First and foremost, thank you everyone for signing and sharing this petition. It’s our collective voices that are coming together and pushing for change that we have needed for far too long.
Secondly, while this petition is primarily pushing for the state legislature to ban no-knock warrants, that’s not where we want to stop. No-knock warrants are one of many things that come under police reform.

I wanted to share an incident I recently read about regarding the improper use of a warrant. Or rather, the intentional negligence of an NJ police officer to use a search warrant properly. (The article is linked below).
Under oath, Officer Joshua Alexander of the New Brunswick PD testified that while conducting a marijuana drug bust, he and a couple other police officers knocked on the door of the suspect and announced themselves. After hearing no response, he led his fellow officers to take action and break in.
Unknown to him, the defendant’s attorney had surveillance footage that what this officer had sworn to was false. In that video, the officer was the last of his group to reach the door. And the officers collectively did not hesitate the knock down the door- in fact, they skipped over announcing themselves as police or knocking and broke down the door first, just as a no-knock warrant is meant to be executed. But here’s the thing: this warrant was a normal search warrant. It wasn’t a no-knock one, but instead treated as such.
When this footage was shared with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office, they did drop the charges against the defendant. But they also did everything in their power to keep the public from finding out. They repeatedly tried to seal the documents away and stop the defense attorney from sharing them with judges too. In fact, when they failed to seal the documents, the Prosecutor’s office tried to get the courts to sanction the attorney. In the end, though the defendant was rightfully released, the allegations against the officer were dropped.
There’s a few reasons why I felt it was necessary to share this story.
1) This was a simple case, where the warrant that was signed by a judge was supposed to be executed as most warrants are- yet the police officers in question deliberately chose to defy the rules in place that were specifically created to protect the public from unreasonable searches and seizures. Civilians can’t be comfortable knowing that they’re protected if one of the pivotal lines of protection, afforded by the 4th amendment, is readily ignored even in cases that they’re supposed to be implemented properly. And more importantly, how can courts allow officers to have the power to bust into homes unannounced via the no-knock warrant, if they can’t be trusted to use a search warrant correctly?
2) These officers repeatedly ignored the rules of the court, once with how they executed the warrant and once when they committed perjury describing the way they did so. But there were no repercussions. That officer still had his job, has no charges on his record, and would have gotten away with everything had the attorney not had contradictory footage. It’s not enough to let the defendant go- it’s a start, but it’s not enough. And had anyone else committed perjury, they would have lost so much more.

Is this a matter of transparency? When it came to the prosecutor’s office, yes. It is.
But it’s also a matter of accountability. Time and time again, officers are allowed to get away with things that would never be allowed for an average civilian. And while people may make the claim that police officers put their lives on the line, an argument that has merits to its name, no one should be above the law. Everyone, whether they be an average civilian like you or me, a police officer, a politician, or any other professional should be treated the same under a law that doesn’t use race, class, gender, religion, or any other distinguishing factor to discriminate.
Link: https//www.nj.com/news/2020/09/a-cop-got-caught-lying-about-a-drug-bust-nj-prosecutors-tried-to-keep-anyone-from-finding-out.html

Image source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/nyregion/newark-peaceful-protests-george-floyd.html