MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN ABOUT WRONG POLICE RAID

I would like to comment on the Sept. 10 police raid on the wrong house.

During my career I had many special projects that required extensive
planning. This included planning for unforeseen circumstances that could
result in failure of the project. Had I not prepared in detail for these
projects, I would have lost my job. If a mere corporate job like mine
required this kind of planning, why shouldn't the Police Department be
expected to plan just as extensively?

1. Why didn't the police check on who lived in the house prior to the raid?

2. The license plates on the vehicles parked daily at the home could have
been checked for owner's names and ages?

3. Why wasn't a picture of the correct house given to the tactical team
members to prevent errors? All police departments have cameras.

4. If the suspect was a 20-year-old person, why was a 95-pound woman in her
50s with her arm in a sling knocked to the floor with a gun pointed between
her eyes and why was a deaf man in his 50s who recently received a liver
transplant, manhandled and bruised?

There seem to be a lot of whys in this case and that leads me to believe
that the Clarksville Police Department made a big, big mistake by not doing
its homework, by not planning in depth and by jumping into a raid that
lacked proper preparation.

What would you feel if it had been your family who had their door bashed in
by men dressed in camouflage with face masks and guns?

In my opinion, more than a typewritten apology arriving in the mail is
necessary in this case.

What does Chief Mark Smith think?

LINDA DOTSON VAUGHN

Murfreesboro

formerly of Clarksville