Kim du Toit, Imperial Firearms Advisor, has an excellant rant on "No Knock" police raids.
I believe that his suggestion that :
Any police department which raids an address not specifically listed on the search warrant should have to pay an immediate, no-appeal spot fine of $5 million to the homeowner, regardless of what transpired during the “raid” ($10 million to the householder’s estate if the householder is killed during the raid).
And if law enforcement doesn’t want to pay the fine, then they might not like my alternative: the LEO who fired the killing shot must be charged with premeditated murder, and the supervisor who authorized the raid charged as an accessory.
Would be an effective way to cut down on the number of "oops sorry, my bad" cases of police raiding the wrong house.
As Kim says,“Extreme measures also require extreme caution.” As a former LEO, I hearily agree with Kim's assesments. Wearing a badge doesn't confer omnipotence in judgement, and that wearer should be held to a higher standard.
We confer great power to that badge holder, and as always, with great power should come great responsibility.
Before you fall too much in love with this idea, go rent "An Innocent Man" with Tom Selleck. It is a chilling movie where two dirty cops execute a no-knock warrant on the wrong house and shoot the guy who lives there (Tom Selleck). To cover up their mistake, they frame the Selleck character and send him to prison.
Do we really want to increase the motivation for cops to do things like that?
Sometime around 1963 or thereabout the nation went from having peace officers to law enforcement officers. The entire process took the police from public servants to 'state' servants and the human element was lost along with trust and respect. I respect the police officer but dispise the goon squad mentality that has evolved.
Posted by: Jack at December 13, 2005 01:14 PM