Libertarian sites are abuzz about a video of police officers piling on to arrest some fellow accused by a neighbor of shooting his crossbow in his small yard. The video went viral, was taken down, then went even more viral. The guy may or may not be guilty, but the key exchange is between the various officers trying to bully the man's wife into letting them in to her home. I can't watch the video at work, but the article says that you can see that the couple have a Gadsden flag hanging in their house.

During the final two minutes of the video, the sergeant, upon numerous refusals from the woman to allow them into her house, explains that they will go in regardless. He tells the woman that he will ask a judge for a warrant but that in the meantime, they will 'seize' the house, preventing the woman and her child from entering it. The sergeant explains that the initial call was about a bow and arrow. "That's a big piece of the puzzle right there, so that's part of the reason why we're gonna need to go inside your house. If you don't want to give consent for us to do that, then we will seize the house, have you and your son come out... That's just what I want you to understand. It's not like we're gonna have it forever, but we're gonna need to do our part of the investigation."
"There's no reason to come into my house though. Nothing happened in my house!" Stephanie protests.
 
The sergeant says "I guess if a judge... If a judge tells me that there's no reason to come into your house, then a judge won't. But until that time, we're gonna seize the house."
Stephanie: "Well that's fine then you guys can bring a search warrant. You can't seize my house without a search warrant," the homeowner says.
Sergeant: "Yes. yes we can,"
Stephanie: "No you cannot".
Sergeant: "We cannot search your house without a search warrant. We can seize your house while we're trying to get..
Stephanie: "You can seize something I own?"
Sergeant: "Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely."

Coincidentally, the recent "good news" about declining crime stats has been supplanted in this news cycle by the bad news that more police are getting shot and killed while on duty. Many more have killed themselves in traffic accidents, but shootings of police are also back to where they were a few years ago.

More Guns=Less Crime types took credit for the first set of stats, assuming that criminals are mostly rational actors that are going to give up crime rather than face armed citizens. I can't see how that claim fits with the news about police shootings, though. Police always have guns, and they know how to shoot back, but more and more punks are feeling lucky. Either that or they desperately want to stay out of prison. Since 1970, the US prison and jail population has gone from 338,000 to 2.3 million. More Prisoners=Less Crime, if you don't count what happens in prison.

More Guns=More Shooting, too, as some armed citizens try to play lawman. I found this story, Customer fires shots at bank robber, on The Truth About Guns where editor Farago bemoans both the customer's lack of discretion and, well, accuracy.

A bank customer tried to take matters into his own hands as he fired close to half a dozen shots at an armed robber who was fleeing from a Sheridan Drive bank he had just robbed this morning, Amherst police said.

While police weren't commenting directly on the customer's actions — perhaps risking his life and others' by shooting at a fleeing armed robber — they did say that the customer has a valid pistol permit to carry the gun. No charges have been filed against the customer who fired the shots.

The customer that couldn't shoot straight was, however cuffed and detained. I think he was lucky not to have been shot, or piled on, by responding police. Then again he wasn't using a crossbow.