this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.

The owners of the facility are claiming damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for an operation their lawyers describe as "nothing short of a disorganized circus."

Their lawsuit details how a SWAT team swarmed Noho Diagnostic Center after the squad's leader persuaded a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his "twelve hours of narcotics training" and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

"Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment -- unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children's merchandise," the suit said.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 376 points 1 month ago (43 children)

It gets worse:

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

"This action caused the MRI's magnet to rapidly lose superconductivity, leading to the evaporation of approximately 2,000 liters of helium gas and resulting in extensive damage to the MRI machine," the suit said.

The officer then retrieved his gun, but left a magazine full of bullets on the floor of the MRI office, the suit says.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 220 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When you're never, ever, punished, eh who gives a fuck

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 113 points 1 month ago

Exactly, the city is going to be on the hook for this, at worst he'll get a talking to by the chief.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 75 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I hope there are security tapes.

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[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 280 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

Raided based on nothing more than power usage. Ignored warning in place around the MRI to prevent an accident. Cops gun gets pulled out of his hands and he pull the emergency shutdown button. Now it will cost a couple of hundred thousand to get the MRI going again. Somehow the cops will blame someone else.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 101 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also, they left behind a loaded magazine on the floor 🤣

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

Even Barney Fife is amazed at how terrible of a cop that dude is.

[–] assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world 88 points 1 month ago

And if they do pay damages it comes out of your tax dollars. Great system all round.

[–] mindlesscrollyparrot@discuss.tchncs.de 74 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Losing 2,000 litres of helium is possibly the worst part of this.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 42 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A large part of the price as well. Not to mention magnets that were destroyed.

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don't know about MRI machines but reenergizing NMRs that were quenched is fucking expensive

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[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I love how cops take less training to arrest people than I took to professionally reset passwords

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[–] Zexks@lemmy.world 185 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Leader and judge who issued should be fired and disbarred immediately. I feel like something should happen to the rank and file who follow such stupidity too but not sure what.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 163 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah, good point. A judge signed a warrant on just 'this place uses more electricity than others'? The court system's just a rubber stamp at this stage.

[–] wagesj45@fedia.io 133 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Don't forget the "distinct odor" lol. That just says to me that the cops lied through their teeth to get the warrant.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 45 points 1 month ago

“I smelled weed” is the classic cop trick to skirt around probable cause.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the 'odor' was probably just 'clean', and mr copper doesn't know what 'clean' smells like so it just had to be something super illegal.

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Nah, they don’t get the benefit of the doubt anymore. “I smelled weed” has been used for decades to skirt probable cause requirements. Because it’s transient evidence that can’t be saved or replicated, and you can’t prove that they’re lying. You can be 100% clean, but a cop claims he smelled weed and now your car’s interior paneling is getting ripped out on the side of the highway.

The cop lied to get the search approved. No more, no less.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago

It may very well have been true because cancer patients get CT scans but that just goes to show how a smell shouldn’t be justification for a fucking raid.

[–] pastabatman@lemmy.world 89 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

Radiologist here. There are multiple safety zones (four to be precise) around the machine and extensive screening procedures are required to access the inner zones. The magnet of an MRI is always on and extremely strong. However, you need to be pretty close for it to pull a gun from your hands. Like, less than a few meters. That would be zone 4. He should never have been that close.

The button he pressed is called a quench. It's for life threatening emergencies only. Think "patient trapped between the machine and a metal object." It vents the liquid helium used to keep it superconductive and basically destroys the machine, but the magnetic field dissipates in minutes. There is a way to wind the machine down without destroying it in situations that aren't life threatening or for servicing, but it takes hours for the magnetic field to dissipate and even longer to bring it back.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 51 points 1 month ago (6 children)

If I ever saw a building using more power, my automatic assumption would be a big machine is inside.

If it were ridiculously high, then my next guess would be a crypto mining farm.

Ain't no way modern LED lamps for growing plants gonna be drawing that much power.

Not to mention any of these fools could have just as easily sent someone inside to check. Or if they really wanted to play coppers so bad, book a fake appointment or even just pretend to be a news agency to ask for a tour.

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[–] renrenPDX@lemmy.world 37 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The summary just says gun, so I assumed hand gun. it was a rifle.

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[–] bender223@lemmy.today 30 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I would watch a cop show where they reenact all these dumb cop situations, like the acorn incident, fake fentanyl fainting, etc.

Law and Odor

....need ideas for names

Chups

[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've never really seen Reno 911 other than clips, but this sounds like Reno 911.

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[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

That was a hilarious read. It just kept getting better, like I was reading Yakety Sax.

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Maybe this could have been avoided if he only had 13 hours of training... 😥

But for real, I hope they pull the money from the pension of everyone involved, and then fire everyone involved for being literally to fucking stupid. So many people had an opportunity to do anything, to use a brain cell, but not a single one did.

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[–] filtoid@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

At the end of the article, which is already a litany of clownish buffoonery, it states that after destroying (effectively) the MRI machine in order to retrieve the rifle, he failed to retrieve a loaded magazine. So it was just left on the floor as they left.

Edit: autocorrect had changed it to clownfish

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[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I feel like all public servants (including cops) ought to have public liability insurance, where money would end up coming from in these situations, which then the employer (police department, other department) needs to pay, the employee is aware of, and is part of their renumeration (i.e. the more their premiums cost, the less they're making), making idiots more of a financial liability to themselves.

Quite quickly you're going to have people acting as responsibly as possible if you're insurance premiums then go up when you act like a moron.

Obviously this would require protections so that people don't end up being screwed over by insurance premiums, but still, this seems to be an issue in public service all over the world, no consequences because the tax payer just ends up footing the settlement, and the public servant goes on their merry way.

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[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Are the cops routinely getting copies of electric bills?

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

That is criminal levels.of negligence, and they should be fully responsible for all damages to the machine and the business

A spokesman for LAPD told AFP the department does not comment on open or pending litigation

I bet you don't

[–] Wilzax@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Could I theoretically make my home immune to guns by surrounding it with kevlar-coated MRIs

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[–] Soup@lemmy.cafe 17 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Didn’t I read somewhere once that to be a cop, you can’t have an IQ over a certain threshold? I’m not sure if that was an urban legend or not, but this…..

This certainly lends to its credibility.

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