Posted on 02/26/2008 11:06:45 AM PST by brwnsuga
RYAN FREDERICK is no hero, no matter what they're saying about him on the Internet.
He's the 28-year-old Chesapeake man being held in the Jan. 17 shooting death of Detective Jarrod Shivers.
Shivers, 34, was executing a drug search warrant at Frederick's residence the night he was killed. According to police, the eight-year police veteran was hit in the arm and chest by a shot fired from inside the house.
In a jailhouse interview, Frederick said he was in bed when the police came to his door about 8:30 p.m. Awakened by his barking dogs, Frederick said, he thought his house was being invaded. He didn't know the police were the cause of the commotion, he said.
Even so, it's troubling that a man charged with first-degree murder - for allegedly killing a cop, no less - has generated an ardent fan club. If you Google "Ryan Frederick" and "Jarrod Shivers," you'll get more than 1,000 hits and an eye-opening lesson in wild Internet rumor-mongering and misplaced hero worship.
From his jail cell, Frederick has somehow morphed from an accused cop killer into an innocent victim.
Supporters of Frederick staged a demonstration outside the jail on Saturday. Some protesters carried "Free Ryan" signs.
Oh, please. Ryan Frederick is right where he belongs - in jail. Until the matter is adjudicated, anyway. Even so, some are begging the system to spring him, fueled by the half-truths and outright lies spreading through cyberspace that portray Frederick as a "drug war victim."
Unfortunately, this uninformed rush to judgment isn't confined to the blogosphere.
When was the last time you heard a defense lawyer, in a highly publicized murder case, no less, say that he does not want a change of venue?
"No, no, he has too much support here," said Frederick's attorney, James Broccoletti, when asked if he'd like the trial moved.
If it's unfair to have a jury pool skewed toward conviction, it should also be unfair to have one awash in sympathizers.
We can all agree that this is a sad and troubling case, one that raises serious questions about Chesapeake police procedures. Yet it raises equally vexing questions about the duties and responsibilities of private citizens who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The tragic part of this story is not that this young man is behind bars. He'll have his day in court. The true tragedy is that a young woman has been widowed. Three children are fatherless. And Chesapeake lost a cop in the line of duty.
Since the shooting, there's been a lot of grumbling about Virginia's drug laws and efforts to enforce them.
If you believe marijuana should be legal, call your state legislator and demand that it be decriminalized. Don't blame the cops for enforcing Virginia's laws.
I don't know if Ryan Frederick is guilty of murder or of anything else. Neither do you. None of us has all the facts.
So here's a thought: What do you say we all hold our fire until the defendant goes on trial?
I believe the cop was IN the house according to what I’ve read now.
On the face of it, a break and enter - in which case shooting through the door would appear not totally unjustifiable
Glad we got the debate down to that point.
Now, why is he in the sack at 8:30 PM?
Lots of times I don't hear what's going on in my neighbors' homess.
I’d damned sure better see a badge or the words POLICE on their front, hat, back or something.
How much can a drug dealer dispose of in one flush, without leaving residue behind? Is going after such quantities with no-knock raids worth the risk such tactics pose to everyone?
Some deaf people have trouble speaking- especially if they’re dead
Because he goes to work at 4:30 AM
Not guilty.
Could be. This is an important factoid ~ if he’s a shift worker and this is in the middle of his standard sleep cycle, he may not have been aware of the police presence until they were banging on his bedroom door.
Unless the police have reason to believe that the inside of the house is always guarded, what is wrong with the approach of intercepting the suspect when he's entering or leaving, or else conducting the search when nobody is home?
IMHO, state legislatures need to enact at least three provisions to ensure compliance with the Constitution:
BTW, I forget who first posed this question, but I think it's a good one: if someone smashes into your home and yells "POLICE", is it more likely to be (1) a crook yelling "police", or (2) real police? If the answer is (1), then shooting at the intruders would hardly be unreasonable. If the answer is (2), something is clearly wrong with raid policies.
Hmm. It almost sounds like somebody on the Chesapeake police force or in the DA's office wanted to get rid of Shivers, Serpico-style.
Was this one of those no-knock warrants?
There have been and continue to be a series of home invasions in the Sf Bay area. One last week killed three or four residents.
From what I’m hearing the informant gave bad information. He was supposedly growing some pot plants and that hasn’t panned out. I feel sorry for the detective’s family, they seem to be lovely people, but I also feel terrible for the “defendant” whose house was robbed not too long before this incident. To call it first degree murder implies that he planned to kill this detective, but I don’t think this charge is going to stick. I hope he gets a good lawyer.
One of the major points of warrants was to insure that the resident/homeowner would *know* that it was an official investigation and not just a robbery in progress.
The whole process is pretty much invalidated by the “no knock” policy. There are very few criminals who deliberately want a shootout with the police. That is almost never the case. There are probably more shootouts over mistaken identity than deliberate shootouts with the police.
That’s what it sounds like. Other questions this didn’t answer. Did the police have the right address? How many were there?
If the homeowner id firing a semi-auto shotgun aimed at head level, maybe the invaders don’t come out on top, even with their vests and shorts.
The epitome of no-knock occurred in Waco, Texas a few years back. The “police” burned up a few people and shot a few more as I recall.
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