Wrong Door - no knock raids Wrong Door - no knock raids

Radly Balko and Joel Berger have an article in the WSJ today: Wrong Door about problems with "No Knock Raids" by the police. Balko is the author of a Cato study titled: "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" that I commented upon in July. They conclude with:

Most of the country is moving toward more militarization, more aggressive drug policing -- and less accountability when things go wrong.

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com comments that:

I'd like to see federal legislation making the officers, and the officials who supervise them, strictly liable in all such cases, without benefit of official immunity. No-knock raids should be reserved only for cases where there's an immediate threat to people's lives.

I agree, but don't expect this to happen in the near future. Looking back at the Cato article and 4th Amdt. history, this sort of thing used to be actionable against the police. But with the rise of Sovereign Immunity, the police now have almost complete immunity from suit. Nothing would stop the abuses faster than making them civily liable for their excesses.