Obey the Laws, Be a Good Citizen, Get Attacked by SWAT Anyway

I don't know what her problem is: it's not like they tased her.

Sharon Ramage, a 57-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was ironing clothes when the police assault on her home began shortly after nightfall on June 21, 2007.

Backed by a helicopter and a $300,000 armored vehicle, 35 members of the Louisville Metro SWAT team stormed her Okolona property, detonated a deafening “flash bang” device, smashed in her rear door, put her on the floor, bound her wrists with flex cuffs and held her at gunpoint while detectives searched the home.

Police were looking for evidence against her 32-year-old son, Michael Ramage, who was under investigation after dropping off film at a Wal-Mart store showing him and his two sons naked. But the search uncovered no evidence, and charges against Ramage for using a minor in a sexual performance eventually were dismissed.

Now Sharon Ramage is suing the department, saying that a risk assessment it claims required deploying the SWAT team violated her right to be free from unreasonable searches.

Read the whole thing, and see if you can figure out whether your boring, law-abiding life actually protects you from this kind of law-enforcement over-reaction.

Make no mistake: this is the police-state mentality, police-state tactics, police-state defensiveness.

Mayor Jerry Abramson needs to man up, apologize to Ms. Ramage, pay her significant damages, fire the idiot who ordered the SWAT attack and put the entire Metro police force on notice that even citizens under suspicion of criminal behavior are still citizens and human beings, and he will not tolerate treating them this way.