonetheless, the Cedar Rapids Fire Department along with the local police department organized themselves into “strike teams,” composed of six or seven police officers, firefighters, utility workers, and other city employees. Several teams operated in 10 different sectors, with approximately 390 residences per sector.
The door-to-door search was launched under the guise of safety – the government is here to help you – checking, they said, for any safety issues, gas leaks, structural issues, hazardous materials, and air quality. But things got out of hand, as they are wont to do, when a “state of emergency” is invoked – plainly, the rule of law was ignored, over ridden, and just plain abused.
The strike teams broke into house after house and they sounded every bit like Nazi’s, threatening homeowners with charges of harassment if they raised even an eyebrow at the strong-armed tactics. One police officer in the video actually threatened a homeowner on his own front porch, saying the homeowner was “harassing” the rescue workers because he didn’t like his broken front door. “I’ll make sure you never come back here again,” he told the slightly agitated homeowner, who’s home, by the way, had no standing water around it whatsoever at that point in time. The cop in this case is clearly the one breaking the law, but in his anger and lust for power he turns on the law-abiding citizen – his anger was representative of his bruised ego, as he interpreted the response of the citizen as being opposed to his almighty authority – the new esprit de corps of the police department.
Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham in a news conference assured the public using military jargon that the strike teams had indeed been deployed throughout the city, with “compassion for and understanding of,” the citizens. “Law enforcement are not entering homes, firefighters are doing that,” through unlocked doors and windows only, but in his next phrase says that doors may have to be broken down. But it simply doesn’t make any difference whether it’s the police or fire fighters breaking in, it’s all the same.
But worse than that is the fact that it has become automatic when a natural disaster arises for the police, and now even any city employee to assume tyrannical martial law-style powers. And, as unsainted human beings they tend to become enamored of their own power becoming rough, brutal, tyrannical, and very uncompassionate, certainly losing sight of the “protect and serve” mentality of old.
The citizens of this country relied on and welcomed big government every time there has been a natural disaster and now citizens seem to be powerless to do anything about no-knock and warrantless forced entries. Perhaps one could go through the expense and grief and stress of a lawsuit afterward, but given the state of civil affairs these days, it is unlikely that anything would come of it. Personally, I would still try it, just to send a message.
It is most stomach-wrenching to see the once honored police and fire department people, who used to be the guardians of civil rights, the protectors of the weak, and the defenders of the innocent breaking the law, abusing their authority, and the cause of post-traumatic stress disorder, which may be the whole point here. For those of us who witness or see videos of these government-ordained thugs in operation, fear of our government masters grows.
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