Letters Support Ruling on SWAT Raids
To my great surprise,recent letters to the cities local papers have expressed support for justice Catherine Bruce's tossing of evidence in a grow bust because cops used SWAT style tactics to enter the premises.There were the mandatory letters from cops wives and from the pro police lobby that inferred the cops would be threatened or that the occupants would get rid of the evidence but people weren't buying.The thought of someone trying to flush 700 plants and the concurrent hydroponic material was so comical that even the papers cartoonist took a poke at the concept.The very best complaint was that battering in a door with a ram would somehow negate the booby traps that were mentioned.Needless to say,hitting the door with a ram would set off any traps faster than just about anything else.The fact is,there has not been a case where bashing in someones door has saved a single police life and the opposite is not the case.One young man was shot holding a remote control.The fact that the US has had many tragedies from just such raids was probably as prominent in this ruling as was anything that's happened here.Of course there was a letter invoking Mayerthorpe,where four mounties were ambushed by a cop hating psycho but the ambush occurred long after the place had been secured and the case had nothing at all to do with violent swat style entries.It's just an example of the desperation that law enforcement is feeling now that their bully tactics have seen the light of day and been found wanting.
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