New at Reason: Radley Balko on the Use of Flash Grenades During Drug Raids

February 17, 2010

The New York City Police Department has halted the use of stun or "flashbang" grenades during drug raids, in part as a reaction to the 2003 death of 57-year-old Alberta Spruill, who suffered a fatal heart attack after police mistakenly raided her home. Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko writes that other police departments ought to follow suit. When used in raids to serve warrants for drug or other nonviolent offenses, the devices are designed to inflict injury—sometimes permanent injury—on people who haven't even been charged with a crime, much less convicted of one.

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