"HONEY, I'M HOME!": INCIDENTS OF NO-KNOCK RAIDS IN THE UNITED STATES

According to Cornell University Law School, “a no-knock warrant is a search warrant authorizing police officers to enter certain premises without first knocking and announcing their presence or purpose prior to entering the premises.”

Simply Google search “no-knock raids gone wrong” and the pages of botched or failed raids seem endless. Before joining Communities United Against Police Brutality located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I knew nothing of these unconstitutional breaches of privacy.

On August 16th 2014, Louise Milan’s house was the victim of a no-knock raid. Police officials claimed that she had alleged “specific threats” towards the Evansville Police Department.  These supposed threats were posted on topix.com, an Internet discussion website, and the IP address linked from that account came straight from Milan’s house.

Evansville police dressed up in head to toe SWAT gear carrying heaping piles of M-16’s, grenades, smoke bombs and much more gear you would only find in an apocalyptic horror movie.

With cameras becoming more commonplace on police officers uniforms, videos like these make citizens like us have the accessibility to watch our taxpayer dollars at work.

But I didn’t vote for this.

Watch the video, if you can stomach it. You immediately see officers laughing at casual remarks made by other officers and becoming numb to the violence they are about to engage in.  After the raid, the Evansville Police Department discovered that Milan’s neighbor Derrick Murray hacked their wireless Internet and posted the “threats” against the officers. He later pled guilty but Evansville still defended that their search was “objectively reasonable”

Is there no accountability anymore? I thought I was immature when I didn’t want to admit that I forgot to empty the dishwasher!  So now a police officer can come into my home because of their “reasonable suspicion” that I could have illegal paraphernalia or military grade assault rifles?  Cornell University points out that all other information prior to a no-knock warrant raid must be regarded. But remember, do that Google search I told you about and you’ll see the numerous botched raids unfold right before you.

What about Louise Milan? A reasonable search is one with a warrant, a goal of obtaining someone or something, and most importantly, an objective of protecting others.  No-knock raids, although judges are granting them more frequently, are unconstitutional to the fourth amendment.  The Tucson Police Department believes most no-knock raids are “judgment calls.” If they truly believe that, then I'm shocked to believe that 77/104 of their warrants be no-knock raids

How does this affect the victim’s perception of police officers? Well, if a police officer invaded my personal property threatening me with a gun to my head, then I sure as hell wouldn’t be too fond of their motto, “to protect and to serve.” I’m not the only one fighting this though.  Henry Goedrich Magee, a Texas native, was peacefully sleeping with his girlfriend when police officers blasted into his home with the intent to search for marijuana and guns. Having been startled by their violent nature, Magee shot and killed an officer out of defense. Magee won’t be indicted for capital murder but will be for possession of marijuana with firearms, a third degree felony.

As I start to dig further and further, I find myself going down a rabbit hole filled with systemic inequalities, poverty, prejudice and many more ugly sides that society so pleasantly offers us.

We cannot look past another police related CRIME and find it justifiable because they are government officials. Not in Ferguson, Missouri and certainly not in my neighborhood.