The city of Buffalo is living up to its name, as police have been using dubious reasons for no-knock attacks on citizens, ostensibly in the name of “fighting drugs.” This latest attack on individual rights is aptly named “Operation Shock and Awe.”

It is the same nonsense we have seen elsewhere. Police dress up as little Rambos, bust into houses with guns blazing, and shoot pets. Since the Supreme Court has endorsed these latest attacks by the state upon American citizens, we can expect more of these assaults.

Actually, the police don’t even need Scalia’s permission to bust into our houses unannounced. It seems that the presence of federal or local housing regulators is all that is needed. Writes Radley Balko in Reason:

“More ominously, many civic leaders in Buffalo are now looking at a program called “Operation Clean Sweep,” a project started in the city several years ago that sends housing and safety inspectors out with drug cops. The inspectors’ presence enables police to get inside the home without a search warrant. One can only imagine how it might be used in conjunction with ‘Operation Shock and Awe.'”

“It’s an increasingly common tactic. In June 2004, for example, more than 70 police officers conducted a massive SWAT raid on a billiards bar in Manassas Park, Virginia under the pretext of an inspection from the state alcohol board. It was unquestionably a drug raid, and officers turned the bar upside down in pursuit of evidence against its owner. But the presence of the Alcohol Beverage Control officers allowed the entire raid to take place without the legal hurdle of procuring a search warrant.”

I guess this is the “freedom” which the U.S. Government is trying to foist upon Iraq.

Jim Ostrowski has been doing heroic work in Buffalo, trying to organize people to rally for free markets and freedom in general. I can see why he is trying to do this, given the totalitarian thinking of the current set of city officials.