I'm sick of hearing about innocent people being killed

while a warrant from a 'confidential informant' or 'anonymous tip' is being served.

Lots of people all over this, and rightly so. LOTS of questions not answered here. Among the big things:

Three police narcotics officers were shot Tuesday night by a 92-year-old woman who was killed as the officers forced their way through a door while serving a warrant at a house in northwest Atlanta, officials said.
...
Assistant Chief Alan Dreher said the officers had a legal warrant and "knocked and announced" before they forced open the door. He said they were justified in returning fire when they were fired upon.

and then, in the same story,
As the officers approached the house about 7 p.m., a woman inside started shooting, said Officer Joe Cobb, a police spokesman. The officers returned fire, wounding the woman, Cobb said.

Ok, people, make up your damn minds! You're giving TWO DIFFERENT STORIES about how this happened.

And, as espected, from this report:
Police say they followed proper procedures. Thomas hopes they did, but added: "When you see a 92-year-old being the victim of circumstances like this, we know something is going wrong."

This is one of the things that so pisses me off about crap like this: "they followed proper procedures", the first defense, to be followed down the line by "No action will be taken against the officers".

One of the questions that comes up over and over is over in many cases is this: A neighbor, Yolanda Jackson, 42, said she was sitting on the front porch of her home on Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard a block away when undercover narcotics officers, who were not in street uniforms, showed up around 7 p.m. to serve the warrant at Johnston's home, at 933 Neal St.(emphasis mine)
Simply, why no uniforms? If you've got a warrant, if you're doing a legal act, why not cops in uniform? If you've got an house full of real bad guys, it won't prevent you from doing the job; if you've got the wrong damn house, or it turns out that your informant is settling a grudge by sending you after somebody, they chances of Bad Things Happening is greatly reduced. Like Tamara says, "Look, if three burly dudes in street clothes start banging on my door one night and try and force their way into my home, I don't care if they're yelling "Police!" or "Singing Telegram!", that's why I keep a loaded M4 carbine in the house. They're not dressed like cops, and I can think of no reason the police would need to get into my house, so my natural assumption would be that these were home invaders of some sort. If the real police need to talk with me, they can get two guys in stopsign hats and 1 Adam 12 outfits to come knock on my door like civilized people. I, a civilized person myself, will then answer it.

But over and over, people dressed like dirtbags kick in doors- all too often 'announcing' themselves by yelling 'Police!' AS they kick in the door(all too often of the wrong house, or on bad information), and then people die and the department makes excuses. Even when people don't die, you just screwed over a whole family who- along with their friends and neighbors- will decide the cops are indeed the enemy and not to be trusted. And everybody who reads about it will wonder what the hell is wrong with you that you can't serve a warrant without this crap?

Been said over and over, a 'no-knock' raid- which is what it is when you announce AS you break in the door- has a place, just like the use of a tactical team has a place. When misused, or overused, it causes garbage like this.

Note: Reason has this:

Police aren't saying what they were looking for, or what they found inside. Johnston was the only person in the house at the time of the raid. Perhaps this case will prove different, but my experience in researching this stuff is that when police conduct a drug raid, they trot out everything they found -- particularly when the raid resulted in violence. That they've yet to announce any seized contraband doesn't bode well.


Update: Balko on the press conference the police held. In particular:
1) The search warrant was in fact a no-knock warrant.

5) He maintains that despite the no-knock warrant police still announced themselves before entering, though he acknowledged moments later that the announcement came as police were battering down the door.


Got that? Announced 'police' AS THEY WERE BATTERING DOWN THE DOOR. Never mind it might be hard do hear over a ram smashing the door, never mind the cases over the past while where burglars/robbers kicked in doors and yelled 'police' as they came in. "We did yell police!"

And if there were a buy at the house as they're claiming, from who? If not this lady, they couldn't try to see if the bad guy was there before breaking in the door? I think they call it 'surveillance' or something.