Death at Your Door: Knock-and-Talk Police Tactics Rip a Hole in the Constitution

This is what passes for “knock-and-talk” policing in the American police state. “Knock-and-shoot” policing might be more accurate, however. Whatever you call it, this aggressive, excessive police tactic has become a thinly veiled, warrantless exercise by which citizens are coerced and intimidated into “talking” with heavily armed police who “knock” on their doors in the middle of the night. Winston Churchill once declared that “democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman.” Clearly, we don’t live in a democracy. No, in the American police state, when you find yourself woken in the early hours by someone pounding on your door, smashing through your door, terrorizing your family, killing your pets, and shooting you if you dare to resist in any way, you don’t need to worry that it might be burglars out to rob and kill you: it’s just the police.

Death at Your Door