I’ve made other posts about No-Knock raids in the past but I am doing so again because nothing is being done to stop or prevent them. How can we consider ourselves free so long as agents of the government can beat down our doors…shoot our children, our grandparents and our family pets…any time they feel like it?
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. ~ John Stuart Mill~
I suppose that “No Knock” raids are for our own good, right? Police must protect us from ourselves and prevent us from making choices about how we choose to live. Raiding the homes of innocent people or of people who choose to grow and consume *illegal* plants must be for our own good!
Now, if police happen to bust down the wrong door, we shouldn’t be upset because obviously, mistakes happen in the heat of enforcing the prohibition on freedom. And if they happen to shoot your dog, well…remember, they are only ever doing their jobs. And no one is perfect…
Excerpts from Reason.com:
“Fred Skinner was eating a piece of toast when police from three different agencies burst through his front door with guns drawn, put the 76-year-old in handcuffs, and began ransacking his house in search of drugs. Minutes later, one of the officers noticed a piece of mail on Skinner’s table. The name on it didn’t match the name for the suspected drug dealer the officers were after. The officers asked Skinner if the name on the mail was his. When Skinner said yes, the officer shouted “Wrong house,” and the entire raid team headed out the way they’d come, without apologizing or explaining themselves. They were, according to a department spokesperson, in too much of a rush to get next door, where their suspect was supposedly located…”
What the police had to say about the raid -
“It was a mistake,” Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta told WSYR-TV. “We’re no different than anyone else. We make mistakes just like everybody else. We try to make sure our information is as current and as reliable as possible. Once in a while we get it wrong. When we get it wrong, we make it right.”
If raids on the homes of innocent senior citizens doesn’t make your blood boil,
Check out this website, Dogs That Cops Killed
“If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown . . . there would be reason for grave concern.”
~ Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in Hudson v. Michigan, June 15, 2006.
According to Radley Balko, as many as 40,000 of these raids happen every year.
Interactive Map of Botched Raids from Cato Institute
As long as the “War on Drugs” is allowed to continue, no one is safe in their homes. If “No-Knock” raids aren’t the ultimate display of the unconstitutional actions committed by our government then I don’t know what is.
There is too much “keystone cop” crap going on everywhere. I’ve had spotlights shined on me for just sitting on my own porch after dark and just last week, 6 cops in 3 cars busted up an illegal game of chess, ordering players to go home. Totally goofy as no one was rowdy or anything. In Youngstown, I watched the US Marshalls stake out an apt building for 2 weeks, popping in daily at odd hours to raid an apt and bug the neighbors and the whole time they were looking for this guy, he was already in custody. Finally, someone told them to go look in the county jail. I laugh but Lord help us, we need protection from those who wear badges.
What if that poor man would have had a heart attack? Then what? I’ll tell you what, nothing would happen. They’d apologize and that’s about it. The dogs that cops killed page is heartbreaking. I swear if mine got shot, I’d be very, very close to putting a bullet in his head that shot my dog. Due to my wacko neighbors that cops have been at my house, luckily they ask me to put my dogs inside before they get out of their car. At least they are good about one thing.
*the cops
Nancy, I do believe I’ve heard it all now. Busting up a freaking chess game???? Wha…? WHY? Good lord, we need more people doing intelligent things like playing chess; hassling such people is just insane! Years ago I had some officers nearly beat my door down at 1am…my crime? I’d smoked a doob and was peacefully minding my own business while painting goddess images on rocks. Yes, run away in fear, I am a criminal, I tell ya! Being such a danger and threat to society nearly cost me 90 days in county because the cops were desperate to bust SOMEBODY after showing up at the apartment complex and not finding the wife-beater they were looking for. Guess a mellowed out pot smoker was better than nothing? Or more like they felt like confiscating a little to smoke at the end of their shift…agh!
Yeah Suzie, I’d be sorely tempted to shoot anyone who shot one of my dogs. If my dog barks at you for breaking my door down…isn’t that kind of their job???? Is there ANY dog who wouldn’t bark under such circumstances? I worry more now that we have our GSD, Sami, because she’s automatically deemed a threat but from what I saw on the dog-murderer page, it really doesn’t seem to matter much what breed it is. It’s almost like it’s become a sport for cops and until someone starts shooting up their dogs, I doubt they’ll ever give a shit.
As for the poor old man they terrorized, I’m guessing you’re right and if they had killed him, they probably would have covered it up or claimed he was dead when they arrived. We do indeed need to police the police…!!
http://www.copblock.org/
Support them if you really want to begin to do something to stop this insanity.