From: Ernest Hua <hua@xenon.chromatic.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 15:17:12 +0800
To: harka@nycmetro.com
Subject: Re: Responding to Pre-daw
Message-ID: <199607192233.PAA24315@server1.chromatic.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> > If you want to own guns then you should accept the fact that you risk
> > having your head blown off in the middle of the night by a SWAT team.
> > Just as the car has introduced the risk of being killed in a trafic
> > accident the gun has introduced new risks. If society dosen't like the
> > risks then it can opt to ban the technology. 
> 
> Except that getting killed in a traffic accident IS an accident (mostly :)
> while having black clad Fed's storming into your house was _consciously_
> decided by them, because THEY have a problem with YOUR guns (?!)...

I think the original point was that they MIGHT storm into your house by
mistake (say, because they incorrectly accepted a informant's story).
Therefore, it is truly a mistake.

That said, it is still not justifiable for a SWAT team to FORCE a situation
where they may necessarily be in physical danger, and therefore, are forced
to respond with overwhelming force when the target may reasonably be
innocent.

Worse yet, the bureaucrats, whose asses are on the line when a tragic mistake
occurs, will rarely, if ever, admit to any wrongdoing.  They may be forced
out, at worse; there may be a symbolic verbal lynching in front of the
Congress, but that would be about it.

If such a tragedy were to occur to me, and I were to survive, I would want
the responsible PERSONS fully acknowledge their mistakes (and be properly
punished).  It is a travesty of justice to blame a no-name, faceless
"system" as was done in the well-known recent cases (whether or not the
target was ultimately found guilty of any misdeeds).

Ern