The Sickening Reason Why All Those Federal Agents Suddenly Swarmed a Small Illinois Town

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

More America the police state gone mad. several usually helicopters. Armored vehicles. They too kover a school and would not tell the principal why ?

All this to arrest one child pornographer. I mean I am all for arresting the POC and throwing away the key, "after a fair trial". Do we need to descend on a town with a army of federal agents to arrest one guy ?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/12/the-sickening-reason-why-all-those-federal-agents-suddenly-swarmed-a-small-illinois-town/

When agents from the Homeland Security Department, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and other federal agencies descended in force on a tiny town in Illinois on Thursday, residents (and the rest of the country) were baffled.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out why the agents were there — it was for a child porn bust.

Robert E. Godsey, 34, was charged Friday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis with a slew of child pornography offenses, the Belleville News Democrat reported.

The federal agents, backed up by local law enforcement, assembled at the Livingston, Illinois elementary school and at a second location nearby before storming Godsey’s home on Thursday.

They reportedly recovered roughly 600 videos and more than 1,000 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from Godsey’s home.

Godsey told authorities he had been collecting child pornography since he was 17, before he was legally an adult, the Belleville News Democrat reported.

So why did one child pornography bust require so much manpower?
Image source:

Image source: screengrab via KTVI-TV

“It’s better to be over-prepared,” said Jim Porter, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois.

He declined to comment further on the massive use of force that briefly overwhelmed the town of Livingston, population: 850.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

In a country where we arrest a teacher for sexual abuse, suspend him, then give him his job back with back pay... anything is possible.

[lostinblue 1,989]

“It’s better to be over-prepared,”

They had all that military hardware and needed a reason to bring it out....Meanwhile undocumented democrats are roaming the streets at will.

[Peikko 1,575]

But, still no evidence of a police state. So much faux outrage. The reason why your police and federal offices have to go overarmed and over cautious is because of your preponderance of firearms in private hands. There was a warrant for the arrest, the police were not out to get some innocent and haul him off to chokey for no reason, he was suspected of child porn, you know, that thing that people get so overwrought about? Yet for some reason the manner of the arrest is evidence of government brutality and that's despite the fact that the only evidence for this being somehow 'wrong' is the number of officers involved. No one was shot, no one was arrested that shouldn't have been, no one was truly inconvenienced in any way. That's messed up.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

What should have been a quiet visit by a county sheriff and a local police officer turned into not one, but two task forces. I bet the one-day price tag of this bust we EASILY over $500K, perhaps closer to one mil.

Ole boy MIGHT have thrown a HDD with kiddy porn and a virus at an officer... better to be prepared!

Nothing short of amazing.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

What should have been a quiet visit by a county sheriff and a local police officer turned into not one, but two task forces. I bet the one-day price tag of this bust we EASILY over $500K, perhaps closer to one mil.

Ole boy MIGHT have thrown a HDD with kiddy porn and a virus at an officer... better to be prepared!

Nothing short of amazing.

It was stupidity . Barny Fife could have probably taken this guy down at the local super market. All these no knock warrants and mass shows of force. Why don't they just wait until they go to the store or something. When you invade a town and take over school property with Military style units, and refuse to explain to the people in charge what is going on. That gives me concern

Edited July 13, 2014 by The Nature Boy

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

It was stupidity . Barny Fife could have probably taken this guy down at the local super market. All these no knock warrants and mass shows of force. Why don't they just wait until they go to the store or something.

If only they had put HALF that much effort into Benghazi. Might have ended differently.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

If only they had put HALF that much effort into Benghazi. Might have ended differently.

Someone has clearly posted here that there was no stand down order and that the order to stand down was the correct order. It's just another vast right wing conspiracy. You know like those folks accusing Bill of doing Monica in the Big O office. Perhaps all that IRS baloney and the fact they don't seem to practice server based computing. I could go on and on

Hope change and transparency Indeed

yes the Repubs suck too and i am sure Bush did something similar

[Peikko 1,575]

Concerned you might be, but without evidence that anything that occurred was unnecessary you really got nothing. However, my main point was the foolishness of suggesting that this is an example of the US being a police state. Consult your definitions of a police state, because whatever this was, and I suspect that it will transpire that the feds wanted to ensure they were able to preserve the evidence on the computer equipment and avoid any kind of violent standoff, it isn't evidence of a police state.

Where is your evidence that anyone apart from the suspect was inconvenienced in any way at all? Where is your evidence that anyone was unnecessarily placed in any danger? Where is your evidence that the operation was unnecessarily large or expensive and where is your satisfaction that a suspect who has kiddy porn in their possession is being investigated and held to account?

If only they had put HALF that much effort into Benghazi. Might have ended differently.

In what world do you see any connection between the two? Seriously, there is nothing to compare and you have no evidence to make any comparison with. Just a glib statement that is essentially meaningless.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Peikko