Monday, November 27, 2006

What Would You Do?

Let's wax hypothetical for a moment: You live in a neighborhood with one of the highest crime rates in the country. As an elderly person (85+), you are, naturally, concerned about your safety, as evidenced by the 3-inch bars on all of your doors and windows and the revovler that you keep in your nightstand. Then one night as you sleep, you are awakened by the sound of those bars being ripped from their bindings. Amidst the swell of voices, you next hear the wood from your front door splinter across the living room floor. Fearing the hell that is certain to follow at the hands of these intruders, you grab your handgun and blast away at the dark silhouettes that are running towards you. Right? It seems perfectly rational to me.
This is absolute crap.
I hope that this sad occurrence encourages people to take a hard look at the asinine para-military tactics employed by police departments across the country. Radley Balko has been on top of this for a long while. Please read his latest.
Of course the Waco raid made us angry? Of course we were sickened by FBI slaughter of the Weaver family in Ruby Ridge. And the proliferation of no-knock raids conducted by Imperial Guard-like stormtroopers wielding automatic weapons and tear gas is nothing short of disgusting. Gotta keep those drugs off of the street, eh? And check out this latest nugget from this sad story. Do you think you're safe? Well, sleep tight with the knowledge that any cop or prosecutor with an agenda can get one of these nice little warrants for your home on little more than uncorroborated circumstantial evidence supplied by any "informant" said warrant-seeker can roundup off of the street. Thanks.