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Trash search led to deadly police raid
South FL Sun-Sentinel ^ | June 29, 2008 | Michael Mayo

Posted on 07/08/2008 6:10:24 AM PDT by bamahead

What prompted Pembroke Pines police to conduct a dawn paramilitary raid that ended with the June 12 shooting death of homeowner Vincent Hodgkiss?

In its application for a narcotics search warrant, police cited an anonymous complaint of drug dealing, surveillance of high-turnover visitors and two searches of Hodgkiss' trash by detectives, who found scraps of paper with handwritten numbers and trace amounts of "green, leafy substance" that tested positive for marijuana.

Police conducted the raid with its Special Response Team (similar to SWAT) two days after Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen approved the search warrant.

As a result of the investigation, police recovered about an ounce and a half of pot — and a 46-year-old father ended up dead.

Is this what America really wants from its War on Drugs?

The totality of the evidence could add up to a small-time pot dealer. Was an early morning raid with a mini-battalion really the best way to go about serving the warrant?

This wasn't some violent gang that moved into the neighborhood three months ago. Hodgkiss spent 14 years in the house, raising his family there. He had no previous felonies or history of violence. I bet two detectives approaching him when he made a trip to the corner store might have been more effective, and certainly less confrontational.

The attorney for Officer Javier Diaz, who fatally wounded Hodgkiss, said Diaz shot Hodgkiss twice after Hodgkiss pumped his loaded shotgun and carried it into his bathroom. The attorney said Diaz fired in "justified self-defense."

I'm not saying the shooting was unjustified. I'm sure Diaz felt threatened and compelled to shoot. The bigger point: Tragic outcomes like these are inevitable given our nation's drug policies and police procedures.

(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; fourthamendment; jbts; wod; wosd
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This one is a week old. But this is becoming an all too common tale.

http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

1 posted on 07/08/2008 6:10:25 AM PDT by bamahead
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To: traviskicks

PING


2 posted on 07/08/2008 6:10:45 AM PDT by bamahead (Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding. -- B.H. Liddell Hart)
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To: bamahead

Well, at least they didn’t do it based on a tip from another felon and they did find some drugs. Like that was worth killing someone over...

This was totally stupid. If nobody was in danger, and the suspect didn’t have a record of violence, why not serve the warrant with a polite knock on the door and a “We have a warrant, sir, may we come in?”


3 posted on 07/08/2008 6:15:23 AM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: bamahead

Why didn’t they simply knock on the door, then when he answered, show him the warrant and search the house? This is insanity. I hope his family is lawyering up.


4 posted on 07/08/2008 6:16:34 AM PDT by ZX12R
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To: bamahead

“Trace amounts of a green leafy substance”? What’s the problem? Let the bombing begin immediately.

But seriously, for all you LE types, why do we never hear of an officer questioning the no knock paramilitary-type raids? As in, ‘gee Sarge, maybe we should do something different than a night-RAID?’


5 posted on 07/08/2008 6:17:26 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: bamahead

Next thing you know they’ll be doing the same thing to cigarette smokers.


6 posted on 07/08/2008 6:17:37 AM PDT by vanishing liberty
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To: bamahead

Jack Boot justice...get used to it, because you’ll be seeing more.


7 posted on 07/08/2008 6:18:21 AM PDT by Portcall24
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To: ZX12R
Why didn’t they simply knock on the door, then when he answered, show him the warrant and search the house?

Where's the fun in that? These SWAT guys don't want to wear cool dynamic-entry gear and carry machine guns just to knock on someone's door! They're warriors, fer cryin' out loud!

8 posted on 07/08/2008 6:20:03 AM PDT by Drew68
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Little Ray

this is my fear...standing at my kitchen counter cutting up meat for dinner, when my door bursts open and a paramilitary dude in black see’s me standing there with a kitchen knife and shoots me dead...justifiable shooting, but was the raid itself justified...if you mapquest my address, it shows the wrong house on the wrong side of the street...if the command officers do not perform their due dilligence it is very easy to kill an innocent person...the command officers need to be held responsible for these murders ( yes, killing someone for a quarter ounce of pot is murder )not the officers defending themselves


10 posted on 07/08/2008 6:21:13 AM PDT by joe fonebone (The Second Amendment is the Constitutions reset button)
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To: bamahead

My libertarian streak comes out on this one. Legalize marjuana. No one should ever be killed over a weed.


11 posted on 07/08/2008 6:21:42 AM PDT by contemplator (Capitalism gets no Rock Concerts)
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To: Little Ray
why not serve the warrant with a polite knock on the door and a “We have a warrant, sir, may we come in?”

Because under that scenario, the hideous, law-breaking perp might flush some pot down his toilet and the cops don't get their collar. How is a career LE officer supposed to get promoted letting that happen? No, he/she must crush their little subject heads, stomp their necks down to the floor, and make them submit like good subjects should. And NONE of the LEs will be held to account, so why shouldn't they do as they please?

12 posted on 07/08/2008 6:22:58 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: bamahead
But this is becoming an all too common tale.

It is becoming so common that people are no longer outraged by it, like a brutal crime you'll see on the news where you're just glad it happened to someone else. Just another day in America.

13 posted on 07/08/2008 6:23:17 AM PDT by Drew68
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: Little Ray
why not serve the warrant with a polite knock on the door and a “We have a warrant, sir, may we come in?”

Because the new para military policemen want 'trigger time". And they always seem to be able to justify it by simply saying "I felt my life was threatened", even though many times they unnecessarily put themselves in that situation.

Being gunned down by trigger happy police while defending person and property from unknown intruders is happening all too often to innocent civilians.

15 posted on 07/08/2008 6:24:53 AM PDT by Banjoguy (Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat party are among the enemies of The Republic.)
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To: bamahead

I agree, this was stupid. It reminds me of a few years ago when the local sheriff used the “task force” to raid a local strip joint. The guys on the force got out of their van and wondered what they were doing there as a lot of them frequented the place.


16 posted on 07/08/2008 6:25:27 AM PDT by kickonly88
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To: Little Ray

“why not serve the warrant with a polite knock on the door and a “We have a warrant, sir, may we come in?”

They may have known he was a gun owner, that makes him “armed”. This is how they respond to “armed people” like the woman in NOLA who got tackled for holding a revolver. She was “armed”, and you never hear “armed and docile”, it’s always “armed and dnagerous”, so if they know you have a gun, the response will be overwhelming.


17 posted on 07/08/2008 6:28:24 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: bamahead

I thought no one got in trouble for marijuana anymore?


18 posted on 07/08/2008 6:30:11 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: bamahead

I’m co-opting my own signature tagline, which I’ve reserved (until now) for pitbull attacks:

“I’ve been told, repeatedly, that attacks like this are rare.”

Another victim of the insane and unproductive WO(S)D.


19 posted on 07/08/2008 6:31:02 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: Little Ray

That’s pretty much what happened in my town, and a policeman ended up dead, and a kid going to prison.


20 posted on 07/08/2008 6:31:38 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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