Posted on 03/26/2013 3:51:47 PM PDT by Altariel
s I posted earlier, the 17-year-old Houston resident was shot to death Tuesday by a police SWAT team during a drug raid on his family's home. It's increasingly looking like yet another paramilitary drug raid gone horribly wrong.
The father of a 17-year-old killed by a police officer who was looking for drugs at his home said the shooting was unprovoked.
[...]
The elder Castillo said his son was awakened by the pleas of his 20-year-old sister, Ashley. When the younger Castillo turned toward Falks, he said, the officer shot him in the face.
"My son heard her say, 'Don't shoot.' He got up to see what was going on," the elder Castillo said.
The teen's sister was with her 1-year-old when Falks burst into the bedroom, the elder Castillo said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Dovalina says Daniel Castillo, Jr. was unarmed, had no criminal record, and according to his father, was not involved in the drug trade. The police affidavit for the search warrant claims an unidentified informant saw crack being sold from the house. It names “David Castillo” as a possible suspect, then later, “Daniel Castillo.” That tip and police observations of “traffic” at the Castillo home formed the basis of the forced-entry SWAT raid. No one but the police knows the identity of the informant.
According to his sister, Castillo was shot just below the eye as he rose up from his bed after hearing her scream. She was holding a 1-year-old child just a few feet from the shooting.
http://reason.com/blog/2007/02/16/daniel-castillo-ctd#comment_643804
Where’s the apologists to tell us all how we’re not supposed to rush to judgment over the actions of the police when, obviously, the police had no problems rushing to judge and execute a 17 year old boy?
A 17 year old boy who woke from his sleep because his sister was screaming in terror (”Don’t shoot my baby”), no less.
Brilliant reasoning.
The militarization of the police has got to stop and be reversed or we’re just going to see more and more of this kind of thing. Of course, as I say this the Dept. of Homeland Security has ordered billions of bullets and 3,000 armored assault vehicles in preparation for their war on Americans.
Well, take from this the following benefit. Perhaps these events will convince some drug dealer somewhere to quit his trade and spare otherwise free citizens from having to decide what to ingest into heir own bodies. Afterall, we can’t have people making such decisions for themselves, now can we?
Please don’t make me label this as sarcasm.
” No one but the police knows the identity of the informant.”
Well..now we know how we can legally get rid of any obnoxious people we don’t like.
“Inform” on them.
I’m assuming you’re not being saracastic? In any case, what I mean is that the police have all sorts of reasons why they have to raid people’s homes and kill people but where’s the expectation that the police are supposed to take a moment to consider if they really need to bust in on anyone at 3am in the morning?
Are these military-style assaults REALLY necessary every time a warrant is executed?
Seriously, we now live in a country where SWAT teams are used to collect on past-due student loans. Enough!
This is from 2007? Why is it posted now?
A better question would be why have we not heard of this before now?
Agreed. The tide is beginning to turn.
Unfortunately, too any government employees know that no matter what they do, ultimately, it is the taxpayers who will pay for their misdeeds—and so they care not what they do.
Why haven’t we heard of this raid before now?
Why has the media been largely silent on a government employee murdering a minor in his own home?
How many other “Daniel Castillos” have been terminated in the same manner or a similar manner, yet we don’t know about them?
Are you sure we haven’t had this posted here before? Articles from Reason magazine are frequently posted here. Did it never get press in any other paper before now? Just wondering why a 6 year old story is being posted now unless there has been some development in the case. It is an interesting story, but one that has many more recent examples.
Unanswerable question since we’re not going to be told of them unless their survivors speak up.
I can only vouch that I’ve never heard about it.
I have no idea whether it was posted before or not.
My memory is very good but not *that* good that I can recall every post ever made.
:)
Fair enough.
But it’s important to remember that the same thing could happen to any Freeper here, and the story of that Freeper’s death could be buried by a pro-Thug media just as easily.
A warning to -never- be forgotten.
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