No Knock Warrant Needs to be Abolished
Why keep a racially motivated biased and misused law on the books.
No-knock warrants have been the detriment to the BPOC communities as it appeared that most of the times when applied ended in a murder of a victim regardless of circumstances pertaining to being a threat or not to law enforcement.
No-knock warrants, stopping a car for air freshener violations, driving while black, and any other made-up charges have grieved so many families who have lost loved ones at the hand of law enforcement. Some victims were shot in their head or back, and lately another Black man, Amir Locke - 22 years old, was shot while sleeping on a sofa with a registered gun in hand.
Locke was killed due to a No-warrant as the SWAT team entered the home with a key, kicked the sofa he laid on, and when he moved, was shot three times. When you kick an object that someone is laying on while sleeping, what is expected other than movement? Movement is the norm when awakened in this manner.
This SWAT team’s action was like an execution. There were many law enforcement officers and one young Black man, this is the best they could do? If true, this SWAT team needs to be removed from active duty for better training procedures because evidently, they lack in so many aspects.
In appeasing the Black communities, probably to ward off riots, the Minneapolis mayor halted the no-knock warrant. Halted, is this a joke? What about abolishing it? No-knock warrants have caused a lot of deaths pertaining to various situations associated with BPOC.
Based on the body-camera footage, Locke was sleeping on a couch before he was fatally shot by a member of the SWAT team after they enter the home with a key.
A sleeping man against a swat team, this equation is not balanced. Why would they kick the sofa, and then shoot? They could have just handcuffed the man instead, after all, they had the upper hand.
Is this swat team that inept while they outnumbered one man sleeping on a sofa, could not handle the situation any better than taking a life without provocation? Yes, his parents are correct in their assessment of the situation that this was an execution of their sun. His reaction from being startled from sleep to possibly reaching for his license gun is normal. The ill behavior of the swat team, sadly to say, is their normal against BPOC. All of them are at fault and I hope Locke’s parents sue the police force and the swat team.
According to the news, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis effectively immediately banned requests for and the execution of warrants where the police do not announce themselves. The mayor needs to do better than this. Has this mayor been sleeping under a rock?
No-knock warrant where the officers claimed they announced themselves resulted in the murder of numerous victims, i.e. Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a botched raid at her home in Louisville, Ky., in 2020. Another SWAT team entered and started shooting as she lay in her bed.
Breonna Taylor’s execution is just one of many and you’d think by now the No-knock warranty would almost be a thing of the past instead of prevalent in the present.
The Minneapolis mayor also announced a meeting with experts to revise the No-knock warrant but this is a bandaid of appeasement and not a solution to a serious problem in society. Revision means the No-knock warrant can still be implemented which is part of the problem.
According to the news, the SWAT team claimed that Locke pointed a gun at them. If a person is a licensed gun carrier and is awakened while sleeping, what is expected? If the shoe was on the other foot, the SWAT team would respond similarly. It was reported that Locke was shot twice in the chest and once in the right wrist.
Interestingly, the news stated from the video cam, the SWAT team entered the home with a key without announcing themselves. Now there is another explanation that they announced themselves upon entry according to them by saying, “Police, search warrant!” They also shout, “Hands!” and “Get on the ground!”
Someone is lying because video cams don’t lie but people do. The city released still footage showing Locke holding his license’s gun with his trigger finger along the side of the barrel. If true, this does not justify this murder and being shot three times
Locke responded as any other human being would have under the circumstances, but the same cannot be said of the SWAT team. Many police officers against one sleeping young Black man in a home, wrapped in a comforter sleeping, was executed for no reason.
The ridiculousness of this senseless murder is that Locke’s name was not even mentioned in the warrants. How do you shoot someone whose name is not on the warrant? This makes no sense. Is this how the SWAT team was trained?
Unbelievable, the details surrounding the warrant being served by the SWAT Team are not being revealed to the public and are currently filed under seal. This all appears suspect, like the SWAT team and officials are hiding something. What is the cover-up?
One officer, Mark Hanneman, fired the three shots. According to law enforcement who protect their own at all cost, stated the officer was in a difficult position and had to make a split-second decision. Why is this split-second only applied against people of color? Note, Hanneman who was hired in 2015, possesses a blemished record with three complaints with details undisclosed and without discipline.
In conclusion, Hanneman’s record has a stain that will not go unnoticed for shooting a victim while he slept on a sofa and whose name was not on the warrant. The public would like to know about his three other complaints. Much secrecy surrounds Hanneman’s. Where there is smoke, there is fire. Just as what is done in the dark will come to light. The truth will survive, someway and somehow, and Hanneman needs to pay for his crime.
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