The present day justification for no-knock raids isn’t even people barricading themselves inside, but worry about people destroying evidence of low level drug crimes.
As if the increased risk to everybody’s life is worth it to make sure that the state’s case against someone isn’t made harder by somebody flushing a baggie of drugs.
And this is logic that I have never, ever, ever understood.
If the only potential evidence that you have is that baggie of drugs that they could flush down the toilet, then you don’t have the evidence to support a full-on, no-knock raid of the guy’s house in the first place. You don’t need a dozen federal agents armed for war showing up in armored vans to arrest some dude selling a bit of weed to high school kids. If him flushing some drugs down the toilet would torpedo your case, you didn’t have a case to begin with. At the very least, certainly not a case that justifies bringing in the entire COD Squad to arrest him.
If you do have the evidence that the suspect is some high-end cartel member or something and the only safe way to arrest him is a raid, then the baggies of drugs that get flushed down the toilet are superfluous; even if he successfully flushes everything in the house down the toilet, the rest of the evidence that you used to justify the warrant in the first place should be enough to secure a conviction anyway.
Or just wait for them to leave the house and arrest them then when they either have the drugs on them or stashed back at home where they cannot flush them.
The present day justification for no-knock raids isn’t even people barricading themselves inside, but worry about people destroying evidence of low level drug crimes.
As if the increased risk to everybody’s life is worth it to make sure that the state’s case against someone isn’t made harder by somebody flushing a baggie of drugs.
And this is logic that I have never, ever, ever understood.
If the only potential evidence that you have is that baggie of drugs that they could flush down the toilet, then you don’t have the evidence to support a full-on, no-knock raid of the guy’s house in the first place. You don’t need a dozen federal agents armed for war showing up in armored vans to arrest some dude selling a bit of weed to high school kids. If him flushing some drugs down the toilet would torpedo your case, you didn’t have a case to begin with. At the very least, certainly not a case that justifies bringing in the entire COD Squad to arrest him.
If you do have the evidence that the suspect is some high-end cartel member or something and the only safe way to arrest him is a raid, then the baggies of drugs that get flushed down the toilet are superfluous; even if he successfully flushes everything in the house down the toilet, the rest of the evidence that you used to justify the warrant in the first place should be enough to secure a conviction anyway.
Or just wait for them to leave the house and arrest them then when they either have the drugs on them or stashed back at home where they cannot flush them.
That strategy does not require military grade equipment. DENIED!
Darn. I knew I was forgetting something.