SWAT search ruled unconstitutional in Minnesota

This seems big.

Hennepin County judge confronts police use of ‘military style’ tactics

That search, Hennepin County District Judge Tanya Bransford ruled, was unconstitutional. She wrote that the “military style” tactics were a violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

She was “troubled,” she wrote, “that the types of militarized actions used in this case seem to be a matter of customary business practice” for Hennepin’s drug task force squad, known as the Emergency Services Unit (ESU).

If the courts start throwing out cases because of the tactics used by police, that could be a tremendous step toward forcing reform.

“They could have said, ‘We’d like to search your house,’ ” he said. “They could have just asked.”

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6 Responses to SWAT search ruled unconstitutional in Minnesota

  1. jean valjean says:

    SWAT raids are about intimidation of those the police consider Other and have nothing to do with safety or even finding drugs. Remember the police ad that was posted here a few years ago featuring a crew of fat-boys dressed in SWAT clothes with the caption “If you use drugs, we make house calls?” No doubt the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers thought that was wickedly clever.

  2. jean valjean says:

    OT
    “A Possession Arrest Every 25 Seconds: The Cruel Folly of the War on Drugs”
    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/drug-possession-arrest-every-25-seconds-cruel-folly-war-drugs

  3. DdC says:

    Got SqWAT?
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1775

    Of all tyrannies,
    a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
    may be the most oppressive.
    — C.S. Lewis, in “The Humanitarian
    Theory of Punishment,” an essay from “God In The Dock”

  4. jean valjean says:

    “Bloodsucking TIC (Treatment Industrial Complex): Video Reveals The Ugly Truth Behind the For-Profit Prison Industry’s Embrace Of Treatment, Rehabilitation, And ‘Alternatives’”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/bloodsucking-tic-treatmen_b_12435574.html?

    Love the way Barbara Bush loaded up with GEO Corp stock as her husband announced a massive expansion of ther prison industrial complex in the late 80s. No conflict of interest there of course.

    • Daniel Williams says:

      Just as there is no conflict of interest among climate ‘scientists’ taking massive federal grants to support a preordained government view. You know, like cannabis is not medicine, all drugs are bad, etc.

  5. Inside the Legal Struggles of Michigan’s Medicinal Marijuana Industry
    http://tinyurl.com/gkvc99q

    “In Michigan, medical marijuana is legal—but last year, arrest rates were on the rise. Why? It seems like marijuana legalization is meant to at least take the drug out of the realm of the criminal justice system, but while doing research for this season of Weediquette, we found out that there’s still a strong incentive for police officers to go after legal marijuana growers in Michigan. The doctrine that the incentive is based off of is called civil asset forfeiture—which means that if a cop busts you, he or she can take your stuff in addition to throwing you in jail and charging you.”

    At the forefront is SWAT. I applaud Minnesota’s District Judge Tanya Bransford. Michigan needs her lesson.

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