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To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I am new to the list and I enjoyed the humor about garages. Now can we take time for something even more serious, please? For the benefit of you who go to work every day and don�t have a chance to watch the courts, a world of information is open to you. I will report my experience court-watching parts of the last two days. The officer testifying at the morning show had emptied his gun before coming to court prepared to demonstrate how he happened to have the gun in his hand. He had grabbed it to keep it from falling out of his pants as he fell and, as he fell, his hand came around his gun. So, he shot a man twice, even though he testified he couldn�t see what he was shooting at. In the afternoon, he was asked to demonstrate again and he had to ask the judge for permission to empty the bullet from the gun. He shot Mr. Babcock twice in the back as he walked away (or crawled away) because he thought he was still a threat. The officer feared for his life. The following is from the CUAPB: "�were shot in their home by plainclothes cops who did not identify themselves. When the cops appeared at the front door of their home, guns drawn, the family assumed they were being robbed. The mother attempted to push the door closed to prevent entry into their home and the first officer, who still had not identified himself, attacked her. Her teen-aged son, Dennis, attempted to save his mother from the intruder while her husband, Michael, fought the second intruder. When the cops finally identified themselves, Michael took one step back and was shot in the chest. Dennis fell to his hands and knees and was shot twice in the back while crawling away. Both were critically injured. Although he was unarmed and was shot by the cop, Dennis is being charged with attempted murder. Michael faces serious assault charges." Should either of these men be charged with anything? They were in their own home and the cops did not show a warrant nor a badge nor uniform. Why do we have plain-clothes cops? The officer and his partner were on a drug raid when they saw a man with pizza on his shoulders and assumed that the pizza was stolen. I think he acknowledged they should have called the regular cops instead since they didn�t want to reveal themselves as cops. Why did they assume the pizza was stolen? Why are we wasting the judge�s time, the jury�s time, many times there were four deputies in court, not to mention the court reporters and all the necessary people behind the scene. Why were these two men arrested, put in jail, and why is one of them still there? More importantly, why are we charging one man with attempted murder, and the other of assault, of a police officer. Yesterday, during jury selection, there was one person, a black man, who had previous run-ins with the cops who had arrested him "a handful" of times, but never charged him with anything. In fact, one time, he even got to court and the county attorney assured his lawyer he was "going down." When the attorney saw that there never had been any charges against him despite all his arrests, he had no choice but to release him with all charges dismissed. All other jurors had previous positive experiences or no experiences with the police. In other words, the 13 jurors were not expected to let their experiences influence them, but the one person was judged to be not able to set aside his experiences and consider the case on its merits. I thought he would have provided needed balance. They could have had more like him to provide the accused "a jury of his peers" to which we are said to have a right. If you want to read more about this case, go to http://www.CharityAdvantage.com/CUAPB/Babcock-Smith.aspor check with the Communities United Against Police Brutality, Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867) |
