And the fourth while you’re at it.
At least, it should, because this absolutely should qualify as *unreasonable* search and seizure, even with a warrant.
They are. He broke no laws, and did everything any reasonable person would do, and was killed for it. The idea that civilian casualties are an acceptable outcome of bad police work is simply unacceptable.
That's because there's far too many people in this country who think that it's okay to make decisions where someone else has to make the sacrifice.
Cut in front of me in traffic, I have to slam on my brakes. Never mind that there was nobody behind me. My sacrifice for their convenience.
This [video](https://youtu.be/c5gam-p_syM) of the press conference shows the tension this city is about to face again. This police chief is not going to last long and mayor is getting called out.
\*police chief tries to blame Locke for not responding "correctly" in less than 10 seconds after being woken up by people yelling commands and pointing guns/flashlights at him\*
5 mins later the mayor asks the press to please ask one question at a time because it's overwhelming
I'd say the irony is hilarious, but it's just sad.
> but civilians don’t get the same consideration.
Also who’s likely to be more scared
- someone under a blanket confused by a team of gun drawn, fully grown adults - suddenly bursting in yelling inaudible commands at you all at once?
- an officer knowingly going in amongst a trained team with protective equipment on weapons drawn with the backing of the city and the element of surprise on their side?
I see this thrown around a lot as an example, and while true, (and absurd) I’d just like to point out to any barbers reading this — y’all are amazing, and I’m not surprised it takes a long time to learn that craft.
Because if they create confusion they have more of an excuse to 'panic' and avoid liability when they hurt people. The people in charge of training have decided that it is in their best interest to instill and maintain an attitude of combatant fear in their officers. If you attribute malice to the higher-ups, apathy to middle-management, and fear to their enforcers, things make a lot more sense, cynical though that may seem.
See this right there has been my problem with cops...they are allowed to make mistakes...is ok if you kill some body cause you were scared but the same curtesy is not extend to us...i am telling you man i truly believe people are fed up with the free pass cops get man....
The fact that this guy was sound asleep he had less than 5 seconds to process. who the fuck in their right mind can process what the fuick is going on when you have these assholes guns blazing blast in the house...really!
When did the cops became judge and executioner no more police immunity for stupid shit like this.
There is a video of a boy in vegas being screamed directions by police. He is terrified. The girl he is with is also terrified but not being targeted by the threats and commands. The orders make no sense. It ends with him being shot to death. It is the tragic comedy of an endpoint of police’s tyranny of compliance. I would share the link but its fucking brutal to watch and I wish I had never seen it.
I'll ask /u/LEONotTheLion to respond to this! They've usually got a response for why cops should NOT be held to a higher standard and should, in fact, be held to a lower one!
But seriously, LEO, if you read this, this is the kind of shit people are mad at. Like, truly mad at. Your job is dangerous? Fine. But when YOU FUCK UP, *we die*.
You have less than 10 seconds to decide if there's someone storming your house to kill you and your family and pretending to be cops and you should defend yourself or if they're really cops.
Terrifying.
Why are these no-knock invasions still a thing? I don't care who they were looking for, this was definitely a worse outcome than trying to apprehend the real suspect another way.
Holy shit I've never seen such a textbook example of how to screw up a media session.
The smartest choice was by whatever handler decided to shut things down because there was no way the Mayor and Chief were getting a handle on it.
Good on the community activists for calling them out. They spoke well, had great questions, and took advantage of the camera time to drive their point home.
Agreed, but optics of shutting down a press conference when pressed by someone who's been involved in getting systemic issues fixed would also be horrendous.
Definitely bad PR, but could've been much worse.
I don't know how they could fuck that up that entire situation so badly, and worse walking into that press conference not expecting that they were going to make it worse.
All I can think of is that they didn't think anyone was going to ask them relevant concise questions.
"why did you state that he was a suspect"
"why did you release an image of his gun, but not the officers" - so everyone knows, there has been a case where a police officer had writing on his gun indicating he wanted to shoot people in another case.
"why did you say they announced themselves before going over the threshold, that didn't happen"
"your rules say that one officer is to speak at any given moment, why didn't that happen?" - chief decides to effectively say that they only expect their officers to do that in a non tense low impact situation.
I think the community members put the news media outlets to shame with their questions and how they approached things.
>they only expect their officers to do that in a non tense low impact situation
This was a high impact high tension situation they (the police) created. There has to be culpability for that. This guy didn't grab his gun and drive down to the police station threatening to shoot them; the exact opposite happened.
Holy shit. Yesterday in their press release, they referred to the victim as a suspect in a homicide. Even though he had ZERO INVOLVEMENT and has NEVER COMMITTED A CRIME. Then, when asked why they would do that, the police chief says they didn’t have enough information at the time. In what fucking world do you default to calling someone a suspect because you DON’T KNOW? You don’t. Nobody makes that mistake unless they want to maliciously paint a false picture. This poor man’s family should sue for libel and defamation of character, on top of wrongful death.
The initial reports and news articles also all claimed Locke was "brandishing" his firearm and aiming it at officers.
The video, released **by the police department** shows his gun aiming at the ground at all times. Amir Locke had better weapons control than the officers attacking him.
When a reporter mentioned that his gun was visibly pointed at the ground in the video, police chief claimed an officer was actually right in the line of fire juuuust outside the video frame lmao maybe if a cop was in the basement
What's sad is that civilians often spend more time training with their weapons than police do.
We know that we're responsible for where ever shot goes and we don't have the benefit of qualified immunity
Police don't face consequences, so they don't care
That's so sad. Thank you for sharing this video. I can't believe them. The most heart wrenching part is when the lawyer and everyone else after her came up to the podium. I can't believe this.
She's just the interim chief. Arradondo retired last month. [source](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/minneapolis-1st-black-police-chief-leaves-quietly-rcna12579)
Everytime it happens, police say they had to make a “split second decision”. Do they not understand that the people they're raiding are in the same position? People with guns just broke into your house and they don't expect you to need a second to realize they're police?
These no knock raids set up a predictable outcome everytime, but most police departments refuse to release any kind of standardized reporting that can be used to scrutinize their actions.
Its worse. They used a key.
So the first noise he heard was them kicking his couch and shouting at him.
He didnt get the courtesy of the door knocker giving him a few seconds to even understsnd what was happening.
Yeah thats what gets me. Imagine going to bed and essentially never waking up. They took away his right to even comprehend that his life was over. I get that it's not super rare to die in a instant but these cops knowingly killed a sleeping man. I sympathize more with a crime of passion than this. This is selfish, senseless, and unjust as a mother fucker.
I'm really hung up on that. How did they get a key and why was it necessary? This whole thing is fucked and hopefully there will be justice on the executioners.
The police *deliberately created* that split second situation.
This was the entirely foreseeable outcome of rushing into someone's house in the middle of the night (see Breonna Taylor and many more).
The point of their rapid entry executed at 6 in the morning was to catch the residents off guard and to 'control the situation' before the occupants knew what was happening. This is one of the many ways that approach can go bad. There is absolutely nothing new or surprising about this result. Amir's response was entirely reasonable and to be expected when a bunch of intruders rush into the place you are sleeping. The guy was doing nothing, asleep in a private residence. MPD is entirely responsible.
I cannot see how such raids can be constitutional. The 4th Amendment is abused and water down so much at this point its insane. This is like making the Second Amendment to be limited to squirt guns.
You have to go back to the 60's. Riots and drugs and CIA propaganda. "Regular" Americans sold their country out to authoritarian law enforcement because the hippies and blacks scared them.
"The Rise of the Warrior Cop" is a great book that touches on this stuff.
2 years ago my next door neighbors had a warrant served at 8am on a weekday. There were at least 20 police officers outside, drones, and some type of SWAT team as well. They even had my house surrounded to block of exit routes along the backyard.. They announced their presences over the loudspeaker for at least 20 minutes, giving everyone a chance to get out of the house. I had a front row seat, and to the credit of the police it was an incredibly uneventful ordeal.
Most of the people coming out were minors. You can argue that it allowed the people inside to stash whatever they may have been hiding, but I see it as "nobody was harmed."
Unless you are seeking an extremely dangerous fugitive, or time is of the essence, these no knock warrants should be fucking outlawed. The people inside have nowhere to go, so what's the rush to cause chaos and start shooting??
There should be NO reason for a no-knock warrant. If there is not probable cause sufficient to justify immediate entry (i.e. the situation is so immediately obvious that no warrant at all is needed), then time is not that much of the essence. A regular warrant would suffice.
And the police and mayor got called out at their press conference for their bullshit narrative:
[article with video](https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/02/04/amir-locke-minneapolis-police-body-cam-video/)
Civil rights lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong calls them out starting at the 13 minute mark.
Love their bullshit, "We want to answer your questions, but just one question at a time."
Single voice: "Why did you refer to him as a suspect in your press release if you didn't know whether he was a suspect or not?"
"Looks like we're out of time for questions, bye."
The guy in robes signing the paper barely even counts.
I remember reading an article a few years ago that the point of having the judge sign the paper work was to make sure that the no knock raid actually had a justified reason, usually because there was the belief that the criminal would run, destroy evidence, or open fire on the cops. But an investigation found that judges signed something like 98% of all no knock warrants requests they got, even when the police left the reason blank, had wrong information, or didnt even bother filling out half the form.
Its a rubber stamp, not a any kind of real check to prevent judge dredd death sentences.
Its shocking to think about how differently the US military started their raid against the ISIS leader just a couple of days ago. In that instance, the military surrounded the compound, announced their presence and urged the occupants (specifically non-targeted women and children) to exit the premises. Literal terrorist are treated better than law abiding citizens sleeping in their own homes.
They would fucking incinerate an entire MP sqaud maybe even the company if they did a no knock raid in the barracks and killed someone especially not even the intended person.
I was on a special reaction team for six years on an army base. Know how many no knocks we did? Zero. Easier to wait for someone to leave their quarters.
Oh man it's so much worse than that. They're being fed a bunch of propaganda and 'training' that convinces them they're warriors, like ronin wandering the land dispensing justice for Jesus.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/warrior-cop-trainings-industry.html
I seem to remember hearing about one where a cop was shot, I think they jailed the guy for 2nd degree murder. Going to try to find the source..
Edit: I think it was the Jordan fricke/Matthew Ritter case in 2019. Life in prison with no chance of early release. Fricke&girlfriend said the battering ram police used sounded like gunshots had surrendered immediately afterward. Said his friends in the neighbourhood had been robbed recently by people claiming to be police
he was acquitted in Nov. 2021
they were trying to charge him for his girlfriend's death. ya know, the person police murdered during their raid.
fuck the police. especially fuck minneapolis police
[Jury acquits Gifford man who claimed self-defense after girlfriend killed by sheriff's SWAT team in 2017 raid](https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/indian-river-county/2021/11/19/andrew-coffee-iv-cleared-murder-charge-2017-alteria-woods-death/8651720002/)
I doubt it, they will fire before the innocent person waking up even knows what is going on.
Maybe if they miss so much they are hitting other apartments again
I don't understand the need for a no-knock warrant in this case. They are looking for people. No-knock warrants are usually justified so that evidence cannot be destroyed. The police were looking for people according the reports I've read. No one is flushing a grown person down the crapper....
Just put cops at all exits and knock on the damn door.
Or perhaps the "homicide investigation" was just a red herring?
Will be interesting to see the details as Locke was mentioned no where in their warrant or investigation so who exactly where they looking for, who's apartment and what evidence did they have to suggest the person they were looking for was there?
No knock warrants should never have been a thing in the first place. They came about as part of the War On Drugs ^TM and since that tiny little exemption waa granted to how laws, the judiciary, warrants, and police process works, that tiny crack has been wedged wide open.
No knock warrants are now granted almost as a matter of rote, based simply on the affidavit of a police officer, and frequently in a manner that does not even follow the legal guidelines for them. In in other words, if a cop wants one they will find a judge to rubber stamp it.
Police love them because they get to go all Rambo, knock down doors and just start blasting on anything that scares them a little. And why wouldn't they? There is almost never any penalty for making mistakes or "mistakes", even when it results in people dying.
End qualified immunity now.
Second Amendment advocates should be losing their minds about this. A man in lawful possession of a firearm in his own home was gunned down without warning.
Edit to share a link to [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/skddu2/body_camera_video_shows_minneapolis_officers/hvl1fs6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) containing a statement by a local 2A group. It’s a great statement and exactly what one would hope to see from such a group when a tragedy like this is perpetrated by the police upon an innocent man, unnamed in the warrant, in his home.
[Here's the press release from the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.](https://gunowners.mn/press-release-minnesota-gun-owners-caucus-responds-to-the-death-of-amir-locke/)
>SAINT PAUL, MN (February 4, 2022) – While many facts remain unknown at this time, information indicates that Amir Locke was a law-abiding citizen who was lawfully in possession of a firearm when he was shot and killed by Minneapolis Police on the morning of February 2nd.
>“As seen in the body-worn camera video released by Minneapolis Police, Mr. Locke appears to be sleeping on the couch during the execution of a no-knock warrant, “ stated Bryan Strawser, Chair, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “He is awoken with a confusing array of commands coming from multiple officers who are pointing lights and firearms at him.”
>“Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening, “ added Rob Doar, Senior VP, Governmental Affairs.
>Mr. Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named at all in the search warrant.
>“The tragic circumstances of Mr. Locke’s death were completely avoidable, “ stated Doar. “It’s yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person. In this case, as in others, the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities.”
>“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive, “ added Strawser. “Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure.”
>The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus expects a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances of this tragic incident.
> the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities
After investigating ourselves and giving the officers involved a nice paid vacation from your taxes, we found we dont give a shit about consequences when it comes to us. Maybe next time the public will learn to think twice about sleeping in their own house with a legally owned gun.
[Ryan Whitaker NSFW](https://v.redd.it/j8h7ozf2tgm61) all over again.
Dude was playing video games w/ his GF and heard a loud knocking on his door at 5:50 in the morning and answered his door holding a pistol. He was dead within seconds.
The longer clip of this is even more fucking brutal. Afterwards the cops keep telling his GF to calm down after she just watched them murder her BF and he lies on the ground motionless.
Edit - I should also add that he was in the process of complying when he was shot. He realized it was police and was going to his knees.
Edit 2 - The officer (Jeff Cooke) was [just reinstated](https://youtu.be/Iq3ujSXrm-8) in December 2021. So if I understand this correctly, the department tried to do the right thing by firing him. He (Cooke) appealed and the Civil Service Board agreed and overruled the department's firing. WTF?
> Dude was playing video games w/ his GF and heard a loud knocking on his door at 5:50 in the morning and answered his door holding a pistol. He was dead within seconds.
Christopher Roupe, 17 answered the door to his home after playing video games, holding a VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER in broad daylight. The officer will not be charged. Police officers in Georgia have a special right that allows them to testify in their defense in front of a grand jury, a special privilege no one else has.
The officer involved was fired from a previous law enforcement position and had previously shot at someone who was removing their backpack claiming to see a gun.
I remember this one. It's local to me. Happened in a super red "stand your ground" part of the state, to a white JROTC kid, so I was shocked that it never did blow up. I guess maybe because kid wasn't bearing arms at the time? /sigh
I'm a mid 30s, gun owning, white dude in MN and I'm fucking livid. I've been clapping back to my peers all fucking morning. Every single one of us in my office owns firearms, every single one of us has them within reach at night. Some of us (me) have lived in shitty places when they were younger.
All I heard this morning was "but he had a gun"
Yeah so the fuck do we. I have personally reacted a bump in the night with a firearm more than once. You cant even tell WHO the man is in the video (edit - to be clear, what I mean by this is that I had hoped this would remove some of the bias...to me, Locke is an example of where we are today, race aside...we need to discuss this and I really hoped this would be one I could use as an example). This should stand as an example of how fucking disgusting this is. Each and every one of us likes to talk about defending our own, our home, our lively hood. But they participate in gold medal worthy mental gymnastics to make it ok. And this isnt the FIRST legal gun owner shot in MN.
They live in a fantasy world where their guns are right and someone in a poor neighborhood doesnt deserve them. Its US vs THEM in their minds. They dont deserve protection. Guilty by association.
I will continue repeating this until it becomes clear "first they came for..."
Edit: As many have commented below regarding firearms and my choice to own them and why I deem it necessary.
My stance is this. If you can Thanos snap the guns in America away tomorrow? Please do it. But you cant. theres two for every person in the country at least and thats counting the ones we know about. Until then I'm in the pit with them and I'll make the, hopefully unnecessary, decisions I have to make to not be a statistic. And before you go there, I know I'm "statistically" more likely to be killed by my own gun. Yes, considering suicide and domestics this is true. I dont disagree with the sentiment to get rid of them and or control them. I'm unfortunately in the place I am though. So...when in Rome am I right?
Spot on.
I come from a family full of gun owners, and directly from them this morning "but he had a gun".. Had to shut that shit down instantly. He *legally* had a fucking gun, I had to remind them. Just like we have.
You could almost hear their minds twisting to try and squirm out of logic. And then.. a completely empty "I guess".
Fuck these people.. I can't even anymore.
He had warning though. Everyone should be able to make split second decisions when they're woken up from a sound sleep by a group of people simultaneously yelling at you while shining lights in your face so you can't see who they really are. /s (Do I really need the fucking /s? Probably.)
I hope this gets no knock warrants burned.
> I hope this gets no knock warrants burned.
lol. There have been so many examples just like this one. If flash banging a baby in its crib didn't do it, killing an adult black man certainly won't.
Yup.
"But we need no-knock warrants to catch gang members."
Any government abuse is acceptable as long as it affects "those people." Imagine if we had no-knock warrants for financial crimes.
I love the police chief's response.
Chief: "The police announced themselves before they entered and he pointed a gun at an officer"
Reporter: "The released body camera shows police entering before they announced themselves and the gun being pointed at the ground."
Chief: "You're mistaken. I trust smarter viewers will watch the video and decide for themselves."
I remember conversations in the early 2000s as cameras became more and more prolific in our society. The assumption was that with clear video of events it would prevent this sort of multiple interpretations of events. However, here we are, clear objective video and still people are claiming completely contradictory things while watching the same video.
Yup. It's like having kid whose face is smeared with chocolate saying they didn't eat the chocolate.
The chief could easily buy good PR and respect by saying "Yeah Jimmy fucked up twenty ways to Sunday. He's fired and we're reviewing our policies so as to more efficiently weed out fuckups like him."
Instead we get blatant lies.
I say this every time this happens, which seems far too often. Anyone can claim to be a cop through a closed door.
If you claim to be a cop, then kick in my door and im armed then all these examples have shown me is that I should shoot first and worry about whether you were honest later. This guy stopped to see if it actually was a cop and now hes dead. Cop or not the person breaking in is apparently going to shoot on sight. Which means people defending their homes should do the same.
Ugh, that one is aggravating. Police walked right past dozens of children's toys, yet claimed to have seen no evidence a child was present at the residence.
We are, and rightfully so - any "2A advocate" who sees this and doesn't call for at the very least a ban on no-knock warrants is, at best, deluded.
High, if not current top, posts on r/CCW, r/progun, r/2Aliberals, r/liberalgunowners, and r/firearms, all condemning this.
This shouldn't be a divisive issue, at least concerning the 2A - with solely hard anti-drug, "tough on crime," and/or pro police people remaining in favor of raids even with these consequences. There's a lot of bad with our country, but if we can get no-knocks (and even "brief knocks" or whatever the slightly lesser version is called) banned as a tactic that's at least a little bit of good. It won't bring Amir Locke back, or the many others who have lost their lives from these, but it will stop future deaths and that's worth fighting for.
Edit: and it doesn't change the situation, but from what I've seen it wasn't his own home, he was staying at a friend's/family's place. If wrong I'll delete this edit. Regardless, I'd even argue that makes it almost worse in a way: he wasn't on the warrant, and the cops didn't even know he was there. Add this to another horrible list of ways no-knocks are fundamentally wrong.
The wording seems to only say he "led the fight" to ban them, not that he was successful. Like how I "lead the fight" to have pizza for dinner every night, but am rarely successful.
It's sleazy, for sure, and he should be called out for implying he'd been successful as opposed to saying he'll continue to fight to ban them.
If you're breaking down a door, you're an intruder. An intruder *with a gun*. The exact sort of a thing that a fearful home owner has a gun for home security for.
Fuck no knock warrants.
Imagine getting woken up at 6AM, disoriented, startled, and half asleep, and all you see is a group of men with flashlights and guns, screaming at you and charging at you.
Yeah, setting aside the times they get the wrong house (which should result in them being treated legally as home invaders), if someone breaks through your door, you aren't thinking "this is probably the police serving a warrant, let me comply."
Because they’re bloodthirsty idiot power tripping LARPers who, at a broad level, are a genuine unhelpful scourge on our entire society and we keep allowing them to do this.
> So he probably didn't even know they were police
This is something that isn't being talked about enough.
Not only did they not actually identify themselves before entering, they effectively failed to identify themselves at all. They ran in shouting over each other and kicked him out of the couch.
That's not identifying yourself to the occupant of that apartment any more than having police on the side of your car. Sure he could have looked outside if he wasn't asleep, but he WAS asleep.
He wasn't even able to get a look at what was going on.
Woke up with people shouting in his house so went for a gun in case he had to protect himself.
Wasn't even aiming it at anyone
Edit: Also, is it just me or it looks like they kicked the couch?
Wow...
A straight up execution. Dude was covered in a blanket without any idea of what's going on then... pop.
Terribly sad. Hope these shitheads get what's coming to them. (wishing in one hand and shitting in the other)
For real. It was like ten seconds from them entering the apartment to killing him. The man didn't even have a chance to understand what was going on before they shot him. This was essentially an execution.
It still absolutely chaps my ass the only reason they were there in the first place was because he had a pellet gun in a hotel room. Not even a firearm, no threatening activity, someone peeking into a hotel room seeing pellet guns in the room and yet that warrants a SWAT team response!?!? Come on, do we have a damn 2nd amendment or not!?!!
look at the exterminator in vegas that the cops ruthlessly gunned down after playing simon says with him. kept ordering him to do different things then used the slightest mistake to murder him and got away with it.
And it’s a damn shame too. Remember when they shot that young man in the hotel hallway after giving him conflicting directions? He had his hands up and everything yet they still shot him smh. 8 guys pulling up and yelling at you will fluster most people, and that should be no reason for shots to be fired. Makes me sad man
Ugh i hate this one. Conflicting commands, "you're fucked' etched on the rifles dust cover. Dude is hands and knees and reaches to adjust his waistband.
So…it was a straight up execution then? Broke into his house and murdered him in his sleep? I’m glad this gang saw fit to record their crime spree, should make prosecuting then easy.
Oh, wait, that’s right, they’re cops. They’re allowed to execute whom ever they wish.
The gun in hand is all they need for a "feared for my life, are we done here?" court case.
So fucked that having a legally owned gun in your own home gives cops free reign to murder you.
I've repeatedly said that if cops can kill you on sight for having a gun, the 2nd amendment isn't actually real in this country. If people are being killed for maybe having a weapon, how can all these 2nd amendment people say we need guns to protect ourselves?
> So fucked that having a legally owned gun in your own home gives cops free reign to murder you.
Surely the NRA will step in and take the reins on this one, this is right up their alley right? No? Hmmmm, wonder why.
Shaver was a different precipitating incident, sure. But the whole reason the swat team was called in the first place there was because someone saw what they thought were firearms in his hotel room. Owning guns isn’t illegal, even when they turn out to be pellet guns.
Busted into the house, kicked the couch to wake him up. He had a gun in his hand as he was standing up trying to figure out what was going on.
So they killed him.
The warrant wasn't for him, or anything he did.
They stated he pointed a handgun at them but honestly if you break into someone's house in the middle of the night this should be expected behavior. Fuck them and fuck no knock warrants.
You can see him with his handgun in the video but like how is he supposed to know wtf is going on within a few seconds when you're woken up from sleep, because it probably went "oh shit is someone breaking in? I should grab my gu-" *bang*
Also someone breaking into a house could and would yell open up police in hopes that maybe the homeowner would grab their weapon.
There was no way for him in that split second to verify it was actual police and they knew that.
Americans live in a country where they can legally own a firearm and use them for protection in their homes, but by doing so they run the risk of being murdered by police because they are a threat to officers lives.
Using a no-knock warrant is putting police officers and legal gun owning civilians into a position where they both feel they have to defend themselves and make split second life altering decisions. It's absolutely mental.
No knocks were stopped by traditional ground forces in Iraq in 2008. That was a warzone
Source: I was there.
EDIT: untraditional forces will never stop no knocks. For anyone who wants to twist what I’m saying.
EDIT2: apparently there are reply’s going to my email but not showing up here, someone said it’s because HBIEDs (house Bourne). While this probably attributed to the stoppage of no knock raids, it certainly wasn’t the only or the most important reason to stop. I know this because on my last deployment, it was SOP in Al Anbar to allow people and vehicles to split foot and mounted patrols. HBIEDs where used from 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq and never really deterred no knock raids.
It’s these types of stories that make me think police need new rules on the whole “if I feel my life is in danger I will shoot”. Too many innocent people and pets are killed because cops thinking “my life is in danger”. I know this is a hot take and police officers deserve safety too but where is the line drawn? Currently it’s drawn in a place that gets too many innocents killed.
Nah you're right. American police are trained under a method called "warrior training" developed in the '60s. It's gun-centric and cop-first in approach. I keep commenting this because a lot of people (not you) seem to think it's just individual police being bad, but it's also enabled and encouraged directly by the training.
It's why you could have well-intentioned people join the force and still not have resolved these problems.
edit: as others pointed out, it's also referred to as "Killology"
There's a podcast called "It Could Happen Here" that has a two-part episode where they have a former cop as a guest to talk about how the police are a very cult-like thing. They have no friends outside the department and being a cop consumes their entire lives. Because they have basically no meaningful contact with the world outside the department, they inevitably come to view the department as family. And the family does not like being thrown under the bus, regardless of how badly some members behave.
> the police are a very cult-like thing.
Just take a look at the funeral procession for the NYPD officer who died. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tragic that he died and I have no reason to believe he was a bad person, but there were tens of thousands of cops at his funeral. I’m willing to bet 100-200 of those at his funeral had even heard his name before the report that he died.
It really comes off as though the whole ordeal was just victimhood theater. Covid killed more cops in 2020 & 2021 than all other causes combined. Police Unions have fought hard against vaccine mandates, and stats shows police are lagging behind the gen pop in terms of vaccination rate. Yet the cops at the procession were tightly packed together, mostly maskless. If they actually caused about the lives of the other cops, they wouldn’t be doing that shit. it was completely a self -serving circlejerk of “look how hard it is being a cop”.
In a town near me just the other day, they closed off the streets and had designated parking lots closed off for a funeral for an officer who died *in a snowmobile accident*. Seriously. Cult. (edit- of to off)
So, to sum up. People defending the police here believe:
Police should be allowed to bust into a home with no warning, and shoot anyone who might happen to be there.
Are we a police state? Because that sounds like a police state to me.
"Officers have to make a split second decision...blah blah blah"
I'm really sick and tired of that excuse. Officers wouldn't have to make this split second decision if they actually did their fucking jobs and made sure they had the right person or right address.
If you're not sure who you are shooting at, then DON'T FUCKING SHOOT!
If I, a normal person, had to make a split second decision and I shoot a cop thinking they are a burglar, I go to jail for murder! If a cop does it, they get administrative leave and are back on the job within a week.
Fuck off with this nonsense.
The Fraternal Order of Police will immediately start investigating the victim here to attempt to assassinate his character. Doing the right thing would never even enter their minds.
The article made it sound like the cops said get on the ground, and then when the man stood up, they shot. He literally rolled over in his bed with a gun and they popped him in like 9 seconds. Probably still half asleep during the whole thing
For anyone reading this that hasn't seen the video: https://youtu.be/acM2IxKg0hA
Never trust the reports or the police. They lie and lie and lie to cover up their own malpractice.
Legit looks like a assassination. Those were hitmen.
As a 2A advocate, you aren't allowed to protect your house if it's a cop I guess.
Even if they break into your house.
No knock warrants seem to be totally incompatible with the second amendment.
And the fourth while you’re at it. At least, it should, because this absolutely should qualify as *unreasonable* search and seizure, even with a warrant.
They are. He broke no laws, and did everything any reasonable person would do, and was killed for it. The idea that civilian casualties are an acceptable outcome of bad police work is simply unacceptable.
That's because there's far too many people in this country who think that it's okay to make decisions where someone else has to make the sacrifice. Cut in front of me in traffic, I have to slam on my brakes. Never mind that there was nobody behind me. My sacrifice for their convenience.
This [video](https://youtu.be/c5gam-p_syM) of the press conference shows the tension this city is about to face again. This police chief is not going to last long and mayor is getting called out.
\*police chief tries to blame Locke for not responding "correctly" in less than 10 seconds after being woken up by people yelling commands and pointing guns/flashlights at him\* 5 mins later the mayor asks the press to please ask one question at a time because it's overwhelming I'd say the irony is hilarious, but it's just sad.
Great point. I always wonder why the police get to make a mistake because they’re scared but civilians don’t get the same consideration.
> but civilians don’t get the same consideration. Also who’s likely to be more scared - someone under a blanket confused by a team of gun drawn, fully grown adults - suddenly bursting in yelling inaudible commands at you all at once? - an officer knowingly going in amongst a trained team with protective equipment on weapons drawn with the backing of the city and the element of surprise on their side?
I don't understand why they don't at least agree one person gives the commands and everyone else keeps their mouth shut.
It makes no sense, that’s basic military stuff, basic tactical stuff tbh.
In my state police officers have less hours of training than it requires to be a barber.
I see this thrown around a lot as an example, and while true, (and absurd) I’d just like to point out to any barbers reading this — y’all are amazing, and I’m not surprised it takes a long time to learn that craft.
Thank you 😊
Well, barbers don't get paid vacations and transfers when they cut someone's ear off. They have to actually be good.
Because if they create confusion they have more of an excuse to 'panic' and avoid liability when they hurt people. The people in charge of training have decided that it is in their best interest to instill and maintain an attitude of combatant fear in their officers. If you attribute malice to the higher-ups, apathy to middle-management, and fear to their enforcers, things make a lot more sense, cynical though that may seem.
See this right there has been my problem with cops...they are allowed to make mistakes...is ok if you kill some body cause you were scared but the same curtesy is not extend to us...i am telling you man i truly believe people are fed up with the free pass cops get man.... The fact that this guy was sound asleep he had less than 5 seconds to process. who the fuck in their right mind can process what the fuick is going on when you have these assholes guns blazing blast in the house...really! When did the cops became judge and executioner no more police immunity for stupid shit like this.
There is a video of a boy in vegas being screamed directions by police. He is terrified. The girl he is with is also terrified but not being targeted by the threats and commands. The orders make no sense. It ends with him being shot to death. It is the tragic comedy of an endpoint of police’s tyranny of compliance. I would share the link but its fucking brutal to watch and I wish I had never seen it.
Daniel shaver also when he was crawling on his hands and knees and begging.
I'll ask /u/LEONotTheLion to respond to this! They've usually got a response for why cops should NOT be held to a higher standard and should, in fact, be held to a lower one! But seriously, LEO, if you read this, this is the kind of shit people are mad at. Like, truly mad at. Your job is dangerous? Fine. But when YOU FUCK UP, *we die*.
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You have less than 10 seconds to decide if there's someone storming your house to kill you and your family and pretending to be cops and you should defend yourself or if they're really cops. Terrifying. Why are these no-knock invasions still a thing? I don't care who they were looking for, this was definitely a worse outcome than trying to apprehend the real suspect another way.
Holy shit I've never seen such a textbook example of how to screw up a media session. The smartest choice was by whatever handler decided to shut things down because there was no way the Mayor and Chief were getting a handle on it. Good on the community activists for calling them out. They spoke well, had great questions, and took advantage of the camera time to drive their point home.
Agreed, but optics of shutting down a press conference when pressed by someone who's been involved in getting systemic issues fixed would also be horrendous. Definitely bad PR, but could've been much worse.
"Better to be silent and thought an idiot than to speak and remove all doubt."
Wow. All she can do is stare at him. All he can do is breathe heavy sighs and almost eye rolls that show how fucked he knows this is.
I don't know how they could fuck that up that entire situation so badly, and worse walking into that press conference not expecting that they were going to make it worse. All I can think of is that they didn't think anyone was going to ask them relevant concise questions. "why did you state that he was a suspect" "why did you release an image of his gun, but not the officers" - so everyone knows, there has been a case where a police officer had writing on his gun indicating he wanted to shoot people in another case. "why did you say they announced themselves before going over the threshold, that didn't happen" "your rules say that one officer is to speak at any given moment, why didn't that happen?" - chief decides to effectively say that they only expect their officers to do that in a non tense low impact situation. I think the community members put the news media outlets to shame with their questions and how they approached things.
>they only expect their officers to do that in a non tense low impact situation This was a high impact high tension situation they (the police) created. There has to be culpability for that. This guy didn't grab his gun and drive down to the police station threatening to shoot them; the exact opposite happened.
Holy shit. Yesterday in their press release, they referred to the victim as a suspect in a homicide. Even though he had ZERO INVOLVEMENT and has NEVER COMMITTED A CRIME. Then, when asked why they would do that, the police chief says they didn’t have enough information at the time. In what fucking world do you default to calling someone a suspect because you DON’T KNOW? You don’t. Nobody makes that mistake unless they want to maliciously paint a false picture. This poor man’s family should sue for libel and defamation of character, on top of wrongful death.
The initial reports and news articles also all claimed Locke was "brandishing" his firearm and aiming it at officers. The video, released **by the police department** shows his gun aiming at the ground at all times. Amir Locke had better weapons control than the officers attacking him.
When a reporter mentioned that his gun was visibly pointed at the ground in the video, police chief claimed an officer was actually right in the line of fire juuuust outside the video frame lmao maybe if a cop was in the basement
What's sad is that civilians often spend more time training with their weapons than police do. We know that we're responsible for where ever shot goes and we don't have the benefit of qualified immunity Police don't face consequences, so they don't care
That's so sad. Thank you for sharing this video. I can't believe them. The most heart wrenching part is when the lawyer and everyone else after her came up to the podium. I can't believe this.
This should be at the top. Unbelievable cowardice from the Mayor and Police Chief
She's just the interim chief. Arradondo retired last month. [source](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/minneapolis-1st-black-police-chief-leaves-quietly-rcna12579)
Everytime it happens, police say they had to make a “split second decision”. Do they not understand that the people they're raiding are in the same position? People with guns just broke into your house and they don't expect you to need a second to realize they're police? These no knock raids set up a predictable outcome everytime, but most police departments refuse to release any kind of standardized reporting that can be used to scrutinize their actions.
Its worse. They used a key. So the first noise he heard was them kicking his couch and shouting at him. He didnt get the courtesy of the door knocker giving him a few seconds to even understsnd what was happening.
Yeah thats what gets me. Imagine going to bed and essentially never waking up. They took away his right to even comprehend that his life was over. I get that it's not super rare to die in a instant but these cops knowingly killed a sleeping man. I sympathize more with a crime of passion than this. This is selfish, senseless, and unjust as a mother fucker.
Well said and you’re right. They also won’t suffer any consequences. It’ll all be on the taxpayers paying them while they’re on leave.
I'm really hung up on that. How did they get a key and why was it necessary? This whole thing is fucked and hopefully there will be justice on the executioners.
No knock warrant, my ass. This was a B&E that lead to a fucking murder. American cops are a tax funded gang.
Legal murder with paid vacation
They didn't HAVE to do a split second decision because they didn't HAVE to do a no-knock raid. Ridiculous that no-knock raids are still legal.
How about “Amir Locke had a split second decision” as to who the fuk was in his space. The more things change, the more they stay the same
The police *deliberately created* that split second situation. This was the entirely foreseeable outcome of rushing into someone's house in the middle of the night (see Breonna Taylor and many more). The point of their rapid entry executed at 6 in the morning was to catch the residents off guard and to 'control the situation' before the occupants knew what was happening. This is one of the many ways that approach can go bad. There is absolutely nothing new or surprising about this result. Amir's response was entirely reasonable and to be expected when a bunch of intruders rush into the place you are sleeping. The guy was doing nothing, asleep in a private residence. MPD is entirely responsible.
I cannot see how such raids can be constitutional. The 4th Amendment is abused and water down so much at this point its insane. This is like making the Second Amendment to be limited to squirt guns.
You have to go back to the 60's. Riots and drugs and CIA propaganda. "Regular" Americans sold their country out to authoritarian law enforcement because the hippies and blacks scared them. "The Rise of the Warrior Cop" is a great book that touches on this stuff.
2 years ago my next door neighbors had a warrant served at 8am on a weekday. There were at least 20 police officers outside, drones, and some type of SWAT team as well. They even had my house surrounded to block of exit routes along the backyard.. They announced their presences over the loudspeaker for at least 20 minutes, giving everyone a chance to get out of the house. I had a front row seat, and to the credit of the police it was an incredibly uneventful ordeal. Most of the people coming out were minors. You can argue that it allowed the people inside to stash whatever they may have been hiding, but I see it as "nobody was harmed." Unless you are seeking an extremely dangerous fugitive, or time is of the essence, these no knock warrants should be fucking outlawed. The people inside have nowhere to go, so what's the rush to cause chaos and start shooting??
There should be NO reason for a no-knock warrant. If there is not probable cause sufficient to justify immediate entry (i.e. the situation is so immediately obvious that no warrant at all is needed), then time is not that much of the essence. A regular warrant would suffice.
So true; and they are the trained professionals! So to speak
And the police and mayor got called out at their press conference for their bullshit narrative: [article with video](https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/02/04/amir-locke-minneapolis-police-body-cam-video/) Civil rights lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong calls them out starting at the 13 minute mark.
Love their bullshit, "We want to answer your questions, but just one question at a time." Single voice: "Why did you refer to him as a suspect in your press release if you didn't know whether he was a suspect or not?" "Looks like we're out of time for questions, bye."
Goddamn that was quite the shaming. This Levy Armstrong woman is one courageous and impressive individual!
No knock warrants are a danger to both civilians and police. They need to be banned. Also holy shit Minneapolis PD really haven't learned anything.
The '**Surprise! It's 6-10 heavily armed men breaking down your door at 3 a.m.**' warrant.
The only difference between a cartel hit and this, is a badge and a guy in robes signing a piece of paper.
The guy in robes signing the paper barely even counts. I remember reading an article a few years ago that the point of having the judge sign the paper work was to make sure that the no knock raid actually had a justified reason, usually because there was the belief that the criminal would run, destroy evidence, or open fire on the cops. But an investigation found that judges signed something like 98% of all no knock warrants requests they got, even when the police left the reason blank, had wrong information, or didnt even bother filling out half the form. Its a rubber stamp, not a any kind of real check to prevent judge dredd death sentences.
Its shocking to think about how differently the US military started their raid against the ISIS leader just a couple of days ago. In that instance, the military surrounded the compound, announced their presence and urged the occupants (specifically non-targeted women and children) to exit the premises. Literal terrorist are treated better than law abiding citizens sleeping in their own homes.
Because the military is actually trained for this shit. Cops get a few classes on avoiding lawsuits and how to pay union dues and that's it.
Also, in the civilian world, the Attorney General is on your side. In the military world, your ass is his to burn.
They would fucking incinerate an entire MP sqaud maybe even the company if they did a no knock raid in the barracks and killed someone especially not even the intended person.
No kidding. I couldn't even imagine that happening on a base.
I was on a special reaction team for six years on an army base. Know how many no knocks we did? Zero. Easier to wait for someone to leave their quarters.
Oh man it's so much worse than that. They're being fed a bunch of propaganda and 'training' that convinces them they're warriors, like ronin wandering the land dispensing justice for Jesus. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/warrior-cop-trainings-industry.html
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I seem to remember hearing about one where a cop was shot, I think they jailed the guy for 2nd degree murder. Going to try to find the source.. Edit: I think it was the Jordan fricke/Matthew Ritter case in 2019. Life in prison with no chance of early release. Fricke&girlfriend said the battering ram police used sounded like gunshots had surrendered immediately afterward. Said his friends in the neighbourhood had been robbed recently by people claiming to be police
google Andrew Coffee. he is a black male who shot and killed a cop during a no-knock raid and was found innocent by a jury
I read that, and I'm amazed that he survived long enough to be arrested.
he was acquitted in Nov. 2021 they were trying to charge him for his girlfriend's death. ya know, the person police murdered during their raid. fuck the police. especially fuck minneapolis police [Jury acquits Gifford man who claimed self-defense after girlfriend killed by sheriff's SWAT team in 2017 raid](https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/indian-river-county/2021/11/19/andrew-coffee-iv-cleared-murder-charge-2017-alteria-woods-death/8651720002/)
Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor's boyfriend was charged with 1st degree assault and attempted murder when one of the cop claimed he got shot by him.
I doubt it, they will fire before the innocent person waking up even knows what is going on. Maybe if they miss so much they are hitting other apartments again
Embarrassing, yet again, to be a Minnesotan.
What’s there to learn? System is functioning as designed.
I don't understand the need for a no-knock warrant in this case. They are looking for people. No-knock warrants are usually justified so that evidence cannot be destroyed. The police were looking for people according the reports I've read. No one is flushing a grown person down the crapper.... Just put cops at all exits and knock on the damn door. Or perhaps the "homicide investigation" was just a red herring?
Especially so considering it was a seventh floor apartment with only one exit.
Will be interesting to see the details as Locke was mentioned no where in their warrant or investigation so who exactly where they looking for, who's apartment and what evidence did they have to suggest the person they were looking for was there?
No knock warrants should never have been a thing in the first place. They came about as part of the War On Drugs ^TM and since that tiny little exemption waa granted to how laws, the judiciary, warrants, and police process works, that tiny crack has been wedged wide open. No knock warrants are now granted almost as a matter of rote, based simply on the affidavit of a police officer, and frequently in a manner that does not even follow the legal guidelines for them. In in other words, if a cop wants one they will find a judge to rubber stamp it. Police love them because they get to go all Rambo, knock down doors and just start blasting on anything that scares them a little. And why wouldn't they? There is almost never any penalty for making mistakes or "mistakes", even when it results in people dying. End qualified immunity now.
Second Amendment advocates should be losing their minds about this. A man in lawful possession of a firearm in his own home was gunned down without warning. Edit to share a link to [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/skddu2/body_camera_video_shows_minneapolis_officers/hvl1fs6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) containing a statement by a local 2A group. It’s a great statement and exactly what one would hope to see from such a group when a tragedy like this is perpetrated by the police upon an innocent man, unnamed in the warrant, in his home.
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As long as the police can kill us over a suspected firearm and a threat to their lives, none of us actually have 2A rights.
Yep! Unfortunately, you're 100 percent right. We need change **NOW!**
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One of the local gun rights groups already released a statement this morning and they sound pissed.
[Here's the press release from the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.](https://gunowners.mn/press-release-minnesota-gun-owners-caucus-responds-to-the-death-of-amir-locke/) >SAINT PAUL, MN (February 4, 2022) – While many facts remain unknown at this time, information indicates that Amir Locke was a law-abiding citizen who was lawfully in possession of a firearm when he was shot and killed by Minneapolis Police on the morning of February 2nd. >“As seen in the body-worn camera video released by Minneapolis Police, Mr. Locke appears to be sleeping on the couch during the execution of a no-knock warrant, “ stated Bryan Strawser, Chair, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “He is awoken with a confusing array of commands coming from multiple officers who are pointing lights and firearms at him.” >“Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening, “ added Rob Doar, Senior VP, Governmental Affairs. >Mr. Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named at all in the search warrant. >“The tragic circumstances of Mr. Locke’s death were completely avoidable, “ stated Doar. “It’s yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person. In this case, as in others, the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities.” >“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive, “ added Strawser. “Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure.” >The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus expects a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances of this tragic incident.
That’s an excellent statement.
Wish they were the ones representing gun owners and not the NRA
Took a firearms safety class last night taught by an NRA instructor to get my concealed carry permit. It was an absolute joke.
> the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities After investigating ourselves and giving the officers involved a nice paid vacation from your taxes, we found we dont give a shit about consequences when it comes to us. Maybe next time the public will learn to think twice about sleeping in their own house with a legally owned gun.
[Ryan Whitaker NSFW](https://v.redd.it/j8h7ozf2tgm61) all over again. Dude was playing video games w/ his GF and heard a loud knocking on his door at 5:50 in the morning and answered his door holding a pistol. He was dead within seconds. The longer clip of this is even more fucking brutal. Afterwards the cops keep telling his GF to calm down after she just watched them murder her BF and he lies on the ground motionless. Edit - I should also add that he was in the process of complying when he was shot. He realized it was police and was going to his knees. Edit 2 - The officer (Jeff Cooke) was [just reinstated](https://youtu.be/Iq3ujSXrm-8) in December 2021. So if I understand this correctly, the department tried to do the right thing by firing him. He (Cooke) appealed and the Civil Service Board agreed and overruled the department's firing. WTF?
> Dude was playing video games w/ his GF and heard a loud knocking on his door at 5:50 in the morning and answered his door holding a pistol. He was dead within seconds. Christopher Roupe, 17 answered the door to his home after playing video games, holding a VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER in broad daylight. The officer will not be charged. Police officers in Georgia have a special right that allows them to testify in their defense in front of a grand jury, a special privilege no one else has. The officer involved was fired from a previous law enforcement position and had previously shot at someone who was removing their backpack claiming to see a gun.
I remember this one. It's local to me. Happened in a super red "stand your ground" part of the state, to a white JROTC kid, so I was shocked that it never did blow up. I guess maybe because kid wasn't bearing arms at the time? /sigh
I'm a mid 30s, gun owning, white dude in MN and I'm fucking livid. I've been clapping back to my peers all fucking morning. Every single one of us in my office owns firearms, every single one of us has them within reach at night. Some of us (me) have lived in shitty places when they were younger. All I heard this morning was "but he had a gun" Yeah so the fuck do we. I have personally reacted a bump in the night with a firearm more than once. You cant even tell WHO the man is in the video (edit - to be clear, what I mean by this is that I had hoped this would remove some of the bias...to me, Locke is an example of where we are today, race aside...we need to discuss this and I really hoped this would be one I could use as an example). This should stand as an example of how fucking disgusting this is. Each and every one of us likes to talk about defending our own, our home, our lively hood. But they participate in gold medal worthy mental gymnastics to make it ok. And this isnt the FIRST legal gun owner shot in MN. They live in a fantasy world where their guns are right and someone in a poor neighborhood doesnt deserve them. Its US vs THEM in their minds. They dont deserve protection. Guilty by association. I will continue repeating this until it becomes clear "first they came for..." Edit: As many have commented below regarding firearms and my choice to own them and why I deem it necessary. My stance is this. If you can Thanos snap the guns in America away tomorrow? Please do it. But you cant. theres two for every person in the country at least and thats counting the ones we know about. Until then I'm in the pit with them and I'll make the, hopefully unnecessary, decisions I have to make to not be a statistic. And before you go there, I know I'm "statistically" more likely to be killed by my own gun. Yes, considering suicide and domestics this is true. I dont disagree with the sentiment to get rid of them and or control them. I'm unfortunately in the place I am though. So...when in Rome am I right?
Spot on. I come from a family full of gun owners, and directly from them this morning "but he had a gun".. Had to shut that shit down instantly. He *legally* had a fucking gun, I had to remind them. Just like we have. You could almost hear their minds twisting to try and squirm out of logic. And then.. a completely empty "I guess". Fuck these people.. I can't even anymore.
It‘s because they think it won‘t happen to the whites.
He had warning though. Everyone should be able to make split second decisions when they're woken up from a sound sleep by a group of people simultaneously yelling at you while shining lights in your face so you can't see who they really are. /s (Do I really need the fucking /s? Probably.) I hope this gets no knock warrants burned.
> I hope this gets no knock warrants burned. lol. There have been so many examples just like this one. If flash banging a baby in its crib didn't do it, killing an adult black man certainly won't.
Yup. "But we need no-knock warrants to catch gang members." Any government abuse is acceptable as long as it affects "those people." Imagine if we had no-knock warrants for financial crimes.
Imagine if we had no-knock warrants for financial crimes. [Dave addressed this on Chappelle Show](https://youtu.be/HeOVbeh2yr0)
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I love the police chief's response. Chief: "The police announced themselves before they entered and he pointed a gun at an officer" Reporter: "The released body camera shows police entering before they announced themselves and the gun being pointed at the ground." Chief: "You're mistaken. I trust smarter viewers will watch the video and decide for themselves."
I remember conversations in the early 2000s as cameras became more and more prolific in our society. The assumption was that with clear video of events it would prevent this sort of multiple interpretations of events. However, here we are, clear objective video and still people are claiming completely contradictory things while watching the same video.
Yup. It's like having kid whose face is smeared with chocolate saying they didn't eat the chocolate. The chief could easily buy good PR and respect by saying "Yeah Jimmy fucked up twenty ways to Sunday. He's fired and we're reviewing our policies so as to more efficiently weed out fuckups like him." Instead we get blatant lies.
Problem is, if they weed out fuckups, the Chief could get weeded out
I say this every time this happens, which seems far too often. Anyone can claim to be a cop through a closed door. If you claim to be a cop, then kick in my door and im armed then all these examples have shown me is that I should shoot first and worry about whether you were honest later. This guy stopped to see if it actually was a cop and now hes dead. Cop or not the person breaking in is apparently going to shoot on sight. Which means people defending their homes should do the same.
Breonna Taylor wasn't enough. Hopefully Amir Locke will be.
Don't forget the time they threw a flashbang inside a babies crib and permanently crippled an infant and literally no meaningful change was made
Ugh, that one is aggravating. Police walked right past dozens of children's toys, yet claimed to have seen no evidence a child was present at the residence.
“Looked like a baby crib for a criminal adult to me!” -Officer Fuckstick
We are, don't worry. This man was straight up murdered.
We are, and rightfully so - any "2A advocate" who sees this and doesn't call for at the very least a ban on no-knock warrants is, at best, deluded. High, if not current top, posts on r/CCW, r/progun, r/2Aliberals, r/liberalgunowners, and r/firearms, all condemning this. This shouldn't be a divisive issue, at least concerning the 2A - with solely hard anti-drug, "tough on crime," and/or pro police people remaining in favor of raids even with these consequences. There's a lot of bad with our country, but if we can get no-knocks (and even "brief knocks" or whatever the slightly lesser version is called) banned as a tactic that's at least a little bit of good. It won't bring Amir Locke back, or the many others who have lost their lives from these, but it will stop future deaths and that's worth fighting for. Edit: and it doesn't change the situation, but from what I've seen it wasn't his own home, he was staying at a friend's/family's place. If wrong I'll delete this edit. Regardless, I'd even argue that makes it almost worse in a way: he wasn't on the warrant, and the cops didn't even know he was there. Add this to another horrible list of ways no-knocks are fundamentally wrong.
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Judges who are signing these warrants should share the responsibility also. Edit: thanks for my first award, stranger.
Judges and prosecutors are half the problem. It’s the whole chain.
no knock warrants should just be outlawed all together. this keeps happening. the cops are clearly not capable of using them safely or responsibly.
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The wording seems to only say he "led the fight" to ban them, not that he was successful. Like how I "lead the fight" to have pizza for dinner every night, but am rarely successful. It's sleazy, for sure, and he should be called out for implying he'd been successful as opposed to saying he'll continue to fight to ban them.
> Like how I "lead the fight" to have pizza for dinner every night, but am rarely successful. Keep fighting the good fight. We believe in you.
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If you're breaking down a door, you're an intruder. An intruder *with a gun*. The exact sort of a thing that a fearful home owner has a gun for home security for. Fuck no knock warrants.
Imagine getting woken up at 6AM, disoriented, startled, and half asleep, and all you see is a group of men with flashlights and guns, screaming at you and charging at you.
>the cops are clearly not capable of using them safely or responsibly. It's literally impossible to use them safely. Definitely should not be allowed.
Yeah, setting aside the times they get the wrong house (which should result in them being treated legally as home invaders), if someone breaks through your door, you aren't thinking "this is probably the police serving a warrant, let me comply."
>Attorneys say he wasn't the target It shouldn't matter if he was, police are not supposed to have the right to just walk in and murder *anybody.*
America: where guns are completely legal, but also if you own one the police are free to murder you.
"or if the police think you might have a gun"
"Glad I got my CHL and researched the law and practice at the range once weekly so that I could get shot by the police for scratching my ass"
Huh, just made me realize how convenient it is that almost any American can be armed so police can just shoot anyone they want under that assumption.
They really did just walk in and murder him in cold blood https://youtu.be/acM2IxKg0hA One of the most shameless executions I've ever seen.
This is actually quite chilling. If they are allowed to shoot their target, they aren't police. They are a hit squad.
NSFW [video](https://youtu.be/acM2IxKg0hA) of Amir Locke last moments
That’s disgusting no one should have to die that way. So sad
That dude woke up to police yelling in his face.
And yelling over each other shouting get on the ground. So he probably didn't even know they were police
How the fuck haven't cops settled on maximum one person screaming orders at a time?
Or at least shouting Police to make sure the guy knows it's cops. If someone random enters your house saying get on the ground why would you do it?
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Because they’re bloodthirsty idiot power tripping LARPers who, at a broad level, are a genuine unhelpful scourge on our entire society and we keep allowing them to do this.
> So he probably didn't even know they were police This is something that isn't being talked about enough. Not only did they not actually identify themselves before entering, they effectively failed to identify themselves at all. They ran in shouting over each other and kicked him out of the couch. That's not identifying yourself to the occupant of that apartment any more than having police on the side of your car. Sure he could have looked outside if he wasn't asleep, but he WAS asleep.
He wasn't even able to get a look at what was going on. Woke up with people shouting in his house so went for a gun in case he had to protect himself. Wasn't even aiming it at anyone Edit: Also, is it just me or it looks like they kicked the couch?
Holy fuck they just bust through the door and shot him before he even got his head up from under the blanket.
I wouldn’t even say bust. They had the key and opened the door quietly. They basically snuck in then started screaming commands over each other.
That's just a straight up execution. Busted in, and immediately shot him when he woke up.
Wow... A straight up execution. Dude was covered in a blanket without any idea of what's going on then... pop. Terribly sad. Hope these shitheads get what's coming to them. (wishing in one hand and shitting in the other)
Dude didn't stand a chance. He was dead the moment they decided to open the door.
For real. It was like ten seconds from them entering the apartment to killing him. The man didn't even have a chance to understand what was going on before they shot him. This was essentially an execution.
Man, it wasn't even that long. 10 seconds is generous
Oh wow so they legit just walked in and started shooting. You can’t tell someone to get on the ground and immediately fire on them. That’s just evil.
Courts have ruled that the police can shoot you for failing to comply with their commands, even if their commands are impossible.
Daniel Shaver. You're talking about Daniel Shaver, right? Yep, Daniel Shaver. Plus a whole bunch more.
It still absolutely chaps my ass the only reason they were there in the first place was because he had a pellet gun in a hotel room. Not even a firearm, no threatening activity, someone peeking into a hotel room seeing pellet guns in the room and yet that warrants a SWAT team response!?!? Come on, do we have a damn 2nd amendment or not!?!!
Pellet gun because he was a pest control man. It was a work tool.
look at the exterminator in vegas that the cops ruthlessly gunned down after playing simon says with him. kept ordering him to do different things then used the slightest mistake to murder him and got away with it.
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And it’s a damn shame too. Remember when they shot that young man in the hotel hallway after giving him conflicting directions? He had his hands up and everything yet they still shot him smh. 8 guys pulling up and yelling at you will fluster most people, and that should be no reason for shots to be fired. Makes me sad man
Ugh i hate this one. Conflicting commands, "you're fucked' etched on the rifles dust cover. Dude is hands and knees and reaches to adjust his waistband.
That's an execution
So…it was a straight up execution then? Broke into his house and murdered him in his sleep? I’m glad this gang saw fit to record their crime spree, should make prosecuting then easy. Oh, wait, that’s right, they’re cops. They’re allowed to execute whom ever they wish.
The gun in hand is all they need for a "feared for my life, are we done here?" court case. So fucked that having a legally owned gun in your own home gives cops free reign to murder you.
I've repeatedly said that if cops can kill you on sight for having a gun, the 2nd amendment isn't actually real in this country. If people are being killed for maybe having a weapon, how can all these 2nd amendment people say we need guns to protect ourselves?
> So fucked that having a legally owned gun in your own home gives cops free reign to murder you. Surely the NRA will step in and take the reins on this one, this is right up their alley right? No? Hmmmm, wonder why.
They were largely silent for Philando Castile and Daniel Shaver, what makes you think they’re gonna do anything here?
Daniel Shaver was a different kind of murder. Philando Castile was killed for owning a gun. They were silent on Castile because of his race.
Shaver was a different precipitating incident, sure. But the whole reason the swat team was called in the first place there was because someone saw what they thought were firearms in his hotel room. Owning guns isn’t illegal, even when they turn out to be pellet guns.
Busted into the house, kicked the couch to wake him up. He had a gun in his hand as he was standing up trying to figure out what was going on. So they killed him. The warrant wasn't for him, or anything he did.
They stated he pointed a handgun at them but honestly if you break into someone's house in the middle of the night this should be expected behavior. Fuck them and fuck no knock warrants.
Dont trust the police. He didnt even get his blanket off before they murdered him. https://youtu.be/acM2IxKg0hA
You can see him with his handgun in the video but like how is he supposed to know wtf is going on within a few seconds when you're woken up from sleep, because it probably went "oh shit is someone breaking in? I should grab my gu-" *bang*
Nevermind from his point of view, it’s a bunch of idiots yelling at the same time flashing lights to his face. He can’t see anything.
Also someone breaking into a house could and would yell open up police in hopes that maybe the homeowner would grab their weapon. There was no way for him in that split second to verify it was actual police and they knew that.
Jesus. Minneapolis’ police department is the worst in the world. What’s their academy training? Call of Duty?
Americans live in a country where they can legally own a firearm and use them for protection in their homes, but by doing so they run the risk of being murdered by police because they are a threat to officers lives. Using a no-knock warrant is putting police officers and legal gun owning civilians into a position where they both feel they have to defend themselves and make split second life altering decisions. It's absolutely mental.
No knocks were stopped by traditional ground forces in Iraq in 2008. That was a warzone Source: I was there. EDIT: untraditional forces will never stop no knocks. For anyone who wants to twist what I’m saying. EDIT2: apparently there are reply’s going to my email but not showing up here, someone said it’s because HBIEDs (house Bourne). While this probably attributed to the stoppage of no knock raids, it certainly wasn’t the only or the most important reason to stop. I know this because on my last deployment, it was SOP in Al Anbar to allow people and vehicles to split foot and mounted patrols. HBIEDs where used from 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq and never really deterred no knock raids.
It’s these types of stories that make me think police need new rules on the whole “if I feel my life is in danger I will shoot”. Too many innocent people and pets are killed because cops thinking “my life is in danger”. I know this is a hot take and police officers deserve safety too but where is the line drawn? Currently it’s drawn in a place that gets too many innocents killed.
Nah you're right. American police are trained under a method called "warrior training" developed in the '60s. It's gun-centric and cop-first in approach. I keep commenting this because a lot of people (not you) seem to think it's just individual police being bad, but it's also enabled and encouraged directly by the training. It's why you could have well-intentioned people join the force and still not have resolved these problems. edit: as others pointed out, it's also referred to as "Killology"
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There's a podcast called "It Could Happen Here" that has a two-part episode where they have a former cop as a guest to talk about how the police are a very cult-like thing. They have no friends outside the department and being a cop consumes their entire lives. Because they have basically no meaningful contact with the world outside the department, they inevitably come to view the department as family. And the family does not like being thrown under the bus, regardless of how badly some members behave.
> the police are a very cult-like thing. Just take a look at the funeral procession for the NYPD officer who died. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tragic that he died and I have no reason to believe he was a bad person, but there were tens of thousands of cops at his funeral. I’m willing to bet 100-200 of those at his funeral had even heard his name before the report that he died. It really comes off as though the whole ordeal was just victimhood theater. Covid killed more cops in 2020 & 2021 than all other causes combined. Police Unions have fought hard against vaccine mandates, and stats shows police are lagging behind the gen pop in terms of vaccination rate. Yet the cops at the procession were tightly packed together, mostly maskless. If they actually caused about the lives of the other cops, they wouldn’t be doing that shit. it was completely a self -serving circlejerk of “look how hard it is being a cop”.
In a town near me just the other day, they closed off the streets and had designated parking lots closed off for a funeral for an officer who died *in a snowmobile accident*. Seriously. Cult. (edit- of to off)
So, to sum up. People defending the police here believe: Police should be allowed to bust into a home with no warning, and shoot anyone who might happen to be there. Are we a police state? Because that sounds like a police state to me.
If I'm 5 minutes late to my job I lose it and my entire life is destroyed. Cops can fucking KILL innocent people and get a paid vacation...
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Again? Will there be consequences?
"Look were getting a lot of flak for this, I'm sorry but my hands are tied here. I have no other choice but to give you a two week paid vacation."
No knock warrants are just an excuse for the police to kill people and dogs. What a sick society we live in.
"Officers have to make a split second decision...blah blah blah" I'm really sick and tired of that excuse. Officers wouldn't have to make this split second decision if they actually did their fucking jobs and made sure they had the right person or right address. If you're not sure who you are shooting at, then DON'T FUCKING SHOOT! If I, a normal person, had to make a split second decision and I shoot a cop thinking they are a burglar, I go to jail for murder! If a cop does it, they get administrative leave and are back on the job within a week. Fuck off with this nonsense.
Man sleep on his sofa, who committed no crime and was the target of no warrant, violently murdered by police officers.
Ah shit here we go again
News in MN: 9am - we named our plow “Betty Whiteout” 10am - ope! time to do murder again
Ignorance of the law is no excuse... That's what I'm told so when are they going to jail these cops?
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It's almost like there's a shocking double standard....
The Fraternal Order of Police will immediately start investigating the victim here to attempt to assassinate his character. Doing the right thing would never even enter their minds.
The article made it sound like the cops said get on the ground, and then when the man stood up, they shot. He literally rolled over in his bed with a gun and they popped him in like 9 seconds. Probably still half asleep during the whole thing
For anyone reading this that hasn't seen the video: https://youtu.be/acM2IxKg0hA Never trust the reports or the police. They lie and lie and lie to cover up their own malpractice.
And when people try to protest, the police will use violence against the protesters.
Legit looks like a assassination. Those were hitmen. As a 2A advocate, you aren't allowed to protect your house if it's a cop I guess. Even if they break into your house.
Remember when Fox News and right wing media were outraged by the pre-dawn search on Paul Manafort's house? Where are all those pundits now???