From: Mike Tighe <tighe@convex.COM>
Subject: Re: No charges filed in SWAT killing
Originator: tighe@convex1.convex.com
Reply-To: tighe@convex.com
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Texas
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 03:20:58 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

> My biggest question is: What the hell ever happened to the line, 'This is
> the police.  You are surrounded. Come out with your hands up.!'???

It is long gone, since the criminals might do just that. And then the
police would look really stupid, since they would be armed to the teeth and
these people would walk out without a fight. Not good for the 6:00 news.

> In short, why did they use DEA drug raid tactics on a simple arrest?  Why
> were both the police officers and innocent citizens endangered for no
> apparently good reason?

Because it is the "in" thing. It makes them look like they are tough on
crime. It also makes it look like the alleged perpetrators are really bad
and evil, thus justfying more money and resources to fight them.

>As far as the officer is concerned, I know a friend of his.  Tony is
>(according to this person I trust) a good guy.  He isn't a cowboy of some
>sort or anything like that.  I'm sure he feels as badly as anybody
>involved.  Probably at least as bad as those kids.

Maybe. A lot of incompetent people are good guys. Although I fail to see
how he wound up on a SWAT team if he wasn't at least a little gung-ho.

>Did he do anything wrong?  Probably not, in my opinion.

IMO, he did. He shot and killed an unarmed person, without cause. If I did
that, I would be in jail. Where is equal justice?

>At most he made a very human mistake.  Perhaps not even that.

You are very forgiving. I wonder if you would feel the same way if it was
one of your loved ones that was murdered. I do not think that shooting and
killing of an unarmed person is a 'very human mistake'.

>If you think that you aren't going to go into that situation 'adrenalin
>pumped' you aren't human or you have no knowledge at all of what really
>happens to people under stress.

This is no excuse. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

>In such a situation being startled, for example, can cause your fingers to
>contract with up to 50 lbs of pressure without you even realizing it.  No
>firearm has a trigger that requires much more than 25% of that force to
>operate.  This is called the startle reaction.

Don't know about your numbers, but this reasoning might fly if it was his
first raid. In any case, proper training would be to keep your finger off
of the trigger. Simply put, if you can't prove the firearm malfunctioned,
then the officer erred.

>When that poor lady burst into the room, Tony didn't fire intentionally and
>probably will never remember pulling the trigger. 

I think you have it backwards. the SWAT team burst into HER room.  Unless
he admits it, we will never know if he fired intentionally or not.

> No cover up, just human
>psychology.  It is very unlikely that ANY of us would have reacted much
>differently in the same circumstances.

No. I, and most of us, have never killed an innocent person.
[Unfortunately] Many of these SWAT raids go on every day. They result in no
innocent people being killed.

>I just happen to think that placing all or even a significant portion of
>blame on Tony is stupid, short sighted and ignoring the real issues.

I agree here. There is plenty of blame to go around.

>On the other hand where does the blame lie?  At a first approximation I'd
>say with the police official that ordered that kind of a raid, with the DA
>who requested the warrant on such flimsy evidence, and the Judge that
>issued it. If anybody needs to pay punitive damages, it is them.

Start at the scene. The shooter gets a fair trial. Perhaps also the idiot
that ordered the raid. The DA & the Judge are also held accountable.

Maybe, just maybe, if we start to hold the Police criminally liable,
instead of civily (where you and I pay), they will start to think twice
about what they do, and value our lives as much as they value their own.

-- 
Mike Tighe, (214) 497-4206
tighe@convex.com