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Meet Jason Westcott, your latest, needless, inexcusable drug war casualty
Washington Post ^ | July 7, 2014 | Radley Balko

Posted on 07/07/2014 5:44:57 PM PDT by bamahead

Add another body to the drug war pile. From the Tampa Bay Times, here is the story of the death of Jason Westcott:

A man who had partied at Westcott’s home was plotting to rob him. An itinerant motorcycle mechanic, Westcott didn’t have much — two televisions and a handgun — but he was terrified by his would-be intruder’s threats to kill him.

Police tracked down the suspect and warned him to stay away. Westcott, those close to him said, was left with a word of advice from the investigating officers: If anyone breaks into this house, grab your gun and shoot to kill.

On the night of May 27, as armed men streamed through his front door, Westcott grabbed his gun. But the 29-year-old didn’t have a chance to shoot before he died in a volley of gunfire. And those who killed him weren’t robbers.

They were police officers from the same agency he had enlisted to protect his home. --SNIP--

Authorities told news reporters who swarmed to the scene that Westcott was dealing drugs and had sold pot multiple times, armed, to undercover Tampa police officers. During the raid, officials said, he “raised his gun and threatened the officers,” who killed him in self-defense.

--SNIP--

Police initially said that the investigation of Westcott’s alleged drug dealing began because of neighbors’ complaints. However, when the Times could find no neighbors who had called police and no records of the complaints, the department revised this assertion, saying the case began with a tip from the same informer who later bought the marijuana.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; wod
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1 posted on 07/07/2014 5:44:57 PM PDT by bamahead
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To: Abathar; Abcdefg; Abram; Abundy; albertp; Alexander Rubin; Allosaurs_r_us; amchugh; ...
Add another to the death toll: http://www.cato.org/raidmap



Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

2 posted on 07/07/2014 5:47:40 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: bamahead

Jason Westcott, Tampa

3 posted on 07/07/2014 5:50:03 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: bamahead

The policy makers are perfectly content with this type of harm and killing.

Thanks for the ping.


4 posted on 07/07/2014 5:54:17 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: bamahead

Thank God the police officers made it home safe.


5 posted on 07/07/2014 5:56:36 PM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (Obama - "I will stand with the Muslims")
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To: bamahead

Garbage in, garbage out.

Sad for him, in reality.

Notice how the Washington Post sounds just like the crazy leftertarians here?

Imagine that, Freepers and Wash Compost arm in arm allies.

For people who haven’t melted their brain on drugs, you can see how this is a pure propaganda piece that leaves out info and is meant solely to appeal to emotion, not reason.


6 posted on 07/07/2014 6:00:13 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: bamahead
Murder, plain and simple.

If you want to know what the left's game-plan is, read Jung Chang's Mao, the Unknown Story, it is absolutely chilling. Now, I've read plenty about Hitler, Stalin, et al, and didn't for a minute think I would have any problem reading this one but I did----Mao took evil to a new level. A most depressing book.

More depressing is the fact that the left has adopted Mao's evil strategy. That basic strategy was vocalized a couple of years ago, dressed up as pretty as it can be, by, I believe, Rahm Emmanuel----"Never let a crisis go to waste". The evil part is that they themselves are working flat out to create as many crisis as they can.

They just don't care how many people are victimized, damaged, or even killed.

7 posted on 07/07/2014 6:11:51 PM PDT by Cruising Speed
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To: Gene Eric

perfectly content?

I think they want these types of harm and killing. Keep folks on edge and afraid.

i.e., You may be next.

You know you did something wrong-there’s so many laws out there we all are guilty of something.


8 posted on 07/07/2014 6:27:29 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob
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To: Scrambler Bob

Not sure we disagree.


9 posted on 07/07/2014 6:42:33 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: ifinnegan

“....you can see how this is a pure propaganda piece that leaves out info and is meant solely to appeal to emotion, not reason.”

Obviously. But is the author correct in his assertions? Was this guy in effect extrajudicially executed over $200 worth of pot? Did the police do any due diligence? Sadly it appears that they did little if any.

Each one of these shootings leaves behind people who are devastated as a result. Most will do nothing about it it. But some, if presented an opportunity, will return the favor in some fashion. I would use the experience of the Israelis as an example. Living around a population of people who deeply hate you and live for the opportunity to wreak revenge for past slights, real or imagined, is a lousy way to live.

The public attitude toward police has changed markedly in the last 5 years. And not for the better.


10 posted on 07/07/2014 6:45:22 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Be a part of the American freedom migration: freestateproject.org)
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To: bamahead

11 posted on 07/07/2014 7:00:55 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: RKBA Democrat

“But is the author correct in his assertions?”

I doubt it

But there is no way to know from the information provided.

He recounts at best hearsay regarding the cops telling him to shoot anyone who comes in his house. Pure hearsay, if it is even at that level of reliability

Note that the article mentions only one date, the day he was killed.

It is incredibly tenuous and provides zero detail on how he was supposedly told by police to shoot anyone going in to his house.

Read it. It provides zero information on how he was told except some amorphous phrase, “ left with words of advice”.

Quote:

“Police tracked down the suspect and warned him to stay away. Westcott, those close to him said, was left with a word of advice from the investigating officers: If anyone breaks into this house, grab your gun and shoot to kill.”

And, when did this word of advice make its’ way to the dead guy?

The article does not say. Not at all. No date or even time frame given.

It could have been weeks or months, or a year earlier before the May 27 day.

And the author, in a deliberate attempt, makes it seem like it happened the same day.

This is not worth the electrons needed to read it.


12 posted on 07/07/2014 7:17:48 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: ifinnegan

The same JBT squad who advised him to use his firearm to defend himself if his home was assaulted, is summarily executed by them for doing so...purportedly over a $200 mutually consensual transaction.

Yeah - you have to be a real Leftician to get bent out of shape about that kind of stuff.

Do you post while licking the boot on your throat? Every drop of blood that streams from this war is on the hands of people like you. Every friggin drop...


13 posted on 07/07/2014 7:20:12 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: ifinnegan
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/informer-not-neighbor-complaints-led-up-to-fatal-tampa-pot-raid/2187316

A stranger who had showed up with one of their friends asked to borrow Westcott's phone. He then got on Facebook and messaged two other men about stealing his hosts' gun and TVs in a few days' time and "burning" (or killing) Westcott, according to police reports on the incident.

After discovering the messages the next day, Westcott called the police, who consulted with him over several days about how to handle the incident.

The crime ultimately did not take place, and officers identified the alleged conspirators and put them on notice, the police report states. Reyes said investigators told him and Westcott not to be afraid to use their gun to defend themselves if the suspects reappeared, an account Westcott also related to his mother.

McElroy denied that the detectives who worked the case made the statements the young men described about using the gun to kill robbers if they broke in.

So - it's the JBT's word against a dead guys. Naturally, a bootlicker like you won't side with the dead guy his heroes just clipped...
14 posted on 07/07/2014 7:24:28 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: bamahead

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/informer-not-neighbor-complaints-led-up-to-fatal-tampa-pot-raid/2187316


15 posted on 07/07/2014 7:33:03 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

Thanks Ken for covering for my shoddy, hasty, URL posting capabilities :)


16 posted on 07/07/2014 7:34:27 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: bamahead

Not to worry. As they work down the population beginning with the homeless, mentally ill, transients, and young folk they can easily blame for drug use, or senior folk they can say were senile - they have incoming immigrants to take their place who will be more compliant.


17 posted on 07/07/2014 7:46:20 PM PDT by MarMema (Run Ted Run)
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To: ifinnegan; bamahead
Most experienced FReepers do a little research before shooting their keyboards off on these types of things.

I see that you're not to be bothered with such tedious tasks...

18 posted on 07/07/2014 7:57:14 PM PDT by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
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To: kiryandil

Read bamahead’s 14.

It is all hearsay.

Even the hearsay differs from what the Compost writer wrote.


19 posted on 07/07/2014 10:22:02 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: ifinnegan
It is all hearsay.

It is not. The article in post #14 quotes a witness to the event. A first-person account is not hearsay =>

Reyes said investigators told him and Westcott not to be afraid to use their gun to defend themselves if the suspects reappeared,...

20 posted on 07/07/2014 10:42:35 PM PDT by Ken H
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