GILLMAN JR. | Too much intrusion

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No-knock warrants aren’t something many would be familiar with.

For those who don’t know, a no-knock warrant is one where law enforcement doesn’t wait for you to answer the door. Rather, they let themselves in – in an extremely violent fashion. They are primarilly associated with the drug war. As you might guess, they are the type of thing you would normally associate with military operations.

It’s their violent nature that makes them so detrimental to the liberties of occupants and law enforcement.

For starters, the team executing the search already has the mindset to expect armed resistance upon entry. Team members noticing sudden movements or handling of objects are going to instinctively treat it is a possible threat.

I certainly can’t blame them for that, either. I received training when I was a 19D (Cav Scout) on conducting raids. When you get in that mindset, you are focusing on possible threats and countering them even if it involves firing shots.

The whammy here is that a violent entry will most likely startle the occupants into making sudden movements. Fight or flight is, and always has been, a part of human physiology. Unfortunately, people have this tendency to Monday-morning quarterback these things – making statements such as, “Well, they shouldn’t have moved!” Give me a break.

In fact, there are many people, myself included, who would “shoot first and ask questions later” in response to a forced entry. This statement could be taken figuratively for some and literally for others. In fact, many states have castle doctrine laws on the books, based on the recognition that a person should not be required to retreat from their dwelling.

The case of Cory Maye brings a real-world context to everything I’ve mentioned. Law enforcement performed a no-knock raid on both halves of a duplex, even though Maye was never listed as a suspect.

When Maye heard crashing in his living room, he proceeded to get a pistol he kept in order to defend his daughter and himself from the intruder. As he encountered the officer, he fired three times. One shot proved to be fatal. Maye was subsequently convicted of murder.

The interesting thing is that Mississippi, the state in which Maye lived, has castle doctrine laws. Of course, I just heard the huddle break and the Monday-morning QBs are ready to announce that Maye should have first identified whom he was going to shoot.

I’m not sure how long it would take to determine whether the person you are targeting is with law enforcement, but it could be that fraction of a second that costs you your life. It would be wrong to say people should put themselves in that situation.

The bottom line is that no-knock warrants put the lives and liberties of law enforcement, suspects and innocents at risk needlessly based on their invocation of basic human physiology.