According to OpinionJournal, Sen. John Kerry said on Jan. 26, 
"Perhaps Prof. Liu put it best, of the Berkeley law school, when he wrote this: He said, Judge Alito's record envisions an America where ... where federal agents point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid, even after no sign of resistance ... .
Perhaps he meant like this:
Cross-posted, with a little more context, at DonaldSensing.com.
i forget...was the saftey "off" or "on" in the photo??
owned
That's the photo that gave George Bush 80% of the Cuban vote in 2000. If Dems think that Alito is going to hand them a giant freebie like that one, all I can say is good luck.
It does remind me of one of the funniest Kerryisms of the past year:
KERRY: And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the ... of ... the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not...
SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
KERRY: ...Iraqis should be doing that.
It is for reasons like this that I hate American politics. Republicans go apoplectic at the thought of the Justice Department getting certain powers under a Democratic and happily roll over when such powers are given to Republican presidents. Democrats likewise are perfectly happy to increase the power of the FBI, law enforcement, etc. right up until the moment that a Republican is in power, at which point these powers become the sure sign of an impending dictatorship.
There's also the other pendulum where cops are required to be non-threatening, go in with guns lowered, and get their asses shot off in a Waco. Then they're required to protect themselves from unexpected ambush, go in with guns raised, and get their asses chewed off for scaring a kid.
Back and forth, back and forth.
That picture finally gave Bush the presidency. What a mistake for the Democrats!!
Stop airbrushing history. Al Gore gave the presidency to Bush when he like an idiot refused to accept a statewide recount. Gore was the one whom brought the issue into the courts when he tried to have the count restricted to a couple of counties.
He also lost after a statewide recount was done by journalists using various definitions of valid votes.
As to the realities of American politics Mr Reeves hit it out of the park.
Robert M,
OK, but next time you order an assault into a home to get a child from his family, use a handgun instead.
"There's also the other pendulum where cops are required to be non-threatening, go in with guns lowered, and get their asses shot off in a Waco. Then they're required to protect themselves from unexpected ambush, go in with guns raised, and get their asses chewed off for scaring a kid.
Back and forth, back and forth."
Don't even get me started on Waco. The BATF murdered those people.
Here is a good debunking of how idiot socialists are now claiming that globalization hurts women more.
http://futurist.typepad.com
What happened to Elian is no worse than your average drug raid.
Such raids are supported by both sides of the political asile but most strongly by Republicans. At least in the case of Elian they knocked first and presented a warrant.
I don't see why the Right is bitching so much at the hysteria of the Left when in fact they support the very policies they decry.
The left and right have very similar ideas about the proper methods of government. It is only the objects that they wish to apply it to that are different.
It is always the same. If we can put a gun to the right people's heads tremendous improvements can be made in the social situation. Always a War On..... Poverty, Abortions, Low Taxes, Drugs. Feh.
Well there is one war I support. And that one is unavoidable. Some folks with delusions of grandure want to give us even more stringent morality at the point of a gun. Feh.
J Aguilar
I do not understand your post.
"Don't even get me started on Waco. The BATF murdered those people."
Yea, because BATF got shot when they tried knocking on the door, so it turned into a seige. That's why you want to go in with an overwhelming show of force right off the bat. It's better to 'be scary' so people don't resist and everyone comes out alive.
But then people see a pic like little Elian up there and forget that.
Seth,
That's not at all how it went at Waco.
Robert M
_J Aguilar
I do not understand your post._
Oh, excuse me.
I meant someone should have ordered to use, at least for the lead members of the assault team, just a pistol or a revolver, rather than a sub machine gun. I think the picture wouldn't have had the same effect on public opinion.
Andrew, I don't get your post - you generalize both sides and the argument could easily by applied to either party.
The picture seems over the top, but how many of us have been involved with raids like this? It seems to me that I would want the police to go in with overwhelming force to avoid death and injury. Those who would fight are less likely to target anyone.
The photographer essentially put him/her self and the members of the family in a situation that was linear in risk. Snapping photos in the middle of a raid seems kind of stupid - if a shot would have been fired by the family, would the photographer have been aiding? I don't know. The whole SWAT approach seemed uneccessary to do - but only after the fact. So hindsight is still 20/20. And nobody got hurt.
As for WACO, it's not a good comparison - David Koresh was a definite wacko (no pun intended). There's no doubt from any and all investigations that the fires were started by the Davidians. Those who were shot were mostly by their own hand or one of the Branch Davidians. Most of the rest died from the fire - asphyxiation - and falling debris from the building collapse of the fire. A fire started in three locations by the Branch Davidians. You can check here - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/topten.html#fired
tblubrd,
Even granting that all you cite is true, it still doesn't justify the initial raid, much less persisting in running it even though the element of surprise was gone.