Another outrageous case that’s been added to my Drug War Victims page.
Police shoot, kill Georgia grandfather during no-knock drug raid
EAST DUBLIN, GA — A drug task force gunned down a grandfather in his home during a botched late-night raid that was based on the word of a self-confessed meth addict and burglar who had robbed the property two nights prior. [..]
The officers claimed to be looking for methamphetamines. After searching the home forty-four (44) hours, not a single trace of narcotics was retrieved.
The warrant — which was acquired only 1 hour before the raid — had been founded on information provided by the very same burglar who had stolen the Hooks’ Lincoln Aviator SUV two nights prior. The self-described thief and meth-addict was Rodney Garrett, who alleged that he had obtained drugs from inside the vehicle he had stolen from David and Teresa Hooks.
Attorney: Hooks shot in the back and head during raid
He says officers were looking for drugs in the home, but didn’t find any. Shook says the officers fired 17 shots inside the home and struck Hooks.
He says Hooks had four wounds, two of which he says are very problematic. Shook says that’s according to the Laurens County EMS records. He says the same information is found in the medical records from Fairview Park Hospital.
“One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots,” says Shook. […]
Teresa Hooks, David’s wife, remembers the night clearly.
She says, “Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, ‘Who is it?,’ and I said I didn’t know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over.”
She says, “Initially, I thought that I was going to die, I thought I was going to be shot, I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios the dispatch radios, I had no idea.”
Hooks says she sat outside in handcuffs for two hours after her husband was shot to death.
She says during that time, she had to watch her husband on a stretcher without a word from officers about what was going on.
More links at that story.
FTS
This is what Sabet and the Drug Worriers fight for?
Memphis Child Passes Away Before Receiving Cannabis Oil
Probably consider her a drug war victim too…
Or is this what Sabet and the Drug Worriers fight for?
Georgia Town Holds Rallies, Protest For Man Who Was Fatally Shot During Failed Drug Raid
Man Shot 4 Times After Police Raid His Property
Or is it just plain old greed?
Who’s Really Fighting Legal Weed
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1974
A very lucrative hoax…
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/434
A Trillion spent on the Ganjawar is a Trillion in the Pockets of Prohibitionists.
This is more than stupidity (other than on the judge’s part – she’s clearly a rubber stamp for whatever police request crosses her desk) – it’s police so eager to get their SWAT on they act on whatever informer lies they can solicit.
Appalling. Atrocious. Heads should roll.
Too bad that the “news cycle” of Ferguson and I Can’t Breathe has ended and this story will be ignored by Actionewsteam and Ten Hottest Holiday Selfies!
MANOMANOMANOMAN,,,that new DOJ memo has opened this huge can of worms,,so many worms that they just forced Congress to do something I hope.
Since there are NA tribal lands in nearly every state and whether the state has legalized marijuana or not they can grow and sell marijuana there,,,even if the state legalizes now the NA green market will not pay state taxes or fees,,,that just knocked the bottom out of sin taxes.
The feds are attempting to deflate the outrageous profit margin that is bringing so many states to the reform table and they just put competitive pricing back into the market,,,that is how I see it Vern.
The crazies are really hitting the news articles,,,I think someone left the attic door unlocked,,giving an ethnic group that has historically been destroyed by alcohol a safer choice and a market that can lift them above the poverty level is a good thing to me.
An aspect of the David Hooks saga that is mentioned in the article — and needs as much scrutiny as anything else — is why are judges rubber stamping warrants that lead to travesties like this? Why didn’t the warrant granting judge inquire more about the need to raid the home of grandparents. Judges who thoughtlessly grant these warrants are just as culpable as those who carry out the frenzied and chaotic no-knock raids.
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From the same site Pete references the David Hooks story is this;
Georgia woman arrested for possessing spoon covered with dried Spaghettios
Ashley Huff spent 47 days in jail because some completely incompetent officer suspected dried Spaghettios residue might be meth;
http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/ashley-huff/
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In my local paper this morning is an article about a local police force that is to undergo training regarding how to deal differently with dogs encountered during “police work” in the field. And why? Because not long ago a pit bull puppy was shot and killed during a raid.
We all know how menacing puppies can be…(/snark)
Award the spaghettios lady $1000.00 per hour of incarceration. Make the police pension fund pay for it.
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Neatness counts! Seriously, I’ve seen more than a few highway stick up men of the jackboot variety say that a “messy” car, one that looks like the people “live” in the vehicle, will advance their suspicion that the people are “mules.”
face down, don’t shoot… face down, don’t shoot…
Shot in the side of the head and the back. Execution. No other conclusion fits.
As an aside, I’m pretty sure every cop on that SWAT team will have coupla grams of Meth in his pocket on all future raids. 44 hours and they couldn’t find ANYTHING?
Given the slightest chance that drug prohibition could work, any possibility is jettisoned by the senselessness of prohibition’s law enforcers and lawmakers. Current nationwide street protests challenging police conduct aren’t the arbitrary result of a single provocation like Ferguson. Anger increases as tragedies similar to Ferguson accumulate, tragedies like those of David Hooks. A tipping point is reached, and chaos erupts.
Recent historical parallels to the current American police crisis include the political atmospheres of incompetence, corruption and tyranny that existed prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917, or prior to the fall of France to the German armies in 1940. Tyrannies are bad enough, but a dysfunctional government cannot stand.
We might get some idea of the events to follow by examining what happened in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1925), where the Catholic Church tried to be its own political party and take over the country, only to be thrown completely out of Mexico for three years and have all its property confiscated. The leading role of the Vatican in the world drug war is indisputable, and it’s estimated the Church owns nearly half-a-trillion dollars in U.S. real estate. It would be a shame if something happened to it, and it ended up being distributed to victims of the drug war. The fate of the architects of the drug war notwithstanding, we now live in interesting times.
…so let me get this straight:
>guy confesses to being hooked on meth
>guy had stolen the victim’s car days prior
>guy says he got drugs from inside the stolen vehicle
>police get warrant for raid within an hour
>(the above based on the guy from the first three lines)
>victim is essentially murdered via this raid
We are pretty screwed if we’re taking the word of guys like that so long as there’s a potential drug dealer on the end of it. Of course, any sane person might have some questions as to the meth addict’s reliability. (This is further compounded by the fact that the guy stole the victim’s car…)
How many more people must die before we stop doing this sort of thing?
I’m not trying to badmouth addicts, by the way — it just seems that credibility is a major issue in this case.
We all want this to stop. We want the government of the people, by the people and for the people to stop beating, maiming and killing the people unjustly and without accountability. We want them to stop lying about it all, too.
The only way to stop our government from doing this is to put the cops who do this in jail. Immediately.
Just like the only way to stop our government from torturing people is to put the torturers in jail.
Just like the only way to stop our government from spying on everyone is to put the spies in jail.
Just like the only way to stop our government from lying is to put the liars in jail.
These things will never stop, any of it, as long as the people who do these things are allowed to judge themselves. In case you haven’t noticed, they always give themselves a free pass. For our “safety”, you know.
Protect & Serve (themselves!)
It’s not just bad cops anymore. It’s the whole freakin’ government.
At some point, these “wrong addresses” cease being “accidents”.
The practice of using CIs needs to end.
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I think that I’m going to just quit taking the helmet off my head. Press release from the Drug Policy Alliance:
It looks like we’ve reached escape velocity. I hope that I don’t upchuck like on the roller coaster.
Yeah, whiplash is a real risk when dealing with the drug war these days. Sudden changes in velocity and direction can do that. But that’s a risk inherent in riding a 300 mph freight train like we are, chaps. So my advice is keep the hardhats on and be sure of your hand holds. It is ’bout get ca-waaazy up in here.
Perhaps we should all be wearing cervical collars, too?
Congress Just Passed A Law Requiring Police Departments To Count How Many People They Shoot
http://tinyurl.com/mbjoerh
This should help to bring things out of the closet a bit.
In an interview, Noam Chomsky notes the purpose of the drug war in light of Ferguson:
alright get those people back! Hardhats, put ’em on, there is debris falling everywhere! Heads up, Thud alert!
Duck and cover!
http://youtu.be/q899D06W53k
I remember… of course the duck and cover theme was adapted for the anti-nukular weapons movement in the early ’80s, in case of nuclear attack, sit with head between knees, cover head with hands and arms and kiss ass goodbye!