Liberty Minute September 23 2013

In June 2011, police in Laguna Beach, California dispatched a SWAT team to raid the Rowland Heights home of Marilyn Injeyan, a 71-year-old retired schoolteacher. Her son, Vahan, was described as a ?person of interest? in a vandalism attack involving a stink bomb.

Fearing that the 5-foot-3, 125-pound female septuagenarian posed a genuine threat to his safety, SWAT commander Sgt. Robert Rahaeuser ordered that the terrified and compliant woman be seized and handcuffed. The officer who carried out that order yanked Injeyan?s arms behind her back with sufficient force to tear both of her rotator cuffs. The shock and trauma caused the elderly woman to urinate on herself.

Neither Injeyan nor her son was ever charged with a crime. Mrs. Injeyan filed a lawsuit against the city. On September 11 of this year, US District Judge Beverly O?Connell dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the ?cloak of immunity? enjoyed by police remains intact even when they act ?maliciously and without probable cause.? She also ordered the now 73-year old victim pay the city?s legal costs. 

In Communist countries, family members of those executed as state enemies had to pay for the bullets used to kill them. We?re not far from that now.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.