The Freedom Files
columnist: RS Davis

Topic: War on Drugs
Wait - A Water Heater Installer is Not a Drug Expert?

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No-knock paramilitary raids are destroying law and order.

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by RS Davis
(Libertarian)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

So, let me ask you something. Can you tell the difference between a fish tank and a meth lab? One professional hot water heater installer couldn't. KARE11 reports:

It happened while Kathy Adams was sleeping.

"And the next thing I know, a police officer is trying to get me out bed," she said.

Adams, a 54-year-old former nurse who said she suffers from a bad back caused by a patient who attacked her a few years ago, was handcuffed. So was her 49-year-old husband.

"They brought us here and said once we clear that area, you can sit down and you will not speak to each other," she said...

..."Ohmigod," Adams said as she recalled police breaking down her door and flashing the search warrant. "I just kept saying to them, 'you've got the wrong house.' "

(...)

Roehl said the drug task force was acting on a tip from a subcontractor for CenterPoint Energy, who had been in the home Friday to install a hot water heater.

"He got hit with a chemical smell that he said made him light headed, feel kind of nauseous," Roehl said.

The smell was vinegar, and maybe pickling lime, which were clearly marked in a bathroom Mr. Adams uses to mix chemicals for his salt water fish tank.

Now, this is obviously an honest mistake, which local police quickly tried to rectify, but it is indicative of an alarming trend in Drug Enforcement policy - the militarization of our nation's police forces combined with the relaxing of evidentiary standards is creating a heady brew of tyranny that often ends not just in angry homeowners, as above, but in true tragedy.

More and more often, less and less evidence is needed to get these no-knock paramilitary-style raids approved by a judge.  It used to be that you needed two known and verifiable sources before you could get a warrant. Now, all it takes is one anonymous tip.

So, all it takes is one spiteful neighbor and you have flash-bang grenades being hurled through your windows as a wannabe SEAL team breaks down your door and shoves automatic weapons in your face.

These no-knock raids are often used in place of simple detective work.  For instance, how long would it have taken them to realize that ninety-two year old Kathryn Johnson wasn't a drug dealer?  They found out pretty quick once they murdered her.

How about mother of six Tarika Wilson, who was shot down in her own home - with her baby in her arms (the baby lost a finger) - because police were executing a no-knock raid on her home?

She wasn't accused of any crime - it was her boyfriend who they were after.  The police (who, in a town of only 40,000, say they have done thousands of these raids), insist they took every precaution - except the most obvious one: Instead of busting into a house full of innocent children with guns blazing, wait until the man came out and arrest him peacefully.

They say these types of raids are meant to diffuse possibly volatile situations, but in actuality, they really create the very type of high-charged environments they seek to quell. And the results can be disasterous, for both police and innocent homeowners.

Look at the case of Cory Maye, an innocent man that was watching his daughter when police burst unannounced into his apartment.  They went room to room looking for him and when they found him - cowering protectively over his little daughter - he fired his weapon in self-defense.

Now, a good cop is dead and Cory Maye is on death row.

This is a lot more common than you might think. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, has an interactive map of botched no-knock raids. A few minutes looking that over will convince even the most jaded law and order types that perhaps we have gone too far in the prosecution of this drug war.

We cannot sacrifice essential liberty and the rights of the accused to save a few minutes of detective work. We cannot relax our evedentiary standards and give military grade weapons to would-be Rambos, creating war zones out of neighborhoods, victims out of criminals, and criminals out of police.

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2008 RS Davis, all rights reserved.
Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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