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To: DWPittelli
So if the judge decided otherwise, the 4th Amendment would become virtually meaningless.

The practice of no-knock raids has already rendered the 4th Ammendment virtually meaningless. What freedom we enjoy in this country, or what freedom we think we enjoy, is overly dependent upon the benevolence of our police forces, and not so much upon the rule of law as it should be.

This is a good ruling, and I support it too (like you).

20 posted on 10/24/2002 2:54:48 PM PDT by citizenK
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To: citizenK
The practice of no-knock raids has already rendered the 4th Ammendment virtually meaningless.

If you meant "no-knock" literally: I don't know if a no-knock raid is such a horrible thing if there is a legitimate warrant and the evidence is readily flushable, or some other reason (e.g., violent armed criminals are preferably taken at 2:00 AM while they sleep in a no-knock raid) is OK'd by the judge issuing the warrant.

The important essence of the 4th Amendment is that a member of the judiciary approves the warrant, not that warning (knocks) is given before entering. That said, no-knocks do have the danger of scaring even law-abiding citizens into lethal defense attempts, and so judges should not be pushovers when it comes to issuing them.

24 posted on 10/24/2002 7:31:51 PM PDT by DWPittelli
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