No-knock warrants have become a major issue since the 2020 police-involved shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. The law enforcement protocol came under heavy scrutiny for not only the ways that they endanger the public, but also how they endanger the officers executing the warrant. Unless the situation at hand is extremely sensitive, there isn’t much justification to continue using a no-knock warrant. This story illustrates yet another example of why…
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a jury has awarded a Black family $5.7 million for the trauma they endured back in 2018 at the hands of the Chicago Police Department SWAT. Officers were told that there was a convicted felon living in the New City neighborhood who was stashing drugs and guns at the home of Ebony Tate. The family doesn’t recall once hearing officers announce themselves; instead, what they heard was the sound of explosives, likely stun grenades, before the heavily armed group burst into the home, holding everyone, including children and a grandmother, at gunpoint. That grandmother, Cynthia Eason, was not even allowed to get dressed properly and was ordered outside in a t-shirt and her underwear.
No drugs, guns, or illicit money were found at the home.
Following the jury’s verdict, Ebony Tate spoke to the media.
“I’m just praying that this will put a stop to the wrongful raids,” Tate said after the verdict. “The next family shouldn’t have to go through what we went through.”
The trial against the city of Chicago lasted for three weeks, during which the jury heard the family’s lawyer argue that police have exhibited a pattern of excessive force against children that has gone unchecked for far too long.
“The eight jurors believed this family — grandma, mom and children — versus the officers who were dishonest about what happened,” said Andrew Stroth, one of the family’s lawyers. “They pointed guns, they scared this family, and now there is a verdict against the city of Chicago.”
The $5.7 million was distributed as follows: $1 million in compensatory damages will go to each of Tate’s four children, and $45,000 will be awarded to each child for punitive damages. Tate and her mother were each awarded $750,000 in compensatory damages and also awarded $45,000 each for punitive damages.
Hopefully, this lawsuit and others have taught the city a lesson, but we won’t hold our breath.
