Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Jacob Sullum, Creators Syndicate
Page: 5B

ILL-WAGED DRUG WAR LEAVES TODDLER CLINGING TO LIFE

When Alecia Phonesavanh heard her 19-month-old son, Bounkham,
screaming, she thought he was simply frightened by the armed men who
had burst into the house in the middle of the night. Then she saw the
charred remains of the portable playpen where the toddler had been
sleeping, and she knew something horrible had happened.

Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, who is in a medically induced coma at
Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, may never wake up. But the
appalling injuries he suffered during a police raid in Habersham
County, Ga., last month should awaken the country to the moral
obscenity that is the war on drugs.

Two months ago, after a fire at their home in Wisconsin, Alecia, her
husband and their four children, ranging in age from 1 to 7, moved in
with relatives who live just outside of Cornelia, Ga. The whole family
slept together in a garage that had been converted into a bedroom.

Sometime before 3 a.m. on May 28, a SWAT team consisting of Habersham
County sheriff's deputies and Cornelia police officers broke into that
room. One of the cops tossed a flashbang grenade, which creates a
blinding light and a loud noise that are supposed to disorient the
targets of a raid. It landed in Bou Bou's playpen and exploded in his
face, causing severe burns and a deep chest wound.

The cops were looking for the Phonesavanhs' 30-year-old nephew, Wanis
Thonetheva, who a few hours before had allegedly sold methamphetamine
to a confidential informant from the same doorway through which the
SWAT team entered. They had obtained a "no knock" warrant by claiming
Thonetheva was apt to be armed and dangerous.

Thonetheva was not there, and police did not find any drugs, cash or
guns, either. When they arrested him later that morning at a different
location, he had about an ounce of meth but no weapons.

Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell and Cornelia Police Chief Rick
Darby said their officers would not have used a "distraction device"
if they knew children were living in the house they attacked. But
their investigation of that possibility seems to have consisted
entirely of asking their informant, who according to Terrell was at
the house only briefly and did not go inside.

Even rudimentary surveillance should have discovered signs of
children, who according to the Phonesavanhs' lawyer played with their
father in the front yard every day. Alecia told ABC News there were
"family stickers" on the minivan parked "right near the door they
kicked in." The van contained four child seats, and "my son's old
playpen was right outside because we were getting ready to leave" for
Wisconsin, Alecia said. Anyone who entered the house would have seen
toys and children's clothes.

Terrell has since claimed that Mountain Judicial Circuit District
Attorney Brian Rickman had assured him the officers involved in the
raid did everything right and "there's nothing to investigate."
Rickman, who says he is conducting a thorough review, denies telling
Terrell that. But the issue here goes beyond sloppy police work.

Terrell says Thonetheva is to blame for Bou Bou's injuries, and the
alleged meth dealer may even face criminal charges based on that
theory. But Thonetheva did not toss an explosive, incendiary device
into a baby's crib; the police did that, in the service of an odious
ideology that says violence is an acceptable response to consensual
transactions in which people exchange money for drugs that legislators
do not like.

"The little baby (who) was in there didn't deserve this," Terrell told
WXIA, the NBC station in Atlanta. "These drug dealers don't care."

Terrell, by contrast, cares so much about the psychoactive substances
his neighbors consume that he is willing to endanger the lives of
innocent bystanders in his vain attempt to stop people from getting
high. If people like Terrell cared a little less, Bou Bou would be
home with his parents, instead of clinging to life in a hospital.
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