This week, upon suspecting a robber to be in an area by an intersection, the Aurora police barricaded the area and stopped every single car to search it. While they were searching it, they held these adults who were driving their vehicle unsuspectingly through the intersection in handcuffs (maybe even at gunpoint-- I am trying to verify this). Let me repeat myself-- the police did not know who exactly they were looking for, so they detained everyone and held them in handcuffs while searching their vehicles. This is unprecedented, this is inexcusable, and this is law enforcement gone wild.One of the officers
actually talking about the incident is Officer Frank Fania: "The actions of the police have been met with some criticism, but Fania said this was a unique situation that required an unusual response."
Really? The "unique situation" was that they did not know who they were looking for and considered some "tip" to be reliable that this was the area the robber was in, and then handcuffed and detained everyone in that area. Does this mean that if the police get a "tip" that there is a criminal in my neighborhood that they can come, handcuff me, detain me, and search my home since it is in the neighborhood? Is that what we have come to?
This is out of control. Again, there is no excuse for any person from any public service to ever handcuff and detain innocent people while looking for someone thought to be a criminal. If there is a criminal in the area, the last thing I want is to be sitting there handcuffed unable to defend myself. If there is a criminal in the area, I want these people who swear an Oath to the Constitution to protect my life by abiding by the Second and Fourth amendments and by using some more reliable means of catching a criminal other than barricading an entire area and detaining everyone in it.
We should be outraged. Catching "the bad guy" is important, but this never, ever trumps the individual rights of the innocent who deserve to be able to protect themselves-- especially in a situation like what happened in Aurora. All of the people who were sitting there, detained in handcuffs, were sitting targets for this criminal if he was on the loose, and it makes me cringe to think of how vulnerable these innocent victims were because of this egregious decision made by the very people who are supposed to "serve and protect."