December 14, 2020
DES MOINES BLM STATEMENT ON OVERNIGHT DES MOINES RAIDS
On Wednesday, November 18, a joint federal and state investigation, spanning over a year-long, resulted in an overnight violent military style raid which terrorized the entire Des Moines metro area. This investigation and raid included 19 city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies including the Polk County Sheriff's Office, DMPD, Iowa State Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, ATF and the FBI. Des Moines BLM wants to make it clear that the use of public resources to create state sanctioned military-style occupations is an absolute misuse and abuse of power that all agencies, particularly DMPD, should be ashamed of their role in facilitating.
On November 18, over 500 officers were dressed in full military outfits, as if heading into combat, and ordered to occupy communities which they themselves do not live or frequent in their day to day lives. Armed operations such as these are not acts of violence against dangerous individuals, as the DMPD would like to have us think, but against entire communities which are already made vulnerable due to systemic social injustice. In this raid, over 40 search warrants were issued, yet only 25 arrests were made. This means that for all taxpayer resources used, arrests were only made in about 60% of cases. In all of these cases, the individuals taken captive are innocent until proven guilty. These points alone should lead us to question whether or not this was a useful appropriation of such a massive amount of public resources not only in one night, but for the past calendar year during planning stages.
The human cost of the November 18 raid on innocent family members, community members and bystanders was and is incalculable. Des Moines BLM has received first hand accounts and evidence of community members being exposed to and terrorized by flash bangs and concussion grenades, being held at gunpoint by law enforcement officers, watching their homes and private property be destroyed, the seizure of private assets as "evidence" and fierce intimidation and harassment.
Despite Chief Wingert's claims, in no way can the Des Moines Police Department describe the "safe environment" which this raid was supposed to result in with material or empirical evidence. All claims, stories, accounts and experiences point to the undeniable fact that armed military occupations are harmful for the communities who are forced to endure them. There is nothing safe about organized violence.
We are calling upon the people of Des Moines, who experienced this summer the power of their unified voices in challenging police violence, to once again take action against the constant abuse of the Des Moines Police Department. We are also calling on all people of Des Moines to create mutual aid projects for those who were impacted by the November 18 raid.
Those directly impacted can contact the Iowa Coalition for Collective Change.
Black Lives Matter.