If you're keeping up, I acknowledged their garb to be horrible for their mission. But you didn't answer the question. Someone kills your loved one and a tip says he's in a house - what should the police do? Wait outside? For how long? How long will that last without the surveillance being "made" - 30 seconds? So the guy doesn't come out. How long do the police wait? "Sorry Mr. NKD, we waited 12 hours and your family member's murderer never came out - so we went home."
Well, maybe making is painfully OBVIOUS that they're the police would be a d*mn good start in what they should do. Looking like hooded jackboots with guns not just at the ready, but out and actually sweeping while looking like hooded goons does not strike me as professional. Nor smart.
If any of us had seen some guys in our yard, armed to the teeth, approaching doors/windows/other places while sweeping the house with firearms, not in any kind of uniform, and wearing masks like these guys, I daresay many of us would have been on high alert right away and preparing for the worse. Not saying "open fire immediately", but moving our families to better safety, calling 911, arming ourselves, etc.
The ONLY thing I saw in this that made me think "law enforcement" was the initial camera angle where the guy on the front porch was walking up and his shield said "POLICE US MARSHAL" And you know what that idiot did? He DELIBERATELY BLOCKED THE CAMERA VIEW before he knocked, and didn't even identify himself as law enforcement until his second knock.
They CLEARLY were trying to put forth only a token gesture at identifying themselves as law enforcement. Otherwise they ALL would have been clearly identifiable as such and the nitwit on the porch wouldn't have blocked the camera view before knocking, and would not have waited until the second knocking to identify himself as such.
"Oh, if the bad guy had KNOWN we were law enforcement, he would have run!"
Well, guess what, jackboot? If he KNEW a bunch of armed guys were approaching the house in the FIRST place he would have either run or upped the ante then, right? What difference would knowing whether or not the guys with the guns were LEO or not?
If these guys REALLY thought their bad guy was there, then why weren't they prepared to enter? You know...like with a warrant?
"Oh, they're just going to ask some questions."
WITH THEIR GUNS OUT AND SWEEPING? (To be fair, I only saw the one guy in back doing this...the other guy in back didn't have a firearm in hand. And the guy in front, approaching behind a shield, I couldn't see either.)
Their bad guy could have been inside the house all along, either alone, with accomplices, or with hostages. And guess what? This wouldn't have been any different if someone had actually been home and answered the door. The bad guy could have still been there.
And if they're not prepared to enter...then they can sit outside that house until the sun swells into a red giant for all I care...or get a warrant and do a proper search. How long do the police wait? Well, if there isn't a crime in progress, they can wait until the cows come home.
And to top is all off...these nitwits hadn't done their research on the residence, either.
I get it...cops of all stripes are human. But I'm tired of people making excuses for p*ss-poor behavior.