The Search Warrant Said...Husqvarna

January 31, 2012 CBS Boston reports on the FBI serving a no-knock warrant at the wrong address with a chain saw.

FITCHBURG (CBS) – It’s going to be a while before things get back to normal for Judy Sanchez and her three-year-old daughter.

Last Thursday, a team of FBI agents swarmed her apartment building as part of a massive citywide drug and weapons gang raid.

Trouble is, Sanchez lives in apartment 2R.

The suspect they were after is in 2F.

Using a chain saw to cut someone's door open is hardly what I think of as normal law enforcement procedure.  There are places that I have lived where if I saw someone, unannounced, open my door with a chain saw, my reaction would be to empty a 30 round magazine of .223 at the door.  (The door is already toast from the chain saw, and the criminal holding the chain saw will be as well.)

There are legitimate uses for no-knock warrants, such as hostages, or terrorist scenarios right out of 24, but these are vanishingly rare.  The risk to police officers is enormous from serving such warrants, especially for police officers who haven't mastered the subtle difference between "F" and "R."  The risk to civilians is also quite high.  I really do wish that judges would rein in this supermachoism a bit.