Your Innocence Is No Protection
by Harry Browne
December 6, 2003
Not Even Ministers Are Safe
For example, suppose you're a 75-year-old minister living in Boston. You've worked all your life to console those who are poor in money or spirit.
One afternoon 13 men with sledgehammers break down the door and charge into your apartment. They're wearing helmets, battle fatigues, and boots — and they're armed with shotguns and pistols.
They force you to the floor, pin your legs and arms, and handcuff you. They scare you so badly you suffer a heart attack — and within 45 minutes you're dead.
Who were these criminals?
They weren't "criminals." They were members of a SWAT team searching for drugs and guns. There wasn't anything illegal in your apartment, as you could have told them if they had stopped long enough to ask you.
But they didn't stop and they didn't ask. They didn't have to. They knew you were a bad guy, and they weren't going to allow you to escape or to flush your drug inventory down the toilet.
Six weeks after you die, it is revealed that the SWAT team raided the wrong apartment. You have been completely exonerated. But, unfortunately, the government can't bring you back to life.
Not one of the SWAT team members — or the prosecutor who okayed the raid — was prosecuted or suffered any career damage for causing the death. Compare that with a pot smoker who is hurting no one but might have to spend several years in prison if he gets caught.
This isn't fiction. It is the story of the Reverend Acelynne Williams, and how he died on March 26, 1994.
http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/InnocenceNoProtection.htm
