3 days of secret police drug raids bring 78 arrests throughout city

T.J. PIGNATARO and VANESSA THOMAS
Buffalo News
04/21/06

A loud "flash bang" concussion device is detonated inside a Kensington Avenue house as Buffalo Police SWAT officers, clad in black armor and brandishing automatic assault rifles, storm a lower apartment.

"Buffalo Police. Search warrant. Buffalo Police," the officers yell to the now temporarily stunned occupants inside.

Within seconds, there are multiple shotgun blasts. At the same instant, another officer cradles a 1-year-old boy out the front door and down a flight of steps to safety.

When the smoke clears, three large pit bull terriers lay dead, in pools of their own coagulated blood. Five people are in handcuffs. They're among the latest of the 78 people arrested on drug charges during a three-day crackdown on narcotics sales across the city.


This is open warfare being waged against American citizens in their own homes. These violent home-invading drug gangs must be stopped.
Also, a flashbang grenade is designed to temporarily blind and deafen the people it is used against. What is the point in the police announcing themselves after they have just deafened the occupants of the home?