Yeah, I'm not opining on the particular case that started this thread. I personally think the criminalizing of drugs has gone way too far anyway, and the facts in this case seem even more screwed-up than that.
The case of the Oregon officer who was shot - the suspect is the adult son of someone my wife knows. The mother is distraught, obviously, and it is a topic of conversation in my house. My wife is saying things like "I hope they find him alive" and "he was mentally ill, he needs help". I'm saying things like "I don't really care if he is helped alive or helped dead" and "mental illness defense requires inability to tell right from wrong, the guy fled so he knows the difference". Some contention at home.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
I agree 100%. I do hope, however, that you can discern the difference between this sort of tragic chance encounter and when the cops actually go looking for it.
In the case under discussion, the police elected to elevate the risk with their use of the no-knock raid. On a non-violent petty drug dealer, for God's sake. The cops were willing to put at risk the lives of everyone in that house, and their own, for a petty, non-violent drug dealer. And, in the end, they knew he had moved out before they even went to serve the warrant. Why would they proceed anyway, putting innocent peoples' lives at risk, knowing full well their suspect had moved? Why?
We need to stay focused on the fact that we began discussing this extraordinary situation, not the day to day hazards of their jobs. In this case, and cases like it, they crossed the line. No one is begrudging them the good work they do 99% of the time. But when they make a series of well considered, conscious decisions to unnecessarily elevate the use of force to the extreme witnessed here, resulting in the loss of an innocent man's life, something is gravely wrong. They need to be held accountable when they do things like this.
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