SWAT Team Police Raids: Are They Becoming Excessive?

In the last 30 years, SWAT team police raids have become a more and more popular way for law enforcement officials to issue narcotics warrants. They are dressed and armed with military- type warfare and weapons. However, they are usually serving these warrants to non-violent offenders, and people charged with misdemeanor crimes. They also regularly use a “no knock” system of entry, where they force their way into the house unannounced. Often, the raid occurs at night when residents of the house are sleeping. There are sometimes people in the homes being raided that are innocent on-lookers, knowing nothing of the crimes being called into question. Sadly, often times there are children in the homes as well. These excessive forced entries, roughly 40,000 per year, are often botched, resulting in needless injuries and deaths of police officers and innocent victims who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has lead many to ask if SWAT Team police raids are becoming excessive.

In May of 2014, the Phonsavanh family was sleeping peacefully at their temporary place of residence in Habersham County. They had been there, at a relative’s home, for about two weeks and were looking for a permanent place to move. The police, who raided the home just before dawn without announcing entrance, were looking for a nephew of the family in a drug related offense. The nephew, however, had been kicked out of the house prior to the raid, and was not present in the home during the raid. As the mother stated in an interview she gave, there were children’s toys all over the yard as well as kid’s bikes. She refuses to believe that officers weren’t aware that there were children present in the home at the time.

In what some are calling an excessive SWAT team raid, police entered the house and forced their way into the bedroom where the entire Phonsavanh family, including four small children, had been sleeping. One officer threw a “flash bang” grenade upon entering the room. The grenade landed in the playpen of a sleeping toddler, 19 month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh, nicknamed baby Bou Bou. The grenade landed on the toddler’s pillow, and exploded in his face and on his chest, blowing the entire side off of the playpen he slept in. He suffered life threatening injuries including severe burns and a hole in his chest. Swat team members are trained to place the “flash bang grenade” roughly three to five inches inside the door. It is still not clear how it ended up being thrown into the playpen of a toddler.

While the infant was screaming in pain, his mother, 27 year old Alecia Phonesavanh, begged police officers to allow her to hold and comfort her baby. All she could see was a completely singed crib and a pool of blood. Police informed her that the child was fine, and that he had simply lost a tooth. It would be hours before the family would be able to go to the hospital and learn the fate of their son, who had been placed in a medically induced coma. The toddler is still fighting for his life, and the family has reported he has a 50 percent chance of living. Doctors cannot determine at this time if there will be lasting brain damage. This child also still has a hole in his chest exposing part of his ribs that has not yet begun to heal.

Sadly, this is only one case of an excessive SWAT team police raid. Often times, these botched raids do not make the national headlines, so many are not aware of how often they occur. This family, who has suffered an unspeakable trauma, has no insurance, and has set up a fund to help pay for the medical bills that are piling up. The family has started an online fundraiser to defray their medical costs, but it will take more than money to heal the child’s wounds.

By: Lauren DiDonato