On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 12:00 PM, Eric Cordian wrote:
I hadn't seen this when I sent my piece off.Tim writes:With USAPATRIOT and HOMESEC REICHSPROTEKTION acts authorizing black bagCoincidentally, the news this morning reports on a home invasion in which
jobs, break-ins, planting of evidence, keystroke-logging,
administrative rubber-stamp warrants (no judge, just a GS-8 or higher
saying "Go for it!'), it's time to revisit the issue of trap guns and
booby traps.
a homeowner shot dead two of three members of an assault team that smashed
into his condo and began firing.
By the way, this again points to some recurring themes (discussed a few times before):
-- how does a property owner "authenticate" a person or group claiming to be cops? Flashing a badge is not enough, as badges for hundreds of jurisdictions are for sale by mail order, gun shows, and probably lots of other shops. (For the uninitiated, these are _actual_ badges and/or nearly perfect replicas...they are absolutely undistinguishable from real badges, so say concerned cops.)
-- how is a search warrant authenticated? In an age of laser printers, color printers, scanners, etc., and in an age when nobody can recognize the signature of the Sheriff (unlike, maybe, the situation in a small villlage a century ago), how does one know a search warrant is duly signed by a proper judge?
Hundreds of viewings of police raids in movies and television (not always reliable, but the common pattern is suggestive of what reality is) tell me that residents have no time to check credentials of cops carefully and have scarcely more time to look at search warrants.
There seem to be three time regimes: (actually, I've added two more...)
* Regime 3 (timescale: days) -- Lawyerly: "Tim, this is Fred Jones. I just talked to the DA and he wants you to either arrange a time to turn yourself in at the station or he'll send a squad car out. I can be there if you want." Or the search warrant version: "Tim, I've looked over the search warrant they'll be serving on you and everything looks to be in order. Don't say anything, and don't interfere. Just sit down and they should be out in a couple of hours."
* Regime 2 (timescale: several minutes) -- Local cops at the door. A knock on the door. A cop or sheriff's deputy, often known to the target in various ways, arrives with an arrest warrant, search warrant, etc. The target has a reasonable chance to verify that the cops or deputies are legit.
* Regime 1 (timescale: tens of seconds to minutes) -- Bangs on the door. "This is the police! Open up!" If the target opens the door and the supposed cops are actually home invaders, or rival gang members, he's dead. Or the supposed cops may be Feds or narcs without proper justification. No time to carefully verify credentials.
* Regime 0 (timescale: seconds, or less) -- Flashbangs and Ninja Raiders. They burst through the windows, throw flashbang grenades, scream, stomp dogs and cats, and shoot anything that moves. The killing of Dr. Scott in his Malibu home is a good example (check Google for details). The BATF raids on many "drug labs" are like this.
* Regime -1 (timescale: negative time) -- Break-ins: They raid your house without your knowledge. They plant items, bugs, keystroke loggers. Obviously no chance to check credentials, a warrant, etc.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think only Regimes 2 and 3 are valid for most arrests and search warrants. In cases of high risk, the old-fashioned "This is the police. Your house is surrounded. Come out with your hands up." is an example of Regime 1. A target inside has plenty of time (minutes usually) to decide that the cops are real cops (e.g., by seeing several police cruisers outside), and the cops have plenty of time to be ready for violence and not to just start shooting.
The argument in the past 30 years for S.W.A.T. Ninja-type flashbang through-the-skylights raids has been that some "perps" (or "goblins," in Jeff Cooper-speak) will use the seconds of warning to grab their rifles and shotguns. Or will flush their drugs down the toilet. Or will kill a hostage. Or will trigger a bomb. Etc.
There are very few situations where these last arguments apply. And these are usually well-defined hostage or kidnappee-rescue situations.
We would mostly avoid the Regime 0 and -1 clusterfuck scenarios if law enforcement was primarily local. A local cop who knows his neighborhood is not so likely to call in S.W.A.T. raiders when dealing with people he knows, or at least knows of.
A big part of our problems with police raids today has been the entry of other jurisdictions--state troopers, DEA narcs, FBI, and, soon, HomeSec/Gestapo polizei.
Anyway, this is my analysis. Fairly obvious to most of us, I expect.
--Tim May
