Video of SWAT raid

I watched the swat series on hulu (at least the 2/3rds of the episodes they have online) awhile back. There were times they clearly were justified in their level of response, but most of the drug warrants they ran it seemed the destruction of property was excessive. Busting doors, and windows and throwing flash bangs as a shock strategy to prevent resistance just because a suspect on a drug warrant 'may' be armed; I hope they are paying to repair the damage they do to the property in most of the cases... url of the series on hulu http://www.hulu.com/swat-ae

My understanding is that the police seldom repair the damage they do when they burst in.

If the police do a no-knock entry at 3 a.m., wake you up from a sound sleep, and shoot your dog are you justified in shooting back? At that point, all the information you have is that strangers are in your home, shooting. If it's dark, you may or may not see a badge, and many people would find a shout of "police!" to be unconvincing.

If people break into your home for any reason, no matter who they are, they should be shot and one is justified in shooting them. However, remember that the people who do this make the rules to protect themselves from their victims and if a victim harms one of them the entire weight of the state will be brought to bear to not only severely punish the defender, but to discourage others from the ownership of their own property.

That is what we are talking about here. If one cannot defend himself in his own home without being punished for it, then the only reasonable conclusion is that he is the propert of the state and so is the other property he thought was his.

That is why Texas is so great. It is black letter law that if excessive force is used, you can protect yourself with deadly force.

A dynamic entry is the very defination of excessive force.

You may not surive the attack but you have a great defense.

Since there have been reports of home invasions where the perps yelled police and wore SWAT type gear, unless you are a criminal you have no reason to believe it is the police and every reason to believe it is a home invasion.

Of course if you are a violent felon the jury may say the force wasn't excessive. If you are not a violent felon (even if you are a felon) the excessive force is a given.

I am sorry but until SWAT officers are killed and the people cleared nothing will change.

I can't find any references to it online, but back in the early '90's when I worked at my grandfather's in Florida for the summer, there was a case where a man was acquitted of charges of killing a police officer because the defense lawyer was able to get the SWAT commander to describe how a stun grenade impacts the hearing, vision, and mental processes of someone who isn't expecting it. Only a user's quantity of marijuana was found in the raid, much like this one. I think the ONLY time a no-knock warrant should be allowed is for violent felons where there's a risk to others if they aren't apprehended immediately.

My training officer taught that if an occupant shoots you in a no-knock raid, it can be considered a justifiable homicide until you have firmly established that you are in fact a police officer. He strongly advised against such raids.

In the case of drug raids, even if they flush the evidence (and there are ways to deal with that, they have lost their "merchandise" and may or may not have the money to replace it.