Sharon Ramage, a 57-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was ironing clothes when the police assault on her home began shortly after nightfall on June 21, 2007.
Backed by a helicopter and a $300,000 armored vehicle, 35 members of the Louisville Metro SWAT team stormed her Okolona property, detonated a deafening “flash bang” device, smashed in her rear door, put her on the floor, bound her wrists with flex cuffs and held her at gunpoint while detectives searched the home.
Police were looking for evidence against her 32-year-old son, Michael Ramage, who was under investigation after dropping off film at a Wal-Mart store showing him and his two sons naked. But the search uncovered no evidence, and charges against Ramage for using a minor in a sexual performance eventually were dismissed.
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Buried Lead: The search was for evidence in a sex crime (and in the end the pictures that started this botched investigation were completely innocent, thanks "employee at a color-film processing company in Atlanta" snitch). Think about that for a minute. What could have been done by a couple of detectives with a warrant acting politely was done at huge cost (a helicopter costs around $5000/hr to keep in the air), massive damage, and by terrorizing an innocent woman. Why? Because they can. Because we empower these thugs to act like this.
Why do cops pull people over at random (or after being profiled like my brother and I who were pulled over and searched on separate occasions because we were white in the black part of town) and search them despite the fact the Supreme Court and all lower courts have said they can't? It's because they know that only one in a thousand people can afford to sue the police for doing it. So they keep doing it. They didn't arrest me so unless I have a recording of the situation all I can do is accept that I was stopped, questioned, and searched without cause. And if I did have a recording? I might win a small settlement against the police department and the two cops would keep on doing it. Why do cops get to shoot fleeing suspects in the back and get away with no punishment other than a few months off with pay? Because we allow them to police themselves and, as always, the shooting turns out to be "justified." Shoot a black man in New York 50 times, get off free, if you're a cop. Who is watching the watchers? Noone. It takes an individual bringing suit at great cost in both time and money with no guarantee the legal system will work. Most of us can't afford to take a couple of years off from our life to pursue these bastards and in the end it is very rare for a cop to lose his or her job for being a thug, murderer, or worse. Nope, we just let them keep fucking with us because we're supposed to respect them, even when they're total assholes and idiots.
Louisville Metro Police Department's armored vehicles used to be parked in plain view but have since been moved (I feel like a fool for not photographing them at the time, they were quite scary). Not only do they have humvees and armored transport trucks, there is at least one Bradley in the mix. These are military assault vehicles, painted matte black and missing the mounted automatic weapons (for now). A few years ago when the police occupied Broadway Avenue here in Louisville to keep the blacks from partying during Derby they were dressed in fatigues with combat boots and carried shotguns and rifles at the intersections. We are slowly but surely turning our police forces into paramilitary forces. That is a really bad idea and it is how the powerful are circumventing the law preventing deployment of armed soldiers in the U.S. (though they began to chip away at the basis of that law in post Katrina New Orleans).
Welcome to America, land of "shoot first, ask questions later."
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