Topic: Lindy: "No Knock Raid" - a song about the drug war's deadliest tactic

[Dunrobin]

[youtube=640,390]pV7u91A3KGQ[/youtube]

Note: This video contains graphic images of violence and mature language. Viewer discretion is advised.

"No Knock Raid," written and performed by Toronto-based musician Lindy, is a searing indictment of one of the most aggressive, ubiquitous, and mistaken tactics in the War on Drugs.

Consider only the most recent raid to cause a national outrage: On May 5, 2011, 26-year-old Jose Guerena, who survived two tours in the Iraq War, was shot and killed during a raid on his house by a Pima County, Arizona SWAT team that fired dozens of bullets through his front door. Guerena, married and a father of two, had just finished a 12-hour shift at a local mine. Law enforcement sources claim he was involved in narco-trafficking but have yet to produce any evidence supporting that claim. Officers involved in the death have been cleared of wrongdoing.

Guerena's death is not an isolated incident. As USA Today reports, an astonishing 70,000 to 80,000 militarized police raids take place on a annual basis in America, many of them on mistaken suspects and many of them ending with injury or death for police and citizens alike.

As Reason Contributing Editor Radley Balko and others have documented, the militarization of standard police practice is a direct consequence of the modern-day War on Drugs, started 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon - and perpetuated by every administration since. (For a comprehensive report on the failure of the drug war to achieve any of its stated goals, read "Ending the Drug War: A Dream Deferred," by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.)

For supporting links to all stats cited above, longer clips of raid footage, and more, go to http://reason.tv/video/show/swat-no-knock-raid-lindy

"No Knock Raid" written and performed by Lindy.

Produced and directed by Hawk Jensen.

Performance footage directed by Victor Tavares and Zachary Koski

About 4.50 minutes.

Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions of the video and mp3 and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

[Dunrobin]

This song struck a cord with me; I'm surprised that it's been viewed 50 times so far yet no one has commented on it.  Is everyone just accepting the reality of the police state that's been created in this country over the past few decades?  Am I just an archaic throwback to still believe in Liberty?

Anyway, for what it's worth I wrote down the lyrics as I was watching it again:

It's a no knock raid
Don't be afraid
We'll shoot your dogs
in front of your kids
'cause we are the SWAT
we're here for your pot
and all the cash that you got
We are adreniline junkies
taking orders from the top.

The KGB and the DEA
they'll make you disappear
like in Guantanamo Bay
in the middle of the night
you'll have nothing to say
if we get the wrong address
it doesn't matter anyway
We'll still get our kicks
We'll still have our fun
Yeah we are the SWAT
we are the adreniline junkies
'til the drugs are all gone

It's a "no-knock" raid, don't be afraid;
paramilitary police state on parade.
It's a no knock raid, don't be afraid;
You do the time for your victimless crime.
And it's a no knock raid
It's a no knock raid
Don't be afraid

This is a war
and this is your fate
we are the face
of your new police state
We are the law
and we got the guns
statutory power
mandatory minimums
We are the SWAT
We're here for your pot
and all the cash that you got
we are adreniline junkies
taking orders from the Czar

It's a "no-knock" raid, don't be afraid;
paramilitary police state on parade.
It's a no knock raid, don't be afraid;
You do the time for your victimless crime.

And it's a no knock raid
It's a no knock raid
Don't be afraid
Paramilitary police state on parade
Flash bang on the ground
don't hear a sound
Could be you,
could be the mayor of your town

And it's a no knock raid
it's a no knock raid
don't be afraid