Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids

[Timothy C. May]

At 6:42 AM 7/19/96, snow wrote:
>On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, Doug Hughes wrote:
>
>> If people break into my house with the element of surprise wearing
>> all black in the middle of the night, they have the element of surprise
>> FIRMLY on their side.. I'd have to believe that reaching for a gun
>> was the most stupid thing I could do in the entire world in this sort
>> of circumstance.
>> "You'd be right, but you'd be dead" - Dr. SNMP
>>  If you don't reach for a gun, at least you have the 'chance' for
>> restitution on your side. If you're dead, you have no options.
>
>     If you are trained a certain way, you _are_ going to reach for
>a weapon, and hell, at least then my kid will have enough money to go to
>whatever college she wants.

Snow is absolutely right! Surprised in the night, with no clear
identification of the entrants (and yelled "Police!!" claims are used by
home invaders, so I would not trust this anyway), a trained person will
instinctively reach for his weapon.

I again ask what was so wrong with the "You are surrounded. Come out with
your hands up." routine of years past. Instead of anonymous ninjas in
paramilitary black raiding a house and shooting anything that moves, use
some "due process."

And "due process" is what it's about. Presentation of a warrant, or at
least pretty careful announcement of identity. Blasting down doors without
presentation of an arrest or search warrant is just not the American way.

Are there circumstances that can ever justify no-warning attacks? I suppose
so, such as when clear evidence of, say, a bomb-making or terrorist cell is
invovled. Neither condition was met at at either Ruby Ridge or Waco, nor in
the vast number of midnight drug raids.

If a black-clad ninja enters my house without warning, I'll have to react
the only way I know how, by reaching for my gun. I don't have the luxury of
freezing, exposing my neck (wolf-style), and hoping that the ninjas are
"just" the police.

And very interestingly, many cops are saying the same thing. They realize
that the dangers of being killed in a firefight in the confusion of a
pre-dawn raid are not worth the meager gains. And SWAT-raiding the wrong
house has resulted in many a million-dollar judgements agasint police
departments.

--Tim May

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