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On January 28, 2019, police conducted a no-knock drug raid on a Houston couple which resulted in the couple (and their dog, of course) being killed by police. You need to see how the police Chief and the police union tried to spin it :
After a drug raid killed a middle-aged couple and injured five narcotics officers in Houston last week, the head of the local police union blamed people who criticize cops, while the police chief blamed politicians who fail to support the gun-control policies he favors.
The real cause was a fundamentally immoral war on drugs that routinely requires violence in response to peaceful activities.
Hours after the deadly attack on the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, condemned “the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy.”
He warned that “we’re going to be keeping track of all y’all,” and “we’re going to be holding you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers.”
Further into that article:
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo later rebuked Gamaldi for his “over-the-top” remarks. “Joe Gamaldi’s emotions got the best of him,” Acevedo said. “This had nothing to do with any of the stuff that he was talking about.”
Yet Acevedo could not resist tossing out his own red herring by criticizing “elected officials” who fail to address the “proliferation of firearms in the hands of people that have no business having guns.”
The Washington Post praised Acevedo for seizing on the horribly botched drug raid to reiterate his support for “sensible gun safety policies” such as “reinstatement of the assault weapons ban,” “a ban on high-capacity magazines” and requiring that “unlicensed private dealers do background checks at gun shows.”
A department screw up and the chief blames guns. Of course. Fast forward to today:
Are you confident that police won’t break down your door tonight? If so, it is probably because you assume the warrant required for such an armed invasion of your home has to be based on reliable evidence of criminal activity.
But that isn’t true in Houston, as a federal indictment unsealed last week shows. According to the indictment, a drug raid that killed a middle-aged couple on Jan. 28 was based on lies from start to finish, which should alarm anyone who thinks the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches.
The indictment says the no-knock raid at 7815 Harding St. — which found no evidence of drug dealing but set off an exchange of gunfire that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas — was based on a false tip and a fraudulent search warrant affidavit. The Department of Justice says Gerald Goines, a narcotics officer who retired in March after 34 years with the Houston Police Department, invented a heroin purchase by a nonexistent confidential informant.
Goines, who already faced state murder charges in connection with the raid, is now charged with civil right violations that could send him to prison for life. Steven Bryant, a narcotics officer who backed up Goines’ story of a drug deal that never happened, is charged with falsifying records. Patricia Garcia, the neighbor whose 911 calls prompted the investigation of Tuttle and Nicholas, is charged with conveying false information to police.
It would be easy to blame this scandal on a malicious tipster and a couple of rogue cops. But the indictment of Goines, Bryant and Garcia is also an indictment of the policies and practices that allowed this disastrous operation to unfold.
We have EVERY RIGHT to suspect abuse in terms of red flag laws. Police chiefs in many cases are political hacks. Many judges are activists that will sign off on a RF seizure just because they hate guns. This couple is dead because of a lie. Are more unsuspecting and innocent gun owners next?
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