Knowing the Rocky Mtn News, you have to move quick on reading this article regarding “no knock raids.”
http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0312raid1.shtml
I have saved a copy on my local machine for anyone interested after the expiration of the story. I don’t legally advocate the distribution of a copyrighted article, however this is something that should be reprinted with Rocky Mtn News as the originator in the main email or story line.
In essense what the News is stating is the no knock raid scenario is a failure, only 2 people out of 146 suspects in “no knock raids” resulted in any prison time. ( This is in the city of Denver, not the surrounding cities from what I understand).
So, in this land of of the free, our govt is searching and seizing people with little probable cause.
Even a former Denver procesutor is calling this “The war on drugs is a big joke, and it’s full of hypocrisy”
They are also stating that essentially these “raids” are being conducted without substantial evidence…thereby (quoting me now) circumventing the Constitution.
So, based on this report…can anyone tell me that this an effective way to use our police force and does the “war on drugs” mean that we are saving people? From the numbers of the biggest city in Colorado it seems, clearly to me, that this is not working.
Its not the war on drugs that is the problem. Some of the soldeirs are deserters!
The whole problem according to the article is that their not getting enough convictions when they do these no-knock entries. BUT, the problem is not the entries, its the courts letting the criminals GO!! The article clearly says this. If the police break in and find drugs, the people should go to JAIL. Every single time. The fact that they don’t, THAT is the problem, not the raids. It doesn’t matter if they find pot instead of crack, it is still ILLEGAL and the guy should have been put in JAIL. Instead he got a ticket like he was a jaywalker.
There was no case of any house being searched that didn’t have any drug connection at all mentioned in the article. Even the worst “goof-up” of the police, the house earlier had marijuana in it from ana earlier search. So what are you whining about?
ENFORCE THE DRUG LAWS! Don’t let people go in court. That will solve all the problems, believe me.
I spose I should give you some back ground AvenueB.
In Sept of 99, a house was raided, a man was armed and shot by the police. Although different than the Diallo case, it was kind of similar, a man who was innocent was killed over false information that was not substantiated by the Denver police dept.
In this case an annonymous person called the police dept., the police dept., reacted on this tip, entered this house on false information. Later they found out it was a house one house away, only for this man to defend himself and his property. He was never involved in drugs.
An innocent man lost his life defending himself over what is considered Constitutional and now a family grieves over the loss.
The “no knock raid” situation in Denver is and has been out of control. If one man looses his life to this “rumor” then to me, all people should be concerned. You may live next to a “drug dealer” and not know it, and you may be the next one shot needlessly over a false accusation.
Yet the Denver Police Dept. continues on this rampage to violate Constitutional rights dispite the fact that only 2 of the people in these raids are convicted and serve time.
There was NO probable cause for this “no-knock raid” none what so ever, there was no drugs in the home, they simply went off an annonymous tip.
This is the drug war in action…an innocent man lost his life over a bogus tip, if you can justify this then please outline how this is jutifiable.
I don’t believe that the drug war works mainly because it is not enforcable. In addition, we are creating a police force that would rather go after and incarcerate drug dealers than murders and keep those murders there…sorry but that’s the truth as I have a friend who was murdered when I was a senior in high school and the killer has never been found.
So if anyone wants to get to semantics over drug dealers over murders I am here to fuck up anything you have to say…sorry but most of my Libertarian beliefs have special reasoning behind where I come from, not some shoot in the dark bullshit.
Drug dealers are a minor issue and should be considered last. We are letting murders out of jail because of prison overcrowding…drug dealers are the least of our concern, so screw them.
[QUOTE]
I don’t believe that the drug war works mainly because it is not enforcable. In addition, we are creating a police force that would rather go after and incarcerate drug dealers than murders and keep those murders there…
should read: I don’t believe that the drug war works mainly because it is not enforcable. In addition, we are creating a police force that would rather go after and incarcerate drug dealers than murderers and “keep those drug dealers there”
I am not a libertarian, but this is yet another reason why I have come to believe that we should call off the “War on Drugs.” We’re never going to “win” it, if “winning” means eliminating illegal drug sales and drug use. We are throwing away lives, civil rights, trust, time and money on something that cannot be won. We would be better off using these resources to regulate and control a de-criminalized drug market, and educating people about the stuff, the same way we do now with tobacco and alcohol. There will always be people who will use these substances; let’s take the criminal element out of it.
This entire drug war is idiotic, we are throwing people in prison for making a personal choice about doing drugs. We are destroying property, lives, nad most importantly killing people in this pursuit to maintain a “morally just” society that does not use drugs. At least we now have the police chief’s resignation for the debaucheries of his tenor.
Avenue, why should people go to jail for making a personal choice? Drugs may be harmful, but that is a personal choice, not one to be made by others. Unprotected sex, extra-marital sex can screw up your life from AIDS or unwanted pregnancy, so do you propose reenacting fornication laws?
You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
I am 100% against no knock raids unless there are hostages involved.
In some of my more paranoid moments, I see the no-knock drug raids as practice for the future gun raids they will be doing once they decide to confiscate all weapons.
But then I wake back up and start thinking that they are just justification for the cops to buy high-tech toys and play macho.
Amen, brother. Given all the property forfeiture laws, I would go further and add that these drug raids are a way for the police to finance all those high-tech toys and SUVs they love to play with.
Isn’t it nice to find a topic upon which we can all agree, across the political spectrum? So if we’re all in agreement, why does the war on drugs roll merrily along? Who supports it, for crying out loud?
I think there is really two subjects on hand here. One is “no knock raids”, the other is the dubious merits of some raids.
I tend to agree with the second subject. It seems to me that some raids are highly circumspect on their credibility.
However, with regards to “no knock raids”. This is a very important process for the police to use. Drug dealers, and other violent criminals, are almost always armed and if given sufficient notice will grab their guns and fight the police. The “no knock” raid gives the police the chance to overwhelm the occupants without giving them a chance to fight back and hence keep raids from becoming firefights which are very dangerous for police and for other innocent civilians. These raids are used for more than just drugs although I suspect drug raids are the most common. Plus, the “no knock” raid helps prevent suspects from destroying evidence.
Note, that even during a “no knock” raid, the police still identify themselves as they bust the door down and continue to identify themselves as they arrest the people within.
The alternative to “no knock” raids is that many criminals (not just drug dealers) become much harder to catch, and this will result in more shoot-outs. Expect more police officer, criminal and civilian deaths without the use of “no knock” raids.
They won’t be any harder to catch than they were before we decided to suspend the Constitution over a phony war. I would say that we will see an increase in deaths with no-knock raids as the druggies begin to shoot anyone who stumbles into their lairs. The surprise might have worked for a couple of years, but as it becomes “routine,” more crooks are going to plan for it–killing more cops and more civilians.
I would also suggest that as the police are allowed to use this tactic even more frequently, more thugs will simply begin yelling “Police!” as they commit crimes, leading to a general breakdown of the belief that anyone calling out that word is really a cop, leading to more cases such as Mr. Mena and Mr. Diallo. Mr. Mena was shot when he attempted to defend his home from “thugs” who broke down his door. He was not shot after a tense five-minute stand-off. If anyone posting here could see how that would happen, it should be you, Glitch.
I think we ought to go back to having the police observe the Constitutional “niceties.” There are other ways to protect police than to kill civilians.
There are exceptional instances, IMO, where no-knock is necessary. But the key word is ‘exceptional.’ 146 no-knocks in one year is what they call ‘routine.’ And routine invasions of this sort amount to tearing the Fourth Amendment out of the Constitution and stomping on it.
As the article said:
The sort of situation Glitch describes, I can see the virtues of no-knock. But if cops break into someone’s house simply on a tip from some low-life, that’s appalling.
What I want to know is, why are the judges issuing these warrants? Too bad the article didn’t ask about this angle. Are they just taking the word of any informant as ‘probable cause’? They’re supposed to act as a check on the police; obviously, there’s been a breakdown somewhere. (The police do need to get the warrant approved by a judge, right, Melin?)
Please let us know if there are any followup stories, techchick. I was appalled to read about the Mena case last fall; it’s even worse to hear that they do this sort of stuff all the time.
