An unpublished comment: Preaching to the Choir

Name of commenter withheld by request. Minor tweaks were made to grammar and punctuation.

 

I have responded to numerous home invasions during my decades-long career as a police officer in ---name redacted big city---.

 

All of them were drug related.

 

Many of them gained entry with false police or federal agent hats, jackets etc.

 

Some of them forced entry when entry wasn't granted.

 

In every case  it went badly for the " victims'' after the home invaders gained entry.

 

At minimum someone was beaten until the stuff was given up, sometimes they emptied the house. Fear and pain of themselves or others got compliance.

 

Until you have taken sheets off zip tied and beaten people who have fresh human waste in their clothing and smelled the fear on them it's all just reading.

 

If what we think is coming, comes, we all need to harden our thinking.

 

If you are a hunter you know what I mean, you have to notice every change, every person who doesn't belong, you have to see what is different so you don't become the hunted.

I and a partner were staged behind trees or walls numerous times aiming shotguns at the front door of a bank while a robbery was in-progress while customers passed us and walked in the front doors.

 

How do you fix that level of obliviousness?

 

You can have the best locks in the world but if you and the wife and kids don't use them every time, then they are worthless.

 

If you don't see the people doing surveillance on your home, watching you come and go, or following you away from an ATM or a high-end store, later you will tell the cops, "I didn't see anything till he was just there." and you will be lying to yourself. You saw them but it didn't register because you were too lazy and too self-absorbed to notice.

 

There are some people who just shouldn't be around, notice them. Get out of your bubble when you are in public!

 

I wish I didn't have to say this part, but if things really get spicy the cops and the courts are not your friend. They will bankrupt you and destroy your life. I have sat in too many courtrooms to kid you about that.

 

Joe's question back to the writer of this comment: "How would you be able to differentiate between real-cops and pretenders who want to invade your house"

 

You can hardly believe the adrenaline dump on both sides of the door.

In later years I did stationary and rolling surveillance, often followed by forced entry.

 

You have no idea what is waiting inside and they have no idea if it's really cops or rip-offs.

I won't open the door for either. I am not committing crime so I must believe it's a criminal rip-off team.

 

On a forced entry we were geared up, pumped up and expecting trouble it's a recipe for disaster either way.

To answer your question if they are in full uniform and I can see marked units, we can talk. And we can talk while the door is closed.

 

Joe notes: You can ask the "cops" to turn on the light-bar of their unit. You can see that even if the curtains are closed, but you better know the strobe colors and pattern of local and state cops.

 

If not and they are only knocking, then call 911, if dispatch doesn't show officers at your address, request them now.

During forced entry there is no time to differentiate.