December 10, 2006
Have a look at this photo 
Believe it or not, there was a time when people would have doubted a picture like this could have been taken in America. No one would believe it — probably some third-world despot or Eastern European dictatorship. In fact, it was taken in Durham, North Carolina by a college photojournalist, and recently won in the “Spot News” category of the College Photographer of the Year competition.Here’s the description:
A member of the Durham Police Department Selective Enforcement Team escorts a child to use the bathroom after serving a search warrant at a suspected drug house. Working closely with the police department’s Gang Units, SET is responsible for making high-risk entries into dwellings to serve search warrants. Gang Unit Two made two controlled buys, or drug purchases, from the home with the help of an informant, giving them probable cause for a search warrant.
I’ve tried to get in touch with the photographer to see what was actually found during the raid. So far, no luck. Given the next sentence in the photo’s description, I’m led to believe the answer is “not much:”
Even if a raid doesn’t turn up anything, presence and show of force sends a hard message to the neighborhood that gang and drug activity will not be tolerated.
I don’t know who wrote that — the photographer, a college reporter he was working with, or someone affiliated with the competition. It seems to suggest that nothing turned up in this particular raid. But more disturbingly, it suggests that the Durham police department sees nothing wrong with conducting a violent, door-busting raid that turns up no evidence, so long as it “sends a hard message.”
