Posted on 09/03/2002 7:41:56 AM PDT by JediGirl
| Those listed below includes innocent victims of police raids. Remember: Some, though not all, of the below victims never engaged in a single drug activity, yet they were still murdered due to the "War on Drugs." Even those who did and do engage in drug use do not warrant death. It was (and is) a personal choice and it was (and is) individual's own bodies. John Adams -- Tennessee A 62-year-old black man was shot and killed by five white police officers in Lebanon, Tennessee after they burst through the front door of his home at 10:00 PM on a Wednesday night. It turned out their search warrant for drugs was erroneous: It should have been written for the house next door. David Aguilar -- Arizona David Aguilar, 44, retired from the military after 20 years and decided to live on his pension so he could be a "stay-at-home dad" to his five youngest children, aged 3 to 15, according to Beth Cascaddan, his neighbor in Three Points, Arizona. "He was extremely devoted to his children," Ms. Cascaddan told reporter Melissa Martinez of the daily Tucson Citizen. Aguilar also coached youth football and baseball. But on the early afternoon of Friday, January 10, David Aguilar sensed something wrong. There was a man sitting in a car parked alongside the road bordering Aguilar’s property. Aguilar confronted the man and an argument emerged. Seeing that the stranger was not going to move along, Aguilar went back to the house and returned with a gun. The children told neighbor Bonnie Moreno their father was simply trying to scare the man away. There is no indication David Aguilar ever fired. When the man in the car saw Aguilar returning, he drew his own gun and, at 2:45 that Friday afternoon, fired multiple times through his own windshield. David Aguilar died that evening in a Tucson hospital, of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The shooter was an undercover agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. His name has never been released and he has not spent a single day in prison. Delbert Bonar -- Ohio Police in Belpre, Ohio, got a tip that Albert Bonar was growing and selling marijuana. So, on October 15, 1998, they raided the house where Albert lived, and shot to death his father, Delbert Bonar, 57, a janitor. Police did find a small amount of marijuana -- enough for personal consumption. Albert later admitted the marijuana was his. The police did not find any of the growing plants or large quantities of marijuana the informant allegedly told them about. The informant who gave the false information has not been named. Police told the press that they were just protecting themselves when they riddled the body of Delbert Bonar with bullets. But Carolyn Bonar, daughter-in-law of Delbert, says that all Delbert had in his hands was a water bottle. The elder Bonar was reaching for his telephone, an offense apparently punishable by death when there is a suspicion that marijuana may be on the premises. Delbert Bonar died instantly from 8 bullet wounds from police gunfire. In his 57 years, he had no criminal record and had never even been arrested. Vernia Brown -- New York On Thursday, March 17, 1988, at 10:45 p.m., in the Bronx, Vernia Brown was killed by stray bullets fired in a dispute over illegal drugs. The 19-year-old mother of one was not involved in the dispute, yet her death was a direct consequence of the "War on Drugs". Scott Bryant -- Wisconsin Age 29 at time of death when he was shot by police officer Robert Neuman of the Dodge County Sherrif's Department in Beaver Dam, WI, on April 28, 1995. Bryant was unarmed and did not resist in any way when police with a no-knock warrant charged through the door of his home. His seven-year-old son watched his father die while an ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive. Police later reported finding less than three grams of marijuana (enough for two or three cigarettes). Police claim it may have been an accidental shooting. An accident that has changed the lives of the Bryant family and many others in his state. Troy James Davis -- Texas Troy James Davis, 25, died December 15, 1999 at Columbia North Hills Hospital, about 15 minutes after being shot by North Richland Hills police officer Allen Hill. Police had gone to the Davis home to serve a search-and-arrest warrant in connection with an informant's tip that there were drugs in the house. After the shooting, Davis' mother, Barbara Davis, 49, was arrested in connection with the drug possession investigation. Police broke down the front door of the Davis home when they entered. Police have indicated that no drugs have been found on the home, using the “crime scene” as an excuse for their lack of evidence. One wonders why police broke into the home rather than knocking on the door. What kind of evidence did they have and how did they get it? Who was the informant? Barbara Davis has a defense fund set up on her behalf The Barbara Davis Defense Fund. Anna (Annie) Rae Dixon -- Texas Age 84 and bedridden when she was killed by police in a 1992 drug raid in East Texas. No drugs were found in the home. A 28 year-old officer said his automatic pistol accidentally discharged when he kicked open Mrs. Dixon's bedroom door. Earlier the evening of her death, an informant was given $30 to go into the Dixon home where he claimed he could buy drugs. He emerged with crack cocaine, but police did not search him either before or after the purchase. The informant reported that a few young women and children lived there, but he didn't report about the sick woman. Police got a search warrant and returned to the house just after 2:00 AM. They sprinted up the ramshackle porch and smashed the front door with a battering ram. As they swept in, the officer kicked in the door to Ms. Dixon's bedroom and fell, slamming his elbow against the door and firing the gun. The officer said he collapsed and "started throwing my guts up crying because I knew I had shot somebody that didn't have no reason to be shot." Steven Dons -- Oregon Dons, 37, "committed suicide" while in a medical facilty run by the State. He had been the victim of an unlawful raid by the Portland Oregon Police Department over the heinous crime of "maybe" having had marijuana in the house he was staying in. Dons was not a mild mannered customer. When the police kicked down his door without a warrant, he responed in a way appropriate for the situation. Using a rifle, he killed police officer Colleen Waibel and seriously wounded two other officers. The tragic results of a raid on a citizen who understood the Second and Fourth Amendments. Patrick Dorismond -- New York Juan Mendoza Fernandez -- Texas A 60-year-old man shot and killed by Irving, Texas police serving narcotics search and arrest warrants at his West Dallas home thought officers were burglars trying to force their way inside, members of his family said. He and his wife had been married about 36 years and had four children and 13 grandchildren. Curt Ferryman -- Florida The fatal shooting of unarmed drug dealer Curt Ferryman in a botched sting in Jacksonville was "negligent and unnecessary," but not flagrant enough to warrant criminal prosecution against the federal agent who shot the man, according to State Attorney Harry Shorstein. The August 14, 2000 raid of Ferryman was "poorly planned and poorly executed." Shorstein later admitted that "under Florida law, the killing of Curt Ferryman was excusable homicide." 30-year-old Christopher Sean Martin of the Drug Enforcement Administration accidentally shot Ferryman when the agent knocked on the window of a parked vehicle occupied by the 24-year-old Ferryman. Ramon Gallardo -- California Gallardo was shot 15 times by a SWAT team with a warrant for his son in Dinuba, California in 1997. Ralph Garrison -- New Mexico Ralph Garrison, 69, a video store owner, lived in downtown Albuquerque. In a lifetime of owning small businesses, he put away enough to buy a second house next door, which he rented out. Before sunrise on Monday, December 16, 1996, Ralph Garrison awakened to hear the sounds of someone breaking into his rental property next door. His tenants apparently were not at home. Garrison went outside to ask who these people were and what they were doing. The men -- dressed in black with no visible identifying marks, wearing black "balaclava" hoods which may have been pulled down to conceal their faces, shined lights in his eyes, brandished rifles and yelled at him to get back in his house. Ralph Garrison called 911. But 911 had already arrived. Police reported that police officer H. Neal Terry and county deputies James Monteith and Erik Little -- displaying no badges, dressed in unmarked dark SWAT gear, and possibly wearing their black hoods pulled down over their faces -- saw Garrison come to his back door with a gun in one hand and a cellular phone in the other. All three officers opened fire with their AR-15 assault rifles, discharging at least 12 rounds. Police Chief Joe Polisar and County Sheriff Joe Bowdich said they believe the officers shot Garrison in accordance with departmental policies. John P. Graham -- Wisconsin When Graham, 49, refused to get out of his truck and resisted during an on-site interrogation, he was handcuffed by Sauk-Prairie police officer John Mueller and ordered to remain face down on his driveway. Graham was then shot twice in the back of the head by Mueller with his police revolver. The incident occurred September 16, 1986. Willie Heard -- Kansas In the town of Osawatomie, Kansas (pop. 4,500), Willie Heard, a forty-six year-old man, was shot to death in his bedroom at 1:30 AM by police who had stormed into the home to execute a search warrant. Heard's sixteen year-old daughter claims that the officers failed to identify themselves other than to shout "freeze!" and "get down!" The police, after kicking in the front door, entered the bedroom and came upon Mr. Heard clutching his twenty-two caliber rifle. They shot. He died. The warrant said that the police were to search for crack cocaine and related items. None was found. A probe is underway by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to determine whether police acted improperly in killing Mr. Heard. John Hirko -- Pennsylvania A masked ninja style 'drug task force' squad of police officers gunned down an unarmed drug suspect in his own home in Bethlehem in April, 1996, in what the coroner subsequently ruled a homicide. The cops also set fire to the house, incinerating the body, but claimed to have miraculously retrieved the drugs for which they had a search warrant. Raul Huartado -- Indiana Gary police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide, and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August, 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims. Joey Kessinger -- Tennessee A tangle between the police and the suspect occurred regarding the illegal sale of drugs in July, 2001. According to the medical examiner's report, Kessinger had two gunshot wounds to the left wrist and four gunshot wounds on the back of his body. Bruce Lavoie -- New Hampshire On August 3, 1989, Lavoie lay peacefully sleeping in the room he shared with his young son in the village of Hudson. At 5:00 AM he was awakened by a loud noise as his whole home was shaken violently. A battering ram had smashed his front door and a dark band of armed men rushed into his small apartment. Rising to defend his son, Lavoie was shot to death as his little boy watched helplessly. Officers found one cannabis cigarette butt. Ronald Loop -- New Jersey Age 25 at time of death on March 11, 1988 in Brick Township. Suspected of marijuana dealing, Loop had just picked up a Federal Express package that contained 10 pounds of marijuana. He was unarmed and was shot as he fled from police outside his home. Ismael Mena -- Colorado Kirk Massie -- Oklahoma Officers shot and killed an armed Sparks man hiding in his bathroom one Tuesday morning in mid-2001 as a search warrant was served at his home. Kirk Massie, 49, was armed with a double-barrel shotgun when agents entered his Lincoln County home at 7:50 AM to serve a warrant for methamphetamine. Massie operated a meth. lab in a bunker on the property. His life was taken because of it. Pedro Oregon Navarro -- Texas Acting on an informant's tip, members of the Houston Police Department gang taskforce stormed into an apartment last month they believed illegal drugs were being sold. When the man who lived there locked himself inside his bedroom, the officers kicked in the door and began firing. Thirty-three bullets later, 23 year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro was dead, shot a dozen times, including nine times in the back. But the investigation in the wake of the fatal shooting shows the officers had no warrant, the informant was not registered with the police as required by Department rules covering drug informants, police found no drugs in Mr. Oregon's apartment and a gun officers said Mr. Oregon had pointed at them never was fired. "They went knowingly and consciously in search of their own heroics and forgot to abide by the rules," says Tony Cantu, a hispanic activist in Houston. "The bottom line is they shot an innocent young man in the back after in illegal entry," Mr. Dovalina said. Gil Nevarez -- Indiana Gary, Indiana police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims. Mario Paz -- California A 69 year old grandfather died a brutal death at the hands of police looking for marijuana on August 9, 1999. No drugs were found. It was an hour before midnight when an El Monte police SWAT team, serving a search warrant as part of a broad-ranging narcotics investigation, undertook what it called the "high-risk entry" of a Compton home -- shooting the locks off the front and back doors. Their warrant, which named no one specifically in the Paz home, says police expected to find marijuana and cash belonging to a suspected member of a drug ring who had allegedly used the house as a mail drop. They found no drugs, but in the course of the search they shot a retired grandfather twice in the back -- killing him. The widow was hustled out of the house in nothing but panties, a towel, and plastic handcuffs. She and six others were later taken away and intensively interrogated, but no one was charged. Ten thousand dollars in cash was seized as evidence, along with a .22- caliber rifle and three pistols, according to investigators for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The family said that the money was patriarch Mario Paz's life savings and that he kept firearms for protection in the high-crime neighborhood. Robert Lee Peters -- Florida Age 33 at time of death in St. Petersburg in July, 1994. Deputies did not identify themselves before breaking into the house as the family prepared to watch a movie. Friends and relatives say Peters may have mistaken them for burglars. Deputies did not know there were two children and his ailing stepfather (who had a heart attack after the shoot-out) in the house at the time of the no-knock raid. The police tried to smash through the front door with a battering ram. Peters fired a .357 magnum through the door and was struck three times by the SWAT team. Two pounds of marijuana were confiscated from his home. Records indicate that a confidential informant bought 7.3 grams of marijuana. An undercover detective purchased 27 grams. His brother George was charged and did not resist arrest. George said his brother wouldn't have resisted either, had he known they were deputies. "All they had to do," he said, "was knock on the door." Manuel Medina Ramirez -- California When Ramirez, a 63-year-old retired golf-course groundskeeper, was routed from his slumber at 2:00 AM by armed men breaking down the door of his modest Stockton home, he instinctively reached for his bedside pistol. Shooting into the darkness, he brought one of the men down; the others returned fire, and Ramirez was shot dead in front of his son and daughter, who had also been awakened. The armed men turned out to be a Stockton police anti-drug team who had obtained a warrant for the house after a friend of the Ramirez family was found with marijuana in his car and gave the police the Ramirez address as his own. The officers claim they had identified themselves, but the Ramirez daughter says her father spoke poor English and couldn't understand them. No drugs were found in the house. "These were very quiet people," said a neighbor. "I never saw anything going on that could indicate drugs at all." Donald Scott -- California Michael Swimmer -- Georgia While Swimmer stood naked by his own bed, drug warrior police burst through his front door and riddled his bedroom with machine gun fire. Swimmer was shot ten times and died a few hours later. The authorities all agreed killing Swimmer, who had no police record, was just fine because an unidentified informant said that he had 368 tablets of ecstasy. Rev. Accelyne Williams -- Massachusetts Retired Methodist minister Accelyne Williams was chased around his Boston apartment by members of a police team looking for drugs and guns when he collapsed and died of a heart attack at the age of 75. Acting on a tip by an informant, the police conducted a no-knock raid. No guns or drugs were found, as it was soon discovered they raided the wrong apartment. George Timothy Williams -- Idaho Officer Phillip Anderson, 23, and his partner, Cpl. James Moulson, 30, were killed in the shootout at the Eden home of George Timothy Williams the night of January 3, 2001 while attempting to serve a search warrant for illegal drugs at Williams' home. Williams, 47, a suspected drug dealer, was also killed during the fight. About four grams of marijuana were found in Williams' home after the raid. Rusty Windell -- Texas |
Whacky as I am, I think that giving the government profit incentive to raid people on specious tips in order for them to confiscate property is a bad thing. So sue me. I also think that there is no rationality in our policy. If we want to be a nanny state, let's ban fast food, cigarettes, and alcohol. Just because you may think your white woman might have sex with a darkie, doesn't mean marijuana is patently worse than a big mac, a single malt scotch or a carton of marlboros. Aspirin is a drug. Prozac is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. Nicotine is a drug. That is all many of us are saying. No knock raids at 2AM, without identifying yourself as a law enforcement officer, just so you can hopefully confiscate a $5 million ranch on the off chance there are a few pot plants there is a bad idea.
Here is the dogbyte12 proposal. Decriminalize marijuana. Tax the hell out of it. Stiffen sentences for furnishing it to minors. Use that tax money only to pay for treatment of the drug abusers so people who choose not to use drugs aren't paying for the others. Employers are free to drug test as they like. I am happy, most people are happy, except for prison guards, the ATF, and illbay.
Yes, we do, but taking dope isn't one of them.
I'm sorry, but your continuing attempts to elevate free dope to the level of a civil right is just ludicrous.
It doesn't seem that way to you, because it is likely all you think about. But the laws are going to remain, and the War on Drugs--which we're winning--is going to continue, because the vast majority of people are NOT hopelessly addicted, and don't have the same mindset of those who are addicted and want to turn their addiction into some sort of pious virtue.
The rest of us, as I've said, see things a lot more clearly. We've all had and continue to have family or friends who are caught up in it, and we're sick of hearing how "wonderful" it is.
It's not. It's soul-destroying, and its effects reach far beyond the life of the single individual dope-addict.
That's why you can murmur and declaim all you want, but are no closer to "winning" on your issue than when I was a student in the 1970s.
"...in return for the far greater benefits of having a society that isn't totally overrun with dope-heads like you people."
"And it's not like you dope-heads haven't been lying to yourselves and everyone else in your lives for many years now, so what's one more?"
"Someone bogart your joint this morning?"
You don't remember saying anything abusive? The entirety of your pro-WOsD argument is "Anyone who disagrees with us is a dope-head". You and your ilk are absolutely incapable of debating with facts, science, and Constitutional law, because none of them are on your side. You instead constantly resort to personal attacks and blanket statements. But you know what - keep it up. People read these threads and see the absolute insanity of the WODdies. I can think of two former supporters of the WOsD here on FR who have publically stated that their views on the issue have recently changed. Both cited the attitude of the WODdies here as a chief component of their reversal. I imagine there are dozens more who have done the same. You can only read so many threads where WODdies ignore direct questions, distort numbers, and refuse to debate issues before you begin to realize that they must not have the facts on their side. So again, by all means, keep it up.
I disagree. It is an interstate problem, and so the Feds will always be involved. That's just reality.
Oh, you mean those few lawbreakers like Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and pesky little incidents like the Valentine's day massacre?
The war on alcohol created big city gangs, extortion, murder, increased potentcy of the drug, and corrupted law enforcement.
The war on drugs created....
The definition of stupidity is trying the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.
You might look again. That was a semi-humorous reply to the rhetorical question "did you forget to take your Prozac this morning?"
Either you CAN'T read, or your agenda won't permit you to see the whole picture. As I said before, "dope-head" etc., are generally used slang terms for "drug user."
I submit that the term is perfectly applicable.
It's like Dr. Laura Schlessinger's use of the term "shacking up," which people dislike in reference to living outside of wedlock, or "slut" for a woman of negotiable affection.
It's too bad that it offends you, but I'm offended by this notion that I need to stand back so my kids and grandkids can inherit the hell-on-earth that you folks want to make of this nation.
My drug history ended at 18 when I joined the military. I was tested for 3 years non stop, and when I got out at 21, I didn't feel the need to use drugs. More than anything else, the thing that shows me people of your ilk are losing the debate, is that you resort to calling everybody druggies in place of debating the issue on it's merits.
Well gee, that sets up one of those terrifying "direct questions" that you WODdies seem to be so incapable of answering. Give it a try:
Are you involved with the Law Enforcement or Regulation side of the WOsD in any way? Are you an LEO? Do you work for the DEA?
I was pro-WOD (up to 2 weeks ago) until I saw the multitude of reports of innocents being killed by black pajama clad American style Gestapo agents. I then took a hard long look at the moral implications and reallized that I did NOT want to live in a country that would shred it's basic founding beliefs in an attempt to control an others morality. Besides that I also came to realize that the WOD was NOT an effort to help America be better, BUT was instead a HUGE and thinly disguised cash cow for various criminal enterprises passing themselves off as LE agencies.
What you don't understand is that the vast majority of Americans don't agree with you that dope-smoking, shooting up, etc., are all God-given civil rights that have been enshrined in law.
I'd LOVE to see a show of hands here, as to who are religious--and I mean SERIOUSLY religious, not members of the Church of What's Happening Now.
There are far too many folks who have lost all sight of notions of greater good, and higher authority. A pity, because that's the REAL fundamental basis for our Constitutional rights.
We DON'T have the constitutional right to do evil, period.
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