Why does it have to be a no-knock? There are procedures they have to go through to get permission for that kind of warrant. One of the criteria is usually the imminent danger to the officers if they do not use the element of surprise. Do not want to derail this thread, but you should read this:

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://...TEJXRCeDcRXtCQ

or this:

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://...CKdJXTtTExMy5A

A no-knock /swat team approach to a petty gambling raid?

In a state notorious for its 'stand your ground', shoot first-ask questions later, castle defense environment?

Do the cops have a death wish? Is it their plan going in to shoot the home owner or guests?

I can not imagine what could they be thinking, so much could go wrong. This doesn't seem like a very good public policy decision - public safety is not at risk, the 'crime' borders on petty and there doesn't seem to be much reason to think the criminals are a flight risk facing little or no jail time and a modest fine. I would have expected better judegement from law enforcement and the bench.

I hope there is something more to this than we know. (and I hope it isn't 'boys with badges & big toys wanting to play cops & robbers' or that the whole thing isn't engineered to allow the seizure of the homeowners assets.)

There are all lucky no one got hurt -=- DrStrange

Of course not, but don't you think SWAT is overkill for a raid on a small-time poker game? Perhaps there was some reason to suspect additional illegal activity, but it seems like regular duty officers would be sufficient to serve a warrant, conduct the search and make arrests as needed.

Florida allows "penny-ante" poker, but the obsolete rules make all but the smallest home game technically illegal. For instance, a player cannot win/lose more than $10 in a single game or it violates the law.

But true home games are generally ignored by law enforcement. There's simply no reason to mess with unraked low stakes social games, so they don't.

And 99% of the time they'd be right.

But seeing as they do this every day of their lives, I'd rather police not end up on the wrong side of a bad situation every 100 days.

There's a reason police use overwhelming force - so on day 100 they don't end up dead.

Perhaps their information indicated they'd find more than a petty operation.

It's all useless speculation.

You show up with the fury of 1000 suns because every once in a while bad **** is waiting behind the door.

Ridiculous . . . an automatic, and generally needless, escalation of force with little evidencer to support it. The Cops need to justify the expense of these units, so naturally the units need to be used. They are a great way to kill the family dogs, though.

Sweet!!! You neglected to give me that little tidbit of info.

Is this anecdotal, or do you have something to back this up? Because, just conjecturing, it is also possible that with the 1000 sun fury approach, 1.1 out of 100 would end up with a cop or innocent civilian getting shot.

That's an appropriate mindset for the military and a terrible one for policing. You have SWAT teams kicking in doors and shooting dogs (and even residents) at the wrong house on a regular basis.

The militarization of the police is a serious problem in this country.

That seems like a ridiculously small amount of money. I'm guessing either the police didn't find it all. An armed guard for $1,600? Smells wrong.

It would give the players time to hide the poker chips so it doesn t look like they are playing poker.

Maybe who ever reported the pokewr game to the police said there was a rmed guard or something along those lines. Whether its true or not, every police dept is going to bring out the big guys to take the place down.

Either the polie force in this area is overstaffed or there are no other significant crimes being perpetrated since raiding this "homegame" was so important that SWAT had to be sent out. Completely ridiculous. When I read about raids like this I think their budget for next year should definitely be reduced to meet the evidently non-existent criminal activity in that area.

Could be. But some say an always-armed citizenry is a safer citizenry. It appears it can escalate every situation into a need to show shock and awe. A need to aim first, and ultimately shoot first.