Family tased, assaulted, pepper sprayed <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A court in Missouri has ruled a raid staged against a homeschooling family in 2011 violated their constitutional rights. <\/p>\n
Police entered the home of Jason and Laura Hagan without a search warrant. The couple were shot with tasers and Laura Hagan was slapped in the face by a police officer. Police also threatened to shoot the family dog when the couple refused to cooperate with social service workers. Pepper spray was also used on the couple. <\/p>\n
The Hagans were charged with child endangerment and resisting arrest following a previous visit by state officials who claimed their home was messy. The family complied with a first inspection but refused a second, resulting in the police raid. <\/p>\n
The Hagans lost custody of their children for months following the raid. The children witnessed the police assault on their parents. <\/p>\n
The court ruled the police raid was unconstitutional. The court will not allow [an] exception to sanction warrantless entry into a private residence by pepper spray and Taser. If the officer had a warrant in hand and such force was necessary, that is a different story, but those are not the facts of this case, the court stated. <\/p>\n
The Fourth Amendment strikes a carefully crafted balance between a familys right to privacy and the governments need to enforce the law, a report by the Home School Legal Defense Association states. In most situations, government agents cannot simply force their way into a home. Instead, they must explain to a neutral magistrate why they need to enter the home, and they must provide real evidence to support that need. <\/p>\n
This rule applies to all government agents. Court after court has agreed that there is no social services exception to the Fourth Amendment. <\/p>\n
All too often, law enforcement officers and child-welfare workers act as if the Fourth Amendment does not apply to CPS investigations. They are wrong. The Fourth Amendment is a legal shield that protects people from exactly the kind of mistreatment the Hagans endured. <\/p>\n
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The Fourth Amendment | Nwo Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Family tased, assaulted, pepper sprayed A court in Missouri has ruled a raid staged against a homeschooling family in 2011 violated their constitutional rights. Police entered the home of Jason and Laura Hagan without a search warrant. The couple were shot with tasers and Laura Hagan was slapped in the face by a police officer. Continue reading