"Home Invasions" up along Mexican border

[Ryan in Maine]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090421/us_nm/us_usa_crime_homeinvasion

TUCSON, Ariz (Reuters) – When the heavy battering started to buckle the front door of her new home in Tucson, Maria remained frozen to the spot with fear.

As her family scattered to hide in the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen, masked men toting guns and dressed in flack jackets stormed into the living room shouting "Police! Everyone on the floor!"

Her cheek pressed to the ground, she watched as the men fanned out through the comfortable suburban house, pistol whipping her brother-in-law and shouting, "Where are the guns and the drugs?"

"I raised my head and saw his black boots ... It was then I realized they weren't police at all," she recalled, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Maria, who has no connection to the criminal underworld, is among scores of law-abiding Tucson residents caught up in a wave of violent so-called home invasions, most of them linked to the lucrative trade in drugs smuggled from Mexico. Maria had bought the house weeks before and the gunmen believed drug traffickers were using it.

A year ago, Tucson police department set up a special unit to target the rising number of home invasions. Since then, the officers have investigated at least 173 cases scattered across the city, three-quarters of them tied to the drug trade, investigators say.

The assailants -- typically teams of two to six people -- frequently dress in tactical gear and identify themselves as police officers, Drug Enforcement Administration agents or SWAT team members as they burst into houses to steal drugs, cash or guns.

"Demographics mean nothing when it comes to home invasions. We see (them) in some of the richest, most wealthy parts of town, and also in some of the most downtrodden, completely poor areas," said Detective Sargent David Azuelo, who runs the home invasion unit.

While most raids target the drug trade, some have branched out and gone after students and other law-abiding residents, Azuelo said. Others assault families who just happen to live in a house that was once used to deal drugs, or simply because the attackers got the wrong address.

"Just imagine, you're sitting at home relaxing, watching TV. All of a sudden your door bursts open, people are screaming and yelling, they're pointing guns at you, they may be hitting your family members," he said. "I can't imagine many crimes that are worse than that."

In case you're wondering, no, there is no recommendation of arming yourselves for self-defense. Even though the US and Mexican governments are painfully aware of the threat and increase of these crimes.  :|

[Standing Wolf]

In case you're wondering, no, there is no recommendation of arming yourselves for self-defense. Even though the US and Mexican governments are painfully aware of the threat and increase of these crimes.

Yes, but the better people have bodyguards, so it's all right.

[Tim L]

As her family scattered to hide in the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen, masked men toting guns and dressed in flack jackets stormed into the living room shouting "Police! Everyone on the floor!"

Ok, so what round to penetrate a flak jacket?   .45ACP was proven to not penetrate them very well in the Tyler, TX case http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=127277&highlight=flak+jacket+texas.   Rereading it I see that Arroyo Sr was wearing both a flak jacket and a bullet proof vest, so I may be off my rocker on this.  How effective is the flak jacket as a bullet stopper?

[Nick1911]

Ok, so what round to penetrate a flak jacket?   .45ACP was proven to not penetrate them very well in the Tyler, TX case http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=127277&highlight=flak+jacket+texas.   Rereading it I see that Arroyo Sr was wearing both a flak jacket and a bullet proof vest, so I may be off my rocker on this.  How effective is the flak jacket as a bullet stopper?

Don't know about you, but in my own home I don't limit myself to a handgun.  I don't imagine a flak jacket would fare well against multiple rounds of 7.62 x 39.

[Balog]

Flak jackets are very ineffective at stopping projectiles. But yeah, a confrontation in your home should involve a long gun.

[roo_ster]

A number of 173 home invasions in a city the size of Tucson sure seems more significant than some who propose that if you aren't in the drug trade you have nothing to worry about.  Even in 3/4 are tied to the drug trade, that leaves 44 home invasions in Tucson for reasons other than drugs.

Besides, even though we/I give LEOs a hard time for screwing up the addy on warrants, I doubt drug/gun/cash-seeking home invaders would do any better.  IOW, just becasue you are not into drugs does not mean that home invaders won't confuse you with the meth-cookers down the street.

[crt360]

Besides, even though we/I give LEOs a hard time for screwing up the addy on warrants, I doubt drug/gun/cash-seeking home invaders would do any better.  IOW, just becasue you are not into drugs does not mean that home invaders won't confuse you with the meth-cookers down the street.

Yep.  There was a recent meth lab raid on a house a few streets over from me.  Nice house.  Nice, quiet neighborhood.  You never know where the stuff will pop up and who's going to get an address wrong.

[Lennyjoe]

I lived in Tucson from 00-07 and still have a house there. The newspaper has reports of home invasions almost every day. Tucson is becoming the Wild West all over again. Drugs and illegals are prominent there and the cops are pretty much ineffective in their attempts to curtail the violence.

[tokugawa]

If the cops would stop the fored entry SWAT, raids then a person would know for sure the entry was by criminals.
   
 

[doczinn]

Precisely.

I'm for a law that protects innocent people who fight back, even if the invaders happen to be cops at the wrong address. See, if they're looking for pot, and you don't have any, then you can be believed to have reasonably expected the entrants to be criminals.

[KD5NRH]

Besides, even though we/I give LEOs a hard time for screwing up the addy on warrants, I doubt drug/gun/cash-seeking home invaders would do any better.

Of course they will; they'll face real consequences if caught.