Just more proof that no-knock warrants are a bad idea

9241 Views 66 Replies 17 Participants Last post by Aether, Feb 11, 2009

GeneticsDave

Discussion Starter · May 2, 2008

ksl.com said:
Robbers break into Salt Lake City home and terrorize family

Click picture for video:

A man was beaten during a robbery. It happened around 4 a.m. The victim's wife said she didn't know who the robbers were.

She didn't want to go on camera, but she shared with Eyewitness News the scary details. She said her 8-year-old daughter awoke to screaming and witnessed her stepfather being beaten by two masked men.

"I'm scared for their safety," said Anthony Romero, the victim's son. "They just barely moved into the house. It's a nice house, nice area, nice people."

Anthony Romero said his family moved into the house near 1500 South and 1000 West two months ago. That has police wondering if the violent home invasion was a case of mistaken identity. Salt Lake City Police Detective Shawn Smart said, "There's a possibility that these people could have had the wrong house."

It was 4 o'clock in the morning. The family was asleep when two men dressed in black and wearing ski masks ripped the screen and broke through a basement window in the back of the house.

Romero, who was at another relative's home this morning, said the men went into his 10-year-old brother's room first. He said, "My little brother, they pointed a shotgun at him and said, â€˜Where's your mom and dad?'"

Inside the master bedroom, the men yelled at Romero's mother and stepfather, demanding money and drugs.

The woman said the men wore what looked like police SWAT uniforms. She said they identified themselves as police officers and wore badges around their necks.

When the robbers didn't get what they wanted, the men put a pillowcase over her husband's head and beat him. "They just beat him up with a gun a couple of times, tried to choke him for some money. I don't know why," Romero said.

The men left with some cash and the victims' car keys. Police haven't been able to find them. Smart said, "Anybody that does this type of thing, they're dangerous."

The men wore masks, so police don't have a good description of the suspects. If you have any information, call Salt Lake City police at 799-3000.

So how are we supposed to know who's a LEO and who isn't when there is no warning and no warrant? If we shoot, we could be killed by the real LEOs. This is messed up.

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Jeff Johnson

· #2 · May 2, 2008

:shocked:

Exactly why no-knock warrants are a bad thing. One must defend oneself in one's own home.

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Jeff Johnson

· #29 · May 3, 2008

Mazellan said:
I would tend to agree with this "if" and only "if" the department was aware of the lies or miss deeds. This would be like a company being shut down because one employee decided to drive drunk and killed someone.
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And if the company had some policies which enabled reckless behavior, leading to drunk driving? That's how I view no-knock warrants. It is bad policy to begin with, leading all too often to tragedy.

Mazellan said:
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We can all agree that as humans we make mistakes but why take the "tool" away from those that use it right and responsibly. I said it in an earlier post its just like the leftist gun grabbers trying to take away our tools instead of aggressively perusing the people that are abusing the tool.
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180 degrees out of whack here. Our right to keep and bear arms is protected by the 2nd Amendment.
No-knock warrants, even though they are warrants, violate at least the spirit of the 4th Amendment.
The risk of death to innocents and to police by innocents is way too high.

It also enables BGs to pose as police doing no-knock entries to cause hesitation in any attempt at self-defense.
Such appears to be the case in this particular news story.

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