no knock warrants are a crime against humanity as well as you and me;

Let me start this by stating that I am not a fan of no-knock warrants; the very idea strikes me as grossly unjust and in direct violation of a foundational element of American jurisprudence that rightly considers it better that 10/100 guilty men go free than that one innocent man should suffer.

In theory, our legal system is designed to protect the innocent at all costs, including the occasional guilty person walking free when the burden of proof is not convincingly presented.  Sir William Blackstone famously argued that it is “better that ten guilty men go free than that one innocent man should suffer,” and this premise was later iterated by Benjamin Franklin in 1785, with a significant change to emphasize the underlying principle of the Blackstone Formulation:  “it is better one hundred guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer.”

No-knock warrants are, to my mind, an unacceptable inversion of that core principle of American justice because they carry with them the assumption that everyone in the warranted dwelling/site is not only a potential and immediate lethal threat to the invading SWAT team but also is a criminal, has criminal intent, or is otherwise unworthy of basic legal rights.  Due process, in other words, is thrown out the window with these no-knock warrants.

This is wrong, and there is no justification whatsoever in my mind for storming a residence with a SWAT team whose members are necessarily on high alert and combat-ready because they are storming a dwelling with a SWAT team.

I don’t care if they are looking for Jack the Ripper or the next jihadi intent on causing America harm.  No-knock warrants are an inexcusable use of force that unnecessarily places everyone involved at risk of serious injury or death–including innocents who may be in the dwelling, those who aren’t even the target of the warrant, or, as too often happens, the team has the wrong address—and as such no-knock warrants have no place in a free and civil society........read and watch more......