Independent media, news reporting, analysis, opinion, forensic historical research presentations. From a Libertarian to Anarcho-Libertarian Anti-Federalist perspective.
Lynchburg, VA — On the night of February 17, 2018 Walker Sigler, his wife Kate, and their children were asleep in their home doing nothing wrong and harming no one when two Lynchburg police officers came to the door. As Sigler woke up to the noise, the officers opened fire through the closed door and shot Sigler. This innocent man’s leg was shattered and he was nearly murdered because two trigger happy cops were scared of their own shadows.
In June of last year, Officers Edward Ferron, 41, and Savannah Simmons, 22, were both indicted for their actions that night on three felony counts of reckless handling of a firearm resulting in serious bodily injury, unlawful wounding and unlawful shooting at an occupied domicile.
In March, they pleaded no contest to the charges and were “sentenced” for their crimes to 100 hours of community service — a travesty of justice indeed.
“This is an exceptionally difficult day, as you can imagine,” John E. Lichtenstein, Sigler’s attorney, said after the hearing. “It is difficult to understand these actions. But I think what we want you to know is the Siglers respect the process. They respect this process with what happened today. And he’s doing all they can to try to get better and to try to deal with it.”
As WSET reports, officers said they approached the home and announced that they were there to investigate suspicious activity. One of the officers attorney’s, Chuck Felmlee, said the officers then heard yelling and heavy foot steps as though someone was running toward them. They say it was Sigler who then slammed the door which made a loud clanging sound they believed to be a gun shot at the time. The officers fired four shots. One bullet hit Sigler and shattered his leg.
None of this “loud clanging sound” is evident in the video and the actual door to the home was all the way closed. The only open door was the the storm door which most people never lock.
Instead of calling the home, waiting for someone to respond, or talking to neighbors, these rogue cops decided a tactical entry into the home was warranted — despite no signs of forced entry and nothing suspicious. Clearly afraid of their own shadows, the video shows the terrified officers begin shooting within only seconds after arriving at the home. Sigler was shot in the leg, shattering his femur which required multiple surgeries.
Despite all these facts, the two trigger happy cops do not have to go to jail.
“No outcome is going to satisfy everyone or make this, quote, right,” special prosecutor, Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter said after the hearing. “It’s impossible to get a just resolve when someone’s shot and grievously wounded like this. Given the frailty of human existence, the best we can do is try to pick up the pieces and find some kind of just outcome.”
But this outcome is anything but just. These two cops were given the lowest possible sentence they could’ve received and Sigler is left permanently disabled as the blood loss caused severe problems with his vision as well.
“He is effectively blind in his left eye and has partial permanent losses of vision and other issues in his right eye as a result,” Lichtenstein said after the hearing. “He has and continues to suffer excruciating pain and will require treatment throughout his life for these devastating injuries.”As you watch the video below, remember the oft-repeated statement, “if you don’t do anything wrong in front of police, you have nothing to worry about.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. This could be your home, your spouse, or your children who fall victim to fearful cops with no regard for life. And, as the lack of punishment highlights, police have no incentive to act any different.
Chris Emery of Free Mind Films and Tom Lacovara-Stewart discuss his documentary A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995
A fresh and in-depth academic look at the circumstances and facts surrounding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Also discussed are clandestine covert operations, false flag potential state and sometimes private interest sponsored events, SPLC undercover illegal operatives working with the FBI, paid informants manufacturing events and cases, #SchaefferCox, Jefferey Weinhaus and more...
On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations. Conclusion : No Russian collusion.
As we have repeatedly at RTR have said, this was nothing more than diversion and distraction and as that Communist pundit of the purveyors of Fake News CNN Van Jones said so eloquently in an off air cell phone snagged recording, "a big nothingburger".
I am backing up this title up with evidence. I kid you not. The Arlington Texas Police, hooded out in balaclavas threatened search or swat, looking for potential drug dealing ninjas with Bazookas after an anonymous complaint is received.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Facebook screenshot showing a group of "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" outside of a Drag Queen Story Time.
On Thursday, activist parents with MassResistance unmasked another child sex offender
who greeted children at Drag Queen Story Time. According to local MassResistance leader
Tracy Shannon, a drag performer with many aliases has sexually assaulted children and
publicly recounted his history as a transgender dominatrix and prostitute for hire. His
name has been redacted because he was allegedly convicted for sexual assault against
children at age 16, so his record has been sealed.
"We have another big reveal today at our press conference which will take place at 2 PM at the
Freed Montrose Library," Shannon announced in an email. "Due to this individual using
multiple aliases and having moved around a lot it was hard to nail down his identity but
we finally connected the dots. We found his name a few days ago but trying to find some
affirmation and photos was like looking for a needle in a haystack of social media postings."
"Once we affirmed the identity we ran background checks and found the record. We will
reveal all at 2 PM Central time at our press conference," she added. She also excoriated
the Houston Public Library (HPL) system for allowing child sex offenders to greet children.
At the conference, "MassResistance will demand an audit of the entire HPL background
checks vs volunteer applications to see how many have experienced an 'oversight' and
how many sex offenders have been allowed to participate in children's programming at
the libraries in Houston. We will also be demanding a city ordinance that requires background checks for all city-sanctioned programs for children when we have our press conference."
Shannon sent PJ Media the research document outlining how MassResistance
uncovered this second alleged sex offender.
She connected the man to an article on About Online recalling experiences in "sex work" as a "professional dominatrix." At the beginning, the anonymous author admitted, "I had tried for
so many years to alleviate my depression and dysphoria through random sex, I had lost track
of how many partners I’ve had." This eased the transition into "sex work" to becoming
a transgender prostitute and porn actor.
Shannon also connected the man to the Instagram account Liza Lott, and to the group
Space City Sisters/Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Instagram posts allegedly show thi
s man posing with other Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, guiding children "past
hate groups to Drag Queen Story Time."
Instagram screenshot of the Space City Sisters or Sisters of Perpetual
Indulgence at a Drag Queen Story Time.
It appears the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a transgender anti-Catholic group, mocking
Roman Catholic nuns by dressing in habits but living by a sexually licentious standard
— the exact opposite of true nuns.
MassResistance uncovered an online record purporting to be his. PJ Media reached out to the
Harris County clerk for corroboration, but since the man was 16 at the time of his conviction,
A federal appeals court has put a roadblock in front of the government’s attempt to appeal a district judge’s decision to throw out its case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.
Tom Lacovara-Stewart and Cliven Bundy in 2014 at the Bundy Ranch
Bundy and other family members, including RTR Truth Media's Tom Lacovara-Stewaet were charged after an armed standoff at their ranch over grazing fees the government claimed they had not paid, and a subsequent protest in Oregon over the Oregon Standoff. The government confiscated some of the family’s cattle, supporters from across the nation gathered and the standoff in Nevada ensued. The feds eventually backed down.
He said it took “real guts” for the government to appeal the dismissal of the case by Judge Gloria Navarro, who, he said, was “no friend of Cliven Bundy, his family and the armed peaceful protesters who stood down a tyrannical government at Bunkerville in 2014.”
Klayman, Bundy's lawyer said: “Navarro, who was recommended to the bench by Sen. ‘Dirty’ Harry Reid and nominated by President Barack Hussein Obama, and whose hometown paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, had called a ‘friend’ of the prosecutors, Steven Myhre, Daniel Schiess and Nadia Ahmed, all Deep State holdovers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, did not out of the goodness of her cold heart dismiss the indictment, with prejudice, thereby cutting short the jury trial. The judge could have not cared less about doing the ‘right thing.’ Rather, not wanting to go down with a sinking ship, Navarro had no choice, as the early days of the Bundy trial exposed wholesale lying and obstruction of justice not only by the FBI, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a cover-up by the prosecutors themselves, which resulted in them dishonestly burying exculpatory evidence. If the case had gone to the jury, they would have most certainly entered a verdict of acquittal for Cliven and his sons, Ryan and Ammon, as well at other defendants.”
He charged that “in a paramilitary raid the henchmen of the BLM, assisted by the FBI and the prosecutors, sought to take over their ranch, seize their cattle and put them out of business on land the family had ranched for nearly 150 years. And, if this were not enough, BLM and FBI goons threatened the Bundys with death if they did not accede to the federal government’s demands. When the Bundys held their ground, the feds violently assaulted Cliven’s sister Margaret, throwing her to the ground, tazed his sons and killed scores of cattle, burying them in a secret mass grave.” This grave was recorded by Tom Lacovara-Stewart on the now YouTube terminated channel he once operated.
"The footage from RT is from recordings I, and several others made that day with Jerry Delumus and Ryan Bundy. At one point in the footage I had I stood in the mass grave to collect the close ups of the gunshot wounds to the cattle. It was deleted by YouTube". - Tom Lacovara-Stewart
Klayman continued: “The likely reason for this: Reid and his equally unethical son Rory, a downtown Las Vegas Mafia-connected lawyer, were reportedly attempting to not just seize Cliven’s cattle and take over his ranch, but also sell off the Bundys’ grazing rights to Chinese environmental interests, likely with kickbacks to the Reids from the Chinese buyers.”
He said he wants to get whistleblower Larry Wooten on the record for the appeal.
The 9th Circuit, in a new statement on the case, gave a number of instructions, including appointing counsel for Ryan C. Bundy.
But it also refused the government’s submission of an oversized brief, at 16,634 words. The limit is 14,000, and the government was ordered to submit a new one.
Klayman took the opportunity to move to supplement the record with the testimony of Wooten, whose statements had not been incorporated.
He suggested the appeals court return the case to the lower court, which likely would end the case.
In his motion, Klayman points out that Wooten is a former BLM investigator turned whistle-blower who wrote a report detailing the apparently unethical actions of federal agents against the Bundys.
“Mr. Wooten details a pattern and practiced of disturbing behavior by federal agents, carefully calculated to inflict maximum damage, and even death, on Mr. Bundy and his family, as well as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, Mr. Steven Phyre’s policy of ‘preferred ignorance’ when it came to potential information from the federal land agency that would have been helpful to the Bundy case.”
The judge’s decision to drop the case with prejudice because of misconduct appeared to be supported in Klayman’s motion.
He wrote: “Among the disturbing revelations set forth by Mr. Wooten include (1) BLM Supervisory agents repeatedly mocking and degrading Mr. Bundy, his family, and his co-defendants in an ‘amateurish carnival atmosphere’ that displayed ‘clear prejudice’ against the Bundys personally and their Mormon faith; (2) federal agents bragging about roughing up Mr. Bundy’s son, Dave, and violently grinding his face into the ground; (3) BLM agents failing to turn over required discover evidence to the prosecution team that was helpful to defendants; (4) top agents ‘instigating’ the monitoring of jail phone calls between the defendants and their wives; (5) SSA Dan P. Love, the lead BLM agent conducting the ill-fated paramilitary raid on the Bundy ranch, intentionally ignoring direction from the U.S. attorney’s office and his superiors ‘in order to command the most intrusive, oppressive, large scale and militaristic trespass cattle impound possible;’ (6) SSA Love having a ‘Kill Book’ as a trophy where he ‘bragged about getting three individuals in Utah to commit suicide’; and (7) that a secure command post at FBI headquarters in Las Vegas of an ‘Arrest Tracking Wall,’ where photos of Cliven Bundy and co-defendant Eric Parker were marked with an ‘X’ over them.”
Klayman said that when Wooten pointed out the misbehavior, he was summarily removed from the case and threatened.
In fact, he became aware that his supervisor “was already aware of the issues, participated in, or instigated the misconduct himself.”
Klayman told the appeals court: “This is truly an ‘extraordinary circumstance,’ as Judge Navarro and the district court dismissed the superseding indictment against appellees due to gross abuse of process and prosecutorial misconduct within even the benefit of Mr. Wooten’s testimony.”
In what is a position that will likely cause the direct confrontation of cognitive dissonance, and certainly some anger, as a Conservative I have to call for a serious condemnation of President Trump’s actions and suggestion that long standing law should simply be “reinterpreted” so as to effect the action of criminalizing private property. Regardless of how people “feel” about bump stocks, it is never acceptable to continue to allow more encroachments upon freedom by use of powers we never granted.
America is under Talmudic law, not Sharia law
- By Michael Hoffman
https://revisionistreview.blogspot.co...
Michael Hoffman is the author of Judaism Discovered, and Judaism’s Strange Gods.
He is a former reporter for the New York bureau of the Associated Press.
VIEWER DISCRETION is ADVISED - Christchurch Shooting
Provided for the purposes of investigation and analysis and news reporting only.
We do not recognize the authority of government or corporations to silence, censor, or repress the free press. Our purpose for this is not sensationalism. It is strictly to provide to the audience the antidote for corporate media, to become the media themselves. To think for yourselves, to watch, learn and be informed. We condemn the use of this type of violence upon anyone.
Our hearts thoughts and the best of intentions go out to all innocent victims of madness.
NZ Shooting AUDIO ANALYSIS - Every Shot Meticulously Accounted for
Timothy McVeigh. We've been told so much about him, the Oklahoma City bombing, and what it meant for America. But what if it's all a lie? Join us today for this special Corbett Report podcast-documentary as we examine the multiple trucks, multiple bombs, government informants, faked executions and other pieces of information suggesting that McVeigh was not a "lone wolf bomber" at all but a sheepdipped special forces operative working for the government, exactly as he claimed.
The following posts below the video Brian Young (HighImpactFlix.com) and I did by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms lead me to delve back into a subject of great concern to many of us. Waco Texas Massacre that again leads me to share relevant information regarding Oklahoma City Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. In this post, no mention of the men women and children who were incinerated or the military psychological torture they were forced to endure for still unsubstantiated claims. The result was a dumpster fire of mass proportions. I am shocked the posts are still up.
This is my breakdown of the WACO post situation and Waco the Raid
Brian's Shorter Report
Please comment on these posts and tell them RTR said hi.
Here is their twitter post
A fresh and in-depth look at the circumstances surrounding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
But instead of accepting at face value the Federal Government’s deeply-flawed investigation, A NOBLE LIE features ground breaking information and eyewitness testimonies that refute the official story.
The April 19, 1995 bombing that destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building involved far more revealing evidence than the FBI maintains.
A NOBLE LIE presents interviews with police officers, first responders, victims, journalists and investigators whose evidence demonstrates that not all the perpetrators were brought to justice.
Among the interview subjects are General Benton Partin, former head of weapons development for the Air Force, State Representative Charles Key, members of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee and Jesse Trentadue, whose brother Kenneth was tortured and murdered in Federal custody in the days following the bombing.
A NOBLE LIE is the only full-length documentary that addresses and answers many of the questions people have asked about the bombing. Details as to what really happened regarding this horrific event, taking the lives of 168 people, have been summarily covered up by the Federal Government. A NOBLE LIE re-examines the tragedy in a measured, informative and scholarly way, and in the process exposes the treachery that has gone unpunished.
Yes, Alex Jones does make an appearance in this documentary. But I am seriously in doubt that the film makers did this any more than for publicity purposes. I have some issues with Jones as my audience well knows. But the content of this film is very valid and needs to be seen. It is a quality product.
--------------
The following paper has but a few details that are questionable as to who McVeigh really was, but it has a wealth of information regarding Operation PATCON.
RTR TRUTH MEDIA - Weinhaus was a journalist that was shot four times in 2012 by MSHP. Many things have been documented in local media about his case, but not much reflected the truth of what happened that day.
(This is our radio show. Every Sunday at 11AM Mountain time on the Republic Broadcasting Network http://RepublicBroadcasting.org )
Weinhaus exposed things happening within the justice system that were not comfortable for most. Shortly after receiving about 200 tips on local corruption, he was shot twice in the head and twice in the chest.
By an absolute miracle he survived. While recovering he was charged by the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney for assaulting an officer by shooting him. Overwhelming evidence existed at trial that he never touched his gun, but it was suppressed.
A jury is only as good as the information presented to them. Evidence of innocence including FBI witness statements were removed from trial by the prosecuting attorney. Knowingly convicting an innocent man is a travesty to justice.
Now for the most recent development, Matt Thompson, who had to be approved to visit Jeff Weinhaus went to see him after learning that Jeff had been placed "under investigation" and sent to the hole, better known as solitary confinement where even his lawyer said he could not reach or have contact with him was arrested after his visit to the prison to question the warden as to what was going on. He was stopped on the way out of the parking lot and intimidated and then later arrested at a local restaurant after calling the Governor's office to inquire what the proper policy was at the prison. He was charged with a felony for allegedly threatening the warden by informing him that he was contacting the governor.
#FreeJeffWeinhaus #BullitinMan #PoliticalPrisoner
Please sends cards and letters of encouragement to:
ERDC
Jeffrey R. Weinhaus
DOC #1261778
2727 Hwy K
Bonne Terre, Mo. 63628
If you would like to send money directly to Jeff in prison to help show your support for Jeff-Bulletinman you may send it through: https://www.jpay.com/
You can view many other videos of Jeff Weinhaus-Bulletinman that he published on his YouTube channel in his journey to help his fellow citizens get justice for all! https://www.youtube.com/user/bulletinman
HOUSTON — A man survives Vietnam only to be murdered by American Stasi. In a bombshell development, the undercover cop who led a drug raid that ended with a deadly shootout last month is now the target of a criminal investigation.
The narcotics officer lied in the search warrant affidavit about a drug buy that never happened, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed Friday. The only problem with the Chief's "You lie you die" comment is that he too has some "inconsistencies" to explain also.
If what appears to be the case here pans out, this officer should be charged with murder, and anyone involved should also be charged under the RICO statutes. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. I would say at this point using a government or municipal corporation to commit crimes equates to a corrupt criminal organization.
The following articles by Reason magazine cover this story very well. Prohibition and the war on drugs coupled with the militarization of American Law Enforcement is the single greatest threat to our freedom in this century.
On Jan. 28th, a Houston narcotics team conducted a no-knock raid on the home of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58. The police claimed to have received an anonymous tip that the two were selling drugs. They also claim they sent an informant to the house to attempt a controlled buy, and that informant returned with heroin.
According to the police account, as they broke down the door, a dog charged them, and they shot it. They say Tuttle then charged at them with a handgun, wounding multiple officers. After the police opened fire, he retreated to a backroom. The police say Nicholas then charged a wounded officer and attempted to grab his shotgun. They opened fire again, killing her. They say Tuttle then reemerged, firing his gun, at which point they killed him, too. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo initially claimed the house was “hardened,” or fortified, possibly with surveillance cameras. He also claimed that the police arrived with their sirens and flashers activated, inferring that the couple should have known they were being raided by law enforcement. In the end, the story went, five cops put their lives on the line to get a heroin-dealing couple off the street. (My colleagues here at The Post published an editorial praising Acevedo for using the incident to call for gun-control laws that might keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.)
But since then, the official story has started to unravel. It’s increasingly looking as though something went horribly wrong on Harding Street, and that Tuttle and Nicholas were not hardened drug dealers, but at most recreational drug dealers who were invaded, shot and killed in their own home. Here’s a quick rundown of what we now know:
· The police obtained a no-knock warrant. That would seem to contradict Acevedo’s claim that the officers arrived with their sirens and flashers on. The entire purpose of a no-knock raid is to take suspects by surprise. That surprise is spoiled pretty quickly if you provide notice of your arrival.
· Tuttle and Nicholas had lived at the same house in the 7800 block of Harding Street for 20 years. The police apparently didn’t bother to do much investigating, because they didn’t even know the names of either of the home’s occupants when they broke down the door.
· According to police, the informant claimed to have seen lots of plastic baggies filled with black tar heroin and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. The raid didn’t turn up either. They did apparently find a small amount of pot, a revolver and a small quantity of powder that might have been cocaine (or might not).
· Acevedo initially claimed that after the raid, “The neighborhood thanked our officers because it was a drug house. They described it as a problem location.” Yet in the days that followed, neighbors and family of the couple came forward, stating that they were shocked to hear the allegations of drug dealing. They described the couple as “easygoing,” and said they rarely saw visitors. The neighbors’ testimonials seem particularly troubling, since it was allegedly a neighbor’s anonymous tip that sparked the initial investigation.
· Neither suspect had a significant criminal record. The only criminal history for either was a decade-old bad check charge against Nicholas that was dismissed about a month after it was filed.
· Despite what the police department claimed early on, the house was not fortified, nor did it have surveillance cameras. One local police watchdog group pointed out on YouTube that while the targeted home on Harding Street didn’t appear to be either fortified or equipped with surveillance, a separate home with the same street number on Hardy Street was both fortified and equipped with extensive surveillance gear. During a news conference after the raid, Acevedo himself used both “Hardy” and “Harding" in describing the street where the raid went down.
· Acevedo initially claimed that the officers were met with gunfire immediately upon entering the house. Later, he said the police fired first, killing Tuttle’s dog.
By last week, activists began to speak out, noting these inconsistencies in the official narrative and questioning why the police needed to use such violent tactics in the first place. Some even began to question whether the police were telling the truth about what happened. This sparked a backlash from law enforcement. Acevedo dismissed what he called “crazy conspiracy theories,” adding, “I guarantee you we got the right house.” Police union president Joe Gamaldi blamed the shooting on “anti-police rhetoric,” then issued what sounded an awful lot like a threat: “If you’re the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, just know we’ve all got your number now, we’re going to be keeping track of all of y’all, and we’re going to make sure that we hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers.” To his credit, Acevedo criticized Gamaldi’s remarks.
But Gamaldi may soon need to spend more time defending his dues-paying members than tracking and threatening police critics. The Chronicle’s report notes that the officer’s punishment comes “amid a probe into questions over whether the sworn affidavit used to justify the no-knock warrant may have contained false information.” Acevedo told the paper, “I know that in addition to the officer-involved shooting itself, many have questions regarding the circumstances surrounding the search warrant. All of these questions are part of our ongoing criminal and administrative investigations." Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg says she’s also looking into the matter.
Drug cops often face a lot of pressure to raid houses, seize illicit drugs and rack up arrests. We saw this in Atlanta in the Kathryn Johnston case, where the police got a tip about a stash house, and instead of waiting to find an informant, conducting a controlled buy, and requesting a warrant, they skipped the first two steps. They made up the drug buy, lied to a judge, got their warrant and killed an innocent 92-year-old woman in her own home. They then tried to cover it all up. Just a few months ago I reported that drug cops and Little Rock had lied about a controlled buy to a judge, then conducted an extraordinarily violent no-knock raid on a man who happened to be innocent. (Acevedo said his department serves more than 1,700 search warrants per year — more than 4.5 per day. It seems safe to assume that the vast majority of those are drug warrants.)
I’ve been writing about these tactics for more than 15 years now. And while there has been some movement on the margins — groups such as the National Tactical Officers Association now recommend that when it comes to serving drug warrants, police attempt apprehend suspects outside their homes instead of attempting “dynamic entry” — the raids haven’t stopped, and the pile of dead bodies keeps growing.
The arguments against these raids are self-evident. They create violence and confrontation where there was none before. They sow confusion and chaos, and thus have a very thin margin for error. By design, they inflict punishment on people who have yet to even be charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. They also inflict punishment on any innocent people who might be inside. They subject everyone — cops and suspects — to unnecessary risk. Combine all of that with a drug war that by necessity operates on dirty information from shady informants and anonymous tips, and you have a recipe for needless death and destruction. And there’s little evidence that these tactics make the community any safer.
I could write a book of examples. But here are just a handful from the past several years:
· Even as the drama continues to play out in Houston, in another part of Texas, Marvin Guyis about to be tried on murder charges in the killing of a police officer during a 2014 no-knock drug raid. The police first broke a window, causing Guy to reach for his gun. They then broke down Guy’s door, at which time he allegedly shot and killed Officer Charles Dinwiddie. The police found no drugs in Guy’s home. He’s facing a possible death sentence if convicted. (I’ll have more about Guy in a post next week.)
· The same year as the raid on Guy, another Texas man, Henry Magee, shot and killed Deputy Adam Sowders during a raid on Magee’s home. Unlike Guy, Magee did have illicit drugs in his home — marijuana plants. Magee maintained the shooting was done in self-defense, and a grand jury declined to charge him in Sowders’s death. It’s worth noting that Guy is black, and Magee is white.
· The same year as those raids, Jason Wescott of Tampa was shot and killed during a police raid on his home. An informant claimed to have bought some pot from Wescott. The same informant later said he had lied about the purchase — at the encouragement of Tampa police.
· In yet another case from Texas, in 2016 a jury in Corpus Christi acquitted Ray Rosas for shooting at police during a no-knock drug raid on his home. The police were looking for his nephew. Rosas had good reason to be afraid — he had once testified against a gang member.
· Last year, a jury in Austin (where Acevedo was previously the chief of police) convicted 18-year-old Tyler Harrell of assault for shooting at police during a no-knock raid on his home. Harrell and his mother said they had no idea the raiding officers were law enforcement. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
And the beat goes on. Just days after the deadly raid in Houston, a state trooper and a suspect were both killed during a raid in Virginia.
Police officials like to have it both ways. They want to use tactics designed to confuse and disorient people — to take people by surprise. But when someone in the midst of that chaos mistakes police for armed intruders and tries to defend himself, officials say they should have known that the armed intruders were law enforcement. Over at Reason, Jacob Sullum notes that there was a good reason Tuttle and Nicholas may have believed otherwise: There has been a rash of recent incidents in Houston in which armed criminals have posed as police.
On top of all of that, there’s a huge double standard at play here. Police who mistakenly shoot unarmed or innocent people in these raids are inevitably forgiven by police chiefs, prosecutors and judges, owing to the volatility of the circumstances. Of course, the police created those circumstances. And yet the targets of these raids — the people the tactics are designed to confuse — are rarely afforded that sort of leniency. The Magee case notwithstanding, if you shoot at the police as they raid your home, you’re almost certainly looking at criminal charges that will put you in prison for a long time — provided you live through the raid itself.
