Above the Law: The Constitution Demands A Stronger Check On Government Raids Against Civilians

Above the Law: The Constitution Demands A Stronger Check On Government Raids Against Civilians by Tyler Broker:

Despite decreasing crime across the country, the success of alternatives, and widespread criticism, the business of government raids is booming.

The practice of government raids against private citizens and their property is a deadly, morally compromising endeavor. Blame for the current state of perpetual tragedy is attributable to many causal factors, of course, including the practices of law enforcement. Yet, much of the blame deserves to be placed on a system where the Fourth Amendment is essentially rendered toothless. The ease in which law enforcement can surpass Fourth Amendment burdens and obtain a warrant, based entirely on vague, error-prone, or even false assertions, to carry out extraordinarily violent intrusions into personal homes should be a crying scandal for any branch of the judiciary. And it is undoubtedly getting innocent people killed.

Compounding the problem is the absence of any evidence that such violent and militarized police tactics enhance law enforcement safety or reduce crime. In fact, in places where raids are common, the bonds that are essential to maintaining law and order rather quickly begin to dissolve with disastrous results. A lesser, more hypocritical kind of resentment towards government that can result from raids manifested itself recently in the media when the FBI executed a single, relatively mild raid on Roger Stone. Now, imagine an American population that is regularly subjected to such raids — for petty offenses and in a degree much more serious than was used against Stone — and you can begin to understand why many now view the practice as being part of an oppressive system of social control.