If the guy had been a drunk, rather than a drag abuser, the odds that the police would break down his door in the middle of the night and shoot him would be greatly decreased.
Ok, I will agree that the police were TOTALLY in the wrong. He is STILL dead. Had he never gotten involved with illegal drugs, chances are he would still be alive.
And when the govt decides to ban booze again or some other item, like they did drugs i this case, it will be the same outcome.
You know, these swat teams do make mistakes: false tip, wrong address, etc. If they make a mistake, chances are it will be non-users, like you or me, they are doing a dynamic entry on... except as law abiding citizens we have less reason to think the police would be knocking our door down.
Imagine someone knocks your door off it’s hinges at night without any real warning... what is your first instinctive reaction? Do you want to assume its the police and if so what if it is armed criminals pretending to be police? If police can get away with blowing a junkie away within 5s of doing a dynamic entry for holding up a golf club, they aren’t any less likely to do it to us just because they were at the wrong house.
Authorities make mistakes, abuse their powers and otherwise act unjustly towards the citizenry. This guy may have been stupid for using meth and pot, but shrugging off his right to defend his home means you give up your right to do the same.
There’s been enough wrong door raids to doubt that.
Moreover, as Radley Balko points out there is *no*
need for a dynamic (read: violent) entry for a non
violent. offense.