Since April 19, 1993, the fiery image of BATF and FBI agents conducting a deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, is seared into America's consciousness. Equally intense is the debate over the federal government's actions to end the 52-day standoff. Two years earlier, agents and federal marshals opened fire on illegal weapons trafficking suspect Randy Weaver and his family in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Are these the actions of responsible, accountable law enforcement agencies, or tragic mistakes that should have been avoided? Each new incident-and there are dozens each year-forces us to rethink the role of federal law enforcement and the risks that their enormous powers pose to individual rights, judicial authority, and arrest procedures in the name of public safety, as society's fears increase with the spectre of the Oklahoma City bombing and the assault on the World Trade Center.
Waco and Ruby Ridge were neither conspiracies nor flukes. They represent the worst-case scenario of problems that now plague federal law enforcement, including militarization, judicial rubber-stamping of search and arrest applications, aggressive and violent arrest procedures, indifference to religious beliefs, the complicity of an overzealous media, and failed Congressional investigations. In No More Wacos authors David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman use their expertise in law and criminology to outline the evidence in these cases and dozens of others in an accessible yet methodical manner to explain how and why such tragedies occur. Meticulously documented, this volume contains more than 1,500 endnotes which aid in analyzing all sides of this complex subject. Whenever problems are found, specific remedies are proposed-over 100 solutions in all-both comprehensive and technical in nature. Each is offered in the hope of preventing future Wacos by putting federal law enforcement under the rule of law. The authors discuss flawed search warrants, authorities ignoring the difference between religious and criminal suspects, interdepartmental deception, and failed safeguards, among other issues.
Included is a chapter on policy analysis that addresses the institutional problems of the BATF, the FBI and the national media. It proposes such remedies as reform of federal forfeiture laws and removing law enforcement from areas where it has no Constitutional authority. An appendix offers a comprehensive "Federal Law Enforcement Improvement Bill" which provides for the various solutions discussed in the book.
DAVID B. KOPEL, (Denver, CO) an attorney, is research director of the Independence Institute. He is the author of the award-winning The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt tho Gun Controls of Other Democracies? and Guns: Who Should Have Them? PAUL H. BLACKMAN (Fairfax, YA) is a spokesman and research coordinator for the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.