Rat out thy neighbor

[yubba]

Originally Posted by Platapus

The question I have is: Will a telephone tip serve as justification for issuing a search warrant?

That would be scary.

Probable cause, will be the way through your door, since you are guilty of a crime, harboring an unlawful weapon, I had a nice chat with a cuban freind of mine, he told me a nice story, how people spy on each other in cuba, the government hires people in a community to spy on their neighbors, people could be jailed or shot for just eating meat.. welcome to utopia

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by yubba

Probable cause, will be the way through your door, since you are guilty of a crime, harboring an unlawful weapon, I had a nice chat with a cuban freind of mine, he told me a nice story, how people spy on each other in cuba, the government hires people in a community to spy on their neighbors, people could be jailed or shot for just eating meat.. welcome to utopia

People spy on their neighbor here as well. They usual are called "Community Associations" were members pay a monthly fee so their neighbors have someone to report to when another member does not pull in their trashcans after 0900 or the paint on their front door is peeling requiring fresh paint of the proper color to match the other homes in the neighborhood. The folks report these "crimes" to the Community Association. The groups normally have community laws and bylaws to which they can cite when necessary. If said offending member does not comply, a letter from the law office representing the Community Association is forthcoming. Sometimes escalating to court appearances. We can say that most are not "shot" for the offenses but after the ringer the Community Association puts you through perhaps being shot would have been better. Welcome to utopia that comes with a coupon book of 12 payments per year so you may have your neighbor spy on you and possibly providing some sort of litigation for you down the road over the color paint on your shudders.

[yubba]

Well said, but an HOA doesn't have the right to enter a home and conduct a search, and a person has a choice to live in such a community, which I choose not too, but what are you going to do when a dozen armed thugs show up at your door with a search warrant and say their here to look for illegal weapons and by then there will probably be ooodles of things that might be banned, maybe the Bible, history books, you have to much food in your pantry, just because your next door neighbor doesn't like the color of your house, I forgot to add, from what my cuban freind told me you also have to have a permit from the government to eat meat. Welcome to paradice.

[AVGWarhawk]

Very true. People are provided the rules and accept or don't. However, yes, a neighbor could alert the police to a potential issue at a neighbors house. Legitimate or not. Plenty of folks call the cops on neighbors because their dog is barking. Cops spend a lot of time on domestic nonsense and not hard crime. What will I do when a dozen armed thugs bust through my door? Well, to be honest, I have no reason to worry about this issue. I'm up to nothing other than paying my taxes. I do not associate myself with people that might have experienced or could experience a dozen thugs busting through their front door for whatever activity they are up to. Furthermore, when the cops run my name they will see I have not gotten a speeding ticket since 1993. No other infractions of any kind. There really is no reason to send out SWAT to "round me up."

As far as the permit for meat in Cuba. I feel for the guy. But you know, he is probably eating healthier than the majority of Americans.

[Buddahaid]

All true but it's the reward aspect of this I find repulsive. If your worried about your neighbor having an illegal gun do you need a reward to get the motivation to react? Maybe we should just report all our neighbors in a fishing expedition because there could be money in it.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

All true but it's the reward aspect of this I find repulsive. If your worried about your neighbor having an illegal gun do you need a reward to get the motivation to react? Maybe we should just report all our neighbors in a fishing expedition because there could be money in it.

Wouldn't that be something? Sheesh... I think the cops would be questioning the guy who cried wolf on all his neighbors but they came up empty handed. I'm inclined to believe there is repercussions for just pressing the golden button.

[August]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

There really is no reason to send out SWAT to "round me up."

Don't think you are completely immune to it though. There have been many instances of no knock warrants being served at the wrong address.

Some examples from Wikipedia:

Kathryn Johnston (c1914-2006) was an elderly Atlanta, Georgia woman shot by three undercover police officers in her home on November 21, 2006 after she fired one shot at the ceiling, assuming her home was being invaded. While the officers were wounded by friendly fire, none of the officers received life threatening injuries, but Johnston was killed by their gunfire.[1]

• Two former Los Angeles Police Department officers, along with 13 others, have plead guilty to running a robbery ring, which used fake no-knock raids as a ruse to catch victims off guard. The defendants would then steal cash and drugs to sell on the street. This tactic led Radley Balko, editor of Reason Magazine, to complain "So not only can you not be sure the people banging down your door at night are the police, not only can you not be sure they’re the police even if they say they’re the police, you can’t even be sure it’s safe to let them in even if they are the police."[3][4][5]

• Tracy Ingle was shot in his house five times during a no-knock raid in North Little Rock, Arkansas. After the police entered the house Tracy thought armed robbers had entered the house and intended to scare them away with a non-working gun. The police expected to find drugs, but none were found. He was brought to the intensive care, but police pulled him out of intensive care for questioning, after which they arrested him and charged him with assault on the officers who shot him.[6][7]

• Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant, was shot and killed by SWAT team officers in Denver, Colorado who were performing a no-knock raid that was approved by a judge acting on false information contained in a search warrant. The police believed there to be drugs in the house, but no drugs were found on the premises, and it was later revealed that the address given to the SWAT team by officer Joseph Bini was the wrong one. Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas investigated the matter and cleared the officers involved with the raid on the grounds that Mena had pointed a gun and fired it at SWAT officers, although who fired first remains unknown. However, many have objected to the investigation's findings due to inconsistencies in the various officers' account of what happened. The American Civil Liberties Union, and others, have objected to the Denver Police Department's request for a no-knock raid and the Judge's decision to allow such a raid on the grounds that they failed to meet the criteria necessary for a no-knock raid.[8]

• US Marine Jose Guerena was shot twenty-two times by a SWAT team planning to execute a search warrant. He retrieved a legally possessed rifle in response to sudden intruders, likely concerned for his family's safety, and the SWAT team opened fire on him before establishing any communication. The team later retracted its initial claims he had opened fire when it was established that Guerena had never fired and his safety was still on. The police refused to allow paramedics to access Guerena for more than hour, leaving Guerena to bleed to death, alone, in his own home. Members of the SWAT team subsequently hired legal defense and a large following of fellow Marines held a memorial service at his home with his widow.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by August

Don't think you are completely immune to it though. There have been many instances of no knock warrants being served at the wrong address.

Some examples from Wikipedia:

I did not state I'm immune. Odds are unlikely SWAT will be busting my door down. I do not lose sleep over it.

Wikipedia: Is a site that anyone can make entries of any nature. But I'm alright with what you quoted. These do occur. But again, you kind of drive my point home with yubba.

[August]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I did not state I'm immune. Odds are unlikely SWAT will be busting my door down. I do not lose sleep over it.

Wikipedia: Is a site that anyone can make entries of any nature. But I'm alright with what you quoted. These do occur. But again, you kind of drive my point home with yubba.

Well I started to post individual news articles but found the wiki article had a nice set of examples. There are many many more not included.

I do agree however that the likelihood of this happening to you or me is low but given the huge increase in no knock raids...

The number of no-knock raids has increased from 3,000 in 1981 to more than 50,000 in 2005, according to Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky.[1] Raids that lead to deaths of innocent people are increasingly common; since the early 1980s, 40 bystanders have been killed, according to the Cato Institute in Washington, DC.[1]

...the possibility is increasing.