Claire Bernish

June 12, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) What happens when an armed fugitive randomly chooses your home as a hideout from police? Colorado homeowner Leo Lech can tell you the answer from personal experience:

“There was one gunman with a handgun and they chose to turn this house into something that resembles Osama bin Laden’s compound.”

His description is apt, if not an understatement. Cavernous holes have taken the place of windows, leaving insulation and once-private rooms exposed to the world. No room was left untouched by police, as a nine-year-old boy’s drawings pinned to the wall are now clearly visible from the street in front. Buckled siding and demolished support beams frame gaping holes where walls once stood.

Alleged shoplifter Robert Seacat evaded police until he randomly barged into a house to hide early last Wednesday evening. Lech’s grandson was inside. After the boy’s mother coaxed him out safely, a standoff with Seacat ensued. To extract the suspect and end the standoff after nearly 20 hours, the SWAT team used chemical agents, flash-bang grenades, and finally a “breaching ram” to “enter” the house.

Thanks to SWAT, the home Lech purchased for his son is now condemned.

“In any civilized nation . . . this is the act of paramilitary thugs,” he told the chief of the Greenwood Village Police Department.

The chief didn’t seem interested.

“They methodically fired explosives into every room in this house in order to extract one person. Granted, he had a handgun, but against 100 officers? You know, the proper thing to do would be to evacuate these homes around here, ensure the safety of the homeowners around here, fire some tear gas through the windows. If that didn’t work, you have 50 SWAT officers with body armor break down the door,” Lech said, explaining his plan would probably cause about $10,000 in damage versus the $250,000 he now faces.

Police are not picking up the tab for the destruction of the house Lech was renting to his son, which is now unlivable and may need to be completely razed. Though homeowner’s insurance will pay, Lech’s son did not have a renter’s insurance policy, so most of his possessions are a loss — including an engagement ring that “survived two World Wars, OK, but it didn’t survive the American police paramilitary operation.”

Lech and his family are justifiably livid. “This is an abomination. This is an atrocity. To use this kind of force against one gunman.”

This is yet another incident proving that, without warning, anyone— including utterly uninvolved bystanders—can fall victim to America’s militarized police state.

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