Secret Paramilitary Maneuvers on Rowe Street

[XLFD]

According to TV 9&10 News:  Mason County sheriff says around 3 Friday afternoon the Ludington police, Mason County Sheriff's Office and SSCENT carried out a search warrant on the 300 block of Rowe Street in the city of Ludington. The story has been absent from the MCP and the COLDNews aped the 9&10 report, primarily because that's all of the information the officials want to feed the public.

What else is known is that they used quite sophisticated armored equipment in serving this warrant and quite a bit of similarly armored personnel.  Below is a picture taken by a neighbor of the assault craft used to approach the house. 

No bus was seen in the backyard of the house, and seven hours later, the police are still tight lipped about what the search warrant was for, what they found, and what actions they took against the residents.  The area being targeted by SSCENT is one block away from the Ludington City Hall/Ludington Police Department, as seen in the diagram below.  As most politically savvy people know, the best time to do things to avoid news coverage is Friday afternoon.

SSCENT is a multi-jurisdictional task force which has very little oversight by the public since what they do are often declared to be immune to FOIA requests, even when an investigation is over.  Whereas it may be wise and safe for those concerned in conducting such warrants to prepare for the worst, it may be unwise and unsafe for the public at large if such precautions are not otherwise warranted. 

As is typical, the general public is not given the ability whether to ascertain if such was the case here.  Discretely mentioned but very public operations like this tend to make the public, even the law abiding public, more fearful of those who are not only supposed to protect and serve them, but to keep them informed of their activities, and whether those activities are themselves done lawfully and properly. 

[stump]

I'm looking at it this way. If the police thought they needed that much armor to enter a property with a search warrant there must have been some indication of probable trouble. I hope this isn't a indication of what our police in this city has been lead to .  

[shinblind]

I look at it this way, somebody got a new toy and it was a nice day so they decide to take it outside and play with it.

So they go riding like gang busters wearing their blacks and hanging off the running boards as a show of force and a good photo  op for the Daily Snooze.

Riddle me this stump, when is the last time you have heard of a drug raid being run in broad daylight instead of 4 in the morning?  Especially when you take into  consideration that it was across the street from the Senior Center.

I see this as nothing more than a mostly training exercise with a warrant.

[XLFD]

And that's why I'm a fan...

[Willy]

I'm thinking along the lines of stump. If the police were not overreacting and they thought such a heavy handed approach was needed for the job at hand, does that mean Ludington has the type of dangerous people living here that armored vehicles are required to apprehend them. Either way it doesn't look good for the Ludington community.

[XLFD]

Two of my sources have alerted me that there was nobody in the apartment when the police showed up, so they rammed open the door.  Reportedly, the landlord asked the home marauders who was going to pay to replace the door they had just effectively ruined and was given the reply of silence.  Nuff said, I guess.

Why didn't they ask the landlord to let them in?  What, and miss out on an opportunity to use their extrication toys in the field?  Their attitude is a good reason why they may need their armored vehicles and machine guns in the future, to deal with all of the lawful, concerned citizens who are more afraid of their local police running amuck than they are the bad guys.   

[Susan Smith]

Was any additional information revealed about the incident at this address in June? The incident was around 8pm and there were police at the scene at about midnight when I drove by that night. I suspect that there were drugs being sold at this house based on the frequent traffic. 

[XLFD]

Things like this are very difficult to follow because of the lack of names, no definite address, and additionally because they are part of SSCENT task force operations, an agency which seems to be able to avoid any meaningful FOIA requests to determine more information. 

When such secret operations go forth without question or review, it makes a law-abiding citizen like me a lot more scared of the cops rather than the criminals.