For years we’ve been alerting readers to the problems of militarized police and “No-Knock” raids.  Having my home invaded by a group of heavily armed marauders – who later turn out to be police – has been a personal phobia for years.  My fear is clearly justified as demonstrated by over 300 examples of botched, unjustified, or mistaken assaults resulting in the senseless deaths and serious injuries of police, innocents, unarmed residents, and terrified folks trying to protect their homes.

    Just recently the home of the mayor of a small town in suburban DC was raided by officers who breached the front door without announcing themselves, shot two harmless Labrador Retrievers, and left the mayor and his mother-in-law handcuffed on the floor for some two hours.  

    Turns out a drug distribution ring, which included a delivery driver, was sending packages of marijuana to addresses on the driver’s route.  The driver or an accomplice would divert the package or retrieve it from the home’s doorstep.  The mayor, his wife, mother-in-law, and dogs were completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

    Had this been my home, I’m afraid I would have been likely to have shot the first unidentified intruder to crash through the front door.  Of course everything would immediately go downhill from there. 

    Those of us who take personal protection seriously and are not engaging in any kind of illegal activity must be concerned about such a nightmare scenario.  We are armed and prepared to defend our homes and families, but if the attackers turn out to be the police and we do not immediately realize this, a tragedy is likely.

    At various times over the years our family has been the target of certain lunatic fringe groups who didn’t like our politics or what they thought were our personal beliefs.  As an investigative reporter in the early ’60’s, Dad broke stories on crooked politicians and criminal organizations.  These stories made him some enemies and resulted in several death threats.  My first interaction with the FBI occured when I was still in high school and they came to Prescott to warn us that they thought Dad and his family might be targets of an extremist group.  We were warned to take certain precautions in our day-to-day activities, our associations, and handling our mail.  When Dad became a national figure as the head of NRA’s lobbying efforts, the threats grew.  Dad’s activities fighting the Maryland gun ban in the ’80’s really raised our concerns about a staged police raid as retribution for his criticism of the Maryland State Police and various local agencies. 

    I have also had some altercations with gang members and groups that didn’t like the way I reported on them when I was in the radio business.  When you add those thing up with stories like the guy who found a tactical assault team at his door in the middle of the night because he had bought some ammunition that someone thought was suspicious, or the guy whose home was raided because a neighbor reported that he thought the guy was into drugs and had machineguns, I think i have plenty of reason to be a little paranoid.  And of course when you’re paranoid, you look for the things that will justify and feed your paranoia.  Since I worry about an assault on my home – whether by criminals or cops – I seek out information about such incidents and the more I learn, the more I worry.

     I’ve featured the work of Radly Balko of the Cato Institute in several articles in the past, particularly stories about Cory Maye who woke to the sound of someone kicking down his door and grabbed a gun.  As the intruder barged into the room, Maye fired three shots, one of which hit Officer Ron Jones just under the vest and proved fatal.  When other officers yelled out that they were the police, Maye immediately threw down his gun and surrendered.  He insisted that he didn’t know it was the police until after he had fired.  Maye was convicted of murder ands sentenced to death.  Thanks largely to Balko’s exposure of the story, Maye’s sentence was commuted to life in prison.  Balko and Cato have put together an interactive map of the 300+ botched police, paramilitary raids they have researched.  The map and its information are very interesting and deeply disturbing.  Taks a look and try to sleep sound tonight.  Just click here to see the map.