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who was unarmed and offered no resistance, died in

front of his eight-year-old son.  A search of the

residence uncovered a few grams of marijuana.2

· In 1994 a police SWAT team in Boston broke down an

apartment door without warning and tackled an elderly

occupant.  When the search did not turn up any drugs,

the police realized they had raided the wrong home.

The elderly man the police had tackled and handcuffed

turned out to be a retired minister.  The Reverend

Accelynne Williams suffered a severe heart attack dur-

ing the search and died the same afternoon.3

· In 1992 California law enforcement agents burst

into Donald Scott's Malibu ranch at an early morning

hour.  Scott, who was in the process of getting

dressed, thought he was being burglarized so he went

to get his handgun.  When he rushed into his living

room carrying his gun, he was shot dead by the

police.  A subsequent inquiry into this incident by

the local district attorney found that drugs were

never located on the ranch and that Scott was com-

pletely innocent.4

· In 1996 an Iowa City patrolman's suspicions were

aroused when he noticed that the door to a business

firm was ajar at midnight.  The patrolman thought a

burglary might be in progress so he requested a back-

up unit.  When another police unit arrived on the

scene, officers entered the business to investigate.

Moments after entering the building, a patrolman shot

and killed 31-year-old Eric Shaw.  Shaw turned out to

be an artist who frequently worked on his sculptures

at his father's business late in the evening because

he ran his own small business during the day.  Shaw

was unarmed, offered no resistance, and had his

father's permission to work on the premises.

Given such chilling examples--regrettably, only a

small sample--fair-minded people from across the political

spectrum should be able to agree that the Fourth

Amendment's safeguards against unreasonable searches are as

important today as they were 200 years ago.

At the same time, people of good will must also

recognize and acknowledge the existence of a reciprocal

danger.  The life, liberty, and property of ordinary

Americans are also threatened by criminal predators who

rob, rape, and kill.  Millions of Americans are victimized

each year by violent criminals.  Police are expected to

track criminals down quickly so they can be removed from