SWAT Raids Man’s Home over $100 in Pot, Shoot at Him 57 Times, Paralyze Him, Then Lie About It
Jack Burns
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
March 24, 2017
Radley Balko, of the Washington Post, writes a regular column for the newspaper called “The Watch.” Author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties. In one of his latest pieces on badge abuses, the author addressed, once again, the near homicide of a low-level Myrtle Beach, South Carolina drug dealer (Julian Betton) at the hands of police. Here’s his summary of the incident.
Julian Betton’s offense was to sell $100 worth of pot to a friend. For that, South Carolina police battered down his door, fired 57 shots at him and hit him nine times, leaving him paralyzed and without the use of several major body organs. The cops then lied about the circumstances of the raid to make it seem as if Betton deserved every bullet. When Betton awoke from a coma, his leg was shackled to the hospital bed. Prosecutors then charged him with several felonies — enough of them to put him in prison for the rest of his life, should he survive his injuries. For those two sales of pot totaling $100, Betton will not only be saddled with paralysis and debilitating injury, he’ll also have a felony record. The cops who broke down his door, filled him with bullets and then lied about what had happened will suffer no punishment at all.
What Balko’s synopsis doesn’t reveal, is that there were a series of cover-ups the police raid team engaged in, and what might seem like a team effort to coordinate their stories in the aftermath of the planned conflict. First, the team did not seek after, nor secure a no-knock raid warrant. Betton’s high-definition security footage reveals the police officers made no such effort to knock on the door, which is required by law, even though their police reports stated they did knock and announce their presence.
Secondly, the footage also reveals the team was not dressed as SWAT team members are typically dressed, used unmarked cars, and moved so swiftly in an effort to breach the door with a battery ram, that Betton’s neighbor actually thought a robbery was taking place. The confusion over the identity of the intruders, their no-knock breach of the front door, and the swiftness at which they moved, may have given Benton cause to arm himself, something for which Balko says he would have been justified.
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