No-knock warrants have develop into a serious challenge for the reason that 2020 police-involved capturing loss of life of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. The legislation enforcement protocol got here underneath heavy scrutiny for not solely the ways in which they endanger the general public, but in addition how they endanger the officers executing the warrant. Unless the scenario at hand is extraordinarily delicate, there isn’t a lot justification to proceed utilizing a no-knock warrant. This story illustrates yet one more instance of why…
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a jury has awarded a Black household $5.7 million for the trauma they endured again in 2018 by the hands of the Chicago Police Department SWAT. Officers have been advised that there was a convicted felon residing within the New City neighborhood who was stashing medicine and weapons on the house of Ebony Tate. The household doesn’t recall as soon as listening to officers announce themselves; as a substitute, what they heard was the sound of explosives, possible stun grenades, earlier than the closely armed group burst into the house, holding everybody, together with youngsters and a grandmother, at gunpoint. That grandmother, Cynthia Eason, was not even allowed to dress correctly and was ordered outdoors in a t-shirt and her underwear.
No medicine, weapons, or illicit cash have been discovered on the house.
Following the jury’s verdict, Ebony Tate spoke to the media.
“I’m simply praying that it will put a cease to the wrongful raids,” Tate mentioned after the decision. “The subsequent household shouldn’t need to undergo what we went via.”
The trial towards the town of Chicago lasted for 3 weeks, throughout which the jury heard the household’s lawyer argue that police have exhibited a sample of extreme power towards youngsters that has gone unchecked for much too lengthy.
“The eight jurors believed this household — grandma, mother and youngsters — versus the officers who have been dishonest about what occurred,” mentioned Andrew Stroth, one of many household’s legal professionals. “They pointed weapons, they scared this household, and now there’s a verdict towards the town of Chicago.”
The $5.7 million was distributed as follows: $1 million in compensatory damages will go to every of Tate’s 4 youngsters, and $45,000 can be awarded to every youngster for punitive damages. Tate and her mom have been every awarded $750,000 in compensatory damages and in addition awarded $45,000 every for punitive damages.
Hopefully, this lawsuit and others have taught the town a lesson, however we gained’t maintain our breath.
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