TheAgitator.com
A New and Improved Way to Break Down Doors
Friday, April 9th, 2010In January 2008, police in Chesapeake, Virginia raided the home of 28-year-old Ryan Frederick. Days earlier, an informant had broken into Frederick’s house, spotted several marijuana plants, stole some of them, then gave police the probable cause they needed to conduct the raid. During the raid, police put a battering ram through part of Frederick’s door. By Frederick’s account he awoke, saw someone breaking into his home, panicked (given that he’d been burglarized days earlier), and fired his gun through the broken door. His bullet struck and killed one of the police officers, Det. Jarrod Shivers.
Though depicted by the prosecution as a cold-blooded cop killer, Frederick’s taped interviews shortly after the raid clearly showed a man who feared for his safety, and showed immense remorse upon learning that he’d killed a law enforcement officer. Frederick was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to ten years in prison. The state had sought to convict him of capital murder. (See a roundup of my coverage of the case here.)
More than two years later, the Chesapeake Police Department has announced a change in how it will conduct drug raids. But the department won’t be reconsidering its policy of sending cops on volatile, forced entry raids into the homes of suspected, low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. Nor will it be changing the questionable way its narcotics officers deal with drug informants.
So what’s the new drug raid policy? Henceforth, Chesapeake narcotics officers will be using a new and improved battering ram.
Wow. Read the article halfway through before going “geez this seems slanted” and checking the name of the website you linked to. Can’t say I’m surprised to see this appear there.
May the “new improved” battering ram be forced up their “new professional” butts.
“There’s nothing we could have done differently or better when my buddy died”
Wow.
Nice how the only lives they are interested in saving are the cops.
What MassHole said. That line really stuck out, and betrays the real problem that we’re dealing with here.
“The sergeant, now retired, sat at a picnic table on the deck of Big Woody’s Bar and Grill, pausing every few minutes to say hello to the retired and off-duty officers who filled the place.”
“Big Woody’s” huh?
Heh.
Then can even honor their dead kamerad with it.
The could call it the Arrr Shivers ye Timbers.
“”There’s nothing we could have done differently or better when my buddy died. But it has the potential to prevent other police wives and children from going through this given the same circumstances,” Chambers said at a recent Police Unity Tour fundraiser in Chesapeake.”
Nothing could have been done differently? Nothing at all? Like, maybe, arresting the individual when he’s on the street? Or at a store? Maybe in a parking lot?
Nope, they can’t do it differently, because that would not provide the adrenaline-powered ‘jazz’ of busting down somebody’s door, waving their weapons around, shouting, swearing, threatening death with every move, manhandling suspects, etc. Good clean fun!
“Police need only guide it,”
Since such is the current point of failure, I don’t suppose this little ditty will change things much..
….all this over a plant that grows in God’s green earth?
Radley I’ve read a bunch of posts you’ve written on the Ryan Frederick case, but this is the first time I’ve actually clicked back to check out the interview tapes.
The only word for it is depressing. The shock and confusion and remorse are palpable in Frederick’s voice. I’m not sure if even the sudden death of a loved one could compare to the quickness and finality with which Frederick’s life changed that night. Unimaginable.
Rhayader, absolutely. If Frederick was an Oscar-worthy actor or the world’s most brilliant sociopath, I might not believe how upset he sounds. Otherwise, that’s real. Anyone can tell that’s real, near-hysterical upset.
I have written to Ryan. He both regretted his “negligence” and wondered whether he might do the same thing again.
After Cory Maye, after the now late Kathryn Johnston, after Frederick, after countless others, all of them acting in the same way, as if they didn’t know who was at the door, how can people still believe these raids work?
This is how a bureaucrat defines “progress”.
/Insert some platitude about safer communities, a better future for our children, the brave men and women in blue, etc.
I understand that Mr. Frederick feels bad about what happened, and I understand his lawyer’s thinking that the best way to avoid the murder rap was to say he shot without knowing his target, but I really don’t see how Mr. Frederick was actually negligent. He believed that one or more people were trying to force his way into his dwelling, and that those people would incapacitate him if given the chance. He was entirely correct in those beliefs. I would have liked to have seen his lawyer ask the jury: “If your door is being broken down, in such fashion that you will likely be unable to identify the intruders until they’re in position to incapacitate you, should you assume the intruders to be robbers or police?”
Were it not for the likelihood that a juror might be a knee-jerk police supporter, an even better question might be something like, “For whatever reason, the police seem to have tried to prevent Mr. Frederick from knowing there were police outside his door. Why should Mr. Frederick be blamed for their apparent success?”
“Nothing could have been done differently? Nothing at all? Like, maybe, arresting the individual when he’s on the street? Or at a store? Maybe in a parking lot?”
Or, like, you know, not going after him at all.
All the pigs would have to do to be civilized human beings half the time is just be lazy.
Normal, decent lazy cowards don’t go around invading people’s houses and getting their asses deservedly shot dead.
That thing probably has a nickname already: Grond.
The home owner did nothing wrong . He was defending his house . He didnt know who was breaking in it could have been some crazed drunken idiot hell bent on killing him for all he knew.There was absolutly no reason why the colice could not have arrested this man when he was leaving his home and then searched it. But they choose to do this and one of the cops paid for the mistake with his life no big loss there but there was no reason to raid a non violent persons house in that manner . the cops got what they deserved
[...] -Balko: Virginia cops respond to yet another fatality due to drug war enforcement overkill by (of course) upgrading their battering rams. Hey, here’s an idea, how about not busting down the doors of people who aren’t a threat to anybody? [...]
Is it possible that the real reason for the proliferation of late-nite, No-Knock raids is as simple as:
Police Overtime?
if those poor little weeds only knew the trouble they caused.
There was a great comment on the policeone.com site:
Interesting. The comment tb references isn’t on the article. Is it on a different thread, tb?