ACLU Condemns Shooting of Denver Man
in No-Knock Raid
By Steve Silverman,
The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned
Denver, Colorado officials for launching a "no-knock"
drug raid in September which resulted in the death of a father
of nine.
Ismael Mena, 45, was shot to death by masked
SWAT officers who broke down his door in the middle of the night.
The officers, who had obtained the warrant based on a tip from
an informant who claimed there were drug dealers in the house,
later said they shot Mena after he pointed a gun at them and
fired. No drugs or evidence of drug dealing were found in Mena's
house, and an autopsy revealed no drugs in his body.
"If the government officials who authorized
the warrant had followed the law, Ismael Mena would be alive
today," said Mark Silverstein, the ACLU's legal director
in Colorado. "No-knock warrants should be the rare exception
and not the rule," he added.
Craig Silverman, a Denver trial lawyer and
a former prosecutor summed up the absurdity of no-knock warrants
by asking, "Why do you have police officers risking their
lives and putting other people's lives at risk for a crime that
routinely results in no incarceration in Denver?"
Silverstein said that while any request to
search a home must be evaluated with care, judges should be especially
wary of requests for no-knock warrants. "No-knock warrants
pose a danger to the lives of police officers as well as innocent
civilians. Many Colorado residents legally own firearms, and
Colorado's controversial 'Make My Day' law increases the risk
to police. If police do not successfully communicate their identity
in the split-second hen they kick down the door, they are likely
to encounter gunfire from citizens who believe they are justifiably
defending their homes from lawless intruders."
In 1997, the Supreme Court unanimously held
that a warrant to search for drugs does not automatically justify
a no-knock entry. "The Supreme Court requires facts that
are based on the specific case and the specific home to be searched,"
said Silverstein. "Police cannot rely on the easy generalization
that a drug case means that the suspects inevitably will start
shooting or attempt to destroy evidence. The warrant in this
case, however, was based on the precise stereotype that the Supreme
Court unanimously rejected in 1997."
Denver Mayor Wellington Webb has promised
a thorough probe of Mena's death. The FBI has also launched its
own investigation.
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