Hector & Moody

[Terrance]

The Bush administration says they will stop using the no-knock in Iraq. 

Good for Iraq. 


Why it was only just last month that we were all horrified to watch the
NYPD chief and New York Mayor Bloomberg apologize to the Spruill family
for choosing to exercise their "new no-knock warrant" authority on the
poor and the weak--on the wrong woman, in the wrong house, on the wrong
street. 

An action that led to Mrs. Spruill's death because she was shocked by
the police invasion of her home and suffered a fatal heart attack. 

              One power that nicely illustrates
              the sort of tactics and their public acceptance that
              concerns Pynchon, bearing out the trajectory he sets up
for
              law enforcement development, is the increasing use of
              informants to obtain "no knock" warrants that allow police
              to enter a residence without warning. A battering ram is
              typically used to break down the door, followed by the
              in-rushing of screaming, heavily armed, and sometimes
              masked, police. This practice, though it conjures up
images
              of "home invasions," as well as American stereotypes of
              police practices in totalitarian states, continues
relatively
              unchallenged. It is part of the immensely popular "get
tough
              on crime" policies, despite several recent horror stories
in
              which the use of these warrants resulted in the
brutalizing,
              terrorizing, and even killing of innocent people. 


http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/burket24.htm