You are correct. The politicians send good men to do a job that in many cases should not be done in the way mentioned.
Why a no-knock warrant on a guy who is not deemed a violent offender? While (alleged) selling meth is a despicable crime, did it really warrant a no-knock? And in the middle of the night? Using SWAT?
The fact that an officer lost his life because a judge, or politically motivate police chief decided this was necessary, well that is the real issue here.
But as a law abiding citizen who reads about little old ladies being accidentally shot in no-knock raids, it grinds my soul that the laws that are supposed to be there to protect us are the ones that politicians are using a bit liberally.
While it may make law enforcement's job a bit harder, no-knocks should be hard as hell to obtain. And they should only be used against known violent offenders.
That is why many people are upset. (not the idiots who hate police. They are just stupid)
I'm talking about folks like the guy who was purported to be a gun nut prepper that they raided his home and found food stores and five guns in a safe. Who approved that warrant and why?
So when an SWAT officer gets killed in something as meaningless as this, it brings up many questions as to when it is my right to defend my home.
The police are pawns in a game that needs to have restraint applied when issuing no-knocks.
As to what the resident knew at the time of entry, I have no idea. I just know an officer is dead because a no-knock warrant was issued and served in the middle of the night on an alleged meth dealer.
If more information comes out later that the guy was a raging murderous maniac, then I might understand. But at this point in time, it looks a bit odd.
The problem here is the reality of the situation is different than what you're imagining. I assume you're just taking the wording of the original article at face value. Go to the linked report from a news agency.
This warrant was served at 5:30AM in June.
Daylight. They suspected this guy could be dangerous.
He flippin' was. No-knock warrants are used for drug raids because people exactly like you feel that if no drugs are recovered obviously it was a bad warrant. In reality drugs are easy to destroy, hide or ingest and they don't always have it on them anyway. In my area, search warrants for drugs are only obtained after a signed, proven informant gets VIDEO evidence of a drug deal using agency marked money and the drugs obtained are submitted to evidence.
They're all good warrants, not all good warrants return drugs.
To clear the air again no knock warrants do not mean you "sneak" it just means you don't have to knock on the door and wait till they answer, you bang it down shouting POLICE POLICE and go in shouting POLICE POLICE POLICE POLICE. What happened here was they went to the front door. They attempted to ram the door long enough to declare it a fail. RAMMING A DOOR IS LOUD. Someone in the back yells SECONDARY and they charge over to the window and at some point this guy starts shooting. I can tell you 100% there's no way this guy didn't know who he was shooting. Defending your home and shooting cops are two different things. IF COPS BREAK INTO YOUR HOUSE UNLAWFULLY SUE THEM LIKE EVERYONE ELSE DOES. ITS FREE MONEY.
I'm not a cop, or a swat member because I give one flying shit about drugs. Shoot heroin into your eyeballs if you want. I do what I do because when evil people do evil things I enjoy stopping them. Being a swat member requires me to serve drug warrants at 5:30AM and you fuckers think its okay if I get shot in the face because you don't agree with the "war on drugs" then maybe you should consider rooting for the crimson tide.