This is a sad story and one that might get national attention:
The Video:
Agents Raid Wrong House in Sterling Heights: MyFoxDETROIT.com
The Story:
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) – Officers bust into a home in Sterling Heights, armed with a search warrant. The only problem? The guy they were looking for doesn’t live there. Fox 2 talked to the man who opened the door, and was stunned by what happened next.
Ramsey Tossa is a lot of things. He’s a U.S. citizen, a retired military translator and a proud father. But a criminal, he’s not. Still, he says he was treated like one Tuesday morning around 2am when he woke up to find DEA agents banging loudly on the door.
“As soon as I opened the door, somebody grabbed me and took me outside and put me on the grass,” Tossa said. “The first thing I thought was they were terrorists who want to kill me because I served in Iraq.”
Sad Story isn’t it? Well, there is a catch and believe this could have happened to anyone; not just this man. Here’s the part that will not get quoted on many blogs:
The DEA agents were executing a search warrant. Tossa said he started having what he thought was a heart attack. Paramedics took him to the hospital. When it was finally over, the agents took a few pieces of mail addressed to someone the Tossa’s say they’ve never met. The DEA says the person they were looking for is actually the landlord’s son. He uses that house as his address. The Tossa’s are demanding answers. The DEA tells us they are taking the complaint seriously. They deny anyone was thrown to the ground. They also indicate there was likely cause to search the house.
There is a logical explanation here and I know it is not going to win brownie points with those on the right. What most likely happened here was this; they did not have a photo of the suspect and they assumed, because the suspect was getting his mail there, that he actually lived there. It was a simple mistake and a sad one; that will now end up costing the Government a good deal of money, because if I know the drill, like I do — this man will lawyer up and sue the Government and get a huge settlement out of them.
Again, while I think this a horrible thing to happen to member of the United States Military; it is something that could have happened to almost anyone, who was living in this sort of a situation. My question to Fox 2 Detroit is this; if this man were not Military, would you have honestly cared? What was as Fox 2 Detroit’s motive of getting this news story? Was it to report the facts — or was it to further push the narrative of News Corporation that the United States Government, under President Barack Obama, is the enemy of the people?
The problem I personally have is that these stories, like this one here, are sometimes used to fuel paranoia, which in turn causes people to do things like which Richard Poplawski did to those three police officers. I ranted and raved about that little incident and the way it was covered in the news as well and it did turn out that my suspicion was right on target. My point here is this while I know that Richard Poplawski’s mental status had much to do with that shooting; it was his great paranoia of the Government that caused that incident to happen, which was largely fueled by the media and by what he was reading in White Nationalist forums.
My point is this: I believe Fox News should take greater care in how these stories are presented. What happened here was a simply mistake and it is being presented by this local Fox affiliate as conspiracy against mankind.
News stories are often as real as what doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor. I KNOW that an innocent comment, a piece of side comment, a fragment of the truth can be changed and presented as the truth as the editor/producer sees fit. (been there, done that)
Did you see the story about the couple who had their place searched while they weren’t even fully moved in yet and their landlord had to fix a bunch of damage at his own cost. I think it was Hazel Park last week or so.
I hear ya on the bias, and no, I cannot say that I heard about that one. I don’t watch local news much.