I mean, the case in that video is from a kook and was dismissed. Doesn't take much to hide things publicly on IA's web archive as-is, many sites do just via robots.txt exclusions as a form of censorship, while general files there get requested or flagged to be hidden with enough regularity (copyrighted works, various moderation of uploads).
In the incident that led to Friend’s suspension, the FBI wanted to execute a SWAT raid on a subject who’d been communicating with the Bureau through an attorney and almost certainly would have come in voluntarily. Or, Friend thought, he could have been picked up in another, less dangerous way. The FBI however wanted a show.
“We’re gonna hit this house at six o’clock in the morning and throw flash-bangs and knock the door down and drive a Bearcat up on the front lawn,” recalls Friend, who had extensive SWAT experience and even worked the raid of Michigan militia members suspected of plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
He recounts a detail straight out of the movie Idiocracy: the armored Bearcat vehicles the FBI uses in SWAT raids are fitted with special battering-ram-type devices agents call dongers. (No joke. Washington Field Office agents even nickname their Bearcat accessory “DOJ,” for Dong of Justice). Friend describes the lunacy of a federal posse riding into the suburbs to take a door in one of these phallic tanks. “You’re driving down the road with this long extension pole on the front,” he says, laughing. “And I’m thinking, ‘These things were built by the lowest possible bidder.’”
He didn’t laugh so much, however, when he started to get the sense the FBI was opening cases, knocking on doors, and using tactics like SWAT for reasons other than operational necessity.
I keep waiting for a law enforcement death due to a no-knock raid. With gun ownership in the US, it's only a matter of time before someone shoots someone they assume was a burglar, and since it was no-knock, just saying "FBI" isn't really enough. Anyone can break into a home and say "FBI."
One law enforcement officer was hit in the leg. They had a "No knock warrant" but then have testified that they knocked and identified themselves as police before breaking down the door in plainclothes. Color me unconvinced.
They then proceeded to basically cover their eyes and shoot 32 shots while spinning around blindly like Barney Fife, hit Breonna Taylor 6 times as well as firing shots through a random glass door to the patio and miraculously didn't kill or hit anyone else in the apartment complex.
> then have testified that they knocked and identified themselves as police before breaking down the door in plainclothes.
Over a dozen neighbors, including one outside smoking near the incident, interviewed said they never heard the police identify themselves. Only one neighborhood claims to have heard them do so.
"Unconvinced" is right. If they identified themselves they did a piss poor job.
And seriously, why would you ever want to do a "plain clothes" no knock raid?
> And seriously, why would you ever want to do a "plain clothes" no knock raid?
Because you're serving a warrant on a dangerous suspect, who you have reason to believe has community support? (e.g. someone on the corner who's going to tip the suspect off when the lookout sees the cops rolling up)
Which isn't me justifying the Breonna Taylor raid, which by all accounts appears to have been an end-to-end clusterfuck, compounded with actual lying before and after the raid and a criminally negligent lack of weapons discipline by the officers involved.
That should have never been signed off on.
But there are scenarios where law enforcement are serving warrants on violent people, who if tipped off ahead of time increase the risk to the officers, the suspect, and the community around them.
As with many application-of-force vs freedom scenarios, it's a fuzzy justification line, but there's a line somewhere.
> Because you're serving a warrant on a dangerous suspect, who you have reason to believe has community support?
This feels like a contradiction to me. If the suspect is perceived dangerous enough that we need the no knock, surely they are also dangerous enough we need to be prepared for strong, armed resistance right? Body armor, shields etc? All things that are decidedly not 'plain clothes".
I mean if they have that much community support that you are afraid someone will see you coming and tip them off, are you also not afraid that once you've kicked this person's door down you've now got hostiles both inside AND outside?
SWAT teams are one option, but they're not the only option. Sometimes surprise might be more beneficial.
Presumably not even the police want to be shooting it out in the middle of an apartment complex.
And I guess the general calculus is that even the most aggressive neighborhood bystanders in America are usually less dangerous than a criminal suspect.
But it speaks to the contradiction: the entire point of a no-knock is surprise.
But legal, authorized surprise is practically incompatible with the second amendment (as currently interpreted) and stand your ground laws (as increasingly being passed).
Well if something on the website bothered couldn't just a cease and desist or a judge order be enough? Do you really need to tore the place down like it's Osama's bunker?
High profile no-knock warrants like this give the FBI (and other agencies) a chance to break out their military style gear in an attempt to justify their budgets and powers.
Indeed and this is something that bothers me with law enforcement in the US in general.
I feel like so much could be improved, both in terms of reducing crime rates and in terms of people actually respecting law enforcement of having a more "friendly" approach. Obviously if there's an imminent threat to life then obviously you expect them to be a bit more heavy handed, but I do feel like there's many things that could be dealt with without resorting to well, this.
This ufo agenda pushed by media sounds like distraction or sensation for audience that likes mystery, conspiracy, etc. It cloud be great business model I guess.
Well it would be interesting to know the reason. But the website is still online, so probably not because of that. The last update was because of a military exercise. Maybe the raid had something to do with that? (Publishing about current Military Activities)
https://web.archive.org/web/20211009062828fw_/https://dlr.th...