This kind of concern is right behind "It's all Bush's fault" as a whacko fake concern in the scheme of things.
How many SWAT Team "Mistakes" have there ever been in recorded history? Name one. After that, tell: "SO WHAT?"
Let's concentrate on Criminals and the certain threat they are to innocent people...not the law-enforcement heros that protect law abiding citizens.
From Cato's map:
Alberta Spruill.
May 16, 2003—NY
On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers storm an apartment building in Harlem on a no-knock warrant. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant, who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor.
There is no felon. The only resident in the building is Alberta Spruill, described by friends as a "devout churchgoer." Before entering the apartment, police deploy a flashbang grenade. The blinding, deafening explosion stuns the 57 year-old city worker, who then slips into cardiac arrest. She dies two hours later.
A police investigation would later find that the drug dealer the raid team was looking for had been arrested days earlier. He couldn't possibly have been at Spruill's apartment because he was in custody. The officers who conducted the raid did no investigation to corroborate the informant's tip. A police source told the New York Daily News that the informant in the Spruill case had offered police tips on several occasions, none of which had led to an arrest. His record was so poor, in fact, that he was due to be dropped from the city's informant list.
Nevertheless, his tip on the ex-con in Spruill's building was taken to the Manhattan district attorney's office, who approved of the application for a no-knock entry. It was then taken to a judge, who issued the warrant resulting in Spruill's death. From tip to raid, the entire "investigation" and execution were over in a matter of hours.
Spruill's death triggered an outpouring of outrage and emotion in New York and inspired dozens of victims of botched drug raids, previously afraid to tell their stories, to come forward.
Still, the number of real, tangible reforms to result from the raid were few. Though the number of no-knocks in New York has by most indications declined, there's still no real oversight or transparency in how they're granted and carried out. And victims of botched raids still have no real recourse, other than to hope the media gets hold of their story.
Sources:
Austin Fenner, Maki Becker, and Michelle McPhee, "Cops' Tragic Grenade Raid; Storm wrong apt., woman dies," New York Daily News, May 17, 2003, p.3.
William K. Rashbaum, "Report by police outlines mistakes in ill-fated raid," New York Times, May 31, 2003, p. A1.
Fernanda Santos and Patrice O'Shaughnessy, "Snitch had shaky rep," New York Daily News, May 18, 2003.
Leonard Levitt, "Focus on Kelly, Race After Raid," Newsday, May 19, 2003, p. A2.
"Name one."
Alberto Sepulveda.
'How many SWAT Team "Mistakes" have there ever been in recorded history? Name one.'
Just click on Death of an Innocent and click submit.
'Let's concentrate on Criminals and the certain threat they are to innocent people...not the law-enforcement heros that protect law abiding citizens.'
A badge does not a hero make.
I would rather us concentrate on doing away with "Law Enforcement Officers", and returning to "Peace Officers".
When you break into an innocents house you become a criminal. No knock warrants should be reserved solely for cases where lives are endangered. If you have a life threatening emergency, a violent felony in progress or a murderer at large then peoples rights to privacy are overruled by the need to protect life. If that's not the case however, then there is no good reason to forcibly enter someone's home unannounced. Police can surround the house, knock on the door, present their warrant and enforce the law without behaving like the Gestapo. If the suspect refuses to answer the door, then you break it down, but not until then.
Let's concentrate on Criminals and the certain threat they are to innocent people...not the law-enforcement heros that protect law abiding citizens.
Are you 'effin nuts? There's on old saying, "the only difference between a cop and a crook is the side of the badge their on."
If you propose tho give the cops free gratis how do you propose to maintain their integrity. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Why do you think there is a second amendment? To protect us from the savage redman?
No! - it is to protect us from the totalitarian @ssholes who think that because they have a badge on their chest that they are above the law.
In any instance where an innocent is raided there has been a major malfunction on the the part of law enforcement and there's no way around that, buddy.
If they're (the cops) using no-knock, and thereby threatening their own team members, and innocent civilians; absolute and undeniable proof should exist that their is 1) a wanted felon in residence or 2) undeniable proof that there is contraband on site. Without such proof you're opening the doors to killing civilians (they're the ones you are supposed to be protecting, remember?).
The should also be fully liable for any personal injury or property damage that they cause in wrong site no-knocks.
"Let's concentrate on Criminals and the certain threat they are to innocent people...not the law-enforcement heros that protect law abiding citizens. "
What's that smell? Smells like sewer gases.
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.