Trace Amounts

Say you're a police officer decked out in full SWAT regalia. You and four colleagues perform a pre-dawn no-knock raid on a house where "trace amounts" of illicit drugs were allegedly discovered in the trash. Your team doesn't announce itself; you just batter down the door and throw a flash-bang grenade into the house, and then you all storm in. The terrified homeowner, a middle-aged woman in a nightgown, is found holding (not pointing) a gun — a gun she later turns out to have bought for protection after her stepdaughter was murdered. The weapon is legal, and registered. Also, the woman is well-liked in her neighborhood and runs Bible study classes on her lunch breaks. But you don't know any of that, and why would you? Police intelligence doesn't have to answer questions about an alleged perp's character first. The inclination is to shoot first, and ask questions later. So that's what you do. You shoot the woman three times, firing the third bullet at essentially point-blank range, after she's already slumped over and her grip on the gun has loosened.

Now what happens? If you're officer Carlos Artson of the Baltimore County Police Department, nothing happens, except that your superiors appreciatively slap you on the shoulder; and then, the next year, they award you a Silver Star for the "valor, courage, intelligence, and bravery" you displayed in shooting Cheryl Lynn Noel.

Officer Artson may have simply made a wrong but defensible split-second decision when he fired the first two shots. I understand full well that to a cop, or to any person, the sight of a firearm in the hands of a possible perp could reasonably trigger a violent act of self-defense (though verbally urging the other to drop the weapon should under almost all circumstances precede the use of deadly force).

But that's as far as it goes. The third and possibly fatal shot, delivered seconds later, at virtually point-blank range, when the victim was already down and no longer a threat, was "wholly unnecessary and grossly excessive," as the wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Cheryl Lynn Noel's family alleges. And don't forget that if officer Artson can be said to have acted in self-defense, the same is certainly true for Noel, who lived in a dicey neighborhood and didn't know who the nighttime intruders were.

In addition, the lack of self-awareness on the part of the police department is breathtaking. It's one thing — though it's borderline sociopathic — to have a SWAT team carry out a pre-dawn no-knock raid for no other reason than that trace amounts of drugs were allegedly found among the coffee dregs and the potato peels. It's another thing — vile, callous, and cruel — to engage in nose-thumbing triumphalism by giving an award to an officer who, for good reason, is the focus of a wrongful-death suit.

The biggest problem here is not the alleged presence of "trace amounts" of illicit drugs in someone's trash. The biggest problem is the absence of trace amounts of proportionality, decency, and humanity among our country's unquestioning, trigger-happy drug warriors.

[hat tip: the Agitator]

Comments

[George Arndt]

Just Imagin if They had found a Joint..

[ben]

Collateral damage in the war against trace amounts of drugs.
Is there any proof they found the seeds in the trash? Is there any proof it wasn't tomato seeds?
But most importantly they were able to break up another dealer cartel. One step closer to a drug-free country (I take that back, the term "free" doesn't seem to be appropriate. Any suggestions?).

[Paul]

If I were inclined to say such a thing, I might suggest that it would be interesting if three or four people who legally owned a large number of firearms were... "surprised" by one of these no-knock raids. It would be interesting to further surmise that these three or four people in the house were engaging in no illegal activity and had no drugs on the premises. It would also be interesting to wonder how the public would react if, say, during this hypothetical no-knock raid, the three people in the house immediately unloaded all firearms and killed or seriously wounded each police officer engaged in the raid, and took no injuries themselves, making it nigh impossible for remaining officers to disperse evidence around the home in an ethically-challenged moment. But I'm not inclined to suggest anything like this.

[Martin Owens]

What color was this woman?

[Robert]

Radley Baliko has been all over these kind of stories. His paper 'Overkill' is well worth the read.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476

[Kathy Jones]

I Just Found Out Tonite About My Friend Cheryl Noels Death
I Moved Away & Lost Touch .I Have Read Every Article I Could Find on Cheryl's Death .It All Doesn't Make Sense to Me .
Cheryl Noel Was The Most Loving Person I Knew.One Christmas Cheryl & Her Husband
Charles Noel Surprise My Family With Christmas Presents ,Breakfast & Dinner .
I Knew it Was Them as I Saw Them Drive Off .They Never Knew In My Heart I Remembered Their Kindness Every Day Since Then .Cheryl Noel Would NEVER Hurt Anyone ..She Couldn't Her Heart Was " To Big & Full of Love"I Was Alone One Valentine's .
Cheryl Brought Me a Candle That Read :
"Love makes the Lonelies Go Away "
I Never Lit That Candle .I Never Wanted to Forget Such a Wonderful Person She Was .
I Lit it Tonite for Cheryl

Now Who is Going to Take The Loneness Away
for Charles,Mathew , Jacob & Cheryl's Family & Friends Who Loved Her So Much .
RIP Cheryl.. I Love You 1960-2004~3-23-09~

[Kathy Jones]

I Know Cheryl Noel Personally When I Heard Cheryl Had the Gun in Her Hand I Knew Right Away .. Cheryl Had it Pointed to the Floor . I Knew Charlie Taught Cheryl That Long Ago. Everyone Did . The Gun Cheryl Had Was for "Protection Only" Seems to Me This Was They Only Time She Felt Threatened Enough to Have It Ready. The Officer Was WRONG to Fire That 3rd Shot . He Shot a Mom ,Wife & Friend..My Friend Whom I Had Lost Touch With for So Many Years. RIP My Friend ..I am So Sorry This Happen

[hermesten]

"...making it nigh impossible for remaining officers to disperse evidence around the home in an ethically-challenged moment. "

Impossible. You're not thinking this through. At some point the people in the house have to come out, surrender, be arrested. So, the cops had to wait awhile to plant the "evidence," what's the diff? BTW, cops don't have an ethically-challenged moment --all their moments are ethically-challenged.