Keep no-knock warrants legal, but remove ANY of the protections of qualified immunity whenever one is served.SewTexas wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:10 am on one hand I do understand that no-knocks are sort of useful tools for law enforcement at times, even if I really, really don't like them.
on the other hand, people have been killed, including police officers, because of no-knocks. And, NO, I'm not talking about HER, or that case.
IF, and I'm saying IF, no-knocks are to be kept around, there needs to be some serious changes about how they are handled. There needs to be absolutely no way an address can be misinterpreted. Can't write N for north or E for East, it needs to be written out. And if there are two of a certain street name or similar name, it needs to be very clear which street....OH>>> here we goooo....there needs to be a MAP associated with every warrant request! yes! There also needs to be proof that whomever they are looking for actually lives at said address currently, not 6 years ago or even 6 months ago, but rather 6 hours ago.
and some serious accountability....so that if it does go sideways, it's not able to be swept under the rug. Everyone, from the department head who signs off on the request, to the judge who signs it....and anyone in between. No, I'm not really including the officer or detective, because while he may or may not know better, it's not always his job, it is however, his bosses job, and those are the ones who need to start being held accountable, I'm tired of the lower levels being fired and no upper management being dealt with.
(just some brainstorming)
If police shoot and kill an innocent homeowner at a wrong address during service of a no-knock warrant, accountability for Murder One needs to go all the way up the chain of command, from the officer(s) who shot him, to their supervisors, and to the judge who signed the warrant. If an innocent homeowner shoots and kills a cop in self defense during the service of a no-knock warrant at a wrong address, accountability for a murder One needs to go all the way up the chain of command, from the surviving officers, to their supervisors, and to the judge who signed the warrant.
My rationale: if an accomplice is shot dead during the commission of a burglary—whether by the homeowner, or by another accomplice—or if the homeowner himself is shot dead by one of the accomplices, the resultant murder charges are pinned onto all the surviving accomplices.....not just onto the shooter.
The threat of hard time for Murder One, without any of the protections of qualified immunity, is the ONLY way that judges and officers will be (A) hesitant to use the tactics unless absolutely necessary; and will (B) exercise extreme due diligence to ensure that when they do serve one, it happens without fail at the correct address.
If law enforcement is unwilling to accept these kinds of restrictions and accountability for its use, then no-knock warrants should be banned. Period. They are not our masters. We are not their slaves. They work for us, and they need to never lose sight of that.