The Risks Of A Search Warrant - Topic

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Feb 5 2022 10:42am

Quote (Goomshill @ Feb 3 2022 07:01pm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWCpkPBKFR0

Yesterday police served a search warrant in a homicide investigation in St Paul. At 6:30 AM they were let into an apartment by a landlord, only beginning to shout "police search warrant" as the SWAT team charged in for 5 seconds before encountering 22 year old Amir Locke, sleeping under a heavy comforter on a sofa, not involved in the homicide case and just staying over that night and abruptly woken up in the dark apartment by the shouts and lights. Within just three more seconds, Amir grabbed a handgun under the blanket before being immediately shot and killed by the officers. It all took place in less than a ten second span from Amir being woken up, with no knocking on the door or being asked to be let in or alerting the occupants. Amir Locke, who has no criminal record, legally owned the handgun and was staying at the apartment by invitation.
The police search warrant specified "AIR WHEN ABOUT TO EXECUTE THIS RISK – NO NOISE EXPECTED", the code for a no-knock warrant.

https://www.startribune.com/sources-man-shot-and-killed-by-minneapolis-police-during-raid-was-not-target-of-investigation/600142720/

Minneapolis and St Paul both previously adopted a policy of requiring officers to announce their purpose as a "Search warrant" (or same for arrest warrants) before entering any domicile, even if a judge signed off on a no-knock warrant, and to repeat that as they enter for anyone who may not have heard it being declared outside. This raid demonstrates the technicality of fulfilling that policy in the least possible way, literally screaming 'search warrant' in the split second before they crossed the threshold and shouting it as they charged in. No reasonable person inside could have any opportunity to react or answer it, much less a sleeping person at 630 AM.

Thankfully its about negative fuck-you degrees in Minnesota right now so I don't expect riots.

Justice should be served, but Rioters should be shot.

If people take justice into their own hands, I would refuse to serve justice.

This post was edited by Superman on Feb 5 2022 10:43am

Skinned

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#112

Feb 5 2022 10:50am

Quote (Superman @ Feb 5 2022 11:42am)

Justice should be served, but Rioters should be shot.

If people take justice into their own hands, I would refuse to serve justice.

If someone broke into your house and killed you in your sleep should they be punished? That is what the OP is about on a fundamental level.

Kayeto

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#113

Feb 6 2022 10:05pm

Quote (InsaneBobb @ Feb 5 2022 10:57am)

if somebody busts into your house in the middle of the night, shouting and shining lights in your eyes so you can't see them, are you going to take it on faith that they're police

If there was a crime of wave where burglars disguised themselves as police, do you think the media would cover it? that might be what it takes to finally get rid of NK warrants

InsaneBobb

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#114

Feb 7 2022 02:24am

Quote (Kayeto @ 6 Feb 2022 20:05)

If there was a crime of wave where burglars disguised themselves as police, do you think the media would cover it? that might be what it takes to finally get rid of NK warrants

There was a crime wave along those lines some years back, yes. It was when medicinal marijuana was legalized, and the majority of it was grown by private citizens, then distributed to patients.

The growers were having teams of armed criminals, often disguised as police or federal agents break in, seize all their product, typically rob them of anything else valuable as well, and in some cases rape and murder them.

It didn't change anything regarding NK warrants. Far from it, it was used as evidence to push the goal that personal production and possession of marijuana was too dangerous, and should be outlawed, that only major corporations or the State should be able to produce and distribute such substances.

This post was edited by InsaneBobb on Feb 7 2022 02:29am

Goomshill

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#115

Feb 7 2022 10:20pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_A42_CpOk#t=1h24m45s

Councilwoman: "How is the moratorium different from the November 2020 change in policy?"
Frey: "The moratorium prohibits both the issuance of and execution of no-knock warrants. The November 2020 change ended the practice of entering unannounced while serving warrants. The November policy ended the practice of not announcing prior to entering, even when a no-knock / no-announce was in fact issued"
Frey: "So even if you got a no-knock / no-announce warrant, we wanted to make sure that an announcement was still made prior to breaching the threshold of the door"

This is some true absurdist splitting of hairs from the guy who proudly campaigned on "I banned no-knock warrants"
In the same broadcast he then said:

Frey: “Language became more casual, including my own, which did not reflect the necessary precision or nuance, and I own that.”

So according to Frey, his order that """banned""" no-knock warrants just said that they had to announce themselves prior to entering, whereas his new order bans no-knock warrants. Which gets it into the technical definition of what satisfies announcing themselves prior to entering, since even a normal knock-and-ask warrant allows police to enter if nobody responds. So the fine distinction is that Frey was still letting the police barge in with only the most cursory technical split second announcement as they charged in with no prior warning, whereas a normal warrant would require them to wait a reasonable time for a reply. So in true effect, Frey's 2020 order did absolutely nothing and had no perceivable impact and the Amir Locke case shows what a fig leaf it was.

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