Amir Locke's death proves we learned nothing from Breonna Taylor about no-knock warrants

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The recent death of Amir Locke at the hands of police during a no-knock warrant shows that our nation did not learn critical lessons from the tragic and nationally protested killing of Breonna Taylor.

Like Taylor, Locke would be alive today if not for a no-knock warrant. Locke, 22, had been sleeping when police entered the apartment and killed him. Investigations are revealing that Locke was not even the subject of the warrant. 

Locke died at the hands of Minneapolis police last week, just two years after Taylor's fatal shooting in Louisville, Kentucky. But Minneapolis has yet to call for a permanent ban of the dangerous and irresponsible police practice, opting instead to just impose a temporary suspension. 

So here are the lessons of no-knock warrants that officers across America can't afford to miss again:

They are disproportionately used against Black people

It is a fact not only of Black history but also of our present that encounters with police are more dangerous for us. Black Americans are three times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police, according to a study published in 2020 from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And in the urban area of Chicago, that rate is 6.5  times higher.

No-knock warrants, which are disproportionately used against Black Americans, contribute to those sobering statistics.

The American Civil Liberties Union determined in 2014 that 42% of households raided with search warrants had Black occupants. This, while Black people make up approximately 13% of the U.S. population based on recent census data. A meager 13% of the population is raided 42% of the time.

In the aftermath of Taylor’s death, the Louisville Courier Journal conducted an analysis of no-knock warrants executed by the Louisville Metro Police Department in the previous two years. The newspaper reported that there were 27 no-knock warrants issued, "allowing police to legally break into homes without first knocking or announcing themselves or waiting a reasonable amount of time for residents to respond, usually around 30 seconds."

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And in 22 of those warrants, an overwhelming majority of the targets (82%) were Black, according to the Journal.

Bill Hutton, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, acknowledged last year that no-knock warrants are more often used in urban settings. Those settings are where many marginalized people of color live.

They are an outdated weapon of the war on drugs

The no-knock warrant is a lasting remnant of the war on drugs, which has disproportionately harmed Black and brown people and their families. They have primarily and historically been used in drug raids, and as the war on drugs increased in recent decades, so has the use of these warrants.

In fact, the growth in the use of no-knock warrants is a true epidemic of militarized policing: Municipal police and sheriff’s department use of no-knock warrants has exponentially increased since the 1980s. By 2010, there were up to 70,000 no-knock or quick-knock raids that year alone, according to a PBS report. 

In most cases, they are issued at a judge’s discretion based on what law enforcement believes is a “reasonable suspicion.” And data from cities such as Denver and Little Rock, Arkansas, shows that the vast majority of these requests are approved by judges. 

They are a tool of terror

Louisville banned no-knock warrants citywide not long after Taylor's death. State Rep. Attica Scott sponsored a version of the same law for all of Kentucky. She has talked about the trauma no-knock warrants inflict on Louisville’s over-policed Black communities.

“Policing has historically, and continues to be, racially disparate,” she said. “It’s not mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually healthy for people to live in fear of law enforcement or to cringe when they see them coming.”

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The picture of this trauma is precisely illustrated in a 2019 St. John’s Law Review article written by Brian Dolan titled, “To Knock or Not to Knock? No-Knock Warrants and Confrontational Policing.”

He paints a vivid hypothetical image: “Under cover of complete darkness, police officers dressed in dark, tactical gear and armed with military-grade weapons execute a no-knock search warrant by smashing in the front door of a private residence and then charge in, with guns raised. The homeowner, waking from his slumber, frightened, and believing the intruders are burglars or people wishing to harm his family, retrieves a weapon and confronts the intruders. Sometimes the police fire first, sometimes the homeowner fires first, and sometimes the manner of entry itself causes injury, but too often, someone ends up wounded or dead.” 

They are high risk, low reward

No-knock warrants create chaotic, confusing circumstances that put everyone present at risk, and those people are disproportionately marginalized people of color. Yet, 36% of raids have resulted in absolutely nothing being found. High risk. Low Reward.

In New York Times reporting from 2017 based on data collected from 2010 through 2016, at least 81 civilians and 13 law enforcement officers died in no-knock raids. That equates to about 13 civilian deaths in no-knock raids every year. If we are learning from our history, we must declare those outcomes unacceptable.

The truth is, Locke’s fate was sealed the moment police showed up at his door with a no-knock warrant. A law-abiding citizen, a legal gun owner, awakened from a sound sleep – he did what any of us might do when armed people break into our homes. Like Kenneth Walker (Taylor's boyfriend) before him, Locke reached for his legally registered gun. Reasonable, and completely within his constitutional rights.

As the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement: “Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening.”

All police had to do to prevent this most recent tragedy was to knock and announce their presence and carry out their duties in a safe, professional manner, honoring the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee that we should be protected from unreasonable search.

That is what the public demanded, what elected officials promised and what we all expected after the shocking and preventable death of Taylor. And yet here we are.

Taylor’s death prompted many promises for reform, but so far only three states and about 12 municipalities have banned no-knock warrants. 

No-knock warrants are an epic failure of policy. And that failed policy killed Locke just as surely as the bullets that pierced his body. They threaten innocent citizens, especially people of color, and put cities at risk for civil rights lawsuits and liability.

It’s past time to learn from our history to change our future: No-knock warrants are flagrantly irresponsible policies whose risks vastly outweigh the benefits.

Ben Crump is a civil rights attorney who is representing Andre Locke and Karen Wells, the parents of Amir Locke.