Having learned nothing from what the German government did to the German people, our new brand of conservative, so\-called conservatives, will wear the shame of their silence and inaction in regards to the expansion of the US police\-state\.
"Over the holidays, a federal district judge in Massachusetts issued a
ruling in the lawsuit brought by the family of Eurie Stamps, a
68-year-old man shot and killed by a Framingham, Mass., SWAT team during
a drug raid in 2011. The ruling actually allows the lawsuit to go
forward, but only in a limited capacity. The family will only be
permitted to sue the officer who shot Stamps, and only for compensatory
damages. The family’s bid for punitive damages and its claims against
the city were dismissed. In fact, despite the fact that Stamps was not
suspected of any crime, that he was fully compliant with the police when
they stormed his house with guns, that the raid on his home itself was
unnecessary, and that the judge concedes that Stamps did absolutely
nothing to facilitate his own killing, the family has already lost on
eight of their 10 claims before the case will even get to a jury. ..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/01/06/still-waiting-for-justice-after-swat-team-member-kills-innocent-grandfather/
"... At worst, then, Stamps was guilty of marrying a woman whose adult
son was allegedly selling drugs somewhere near Stamps’s home. Bushfan
was arrested minutes before the raid when he came out of the residence.
But the police went ahead and raided the place anyway. ..."
"... Duncan wasn’t used to being the first man in, and by his own
account seemed overwhelmed by the situation. Duncan told investigators
that as he moved to pull Stamps’s arms behind him, he fell backwards,
somehow causing his gun to discharge. Stamps, a grandfather of 12, was
shot dead in his own home, while fully complying with police orders
during a raid to serve a warrant for nonviolent, consensual drug crimes
for which he had never been implicated. ..."
"Somehow causing his gun to discharge."
"'... While falling, Officer Duncan removed his left hand from his
rifle, which was pointing down towards the ground, and put his left arm
out to try and catch himself. As he did so, he heard a shot and then
his body made impact with the wall. ...'"
"He heard a shot."
"'... At that point, Officer Duncan, who was lying on the ground with
his back against the wall, realized that he was practically on top of
Mr. Stamps and that Mr. Stamps was bleeding. ...'"
"... Eurie Stamps is dead. He was innocent. He was killed due in part to
the circumstances created by serving a search warrant for a nonviolent
crime with extraordinarily violent tactics. Local law enforcement
officials found no fault with the officers, and no fault with the
tactics. The only possible conclusion: The death of an innocent
68-year-old man is an acceptable consequence of our efforts to stop
people from getting high. ..."
Hey, ya gotta break a few eggs, amirite...?
"'... Fifth, there was no obvious justification or need for Duncan to
have turned off the safety and put his finger on the trigger, inside the
trigger guard. The placement of his finger apparently violated police
department policy, and possibly proper police practice. ...'"
Oopsie...
"'... Duncan: "But at some point the weapon discharged."
Forster: "We don’t know if the weapon discharged because you pulled the
trigger or because of the impact of you falling."
Duncan: "I just know that it discharged. I don’t know consciously that
my finger was in there (inside the trigger guard). I just know that the
weapon discharged." ...'"
"... Assuming Saylor’s decision to allow two of the 10 claims to go to
trial is upheld on appeal (and again, that is certainly no guarantee),
it seems likely that Duncan will offer the same testimony to a jury.
He’ll say he initially had his finger outside the trigger guard, but
that he may have breached the guard as he fell, causing the gun to fire,
or perhaps it fired from impact. It will be entirely sympathetic
testimony given by a guy who will no doubt honestly portray the panic,
intensity and life-and-death stakes he was feeling in the moment. Juries
don’t like to rule against cops, especially well-intentioned ones. ..."
"... The rest of Saylor’s opinion – the portion striking down the rest
of the Stamps family’s claims – is less controversial. And that’s what’s
really scary. For example, Saylor dismissed the family’s claims against
the city of Framingham because in order to even get to a jury, they have
to show an official policy or lack of proper training to be a direct
causal link to the constitutional violation. One might think that a
policy of serving warrants for low-level drug crimes with battering
rams, flash grenades and a SWAT team could foreseeably lead to the death
of an innocent person. Indeed it has, dozens and dozens of times. But
such tactics have already repeatedly been upheld by the courts,
including the U.S. Supreme Court. So Stamps’s family would have had to
show that in a world where such tactics are routinely used for such
low-level crimes, there is something uniquely deficient about the way
Framingham carries them out. They didn’t. Claim dismissed.
Saylor dismissed the family’s claim for punitive damages on similar
lines. ... Claim dismissed. ...
Stamps’s family also tried a wrongful death claim under Massachusetts
law. ... Claim dismissed. ..."
"... Our police departments are using extraordinary force and violence
not to apprehend active shooters or to storm hostage situations but as
an /investigative/ tool for routine drug crimes. Occasionally, this
results in innocent people wrongly raided and terrorized. Sometimes it
results in death. But even when it all goes to plan, it results in doors
battering-rammed, guns pointed, flash grenades detonated and a mini-war
waged against people who are still /merely suspects/ in consensual,
nonviolent crimes.
In a free society, that last point in and of itself ought to bring howls
of outrage and demands for change. Instead, it’s barely controversial."
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