Drugs Winning the War on Drugs
posted by on January 9 at 12:30 PM
Via the Toledo Blade.
Tarika Wilson, 26, was shot and her 1-year-old son was wounded when Lima police conducted a drug raid on their home Friday night, prompting members of the black community to organize a candlelight vigil and demand answers from police.Police were there to arrest Ms. Wilson’s boyfriend, Anthony Terry, 31, who was suspected of selling drugs from the house; he was arrested Friday night at the residence. Marijuana and crack cocaine were found in the house.
Ms. Wilson, the mother of six children, ages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, was pronounced dead at 218 East Third St., where SWAT team police officers executed a search warrant at 8:15 p.m. Ms. Wilson’s youngest child, Sincere Wilson, was shot during the drug raid as she held him.
Despite claims by Ms. Wilson’s family that police had raided the wrong house, Chief Garlock confirmed that the search warrant was executed at the correct address. He said officers were aware that children were inside the home because there were toys in the yard outside and on the front porch.
Thanks, or something, tipper NaFun.
Good job, guys. Bust in, shoot the woman holding the baby, and arrest the suspect.
Brilliant work. You should all get medals.
"the mother of six children, ages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8"
sounds like she was a baby factory.
6 kids at 26! That's incredible.
It's a vagina, not a clown car.
For the price of a rock, the young lady died. And her son had two fingers shot off. This is disgusting.
I'm sure they consider 1 dead, 1 wounded an acceptable amount of collateral damage. Afterall, they got the bad guy.
I'm sure those kids will be fine as long as no homos try to adopt them.
Those poor kids. Their mother is now dead, their (presumed) father will be in jail... unless their extended family steps in there are now another 6 children who will be going to foster homes... and there's no way they'll be able to stay together. Six babies whose lives are being torn apart.
I hope there's a thorough investigation into why anyone felt the need to shoot a woman holding a baby.
certainly an explanation is required. what a messy situation.
If shooting (and killing) an unarmed woman and an infant when it was known that children were at the house is not grounds for dismissal and prosecution for negligence and manslaughter, I don't know what is. If the officer who did this somehow escapes legal repercussions, here's hoping that he is so thorougly humiliated and slandered by the general public that he offs himself. What a waste - this makes me fuming mad.
Come on, the boyfriend had drugs in the house with that many small children. They really should be blaming the boyfriend who is the fucking prick who caused this to happen. If it wasn't the cops she eventually would have been shot by another pothead.
Yeah, Touring. She would have been shot by a "pothead".
You're an idiot.
This is clearly a tragedy and the police totally fucked up in their casual use of deadly force.
But... If I lived next door to someone who was selling crack, drawing dangerious & theft-likely crackheads near my home, I'd want the police to do something about it. Is there anyone here who would want it to just keep going on?
So if they're going to do something about it, how should the arrest be approached? Just knock politely and hope that the potentially armed dealer doesn't open fire? Would you take that kind of risk?
Now if only someone can hang a noose in that town, Al Sharpton will care.
But... If I lived next door to someone who was selling crack, drawing dangerious & theft-likely crackheads near my home, I'd want the police to do something about it. Is there anyone here who would want it to just keep going on?
Yes. In fact, numerous people have been killed because cops accidentally raid the wrong house or because I bullet will come through a window.
The solution is to let people buy the drugs they're going to do anyway in a controlled environment so that criminals don't control their distribution.
@ 12) Police could have waited for the suspect to leave the house and then arrest him. But when it comes to enforcing drug laws, reason often gets thrown out the window, by cops and by ordinary folks who think this kind of bullshit is acceptable because drugs are involved.
Agree with @10s first two sentences. The BF put everyone in danger by doing what he did.
Police work is a thankless (and necessary) job. I'm surprised anyone still wants to do it given all the bullshit they get from criminals and the community.
@10
Did you really say she'd be shot by a pothead? Ha ha. Funny.
Until crack can be legally dispensed from gumball and cigarette machines, our neighborhoods can never be safe!
Unless she was completely unaware of the fact that her boyfriend was dealing crack from the house, I have no pity for her, especially given the fact that she knowingly exposed her children to this environment.
What infuriates me most about this situation is that the cops clearly acknowledge they KNEW innocent children were in the house - but they considered that fact to be inconsequential.
Getting the Bad Guy (and I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge he probably WAS) was deemed more important that protecting the lives of innocent bystanders. So, rather than hold off and wait for a more oppurtune moment to approach and apprehend the suspect, they stormed into A HOUSE FULL OF CHILDREN, guns drawn, with the inevitable, tragic results.
Seriously, the the officer in charge of this sickening fiasco should be fired for incompetency, and charged in civil court by the family members of the survivors for gross negligence. The sheer stupidity of his or her actions simply should not be tolerated, bad guys or no bad guys.
sure, she was wrong. she shouldn't have allowed crack in her house, dealing in her house, that guy in her house, and she probably shouldn't have that many kids.
so any or all of those justify a death sentence? no -- so you people who don't feel sorry for her suck.
there were other ways to apprehend this guy, so they should be used. (that's based on the story stating they knew there were children inside at the time.) you should make your plan to consider the possible outcomes.
and it's tough being a police officer -- but that doesn't excuse shootings (or even the verbal abuse many inflict on civilians on a regular basis). so i don't wish death by suicide on the officer that pulled the trigger. that uniform probably didn't plan this fiasco. let's get those details first.
A woman with six children probably doesn't have many boyfriend options, and I'll bet she relied on him for financial support. Make no mistake, I have little sympathy for baby factories who glom onto the first man they see, but she still had her reasons for living with a drug dealer.
They must've thought the baby was a gun.
@20 totally! police are supposed to protect innocent people. would you try to catch him in a restaurant shooting other diners because it's worth it to catch the criminal? certainly not. to say that a mother's poor, poor choice in boyfriends justifies this is short-sighted at best.
If this does anything hopefully it makes people think twice before they smoke pot in a household with children.
@14 "The solution is to let people buy the drugs they're going to do anyway in a controlled environment so that criminals don't control their distribution."
But I bet ONLY if it is not next to YOUR house.
@22: It's a commonly known fact in police circles that in a brightly lit personal home, an infant or small child can be mistaken for, and sometimes actually is, a suicide vest.
@24
But I bet ONLY if it is not next to YOUR house.
In a regulated environment, you can control this. In an unregulated environment (prohibition), you cannot. In other words, by legalizing drugs, you have the ability to ensure that they're not sold next to your house. Today, you don't.
When your life is a total disaster -- six kids by 26, unmarried, boyfriend's a crack dealer, drugs and weapons in the house -- bad things happen to you. This is natural law. Whether the cops misbehaved or not doesn't really enter into it. Those people should be protesting the condition of their neighbors, but they won't, because it's always someone else's fault.
Yes, this was tragic, but at least something good came of it.
Hey, I'm trying to be sarcastic, I'm sorry I'm not as good at it as Dan.
But I have to say, I don't quite get Dan's obsession with pit bulls, after all, there are certain people who would be happy if a certain class of other people were exterminated. The whole idea of vilifying a class of individuals because one doesn't like them seems counterproductive for a member of a group vilified by right wing wackos.
Actually I have no use for pit bulls, I'm a cat person, but to condemn the whole breed because of a few that were probably mistreated by humans seems extreme.
About 15 years ago SPD raided a crack house 2 doors down from me. After battering down the door, the very first thing they did was to get the small kids safely out of the house, before arresting the adults.
It's a very difficult job, but it can be done. Thanks SPD.
Andrew
BTW (from the Toledo Blade article):
"Lima Councilman Derry Glenn owns the house but did not live there."
Fnarf @27: Please tell me you are joking? Killing a woman holding a baby is "misbehaving?"
"Those people" are blaming others?
Wow, your response shocks me.
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