Do you, reader of this blog, own multiple firearms, and perhaps some body armor?
Do you own anything that could be construed as police or military gear or clothing?
I know I do.
I have dozens of firearms, and currently am in possession of five sets of body armor, if we count hard and soft armor separately. I have a T shirt with the logo of a local SWAT team, given to me by one of its members. I have a patch from a Las Vegas-area SWAT team that I rode along on a warrant service with once. I’ve got an NYPD shirt that I bought on my university campus after 9/11 – it’s around here somewhere. I have uniform items from three different military branches, all issued to me at one point or another. I even have a challenge coin from “Task Force Military Police.”
I wonder what my local sheriff’s department would think of me. You see, they’re currently using the fact that an OIF Marine veteran had five firearms and body armor – most of the latter in storage in his garage – to paint him as a bad guy. The clincher, though? “Law enforcement uniform items,” as it’s been described in the media. What exactly does this consist of? A Border Patrol hat. None of it illegal – nothing found in his house was illegal.
This is a complex story, and I won’t try to describe the whole thing here. The facts of the case still aren’t certain, so I’ll refrain from passing judgment on a number of things. Check out Beat and Release for analysis from an experienced police officer – he’s got quite a few in-depth posts on the subject. Also, This Ain’t Hell has some more specific comments on the story.
What I feel comfortable commenting on are the following things:
SWAT Team – The movement and tactics of the SWAT team members during the raid that resulted in the death of Jose Guerena were amateurish and displayed a lack of situational awareness and unit cohesion. If that team had encountered two or three criminals with the intent to harm police officers, there would be several dead Sheriff’s Deputies or Police Officers (it’s a multi-agency SWAT team) – perhaps even the entire team.
The SWAT members fired 71 rounds, hitting Guerena 20 times. This is about on par with other police shootings, but keep in mind that rounds fired by these SWAT officers passed through the Guerena house and into two neighboring houses, prompting the SWAT team to “make entry” into those homes to ensure that no one was shot. I’d like to know the timeline of these subsequent entries, because the team that shot up the Guerena house was occupied with getting his wife and son out, as well as talking to detectives, for quite some time after the initial shooting.
Media Comments – We’ve been told that Guerena was part of a home invasion crew, although the initial investigation, and PCSO comments, centered on this being a drug trafficking ring. We’re told that because he had body armor and weapons, that he was a bad guy. Oh, and the hat. Don’t forget the hat. We’re told that because he owned a polished .38 Super handgun, that he might as well be a Mexican drug lord (It’s a good thing that I sold my .38 Super, although it had a satin finish).
Either Jose Guerena was not only a major drug trafficker, but also a busy home invading bee – while he also pulled down 12 hour graveyard shifts at the local Asarco mine – or this was a fishing expedition based on circumstantial evidence, poorly planned and executed by SWAT officers who didn’t know what they were shooting at, why they were shooting, or even that his wife and child were in the house – only that they needed to empty their magazines down that hallway. It may be all of the above, for all I know.
Of course, we have Sheriff Dupnik down here, who famously, and incorrectly, opined about the cause of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting practically before her blood had even dried on the ground. He’s made some really “intelligent” statements about this shooting as well. I’ve got a lot of faith in PCSO as a whole, but Dupnik needs to go in 2012.
I’m doing it, I’m bringing out the race card. I tell you, when I get pulled over by the cops they don’t see the mil-ID, they just see that I look a bit darker then the rest of my friends…
this makes me angry.
So why aren’t these guys being charged with murder or manslaughter? I’m more than happy to hear from PD readers, because I’m seriously ignorant when it comes to this stuff, but it seems to me we need to be at a point where PD, TSA, Senators, etc are legitimately held to what regular citizens are held to when it comes to the law.
Mike, some animals are just more equal than others.
I’m amazed the police are saying this guy was involved in drugs, and home invasions. I mean, he’s a veteran, and owns guns, and body armor, clearly he’s a right wing domestic extremist like the DHS warned us all about! Who are we to question when agents of our dear leader do?
I’m being sarcastic in case anyone can’t tell, by the way.
Interestingly, when I purchased body armor, the store wanted a copy of my drivers license, because “Phoenix police asked us to do it”. They assured me it would be kept in a locked file in the back.
I also always thought the decision to do a no knock warrant was based entirely on if the suspect has a history of violent crime, not simply possessing weapons.
I’ve been waiting for your view on this. If it ever comes to light that the PCSO was in the wrong on all accounts, they all need to face manslaughter charges. Had that been my house, based on that video, no way I’d have known it was the cops, no way. Would have ended different… Right or wrong they released a video of a SWAT based home invasion and the home owner/father/husband who had relitives murdered last year acted in the right.
If they wanted the guy why didn’t they pull him over on his way home from work and detain him? Then they could peacably search his house.
This is BS. Like Waco when they could have arrested Koresh when he was in town getting ice cream.
I hope he was a really bad guy. Otherwise this is a huge F’up.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
It’s just another corpse to feed the machine. The drug war is a cash cow for a vast number of departments. The money they pull in for drug raids is more addictive than the drugs they purport to “protect” us from.
Any city that wants to cash in can slap together a raid team and go violate your rights. Even in cases where nothing is found, your property is often sold at auction before you can file paperwork to get it back.
We can analyze the tactics they used or the number of shots fired, but that is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6t1EM4Onao
This is the first I have heard of this incident and I do not know the full details. However, I will say that this situation was obviously a no-win from either standpoint. From the homowner’s standpoint, just waking up to your wife screaming about men with guns pointed at her automatically puts you into fight mode and there may have been some auditory exclusion going on or maybe the entry team really did not identify themselves.
From the entry team’s standpoint, the intel they are given is that a guy may be armed and they have a no-knock warrant in hand. That would automatically put me a little on edge. I don’t think they reacted inappropriately given the circumstances unless they didn’t announce themselves upon entry. From the standpoint of the officers the guy with the gun pointed at them is a threat that needed to be neutralized. Im sure they didn’t think that “hey, this guy might be a good guy” while he was assuming a firing position to shoot them.
I think its really too early to be drawing lines in the sand on this one. I would wait until it goes to court and is adjudicated one way or the other before decrying anyone’s actions. As we all know its impossible to determine fact from the dubious information that the news media puts out.
If it comes to light that he wasn’t the thug they thought he was then that burden rests solely on the investigator who came up with the intel, not the entry team.
As an aside to this (not trying to throw stones here) may I remind everyone that the two killers in the famous Miami shootout were also military veterans who had murdered several civilians before shooting it out with the FBI. Just because someone is a veteran doesn’t automatically make them a good guy. Im not trying to draw any conclusions here, we don’t have all the information, but im just trying to remind everyone to keep open minds about this situation.