Rethinking Aggressive Search Warrant Executions
The use of SWAT team tactics to execute search warrants, a growing phenomenon decried in this editorial, can lead to tragic results. The death of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who was killed when police forced their way, unannounced, into her home, is one example. This story provides another example. Here’s another:
[Gilbert, AZ police officers] say they were [at Salvador Celaya’s residence] to execute a search warrant for evidence they assumed to be on the premises. They hoped to find some stolen goods because they thought a truck a crook had used was registered to that address.The details will take a long time to sort out, but the bottom line is, by the time the cops were done, they had burned the Celayas' house down. The instrument of destruction was a flash-bang diversionary grenade the cops now admit they tossed into the house before they found an armed Salvador Celaya trying to defend his property from intruders. The grenade, which is not supposed to be deployed near anything flammable, landed on a bed.
So long, house.
And here's still another:
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