Why Police Are Maiming, Killing With 'Grenades'
COPS USE FLASHBANG GRENADES TO STUN DURING RAIDS
By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff
newser.com
Posted Jan 18, 2015 3:40 PM CST | Updated Jan 18, 2015 4:15 PM CST
(NEWSER) – On a drug tip, 18 cops stormed an apartment outside Atlanta in 2010 and arrested the young couple living inside. Officers found only a little weed, and managed to seriously injure resident Treneshia Dukes with a flashbang grenade—a police device that's drawing increasing attention, Pro Publica reports. Cops often use the $50 grenades to disorient suspects during drug raids, but critics note that the grenades' flash is more hot than lava. At least 50 Americans, including children and cops, have been killed, maimed, or injured by flashbangs—probably a fraction of the real, unknown toll. Even Arkansas man Bill Nixon, who used to make flashbangs for police (before an officer lost a hand demonstrating one to Boy Scouts) doesn't get why cops use them regularly. "It boggles my mind," he says.
Police in Little Rock, Ark., threw flashbangs into homes 112 times between 2011 and 2013 during raids that often turned up a little marijuana or sometimes just bottles of beer. But a police rep defends flashbang use, saying that "what we see is a large service of warrants without gunfire." Still, horror stories include a 19-month-old Georgia baby who suffered severe facial injuries during a drug raid when a flashbang landed in her crib, WOKVreports. A grand jury didn't indict the officers involved but suggested two ideas that are going around: better police training (there are no national flashbang training standards) and fewer "no-knock" warrants that permit police raids. Meanwhile, Dukes—who suffered second-degree burns over her body—has filed a civil suit alleging excessive police force. "My skin is ugly, and I feel like I’m ugly," she says. "When I talk about it, I just get angry." |
