From: wood@eisley.wa.com (Ken Wood)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: No Knocks
Summary: It happened in Jacksonville
Keywords: police shootings no-knock trial
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 01:29:35 PDT
Organization: Mos Eisley Spaceport BBS

vojak@icebucket.stortek.com (Bill Vojak) writes:

> 
>  Also some mentioned about shooting back and "taking a few with you".
>  One problem I see is that I may never realize that these are cops
>  until the shooting is over. Just imagine: It's 1AM, your in bed.
>  Since you are NOT a criminal, you hardly expect a SWAT team to come
>  kicking your door in. Suddenly the dogs jump up and start going
>  crazy. You grab the gun just as you hear windows break and the door
>  being kicked in. Even if they DO yell "police", why should I believe
>  them. I am NOT a criminal. As far as I am concerned, they are in
>  my house illegaly, and I would have grave doubts as to if they really
>  were police. Damn right I'd start shooting. And there would be no
>  doubt in my mind that these people did not belong in my house, even
>  if they were police. I would probably be shot/killed, and my wife
>  would probably be able to retire after receiving a settlement from
>  the government.
> 
>  The government and the police have an obligation to take reasonable
>  precautions before raiding a house. These include: Verfying if the
>  given information is true. Verfying that they have the proper location.
>  Verfying who is in the house, (such as children). If they fail to
>  act properly, and are shot/killed by a inocent person who was just
>  trying to defend their home, tough! There have been several cases,
>  (flordia & texas?), where cops were shot while "raiding" the wrong
>  house. I all/most of these cases the homeowner was either not charged,
>  or was found not guilty. I don't care if they do have a warrant. If
>  they failed to properly meet the terms required for the warrant, both
>  they and the judge should be charged with a crime. The BATF is developing 
>  a reputation for acting first, investigating later.
>  

     When I was still in Florida one of these cases came up.  The police 
did a no-knock raid based on a tip off.  The homeowner shot one of the 
cops dead.  He was taken to trial where the state claimed that the police 
announced themselves and that the flash-bangs they threw in shouldn't 
have prevented him from hearing tham and that they weren't that 
dangerous.  The jury asked for a demonstration but and they were told 
that they had to stay way back at the other end of a parking lot for 
safety.  Big suprise this the jury returned a not guilty verdict.  

     The moral is that at least some of the time you CAN shoot back and 
not end up dead or in jail.  I'm not necessarily recomending this but it 
is possible and if it happens enough it might make the police think 
twice.

     Ken Wood



+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| wood@eisley.akita.com           :     Don't eat the rocks.              |
| eisley!wood@polari.online.com   : -The First Law of Bovine Cogitation.- |
| wood@seanews.akita.com          :                                       |
| wood@pismo.wa.com               :     Who let the pigs play poker?      |
| (In above order of preference.) :     Evo Shander was right!            |
| "Don't look back, someth'in might be gaining on ya."  -- Satchel Page   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns