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Original article is at http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2009/02/73947.php Print comments.
Attempted Raid on House in West Tucson
by AZIMC volunteer #9
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Police, ICE agents, and other unidentified officials attempted to raid a house in west Tucson at approximately 12 noon today but did not have a warrant and were not allowed in by occupants.
I received a call that "an ICE raid" was happening at a house in west Tucson and it was just a few blocks from where I was at the time so I grabbed my camera and headed over.
It's unclear why ICE was there, or why any law enforcement officials were there at all. It was a mix of ICE agents and cops of some kind, maybe some plainclothes "other" agents too. Since all of the occupants of the house appeared to be U.S. citizens to me, the immigration enforcement relevance was particularly odd.
Basically the house was where a bunch of Earth First! activists were staying (the semiannual EF! organizers' conference is this week here in Tucson). Law enforcement apparently showed up, asked questions, but the occupants didn't cooperate and wouldn't let them in, and they had no warrant. None of the cops had official vehicles, just civilian cars (1 pickup and 3 SUVs) of various types with normal civilian plates. Within about 90 seconds of me showing up with my camera, all of them pulled out and left - this after a stand off that had lasted, I was told, about an hour. They claimed they'd be back with a warrant, in fact one activist quoted an officer saying just before they left "alright brother, I'm gonna give you one last chance to flush everything you got in there and then I'm gonna be back."
Some witnessed who'd been at the house the whole time seemed pretty sure it was me and my pro-looking video camera that scared them off. If they return, I'll try to be there too.