Elizabeth Harrison, 82, used to tell kids to “respect the law.” Then on March 17, a gang of Chicago cops raided her home, busting down the door and holding her at gunpoint. Because of this trauma, Harrison had to be rushed to the hospital.The great-grandmother said police must have had the wrong house, but they insist it was the correct address based on intelligence. No one believed her when she said she was a widow and lived alone. Harrison was made to sit in a chair, overwhelmed with anxiety, while they searched her home for drugs.
“They were there with the guns drawn: “Put your hands up! Put your hands up! Put your hands up!” Harrison said…
“They wanted me to produce this young man that they were looking for. And they would not take no for an answer that I didn’t know him,” she said. “I almost had a heart attack.”
As police swarmed the block, Harrison’s daughter who lives nearby rushed to the house.
“They had her sitting in a chair, and her breathing was like (heavy breathing sounds),” said Linda Channel, her daughter.”
The police were so incompetent, that the guy they were looking for showed up and said, “You all came to the wrong house. I live at 126, and this is 136.”
The cops found no drugs at Harrison’s home, of course. She described the ordeal to ABC7 while her heart rate was being monitored at Roseland Hospital. Now she questions the trust she had in police.
“I always tell my young people, ‘Respect the law,'” Harrison said. “But to have them come in and do what they did to me, something is wrong. Really wrong.”
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) maintains that they raided the correct address based on intelligence. Police are not apologizing to the traumatized great-grandmother, but they will pay for the broken locks and front door.
With stories like this, it’s no wonder Chicago racked up a $662 million police misconduct bill since 2004. As we reported a few days ago, that means taxpayers pay out $7,000 an hour, 24 hours a day, to compensate victims and their families.
The family of Laquan McDonald received $5 million last year after video emerged of a Chicago cop ruthlessly gunning him down, repeatedly firing into his body as he lay on the ground.
CPD officers have a history of shooting men as they run away, then lying about it until video proves them wrong. Homan Square is nothing short of a black site, where 7,000 people have disappeared over the course of 11 years.
For Chicago cops, scaring the life out of a great-grandmother living alone is just another day on the job.
