TheAgitator.com
News From Chesapeake
Monday, January 28th, 2008The Chesapeake city manager will apparently announce tomorrow that…
…the [police] department will undergo a top-to-bottom examination including looking into procedures, policies and equipment used by the force.
She did not want to get more specific because the City Manager is expected to announce the move Tuesday during a news conference at City Hall.
At that point, he may go into greater detail about it.
However, Willis does say the idea of reviewing the police department is not new, and has been lfloating out there for a while. However, the death of Detective Jarrod Shivers might have accelerated City leaders to make the idea a reality.
The timing of the announcement is certainly interesting. Makes me suspect we’ll soon be hearing more about the Shivers-Frederick raid.
One of Shivers’ colleagues recently told the Virginian-Pilot that if they were to conduct the raid again tomorrow, they’d do it “the exact same way.” I suppose he was driven to say that in part by feelings of defiance in the wake of his friend’s death. There’s also the matter of liability. Admitting police error could both hurt the criminal case against Frederick and could put the department and individual officers at risk should Det. Shivers’ family decide to sue.
But damn. You just conducted a raid that ended with a dead cop and a man with no prior record sitting in jail on murder-one charges. You’ve got a life ended, a life ruined, and two families in mourning. And you found what I think we can now safely say was no more than a user’s amount of marijuana. The vast marijuana grow operation described in the search warrant is nowhere to be found. And you wouldn’t do anything differently?
As a former resident of Chesapeake, VA (Great Bridge area for the locals), I must say I never really remember hearing about police issues. I left there in 98, so it is not like I was there last week, but I can’t imagine the city going down the tubes quickly. So, I was a bit surprised to hear about this raid, how it was conducted, and of course, the end result.
Lots of military folk live in Chesapeake, although not necessarily in this fellow’s neighborhood. Just depends on what BAQ money the service was giving out. I remember “bad” places being in Norfolk and Hampton, not Chesapeake. I just don’t understand the mentality used…maybe I never will.
they’d do it “the exact same way.”
Strangely reminiscent of Bush’s denial that he had made any mistakes in the conduct of his takeover and occupation of Iraq. People who will not admit they are wrong, especially when they obviously are, speaks tons of their arrogance…and ignorance. Do we really want people in positions of power who are that stupid and arrongant? I don’t. Give me people who can make mistakes, admit it, learn from it, and change so that those mistakes don’t happen again. I have no use for the other sort.
I just read the whole article.
This was a ” well thought out” raid? Are they kidding? A “well thought out” raid would have been based on ACCURATE INFORMATION and thorough investigative work for starters. And when is it ever a good plan to bust through someone’s door at night and not expect some tragedy to occur? Of course, the only time the police get upset is when it’s one of their own who loses his life. Look at Kathryn Johnson, the mother in Lima, the baby with a finger shot off, and on and on…..the police don’t seem too agitated by those deaths or maiming’s….they’re too busy maligning the victims in order to cover themselves.
Officer Ernest “Jeff” Jefferies said in the article, “”The world just stopped. At that point, I couldn’t hear sirens. I couldn’t hear other people talk,” Jefferies said. “Literally, the breath leaves your body.” I’m positive that is true….what a horrible thing to happen.
But for Ryan Frederick, is it not possible that the world just stopped for him too, and the same feelings Officer Jefferies had weren’t also Ryan Frederick’s feelings and state of mind when he saw his door being kicked in and was scared to death? Why is it that the police, the supposed trained professionals, are entitled to all these feelings and the citizen, who is not a trained police professional, is not?
This was a tragic, tragic situation for BOTH families, Shivers and Frederick. But the truth is that this warrant was served for no good reason, it was based on bad information, the proper investigative work was not done and the result is that two good people and two good families are forever ruined—- for nothing.
This situation was CREATED by the police and THEY are the ones to blame. All this sorrow over a silly bag of pot. I guess we can all see that serving this warrant was really worth it!!!
According to the article:
“Ryan David Frederick, 28, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.”
Felony!?! What felony did he commit if he wasn’t growing for distribution? If he only had enough pot for personal use isn’t that a misdemeanor? How does the prosecutor start throwing out charges without bothering to insure there’s evidence to support them? Sounds like Chesapeake needs to be looking at re-working procedures with the D.A. as well
Sorry, instead of “throwing out” should have said “bringing up”.
BTW, Why isn’t what’s going on with these police raids and SWAT team raids NATIONAL NEWS? And why isn’t this an issue that is taken up by Congress? America, your police departments are killing your own/ their own people—- over nothing!
I could give a hoot about all the press given to the guys in sports who take steroids. They are adults. Yes, they are cheats and liars and their “Awards” should be taken away or ridiculed in public so everyone knows just how they won them, but come on!…. who really cares about this? And look at all the national and congressional attention given to this subject? Let’s get the really important things that need to be addressed and corrected out there!
The felony was the first degree murder charge, and the weapons charge is for using a gun while committing murder.
“The felony was the first degree murder charge, and the weapons charge is for using a gun while committing murder.”
Great, one bad charge justifying another. I can’t wait to hear this case in court…after what the neighbors said about not hearing the police announce their presence the D.A.’s going to have a great time trying to convince a jury that there was premeditation involved in what Frederick did.
Whoever signed off on this raid should be fired after they do that review.
I had an interesting coversation with a Collin County, TX DA this weekend who told me that they are now routinely asking jurors being screened for pot cases, “Do you think it is a waste of taxpayer money to prosecute for simple possesion of marijuanna?” She also said that juries in Collin County are routinely finding defendents “not guilty” EVEN when they admit to being in possesion of marijuanna. She said these cases are a complete waste of their time. Juries are getting smarter…too bad our lawmakers aren’t.
As a side observation…she was REALLY cute!
Will someone in authority please have the guts to call this incident what it is? A TRAGIC MISTAKE! Lets take care of the widow and the children. Release Ryan Frederick. Maybe the Police Chief (who lives in sight of Frederick’s house.) Maybe the city council or the Commonwealth Attorney. Someone, please, in the name of justice.
This is a farce. This NON-VIOLENT “criminal” has his dorr busted in and he’s asleep. What would YOU do? Grab a weapon I presume. I think this “raid” should have had a little more EVIDENCE before causing so much loss. It’s not really like on TV… Vick Mackey is a CHARACTER - you cannot conduct a justice system like that.