Posted on 11/04/2006 12:16:33 PM PST by happinesswithoutpeace
As the Justice Department’s chief civil rights prosecutor, Deval Patrick made the controversial decision not to criminally prosecute an FBI sniper who shot and killed an unarmed woman as she held her infant daughter in her arms during a 1992 standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
The incident, in which U.S. Marshall William F. Degan of Quincy and the wife and son of white separatist Randy Weaver were killed during an 11-day standoff, is cited by experts as the spark that started the anti-government militia movement that exploded after the standoff in Waco, Texas, less than a year later. 1994, Patrick, the Democratic candidate for governor who was then assistant attorney general, concluded there was insufficient basis to prosecute FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi for shooting and killing 43-year-old Vicki Weaver. Horiuchi had testified that he opened fire on the woman’s husband and his friend, Kevin Harris, when he thought they were about to fire on an FBI helicopter.
Patrick made the recommendation despite a report by a task force assembled by Patrick’s boss, Attorney General Janet Reno, that found numerous problems with the FBI’s handling of the standoff, and called the protocol used by the FBI’s Hostage Rescue unconstitutional under the circumstances. The report referred the case to Patrick’s department to decide whether to charge Horiuchi. Aides to Patrick said he was unavailable for comment because he was preparing for last night’s debate. Former Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin called the incident “a tragic one that occurred during the final months of the first Bush administration.”
“The Justice Department believed the critical element of willfulness necessary for a criminal civil rights prosecution could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt,” Marlin said in a statement to the Herald yesterday. “Such willfulness, or knowing, intentional use of unreasonable force could not be made out against the FBI agent.”
Patrick’s assessment, he noted, was“reaffirmed by a separate criminal investigative team.”
In 1995, however, a Senate subcommittee headed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) found “simply no justification” for the shot Horiuchi took that killed Vicki Weaver and “missed the 10-month-old baby in her arms by less than two feet.”
“Horiuchi should have known that as he fired blind through the cabin door, he was shooting into an area which could well have contained Vicki Weaver and her two younger daughters,” states the report, which took no position on whether Horiuchi should have been prosecuted.
The decision not to prosecute was ripped by both conservative and liberal groups. “It was obscene,” said author James Bovard, an outspoken critic of federal officials’ handling of the case. “There was no need for the excessive force the FBI used in gunning down a mother holding her baby. ACLU Legislative Counsel Timothy Edgar said the incident was “the result of overzealous - and unchecked - federal power.”
I was being ironic.
I could also say it was odd how the power failed and all the children's bodies being stored in freezers after they were burned to death thawed out.
Oops! More evidence gone!
And the FLIR tapes.
Well he's trying to put a lie to his moniker "spend it all Deval". He wants to be called "free 'em all Deval."
I know.
I'm waiting to hear form those freepers who think that the FBI should be trusted to "protect" us.
If he wins... sticks and dirt soup will become the staple of the MA middle-class.
I met Randy Weaver twice. While he did not seem bitter, he did seem like he was still pissed at the government. I have to say that I have lost ALL respect for the FBI, the ATF and the government in general. They seem to have no problem killing unarmed women, and burn men, women and children....and then not prosecuting the guilty.
Meadow Muffin
No one knew he had a sociopathic personality ~ which is the #1 requirement to serve as an executioner or FBI sniper ~ which is what that job calls for.
Not likely he'd understand why he was on trial.
I have to say that I have lost ALL respect for the FBI, the ATF and the government in general..
Yet you still love your country? How do you love your country and not the machinery of govt that, at least in part, defines it?
Was the FBI agent's name Larry Potts?
ANYONE who tries to exculpate, whitewash, justify, or try to in any way make some kind of excuse for the murderers at Ruby Ridge or Waco, is a KKKLINTOONITE SCUMBAG.
You seem to fit the description.
I only hope that someone you love gets "Horiuchi Justice".
I think America still has a high value...it's some of the organizations that need tweaking when they get too political...
He is still accountable to God.
Thanks for the honest answer -- the question was asked in good faith. So thanks, again.
No problem....
Let's not forget that Lon "sniper" Horiuchi also shot the pet dog. That was his 1st kill. He hoped to draw the son and parents out.
Animal Rights groups never spoke out.
Yes, wasn't it sawed off a 1/4" too short? By the way, IIRC, Weaver didn't do the sawing - he bought it that way, and the buy was a setup, right?
And yes, of course, owning a shotgun with a barrel 1/4" or so too short should definitely constitute a felony and justify the assassination of the owner's family.
I hate to say it (well, not really), but the MA middle-class has been sending the likes of Killer Kennedy and Halp Us Kerry to the senate for far too long to garner any sympathy from me.
They reap what they sow. I hope Devil taxes them to death and starves out the few survivors. The whole damn state can die off for all I care. I wish to hell they'd secede and stop visiting their bad judgment, and yes, that includes Mitt "Just say no to the Boy Scouts" Romney and his wealth redistribution health care program, on the rest of us.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.