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 ...
PING
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?”
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.
“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?’
Next thing you know they’ll be doing the same thing to cigarette smokers.
Jack Boot justice...get used to it, because you’ll be seeing more.
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!
I agree with you! What ever happened to the days when Officer Joe Friday came to the door and knocked? Now someone is dead over an ounce of pot? What you wanna bet he smoked it for glaucoma? I would not be at all surprised by the amount he had and his age!
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
My libertarian streak comes out on this one. Legalize marjuana. No one should ever be killed over a weed.
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?
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.
I wish they would legalize marijuana and make booze illegal! Catching a stoned criminal is easier than catching a drunk one!!!!!
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.
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.
“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.
I thought no one got in trouble for marijuana anymore?
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.
That’s pretty much what happened in my town, and a policeman ended up dead, and a kid going to prison.
I think Sheriff Andy needs to take Barney's bullet away from him.
We got a 92 year old lady shot down in these parts by a Swat team. There was so much gunfire from the SWATs that they succeeded in wounding some of their own.
As I read it, Capone’s employees were all dressed up as cops for the St. Valentine’s day massacre. Moran’s people would have had no way to distinguish them from cops doing a “no-knock” raid.
I am saddened to hear that.
The kid shouldn’t be going to prison - he should be going to an appointment with ol’ Sparky.
Still that is the way a warrant should be served unless circumstances (lives in danger, violent offender) dictate otherwise.
Do you know any of the details of the situation I’m talking about?
On the plus side, the little ol’ lady did send a few round back at the cops before they killed her.
And the cops in question ARE going to jail. Mostly ‘cause they didn’t find any drugs..., but they are going to jail.
No. I don’t get the news from Virginia. From your response, I was assuming the cop served the warrant in a less threatening fashion and the kid shot him. If that is not the case, I apologize.
The suspect DID have a shotgun.
How were the police to know that the response to their polite query would NOT have been a 12 gauge round exploding through the front door? A reasonable question.
why not serve the warrant with a polite knock on the door and a “We have a warrant, sir, may we come in?”
A few years ago, our town did a mass bust on valentines day. The undercover cop showed up at the door carrying a bouquet of flowers, knocked and said “FTD flower delivery for [insert perp’s name].
They got everyone quite peacefully. The perps were actually eager to identify themselves and sign for their flowers. No guns were drawn and nobody got shot.
I dont know, is it really what the 46 year old Father wanted?
Then why was he engaged in criminal activity.
"Authority does not bare the sword in vain".
All stupid people; wake up.
Somone had called in a report that this kid was growing and selling pot at his house. It was a 2or3 AM raid. The kid was in bed sleeping with his tv on, his dog started barking, his door was kicked in and a guy with a gun was framed in his doorway with bright lights shining in. He shot twice, blindly, and ended up killing a LEO that was outside in the yard. There was less than an ounce of pot, no plants. He had been broken into and threatened a number of times before this by local gangs.
Maybe they thought they were going to a bachelor party.
Is everything that is illegal a criminal activity?
Read it again.
S L O W L Y
the irony is that these jackboots are addicted to adrenaline.
Sorry!
This was my daily DUH moment prior to coffee!
Feel proud to have been a part of it :)
No problem ;)
And, thanks for the CATO link.
I’ve been contriuting to CATO for years and even have several copies of their pocket Consitution.
I lost the link you posted and now I’ve got it again.
Thx.
A-a-a-w-w-w, man! Followin' a battering ram through a flattened door at 2:30am is past cool. With enough adrenalin, you don't need no steenkin' MJ.
You don’t get M4 carbines,MP-5 SMGs and flash-bangs unless you actually plan to use them.
Did they shoot the dog? Raid’s not complete until they shoot the dog. Raiding a couple neighbor’s houses by mistake before the real raid is also SOP.
You forgot to mention that the cop was working undercover and dressed as a homeless derelict/meth-head complete with long hair and a scraggly beard.
Yeah, maybe. I think the sheriff got antsy because the detectives he sent in there kept saying they didn’t see any suspicious activity and they would have to go back.
If he has no prior violent offenses, or is not being arrested for a violent offense, they have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s still legally innocent, until after the trial, ya know.
“Dynamic entry” should be for a situation where life is immediately danger or for a known violent offender.
That brings up another issue, drug laws are not uniform, nor are they uniformly carried out. Some people receive a possession ticket, or politely jailed and released for trial and others get a SWAT raid. Same substance, sometimes even same amount, etc. It boggles my mind the way different cases are handled in different jurisdictions and sometimes even within the same jurisdiction.
In defense of LEO using SWAT type raids I have to say this came about when drug dealers started being willing to shoot it out with police rather than go peacefully. It was the violent responses by drug dealers that led to the SWAT type raids to begin with. In many places it would be suicide for a LEO to approach a drug dealer's house and simply knock to serve a warrant or even question the person about their activities. After LEO were shot at enough times, they came up with a way to approach drug dealers that provided them with more safety. Now it is the drug dealers or innocent civilians (in the case of mistakes) that have to worry about their safety. I honestly don't know what the answer would be to this problem.
Legalizing marijuana would solve some of the short-term problems, but marijuana is by far not the only illegal drug-are we willing to legalize all drugs? Often even in marijuana cases there are other drugs found. I know of a case where a woman had a joint of MJ in her purse, no big deal right? Well upon further inspection by LEO there was also more than 400 grams of cocaine concealed in the vehicle. None of this is a simple as it seems, so there really are no easy answers.
Nope, he had on personal armor, but it was a fluke shot by a .380
It’s still in court.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
An ounce-and-a-half is *not* a dealer.
Long past time to end the no-knock in the WOD.
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