"No Knock" Warrants
Used to be, if somebody forced their way
into your house, you had a right to defend
yourself.
Used to be, if the police had a warrant to search your home, they had to identify themselves and present you with the warrant before entering your home.
Then, law enforcement argued that taking the time to produce identification and warrants allowed evidence to be destroyed, and convinced the court that a "no knock warrant" was acceptable.
What is a no knock warrant? They are:
"warrants authorizing officers to enter certain premises to execute a warrant without first knocking or otherwise announcing their presence where circumstances (such as a known risk of serious harm to the officers or the likelihood that evidence of crime will be destroyed) justify such an entry."
So, now your right to defend yourself in your home is gone. If you attempt to defend yourself, you will be dead:
"... a 92-year-old woman, Kathryn Johnston, died in a hail of bullets when she fired at three undercover police officers who broke down the door to her northwest Atlanta home.
Police said they had a "no knock" warrant to search the woman's Neal Street house for drugs."
Many people figure they have nothing to worry about from no knock warrants, as they have committed no crimes.
Think again:
May 16, 2003—NY
On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers storm an apartment building in Harlem on a no-knock warrant. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant, who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor.
There is no felon. The only resident in the building is Alberta Spruill, described by friends as a "devout churchgoer." Before entering the apartment, police deploy a flashbang grenade. The blinding, deafening explosion stuns the 57 year-old city worker, who then slips into cardiac arrest. She dies two hours later.
A police investigation would later find that the drug dealer the raid team was looking for had been arrested days earlier. He couldn't possibly have been at Spruill's apartment because he was in custody. The officers who conducted the raid did no investigation to corroborate the informant's tip. A police source told the New York Daily News that the informant in the Spruill case had offered police tips on several occasions, none of which had led to an arrest. His record was so poor, in fact, that he was due to be dropped from the city's informant list.
------------------
December 20, 2001—TX
On December 20, 2001, police in Travis County, Texas storm a mobile home on a no-knock drug warrant.
19-year-old Tony Martinez, nephew of the man named in the warrant, is asleep on the couch at the time of the raid. Martinez was never suspected of any crime. When Martinez rises from the couch as police break into the home, deputy Derek Hill shoots Martinez in the chest, killing him. Martinez is unarmed.
--------------------
October 4, 2000—TN
On October 4, 2000 at about 10 p.m., police in Lebanon, Tennessee raid the home of 64-year-old John Adams on a drug warrant. In what Lebanon Police Chief Billy Weeks would later say was a "severe, costly mistake," police indentify the wrong house.
According to Adams' wife, police don't identify themselves after knocking on the couple's door. When she refuses to let them in, they break down the door, and handcuff her. Adams meets the police in another room with a sawed-off shotgun. Police open fire, and shoot Adams dead.
-------------------
September 22, 2000—GA
On September 22, 2000, police in Riverdale, Georgia shoot and kill Lynette Gayle Jackson in an early morning, no-knock drug raid.
Less than a month earlier, Jackson had been at home when burglars broke into the house. She escaped out a window and called the police while the intruders ransacked her home. When police arrived to answer the burglary call, they found a small bag of cocaine in the bedroom that belonged to Jackson's boyfriend. While the quantity of cocaine wasn't sufficient to press charges, police began a subsequent investigation of Jackson's boyfriend leading to the September no-knock raid.
As that raid transpired, Jackson, believing she was being robbed again, was holding a gun in her bedroom as the SWAT team entered. Her maintenance man later told reporters she had been frightened by the previous burglary. Jackson had asked him to install new locks, security bars on her windows, and a motion-detecting security light. The man told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, "I think she was scared and she probably thought it was another break-in."
--------------
September 13, 2000—CA
Early in the morning on September 13, 2000, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Stanislaus County, California drug enforcement agency conduct raids on 14 homes in and around Modesto, California after a 19-month investigation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the DEA and FBI asked that local SWAT teams enter each home unannounced to secure the area ahead of federal agents, who would then come to serve the warrants and search for evidence. Federal agents warn the SWAT teams that the targets of the warrants, including Alberto Sepulveda's father Moises, should be considered armed and dangerous.
After police forcibly enter the Sepulveda home, Alberto, his father, his mother, his sister, and his brother are ordered to lie face down on the floor with arms outstretched. Half a minute after the raid begins, the shotgun officer David Hawn has trained on Alberto's head discharges, instantly killing the eleven-year-old boy.
No drugs or weapons are found in the home.
------------------
September 29, 1999—CO
On September 29, 1999, a Denver SWAT team executes a no-knock drug raid on the home of Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant and father of seven.
Mena, believing he is being robbed, confronts the SWAT team with a gun. Police say they fired the eight shots that killed Mena only after Mena ignored repeated warnings to drop his weapon. Mena's family says police never announced themselves, and fired at the man shortly after entry.
The police later discover they've raided the wrong home, based on bad information from an informant. They find no drugs in Mena's house, nor are any later found in his system.
-------------------------
August 9, 1999—CA
On August 9, 1999, 20 police officers from the El Monte, California SWAT team conduct a late-night raid on the home of 65-year-old Mario Paz. By the end of the raid, Paz is shot in the back by police, and killed.
The police version of events changes several times over the next few weeks. Police first say Paz was armed. They next say he wasn't armed, but was reaching for a gun. Their final account is that Paz was reaching not for a gun, but to open a drawer where a gun was located.
Paz was unarmed when he was shot. Police would later reveal that they had conducted the raid after finding the Paz address on the driver's license, vehicle registration, and an old cell phone bill of suspected drug dealer Marcos Beltran Lizarraga (charges against Lizarraga were subsequently dropped, in part because a videotape of the search of his home turned up blank).
The Paz family explained that Lizarraga had lived next to them in the 1980s, and had convinced Mario Paz to let him receive mail at their residence after he moved. Three weeks after the raid, the El Monte Police Department announced that they had no evidence that anyone in the Paz family was involved in any illicit drug activity, nor did the SWAT team have any reason to think so on the night Paz was shot.
During the raid, police seized more than $10,000 in cash, and announced plans to claim the money for themselves via asset forfeiture laws. Police backed off those plans when the Paz family demonstrated proof that the money was their life savings.
-----------------------
August 5, 1999—TN
Police in Lexington, Tennessee force entry into the home of Stacie Renae Walker on a drug raid in August 1999. The raid is based on a tip from a "concerned citizen," who claims to have seen methamphetamine and marijuana inside.
Once inside, Deputy Tim Crowe, who has been on the police force for only a week, shoots Renae in the back of the head, killing her. Police would later say Crowe's gun fired when he "tripped."
Police found no drugs or weapons in the home, and later conceded that the entire raid was "a terrible mistake."
Used to be, if the police had a warrant to search your home, they had to identify themselves and present you with the warrant before entering your home.
Then, law enforcement argued that taking the time to produce identification and warrants allowed evidence to be destroyed, and convinced the court that a "no knock warrant" was acceptable.
What is a no knock warrant? They are:
"warrants authorizing officers to enter certain premises to execute a warrant without first knocking or otherwise announcing their presence where circumstances (such as a known risk of serious harm to the officers or the likelihood that evidence of crime will be destroyed) justify such an entry."
So, now your right to defend yourself in your home is gone. If you attempt to defend yourself, you will be dead:
"... a 92-year-old woman, Kathryn Johnston, died in a hail of bullets when she fired at three undercover police officers who broke down the door to her northwest Atlanta home.
Police said they had a "no knock" warrant to search the woman's Neal Street house for drugs."
Many people figure they have nothing to worry about from no knock warrants, as they have committed no crimes.
Think again:
May 16, 2003—NY
On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers storm an apartment building in Harlem on a no-knock warrant. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant, who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor.
There is no felon. The only resident in the building is Alberta Spruill, described by friends as a "devout churchgoer." Before entering the apartment, police deploy a flashbang grenade. The blinding, deafening explosion stuns the 57 year-old city worker, who then slips into cardiac arrest. She dies two hours later.
A police investigation would later find that the drug dealer the raid team was looking for had been arrested days earlier. He couldn't possibly have been at Spruill's apartment because he was in custody. The officers who conducted the raid did no investigation to corroborate the informant's tip. A police source told the New York Daily News that the informant in the Spruill case had offered police tips on several occasions, none of which had led to an arrest. His record was so poor, in fact, that he was due to be dropped from the city's informant list.
------------------
December 20, 2001—TX
On December 20, 2001, police in Travis County, Texas storm a mobile home on a no-knock drug warrant.
19-year-old Tony Martinez, nephew of the man named in the warrant, is asleep on the couch at the time of the raid. Martinez was never suspected of any crime. When Martinez rises from the couch as police break into the home, deputy Derek Hill shoots Martinez in the chest, killing him. Martinez is unarmed.
--------------------
October 4, 2000—TN
On October 4, 2000 at about 10 p.m., police in Lebanon, Tennessee raid the home of 64-year-old John Adams on a drug warrant. In what Lebanon Police Chief Billy Weeks would later say was a "severe, costly mistake," police indentify the wrong house.
According to Adams' wife, police don't identify themselves after knocking on the couple's door. When she refuses to let them in, they break down the door, and handcuff her. Adams meets the police in another room with a sawed-off shotgun. Police open fire, and shoot Adams dead.
-------------------
September 22, 2000—GA
On September 22, 2000, police in Riverdale, Georgia shoot and kill Lynette Gayle Jackson in an early morning, no-knock drug raid.
Less than a month earlier, Jackson had been at home when burglars broke into the house. She escaped out a window and called the police while the intruders ransacked her home. When police arrived to answer the burglary call, they found a small bag of cocaine in the bedroom that belonged to Jackson's boyfriend. While the quantity of cocaine wasn't sufficient to press charges, police began a subsequent investigation of Jackson's boyfriend leading to the September no-knock raid.
As that raid transpired, Jackson, believing she was being robbed again, was holding a gun in her bedroom as the SWAT team entered. Her maintenance man later told reporters she had been frightened by the previous burglary. Jackson had asked him to install new locks, security bars on her windows, and a motion-detecting security light. The man told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, "I think she was scared and she probably thought it was another break-in."
--------------
September 13, 2000—CA
Early in the morning on September 13, 2000, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Stanislaus County, California drug enforcement agency conduct raids on 14 homes in and around Modesto, California after a 19-month investigation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the DEA and FBI asked that local SWAT teams enter each home unannounced to secure the area ahead of federal agents, who would then come to serve the warrants and search for evidence. Federal agents warn the SWAT teams that the targets of the warrants, including Alberto Sepulveda's father Moises, should be considered armed and dangerous.
After police forcibly enter the Sepulveda home, Alberto, his father, his mother, his sister, and his brother are ordered to lie face down on the floor with arms outstretched. Half a minute after the raid begins, the shotgun officer David Hawn has trained on Alberto's head discharges, instantly killing the eleven-year-old boy.
No drugs or weapons are found in the home.
------------------
September 29, 1999—CO
On September 29, 1999, a Denver SWAT team executes a no-knock drug raid on the home of Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant and father of seven.
Mena, believing he is being robbed, confronts the SWAT team with a gun. Police say they fired the eight shots that killed Mena only after Mena ignored repeated warnings to drop his weapon. Mena's family says police never announced themselves, and fired at the man shortly after entry.
The police later discover they've raided the wrong home, based on bad information from an informant. They find no drugs in Mena's house, nor are any later found in his system.
-------------------------
August 9, 1999—CA
On August 9, 1999, 20 police officers from the El Monte, California SWAT team conduct a late-night raid on the home of 65-year-old Mario Paz. By the end of the raid, Paz is shot in the back by police, and killed.
The police version of events changes several times over the next few weeks. Police first say Paz was armed. They next say he wasn't armed, but was reaching for a gun. Their final account is that Paz was reaching not for a gun, but to open a drawer where a gun was located.
Paz was unarmed when he was shot. Police would later reveal that they had conducted the raid after finding the Paz address on the driver's license, vehicle registration, and an old cell phone bill of suspected drug dealer Marcos Beltran Lizarraga (charges against Lizarraga were subsequently dropped, in part because a videotape of the search of his home turned up blank).
The Paz family explained that Lizarraga had lived next to them in the 1980s, and had convinced Mario Paz to let him receive mail at their residence after he moved. Three weeks after the raid, the El Monte Police Department announced that they had no evidence that anyone in the Paz family was involved in any illicit drug activity, nor did the SWAT team have any reason to think so on the night Paz was shot.
During the raid, police seized more than $10,000 in cash, and announced plans to claim the money for themselves via asset forfeiture laws. Police backed off those plans when the Paz family demonstrated proof that the money was their life savings.
-----------------------
August 5, 1999—TN
Police in Lexington, Tennessee force entry into the home of Stacie Renae Walker on a drug raid in August 1999. The raid is based on a tip from a "concerned citizen," who claims to have seen methamphetamine and marijuana inside.
Once inside, Deputy Tim Crowe, who has been on the police force for only a week, shoots Renae in the back of the head, killing her. Police would later say Crowe's gun fired when he "tripped."
Police found no drugs or weapons in the home, and later conceded that the entire raid was "a terrible mistake."
Posted: Mon - November 27, 2006 at 07:45 AM
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Published On: Nov 27, 2006 07:46 AM
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Published On: Nov 27, 2006 07:46 AM