"Necessary" force


What should police powers be? What liberties are you willing to give up?
I am quoting my old favorite The Agitator on this article because he has a point.

Several of them actually.

Here's an interesting article on no-knocks and forced entry raids from the trade magazine Law Enforcement Technology. There's actually some good stuff in there. As you might imagine, I have objections to quite a bit of it, too, mostly because it never really addresses the broader, most pertinent question: Are these raids, particularly when done for nonviolent offenses, consistent with traditional notions of a free, liberal society?

It also seems to be detached from the reality that many police departments across the country do conduct raids for paltry amounts of drugs. Drug policing is a numbers game. It's about better stats, not better busts.

Also, when you conclude, as one police official does, that a mistaken, middle-of-the-night raid on an innocent couple, in which the victims were forced out of bed and on to the floor at gunpoint, as turning out "well" because the police department didn't have to pay out a substantial amount of money to the victims, well, you're sort of missing the point.

It's the flip side of the gun debate, and one very few outside libertarian circles want to even talk about.

What can keep out of control police in line?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - March 20, 2007 at 12:40 PM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved