On 31 January 2019, I said of the horrible situation in Houston in which five police officers were injured and within hours, while some of them were in critical condition, the Houston police chief was out calling for gun control laws:
“What the Houston PD chief should be doing, aside from comforting injured officers and their families right after the terrible event, is reviewing, discreetly, these questionable policies of smash-the-door-down raids when little evidence points to such being necessary.”
While his cops were in hospital Houston police Chief was calling for gun control as if some extra background check law would prevent felony drug dealers from being armed. The stupidity of such an argument is obvious but so also is the unnecessary danger of no-knock warrants – to both innocent targets of such and to police.
Houston to end most no-knock raids, others should do the same
“What the Houston PD chief should be doing, aside from comforting injured officers and their families right after the terrible event, is reviewing, discreetly, these questionable policies of smash-the-door-down raids when little evidence points to such being necessary.”
Later, on 15 February, I reported these headlines on the event: “HPD undercover cop may have lied about drug buy that led to deadly raid, affidavit alleges” and “Affidavit: Police can’t find informant used to justify deadly Pecan Park drug raid that lead to police being shot.” The updated headline on the Houston Chronicle story is now: “HPD Chief Acevedo says narcotics cop committed likely crime by lying in affidavit for deadly raid.”
Art Acevedo
While his cops were in hospital Houston police Chief was calling for gun control as if some extra background check law would prevent felony drug dealers from being armed. The stupidity of such an argument is obvious but so also is the unnecessary danger of no-knock warrants – to both innocent targets of such and to police.
Many others saw the problem with this too, both sides of it, and now the headline this week is: “Houston police to end use of no-knock warrants, chief says.”
AP reports that Acevedo says from now on Houston PD “officers will need to request a special exemption from his office to conduct a no-knock raid.”
That is a policy all law enforcement agencies should have and the standard should be very high to get permission for a no-knock invasion.