Your Front Door is Kicked In…
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Steve Verdon | Friday, April 7, 2006 |
…and armed men storm into your bedroom at 4 A.M. and hurl you and your wife to floor, hitting you with their guns and kicking you. You hear your children also being forcibly roused from bed. Large scary guns are pointed at you. Are you the victim of a home invasion? Nope, just the local SWAT team (mistakenly) serving a no-knock drug warrent. Does it matter that there are no drugs in your house? No. Will you be compensated? Highly unlikely? Will the cops who brutalized and terroized you be sanctioned in anyway? Also highly unlikely. And if you are unlucky enough to think it is a home invasion (by criminals) and reach for a firearm you’ll probably be shot dead.
Who needs terrorists when we have SWAT?
Oh…and if you have a dog, that will probably be killed too.
About the Author: Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research.
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And I guess this could all end if we just stopped the so-called War on Drugs, right?
I was wondering when the "Jack Booted Police/Gov't Thug" stories would roll out again.
Anecdotal stories of bungled operations do not abrogate the need to enforce drug laws -- we have them for a reason.
But, authorities should have to compensate families for damages to property for misdirected raids.
No Fersboo, but they might if we held those in authority, from police officers to the President, to the same standards we expect ordinary citizens to live by.
Fersboo and Jonk,
Read legion's comment. Twice.
And anecdotal evidence when compiled into a dataset makes for...well data.
The problems with SWAT are,
1. No-knock policies.
2. Lack of accountability.
Adding in accountability and removing no-knock policies (save in special cases) would go a long ways towards solving the problem.
It sounds like a normal day for most families in Iraq.
Anecdotal stories of bungled operations do not abrogate the need to enforce drug laws � we have them for a reason.
... which we, having forgotten, must defend with ever-greater dedication.
It sounds like a normal day for most families in Iraq.
...before the invasion.
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