Well, it probably would have been a good idea to have it on them, in case the homeowner asked to see it.
At least the cops dodged a bullet, that night.
It doesn’t.
But it’s relevant to address the “This guy did nothing wrong,” whining.
My claim is that there was no criminal conduct of the part of the police. I have already listed several areas in which the police did not behave as they should.
The raid can’t be blamed on police. As a society, we have sanctioned this type of law enforcement. If you wish to argue it should be changed, then the proper target is the legislature, not the police.
Who’s whining, dare I ask. I’m just curious because I think we’ve had enough argument-by-innuendo in this thread already.
That’s fine, I can imagine this incident resulting in no criminal charges. I would hope that this particular police department seriously reconsider their tactics in future, taking a good hard look at what these raids accomplish and if they are necessary, and removing officers who have demonstrated at critical moments a tendency to overreact and shoot the civilians they ostensibly should be protecting and, yes, that includes drug-users, regardless of what they might otherwise deserve.
Oh, I’m happy to blame your society… so hysterical over drugs that a few random deaths now and then are deemed acceptable.
He did nothing wrong in the context of the raid. He may have been a scumbag, but his actions on the night he was killed were blameless. He stumbled into a doorway holding a golf club, and was immediately shot.
If the same cops had raided your house that night, you’d be dead too. You’d have heard a noise, stumbled out of bed, grabbed your gun, and been shot on sight by trigger-happy cops. And then your widow would shake the cops hands and tearily proclaim the whole thing an unavoidable accident, right?
“Sleeping while home” is the new “driving while black.”
Will this be listed as another ‘drug-related death’?
Maybe they tried to do a traffic stop first, not for officer safety or to avoid kicking doors down in the middle of the night, but because of asset-seizure or forfeiture laws where they keep your car to use in the ‘war on drugs’…?
It doesn’t even have to be a gun. The homeowner, still half-asleep, imagines that all the noise is coming from a television he left on. He picks up the remote, points it…
And that’s enough, apparently, to justify the police “protecting themselves” in a situation they themselves created.
The articleI read says (bolding mine)
Was the judge too sleepy to see that contradiction? Who the fuck was the warrant actually for? Someone’s getting heroin–quick give me a no-knock for someone else’s meth?
Maybe the police showed up at his house late at night.
Sure, I can certainly get behind everything said above.
But since the title of the thread bemoans that fact that no charges were filed, it seemed a relevant point to rebut.
Well, technically the title is just stating a fact, without the necessary adjectives or embellishments that suggest bemoaning, which I propose would take a form along the lines of “Fascist pigs skate” or “Gestapo no stop-o!” or “Thin Blue Line delivers Lethal Papercut with Specious Warrant!” or “Golf Flog!”
It’s pretty clear from the context of the article that they knew before the warrant. They had the house under observation for at least some time, and the warrant was issued the same day as the raid. Besides, we are looking at two options here:
(1) They knew she didn’t live there and lied.
(2) They swore that she lived there while having the house under observation.
I have no idea why you insist on clawing for the small possibility that they were merely grossly incompetent instead of lying.
Jesus Christ. Watched the vid again and I am stunned Bricker that you or anyone could call this a justifiable homicide. The officer was rushing towards that little hallway and as soon as he saw the man he shot him down. At about 8 feet away. Bang, bang, bang. Three shots. No warning.
Consider that the shooter, could not really tell if they were armed, or what with (by his own admission) and SWAT teams are supposed to be well trained professionals, from what I see, this is completely indefensible.
Police officers need to consider and not just react. Shit, if I was armed and saw Blair in my house with a Golf club, I would not just shoot him down. And we have the ‘Make my day law here in Colorado’.
The cop that shot him had what? Five other guys behind him with weapons drawn and he claims that Blair was a threat? Bull Fucking Shit. He over reacted and killed a man. Simple as that. He needs a desk job.
I find it odd that after Blair is shot and down, 6 SWAT members walk past him and into, I suppose his bedroom. It does not look like the rest of the apartment is in any way secured.
Perhaps another 6 SWAT members are in the Kitchen and living room. But I don’t see the flashlight beams.
Now, of course I’m just seeing one camera view. But, six guys to secure a bedroom? Seems very odd, they walk by him and seem unconcerned.
And Blair falls in front of what looks like another bedroom door, it’s open, you can see it right at about 51-52 seconds, yet no SWAT team member goes in there. I would like to know the layout of that apartment.
I do know however, that it does not take 6 armed men to secure a bedroom. And it’s pretty bad tactics to just walk in the door to do so.
Idiots? Poorly trained? Follow the leader? Something fishy going on? Pick any two.
Maybe the cops should take this under advisement. If they weren’t using tactics that are likely to lead people to mistake them for criminals breaking into their house, we wouldn’t have this problem, would we?
Hmm…well that’s certainly an interesting perspective.
So he had to take action to SAVE his life? As in, his death was a foregone conclusion and it needed saving?
Well gee whiz, I guess that doesn’t show up any sort of bias on your part or anything like that does it?
So next time, I am driving home, at night, a drunk runs a red light and kills me - I guess my wife doesn’t get the benefit of my life insurance, because afterall, I didn’t take the correct action to save my own life. :rolleyes:
Well ok.
BOTH Blair and the police were in the same situation, neither knew much of anything, both had scant seconds to react in a confusing situation, it was dark for both, neither knew the state of mind of the other.
There’s only one very minor difference.
The police are (supposedly) professionals, and train (suppesedly rigorously) for EXACTLY this sort of situation, for determining who and what is a threat.
Who should be able to make better decisions in such a situation? While Blair may have made a bad decision (it’s not exactly clear what he could have done differently at that point to save his life), we KNOW the police officer made a bad decision.
And of the two, who should we hold more culpable for making a bad decision?
Perhaps to put it differently,
I go into hospital, have a heart attack and need CPR. The doctor performs CPR incorrectly, and I die.
I am playing backyard football, have a heartattack, and my neighbour, without the benefit of training, tries to perform CPR after calling the paramedics, but fails and I die.
I guess you would let the doctor off, and charge my neighbour with Medical Malpractise right?
Add in the factor that the situation in which life-or-death decisions must be made in “scant seconds” is entirely a creation of the police themselves, and I’ve no problem assigning them full responsibility for this death.
Faulting/blaming the victim because of his lifestyle completely evaporates in relevance.