Utah raid UNPACKED by FBI whistleblower & former SWAT team member
On August 8, Trump supporter Craig Robertson was killed in an FBI raid of his Utah home.
Robertson posted several threats to President Biden and other Democrats on social media, and although the FBI had met with him before, the threats continued.
But was Robertson a real threat? Granted that he was 75 years old and immensely limited physically due to weighing 300 pounds, the answer is likely no.
So why was a SWAT team necessary? Why did they use a flash grenade in the raid? Why is there no body cam footage?
That’s what Glenn Beck wants to know, and luckily Steve Friend, FBI whistleblower and former SWAT team member, is here to answer questions.
“Was this attack on this man's home [meant] ... to send a message? Was it just incompetence? Laziness? What happened?” Glenn inquires.
“I think that it is a result of the fact that the FBI is now viewing their agents as case managers as opposed to the agents who investigate the cases,” Friend responds. “You're called a case manager, and when you're the case manager, you're sort of moving chess pieces around the board.”
“In this case they had a history with this gentleman, and they obviously knew that he wasn't an imminent threat,” he continues.
Although Friend thinks “there were far better options” when it came to Robertson’s case, he acknowledges that “you don't want to be the leader that said, ‘Well, I sent two agents to his house instead of a SWAT team when he threatened to kill the president.”’
Glenn is also curious as to why the SWAT team threw a flash grenade, a non-lethal explosive device used to disorient an enemy, outside of Robertson’s house when the team had already infiltrated his home.
“It could have been an accident,” says Friend. He explains that the team might have been “anticipating needing a flashbang” but didn’t and was forced to throw it to a safe area so that it didn’t “go off in the operator's hand.”
To ascertain the details of what exactly happened, one would need video evidence, but apparently, the FBI doesn’t currently wear body cams.
“There’s a plan in place to implement body cameras,” says Friend, but “I’m concerned that if the decision is made to actually wear them that the FBI will say we don't want to reveal our tactics, so we're not going to have them rolling when we do our SWAT takedowns.”
“If the FBI is going to get involved in all of these local things and their response is to always send in a SWAT team, I think it's important that they have cameras on them,” says Glenn.
“I agree with you on that 100%,” Friend responds.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Former FBI agent says THIS is the BIGGEST issue with Utah raid
A Utah resident named Craig Robertson was killed on Wednesday while FBI agents attempted to execute a search and arrest warrant. According to officials, Robertson had made several threats via his Facebook page against President Biden and others.
Glenn Beck isn’t convinced deadly force was justified in the raid of the 75-year-old man's home, so he sat down with former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin to hear what he thinks.
“You don’t do that. What he did was wrong, illegal, and you would expect the FBI to come in. However, you wouldn’t expect them to kill him. So, I don’t see a good guy here on either side. Although, I do kind of side with the victim,” Glenn tells Seraphin.
“The bigger picture,” Seraphin explains, “is this: you can make really bad decisions and get to the point where there’s a SWAT team there, and once that happens, a shooting of someone in that scenario can be very justified.”
He tells Glenn that if an officer has a reasonable belief that the person in question poses imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person, then deadly force is justified.
“I’m pretty confident — I’ve talked to my buddies who are actually on that team — that this was a straightforward weapon response scenario. They were justified in making that shot,” Seraphin says.
However, he explains that it’s not exactly what happens during the shooting that poses the problem with the handling of the situation. Rather, what had happened before.
“The decisions of the investigation that went on before it and the decision to send SWAT into this guy’s presence,” Seraphin says, “those can be bad decisions.”
Glenn is not pleased.
“I’m disgusted by this whole thing, and I still believe what the guy did was wrong, and he should have expected the FBI to show up,” Glenn says.
However, he notes, “He’s 75 years old. He is obese. Five, four, three hundred pounds. He can’t get up out of a chair without a walking stick or a cane. He walks with a cane. He’s got a blind son who just had a stroke. And you use basically a tank to come in through his front window.”
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com