Tag Archives: drug raids

This blog is not backed by the United States government.

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158. A pistol-packin’ granny caps a would-be mugger in Manhattan and gets sued for her trouble.

159. Puppycide in Buffalo during a police raid that fails to turn up any drugs or make any arrests.

160. Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, no friend of fugitives, illegal immigrants or civil rights, spends an unknown amount of taxpayers’ money on production costs for a Fox reality show.  Then his boys arrest some people applauding a speech critical of Arpaio during a county supervisors meeting.  And Phoenix police raid the home of a blogger who’s been criticizing them.

161. I’m from the government, and I’m here to check out that funny noise under the hood: President Obama can’t save the banks or balance the budget, but he’s now backing your transmission.  More details about the warranty from those helpful folks at reason:

162. “One of liberty’s great benefactors”, Burt Blumert, chairman of the Mises Institute and a champion of many libertarian causes, passes away at the age of 80.

163. After a student is kicked in the groin, a Connecticut school bans all physical contact.  Because today’s hug could be tomorrow’s headlock.

164. Michigan woman charged for her son’s stay in juvie hall, then is sent to jail herself after she’s unable to pay.

165. More than half of California’s service stations face hefty fines or even closure for failing to install expensive vapor recovery nozzles on their pumps.  The CARB-mandated systems run about $11,000 per pump.

166. Congress seeks to give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, while also limiting safer choices for people looking to cut back or quit.

167. Speaking of tobacco, remember Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000?  Well, he lied, unless you think only rich people smoke.  They don’t, at least not as much as the poor do, making the new cigarette tax increase highly regressive.

Abuse, harassment, and customer service (but I repeat myself)

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143. Homer, Louisiana police chief Russell Mills, after one of his officers shot and killed a 73-year-old mute black man:

“If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names,” said Mills, who is white. “I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested.

“We’re not out there trying to abuse and harass people — we’re trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear.”

Oh, but abusing and harassing black people—that’s just good police work.  I guess we should at least thank Mills for the tacit admission that cops engage in racial profiling.

144. Another drug raid gone wrong, this time resulting in an unarmed Michigan college student getting shot by a cop.  For what?  The police are tight-lipped so far.  But apparently the victim’s Facebook page is filled with drug references, so he must have been a dope-dealing punk, right?

145. President Barack Obama didn’t immediately make good on his campaign promise to end DEA raids on medical marijuana facilities, but eventually Attorney General Eric Holder directed Justice to call off the dogs.  At one point the U. S. Attorney for Los Angeles got the memo—then he didn’t.

146. Jacob Sullum on John Yoo’s disturbing post-9/11 Justice Department memos, which laid out justifications for wholesale curtailments of civil liberties, including suppression of the press:

Yet civil liberties do not mean much if they are abandoned whenever the government thinks it has a good reason to violate them. It is precisely in times of crisis, when politicians are most tempted to take legal shortcuts and the public is most inclined to go along, that constitutional protections are most needed. Although Attorney General Eric Holder claims to understand this, his embrace of Yoo-like rhetoric and reasoning suggests his differences with the former Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) lawyer may be a matter more of circumstance than of principle.

Read the whole thing here.

147. Comic relief: “Take a number, wait your fucking turn” (uh, NSFW).

Dirty informants . . . dirty cops?

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Radley Balko has an important update on the Ryan Frederick case (# 136).

He cites an unnamed source who claims that a second informant was involved in the break-in of Frederick’s home that ultimately led to the deadly no-knock raid:

Last week I received a tip that there may have been a second man involved in the break-in at Ryan Frederick’s house. My source has spoken to the man a few times over the last few months, and says the man has confirmed not only that he and Steven [the initial informant in the case] together broke into Frederick’s house at the behest of the police, but that the two had been working as paid police informants for months—and had actually broken into several houses around Chesapeake, all with the blessing of Chesapeake police officers. [emphasis mine]

Balko later interviewed this alleged second informant (whom he identified as “Reggie”), who revealed that Steven had struck a deal with the police to get evidence on an alleged pot-growing operation in Frederick’s garage, in exchange for “help” on credit card fraud and grand larceny charges he was facing. Reggie and Steven then broke into Frederick’s garage, although Reggie refused to confirm that they had pulled the burglary with the cops’ knowledge, apparently fearing retaliation.

A few days later, Chesapeake cops hit Frederick’s house on a no-knock warrant. Frederick fired through his front door, killing detective Jarrod Shivers. He now faces capital murder charges in Shivers’ death, as well as a felony charge of manufacturing marijuana, even though police found only a small amount of pot in the home.

Like most police informants, Reggie is no angel; he has served time for burglary and grand larceny. But he says he was slapped with a bogus burglary charge in February to keep him quiet about his involvement in the Frederick case, a claim Balko says has support in the public record:

A search of the Chesapeake General Court’s public records presents a time-line that supports Reggie’s story. He was arrested on February 12 on charges of burglary, grand larceny, and credit card larceny. He spoke to my source a few times over the next several weeks. On June 5, the police then added another grand larceny charge, and a charge of entering a house to commit assault and battery. At that point, Reggie stopped talking to my source.

Steven is also still facing credit card fraud charges, which were reinstated after having been dropped in April. He isn’t talking to anybody right now, and in fact is currently on the run from the police, according to WTKR-TV.

Just these allegations alone, if they can be proven beyond Reggie’s word, reveal an alarming pattern of misconduct by the Chesapeake police. Enticing someone to break into other people’s homes is a criminal act, even when the police do it. Even if they had gathered legitimate evidence of drug manufacturing or trafficking, none of it would be usable in court or even to secure a search warrant. This should throw every drug raid the cops have pulled recently into question, assuming the accused experienced a break-in of their home prior to the raid.

But that’s not the end of it.

The police have claimed since the January raid that officers never fired a shot at Frederick. But WTKR reports that six detectives tested positive for “primer residue”, a substance sometimes left on hands after firing a gun or handling a gun that has been fired. And Frederick’s family claims they have evidence of a bullet hole in his home, even though the police allegedly returned after the raid to fill it in.

But here’s the most interesting part:

A second lab report shows Frederick’s Bersa Firestorm .380 pistol is the gun that fired the fatal bullet, as well as a second bullet found by police. There is no indication in the court file where police found the second bullet. The state crime lab also did some testing on a .223 Remington cartridge found in Frederick’s home. However, the lab did not do DNA testing on the cartridge nor is there any indication what kind of weapon fired the round, according to the paperwork. Police search warrants do not show officers located any weapon in Frederick’s home capable of firing a .223 round.

Chesapeake police spokeswoman Christina Golden confirmed some officers are issued Bushmaster M4 Patrol Rifles, which shoot .223-caliber ammunition.

So why, if Frederick owned a pistol that uses .380 ACP ammunition, would a .223 cartridge be laying around his home?  M4 rifles can accept either Remington .223 or 5.56x45mm NATO cartridges.

It seems every new report on this case unearths more questions the police refuse to answer. Meanwhile, Ryan Frederick faces a long stint in jail while his case inches closer to trial, and the drug raids in Chesapeake continue.

Tragedy and injustice in Chesapeake

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136. Not surprisingly, Ryan Frederick was indicted by a grand jury yesterday for capital murder:

A Chesapeake grand jury indicted the 28-year-old Portlock man Tuesday on charges of capital murder, use of a firearm during the commission of murder and manufacturing marijuana. Frederick is accused of “willfully, deliberately and premeditatedly” killing Detective Jarrod Shivers the night of Jan. 17 while Shivers and more than a dozen other officers executed a drug search warrant.

Keep in mind, prosecutors hadn’t sought a capital murder charge against Frederick; the grand jury upgraded it from first-degree murder.  The more serious charge means the state can seek the death penalty against Frederick.

So many things have gone wrong with this case from the outset:

  • The warrant was served on a tip that Frederick was running a massive pot-growing operation in his garage, but all the police found was a small amount of marijuana and no plants.  However, Frederick, an avid amateur gardener, did have some young Japanese maples growing under lights, which do bear some resemblance to marijuana plants.
  • Frederick’s home had been broken into just a few days before the police raid.
  • Oh, and the informant whose tip led to the warrant?  He committed the burglary on Frederick’s home.  He also had credit card fraud charges pending against him, which were dropped just days before the raid.

So based on information from a guy who broke into Frederick’s house and was facing jail time, the police busted in on the home of a man with no criminal record and had just dealt with a burglary, and the end result is a dead cop and another man facing lethal injection.

Radley Balko summarizes more absurdities from the DA’s office:

Special Prosecutor Paul Ebert pushed the unlikely theory yesterday that Frederick looked out his window, saw several police officers about to break into his home, heard them announce themselves as police, decided to shoot and kill just one of them, then surrendered. This is a guy who friends, former employers, neighbors and family describe as harmless and unconfrontational to the point of being meek. The idea that he’d knowingly kill a cop over a few joints is absurd.

Frederick had a job he enjoyed, a record of steady employment and strong recommendations from supervisors, and he’d just gotten engaged. Again, hardly the profile of a cop killer with a death wish.

The felony marijuana charge is even less comprehensible, apparently hinging on the fact that the police found equipment which can be used for indoor marijuana growing operations.  Just as a wire coat hanger can be used to break into a car, I suppose.  Does that make us all guilty of conspiracy to commit auto theft?

The police performed little due diligence on their tip about Frederick: no controlled buys to determine if he was dealing, no observation of unusual traffic or activity in front of his house.  Their background check revealed only traffic tickets.  Yet this was enough for them to break down his door at night.

It’s clear from all the charges they’ve thrown against him that the Chesapeake prosecutors are seeking a plea deal with Frederick.  That’s the saddest part of this very sad case.  Based on what we know so far, Ryan Frederick doesn’t deserve death for his actions, or even life in prison.  He doesn’t deserve to be in jail at all. The police performed one of their most dangerous actions, a no-knock raid, based on very little evidence, and one of their officers was killed when the homeowner, quite understandably, chose to defend himself.

The only possible bright side to this injustice is that the public in Chesapeake is not siding blindly with the cops.  They are asking questions and wondering why the authorities won’t answer them.  One can only hope this same skepticism will extend to the jury that will hear Frederick’s case.

Who will be next?

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134. The thin blue line closes ranks around two cops who were shot during a no-knock raid:

The friends who stood up for a man who shot two Columbus officers now are under fire from the local police union.

Derrick Foster, 38, has admitted firing the shots that struck two officers during a drug and gambling raid on April 30. Friends say it was a terrible mistake by a “gentle giant” who is a devoted single father to two daughters. . . .

At least 14 people, including former Ohio State University athletes who knew him as a Buckeye football player, have written letters of support for Foster, who is charged with four counts of felonious assault of a police officer. Weiner cited the letters in seeking Foster’s release on house arrest during a hearing on May 22.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain denied that request. The Fraternal Order of Police passed on many of the supporters’ letters to its 4,100 members and encouraged them to express their displeasure or boycott their businesses.

“I still believe he’s a threat to society. The minute you put your thoughts on a letterhead, you open yourself and your business up to criticism,” said Jim Gilbert, president of Capital City Lodge No. 9. “We’re asking our officers and the public to stand up between the citizens and the violence they put against our officers.”

As I’ve noted elsewhere, the Columbus police seem to have a siege mentality when it comes to dealing with the citizens they have sworn to protect and serve.  Foster—a single father, former Ohio State football player, model city employee and so far as anyone knows, not a drug dealer or user—is now portrayed by the police union as a dangerous cop-killer.  Their efforts paid off in keeping Foster, who has no criminal record, locked up for now.

And anyone who might actually know Foster and dares to speak up on his behalf now faces the collective wrath of Columbus’ finest:

The first two union targets were Michael McGuire, the owner of a Budget car-rental location and a lifelong friend of Foster’s; and Pickerington Central High School Principal Scott Reeves, who met Foster at OSU in the mid-1980s.

McGuire said he felt threatened when one officer called him and the union sent him an e-mail after he wrote that Foster “is a tremendous role model to his children and other teens in the community.”

Reeves, who probably should not have written his letter in support of Foster on school stationery, was reprimanded by the district superintendent.  Even so, the police union plans on visiting the next school board meeting to further express their displeasure over Reeves’ temerity to defend his old college friend.  And as Radley Balko points out, even if Reeves erred in using his official capacity to support Foster, how many cops have done the same thing in harassing Foster’s supporters?

Given that his defense attorney might use some of Foster’s friends as character witnesses, the union’s behavior amounts to intimidation.  It’s not acceptable when mobsters do it, so why let the police get away with it?

But it’s the rhetoric from union leaders that disturbs me most.  The police seem utterly incapable of grasping the concept that when unknown assailants break into one’s home, exercising one’s right to self-defense is a perfectly reasonable option.  Would any one of these cops give up the right to defend themselves should a thug break into their homes?  Yet reverse the roles, and suddenly the private, gun-owning citizen is a threat to public safety.

The problem isn’t with individual cops, or even corruption like we’ve seen with the Atlanta SWAT unit following their brutal execution of Kathryn Johnston and their attempts to cover it up.  So far as I know, the two officers shot by Foster and another man on April 30 were not corrupt, or known to use excessive force.  They were just doing their job.

And that’s the problem: the job.  Any job which requires forcibly entering a private home without warning, for the purpose of finding evidence of non-crimes (and in this case, no drugs were found and no charges have been filed except those against Foster and his co-defendant), is not a job at all.  It’s a criminal act.  And people threatened by violent criminal acts may very well respond with force to defend themselves.  Self-preservation, and protecting others one cares about, can be a strong instinct.  But as far as the cops are concerned, that makes one a danger to the public.  Maybe that’s why they’ve come to regard every citizen as a potential threat, even as they fail to recognize it’s their own use of force which puts the public on edge.

How many more Derrick Fosters and Cory Mayes and Ryan Fredericks will spend the rest of their lives in prison, or even be sentenced to death, for exercising their right to self-defense in the face of unknown danger?  Who will be next?  Will it be you?

Purity squads, then and now.

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127. But now, they call it “community policing”: from 1947project‘s always-fascinating social history blog On Bunker Hill, the Los Angeles “Purity Squad” raids the Saratoga Hotel in 1919, arresting 32 people “on charges of living in a house of prostitution.” And some alibis never change:

Many of those arrested said they worked in the movies as extras, but police determined that “extra work is not considered real work.”

128. Police in North Platte, Neb., respond to a complaint of a wedgie administered to an unfortunate youngster. No arrests were made, but a police spokesman warned such behavior would not be tolerated: “You might get away with that in Lincoln or Omaha. But we’re not going to allow wedgies in North Platte.” Because today’s wedgie-puller could be tomorrow’s school shooter.

129. The legislature and police have been busy in Florida:

But most importantly, the Florida Senate has passed an amendment to ban “Truck Nutz” (see # 22, here), because ridding rear bumpers of hanging genitalia will prevent the terrorists from winning. Or at least they won’t be quite so offended while they’re here.

130. Hang up the damn dog and drive!

131. The long arm of morality laws has caught up with a San Diego wife and mother of three. Marie Walsh was arrested Apr. 24 by U. S. Marshals after she was identified by Michigan authorities as Susan Lefevre, who walked out of a Detroit corrections facility 32 years ago. She was convicted in 1975 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. She must serve at least nine more years before she is eligible for parole, at which point “mitigating circumstances”, such as the quiet family life she led in San Diego, may be heard to determine if she can be freed.

132. Crying over spilled milk: a Pennsylvanian Amish farmer was arrested, and his dairy operation shut down, for not having a state permit to sell raw milk. He also had been transporting the milk to Delaware and New York City, where the product is illegal but in apparently high demand. The farmer remains defiant: “The government doesn’t have the right to dictate what I eat, and never will.”

133. Denver police may be gearing up for a serious crackdown on protesters at the Democratic National Convention, which comes to town in August. In the past the police have issued citations for misdemeanor offenses committed by protestors, but now the city plans to arrest and detain protestors. The DPD first employed the policy at last year’s Columbus Day parade, where they arrested more than 80 people for attempting to block the parade route. At least now I know why they’re building the new county jail right downtown.

Misdemeanors and misunderstandings.

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118. A Federal appeals court rules that laptops can be subject to warrantless searches and seizures at customs checkpoints in airports, just as they are allowed at border crossings.

119. Frustrated that drivers arrested for DUI might actually be acquitted, a Tennessee lawmaker is pushing a bill that would ban defense attorneys from advertising DUI-related services.

120. While we’re in the Volunteer State, aspiring johns may wish to know that they could lose their car if arrested for soliciting prostitution.  Not convicted, mind you.  As Memphis Police director Larry Godwin put it, “I’d say seize every dadgum vehicle and send a message.”

121. Boston puts the kibosh on bottle service in bars and clubs, because according to the licensing board chairman, Beantown “has a lot more to offer than just getting people inebriated”.

122. Actor Wesley Snipes receives the maximum sentence—36 months—for not voluntarily filing his tax returns, although he was acquitted of the more serious charges of tax fraud and conspiracy.

123. Sheriff Joe, on the go: the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” sweeps through Arizona’s Maricopa County and rounds up troublesome Mexicans, half of whom might actually be here illegally.

124. Senate leaders agree to jack up taxes on fuel for private jets by 65 percent.

125. A Seattle man who smokes marijuana legally for medical purposes has been denied a life-saving liver transplant due to his drug use.

126. A utility subcontractor in Brooklyn Park, Minn., became lightheaded from chemicals in the bathroom of a home where he was installing a hot water heater.  He called the police, and on his word alone, they raided the home on suspicion that it housed a meth lab.  Instead they found vinegar and pickling lime, which the homeowner used to maintain his saltwater fish tank.

Police, porn and power.

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111. The police in Whitewater, Wisc. crack down hard on online bullies – particularly when they’re the target.

112. A-raiding we will go:

113. Minnesota seeks to conscript banks into its ranks of tax collectors, requiring them to rat out customers who owe the state money.

114. Another isolated Tasing incident leaves a a University of Miami graduate in critical condition.

115. Flying the heavily scanned skies:

116. Porn film producer John Stagliano faces multiple Federal charges of distributing obscene material.  Said “Buttman” of the charges: “With the war in Iraq going so well, Osama bin Laden captured, the economy thriving, our public school system fixed, and our crumbling infrastructure completely repaired, the Bush administration’s top priority seems to be harassing filmmakers and watching our movies.”

117. Shock to the system: a Colorado man convicted of murder served 20 years in prison, where the state put his electrician skills to good use, transporting him all around the correctional system, and even driving him to Denver to take his exams and paying his license renewal fees.  But now that he’s paroled, the state licensing board is threatening to pull his license based on his murder conviction, even though they’ve known about it for years.

Would the government ever lie to you?

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97. Our heroic war on drugs:

  • Two teens are shot by a Howard County, MD police officer during an investigation into suspected drug activity.
  • A couple in Pennsylvania, Steve and Karen Haver, narrowly avoids losing their home after police, while investigating a burglar alarm at their residence, found five marijuana plants growing in their basement.  Although state law authorizes forfeiture of property, including homes, after a drug arrest (not just conviction), the couple agreed to a plea deal that allowed them to keep their home.  But Haver’s wife has already been fired from her job, and Haver expects to lose his when his contract expires in June.
  • A Denver man is shot to death by police during a drug raid after undercover officers purchased crack from him a few days earlier.  Family members claim that Nathan Aguillard suffered from schizophrenia and was “too paranoid” to sell drugs to other people.  “They chose what seems to be the most confrontational approach to arrest him,” said a lawyer for the family.

98. The California legislature considers a bill to ban metallic balloons filled with helium, which can float away and make contact with power lines, causing power outages.  While they’re at it, I hope they can do something about those damn sneakers that always get hung up there.

99. The Pentagon prepares to issue hand-held lie detectors to U. S. troops in Afghanistan in the ongoing war on terror.  I promise you, these will never be used here on civilians.

100. Government money grabs:

101. The Army kills a suspected terrorist, approximately seven pounds and answered to the name of “Fluffy”.

102. Police in Oakland ask very nicely if they can enter people’s homes and search for guns.

Blitzkrieg

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92. Police agencies in Kentucky go on a “Byrne Blitz”—a concerted effort to increase drug seizures and arrests to ensure that the Federal funding spigot continues to flow freely.

93. First Amendment follies:

94. Now go away, or we shall punish you a second time: an Orange County, CA man was wrongly convicted for carjacking and spent 16 months in prison before he was freed. Now the state says it has no obligation to compensate him for the wrongful imprisonment because he implicated himself by accepting a plea deal on the original charge.

95. Infamous until proven innocent: police in Arizona are posting mug shots of accused shoplifters online as a “deterrent”. Hell, what are they waiting for? Just lop off their right hand when they arrest ‘em!

96. Our incorruptible public servants: