Gun owners beware. Squirt gun owners, that includes you. If a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team SUSPECTS you of crime, you may receive a late-night visit from an armed SWAT team.
That’s right, an armed and militant SWAT team could trot right through your front door as you slumber this summer. No-knock warrants are increasingly used by military-style police units, like SWAT teams for drug raids. Unfortunately, SWAT teams can obtain these warrants too easily from judges and consequently do not always perform sufficient due diligence. As a result, tens of thousands of decent, law-abiding American citizens are surprised every year by a no-knock visit when the SWAT team gets it wrong.
While we do not know the exact number of wrongful No-Knock SWAT invasions, a 2006 article by Cato Institute policy analyst put the number at 40,000 a year! We must rally together and use our freedom of speech to protest such an atrocity.
Think about it: When a SWAT team invades the wrong home in the middle of the night, as happened in the case of Tracy Ingle in 2008, the results can be bloody. SWAT team members barreled through Ingle’s main door and bedroom window under the cover of darkness. Understandably, Ingle thought he was being robbed and attempted to exercise his natural right to self-defense by reaching for what The New American describes as “a non-working gun.”
Completely disregarding Ingle’s natural and constitutional rights to self-defense (2nd Amendment); private property (4th Amendment) and right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (4th, 5th and 6th Amendments)—the SWAT team fired at Ingle over nine times—pummeling his chest, calf, arm and hip and shattering his leg bone.
It wasn’t until afterward that the SWAT team thought to verify Ingle’s identity by asking him if he was the criminal they were looking for named “Michael.” When they realized Ingle was not “Michael” but “Terry,” they rushed him to the hospital.
We certainly have many good and conscientious law enforcement officers in the United States. However, it is completely unjust and unethical for a team of law enforcement officers to storm into our homes and blast bullet holes through any moving shadow. Using this irresponsible method of “law enforcement,” a SWAT team could also accidently kill many innocent bystanders such as children, spouses or even pets who happen to live at the same house as the suspected criminal.
58 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, according to an October 2013 Gallup report. The number of Americans who favor legalization has risen steadily as more Americans witness the failure of the “War on Drugs.” The combination of violent Mexican drug lords and unethical American drug cops (think Eric Holder) has been a recipe for disaster. Besides performing better due diligence, there’s another solution to preventing wrongful No-Knock SWAT invasions. If we were to legalize drugs, we would see a decrease in the narcotic crime rate. Legitimate business owners would eventually put the drug cartels out of business by reducing their profit margins.
How many more “Fasts and Furious” scandals are we willing to endure where we lose the lives of U.S. Border Patrol agents like Nicolas Ivie and Brian Terry? How many more chronically ill patients must be deprived of natural and effective treatment for their cancer or multiple sclerosis? How many more Terry Ingles need to wake up in the middle of the night to a spray of SWAT bullets? How many more Americans need to endure needless pain and bloodshed before we recognize the constitutional right of states to legalize drugs? One more American is one too many.
Speak up and tell your elected representatives to defend your 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment rights. Say no to No-Knock SWAT Team invasions.
Gun owners beware. Squirt gun owners, that includes you. If a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team SUSPECTS you of crime, you may receive a late-night visit from an armed SWAT team.
That’s right, an armed and militant SWAT team could trot right through your front door as you slumber this summer. No-knock warrants are increasingly used by military-style police units, like SWAT teams for drug raids. Unfortunately, SWAT teams can obtain these warrants too easily from judges and consequently do not always perform sufficient due diligence. As a result, tens of thousands of decent, law-abiding American citizens are surprised every year by a no-knock visit when the SWAT team gets it wrong.
While we do not know the exact number of wrongful No-Knock SWAT invasions, a 2006 article by Cato Institute policy analyst put the number at 40,000 a year! We must rally together and use our freedom of speech to protest such an atrocity.
Think about it: When a SWAT team invades the wrong home in the middle of the night, as happened in the case of Tracy Ingle in 2008, the results can be bloody. SWAT team members barreled through Ingle’s main door and bedroom window under the cover of darkness. Understandably, Ingle thought he was being robbed and attempted to exercise his natural right to self-defense by reaching for what The New American describes as “a non-working gun.”
Completely disregarding Ingle’s natural and constitutional rights to self-defense (2nd Amendment); private property (4th Amendment) and right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (4th, 5th and 6th Amendments)—the SWAT team fired at Ingle over nine times—pummeling his chest, calf, arm and hip and shattering his leg bone.
It wasn’t until afterward that the SWAT team thought to verify Ingle’s identity by asking him if he was the criminal they were looking for named “Michael.” When they realized Ingle was not “Michael” but “Terry,” they rushed him to the hospital.
We certainly have many good and conscientious law enforcement officers in the United States. However, it is completely unjust and unethical for a team of law enforcement officers to storm into our homes and blast bullet holes through any moving shadow. Using this irresponsible method of “law enforcement,” a SWAT team could also accidently kill many innocent bystanders such as children, spouses or even pets who happen to live at the same house as the suspected criminal.
58 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, according to an October 2013 Gallup report. The number of Americans who favor legalization has risen steadily as more Americans witness the failure of the “War on Drugs.” The combination of violent Mexican drug lords and unethical American drug cops (think Eric Holder) has been a recipe for disaster. Besides performing better due diligence, there’s another solution to preventing wrongful No-Knock SWAT invasions. If we were to legalize drugs, we would see a decrease in the narcotic crime rate. Legitimate business owners would eventually put the drug cartels out of business by reducing their profit margins.
How many more “Fasts and Furious” scandals are we willing to endure where we lose the lives of U.S. Border Patrol agents like Nicolas Ivie and Brian Terry? How many more chronically ill patients must be deprived of natural and effective treatment for their cancer or multiple sclerosis? How many more Terry Ingles need to wake up in the middle of the night to a spray of SWAT bullets? How many more Americans need to endure needless pain and bloodshed before we recognize the constitutional right of states to legalize drugs? One more American is one too many.
Speak up and tell your elected representatives to defend your 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment rights. Say no to No-Knock SWAT Team invasions.
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