It’s 3AM and you are at home, soundly sleeping, your wife and kids all peacefully passing the night away when suddenly, your door is broken down and armed men dressed in black pile into your house. Filled with a burst of adrenalin, you leap from your bed to protect your family from this home invasion. The invaders are yelling and screaming, and their flashlights blind you as that tackle you to the ground. Terrified and enraged, you fight against the men holding you down, roaring with anger, but the combined weight of three men hold you down. From your position on the floor you see your eldest son burst from his room, holding a cell phone, presumably to dial 911. Before your eyes, the invaders shoot him several times, and you know from the way his body hits the floor that your son is dead.
Shortly, your wife and daughter are lying beside you on the floor, arms and legs bound with zip ties. Only then do you find out that the invaders are actually police, executing a no-knock warrant and looking for drug dealers. You are arrested for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, and your home is destroyed as the police search for drugs.
The problem is that the warrant was for 134 East Oak Boulevard and you live at 134 West Oak Boulevard.
The police raided the wrong house. Your son is dead, and you face felony charges.
Folks, this isn’t some paranoid fantasy; it happens all the time. And what is worse is that the police are almost never held accountable for their actions. You see, there is a war on drugs, and if you happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, well, every war has collateral damage.
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