Little Rock Police Serve Every Search Warrant With A SWAT Team
BY Herschel Smith5 years, 9 months ago
Last fall, I published an investigation into the way the Little Rock Police Department has been serving its drug warrants. The piece explored three general allegations: First, the LRPD has been serving drugs warrants with extraordinarily powerful explosives that other SWAT veterans told me are wholly inappropriate.
Second, there’s irrefutable video evidence that one LRPD informant and his police handlers were misleading about their investigation into a man named Roderick Talley. There’s also persuasive evidence that they did the same in other cases as well.
Finally, when I reviewed nearly 100 drug warrants from the past several years, I noticed that nearly all of them were for no-knock raids. To get a no-knock warrant, the police must provide specific evidence that the suspect is dangerous, or a threat to destroy evidence if police were to observe the knock-and-announce rule. The LRPD officers were offering no such evidence. Instead, they were using boilerplate language about how all drug suspects are dangerous and/or a threat to destroy evidence. The Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that such boilerplate language is not sufficient. Therefore, every one of these raids was illegal. Worse yet, Little Rock judges were signing off on these warrants, in spite of the law.
I’ll have a post soon laying out what has happened in Little Rock since we published that report. But over the weekend, I received a document that adds a bit more to the original story. It’s a page from a 2014 LRPD report about a drug raid. The raid in question was a no-knock raid that was served by the city’s SWAT team. In this particular case, the report says the suspect was known to have possessed firearms in the past, though it isn’t clear whether that information was conveyed in the search warrant. It also includes the broad statement that “many times guns and violence are associated with narcotics.”
But one line seems particularly significant: “It is a mandate from the Office of the Chief of Police that the SWAT team execute all search warrants.”
First of all, I don’t agree with the notion that the potential to destroy evidence is a reason for an armed raid. Evidence isn’t that important. Second, I don’t agree with the so-called war on drugs. Third, I don’t agree with SWAT raids in general when good investigative and detective works will suffice. Make the arrests when the folks come out to go grocery shopping, idiots.
‘Murica. Land of liberty. And a standing army violating the fourth amendment. Just how those patriots envisioned it when they fought and bled for freedom.
On March 24, 2019 at 10:16 pm, Dan said:
Legal or illegal is irrelevant. The LRPD and their SWAT Team don’t care about the law will NEVER care about the law until someone with more and bigger guns comes along to MAKE THEM CARE. And the odds of that happening are less than the odds of you winning SuperLotto.
On March 24, 2019 at 10:46 pm, 15Fixer said:
When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail….
On March 25, 2019 at 11:49 am, Frank Clarke said:
This American Police State is brought to you by the letters “P” and “S” and by the Republican and Democratic parties…
On March 26, 2019 at 1:18 pm, Gryphon said:
Given that ever-increasing Numbers of these ‘raids’ are replacing actual “Police Work”, the latent Question remains, “What Happens when a SWAT Raid is Decisively Repulsed, with Numerous Fatalities among the (p)Orcs? What Happens when the Raiding Party takes Fire from its Rear, engaged by someone Other than their Target?”
This is Why I Seriously Doubt that the government has any Chance of any form of “Gun Confiscation” Pogrom, because once even a Tiny Number of People decide to Actively Fight Back, the .gov Thugpigs won’t know whether to “Shit or Go Blind”. Their Entire Mindset (and Tactics) are based upon a Surprise Attack against an Unprepared Target. Once this Paradigm changes, it is Unlikely that the .gov will be able to keep their Door-Kickers ‘Motivated’.