Posted on 10/14/2013 12:20:34 PM PDT by bkopto
Vanessa Guerena’s $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the four police agencies was recently settled for $3.4 million. Even with that extraordinary settlement, the police of Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, and Sahuarita have been loath to admit fault. Deputy Tracy Suitt of the Pima Couty Sheriff’s Department, which will pay $2.35 million of the settlement, wrote:
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department strongly believes the events of May 5, 2011, were unfortunate and tragic, but the officers performed that day in accordance with their training and nationally recognized standards.
However, legal advisors and insurers recognize the unpredictable resolution of disputes at trial regarding police conduct and even well-accepted police tactics. As a result, well established business and insurance principles call for compromise and the resolution of disputed cases to mitigate risk and avoid the expense of a trial.
Pima County administrator Chuck Huckleberry maintained the settlement was a “calculated risk management settlement,” which was not an admission of wrong-doing.
With a smaller settlement, perhaps Deputy Suitt’s and Administrator Huckleberry’s spin might be believable. But a $3.4 million settlement? The police did not want this case anywhere near a jury. And the attorneys for the police were wise indeed: the police made horrendous mistakes before, during, and after the raid, mistakes that caused the death of an innocent man.
SNIP
[The] police appear to have learned nothing. Their internal investigation of the raid — conducted by themselves — found them to be not only blameless, but paragons of professional tactical proficiency and police virtue. There is no evidence they have adjusted their policies, procedures, or tactics or that they have disciplined anyone involved. Jose’s shredded home, unoccupied to this day, stands in mute testimony to their ineptitude and to the danger they still pose to the community.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
They tried and convicted him before their arrival. This was just delivering the sentence.
They paid not to be sued.
>> I only wish that settlement would have come out of the police retirement funds.
There should be no retirement bennies — nothing that inspires “putting in the time”. Better to increase salaries. No special immunities. No hiring quotas. We’d then have more responsible LEOs.
I think about this incident often. I hope the settlement, albeit inadequate, helps the family.
Well, then, maybe their training and standards su#ck.
Even Vicki Weaver’s kids only got $1 million each.
They seemed to have a pretty casual approach in that video. Is that how they are trained? Turn your back on an open door?
Anarcho-tyranny is a paleoconservative concept used in critiquing modern “social democracy.” Samuel Francis argued that the problems of managerial state extend to issues of crime and justice. In 1992, he introduced the word “anarcho-tyranny” into the paleocon vocabulary.He once defined it this way: “we refuse to control real criminals (that’s the anarchy) so we control the innocent (that’s the tyranny).”
In one of his last essays, he explained the concept:
What we have in this country today, then, is both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny—the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes; the criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent through exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation, the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through “sensitivity training” and multiculturalist curricula, “hate crime” laws, gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally, and a vast labyrinth of other measures. In a word, anarcho-tyranny.
Francis argues that this situation extends across the U.S. and Europe. While the government functions normally, violent crime remains a constant, creating a climate of fear (anarchy). He says that “laws that are supposed to protect ordinary citizens against ordinary criminals” routinely go unenforced, even though the state is “perfectly capable” of doing so. While this problem rages on, government elites concentrate their interests on law-abiding citizens. In fact, Middle America winds up on the receiving end of both anarchy and tyranny.
The laws that are enforced are either those that extend or entrench the power of the state and its allies and internal elites … or else they are the laws that directly punish those recalcitrant and “pathological” elements in society who insist on behaving according to traditional norms—people who do not like to pay taxes, wear seat belts, or deliver their children to the mind-bending therapists who run the public schools; or the people who own and keep firearms, display or even wear the Confederate flag, put up Christmas trees, spank their children, and quote the Constitution or the Bible—not to mention dissident political figures who actually run for office and try to do something about mass immigration by Third World populations.
Francis argued that anarcho-tyranny is built into the managerial system and cannot be solved simply by fighting corruption or voting out incumbents. In fact, he says that the system generates a false “conservatism” that encourages people to act passively in the face of perpetual revolution. He concludes that only by devolving power back toward law-abiding citizens can sanity be restored.
What happened here is a case study in this toxic condition. Here is the essence of what the heavily armed and cowardly thugs wearing the uniforms of servitors of the contemptible Dupnik did:
Jose rushed his wife and four-year-old son into a closet in a back bedroom, as far from the front door as possible, saving their lives.
He had only seconds, just enough time to take up a scoped AR-15 rifle, and wearing only boxer shorts, was caught in the open when the police broke in his front door.
Sounding a siren for less than nine seconds, and “yelling” so quietly their voices can’t be heard on the video, the police smashed in the door within 33 seconds of arriving. The officers did not immediately execute a dynamic entry, but stood, apparently having no idea what to do, in the open doorway. Having just come from bright sunlight into a dark home, they probably couldn’t see a thing, and didn’t plan for that foreseeable danger.
Within seven seconds of breaking in the door, a single officer fired a few rounds. Then four officers fired a panicky, uncontrolled, and un-aimed fusillade of 71 rounds, hitting Guerena 22 times. The other 49 bullets shredded the Guerena home floor-to-ceiling and exterior wall to exterior wall. They actually hit several nearby homes.
They even managed to shoot up the front door and the walls on both sides of the front door frame in which they were standing.
One SWAT officer not involved in the initial shots drew his handgun, ran to the door, and fired a number of “me too” shots between the heads of his fellow officers. He could not have had any idea of what he was shooting at or why.
It is a miracle that the police did not shoot themselves, Vanessa, and her son.
Rather than enter and secure Guerena, they picked up their shield-carrying officer who had somehow fallen down and ended up facing backwards, and they retreated — leaving Jose bleeding on the floor.
I was just thinking about this the other day, wondering what ever happened. Thanks for the update.
That’s right:
Why should the police change tactics and the way they do things when they don’t have to pay anything.? The money comes from the taxpayers. I can bet if it came out of their police budget, they would make some changes.
Don’t forget they left Jose bleeding on the floor for over an hour. Refusing to allow access for medical care.
“the best alternative would seem to be an armored “safe room”, that they cannot penetrate before help arrives”
Where exactly is “help” going to arrive from?
If you know people you can call that will “help” you when SWAT comes kicking in your door, you must have some great friends.
She should use it for “personal avengers”. Those cops intended to kill that man by letting him bleed to death for more than an hour by refusing ambulance personnel entry.
Don’t forget they left Jose bleeding on the floor for over an hour. Refusing to allow access for medical care.
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They sent in two of those “bomb” robots to poke him at different times.. they wouldn’t let his body be moved until they knew he was dead ... the thugs didn’t want a witness .. this was murder.
She should use it for “personal avengers”.
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ABSOLUTELY ,, I’m sure she can find a Mexican drug gang to handle the job.
“burn this mother*****r down”
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking. And vengeance, to paraphrase Hawk (”Cold Service”), is a dish best served cold. Give them a clue that they are targeted, and them wait a good, long while before following through.
Every cop who discharged his gun should be in prison in general population.
That is the time to call in the “aggressive lawyer battalion”, with lots and lots of cameras. While they can’t stop them from rousting you, they can put a halt to the gunplay.
The police are working off a carefully orchestrated timetable, for busting in, killing, taking evidence, etc. But aggressive lawyers can screw that all up, especially the killing part. As “officers of the court”, they also carry weight as witnesses to the police doing illegal things.
“Pima County Sheriff’s Office - keeping the peace since 1869” is painted on all their cruisers.
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