Search results for: “SWAT Team”

Last night I sent a link to M. Simon about how the Supreme Court has systematically destroyed the Fourth Amendment. What shocks me the most is that only a few libertarian cranks on the right and the ACLU on the left care. Under the noxious “emergency” doctrine (which gives any evildoer anywhere in the world the…

There are few things I hate more than getting home after 11:00 p.m. dead tired and wanting to relax but without having written a blog post. (Having an 8:00 a.m. commitment does not help either.) Under such circumstances, there are few things I love more than seeing a wonderful post from Sarah at a time…

The problem of “SWAT-ting” (phony 911 calls to trigger groundless raids on political enemies) is continuing, and bloggers are being warned to contact local law enforcement before writing posts about controversial topics: Akbar and others are urging troops of conservative bloggers to protect themselves by contacting their local law enforcement before they post about a “controversial”…

Eric was looking at some new water regulations regulating rain water puddles that amount to a taking of private property. Enviros gone mad. I left a comment which I’m turning into a post. The trouble is not just the enviros. We have a whole host of folks who say “I believe in liberty, except for…

Here’s a good one for those who appreciate the national kindergarten approach to policing: Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect. Police said they had received what they called a…

As regular readers know, I don’t like the war on drugs, and I don’t like the welfare system. Both seem intractably embedded in our national psyche, though, and getting rid of either is politically impossible. All attempts at reform are, it seems, doomed to perpetual failure. What worries me is the way dislike of the…

Regular commenter Frank just emailed me about the latest in what has become all too standard police practice in America. Shooting the family dog. On Saturday afternoon, a passerby called 911 around 4:30 to report a domestic disturbance. What the responding officer, APD Officer Thomas Griffin, didn’t know when he arrived minutes later is that the 911 caller mistakenly gave…

M. Simon sent me a disturbing link to Radley Balko’s latest (unfortunately among many) puppycide stories. When police in Taneytown, Maryland came to a house to search for a man who wasn’t there, they shot the family dog owned by the man’s parents. Awarding the couple $620,000, the jury found that the police entered without…

Life is full of deadly risks, but most of us don’t think that sitting at your table and eating toast at home is one of them. Tell that to Fred Skinner: Fred Skinner was eating a piece of toast when police from three different agencies burst through his front door with guns drawn, put the…

Via Radley Balko, I learned about another SWAT Team raid in which an unarmed man was shot to death. The reason for the use of deadly military force? A search for marijuana. Ostensibly to “find” the pot, the cops simply break in and open fire. Jacob Sullum contrasts this behavior with what would happen if…

Sometimes I have morbid thoughts — too morbid for this blog. Yes, I am constrained by an inexplicable form of self censorship I cannot define, but which often prevents me from spewing forth public utterances I might come to regret. But the morbid thoughts which have been plaguing me lately were very pleasantly distracted by…

So it’s come to this. Whether because it has been legislated away or voluntarily surrendered, Americans’ privacy has largely disappeared. Our rulers are getting ever bolder, so robot drones are now poised to fly over our homes. A few kooky types like libertarians and whiners at the ACLU are sounding the alarm, but the law enforcement…

As someone who doesn’t like government telling people what to do, I am not especially enamored with the 9th Circuit Court ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.  I didn’t like Prop 8, but I think ordinary voters at the state level ought to have a right to make up their minds about these things. I…

A Ron Paul guy I am not. But I certainly agree with what he said today after the TSA detained his son Rand who had refused a patdown search: Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul issued a sharply-worded statement in reaction to the detention of his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, by Transportation…

Reading Michael Yon’s interview with General Barry McCaffrey (via Frank) reminded me that there are very powerful people who are hard at work establishing in the public mind an ineradicable connection between drugs and terrorism (and hence the need to do Whatever We Can). They have to, because otherwise the use of extreme remedies such as…

In an editorial at PJ Media, Roger L. Simon makes a good case for Newt Gingrich. While I do not take serious issue with anything he says, I have such a serious problem with Gingrich’s status as the nation’s leading Drug War advocate that I did something I don’t do often, and left a comment.…

When I first read about the family whose home was destroyed by a fire while firemen stood there and watched, I was upset. Apparently they failed to pay a subscription fee, so the result is that they didn’t get emergency fire services: A Tennessee couple helplessly watched their home burn to the ground, along with…

Your tax dollars at work!  Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime As Radley Balko explains, the reason for this is simple. Federal incentives. Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways.…

I found a fascinating article on building a do-it-yourself urinal that basically just drains the urine into the ground. This is what it looks like: After detailing how to make it, the author concludes with these remarks: Urine is not full of toxic bacteria like excrement is, so there is no health risk to pumping…

Do not watch this video if you can’t stand dogs getting shot and a SWAT team terrorizing a Columbia, Missouri family over a few pot pipes. I first blogged this on 10 May 2010. There has been some reaction to that video which I will get to shortly. What was the disposition of the case?…