Law enforcement officers in Kansas are on a stomp and destroy mission to rid the state of anyone they suspect to be involved with illegal drugs. However, a stuttering level of one-eyed due diligence has led them to kick down the doors of law-biding citizens.
Most recently, members of a Wichita SWAT Team stormed the residence of 22-year-old Taylor Tymony and 21-year-old Michael Kostelecky after investigators were unable to determine how the men were able to afford to live in such a nice home. Although the door to the house was unlocked, police used a battering ram to force their way into the residence at around 10 O’Clock Friday morning, and then proceeded to threaten the men with loaded weapons, while using their boots to mash their faces to the floor.
An officer reportedly tossed one of the men to the ground and said, “if you want them to be quiet, just do them like this,” showing another officer how to stomp on the back of their neck.
After police managed to brand the men’s faces with the tread of their boots, they began giving them the third degree, asking what line of business afforded them the luxury of such an expensive home. Meanwhile, officers ripped the two-story home to pieces in search of illegal contraband, but the only thing they managed to find was an “old broken piece of a marijuana pipe” that had not been used in years, according to Kansas Exposed.
Reports indicate that police had been conducting surveillance on the home because a third roommate, 20-year-old Jake Houston, had a prior drug arrest, and it appeared the men were living well above their means. In addition, investigators noticed there seemed to be a high level of traffic coming and going from the residence, which raised a red flag — the men had to be engaged in the dealing of illegal drugs.
However, what investigators failed to notice before sending in the cavalry to crash down a reign of terror was that the house was actually owned by Kostlecky’s parents, who were renting it to them while they are in Costa Rica. The men were not unemployed; in fact, Tymony and Houston worked at a local BBQ restaurant, while Tymony and Kostelecky moonlighted as record producers for area musicians, which would explain the unusual traffic at the house.
Yet, even though officers found no significant evidence of illegal drug activity during the raid, they escorted Tymony and Kostelecky to a local precinct for further questioning, while a crew of drug warriors stuck around to dig deeper into the search. Interestingly, there was no search warrant presented at the time of the raid. It was not until the two men arrived home that they found a warrant lying on a counter in the middle of a destroyed house.
Reports claim the police had been so careless with their search that they left a scarf on a space heater that was starting to burn by the time the men got home. “If they would have been home twenty minutes later, the house would have been engulfed in flames,” Torrie Porter, the mother of Taylor Tymony, said in a YouTube video about the incident.
These types of SWAT raids have become a nuisance to civil society, with an estimated 50,000 armed shakedowns happening every year. Unfortunately, the majority of these raids do not lead to the arrests of cartel kingpins and other dangerous drug trafficking hoodlums, but the violent assault of the average non-violent citizen suspected of petty possession.
