Police raid elderly woman's home -- and find nothing

September 8, 3:50 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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From the St. Louis American:

Amid fumes of a federal investigation into the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and its towing scandal, an elderly woman and others protested Friday in North St. Louis, charging that city cops violated her civil rights.

On June 20, according to 86-year-old Mary Valentine and her friend, the Rev. B.M. Brown, St. Louis police officers forced their way into her home at 3050 Thomas in North City.

Police didn’t produce a search warrant until Valentine asked for one, according to Valentine and Brown, who questioned the validity of the warrant. ...

While the warrant describes the outside of the two-family home, it doesn’t describe the inside of the home. It doesn’t describe any individual, and the items listed to be seized covers a wide range of contraband: cocaine base, heroin, firearms, currency and records of sales - all things a drug dealer might possess. ...

Valentine said the police found nothing listed on the search warrant, though she said they ransacked the home and left a burn mark from a “smoke bomb” on her rug.

Mary Valentine has not been charged with anything, so it appears the 86-year-old is no drug kingpin after all.

These raids happen all too often, but most of us really have no idea what it means to have your door kicked in. The following sanitized training video, from the Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Police Department, provides just a taste of what it must be like to be on the receiving end.

Now, imagine that you're scared and elderly ...