Many cops will take away the wrong lesson from the case of detective Jarrod Shivers who made the mistake of participating in a SWAT raid to enforce a warrant on a non-violent drug offender who had just been subjected to a break-in by a dangerous felon who had it in for him. They'll see more of a need for armor and armaments, not a need for introspection on why someone thought it was a good idea to raid a man who was a trifecta of "shit waiting to happen" for the cops. In their opinion, it defies comprehension that a man whose home had just been burglarized would wake up from a dead sleep thinking that men beating down his door would be police, rather than armed robbers. It's also irrelevant that they knew about this when they were strapping on their equipment and preparing to play Strumtruppen Part Zwei: The American Campaign.
Like most incidents that get people shot, these are easily avoided by police in most cases. All they have to do is ask themselves a few questions:
- Does this person have a history of violence?
- Is this person accused of a violent crime?
- What time of day are we doing the raid?
- Are we absolutely sure we can trust the information we have?
If the answer to any of these question is "no" or "probably not," then chances are you are about to walk into an avoidable, violent confrontation with a person who will assume you are a criminal, not a cop. Most people wouldn't give a rodent's posterior if a murderer is shot dead in such a raid, but most people have a hard time justifying a possible extra-judicial death sentence over drug use. No one likes stories of innocent families getting raided, little kids getting guns put to their heads and told to "shut the fuck up" and fathers getting either blown away or sentenced to murder for defending their family against what they believe is a gang of men busting down their door.
Unfortunately Mike, I think that you'll be correct in that exactly the wrong lesson will be learned. More's the pity.
I use to live in Virginia Beach. I will have to read up on this situation.
Is rule #2 don't put a gun in your sweatpants? (Plaxico Burress)
The first two rules are here.
I still don't know why they can't just knock on the front door and ask to come in like civilized people.
They fear the evidence will get flushed? So what. That will be an expensive flush...see you next week. Do that often enough, the dealer is out of business.
Even for hostage rescue, they seriously need to consider stealth tactics instead of brute force. SWAT has a very limited scenario range where those are effective tactics.
Waco could have been ended before it started if the local shariff had just knocked on the front door and said, "Can David come out?"
Where's the fun in that? The main reason cops go into these positions in the first place is the excitement of getting to play Rambo without much of a chance that their target is armed and trained in how to effectively kill them. Why bankrupt the dealers when you can play Sturmtruppen?