This article was originally published by Matt Agorist at The Free Thought Project.
If you were to read the local news sites in Las Vegas earlier this month, you would think that police — while saving the public from a dangerous murderer — were ambushed and two of them were shot, barely escaping with their lives. The “shooter’s” face, plastered on news sites, telling the public that he fired 18 shots at officers before they finally and heroically killed him. But Isaiah Tyree Williams wasn’t so much a shooter as he was a victim of police violence. Their badges do nothing to change this reality.
After police executed Williams in his own home, a report from a local CBS affiliate read as follows, “Police said the shooter, 19-year-old Isaiah Tyree Williams, opened fire when officers broke a window and entered the apartment near Nellis Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive at about 5 a.m. on Monday.”
But the question is this: does defending your home from armed intruders make you a “shooter”?
Had Williams been accused or suspected of a crime, perhaps police may have been more justified in their actions. However, he was not. Williams was not the person the police were looking for and thanks to their brutal incompetence, two cops are recovering from bullet wounds and a black teenager is dead.
On that early morning raid, police were looking for 23-year-old Wattsel Rembert who was not staying at that apartment. Rembert is accused of participating in a shooting at a casino back in November. Instead of simply arresting Rembert in a normal manner, police chose to dangerously show up in the middle of the night, bash in doors, throw flash-bang grenades, and put everyone involved in danger.
During the raid, Williams, who was asleep on the sofa when armed intruders broke into his home, began firing after a flashbang grenade smashed through his window. Police answered back with their AR-15s and pistols, firing 23 shots into the teen’s body — executing him on the sofa. He was still under the blanket when he died.
Two of the armed intruders, Officer Kerry Kubla, 50, and Officer Brice Clements, 36 were injured in the shooting.
After the shooting, police held a press conference, during which they demonized Williams, rattling off all the charges Williams would have faced for defending himself in his own home against armed intruders who threw a grenade through his window as he slept.
“Had he survived,” police explained, “Williams would have been arrested on counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a first responder; battery with a deadly weapon on a first responder, assault on a first responder and three counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure.”
For defending himself against armed intruders, clearly intent on doing him harm in his own home as he slept.
As you watch the video below, it is clear that police did yell, “police department, search warrant.” But they did so as they bashed in windows, set off a flash-bang grenade,
and used a battering ram on the door.
The idea that a person — who had committed no crime — is supposed to wake up calmly as windows are breaking and grenades are exploding in their home is utterly asinine and speaks to the failed and ineffective nature of no-knock raids. Sadly, judging by the comments from Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh, police still think that early morning no-knock raids keep them safe.
“You have to take into consideration the danger to officers, the danger to the community if you’re ever in that area and in that neighborhood,” Walsh said. “In the early morning hours, it’s much safer for the officers and it’s much safer for the community for us to do it at that time because there are less people out.”
Had Williams not been executed and two officers shot during this raid, Walsh’s comments would be laughable. Unfortunately, however, they highlight the sheer disconnect between the reality of policing and playing warrior cop.
Exposing the entirely unnecessary nature of the raid is the fact that the actual person police were looking for, Wattsel Rembert, turned himself in to police without incident.
Watch as cowboy cops in Las Vegas, Nevada serve a warrant on WRONG person; KILL HIM as he tries to figure out if he's victim of home invasion. *Full shooting shown. pic.twitter.com/je7UoPBrt4
— Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (@SarahAshtonLV) January 19, 2022
I c all B.S. on this article!!!!!!!!!!!
I BET YOU DO BUT YOU ARE AN IDIOT. YOU HAVE THESE NASTY COPS KILLING THE WRONG GUY AND YOUR DUMB AZZ SEES NOTHING WRONG WITH IT? IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN POSITION OF POWER WHERE YOU GO AFTER SOMEONE AND CAN POTENTIALLY TAKE THEIR LIFE THEN YOU BETTER BE SURE YOU GOT THE RIGHT PERSON YOU STUPID IGNORANT MORON. IF YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO BE SURE YOU GOT THE RIGHT PERSON THEN YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN THAT LINE OF WORK. YOU ARE A FKN MORON.
Hey Sarge, long time no see. Did you ever find a good property to move to? You don’t want to mess with Vegas cops! They shoot people all the time, well at least they used to.
This happened 4 days ago, and yes this did happen. A simple internet search would of saved you from your false opinion based feelings on the situation. Ironically, these scenarios happen more often than some people would admit.
Incompetent training produces incompetent policing.
Is that you, Sgt. Stadenko?
“Studenko”
Sadly, this is fairly commonplace. Officers are not held accountable for the crimes they are committing. Lazy police work coupled with utterly inept and corrupt judges and DA’s, the “law” no longer has precedence, it’s all around a cop’s, DA’s, or judge’s opinion. Truly sad. Crimes like this are why the police aren’t being seen in the positive light they once did.
I assure you Sgt, Dale is not one of those cops. He is just one of you and me who respect freedom and justice. Not all cops are roided out assholes. The man has my respect.
SUCH BS—- KNOCK- STATE DEPT- REASON ..WAIT 30 SECONDS– WTF
Shoot first, ask questions later!
Question: What’s the difference between the KGB knocking on your door at 3 am and any local police department doing it?
Answer: Just the initials of the participating agency…….
That’s not law and order or policing, that’s cops playing FPS video games in real life with real lives.
That’s not law and order or policing, those are the acts of *paramilitaries* that would not know a Constitution or Bill of Rights if if one of them rared up and bit them in the ass.
This is what you get when you give police qualified immunity, civil forfeiture, defective training, the drug war, backing by the propaganda legacy media and corrupt courts.
It really is time to remove this regime at every level.
@Brockland A.T.
Well Said!! ?
I’m calling the police.
I am *not informing a legal body of the usa under war inc inc to motivate acts of said usa under war inc inc or yourselves.
Every officer, LE member, or agent is required to read the affidavit, and the warrant to make sure all information is accurate, the address is accurate, and the places to search, and things to be seized or arrested are correct.
Lack of training, and attention to detail ends up like this. Place the blame squarely on managements shoulders for failing to do their job.
Agreed. The gross incompetence we see in so many arenas of human endeavor, as with the political class, is apparent with incidents like this. I blame the management team for the lion’s share of the blame, get the damn address right & train your team to properly double-check the address. Announce who the hell you are and try to arrest folks during daylight hours – we don’t want the Gestapo or the Stasi operating here.
There are more than 80,000 raids by armed gangs of cops and swat teams at wrong addresses every year in the US. Though the majority involve no shootings, large numbers of civilians and their family members including babies have been wounded or killed by police gunfire, flashbangs, etc. Often, “suspects” were shot that were not armed, and some even found shot in the back. Little comes from all this because the cops are protected by local and state gov’ts. Regardless of circumstances, it’s likely even the George Floyd case would have turned out very different if there was no video of the incident. There likely would have been no massive outcry or a 27 million dollar payout. Furthermore, videos provided by police depts. of a variety of shootings, mistaken or otherwise, have frequently been found to be “doctored” before release to the public, and some even turning off their GoPro. I am not anti-cop, just presenting facts.
This video raise some questions. When serving a warrant instead of immediately busting through a door before it can even be answered why didn’t they give him time to answer it. Otherwise maybe he would have awakened in a less confused and stressful circumstance. The video shows he did have a gun, but there was no way he could escape, and maybe no shots would have been fired. And why do these busts always seem to be conducted as a raid at night when everyone is asleep, especially since it highly likely there are going to be family members present to all the possible danger. Do the cops really have to risk putting women and children in danger besides the suspect. For example, make the arrest when the suspect is walking to their car, etc.
My wife was driving and I was asleep when she was pulled over by some local cops. They took her license, registration, and insurance card. They also wanted me as a passenger to give them my ID. I asked if they suspected me of a crime and they didn’t answer me, but still demanded my ID. I told them our state was not a stop and ID state, and if they insisted on having my ID they needed to clearly articulate a crime they suspected me for or was in the process of committing. They actually said they could find a reason to arrest me anyway so I should just hand over the ID. I told them they’ll just have to arrest me then. They saw me videoing it all on my cell phone and ended up backing off. My advise is to video/record all encounters with the authorities, if you can’t then the person with you should. As we all now see, it can make all the difference in the world. The cops should not be against videoing them, most of the time it turns out to be in their favor.
It’s time to disarm the police – lock up flash-bang grenades and automatic weapons, and force police to show valid DAYTIME search warrants to access any of these deadly and mostly-unnecessary weapons. Roll back policing standards to the days when police remembered they are PUBLIC SERVANTS, and the enemy is NOT the public. Citizens are to be treated with RESPECT, also their property is to be treated as PRIVATE property and NOT bounty to be seized by greedy, corrupt LEOs under color of law (“civil asset forfeiture”).
This sort of thing is why I no longer care much when I hear about cops getting ambushed.
We need The Purge.
The cop who called bulshit isn’t nothing but a street thug like the one who went in shooting. Too bad they did not get killed too. 95 % of the cops are street thugs, they have no education and played football in school where they were brain washed. They should all be brought up on murder charges.
This is what happens when the cops are hired because of their military backgrounds. Also, they can refuse to hire cops because they are too smart. What does that leave us with?
Many countries in Europe require military service as a prerequisite for being police officer. The difference is cultural. The US is stuck in the “wild, wild, West” mentality. Don’t give me the they don’t have “our 2nd Amendment” narrative. Switzerland requires every household have an army issued weapon and someone who knows how to use it. Not a problem because of conscription. What is the crime rate in Switzerland compared to the US? What is their murder rate compared to the US?
The issue has nothing to do with military service, it has everything to do with the national psyche.
I have always had a problem with hiring former military to be civilian police officers. Not as a rule, but all too often, the rules of engagement between the military and civilian police forces, which of course, are vastly different, are hard for some people to transition to, and they have a hard time holding their fire when faced with a choice between shoot/don’t shoot.
I thought that no knock warrants had been kicked to the street. Of course, the cops get around that by just making a quick shout out, and then follow up with a smash and entry, sort of like they were trying to enter a jewelry store in California.
And while it doesn’t happen all the time, the fact that it happens enough that it hits the news and we often don’t even blink, tells me that it is happening way too often. Something must change, and that must happen on the part of “law enforcement.” I think that many of them could find work as mercenaries.
military training is good for peace officers but not if they have been in combat stomping babies !
Article truth? prob not… interesting how homes in USA are highly armed, yet we only read about the Police shooting people. Never People shooting the Police. Seems to me, this is a Narrative. I promise, most Americans have a loaded guun ready. Many of us have for years.
Of course you do, cops like you are why Law abiding citizens are throwing away or burning their blue lives mater/thin blue line flags.
GOOD JOB!
There is no question that this was an error by the police, but this is an oversimplification of the problem, and the tip of the iceberg. Start with why have the police been militarized? Why do these heavily armed warrant servings exist in the first place? Are there no other options? Why are they done in the middle of the night? Who planned this and what judge approved it? Shit runs downhill,and the cops who have been ordered to carry out these operations, where things are most likely to go wrong, are always at “fault” irrespective of how many others have been involved.
Either side of the political aisle is calling for qualified immunity, for what had ought to amount to neutered servants.
Quit arming servants.
Your rights are not necessarily based on equality for all.
Wow. How often does this need to happen before we change these night-time raids?! They are completely dangerous -too often they get the wrong house or the person they are looking for is not there. Busting down the door at 3:00am is never going to go well.
But how sad are the current police policies that they come out and brag about all the charges this person would be facing if he hadn’t been killed! How messed up is that?!
That is some sick crap!
What I constantly see as an excuse is that “the police identified themselves as police”.
If one is in a situation like this and COULD even hear them yelling this, WHY would one necessarily believe them?
I mean, can’t ANYONE yell that they “are the police”?
911 whats your emergency?
My house is being robbed by a couple of niqqers
What is your address sir?
404 Cherry lane
Do you have a gun handy?
No I hate guns
Good luck then sir, we’ll have an officer out in 45 minutes…
You want that job punk? Go sign up for it then!
Maybe you or one of your family members will get killed by one of those cops. Karma is a bi***!!!
Why not just turn on the light first especially if you need to make an identification. You sure can’t make it in the dark. Surprise shootings in the dark don’t seem to have good outcomes. This was tragic.
Thats just effing heroic.
One less on welfare.
Time for the public to start serving no-knock vengeance raids on the pigs that kills citizens. Time to kill the cops and their families!