The Metro Narcotics Task Force in Salt Lake City was alerted by the SLC police department that drug activity was going on in an apparently innocent home on Hubbard Avenue.
Cognizant of the deceptive ways of drug dealers, the Task Force did not give them time to escape or conceal evidence. At 10 pm Wednesday night they struck like lightning, breaking down the front door with a battering ram, yelling “Get down! Get down! Get down!”
Instantly detecting the sole occupant, a hugely menacing 76-year-old woman, they pointed a gun at her and demanded to know if she had any drugs. Or guns.
Eviction with battering ram, around 1882, during the Land War in Ireland. Drugs not an issue.
The unnamed woman answered no to both questions. At this point, according to SLC Police Chief Chris Burbank, “They realized this does not look right.” As a result, Burbank says, they did not handcuff her or even search the house.
Burbank mentioned this in the course of an apology. “She’s certainly had the event of a lifetime, and one that I am very sorry that she had to experience at all.” He said it was the police department’s responsibility (not the Task Force’s) that the wrong house had been identified. “This was a mistake. It should not have happened.” He said an internal investigation was underway, and that an unnamed officer had been put on administrative leave while this happened. He said they have procedures to prevent mistakes like this, but they hadn’t been followed. He wouldn’t get more specific. Apparently the house they really wanted to smash into was “very close” to the one they did smash into. They didn’t go on to that house, feeling that the element of surprise was gone. Yeah, could be.
(But wait! Isn’t that exactly what they would think? Maybe this is the best time to surprise the actual suspects! Oh wait, maybe the police know that, and they’re just saying this to lull the suspicions of – wait, right, maybe I should say no more.)
Burbank also said he had apologized to the family and promised to pay for all the damages.
Not actually the uniforms worn by the Salt Lake City Metro Narcotics Task Force.
The woman’s family, meanwhile, said that she was “petrified” when the armed officers broke in. “This was traumatizing to her,” said a son. They have hired a lawyer, and are reviewing the police account.
Apologizing both in person and publicly is good. Repairing the physical damage is good. Releasing as much information as possible about how the mistake was made is good.
But I fault Chief Burbank for saying the woman has “certainly had the event of a lifetime.” That’s an attempt to minimize things. My my, didn’t she have quite the surprise! She’ll have plenty to talk about!
It’s true that the woman wasn’t cuffed, shot, or arrested on suspicion, but a violent break-in of that kind is more than a conversation-starter.
Furthermore, all we really know about the woman is that she’s 76 and was terrified when armed shouting men broke into her house at night. In the course of 76 years she’s probably experienced all kinds of events, and some of them may have been more significant than this.
We all get to be 76 if we don’t die first, and our age is never the most important part of our resume. She might be an Olympic medallist, a brilliant chemist, an innovative cellist. She might have swum the English Channel, helped bring fresh water to an isolated village, or discovered a new species of tarsier. She might have translated the Book of Mormon into Quechua while managing her nine children’s careers as clog dancers. And for all we know, she actually was a drug kingpin, maybe still is, because, remember, they never searched her house.
Image Credits: Public domain.
