Cops Tell Mom Her Son Was Murdered, Kill Her Dog for Good Measure
...Police in Henrico County, Virginia, found 33-year-old Ricky Ellerbe dead (as originally noted by Mike Riggs), the apparent victim of a robbery that netted a cellphone and fifteen bucks. Officers then went to his home to deliver the bad news — and promptly killed the family dog. ...

Can Cops Invade Your Home Just Because You're Scared of Them? Could Be.
...As you might guess, exigent circumstances can be in the eye of the beholder, who is always wearing a badge, and they tend to broaden in definition with time. Law professor and legal blogger Jonathan Turley uses the Goldsberry case as an example of just how loosely the term is being interpreted. As he puts it, "So, police can show up in what looks like a hunting vest at a kitchen window and point a gun into the face of a woman. If she screams and crawls away, that is sufficient to bust into the apartment, drag the occupants outside, and handcuff them in public."

That the "exigent circumstance" in this case was created by the police themselves by pointing a gun through a window and scaring the shit out of an innocent woman would seem to raise some doubts about the righteousness of this particular home invasion, but even that is uncertain. The US Supreme Court addressed the issue of police-created exigencies in the case of Kentucky v. King. Samuel Alito wrote for the majority, "The exigent circumstances rule applies when the police do not create the exigency by engaging or threatening to engage in conduct that violates the Fourth Amendment."...