There is a disturbing story out of Los Angeles where Eugene Mallory, 80, was killed during a June 27 raid by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Police raided the home because it reportedly smelled like a meth lab. In the end, no methamphetamine was found but Mallory laid dead with no fewer than six gunshot wounds. His widow is planning a lawsuit.
Police say that two guns were found at the scene and that Mallory raised one of them as deputies approached. The Sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore insisted that “The lesson here is… don’t pull a gun on a deputy.”
Mallory, a former engineer with Lockheed Martin, and his family insisted that he would never threaten an officer. They insist that he was shot in his bed before any warning was given.
An autopsy appears to show that he was shot in his bed and his family notes that he did not have his glasses on at the time (and that he would not be able to see the officers without them). They also say that he did not have the finger dexterity to grip a razor to shave himself, let alone a gun.
Police insist that there were marijuana plants growing in another part of the property and thus this was an illegal growing operation, though that is entirely different from the meth lab allegation leading to the search. Besides more details on the shooting, I am interested in the foundation for this warrant. In cases like this, it seems that judges and magistrates sometimes blindly sign off on any allegation like “smelling like a meth lab.”
Get the checkbook out…. Crazy people in charge…. How about badge cams for all the officers….
Why couldn’t the highly trained professionals of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department just simply have knocked?
Nursing homes, beware. Geezers apparently smell like meth.
This morning, after mulling over this story, I installed a trap door just inside my front door. It drops into my basement into a pool of battery acid. If someone comes in whom I do not allow in myself, the door will drop when the weight hits it. So, if I am in bed when they come for me they, at least the first one, goes into the basement acid pit. Then the electric rod under the outside doormat goes off and gets perp number two. By then I am down my bedroom hatch with my weapons and out the tunnel to the creek out behind the house and get on my motorcycle. I am 79 years old and ready for age 80.
BTW, JT, thanks for what you do. BTW, almost all commenters above (NOT the $50 mil one), I align with and am moved by the perceptions I read here.
T.J.’s comment about the blood of patriots watering the tree of Liberty seems appropriate (but unmatched – so far – by the blood of tyrants). A long view might be that these horrible crimes hasten the day of the reverse swing of the pendulum. Are these people necessarily guiltless though? Will you listen to my suggestion that they, either knowingly or unknowingly, are not? They paid taxes, did they not? They prolly voted, did they not? They went along (with the matrix) to get along, prolly.They were silent when it happened to “people not like us”. THAT makes them guilty in the eyes of a Righteous God (IMHO). Truly free humans DON’T surrender their liberty. They don’t (even) hold jobs working for others (wage slavery). They are so protective of their liberty that acquiescing to the government’s tyranny to others will provoke a protective reaction (Greater Love)(“When they came for the communists I did nothing because…….”). I, for one, have removed myself from ‘the matrix’. I, for one, am involved in self-risking activism. I believe that there are no cowards in God’s Heaven. I believe that children start out as naturally brave and for that reason the Christ stated that “Such are the Kingdom of Heaven”. I believe that one cannot be a Child of God and “own” a house or a car (with a license plate), call oneself a ‘member’ of any earthly ‘nation’ or participate in any of the activities I mention above (except for standing in the way of government forces as taught by Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Nobody (seems to) likes me for saying these things (in Quaker Meeting, FI). At best, I get Eldered about moderating my tone but it is MY leading, not theirs, and I am stuck with both the message and my innate style of presentment. I’ll be “Eldered” by God if I’m wrong when the time comes. I’m OK with that. Bottom line, I am NOT saying that these people ‘had it coming’. It IS, however, YOUR ‘wake (TF) up call’. Turning the tide (peacefully, non-violently) is now YOUR responsibility. Recall the words of Christ in v 4 of Mighty Fortress, “Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also, The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still. His Kingdom is forever.”
John Boanerges pain in the ass Redman, Quaker War (others) at johnboanerges.blogspot.com
see also http://www.centerforchristiannonviolence.org
Theo
1, October 14, 2013 at 4:00 pm
I’m sure that 50 million will help ease the pain….
****
No, money would never ease the pain of my wife of 45 years being murdered by anyone.
Sending the SOB that did it to hell and peeing on his grave would make me feel better than the money, but nothing would ever ease the pain.
Hmm let me guess, they didn’t just go up to the door, knock and search the place.
This sounds like they got dressed up in their SWAT gear, busted in and then act surprised when people react to defend themselves.
The lesson here is don’t be a jackass with a over active cowboy complex, it just gets people killed.
Theo
1, October 14, 2013 at 4:00 pm
I’m sure that 50 million will help ease the pain….
****
Not sure what you mean by that but no, it won’t. If my spouse or any spouse, or child were murdered without cause no amount would ease the pain, no amount. High numbers are punitive, meant to punish, and entirely appropriate.
They should lead to deterrence so no other spouse or parent or child has to go through the same pain or be victimized by their government. It doesn’t seem to be working too well on that front but I’m a fan of the tactic because there are no other alternatives that are conducive to having a society.
If the laws and courts don’t moderate the impulse for vengeance for a wrong and convert it to blind justice the alternative is an inhumane burden on the victimized and civil chaos.
I don’t know if there is a mechanism to submit articles to the blog for consideration… so I’ll do it here.. another in what seems to be an increasingly long list of examples of the venality of our police system. It is breaking down just like so many of the other institutions…
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/14/footage_of_racist_philly_cops_goes_viral/
Reblogged this on Dan's World.
My heart goes out to the victims family 🙁
I am sure not a one of the cops will face charges and most likely the wife will still win a lawsuit for the wrongful death of her husband.
As if the money will “fix” everything.
Our police force and how they are trained is down right disturbing.
How can they possibly get away with shooting a 80 year old in his bed and claim it a justified shooting?
Its as if cops today are given a gun and badge and let loose to make their own rules up.
Yes, there are some good cops out there, but never the less, youtube it full of unjustified killings and mishandlings that causes wrongful deaths, by cops who should not even have a badge.
New rule — lack of video record of the encounter by the LEO is evidence of guilt,
Just like George W. Bush invading Iraq looking for WMDs. Since he got away with it, every one will get away with outrageous deadly deeds.
if all witnesses are dead than the only story is the shooters story. do we need surveillance cameras in our own homes?
Reblogged this on veritasusa and commented:
Bad Boys, Bad Boys, the Bad Boys in Blue – watcha gonna do when they come for YOU!
below is a excerpt from a article i read last week link is above it..
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/10/07/228347are-cops-more-criminal-than-criminals-with-their-tasers-and-steroids/
The military tactics, weapons, and mind-set of US combat troops now occupy the streets of our homeland, with the militarization of our local police departments – and the American people are their enemy.
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration Dr. Paul Craig Roberts has told us much about our forming police state in his great monograph titled “America’s Police Brutality Pandemic.”
The endless US “war on terrorism” quickly turned into widespread campaigns of bombing and torturing innocents in the Middle East, which tore families apart, rendered millions homeless, all amid universal ruin and disease, while overrunning America with terrorists wearing police uniforms, sporting their tin badges and carrying automatic weapons.
The line where lethal force can be used seems to have moved, consistent with a view among agencies and officers that the first priority is for the officer to be safe. Therefore, the issue is no longer whether someone probably poses an immediate threat, but whether the person might possibly be a threat at some point. I hope every day that two particular officers will come home safely. However, neither they nor I believe that this gives them the right to use deadly force to eliminate the possibility of a threat as opposed to in response to a real, substantial, and immediate threat.
The elderly are particularly vulnerable due to common difficulties with perceiving and/or processing information causing delays in responding to officer identification or directions. My father lives alone, and perfectly capable of caring for himself. However, when he is dozing in his chair and awakened suddenly, it often takes him 2-3 minutes to get completely oriented. If he felt himself threatened, he would begin responding to that threat before he was fully oriented. If you add in people yelling and moving in unfamiliar ways, it would take him longer to get oriented sufficiently to perceive and process that these were law enforcement officers–let alone respond to directions probably being yelled at him by multiple officers.