Shield, whoa..back off there, Barney! Nobody is making any "stupid violent threats on the internet to sound big". And "mistaken raids may happen 4-5 times a year in this country"? I sure hope you werent trying to impress anyone with those "stats" (which by the way sound completely arbitrary and fabricated). Im sure it happens a hell of alot more often than youd care to admit. My point was that if SWAT does not announce themselves before they mistakenly kick down the wrong guy's door in the wee hours of the night/morning, the innocent homeowner would have no idea who the hell they are, so I dont want to see the poor bastard brought up on bogus charges just to cover up their incompetence when he takes action to repel the intruders (WHICH HE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO DO). So just put it down to a big, tragic mistake and let it go. Its an ACCIDENT! GET IT? ITS AN UNFORGIVABLE, UNCONSCIENABLE MISTAKE, AND THE FAULT DOES NOT LIE WITH THE INNOCENT HOMEOWNER! You had better be crystal clear on that, Barney. What would you do, Shield, if YOU were in the startled, alarmed, terrified homeowner's place? I'd bet you'd be doing your level damndest to make the intruders regret they ever darkened your doorstep. But you probably figure the right to fight back is strictly reserved for LEOs. Its important to point out that if a raid is executed on the wrong people even ONCE every 50 years its one time too many, especially if innocent people die as a result. There is just no excuse for it. If you as an LEO cant be trusted to get the correct address and not execute raids on innocent people, what the hell makes you think you deserve to wear that uniform? You sure as hell dont need to be wearing a badge and a gun in my town. Not exactly the picture of competence. And comparing getting killed in a botched raid to getting snakebit, contracting west nile or being struck by lightening is utterly ridiculous and only shows your ignorance by making such analogies. Trained, professional, heavily armed LEOs are presumed to have some control over which door they kick in, which family pets get shotgunned all over the parquet wood floor, which 5 year olds get their eardrums ruptured and their retinas burned out by flashbang grenades, and which bleary-eyed half-asleep homeowners who are reaching for the handgun in the nightstand drawer get sprayed with the MP5. It would be a tragedy for ANYONE to get injured or killed under such circumstances, whether LEO or citizen. LE has the most thankless job in the world, and most of them deserve nothing but respect. We want LE to have the tools they need to keep us all safe from the criminal element, but lets face it, the police are a reactionary force, not a preventative one. They rarely make the scene in time to rescue the victims of violent crimes. Shield, I gather from your post that you are an LEO. Ofcourse, anyone can be anything they want on the internet. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you really are an LEO. If thats the case, you have my thanks for doing a thankless, dangerous job. But if its all the same to you Shield, I'll just plan on protecting myself and my family and if LE shows up in time to help then bully for me! More than likely, LE will show up and slap the cuffs on me because I didnt wait to see if the BG was there to harm us or just abscond with my TV (see anything wrong with that picture?). I realize it must be easy for you to become jaded when you see the worst of humanity on a daily basis, but that "us vs them" attitude youve got sucks. I see LEOs as the most visible representation of government, so I'll just take this opportunity to remind you that you are a public servant...you do understand what that means? That means you work for your neighbor, the local barber, the convenience store cashier, the school janitor, the paperboy, and yes, it means you work for me too. If you should ever find yourself bristling at this truth, it'll be time for you to find another job. And futhermore, I wasnt trying to "stir the pot" or "raise tensions"...SCOTUS didnt need my help to do that. I had what I thought was an important question and I wanted to find out what other's thoughts on the matter were. Besides, as Zen pointed out, I have the facts wrong on the whole "No knock" issue anyway, so just forget I said anything.
