I know a lot of cops and, hell, a lot of criminals, and you know what? I can’t make a generalization about any of them. Some are cool, some are assholes– on both sides of the line. Sometimes people just screw up. It’s not systematic of huge cracks in the system, it’s just a dumb ass mistake probably made by a dumb ass cop. The VAST majority of work done by people in law enforcement is very good. But you don’t hear about it. All you hear are the screw-ups. With that standard, I’ll bet you could make any profession look bad. Even the hallowed estate of journalism.

I’m not defending anybody. It’s not my job to do so for adults. They can defend themselves. If it was my house, someone would probably be hurt because a gun or two would have been pointed at the people coming through the door. It wasn’t, thank God. I don’t want to shoot a cop and I don’t want one to shoot me.

There is nothing perfect created by man. Nothing. I just hope you all aren’t so hard on yourselves when you make a mistake. You’d all be suicidal. Our extreme reactions to the occasional human imperfections just prove that we have no idea how good things really are in this country. Even when things go bad. God bless America, all of you, and our right to free speech.

It is my experience that those who sign off on these warrants do so almost automatically…and running the type of procedure to be used…past the superior officer for his ok…is also a rote drill. Afterall, the input of those who are assumed to be “competent” detectives or officers is enough for those who do not invest much of themselves in what is about to take place. Too much is taken for granted…hence “overkill” coupled with “botched raids” in the most unnecessary of circumstances.

”This incident should not be considered overkill (to take a word from Reason’s Radley Balko), but sound police tactics. As soon as some police administrator starts to second-guess the training and experience of the officers charged with doing these types of investigations, someone will get hurt or killed. Drug investigations are inherently dangerous, and so is the Monday-morning quarterbacking you are doing.”

Exactly the mentality that makes my blood boil…in this case “drug” investigations are inherently dangerous…in our case it was a “wagering on sports” investigation…and someone…a very precious someone…my son…DID get unjustly shot and killed…by one of their non-second guessed “experienced” SWAT officers.

How dare he (Corbett) think to defend his position…in circumstances like Mr. Calvo’s…by stating that these officers…and their training and experience…are sound police tactics. If they had done even a half-baked background check…all of what happened could have been avoided…but of course that would mean even if they did a check…they would have to get it right…and then give some credence to what they learned. Again…my experience has been “that when SWAT is sent out…they disregard background info and risk assessments…afterall they are SWAT and the rules…if there are any…change for them.

God keep blessing Radley Balko. Amen

http://www.justiceforsal.com

The no-knock warrants can then continue to be used (bad, but probably broadly accepted by the public), but raiding the wrong address/people will suddenly become much more rare, just because police departments don’t like losing tons of money.

Somebody cleared his background check. Somebody passed him on his written and oral boards. Somebody passed him at the Academy. A Field Training Officer passed him after his probationary period. He was accepted into the SWAT team and later moved up as a plain clothes police officer and eventually promoted to Detective.

Police departments are examples of what’s known as a self selecting elite. And his behavior reflects acceptable behavior in his department. His letter makes this quite clear.

It also tells me that Milwaukee PD is a sewer, and frankly I wouldn’t trust any of them at this stage with blunt objects, let alone sharp ones. Also, if I were on a jury on a case where a cop was killed breaking into the wrong house, I’d vote to acquit the shooter, because if I were served by a police department like that one, I’d have an articulable fear for my life too.

“My primary goal, like most police officers, was to return home safely every day.”

As demonstrated by his recent letter to the National Review, Officer Kent Corbett is more interested in protecting himself than in following proper police procedure. He has also demonstrated contempt for the rights of innocent civilians. This is an officer who either needs to be retrained or fired outright.

Uhhh if you went to public schools sometimes in the last 20 years you probably didn’t learn this but that’s primary reason we have a 2nd amendment. The fear that older vets and the handful of patriots left will eventually get fed up with the bastardization of OUR Constitution and trampling of our rights is exactly why local police and sheriff’s departments have been given literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military type armaments by the Bush Administration (under the guise of some kind of some imaginary domestic war on terror) and the restrictions against the military being used against private citizens were lifted.

Hopefully it is clear to everyone that yet BIGGER change is coming to the American Dream in the not too distant future. That there hasn’t been a military coup should make it just as clear Generals don’t take their oath to defend OUR Constitution against DOMESTIC enemies seriously anymore. Welcome to the world of EuroSocialism aka The New World Order. Steer your children towards government jobs.

The war on drugs has already been lost, and now we are pouring billions down a rat hole that only gets people killed. It is time to stop the insanity and to legalize drugs and then regulate them. This would put many criminals out of business and end much of the gang warfare in our inner cities. STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS!!

Ask any cop what the most important part of their job is- to a man they will say “getting home safely to my family”

People’s rights, truth, justice, other people going home to THEIR families -all take a back seat to the primary mission of police everywhere- “Officer Safety”.

Not all searches via warrant are reasonable, nor is every entry without a warrant unreasonable. If a cop sees a wheelchair-bound person screaming at the window of a burning building and breaks into the building so as to rescue the person, ignoring the issue of whether such behavior would be wise, such behavior should not be forbidden on a Fourth-Amendment basis. Conversely, if a cop has a warrant to search for a stolen car and the cop ransacks all sorts of cabinets and containers which are obviously too small to hold a car, that would be unreasonable. If warrants were not generally considered a precondition for “reasonable” searches, why would the Fourth Amendment mention them at all?

Your belief that any “unreasonable” search is “illegitimate” is contingent on a court-crafted remedy that has no source in the Constitution.

The Constitution makes clear that an unreasonable search or seizure is illegitimate. How could it possibly be more specific? The Constitution does not specify what the remedy should be when government officials act illegitimately, but the first remedy would be to recognize that they cannot be considered to be acting legitimately on behalf of the government.

If you also commit a robbery while therein, then you may also be charged with robbery.

Fine. Charge the cops with burglary as well as robbery and/or murder.

Perhaps in very small towns where everyone knows one another a policeman would think twice about hassling the peasants, but only because the peasants know where he lives. Those of us in bigger places are just plain out of luck and at the mercy of a privileged someone who had a fight with the wife that morning.