Louisville Passes ‘Breonna’s Law’ Banning No-Knock Warrants
[guest post by Dana]
[Pressed for time, so apologies for the slapdash job. Ed.]
In the aftermath of Breonna Taylor’s death, Louiseville has banned the use of no-knock warrants:
Louisville, Kentucky has banned the use of controversial “no-knock” warrants and named the new ordinance for Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by officers who burst into her home.
The city’s Metro Council unanimously voted Thursday night to ban the controversial warrants after days of protests and calls for reform. Taylor, who was studying to become a nurse, was shot eight times by officers conducting a narcotics investigation on March 13. No drugs were found at her home.
…
The law bans the use of the warrants by Louisville Metro officers. Police typically use them in drug cases over concern that evidence could be destroyed if they announce their arrival.
As part of the passage of ‘Breonna’s Law,’ police officers will face penalties if they do not turn on their body cameras:
The officers involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras, although others in the department wore them. With the passing of Breonna’s Law, police officers are now subject to punishment if they do not turn on body cameras five minutes before and after searches.
Update on the officers involved in the death of Taylor:
The three officers involved in the shooting, Jon Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove, have been placed on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated. This week the detective who requested the no-knock warrant, Joshua Jaynes, also was reassigned.
Also, Sen. Rand Paul has introduced Justice for Breonna Taylor Act:
The Justice for Breonna Taylor Act bans federal law enforcement officers from carrying out a warrant “until after the officer provides notice of his or her authority and purpose” and blocks state and local law enforcement agencies that receive Justice Department funding from carrying out warrants that do not require the officer involved “to provide notice of his or her authority and purpose before forcibly entering a premises.”
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (25e0dc) — 6/12/2020 @ 1:03 pmThis is a good development. Can you imagine if the swatting that our esteemed host suffered had somehow been turned into a no-knock? Work with me here.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/12/2020 @ 1:16 pmThis is a law that I would not mind my worst enemy having at their disposal.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/12/2020 @ 1:17 pmI also think that the no-knock warrant as currently deployed is often an insult to our Fourth Amendment rights. Sure, evidence might be destroyed and I am sympathetic to the idea that in some cases law enforcement might encounter heavily-armed suspects who are given an opportunity to prepare to fight back — and perhaps there can be some common sense carve-out in those cases — but the Breonna Taylor case to me is clearly one where the dragnet was cast far too wide and casually.
I would love to hear from any law enforcement officers who comment here on this matter.
JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 1:50 pm@4–the problem is that while we might all be able to agree on circumstances meriting a “common sense” exception should look like in the abstract, whether such circumstances are actually present is a fact-based question that relies on honest law enforcement acting with diligence and good faith. Absent that–which is a matter of culture, not policy–any exception will swallow the rule.
(Not That) Bill O'Reilly (6bb12a) — 6/12/2020 @ 1:59 pmHere is a different form of “no knock” about 2005 (plainclothes policemen)
In today’s New York Daily News:
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-scars-of-one-encounter-20200612-edslnva2frdddgbhmxkmgbhmu4-story.html
ote: Eric Garner didn;t just sell loose cigarettes in a place where drugs were also sold, and he;d been arrested befre for this. He told the police that “this stops now” leading them to believe he was playing possum. He fake money didn;t ave much to do with what happened to Floyd George. He didn;t want to get into that car. That hasn;t been explained.
Incidentaly the employee who said Floyd George had arguments with Derek Chauvin retracted. He said he confused him with someone ellese. Sid he was good with faces but not with names. (and didn;t see the picture??)
The boy with the toy gun was waving it around. A 911 caller said it might be fake.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:15 pm* The fake money didn’t have much to do with what happened to George Floyd. He;d let himself be arested and haandcuffed. But h didn’t want to get into that police car.
Maybe he wanted to be taken to a hospital because the criminal justice system was not the best lace to go cold turkey but he couldn’t give that as a reason.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:20 pmHe claimed claustrophobia and at one point I speculated PTSD.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:21 pm“The boy with the toy gun was waving it around.”
Boys with toy guns usually wave them around.
Davethulhu (f236f1) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:25 pmthe problem is that while we might all be able to agree on circumstances meriting a “common sense” exception should look like in the abstract, whether such circumstances are actually present is a fact-based question that relies on honest law enforcement acting with diligence and good faith.
Oh, of course. And where we decide that law enforcement does not act with diligence and good faith they should be subject to criminal and civil penalties. But I think we can at least draw a line by saying that if the sheriff’s office or the DEA or someone is raiding the headquarters of a notorious gang in the wee hours of the morning then they don’t have to announce themselves before busting through the door, but if they are going to show up at the apartment of some woman who once dated a gang member simply on the suspicion that he might be there now, that’s no longer good enough.
JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:43 pmDoes anybody know how many innocent people have been shot by police when they break in with know knock warrants?
asset (737184) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:44 pmHere is a different form of “no knock” about 2005 (plainclothes policemen)
The problem with these reports is that you have to be willing to accept at face value 100% of what the storyteller relates, or else the story doesn’t work. In this case the narrator, Mr. Simmonds, reports that at age 15 he and a friend ventured a few blocks from their neighborhood to view what they believed would be a fight between two local toughs. He then informs us that they never got close enough to the view the fight because the crowd was too big, yet in his telling a white plainclothes policeman immediately attempts to arrest him. Why, out of all the people present, would he choose someone who, if we are to believe him, is peripheral to the action? I suppose it could be that the cop was lazy and just wanted to grab someone whom he thought would be easy to collar, but given the historic distrust between young black men, especially in urban environments, and the police I am not entirely willing to believe that Mr. Simmonds was just some innocent bystander just because that is how he chooses to relate the story now that police brutality and misconduct is in the news. Though, again, I do acknowledge that it isn’t totally out of the question that his version of events is entirely accurate.
JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:55 pmWhen you have a combination of no-knock warrants, an armed citizenry and “stand your ground” laws, what could possibly go wrong?
John B Boddie (f44786) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:07 pm10. JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:43 pm
What if an informant gave them the wrong address?
What if he was a double agent who gave them the wrong address on purpose so as to stop future raids?
What if someone in the police department made a stupid mistake about the address??
Maybw 3 different people should be requied to write out and check the address.
What if the address was right, but the police carrying out the search warrant bundeed in locating it?
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:09 pm10. JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 2:55 pm
You missed a point.
The white plainclothes policeman pushed him away from the fight, as he perhaps had done to other people. Simmonds, not knowing he was a policeman, (who wants to fight the police?) shoved him back possibly because he could tell that the man was less strong than he was. Either out of anger or to get closer to the fight.
And then the police were all on top of him.
He doesn’t say he was. But he says people like him should not be held to blame.
He had no idea this guy he was tangling with was a policeman.
Later in the article he brings up stop and frisk.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:18 pmThe police report filed after the raid on Brianna Taylor’s home said, for her injuries, none. She had eight bullets in her.
Too often reports are filled out by people who don’t know, or remember, the facts.
Too much paperwork may be counter-productive.
And another thing: Nobody, not even the police, except maybe in the most special circumstances, needs guns that can fire off more than 5 or 6 bullets without being reloaded. They should be illegal to manufacture.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:51 pmSammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:51 pm
If you actually need 1 bullet you need a lot more than 6.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/12/2020 @ 3:58 pmIf you fire more than 6 you;re not aiming.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 4:02 pmInside Edition: A young woman was five feet away video recording what turned out to be the murder of George Floyd. She returned to the scene, half cryings she was only five feet away.
Sammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 4:08 pmAbout 30 years late for Don Scott, whose wealth and white privilege did not save him. There, the cops were just seizure-farming when they broke into his house in the wee hours and shot him dead. No drugs were found.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 4:58 pmA no-knock warrant is like Sammy’s scary guns. A useful, sometimes indispensable, tool in the hands of good people, a dangerous nuisance in the hands of f***wits.
As for this particular Louisville ordinance, it’s what politicians do instead of something. Low hanging fruit. A lot easier than trying to get a decent, trained, and disciplined police force, in place of what they have now.
nk (1d9030) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:00 pmThe only time that cops should break into a house without warning is in a kidnapping situation. And there should be serious consequences for being wrong, such as a sizable automatic payment from the agency’s budget.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:01 pmA lot easier than trying to get a decent, trained, and disciplined police force, in place of what they have now.
I assume that they’ve tried. Then again, we can’t seem to get that at the top, why should we demand it locally?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:02 pmAny warrant that calls for extreme force ought to require significant probable cause, more than some anonymous call. And only in cases where lives are at risk from the crime at issue, not someone having a quarter oz of coke.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:07 pmIt does. Need more than some anonymous call. That doctrine is for cars on the public way.
nk (1d9030) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:11 pmSammy, you’re reading an awful lot in between the lines in the following paragraph from your link:
I don’t find it obvious that the cop was just trying to get him away from the fight, given that Mr. Simmonds acknowledges that he wasn’t even close enough to see the fight.
JVW (ee64e4) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:13 pmThis is a great great start. Love to see this implemented by the courts (who have the biggest at fault for the situation by failing to do their job and upholding the Fourth Amendment). Cops should also be required to explain why they are detaining or arresting someone, not just doing it because they feel like it.
Patrick Henry, the 2nd (43976c) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:29 pmBreonna’s death was a result of the well-intentioned but counterproductive War on Drugs. Did we learn nothing from Prohibition? It only took 13 years for the U.S. to wise up and legalize alcohol. We’ve had almost 50 years of the War on Drugs. Enough already.
norcal (a5428a) — 6/12/2020 @ 5:46 pmYep, I agree. Baby steps for babies.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/12/2020 @ 6:05 pmIn the interest of federalism, I don’t trust the federal government to handle this. I think each state should ban no-knock raids in their respective legislatures. Make the process of reform as close-to-home as it can be.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 6:32 pm22. I’ve been saying the same thing about SWAT units for years now; the only time they should be used is for situations in which a life is known to be in imminent danger.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 6:33 pm11. I can’t give you that number, but I do know that the number of police officers mistaken for home invaders and shot in no-knock warrants is a non-zero number. Somehow though, the danger that the police willingly and knowingly put themselves in results in public shock and shame when citizens defend themselves (as is their right).
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 6:35 pm21. I’ve been saying for years that cops should have no privileges or immunities that citizens don’t have. The badge doesn’t confer extra rights on a person. Do you know what I call it when an armed person breaks down my door without announcing themselves in the middle of the night? It’s a home invasion. And I’m not going to wait to see if they have badges in their pockets or on their chests to defend myself.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 6:40 pmKentucky is a stand your ground state. It’s one of the reason’s Breanna Taylor’s boyfriend will face no charges.
That kind of makes a no knock warrant problematic. Especially if you raid the wrong house, for a suspect that was already in custody by the self same police department.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:05 pmOne of the earliest “botched” no-knock raids I remember:
A real hit parade of police misconduct.
Davethulhu (f236f1) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:12 pm34. Nor should he, considering that he wouldn’t if it were any other non-police home invader. I would think you and I would be in agreement on this.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:20 pm35. Botched raid? Try “criminal home invasion” on for size. And if those officers were any kind of real men, they’d have fessed up and told the truth the first time out. The only thing worse than a dirty cop is a dirty cowardly cop.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:21 pmHeck, even a knock warrant at 4AM announcing you’re a cop isn’t enough of a shield. If I’m asleep, and someone pounds on my door at 4AM, do not be surprised if you’re greeted with a man eating pug and a very loaded Smith and Mossberg AR47 assault shotgun iPad, or whatever I grab as I’m rolling pantsless out of bed.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:30 pm38.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/12/2020 @ 7:31 pmRelated
https://mobile.twitter.com/jerryiannelli/status/1271621657568763905
The thread has some background including a no knock raid that left one non-cop dead.
Kishnevi (ad4236) — 6/12/2020 @ 8:03 pmLow hanging fruit. A lot easier than trying to get a decent, trained, and disciplined police force, in place of what they have now.
Heck, I’d settle for an honest city council. A’s hire A’s, B’s hire C’s, crooks hire crooks.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 9:51 pmI’ve been saying for years that cops should have no privileges or immunities that citizens don’t have. The badge doesn’t confer extra rights on a person
Except no one has it in for you. If cops had no immunities whatsoever, there would be bots churning out suits against them.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 9:53 pmJose Guerena, Marine, dead in mistaken raid:
Probable cause:
Or worse:
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 10:55 pmRobbery Ring Disguised as Drug Raids Nets Convictions for Former LA Cops
Then there’s the Cory Maye case, where police burst into the wrong half of a duplex, and one of them gets killed by the householder, Cory Maye, whose infant daughter is present. He claimed self-defense, but the judge did not give that option to the jurors. Mr Maye is black, the state is Mississippi, the officer killed was the sheriff’s son.
He was originally convicted of murder and sentenced to death. After several appeals, which the state kept losing, he was “allowed” to plead guilty to manslaughter and time served.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Maye
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/12/2020 @ 11:05 pm42. Then those suits should be decided on their merits, in which case most of them probably would get thrown out. Qualified immunity is a legal construct with no basis on statutory law. If that means that it would be hard to recruit officers, so be it. Maybe the quality of officers would go up from where it is now.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:22 am44. Which again, he would not have been charged with if the “victim” happened to be a citizen-criminal instead of a police officer. This is exactly the sort of malfeasance which “qualified immunity” enables.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:24 amMr Finkelman wrote:
The United States Army might take exception to that statement.
Of course, there are many things which are illegal, yet somehow the bad guys manage to get their hands on them anyway. We could make magazines able to hold more than six rounds illegal to possess and manufacture in the United States, but that simply means they’ll come from other countries and brought in through Mexico.
The Dana in Kentucky (6a5316) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:30 amQualified immunity is only for federal Section 1983 (Anti-Ku Klux Klan Act) actions, usually for money.
The almost impregnable panoply of police protections is The System. What do I mean by that? Easy to understand, comrades. Where would you be right now if you were the one who had kicked down Breonna’s door and shot her 8 times?
nk (1d9030) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:31 am48. I’ll be the first to admit, my thoughts on policing don’t leave a lot of room for nuance or debate. And when you start talking about how to reform the police and policing, it comes down to one thing for me: cops shouldn’t get any privileges or immunities that citizens don’t have.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:37 amOur Windy City barrister wrote:
This statement assumes that “a decent, trained, and disciplined police force” is a perfect police force. We’re in this situation because of one incident in which a cop broke discipline against a convicted felon and serial drug abuser who I would bet you fit the euphemism “was known to the police,” and a couple of mistaken addresses.
We saw the same beatification of “gentle giant” Michael Brown . . . who had just robbed a store and roughed up a shopkeeper half his size.
We saw the same celebration of Trayvon Martin . . . who had attacked George Zimmerman and was bashing Mr Zimmerman’s head into the ground when Mr Zimmerman changed the outcome of a fight he was losing. (And yes, I know: Mr Zimmerman was not a police officer.)
No, the police are not perfect, but nothing created by man is perfect.
The Dana in Kentucky (6a5316) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:45 amThe CHAZ occupiers have the right idea.
nk (1d9030) — 6/13/2020 @ 6:53 am50. I’m not asking for perfection. I’m asking for police officers to be a part of the communities that they serve. It’s really not that tough, but it requires a change in the fundamental philosophy behind policing.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/13/2020 @ 7:12 am51. About what? I think they’re finding out the hard way about the practicalities of sovereignty, and how difficult and important it really is to defend the integrity of one’s borders, but that’s not the lesson which the media or most American citizens will take from this.
Gryph (08c844) — 6/13/2020 @ 7:14 amDon’t bow down to authority.
nk (1d9030) — 6/13/2020 @ 7:40 amSammy Finkelman (71800b) — 6/12/2020 @ 4:02 pm
It’s a little know fact but an early version of the 1st was limited to the first 17 syllables. Jefferson called this the haiku doctrine and maintained that anything more was poor communication skills.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/13/2020 @ 11:31 am