Reposted from WND

“In any civilized nation … this is the act of paramilitary thugs’

Leo Lech used to be a Denver-area homeowner and landlord, but that was before the local SWAT team, trying to extract a shoplifter who had forced his way inside, turning his investment into a condemned property.

“There was one gunman with a handgun and they chose to turn this house into something that resembles Osama Bin Laden’s compound,” Lech told Denver’s KMGH News.

Lech’s problems began about 2 p.m. Wednesday, miles away in Aurora, when Robert Jonathan Seacat, 33, was spotted attempting to shoplift. Seacat fled, abandoned his car at the local light rail and took off on foot. As luck would have it, Seacat randomly picked Lech’s Greenwood Village property to force his way into to hide.

The home, rented to Lech’s son and his fiance, was occupied at the time only by the woman’s nine-year-old son.

Seacat, armed with a handgun, opened fire on the police when they arrived at the house, setting in motion a 20-hour standoff. Fortunately, police dispatchers and the child’s mother were able to talk the child out of the house and, about 9 a.m. Thursday, Seacat was taken into custody.

According to police, the SWAT team employed chemical agents, flash-bang grenades and a “breaching ram” to punch large holes in nearly every room on the second floor.

Police departments are acquiring major battlefield equipment that emboldens officials to strong-arm those they should be protecting. “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality” (Autographed) chronicles how we got to this point.

A neighbor, whose home was used as SWAT headquarters during the siege, said police also used explosives to breach the wall of the house, the blast breaking a windshield in his vehicle.

“They drove their tanks right though all our fences here,” said the neighbor.

“There are holes just like this one all through the back of the house too,” Lech said. “They methodically fired explosives into every room in this house in order to extract one person. Granted, he had a handgun, but against 100 officers? You know, the proper thing to do would be to evacuate these homes around here, ensure the safety of the homeowners around here, fire some tear gas through the windows. If that didn’t work, you have 50 SWAT officers with body armor break down the door.”

Lech estimates his plan of action might have resulted in $10,000 damage to the house. Instead, police inflicted $250,000 worth of damage and the home may have to be demolished.

“This is an abomination,” he said. “This is an atrocity. To use this kind of force against one gunman,” Lech said.

KMGH sought comment from the Greenwood Village police chief and reported he said, “We did what we had to do to protect human life.”