(CA) Police Raid Homes Of White Supremacists

Source: AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Southern California homes of dozens of white supremacists were raided Tuesday as part of a probe into a string of potentially deadly booby trap attacks targeting police officers, authorities said.

Federal and local officers converged on 35 homes and took 16 people into custody in Riverside County for a variety of crimes, including weapons, narcotics and parole violations, Hemet police Capt. Dave Brown said.

None of the arrests were directly related to the booby trap attacks that have plagued the small Hemet Police Department since New Year's Eve.

"But we hope some (arrests) will lead us to our suspects," Brown said.

...

Hemet police have been targeted at least three times. In one case, a ballistic device strapped to a fence at the gang unit compound sent a bullet within inches of an officer's face.

In another incident, someone rerouted a natural gas line at the compound, filling the building with flammable vapor. No one was hurt.

Read more: http://origin.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=100270

nailed it

I had this sinking feeling I wasn't going to have the same initial reaction as everyone else. Yes, white supremacists suck and should be locked up, BUT...

The police raided 35 homes and took 16 people into custody on a whole bunch of crimes, but NONE were related to reason they had their warrant. They HOPE some of these people will give them a lead to their suspects. Apparently (according to the article) they already members of a motorcycle gang and that lead to no charges being filed. Does this strike anyone else as a little fishy, where police seem to be using these attacks against them as justification to do essentially whatever they want (similar to *'s WMD argument)?