Harassment Campaigns in New London?

[noamnety]

I just got off the phone with my sister in New London, CT - where they are planning to take your homes and give them to big business. Thanks, SCOTUS.

She was telling me that they've brought in police from Hartford to harass locals that are "suspected" of being drug dealers. Her neighbors got a surprise visit from a stranger banging on their door, at 11:00 at night. He didn't disclose that he was a police officer, sounded angry, and demanded to be let inside, so the husband wouldn't let him in. Then he threatened, saying "We can do this the easy way or the hard way" and the husband opened the door and stepped outside. The police left him outside, went into the house (without a warrant), locked the door so he couldn't get in. Then they made the wife, who wasn't dressed, get out of bed and expose herself to them to prove she wasn't concealing anything.

There were no drugs there, no weapons. Apparently they came in because somebody complained that they saw a lot of visitors coming and going. The guy is a coach for a community sports team (I think she said for kids), the wife is a social worker. So they have a lot of visitors, because the sports team folks stop by a lot, and they had another whole set of temporary visitors because they had a funeral, so people were stopping by to see them, and a lot of out-of-towners flew in.

The police have threatened her saying that if she complains, they'll get her fired from her social worker job. The police haven't filed any charges, because there are none to file. The landlord has evicted them, filing papers in court, based on no evidence, claiming that they are drug dealers - so that's on the public record now, which puts put their jobs in jeopardy because of their careers.

My sister described this, somewhat matter of factly, saying it's a harassment campaign they've started, to drive undesirables out of town if they can't get them out any other way. (And yes, the husband in this case is black, in case you didn't figure that out already.)

The next night, the same thing happened to a couple they are friends with - again, nothing illegal found, but the cops had lots of fun screaming at them and intimidating them.

Is this going on elsewhere? Is that the norm now, to have police assigned to harass people who haven't committed any crimes?

[acmavm]

1. Time for some people to stock up on video cameras and get hard

evidence. And then go after the town counsel, police department, and everyone else they can think of.

[noamnety]

2. That was one of the first things I said as well

Time to install home surveillance equipment.

[mark11727]

3. Alrighty then...

Time to call in a motherf*ckin' pitbull lawyer from the ACLU to work out on somebody's sorry land-grabbing ass.

No mercy for bullies.

[noamnety]

4. They're torn on what to do

They're discussing calling in the ACLU, but then there's the threat that the policeman will pull some strings and get her fired, and the possibility of yet more police harassment, which they're pretty frightened of. The officer who stormed in was one from Hartford who has a history of shooting unarmed people. From the wife's perspective, having been forced to stand naked in front of them for inspection, it's not so different from a rape scenario, and she's not looking for more of that.

So they're probably just going to leave the area. I guess the harassment campaign was successful, in that sense. But they'll probably try to go to court to get the eviction papers cancelled - they're happy to leave, but not with that on the record.

I'm disgusted beyond words.

[CC]

5. I would get a lawyer

fast and if she is a state worker she should have a union rep to contact about the threat. Also every news organization they can find.