cannabisnews.com: What's The Problem With 'No-Knock' Searches?

What's The Problem With 'No-Knock' Searches?

Posted by CN Staff on June 03, 2007 at 06:16:33 PT
By Vin Suprynowicz
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

USA -- Last week, we were asking how police found themselves in the bedroom of a naked couple in Lancaster, Calif., in 2001, guns drawn. This led to a discussion of the problem with "no-knock" -- or even "shout-once-and-storm-in" -- search warrants.On Nov. 21 of last year, Atlanta police planted marijuana on Fabian Sheats, a "suspected street dealer." They told Sheats they would let him go if he "gave them something."
Sheats obligingly lied that he had spotted a kilogram of cocaine nearby, giving them the address of the elderly spinster Miss Kathryn Johnston, who neither used nor dealt drugs, but who did live in fear of break-ins in her crime-infested neighborhood.Police then lied to a judge, claiming they had actually purchased drugs at the Johnston house. They acquired one of those once-rare "no-knock" warrants, and violently battered down the reinforced metal door of a private home where there were no drugs.Miss Johnston fired a warning shot at the unknown people busting down her door. That bullet lodged in the roof of her porch, injuring no one. Police replied by firing 39 rounds at her, hitting her five times, and wounding each other with another five rounds -- though they lied and said they'd been shot by Miss Johnston.They then handcuffed the old woman as she bled to death on the floor and searched her house. Finding no drugs, they planted three bags of marijuana.The next day, the cops picked up one Alex White, an informant, advising him that they needed him to lie, saying that he had purchased cocaine at Johnston's house. White refused, managed to escape and went to the media with the story.Last month, two of those officers pleaded guilty to manslaughter -- deals that helped them escape murder charges -- and now face more than 10 years in prison, after authorities demonstrated the officers lied to get their warrant.Greg Jones of the Atlanta FBI office said at a news conference that the FBI is investigating "additional allegations of corruption that Atlanta police officers may have engaged in similar conduct."Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he has started to review hundreds of other cases involving officers Jason Smith and Gregg Junnier; convictions may be overturned. Last week, Police Chief Richard Pennington transferred his entire narcotics squad to other duties, contending his department would review its policy on "no-knock" warrants and its use of confidential informants.That "review" and seven bucks will get you a fancy cup of coffee at Starbucks.Officer Smith's attorney, John Garland, said his client "was trained to lie by fellow officers to establish probable cause."Meantime, a black man named Cory Maye was still sitting on death row in Mississippi, the last I heard, because he heard men trying to break into his Prentiss, Miss., home late at night in December 2001, where he was alone with his 18-month-old daughter. Mr. Maye, who had no criminal record, got the child down onto the floor and lay down beside her to protect her. When one of the men finally broke into the bedroom, Cory Maye shot and killed him. The man was hit in the abdomen, just below his bulletproof vest, and died a short time later. It turns out the man who had failed to knock and identify himself before breaking in was a cop, who was really after suspects in the other half of the duplex where Cory Maye lived.Turns out the cop was the white son of the white chief of police. An all-white jury sentenced Mr. Maye, who is black, to death for exercising his right to defend his locked home and family against violent invasion by unknown intruders.The all-white jury took only a few hours to do so, at least one juror explaining he wanted to get home for supper.The list of such abuses goes on and on -- without even mentioning the dozens of innocent women and children who eventually died thanks to the bungled and totally unnecessary 1993 BATF "incredibly-no-knock" raid on the Branch Davidian Church in Waco, Texas, whose residents (including Wayne Martin, a black Harvard Law School graduate) had previously demonstrated they would cheerfully cooperate with any law enforcement officer who merely knocked at the door and asked to see their perfectly legal guns.(At Waco, the charging agents shot a dog and her puppies in their outdoor pen before they even got to the front door. Agents in National Guard helicopters -- their ban from such actions on U.S. soil bypassed by the simple expedient of filling out sworn and thoroughly laughable affidavits claiming there was a "meth lab" inside a Christian church full of women and children -- shot down through the roof, killing a nursing mother inside as her infant played by her bedside. When the unarmed Rev. David Koresh opened the front door to say, "Wait a minute, there are women and children here. Let's talk," agents fired at him, hitting his unarmed father-in-law, who stood behind him. Later, agents couldn't even remember who carried the warrant. No one even claimed they tried to "serve" it.) For a partial rundown, see "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" by Cato Institute analyst Radley Balko -- http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476 -- along with the accompanying "map of botched paramilitary raids" at: http://www.cato.org/raidmap/Charles P. Garcia, in "The Knock and Announce Rule: A New Approach to the Destruction-of-Evidence Exception" (1993), reports: "In 1970, the Nixon administration declared a 'War on Drugs.' The Justice Department urged Congress to enact a comprehensive anti-drug strategy and suggested that a general 'no-knock' provision could constitutionally be added to aid in enforcement. ..."The 'no-knock' experience lasted four years. ... During the four-year period when 'no-knock' warrants were issued, horror stories were legion. ... In an exhaustive eight-week investigation by The New York Times, consisting of interviews with victims of 'no-knock' raids, reporters found that 'Innocent Americans around the country have been subject to dozens of mistaken, violent and often illegal police raids by local, state and federal narcotics agents in search of illicit drugs and their dealers.'"In Florida, complaints of police harassment during drug searches were so overwhelming that Legal Services of Greater Miami was unable to handle the caseload. In Virginia, a terror-stricken woman, a previous burglary victim, shot and killed a young police officer executing a 'no-knock' warrant as he burst into her bedroom in the middle of the night."(Astonishingly, although that officer was also the son of the local police chief, no prosecution resulted, so far as I've been able to learn. The old woman, waiting terrified behind her closed bedroom door, had repeatedly called out, "Who's in my house?" As with Chief Pennington in Atlanta, the bereaved Virginia chief said he would "review" his department's use of no-knock warrants.)"In California," Mr. Garcia continues, "one father was shot through the head as he sat in a living room cradling his infant son. Both the woman and the man were totally innocent of any wrongdoing. The federal 'no-knock' warrants were so disruptive that Congress repealed them four years later ... once again making 'no-knock' searches illegal under the federal 'knock-and-announce' rule."So, what were those Lancaster, Calif., cops doing in that bedroom, forcing Max Rettele and Judy Sadler to crawl out of bed naked, pointing guns at their heads and screaming and not allowing them even to grab a sheet or blanket to cover their nakedness?If you or I tried this, we'd be committing the crime of "assault." Officers' weapons have been known to suffer "negligent discharges" during such adrenalin surges. Why is it now routine to place citizens at such a risk during every search? The African-American suspects -- who had moved -- were sought on suspicion of identity theft, not a violent crime. There was no suspected "stash" that could be flushed down a toilet.So why didn't police knock at that door at suppertime, allowing a clothed couple to come to the door and calmly read their warrant before inviting police in to look around and confirm that the three African-Americans that police sought no longer lived there? "While the facts in this case are unusual, not to say humorous," chuckled the reliably pro-police-state Los Angeles Times in an editorial last week, "the bottom line is important: Even when police follow the law, pursuit of the guilty will sometimes inconvenience -- and embarrass -- the innocent."Oh, ha ha. Naked in their own bedroom. A little embarrassment. A little inconvenience. Chuckle, chuckle.And if Max Rettele and Judy Sadler had been armed? If they had opened fire on those gun-brandishing home invaders -- as the terrified innocent victims Kathryn Johnston and Cory Maye did? If both that innocent couple and one or two pumped-up Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies had ended up dead on the bedroom floor that early morning, would the Times still find it all so amusing?Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Review-Journal and author of the novel "The Black Arrow." See: http://www.LibertyBookShop.usSource: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)Author: Vin Suprynowicz Published: June 3, 2007Copyright: 2007 Las Vegas Review-JournalContact: letters reviewjournal.comWebsite: http://www.reviewjournal.comRelated Articles:Shooting Draws Questions from Lawmakers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22942.shtml3 Officers Indicted Drug Raid Shootinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22924.shtml

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Comment #39 posted by ekim on June 05, 2007 at 20:15:01 PT
how dee leahcim
gee whig what a handle gihw signs signs everywhere a sign hope all is well keep up the good workot-- i hope that ED will get his own tv show on how to grow, it would help many -- i wonder if anyone has counted up how many people use cannabis for med value in the States that have voted for it. i do mean it -- EDs Hour of Green Power -- it could bring many new ideas to the silver screen for all to glean.
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Comment #38 posted by whig on June 05, 2007 at 11:27:27 PT
Mike, Ekim, Mikeeee
Lots of Michaels here.Me too.
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Comment #37 posted by ekim on June 05, 2007 at 10:49:40 PT
Mike --
when i first tried to sign up here -- mike was taken--so i tried ekim and it worked. so you must have had as yours from the start.good luck and keep posting those that are interested in med cannabis use in MI 2and a half oz and 12 plants
http://www.stoparrestingpatients.org
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Comment #36 posted by FoM on June 05, 2007 at 09:49:21 PT
Mike
You know they say time flies when you're having fun.Well, I must have been having an ongoing party because I blinked my eyes and now it is 2007! LOL!Thank you.
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Comment #35 posted by Mike on June 05, 2007 at 09:43:38 PT
Thanks!
Hmm.. Ekim.. Mike.. omg- I finally got that after all these years! lol Duh.. I can be swift..Well, we have certainly seen a lot happen, haven't we? The public awareness level brought forth through this site is fantastic.You know, its the social things that people look back years and say "Wow! People believed that?!" Its hard to fathom such a day will come with Cannabis, given the brainwashing propoganda machine out there. But rest assured, in the future, this site (and FoM) will be remembered as being instrumental in raising awareness during a dark social, um.. "experiment." Sometimes it just takes distance to gain perspective. =)FoM, I remember long before those renovations started. Hard to believe you're already four years into it! But my daughter would have been in first grade when you started, so it sounds about right. Wow! Time sure buzzes by FAST! Dang..
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Comment #34 posted by Hope on June 05, 2007 at 07:51:03 PT
"making it a great part of all our lives.. "
That's so true, Mike. I hadn't forgotten you...at all. But my tendency to a sort of dyslexia can get Mikeeee and Ekim and Mike sort of whirled around. I'd missed you and I'm glad you got through.It's good to see you, for sure.
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 19:51:20 PT
Mike
You're very welcome. I am sorry about the posting problem. I know there are more people that have had problems and don't try posting anymore but I can't fix or upgrade the registration. Time goes by very fast. We are wrapping up our 4th year of renovation on our home. If we had waiting even a few more years I'm afraid it would have been too big of a challenge for us. I say always do what you want if you have the energy and time. Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today is how I look at life.
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Comment #32 posted by Mike on June 04, 2007 at 18:42:35 PT
FoM
Oh, I understand all too well.. (Believe me)
Why is it time moves faster the older we get?FoM, thank you again for all of your dedication and hard work into making this site what you have, and for making it a great part of all our lives.. even if not everyone posts to tell you so.
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 17:28:38 PT
Mike
It has been a long time. I'm glad you can post now. What people have been doing is posting a link in a comment. Tell us what it is about in the comment. Posting full articles could get me in trouble because some papers aren't allowing CNews or Mapinc. to post the whole article but a link and lead in is fine. I will often post it then and if I don't others can click on the link and read it. I use the Tiny URL for long addresses. I am the only one that does CNews so I can't take on receiving more e-mail then I do or it would overwhelm me. I'm not as young as I use to be. I hope you understand.
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Comment #30 posted by Mike on June 04, 2007 at 17:09:16 PT
Thanks Hope! FoM!
It had been frustrating. The last post I was able to make was around the time Rush got busted. Prior to that I had posted here occasionally for years. I know all the old names. I've followed all of you on here. I had wondered if anyone remembered me ;)I'm quite surprised my name is working again. In the past I would run across something good, or have a comment to make and not be able to post it. I almost didn't even try my old name this time. I almost (finally) created a new one. However, this whole problem gave me an idea, though. What's needed here is a way for people to submit the URL of stories they've found so that you, FoM, can review them for posting. I remember many years ago you were available via e-mail, and we even exchanged a few. But that was a long time ago. Dare I say even a decade ago? Anyway.. I can speak again! Yay! =)~
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Comment #29 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 15:25:01 PT
Heads Up: CNN 7 PM EDT Tonight
CNN: Faith Factor: Dems Discuss Religion, ValuesThe evangelical minister hosting Monday's discussion of faith, values and poverty with Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former North Carolina Democratic Sen. John Edwards sees 2008 as a turning point for faith-based progressives. "I think the 2008 election will be dramatically different from the 2004 election in relationship to issues of faith and values," the Rev. Jim Wallis told ABC News. "The Democratic front-runners are all people who are clearly more comfortable in church as people of faith -- relating their faith to politics -- than the top Republican front-runners." Complete Article: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3242499&page=1
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Comment #28 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 09:36:24 PT
No Knock Raids
Paranoia is contagious. People fear the cops and cops fear the people. That creates these problems. The only time I think that police should be allowed to bust into a person's home is if a person in the house's life is in danger.
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 09:00:27 PT
Truth
You're welcome.
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on June 04, 2007 at 08:39:40 PT
A Cory Maye situation
can't happen in a rational, reasonable, undeluded society.A Cory Maye situation, or a Bowers family situation, or a Donald Scott situation, a Katherine Johnston situation, a Peter McWilliams situation....the list is sooooo long....couldn't happen in rational, sensible society. It just couldn't happen.http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/08/17/drugWarVictims.htmlMena, Navarro, Sepulveda, Paz, Ramira, Spruill, Villareal, Jackson, Hernandaz....How many more innocents much die to satisfy the prohibitionists? How many more? It disgusts and frightens me. Why doesn't it disgust and alarm them?

The prohibitionists and their henchmen have created a monster and they keep feeding people to it. They obviously have no concience and nothing but a deluded heart and mind. God help us all.
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on June 04, 2007 at 08:22:21 PT
Hey, Mike!
I'm glad you're post got through this time! How frustrating that must be.RChandar. I guess you're right. I am worried that they seem to have no concience in this matter. This whole business reminds me of a bunch of concienceless mad dogs piling on a people that have been hideously and wrongly demonized for so long. They've fed so much ignorance and hatred into the machine...that's all they can get out of it now. The propaganda machine has warped people's values and calloused their conciences. They think it's ok to do what's being done to people in the name of a hideously unjust law....as long as the machine....their master...tells them it is. Their minds have been filled with such hateful, fearful, ignorant crap that there is no space left for rational thought and nothing can reside in them except a skanky delusion that they are doing the right thing. They're not.
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Comment #24 posted by Truth on June 04, 2007 at 08:21:08 PT
thanks
for fixing my hiccups
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on June 04, 2007 at 06:33:00 PT
mike
I'm sorry you have had trouble posting. Matt Elrod maintains the member list and I have allowed people to post but then they never post so I know something is wrong. Anyone that has trouble posting after knowing they get an approval in an e-mail should contact Matt Elrod at Mapinc. since he is the only one who can fix it. Sorry for the problem but believe me I know it is a problem and have no way to fix it.
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Comment #22 posted by mike on June 04, 2007 at 06:19:12 PT
Unbelievable
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18984395/Excerpted:
A search using a drug-sniffing dog turned up the load during a traffic stop Tuesday near St. Paul. The 41 boxes of marijuana were surrounded by 28 pallets of boxes containing the hard candy, authorities said.
Kent Bailey, acting special agent in charge of the Minneapolis-St. Paul office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the marijuana would be incinerated and the candy probably would be destroyed as well. "I initially thought about how we could give that away to kids forever and ever. But I couldn't take the risk," he said. "Even though they were in cellophane and they're boxed, that package has been sitting somewhere for a month with a ton and a half of marijuana next to it."If this post goes up, it will be the first time I've gotten my name to work here in years! For the longest time the system here claimed that I didn't exist. Granted, I've not posted often, but I'm always here.. lurking ;)
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Comment #21 posted by potpal on June 04, 2007 at 05:14:40 PT
bbc bs
I hate to even post this crapola. But it is apparent that the BBC is a rapid prohibitionist org that needs to get a clue. They must have a demonize cannabis dept because they throw out the reefer madness on a regular basis and ignore the real science. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6551327.stmWhere are the tens of millions emphysema sufferers?
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Comment #20 posted by rchandar on June 04, 2007 at 04:03:45 PT:
Hope
When the big man on Capitol Hill tells the little cog-worker: Obey us or you don't get to pay your bills, take your kid to the baseball game, buy a diamond ring for your wife, etc. the cog worker silently obeys. And if he/she raises his/her voice, it's in support of the big man, and it justifies loudly, profanely, the laws of the big man.I'm just trying to say that, effectively, the majority of people in this or any country are silenced by that need, and attack us with their anger simply because they have bills to pay. What you're worried about is whether or not they have a conscience about it. In most cases, they do.--rchandar
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on June 03, 2007 at 22:11:21 PT
Just thinking.
Most of the man made horrors of history were all "legal" and created by the fearful, ignorant, greedy, and self-righteous.I never dreamed, in my early youth, that I would be forced to have to stand up against another man made "legal" disaster, very comparable to many of the previous ones perpetrated on mankind. This so called "Drug War", sadly, qualifies as one of those "legal" disasters...in a major way.We aren't talking about drugs here, either. We're talking about horrors...death, terror, and inprisonment, visited on so many in the name of a legal activity...the so called "War on Drugs". That's what this is all really about. Injustice has to be fought...and this prohibition and all it's injustice has to be fought until it's stopped.It's truly horrible what the greedy and the self righteous are doing to people...and it's all legal. The Inquisition was legal. Owning other people was legal. Prohibition of alcohol and all it's "unintended consequences" was legal. The activities of Hitler and his followers were legal. Witch burning was legal. I don't understand why they can't see that what they are doing is wrong...but if they can't see it...it's up to people like us to make them stop.
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on June 03, 2007 at 21:38:24 PT
Great letter, Stan White!
Thank you, The GCW.I'm just sick from reading what the Senate and Fienstein have done. Restoring funding for the infamous Drug Task Forces? Are they crazy? It appears they are.
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Comment #17 posted by The GCW on June 03, 2007 at 20:16:30 PT
US NC: PUB LTE: SWAT Team Use Is Out of Control in
US NC: PUB LTE: SWAT Team Use Is Out of Control in This Countryhttp://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n654/a04.html?32051SWATSTIKA; If the shoe fits and police don't like it they should change shoes.
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Comment #16 posted by Sam Adams on June 03, 2007 at 18:21:47 PT
Our Government
These guys are great! Let's give them MORE tax money every year! Let's INCREASE the percentage of our income that we give to them every year!Sounds insane? Well that's what every single person who's reading this is doing, whether you want to or not.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on June 03, 2007 at 18:18:05 PT
Dankhank
We watched the whole debate and it was good. I can't believe I'm saying this but even Mrs. Clinton was impressive. Everyone made good points and they looked like a team more then anything.
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Comment #14 posted by Dankhank on June 03, 2007 at 17:06:41 PT
debates ...
interesting, so far ...waiting to see if the drug war makes it into the fray ...
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Comment #13 posted by unkat27 on June 03, 2007 at 15:51:26 PT
This is what we get
for wanting peace so bad we started a movement against the war in Vietnam. First we brought the war home, and then the fascists responded. We are now living in that response.They couldn't have their empire in SEA, so they took it out in a fascist shit-fit on the lower-caste USA.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on June 03, 2007 at 10:42:46 PT
Bureaucracy
Dangerous stuff. It makes slaves of all the people it touches and good grief...it grows and grows and grows.How can it be controlled?
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Comment #11 posted by museman on June 03, 2007 at 09:56:02 PT
#1 and counting
That's Amerika,Home of the slave, land of the FEE.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on June 03, 2007 at 09:33:34 PT
Truth
I removed the extra posts. I call it a hiccup! LOL!
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on June 03, 2007 at 08:48:08 PT

Maybe
there's some signifigance to this abberation. That would be nice. Instead of the irony of that phrase today, it will be the truth of tomorrow and many tomorrows.I can hope.
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