Posted on 05/21/2002 11:23:58 AM PDT by COURAGE
Ron Smith's Something to Say Weekday Mornings 6:50AM rsmith@wbal.com
A Law Unto Themselves May 21, 2002 Ron Smith's Something to Say
(May 21, 2002)
After an FBI agent shot Joe Schultz in the face eleven weeks ago, we remarked that the investigation into this mistaken shooting would drag on until either until we all forget what happened or until some kind of plausible deniability could be cooked up by the feds.
Here’s a little update on the case of the unarmed Pasadena man mistaken for a bank robbery suspect and shot by Christopher Braga, an agent armed with an M-4 assault rifle:
The Anne Arundel County state’s attorney’s office acknowledges it has gotten the FBI report on the shooting. Prosecutors are now supposed to determine whether the shooting was justified or whether criminal charges should be filed against agent Braga. More weeks are to pass before a decision on that is made.
FBI officials still won’t comment on their review of the shooting, saying the investigation is continuing. We, the public, are supposed to be content with that, but we shouldn’t be.
What inquiring minds want to know is how come Braga is back on duty despite, according to press reports, having refused to be interviewed by investigators. He shot the wrong man. The 20-year-old Schultz was mistaken for a bank robber and was gravely wounded during a botched traffic stop.
This isn’t the first fatal shooting involving Braga, a former Marine captain. He was featured along with two other law enforcement officers in the death of a murder suspect in Laurel, Maryland. In that incident, the suspect wasn’t holding a gun, although investigators said there was a loaded firearm nearby. The shooting was ruled justified.
In fact, it seems all shootings involving FBI agents are “good” ones. Oh, mistakes may be made, but they’re never sufficient to make the shooting unjustified. Agents at Ruby Ridge kill Randy Weaver’s wife and 14-year-old son and the government lied repeatedly to justify their deaths.
http://land.netonecom.net/tlp/ref/weaver.shtml
The Baltimore Sun reported that a private detective working for attorneys representing the Schultz family said two FBI agents in the Baltimore office told him privately that the shooting would be considered justified. Furthermore, they warned this detective, a former FBI agent himself, that if he persisted in looking into this case, he’d forfeit a bunch of friendships with people in the bureau.
The criteria for determining whether a shooting by a federal law enforcement agency is justified are laid out in Justice Department guidelines developed after the stinging bad publicity generated by the Weaver shootings.
Deadly force may be used, according to these guidelines, only when the agents involved have “reasonable belief” that there is imminent danger to them or others nearby. The big out is that “any sudden movement that could have been perceived as a threat could mean the shooting – even if there were mistakes – is justified.
With high-powered lawyers representing the Schultz’s and the family of his girl friend, who was driving the car when it was pulled over, my guess is a pile of taxpayer money will find its way into the pockets of the victims and the lawyers, but Braga and the agency will suffer no other consequence.
Local police must live up to high standards in using deadly force, but for the feds, well, they remain a law unto themselves, which should be upsetting to any thinking American
"Brotherhood". If that's what they want, then we'll just consider most of them bastard children of the federal whore.
Five FBI agents from South Florida are the focus of an FBI Office of Professional Responsibilty investigation for allegedly lying to me about certain events.
I truly doubt that the FBI will do anything other than CYA but it is worth a try.
If the FBI does follow through it will lead from Florida to two top FBI agents in Maryland that have ties to this shooting, needless to say it should be an interesting next couple of months.
But of course, they might need their own super duper CT squad, to rush out and terminate the bad guys in a hurry when they find out something hot. The HRT function is really not in the end compatible with sneaky pete shoot em up covert operator units.
I better get this book finished fast.
So they are tough enough to take the dangerous job, but not tough enough to actually cope with any danger. Cowards.
Nothing but a mafia. No different than organized crime.
Since when was it a crime for the FBI to lie to a lowly citizen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.