Posted on 11/27/2006 10:12:03 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
The proliferation of SWAT teams, police militarization, and the Drug War have given rise to a dramatic increase in the number of "no-knock" or "quick-knock" raids on suspected drug offenders. Because these raids are often conducted based on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants, police sometimes conduct SWAT-style raids on the wrong home, or on the homes of nonviolent, misdemeanor drug users. Such highly-volatile, overly confrontational tactics are bad enough when no one is hurt -- it's difficult to imagine the terror an innocent suspect or family faces when a SWAT team mistakenly breaks down their door in the middle of the night.
But even more disturbing are the number of times such "wrong door" raids unnecessarily lead to the injury or death of suspects, bystanders, and police officers. Defenders of SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics say such incidents are isolated and rare. The map below aims to refute that notion.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/#
How To Use This Map:
Click on each marker on the map for a description of the incident and sources. Markers are precise in cases where the address of an incident was reported. Where media reports indicate only a town or neighborhood, markers are located at the closest post office, city hall, or landmark. Incident descriptions and outcomes are kept as current as possible.
Other map features:
--Using the "plus" and "minus" buttons in the map's upper left-hand corner, users can zoom in on the map to street-level, as well as switch between street map and satellite views. In some large metropolitan areas, there are so many incidents in such close proximity that they tend to overlap unless viewed on a small scale (try zooming in on New York City, for example).
--Users may isolate the incidents by type by clicking on the colored markers in the key (see only "death of an innocent" markers, for example).
--The search function just below the map produces printable descriptions of the raids plotted on the map, and is sortable by state, year, and type of incident.
Your sadness acknowledged and shared, it is amazing that somehow you include law enforcement as a part of the causality of the dreadful consequences of alchohol and drug abuse.
Legal consequences are caused by the insanity of drug abuse. Innocent suffering is the consequence of it as well. Some have described these as " the facts of life."
The blindness of muddled understanding is the real tragedy here. Where emotional turmoil confuses cause from consequence and angels are seen as devils.
I have no blindness of muddled understanding as I've experienced firsthand the effect an addict/alcoholic can have on a family.
I've also experienced the joy recovery can bring.
I find it amazing you can somehow conclude I've included law enforcement as a part of the casuality. I have no problem with drugs being illegal. The one exception I make is marijuana as it's not physically addictive.
I still take issue with the no-knock raids for the reasons I've previously stated.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. We appear to be more in agreement, then, on many general points and its encouraging to find such ample acceptance for what surely appears to be one of our most pressing social issues.
Personally I'd rather see 100 drug dealers get off because of lack of evidence than to see one innocent person's home and life destroyed because of these overzealous jackbooted thugs who call themselves Police Officers.
"I was just following orders" was no defense at Nuremburg, it's no defense today either.
Suggest you cool your jets on this one pal. Nuremberg was about the coldblooded murder of totally innocent non-combattants in wartime... of unspeakable obscenities.
Associating alleged cop abuse of druggies or even innocent civilians in a drug raid to that kind of horrible business invalidates your qualifications as a rational person.
That type of "commentary" does'nt deserve the dignity of a reply.
Suggest you chill yourself slick.
Power of government is the power to destroy. I don't care if your ass is gestapo of 1940 Nazi Germany or LAPD of 2006 America.
Just because you wear a badge doesn't give you the right to violate an innocent person's rights to Life and Liberty.
If you think it does then carry your silly ass to China, Russia or Cuba. I'm sure they would love you there. Here you are an enemy to the Constitution of the United States and therefore by default, MY enemy.
What part of
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Don't you comprehend?
I live in a state that has 1 state police lab. It would be wonderful to have available endless forensic resources, but that's not here and now. Most sewer lines are are 4" pipes that flow to the county sewer pipes. They don't have a shut off or even a way to measure what goes in. (your sewer bill is estimated based on the amount of water you use). I don't want to sound paranoid but we don't even tell our team the location until the brief, a plumber who wasn't part of the team is out of the question in my mind. The "polite Knock" that you suggest could still allow someone who is looking at the three strikes law to have time to do something stupid. Quick , fast, and over saves lives of not only suspects, but Officers as well. It's not the "no-Knock" it's the lack of preplaning that gets both suspects and cops hurt or killed.
not in my book
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