Posted on 01/21/2008 9:56:27 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LIMA, Ohio – The death of Tarika Wilson during a drug raid has left tensions here simmering between minorities and police.
Wilson, 26, was fatally shot and her 1-year-old son was wounded when SWAT officers burst into her home looking for her boyfriend.
Black clergy leaders are nervously waiting for investigators to decide whether to charge the veteran officer who fired the fatal shots. The officer is white, the victims black.
“This was ready to blow,” said Daniel Hughes, one of several pastors who has been preaching patience while residents demand more answers about the shooting. “It still could go either way.”
More than two weeks have passed since the Jan. 4 death of Wilson, a 26-year-old mother of six. Her baby son, Sincere Wilson, was wounded and had a finger amputated.
Little is known about what happened. Family members say Wilson was an innocent bystander. Police have said her 31-year-old boyfriend, who was arrested during the raid, was selling drugs out of the house. The raid concluded a long-term investigation into the sale of illegal drugs from the home, the police chief said.
The shooting has led to much soul searching about the mistrust between minorities and police and what happens to cities when manufacturing jobs move out and drugs move in.
“The root of this is we have no jobs here,” said Artria Knuckles, who manages a Taco Bell and supports four children in this northwestern Ohio city. “They have to do what they can to survive. They have to resort to selling drugs.”
It's either that or join the military, she said: “There's no way out.”
The shooting took place in a neighborhood pressed up against a rail yard and downwind from a sprawling oil refinery and chemical plant.
The area south of the city's downtown is where blacks settled after migrating to take jobs in bustling factories generations ago. For decades, Lima residents built car engines for Ford Motor Co., tanks for the Army and locomotives for the railroads.
Some of the factories are still open but far fewer people work in them now.
“The reality is there aren't a lot of opportunities for young people, said Hughes, whose The Future Church has been in the neighborhood since 1973.
Since the shooting, he and other church leaders have heard stories from residents, mostly black, about trouble with police. About one out of four people in the city of 40,000 is black.
Dozens lined up to complain about mistreatment and question investigators looking into the shooting at a forum on Wednesday led by Ohio's attorney general.
Some complained that the officer who shot Wilson remained on paid leave. Others said the investigation would be handled differently if the shooter wasn't a police officer or if the victim was white. The investigation has been turned over to the state attorney general's office because a city police officer was involved.
“Perception, rumor and suspicion are dividing this community,” Attorney General Marc Dann said. “You have my word we will do everything in our power to see the truth is discovered and justice is served.”
He also pledged to rebuild trust between police and the black community.
“Maybe this is the place we can change how the community and police work together,” Dann said. “We can't keep doing things the same way and expect different results.”
Still, not many people left the meeting satisfied.
“People really want answers. They want them now,” said Alfred Dukes Jr., retired from the Ford engine plant. “Everybody should be outraged, black and white. I really think the city should be thankful nothing exploded.”
In the 1990s, Lima became involved in a national program known as Study Circles, in which diverse groups of citizens got together to discuss race, crime and youth. The communitywide effort led by clergy members originated after 1992, when a local Korean store was firebombed in Lima the night of the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles.
City councilman Ray Magnus credited clergy members with keeping peace in the city.
“The pastors are a good influence in this city,” he said. “You don't know what might happen if you had more aggressive people take charge.”
Lima on edge after police kill woman, wound 1-year-old child in drug raid ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949303/posts
Posted by microgood
On News/Activism ^ 01/06/2008 2:13:20 PM PST · 437 replies
ToledoBlade.Com ^ | Jan 6,2008 | By IGNAZIO MESSINA and ERICA BLAKE
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 ...
No-knock drug raids are way too common. Surround the house if you have to, and serve the warrant before busting in. So what if you lose a couple of busts to a flushing toilet?
The use of paramilitary no-knock raids as a common tactic lead to many terrible accidents (including mistaken home invasions) and turn the notion of “the people’s right to be secure in their own homes” completely upside down.
A tragic use of SWAT. Why don’t they arrest these people outside of the home?
She had 6 kids at 26 years of age. This whole situation shows how badly our society is screwed up. From the suspects to the police.
Well, the smart ones join the military.
Very sad situation. If the officer was wrong he should be charged.
If there is such poverty in that community and lack of opportunity why is any young woman having so many children?? Did they not teach her about birth control in public school?
Dysfunctional families in dysfunctional cities with dysfunctional armed govt workers.
He has a job. Is he special or something? Or was he just willing to make an effort to gain employment. Even during some bad times in the 80's, I never restorted to selling drugs.
And its not just for Drug Raids. They're doing this sh*t for junk like $100.00 'Failing To Appear' Warrants.
I think all these 'commandos' should be tested to see if they're freaking sane. It's almost like they want to be a Green Beret, Ranger or SEAL and are 'playing war'.
I don’t agree with charging the officer at the sharp end. You can’t send armed men on a home invasion against in the middle of the night and then expect them to make split second threat/no threat judgements correctly 100% of the time.
In adult organizations, responsibility flows upwards. If this raid went wrong, blame - and charge - the people that wrongly decided to make an arrest that way in the first place. The SWAT chief, the judge who signed the warrant, etc. If this occurred with regularity, perhaps the no knock invasion would be a last resort instead of a nightly phenomenon.
Unfortunate situation. The “civil rights” leaders care about this only because the victim was black. That is not how it should be. Black or white should make no difference.
Has it occurred to you yet that we "civilians" are just about fed up with JBT tactics? That we aren't buying the "isolated incident" excuse any more? And the most of us are no longer concerned about whether you make home at the end of your shift if you think you have to slaughter several "civilians" to do it?
You thugs and thug enablers think that "civilians" are just going to keep taking it up the bum as long as you have a gun and a taser... Hold that thought. It will make it easier during CW2...
Has it occurred to you yet that we "civilians" are just about fed up with JBT tactics? That we aren't buying the "isolated incident" excuse any more? And the most of us are no longer concerned about whether you make home at the end of your shift if you think you have to slaughter several "civilians" to do it?
You thugs and thug enablers think that "civilians" are just going to keep taking it up the bum as long as you have a gun and a taser... Hold that thought. It will make it easier during CW2...
“I don’t agree with charging the officer at the sharp end. You can’t send armed men on a home invasion against in the middle of the night and then expect them to make split second threat/no threat judgements correctly 100% of the time.”
*shrug*
99% accuracy while shooting live rounds in a residential dwelling with children present is acceptible...
Whats a few dead women and shot kids....
/sarcasm
That is right. Whoever authorized the SWAT raid is responsible for this. SWAT tactics should only be used for hostage situations.
We are becoming what we supposedly fought all of our past wars against. Home invasions have become a real worry for all of us. The problem is that the invaders are likely to be the local police. If you misunderstand what is happening and resist, you could end up dead.
It's either that or join the military, she said: "There's no way out."
It's just pathetic that people honestly believe this lie. Too many are taught, and believe, that their support and livelihood must come from someone else.
So many minorities vote Democrat, but talk about empowerment. Liberalism is inherently, irrevocably crippling and enslaving.
Conservatism and free-market capitalism are liberating and empowering.
No, I don’t think that at all. I’m just as disgusted by the soldier wanna-bes in police as you are.
If they are permitted to make a scapegoat of one JBT on the raid when one goes wrong, that guarantees the policy is not going to change and his replacement will be going on another invasion just like this one the next week.
No. Sending militarized cops - however poorly disciplined, poorly trained, and poorly organized they may be - with automatic weapons into a residential dwelling to make a stupid drug arrest is what’s unacceptable.
Blaming the undisciplined, under trained, over gunned man on the ground for doing exactly what you’d expect him to do is a cop out to shield the people who are really responsible from blame.
“The shooting has led to much soul searching about the mistrust between minorities and police...”
You don’t have to be a minority to mistrust the police.
“Others said the investigation would be handled differently if... the victim was white.”
Ha! Don’t bet on it.
“Everybody should be outraged...”
Everybody is.
“I really think the city should be thankful nothing exploded.”
Wait.
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