Lima on edge after police kill woman, wound 1-year-old child in drug raid

ToledoBlade.Com ^ | Jan 6,2008 | By IGNAZIO MESSINA and ERICA BLAKE

[microgood]

LIMA, Ohio — Darla Jennings walked through the streets of south Lima last night sobbing as hundreds of people behind her called for justice after the shooting of her daughter, who was killed by police as she held her baby. Tarika Wilson, 26, was shot and her 1-year-old son was wounded when Lima police conducted a drug raid on their home Friday night, prompting members of the black community to organize a candlelight vigil and demand answers from police. "They shot my daughter and her baby," Ms. Jennings said through tears while being consoled by other family members.

[eleni121]

The only disturbed posters are those like you who jump to conclusions about cops and glorify drug dealers.

Now that is really disturbing!

[muawiyah]

Ridiculous. THe Chinese discovered this way back in the 1800s ~ they tried full legalization. Next thing you know the Narcotrafficantes were carving their country up ~ took them until nearly this century to get the last of them out (which they did with the return of Hong Kong).

China's experience with full legalization is instructive and people who chose to ignore it should be disenfranchised ~ seriously.

[Dad yer funny]

FR bookmark

[calex59]

“Marijuana and crack cocaine were found in the house.” If this mother of several was aware of drugs in the home then she is to blame.

This happens to people, white or black, more and more often lately. The idea of staging a swat type raid on people because of drugs is simply wrong. Are you going to tell me this woman holding a baby was resisting arrest? Drug dealers can be arrested in daylight hours away from their homes without doing unconstitutional no knock warrents. I don't care if a judge says these warrents are ok, they are unconstitutional. This woman may have been aware of the drugs, she is NOT to blame for getting shot. They weren't raiding a serial killers home or some terrorists strong hold, they were busting into a private citizens home in the hopes of fame and glory and killed a woman who shouldn't have been killed, or do we have the death penalty for drug dealers now?

The only ones to blame for this death and baby mutilation are the police who raided this house. We need to stop these swat teams now, they grown out of hand and result in several deaths a year, often times in a raid on the wrong house.

I would love to see what justification the cops used for shooting this woman.

[nckerr]

Lima has a bad drug reputation, which it deserves. And, we need a SWAT team because of the gangs.

Yea everytime I turn on the tv, I hear about the hood in Lima, OH. Those gangsters in Lima can be a crazy bunch.

[microgood]

Those scum involved in the deadly narcotics trade need to know that the Law will prevail.

The drug warriors have destroyed more lives than drugs ever will, and to no avail. Drugs in this country are cheaper and more plentiful than they have ever been after 35 years and trillions of dollars.

[lightman]

Lima used to be famous for making Shay Locomotive which were ingeniously geared steam engines for lumber and mining operations on sloppy rails and steep grades.

It's all Diesel's fault.

[When do we get liberated?]

“cop haters and Anarchists”

I am more moderate. Call me a cop-disliker and REALLY small government fan. I was raided 2 years ago, ostensibly for being a drug dealer. I was a smoker and a narc with a personal score to settle with me made me a dealer for a day. When the battering ram came through the door along with 12 hyped up cops with sub machine guns, my AK 47 (Legal) was sitting next to my gun cleaning kit as I was going to clean it on my day off. I always clean it on the sofa at the top of the stairs (split level house) as that has the best light in the house. I can only imagine what would have happened if they busted in and saw me holding an AK 6 feet from them.
Fortunately I wasn’t, so they settled for stealing 2 antiques, $400 (paperwork said they found 16 dollars), tearing my house apart and costing me about $6,ooo dollars when all was said and done. The 6 grams of marijuana they found was not enough to make me a drug dealer, so they claimed to find 20 grams and a few roaches around the house. This was apparently enough to charge me with 2 felonies and 2 midemeanors. One of them was “maintaining a dwelling for the purpose of distributing controlled substances” The same charge they usually give someone who runs a crackhouse! To this day, I am the only drug dealer in history that did not own a scale or a single plastic baggie!

Where do you think I stand on this issue?????????
I sell cars for a living, if I accidentally run over a woman and child at work I will be charged with manslaughter and will wear an orange jumpsuit for years. I hope the cop is treated the same.

[MichiganWoodsman]

The only disturbed posters are those like you who jump to conclusions about cops and glorify drug dealers.

Nobody is glorifying drug dealers. But, nothing related to drug dealing warrants these type of raids much in the same way that bouncing a large check doesn't warrant a raid on your home to find the checkbook. If the cops didn't overreact and show-off with their paramilitary gear all of the time, nobody would get hurt. If Blackwater Security did this on contract for some agency, they would face negligent homicide charges in most of these situations.

[MichiganWoodsman]

Why....why they trying to hold our people down....LOL

[darkangel82]

Where did I “glorify drug dealers,” idiot? Did you miss a round of medication today?

[When do we get liberated?]

What do you think they would do if they got a search warrant? THE EXACT SAME THING. Same dead mom, same dead kid.

[calex59]

If the police made that rule, then ALL drug houses would find it beneficial to use infants as human shields. More infants would likely be harmed because more would be around the dangerous, violent drug houses.

There is no need to raid drug houses. Arrest the perps on the street, obtain search warrents that require knocking and letting the people know you are cops(you know, the constitutionally approved method), go into the house, either find material or not as the case may be. Swat teams need to be outlawed. There is no way to justify this killing, and no way to justify swat type raids. We don't need paramilitary police,we are not a tyrannical type government(or we are not supposed to be).

[Ray'sBeth]

“I live here, and hate what is going on.” I understand exactly what you’re saying, Jaidyn. Lima’s my hometown and many years ago I started my teaching career right in the middle of this area in the old South Junior High. Even though I had grown up in the town, it was a different world. I was so naive, but learned a lot really fast from the first day when I walked in and was greeted with “another honky to teach us.”
I have so many memories. I’ll never forget the day one of my students told me her sister had just had her 8th baby—every one of them with a different daddy—and that meant she would get more money from the government. I honestly had no idea how to respond.
My second year and last day of teaching there ended abruptly when the students set the school on fire. Luckily the firemen extinguished it before too much was burned.

I now look back on it and realize that this is an area with generational poverty and generations of these problems. Many people have tried to help. Obviously, more work needs to be done.

BTW, the police chief is a really good guy from a super family. I grew up a few houses from his. I am sure that he is very sad that this has turned out this way.

[When do we get liberated?]

Nah, the Chinese tried that, still didn’t work

[CGTRWK]

If the plea bargain system were done away with, I expect that the list of redundant charges brought in most cases would be cut down to match and the sentences at the end of the day would be similar to what we see now. If for no other reason than that the prisons are largely full and don’t have room to keep folks in for 25 instead of 5.

And yes, it’d free more police to revenue me on 495.

[When do we get liberated?]

O.K. I’m all for that one.

[muawiyah]

Still, we have increased our prison capacity tremendously. No doubt we could do it again.

Frankly, I'd like fewer folks in but doing harder time ~

The Europeans harrass prisoners with an endless parade of social workers. The Japanese don't let them sit down.

There are ways.

We might also think twice about prison time for speeding ~

[When do we get liberated?]

My Pit bull loves kids. See my tagline. None of the “little rascals” crowd from the TV show ever got mauled, did they?

[mysterio]

There is no need to raid drug houses. Arrest the perps on the street, obtain search warrents that require knocking and letting the people know you are cops(you know, the constitutionally approved method)... Swat teams need to be outlawed.

If the failed drug war is to be perpetuated, I agree with your strategy. Also, I would like for the sane among us to not have to pay for the failed drug war. The voters who support it should pay for their share of it with a monthly bill. Additionally, all unconstitutional drug war legislation must be immediately rescinded and the Constitution must be restored. If those things are done, I would complain a lot less about the failed war on some drugs.