I'm talking about how it changes things
Good. That's what I'm trying to do, too.
The issue is whether the Exclusionary Rule would apply to evidence seized in an unannounced entry.
Before, it did, now it doesn't.
I don't think so. It's about whether it would apply to an un-knocked entry. In the case brought before the court, the entry was announced. What was missing was the knock.
Now I agree that that's a change. If you only have not announce, not both knock and announce, that's a change. But it seems a change without significance.
What is the value added of rapping on the door with one's knuckles once one has yelled "police"? It seems redundant to me. It seems downright silly to me to declare an entry unauthorized because of some irrelevant vestige of common law and exclude evidence as a result. If you knock an announce it's authorized but if you just knock it isn't? Just plain silly. As long as they announced, which they did, how could it possibly matter whether they also said "Simon says." What is the point of the knock and announce? It's to notify the occupants that someone will be coming through the door and that that someone is the police, not a marauding band of ax murderers so they should act accordingly. What does it take to effect that communication? Seems to me that "POLICE" does it very well and anything else is superfluous.
This change does nothing to lessen the exclusionary rule, which has its own valid purpose, but to update the criteria for announcing to skip the redundant knock. And reduce fifteen seconds of thumb twiddling to five. I think it could reasonably be argued that the occupants need more than five seconds to grasp that the police are entering and adjust their mindset accordingly, but I can't see any sensible argument for the knock.
In summary, you say that it's about whether the exclusionary rule would apply to evidence seized in an announced entry but I don't see how it changes that. It merely changes what constitutes "announced." And if the exclusionary rule isn't affected, then I don't see any impetus to step up the bursts. You still need a warrant and you still need to announce.
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