Court Rules Against Swat Style Drug Raids.Canada,Vancouver,B.C.

In a ruling that will hopefully spell the end of SWAT-style drug raids in Canada, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce ruled that: "The actions of the police created a real risk of harm to an occupant by accidental shooting and to the police in terms of an aggressive response to the violent entry." Never one to care if anyone doing crime is killed or not, Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts was beside herself with indignation. "Absurd," she cried. This puts the rights of the criminal first and foremost and ahead of the safety of the general public. She didn't explain how the public was threatened by the growing of marijuana but I'm sure she had visions of murder, violence and everything she was losing the ability to inflict on others, dancing through her head. Justice Bruce continued: "In my view, a shocking entry without a proper 'knock and announce', with guns drawn and ready to be discharged, and pointed at the accused's head, could have produced disastrous consequences". She said, and quite correctly, that it appeared to be"standard practice" and that "The long-term harm to the justice system is not worth the short term gain of admission of the evidence, which was obtained in a manner that ignores the rule of law.... I find the evidence obtained during the execution of the search warrant is inadmissible.... The crown will be unable to prove it's case without the evidence secured by the entry to the residence." Watts, with her usual aplomb, trotted out the age old "sends the wrong message". The B.C. Civil Liberties Association cited several cases where people were harmed or killed in just such procedures on both sides of the law. Watts is the mayor of Surrey and is well known for shooting from the lip. She is never one to be persuaded by logic or science as they get in the way of her right wing political views. She recently went to Europe and came back having seen every prohibition method there and managing to avoid any and all harm reduction and drug trial programs.