Another G-Scobe Salvo

Not content to admit defeat G-Scobe has fired back responses to my comments on his site.

Rear View Mirror takes issue with not one, but two posts.

Take the last one first. RVM writes:

All knocking does is give the crimminal:

A: Time to run

B: Time to hide or destroy evidence

C: Time to arm themselves and kill the arresting officers.

These people are going to have their doors smashed in one way or the other. By eliminating the warning the officers are better protected.

Of course, all this is dependent upon law enforcement obtaining a warrant or other judicial approval for the entry.

G-Scobe's answer:
That may be true, but as I mentioned, Balko has documented literally hundreds of cases where SWAT teams have busted in doors on the wrong home. Now, this isn't innocent police searches ala Dragnet, but paramilitary units that are heavily armed and keyed up. I do think there are mitigating circumstances, if you think you've got a terrorist enclave, by all means kick in the door. But if you're arresting some guy for reefer, at least knock before you kill his buzz.

My rebuttal:

There certainly are cases where the wrong home has been invaded. As I said, whether the police knocked or not would not have altered the end result. They were coming in.We've all seen the guys on Cops do this. Two knocks with a flashlight followed by a scream of POLICE, followed by the battering ram knocking in the door. Wrong address or not they were going to go in, at least by eliminating the warning they keep safe.

On the Israeli-Palestinian issue we have another disagreement. Basically, G-Scobe does not feel the issue can ever be resolved so why not toss in the towel. I am more optimistic, foolishly perhaps, but optimstic nonetheless. There is always an answer. It might be the total military defeat and expulsion of the Fatah/Hamas movements, probably the quickest way to end the problem, but not likely to happen in today's world.

It behooves us to find a solution because it will shut up every terrorist group and anti American government in the Middle East. All use the Palestinians as the primary reason for their actions, although anyone following the issue knows that the surrounding countries have treated the Palestinians even worse then the Israelis have. But if we find a way for peace it takes away what the crazies in the region their morale reason to fight.