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Posted on 08/19/2006 9:08:27 AM PDT by JTN
Dundalk, Md. - The SWAT team shooting death of Dundalk mother Cheryl Noel is part of a national increase in overly aggressive home invasion tactics by police officers, according to a recent study by the Cato Institute.
“It’s troubling,” said Radley Balko, a policy analyst at Cato, a libertarian nonprofit public policy research think tank. “When you give domestic police officers military equipment, train them in military tactics and then tell them they’re fighting a War on Drugs, it’s not surprising that they behave like they’re in the military.”
Noel’s family last week filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against Baltimore County and five of its officers, because of a 2005 SWAT team raid of her home, during which a police officer shot Noel to death in her bedroom.
The raid yielded two charges of marijuana possession against Noel’s 19-year-old son and her husband.
The case is an example of how the Special Weapons and Tactics team raids are “needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping,” said Balko, author of “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.”
Paramilitary raids on U.S. houses have increased by 1,300 percent in the last 25 years, the study states. There are about 40,000 annually in American, the vast majority of which are to serve routine drug warrants, including for marijuana possession as in Noel’s case, Balko said.
Noel’s death is one of at least six botched paramilitary raids in Maryland since 1988 and four since 2002, according to the Cato Institute.
Others include incidents in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County.
Noel, 44, was shot to death during a 4:30 a.m. raid on Jan. 21, 2005. She and her husband, Charles, were asleep in the master bedroom of their row house when the Baltimore County SWAT team stormed through her home.
According to the family’s federal lawsuit, officers had found “trace amounts of drugs” in trash cans outside of the house.
Cheryl Noel feared criminal intruders had broken into her home, grabbed a lawfully registered gun and held it pointed at the floor, the suit states.
One officer kicked in her bedroom door with his boot and, without identifying himself or telling Noel to drop her weapon, shot her three times, including once after she had slumped to the floor, according to the suit.
The Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office ruled that Noel’s death was justified, but Balko said such raids “bring unnecessary violence to nonviolent drug offenders.”
Reaching is giving police the freedom to conduct such raids in the first place. There is such a thing as a warrant, and warrants are served, not at the point of a gun, period. Two officers dressed in coat and tie serve the warrant. If the party being served decides to fight the officers, then there may be sufficient justification for a swat attack.
No knock raids are unjustified in the case of drug offenses, especially, and I'm not so sure they are justifiable in any cases. Swat teams could be out rounding up illegals, and radical Muslims, but instead they are a paramilitary organization looking for work, and people looking usually find it. Interesting that city officials are willing to tolerate raids gone bad.
The tendency these days to label every bad person or event that happens as "sick" is extremely annoying. "Sick" implies that the individual is not responsible for his or her actions. There's nothing "sick" about that SWAT raid. I think such raids should be outlawed. They are, in my opinion, unconstitutional. And the cop who killed the woman should be brought up on murder charges. But "sick?" No way.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
I failed to appear in court in Baltimore for a case a few years back. A swat team surrounded the house of one of my relatives. A residence I had not been to for years. It was a traffic violation and was later dropped.
Their guns were drawn.
These police in Baltimore county are as bad as many of the criminals at times.
Your are absolutely right in that context. I posted on the fly and have much better choice words that would get me banned. It is getting much, much harder to tell the good guys from the bad.
It's actually a common tactic of home invaders.
"And a SWAT team was needed for some seeds???!"
In their eyes.. Where ther is seeds there is smoke!
Pitiful!
Breaking down bedroom doors at 4:30 they can not expect anything but a citizen ready to lawfully defend his life. Since they couldn't expect anything else it was premeditated homicide.
They will suspend your registration.
I was erroneously billed for not paying through the harbor tunnel almost a decade ago. That was what would have happened. Luckily they had a photograph. After much arguing and aggravation they confirmed that it was a different make model and tag number and it was dropped.
And the two groups are largely disjoint.
Unless there is more to this case than what is written here (you know the media, ignore the murder convictions of the other residents in the house) this is a clear case of police brutality.
I know many around here brag that they would return fire, but it sounds like the police had the drop on this family and they probably would have it on you as well. Think about that for you home defense....some early warning system.
It is sad when we must fear the police.
What is funny about this is that crime in Baltimore is not going down despite these tactics. Sounds like they only hit soft targets.
Once again, the moral to the story is, if you pick up a firearm, use it. It ain't a magic wand.
If these SWAT cops had been U.S. Marines in Iraq in a war zone, they would be on death row chained up to their eyeballs.
Rot in hell bastards.
How many does it take before we are in a police state?
Noel’s death is one of at least six botched paramilitary raids in Maryland since 1988 and four since 2002, according to the Cato Institute.
40,000 annually with a 99% rate of hitting the right address and the right suspects still gives us 400 or so that don't hit the right address or the right suspects.
Good thing that if you are innocent you don't have anything to worry about.
I'd be willing to bet that it is not just adrenalin these guys are pumped on.
Disgusting!
My one wish from the bottom of my heart, my one desire, is that the same fate will be bestowed upon these guilty SWAT team members and their families everywhere. I want them to wake up one day and feel the same thing they cause other families to feel when the SWAT teams commit murder. It would be a beautiful day and I would laugh at their funerals and piss on their graves.
I'm beginning to think that they want to remove the guns from the wrong peoples hands. I hope they sue them for 100,000,000.00 dollars and have double that awarded to them. These swat teams are out of control.
I don't think any judge in or around Baltimore would award them just (if there is such a thing) compensation. They are disarming the population here. I've heard of people driving through Baltimore via I95,getting pulled over for speeding,and facing 5 years no parole for weapons considered legal in most other places. First offense.
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