Kim Dotcom Releases New Raid Footage Captured By In-House CCTV

http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-releases-new-raid-footage-captured-by-in-house-cctv-130613/

by Libertatea • 13 years ago

163 99 13 years ago

Peroni4• 13 years ago

Regardless of your stance on the entire Mega issue, no-one can deny that the raid is simply terrifying.

Personally I have no clue how they justified such a heavily armed response particularly considering the fact that Dotcom never posed a physical threat to anyone let alone the fact that there were a number of children in the building at the time.

mjolk2• 13 years ago

What's the point of buying all those toys if you never get to use them? And what's a better time to use them, but when you know they can't potentially get damaged?

Samuel_Michon27• 13 years ago

no-one can deny that the raid is simply terrifying.

It looked pretty amateurish to me. They had trouble climbing a 3 foot high gate, which after they had ‘scaled’ it, turns out was easily opened.

such a heavily armed response

I counted 5 police officers who approached the house together, only one of them was armed with a rifle. I saw no violence whatsoever, it was pretty laid-back. At no point in the video did they point a gun at any of the suspects, and they lowered their fire arms before they entered the building (highly unusual if you think you’re in danger or if you want to intimidate someone).

Dotcom never posed a physical threat to anyone

When you’re dealing with a rich suspect who loves expensive toys and has a large staff, you have to be prepared for anything. In the US, they would’ve sent an army to surround and comb through that enormous mansion. Given that Dotcom is morbidly obese, I doubt the agents saw him as a physical threat, it’s his staff and the presence of weapons they needed to worry about.

mrmagooey• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure that in most countries if a police officer turns up with a silenced automatic weapon then the police action is no longer "laid-back".

aranw• 13 years ago

Wow you really have no idea do you?

Seriously just cause you live in the US and everything is over the top including police force, that doesn't mean its the norm. I can ensure you police force in the US and the use of guns is over the top and unjustified, so was this in the case for Dotcom.

adrr• 13 years ago

Because Kim is super rich, they wouldn't have raid him in the US. It would have been like the Madoff arrest, knock on his door an arrest him. Hell they may have even contacted his lawyers and asked him to surrender.

matthewsimon• 13 years ago

... did they point a gun at any of the suspects ...

This may seem a minor point, but the housekeeper and other staff were not "suspects", they're innocent members of the public.

Symmetry• 13 years ago

Using a SWAT raid to arrest a subject in cases where the police also want to seize evidence isn't at all uncommon in the US these days. The ostensible idea is that speed and ferocity is needed to capture evidence before criminals can destroy it. In practice I think the situation is more that police departments feel they need need SWAT teams because of terrorism, etc. But once they have them they start looking for chances to use them so the members don't get bored. The police in the US are required to knock on the door and announce themselves before conducting a raid which would interfere with the police starting the suspects and getting them before they could, say, flush their drugs down the toilet. Thankfully for the police there's no requirement for how loudly they have to knock, so I don't think I've ever heard of a case where the suspect or neighbors heard them do this. There are some states where over half of police searches are done by tactical squads bursting in behind a battering ram.

Peroni4• 13 years ago

This raid was conducted in NZ. One of the most passive countries on the planet.

cafard• 13 years ago

Police departments also want SWAT teams because other jurisdictions have them and it's easy to get funding.

shpxnvz3• 13 years ago

As you mention this is quite common in the U.S. These "high-risk" warrant teams are used all the time for serving narcotics warrants on non-violent offenders. They also commonly get the wrong address or the wrong suspect with tragic results. Take a peek at the map of botched paramilitary raids for a sobering look at what happens when the police screw up: http://www.cato.org/raidmap

belorn5• 13 years ago

I remember reading somewhere that the policemen in the raid did not know what were going on, or even who the target was. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought they were taking down a terrorist cell, given that the personal used was the counter-terrorism special tactics Group.

Reading the Wikipedia article about the task force, their job is in dealing with high risk situations involving armed offenders and possible terrorism related events. They also train with New Zealand Special Air Service Commandos. In that context, the raid makes much more sense in how it was conducted, with silencers, helicopters, dogs and 20-30+ personal. The real question then comes to who in the command structure decided to use such group for serving a warrant, and collecting evidence for an assisting copyright infringement case. Given the nature of the crime, the low threat level (admitted in court), this is rather uniquely in history. One might also wonder how much influence the FBI had in the decision.

contingencies3• 13 years ago

The audio from the helicopter features radio reports from the ground team with words to the effect "target secured" (ie. they knew they were after Kim specifically, once he was restrained that was their objective completed).

xtrumanx• 13 years ago

I believe by what belorn meant regarding the police not knowing who the target was, was the they didn't know they were after a guy for copyright infringement as opposed to a armed and dangerous individual.

dangoldin• 13 years ago

I obviously don't know much but it seems stupid to not tell your team who they're going after. They would use that information to plan the breach and I'd suspect a good squad leader would demand to know before going in.

belorn5• 13 years ago

I was wondering about it some more, and tried to find where I could had read it. Sadly, I can't find it so take the statement with a bit of salt. Might just been a comment someone made regarding the officer who asked the nanny if she had any weapons or bombs. (http://gizmodo.com/5882967/watch-how-the-special-forces-bust...)

Or it maybe my memory is a bit faulty and what I remember is regarding the search warrant used by the police. (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/06/mega-victory-kim-...) The article describe how police officers didn't know what they were looking for when executing the warrant. As the judge put it, the people executing the warrant "were not the investigating officers and had limited knowledge of the operation," despite being briefed before the raid went down.

If I do find the article, I will post it. Maybe its was in the court document.

Samuel_Michon27• 13 years ago

It’s obviously not true. How else would they know who to arrest? In that case, Schmitz could’ve just walked off the compound.

genwin• 13 years ago

They might've realized when they saw the big shiny "D O T C O M" sculpture on the grounds. You can see part of it in the video.

jwoah12• 13 years ago

I didn't know who Kim Dotcom was before this ordeal, and that certainly wouldn't strike me as a last name if I didn't already know.

larrys3• 13 years ago

"The real question then comes to who in the command structure decided to use such group for serving a warrant"

"such group" needs practice similar to how firemen use controlled fires to practice their skills. As such it makes total sense that you would use this as an opportunity to hone the groups skills for a time when the target is much more important.

I've seen cases where the NYPD sends officers overseas to (sorry can't find a link) help with matters that have nothing to do with NYC at all. I assume this has to do with some kind of practice for when they need the same at home.

charonn02• 13 years ago

"They needed the practice" is possibly the worst excuse I've heard for the overwhelming force used here.

shpxnvz3• 13 years ago

"such group" needs practice similar to how firemen use controlled fires to practice their skills

Firemen don't go around setting people's homes on fire in order to practice putting them out.

mjolk2• 13 years ago

What I find most offensive is that this level of police response is that it's being used against someone that facilitated sharing of content between users that would have never paid for it, yet, good luck getting a third of these resources spent tracking down criminals that did things to hurt someone. Apparently, it's more important to protect imagined profit than people.

ancarda• 13 years ago

Interesting to see how big is house is. I wonder how much money Dotcom made off MegaUpload.

Peroni4• 13 years ago

His net worth prior to the raid was estimated at $200M.

codfrantic• 13 years ago

I remember him participating in the Gumball Rally in Europe in 2001 (Filmed by Jackass) in a Mercedes Benz S V12 Brabus, I'd guess a $900,000.00 car. So my guess is that he was quite rich before starting MegaUpload (founded in 2005) :-)

crb2• 13 years ago

It was considered, at the time, the most expensive house in New Zealand. However, he only rents it. He tried to buy it, but the New Zealand government get involved in overseas investment deals/land purchase, and he was denied permission to buy it because he was "not of good character".

It is known within NZ as "the Chrisco mansion", as it was built by the owners of Chrisco - a Christmas hamper mail order company. People still get wealthy the old-fashioned way down under.

dopamean3• 13 years ago

What on earth is a "Christmas hamper?"

Samuel_Michon27• 13 years ago

Can we all just ignore this attention-seeking thug, please?

His marketing team does its job well, but surely, HN users are smarter than to fall for this rhetoric.

fsckin• 13 years ago

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

nextw33k• 13 years ago

You sir have just restored my faith in comment systems. Thank you for an awesome reminder from history.

Samuel_Michon27• 13 years ago

Apart from misquoting, you should be ashamed for comparing the non-violent arrest of a convicted felon to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...

hereonbusiness• 13 years ago

I guess the masterminds behind this whole fiasco wanted to impress their friends from the US, but they tried too hard.

A behaviour one would expect from adolescents, not leaders.

magoon• 13 years ago

What were they even looking for? It was a copyright infringement claim - no reason for any of this.

Did they worry that Kimble had a Dr. Evil escape pod?

alan_cx• 13 years ago

Well, yes there is. But as you should see below, the reason cant be stated here because it will get down voted and eventually disappear.

I suppose we could call it "crowd censorship".

Edit: OK, egg on face. Its now very visible. I'll eat the humble pie and shut the hell up.

crb2• 13 years ago

Worse: "the FBI actually believed Dotcom had a Dr. Strangelove-style “doomsday device” that was capable of wiping out all evidence of Internet piracy with the flick of a switch." http://bgr.com/2012/08/10/kim-dotcom-raid-fbi-feared-doomsda...

knome• 13 years ago

What's laughable is that if he had such a device, it's almost certain he would have a 3rd party capable of deploying in the event of, say, a highly publicized police raid of his home to arrest him.

Of course, the counter to that would be to contact whoever hosts his data ( it's doubtful it's in his basement ) and have them pull the plug before the raid.

Of course, if you do that, there's little point in raiding his house in the first place as the "doomsday device" would be neutralized. A simple summons would likely have been sufficient. "Hi, we've taken your servers from the co-lo, come in for questioning by tomorrow at blah blah blah".

What if he runs? Who gives a shit? It was a copyright infringement case. If he runs, you then lock his assets, put him on a watch list and let him crawl back out at his leisure, letting his servers rot in an evidence locker somewhere.

I'm not sure how they justify the car removal at all. I suppose they didn't, since the warrant was deemed to be overreaching.

This was just ridiculous.

e40• 13 years ago

That sounds like the type of thing people make up after the fact to justify their actions.

FreeInfo4All• 13 years ago

Go Kim! Stick it to those dirty MAFIAA copyright gangsters! I hope Mega takes off and helps us share even more culture.

Information wants to be free, man!

Except when it's my information. Then it's just a terrible invasion of privacy.

alextingle• 13 years ago

What on Earth did those police think they were doing? Playing Counter Strike??

jack-r-abbit• 13 years ago

Two things that made me laugh watching the video:

1) That some very official looking people are forced to address him as Mr. Dotcom... which is on my list of the most ridiculous names a person could give themselves.

2) The giant statue of a rino in his yard. Really? A Rino?

dopamean3• 13 years ago

From what I understand, he rented the house. The rhino is likely not his.

Apocryphon• 13 years ago

I wonder if the endgame to Snowden's exile will be him being accepted into NZ, and taking refuge at Kim Dotcom's estate.

Kim Dotcom Releases New Raid Footage Captured By In-House CCTV

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