Officers example essay topic

344 words
JUST BEFORE DAWN on Oct. 30, 90 law-enforcement officers wearing black masks and fatigues and armed with assault rifles stormed the Martin Luther King Jr. /Marcus Garvey Cooperative in the Western Addition. They used special 'shock-lock's hot gun rounds to blow apartment doors off their hinges and cleared people out of rooms by throwing 'flash-bang grenades,' which produce nonlethal explosions that terrify and disorient people. At a Nov. 4 police commission meeting, a train of furious and sobbing residents from the raided housing complex -- all of them African American -- described how officers slapped them, stepped on their necks, and put guns to their heads while other officers ransacked their homes. Weeping and terrified children, some as young as six, were handcuffed and separated from their parents. Some urinated in their pajamas.

(Police chief Fred Lau told the San Francisco Chronicle that officers wanted to keep the kids from 'running around. ' ) Residents of the complex say the raid was a violation of their civil rights. Scores of people with no charges against them and no criminal records were put in disposable plastic 'flex-cuffs. ' Civil servants and grandmothers were held at gunpoint. One woman was hospitalized after a fit of seizures; other people were so distraught they couldn't return to work for days. And a pit bull named Bosco -- which many residents described as well liked and friendly -- was shot inside an apartment, dragged bleeding outside, and shot again.

Deputy chief Richard Holder told police commissioners that, according to police intelligence gathered during 'covert operations,' the dog was 'known for its jumping ability and was shot in mid-air. ' The squad that raided the housing complex included agents from the San Francisco Police Department's tactical squad and narcotics division, the District Attorney's office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. According to S FPD narcotics lieutenant Kitt Crenshaw, who initiated and planned the operation, the action was designed.