Botched Paramilitary Police Raids:
An Epidemic of “Isolated Incidents”
At what point does the harm done, erosion of rights, diminished public opinion of LE and the courts, loss of life, etc. outweigh the benefits of this sort of police activity?
Have we “won” the war on drugs yet?
In that same time period, more than 2000 people were killed by lightning in the United States.
Keep in mind the 357 number represents the total number of "incidents" documented by Cato. Not deaths mind you, but a very broad reading of "incidents."
A good example of this is the Samuel Hicks incident that they have listed. This was a standard knock-and-announce warrant. The agents had a lawful warrant, supported by probable cause. As they knocked and announced their presence, an agent looking in the basement window saw the suspect running to destroy evidence. Only then did they break open the door. The suspect's wife fired at the agents down the stairwell and hit one. Cato implies that the wife was just a poor and scared innocent who didn't hear the announcement and thought that the agents were burglars. In reality, tape recorded conversations of her jail-house phone calls after the incident revealed that not only did she know exactly what she was doing and who the agents were, but that she was the ring-leader of the entire drug operation.
So even with "incidents" like these inflating the statistics, Cato can only get to 357 in more than 20 years.