Family Home Stormed in Another 'Botched' SWAT Raid

Another police raid and yet another innocent family caught up in a failed war that sends heavily armed, masked and hyped up cops in search of largely nonviolent offenders. This time the raid happened in Spring Valley, New York, and left a 13-year-old child vomiting and gasping for air in an asthma attack triggered by the over-the-top and misdirected actions of police and DEA agents.

Several agencies executed numerous search warrants before dawn early in January. But when the SWAT team, complete with guns drawn, forced their way into the home at 36 Sharon Drive, they didn’t find the “Michael” they kept screaming for. It wasn’t because Michael was hiding or even out for the night -- it was because Michael lived down the street at 46 Sharon Drive.

The McKay family, including husband David, wife, 13-year-old daughter, and brother-in-law, were all roused from their sleep and rounded up by masked law enforcement agents. The child was pulled from her bed and “drug” down the stairs. She would later be taken to the emergency room for the resulting asthma attack, vomiting, and fainting episode. The entire family was led outside while officers searched inside for Michael, with the father in his underwear on the front lawn desperately trying to explain that no such person lived there.

Unfortunately, these cases of mistaken addresses and over the top raids are all too common these days. Whether you keep a close eye on this Change.org blog or even read major national newspapers, you’ve likely noticed it too. But the frequency in which we hear about such cases shouldn’t desensitize us to the gravity of the situation.

“This isn’t how you treat citizens with rights. This is how you treat enemy combatants in a war zone,” writes Radley Balko of Reason magazine. And Balko is right -- the militaristic actions of police have only grown worse with the war on drugs, and while we may not be able to bring attention to every single case of police raids gone wrong, the ones we do catch should be thrust into the spotlight to ensure Americans realize what we are allowing the police to get away with in the name of drug control.

Soon after the raid on the McKay home, the local DA admitted their agency assisted with the raids but directed any and all questions to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which led the collaborative effort. Several days later, the DEA issued a statement. They didn’t call the family or afford them the decency of a face to face apology -- they released ... a statement to the press, in which they didn’t exactly apologize for their pretty basic blunder either. Rather, they “regretted” the fact that the McKay’s were “inadvertently affected by this enforcement operation.”

During those early morning hours as David McKay watched the armed SWAT team storm his house, he saw several local police officers in the mix -- officers he recognized from his work in the community. You see, Mr. McKay works for the nearby town of Rockland. He is listed as property owner on the deed to the house at 36 Sharon Drive, is a foster parent and is active in the community. But despite his reputation and knowing several of the officers, he met with defensive egotism when he asked why the officers had entered his house in the first place. “You’ll read about it in the paper tomorrow,” was their response.

While local law enforcement seems content to cast blame on the DEA, their role can’t be minimized. When officials offer up Spring Valley officers to assist in raids, they put their reputation on the line and must be held responsible for the results. Call on Spring Valley Mayor Noramie F. Jasmin and Police Chief Paul Modica to take responsibility for their officer’s role in the raid and issue a formal apology directly to the McKay family.

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Photo Credit: DEA