It seems that not once this weekend, but twice, the New York Police department conducted wrong door SWAT raids on innocent people, which terrorized them, threatened their very lives, and destroyed their homes:

The NYPD is admitting it was wrong when officers broke down the doors of two apartments in the Bronx during a pair of misguided drug raids.

They found nothing, and it turns out both homeowners were innocent.
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Homeowner Jerry O'Keefe: "I couldn't believe what was happening is all, it just came out of the clear blue."
Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager: "They just beat down your door?"
O'Keefe: "Yeah, beat down my door and threw me on the floor."

And that was the beginning of O'Keefe's harrowing experience with the NYPD. He says last Friday, narcotics cops beat in his door so hard that parts of it broke to pieces. Then, they slapped cuffs on his wrists and threw him to the floor for at least 25 minutes.

The victim, Jerry O'Keefe is 69 years old by the way, and recovering from prostate cancer.  That's right, they threw an old man to the ground for half an hour.  Of course, I'm sure the police would never do such a thing without a mountain of evidence right?

It was a confidential informant who allegedly lied. Police say that three separate times, the drugs from his alleged undercover buys were really drugs that were hidden under his clothing. Cops were fooled, and because of it, two local residents were traumatized.
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On Saturday, when Eyewitness News began questioning cops about the story, they adamantly insisted there were undercover drug buys in both apartments.
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Now, after repeated calls to the NYPD, their story has changed. They now tell Eyewitness News that they can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there were any undercover buys in the apartments, just a confidential informant who allegedly lied.

This informant was also used in other cases that will now have to be reviewed as well.  It constantly amazes me that the police will initiate brutal, life threatening tactics like this, solely on the word of a criminal who has every reason to lie in order get a lighter sentence, or to stay out of jail completely.  This is how people think it's appropriate to fight the War on Drugs.  Of course, don't fear for members of SWAT teams if they aren't able to go after potential non-drug offenders like Mr. O'Keefe.  They're also used to arrest purse snatchers.  So much for the outright lie by the police that heavily armed military style units are only used against the most dangerous offenders.  What's next?  Jay walkers?

Links via Radley Balko.  Inspiration for the post title from Patrick.