Posted on 11/22/2006 1:30:23 AM PST by Sprite518
A 92-year-old woman was shot to death Tuesday after she fired at three narcotics officers trying to serve a warrant at her house, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
How special. Maybe if they had been officers in uniform and in daylight, they would not be injured and she would still be alive with the front door still attached. IMHO it is police responsibilty to avoid violence even at the cost of their own lives. That means extraordinary measures, like being in full uniform and by twos for warrant service. Being unarmed would also be a plus. I have frankly had it with police activities in certain locations. There are too many in most every state in the Union.
"I am attempting to not judge beyond the facts available"
As it turns out, you are correct.
The early reports said that it was based on a tip, which can be notoriously unreliable. But it wasn't a tip that sent them there, undercover officers did a buy at the house earlier in the day.
Now that we know the undercover guys went in the house earlier, that begs a whole other set of questions about the way they approached the raid.
We don't havd the full story yet, but he older I get the less I believe anything cops say.
This murder was the result of incompetance,
I would never jump to the conclusion that this was a murder. I'll wait for the facts.
they ought to knock on the door during day light hours and properly identify themselves before attempting to enter, even if it did mean a few druggies would be able to destroy the evidence.
***It looks like the adrenaline cowboys are taking over policy on raids like this. There is no glory in sending in someone half a day earlier to stop up the sewer line (now they can't flush drugs down the toilet, can they?) and then conduct daylight operations in full uniform right afterwards. Kinda like the branch Davidians -- ATF could have picked up Koresh when he was on his weekly run to get groceries, but there's no glory in it. If police work started to become as mundane as stopping toilets & picking up folks at the grocery store, adrenaline cowboys would lose interest and enroll in the war in Iraq, where we have real work for them to do.
>>"I am attempting to not judge beyond the facts available"
As it turns out, you are correct.
The early reports said that it was based on a tip, which can be notoriously unreliable. But it wasn't a tip that sent them there, undercover officers did a buy at the house earlier in the day.
Now that we know the undercover guys went in the house earlier, that begs a whole other set of questions about the way they approached the raid.<<
No matter what, its sad she died and its sad three cops got shot.
If there was an undercover buy there they question is -"from whom?"
If there was a drug dealer operating out of her house, with or without her consent then I'd like very much to see him found.
We don't have the full story yet, but he older I get the less I believe anything cops say.
Cops or {insert group here} are still human.
So there are being good ones, bad one and mostly complex ones that do both good and bad.
Generally there is a reason the peson takes a low paying high risk job - often its to do good, sometimes, its not.
"No matter what, its sad she died and its sad three cops got shot. "
Yeah, it's so sad it's almost hard to believe.
She had family, she was someone's Mom and GrandMom. Unreal.
What? Shall we paint targets on their kevlar vests, too?
Prudence is one thing. Suicide is another, FRiend.
No problem at all, I was just playing around. You still got 90 responses so the interest was there. Thanks Sprite.
Regards.
Bwaaaahahahahah !
"Well an important statement left out of the article. Did she or didn't she have drugs in the house. I would think no, since it was not mentioned."
If she didnt' some might still be "found".
I agree with you 100%. Given that their job is dangerous, one would think that they would spend some more time getting the details to make sure something doesn't go gravely wrong.
Be that is it may, is there any reason for cops conducting a search to do so in a way that makes them indistinguishable from robbers? Any crook with an iron and some fabric-store lettering could easily slap some letters saying "POLICE" on a black shirt.
Which is more likely for a law abiding person in that neighborhood--having the door smashed in by robbers, or having it smashed in by police? If the robbers are more likely, a person should be justified in believing the attackers to be robbers. If the police are more likely... maybe we should just disband them since they seem more dangerous than the robbers they're supposedly protecting against.
"Cops or {insert group here} are still human.
So there are being good ones, bad one and mostly complex ones that do both good and bad. "
Not to mention that they are stuck in an orginization which thinks nothing of kicking in the door of a 92 year old woman and mudering her under these type of circumstances. I don't who to blame IMO in this case yet, but whoever is at fault is a member of the APD.
What did they think they were going to find? An "8-ball" of coke, that could have been replaced within the hour on any corner in any major city?
It's the hallmark of the War on Some Drugs.... heavy, heavy collateral damage is the price being paid with zero forward, and indeed often *reverse* progress.
This is not the only story, someone in one of thes threads linked a page with a collection of news stories about Drug War collateral damage, including a man who was shot to death in beed in front of his young children, because a friend of his, not even him, had been pulled over and a personal-use amount of pot in the car.
The war on drugs is an outrageous, shameful disgrace which spits in the face of everything America stands for. One of the worst things that it does, is basically subvert any and all constitutional rights for the ultimate "end justifies the means" mentality.... They don't want some shlub to be able to smoke as joint sitting on his couch after work, and they are willing to kill to acheive that end. That is insane.
Worst off, it violates the ultimate sanctity.. the sanctity of ones home.. when cops with little or no information can burst into your home at night when you are sleeping and exectute you, and have the brass say "they followed proceedure".
The need to start indicting drug agents and holding them acoutnable.... more importantly they need to lay bare, wide open for everyone to see, what is being done, the damage being caused, the people killed and mained, and that fact that, thought I don't do drugs, I could drive no less than 20 minutes in almost any direction and get anyd rug I want, easily, and with very high purity. I could do THAT alot easier than a 19 year old kid could get a hold of a 6-pack, and so could the 19-year old.
Talk about a quagmire...you can't wage war on an inanimate substance as another poster put it.... the WoD is a war on *people*.... and drug addiciton is a medical problem.. you don't solve a medical problem with law enforcement. (unless youre the Federal Government)
It's also symptomatic of the typical government, especially liberal notion that "It's not that what we're doing is wrong.. we just haven't done ENOUGH OF IT yet... we need mroe money, more guns, so wse can shoot more 92 year old ladies"
End the war on drugs, pull funding from these shining examples of tactical mastery, put a fraction of WoD money into drug rehabilitation, and give the rest back to the taxpayers. You'd be surprised how much better the inner cities would get.
Coming from a nuclear surety era, where we could not under any circumstances risk a mistake, the rules have to reflect the seriousness of the task. If you want to avoid stupid decisions and needless death you had better make the rules such that the result is no stupid bureaucratic murders in the name of injustice, and the servants of the people have the responsibility of seeing that such rules are carried out.
IMHO the risk should be on their shoulders, not the other way around. I take great issue with no knock raids in the name of the WOD, be it swat team or individuals. I take great issue with plain clothes, armed warrant service in the dark. The people are INNOCENT until proven guilty IN A COURT OF LAW, not upon being suspect or having a warrant issued, period.
To expect anything less, is placing too much power in the hands of the enforcer, when warrant service is not enforcement. I'm sure much more could be said and there will be opinions on both sides of the issue. This happens to be mine.
Good question. Here's the hard-hitting journalism from the Fox station:
"Kiet Do", Fox 5 Atlanta: "Community members and activists mobilized very quickly...they want answers...in the shadow of police lights...members of the New Black Panther Party were out spreading their message...wearing their signature black berets, members passed out pamphlets and vowed justice" ...Ajee Mohammed, NBPP: "We are men, dat are dedicated defendin' the black community, and elsewhere, where black people are being victinized, and being attacked and killed, by outside forces not within our community."
She obviously needed a larger caliber. The wrong choice of firearms will get you killed every time.
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