Immortalized by the hit HBO series "The Wire," Baltimore's Eastern District is one tough neighborhood in one of the country's toughest towns.

This has the makings of another potential paramilitary drug raid legal drama:

An FBI agent was killed early yesterday near Pittsburgh during a raid on the home of a suspected cocaine dealer, who was taken into custody along with his wife. Federal officials later reported that the woman was being charged with the shooting.
…
A lawyer for the couple said Christina Korbe faces homicide charges in connection with Hicks's death, three Pittsburgh television stations reported. Station KDKA quoted lawyer Sumner Parker as saying the Korbes may have believed they were the victims of a home invasion. Federal officials said Christina Korbe was being held by state authorities in connection with the killing.

As he was led away in handcuffs from the Allegheny County police headquarters yesterday, Robert Korbe blamed the shooting on other law enforcement officers.

"They shot their own guy," he told reporters. "I didn't shoot him." [Washington Post]

We just don’t have enough facts at this point, but if this turns out to be another case of a confused suspect mistaking police for burglars (or police shooting each other), then it’s something we’ll be discussing in more detail very soon.
 
Whether it’s a police officer or a suspect, it’s just tragic that so many lives continue to be lost during aggressive drug raids. I agree with Radley Balko who asks why Robert Korbe couldn’t have been arrested outside the home. Busting into people’s houses at 6:00 in the morning is a prescription for disaster. If police can’t find a safer way to do these raids, they need to look harder.

UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) executive director Antonio Maria Costa used the occasion of the October 8 meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Safety in Mexico City to again blame the d

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a situation in which police could be held accountable for recklessly killing someone in a drug raid:

LIMA, Ohio (AP) - An outside review has concluded that a Lima police officer didn't violate any department rules in the fatal shooting of unarmed woman during a drug raid.

The findings are in a report issued by the Montgomery County sheriff's office.

A jury had previously acquitted the officer of misdemeanor negligence charges, so this is basically the second time his actions have been upheld. For the record, this is what a justifiable police shooting apparently looks like:

Chavalia, an officer of 32-years, had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out the gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls. [ABCNews]

They’re shooting at shadows now? I could have sworn that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Maybe the liberal arts college where I earned my criminal justice degree was a little too liberal, but then again I’ve also tried out the "shoot/don't shoot" simulator at a police training facility, and the sergeant’s instructions on when we could legally discharge our weapon bore no remote resemblance to the fact pattern in the Wilson case. The finding here seems to be that as long as one officer shoots a dog, other officers may then panic and shoot anything that moves throughout the house.

Can there be any doubt about the message we send to our public servants when we forgive anything and everything they do in the name of the war on drugs? There’s no point in complaining that policies like this will result in babies being shot, because that’s already happened.

In addition to killing an unarmed mother of six and shooting a baby, it turns out that the SWAT team in Lima, OH has been raiding innocent people quite regularly:

LIMA - More than a quarter of the 198 raids by the Lima Police Department SWAT team in the last seven years came up empty-handed without finding drugs, weapons, paraphernalia or money.

And nearly a third of the time, police do not find drugs or a weapon. Drugs alone were found in nearly two-thirds of the raids and a weapon, by itself, was found one-third of the time. [LimaOhio.com]

That’s a lot of innocent doors getting kicked in and a lot of innocent people having guns held to their head. Yet, the Lima PD actually thinks it’s something to be proud of:

"That means 68 percent of the time, we're getting guns or drugs off the street," said Maj. Kevin Martin, who called the numbers a success.

Nothing could more perfectly illustrate the complete detachment that underscores a policy of routinely terrorizing innocent citizens. Think about this: the Lima officer who shot Tarika Wilson claimed that he killed her because he was startled by the sound of gunfire caused by his fellow officers shooting dogs elsewhere in the house. That is sort of thing that can happen during these raids, and they know it.

Thus, Maj. Martin’s statement reveals that Lima PD has learned nothing after killing Wilson and shooting her baby’s finger off. They are proud that some of the people whose lives they endanger in these raids turn out to be actual criminals. The rest just don’t factor into the equation. Not even little babies.

Brazilian police are responsible for a large number of the 48,000 murders committed in that country each year, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions said in a

I had the opportunity to see drug war victim Cheye Calvo speak this afternoon at the Cato Institute, discussing the heavily-publicized botched drug raid in which police raided his home and killed his two dogs before discovering that he was actually the mayor and had nothing to do with the package of marijuana they’d tracked through the mail to his address.

Calvo’s story is well known and video of today’s event should be online soon (also featuring excellent presentations by Radley Balko and LEAP founder Peter Christ), so I won’t recap the conversation, except to say that I admire Calvo’s enthusiasm for pursuing accountability on behalf of the many voiceless victims of these same abusive police tactics.

But I would like to address a point raised by Radley Balko prior to the event:

A few commenters have asked why no one taking the pro-hyper-militarized police position will be speaking. As I understand it, several possible candidates were invited, but none accepted. I've actually sought out several opportunities to debate this issue in the past, and had similar problems finding opponents.

I was reminded of this as Calvo described the horrific thoughts that ran through his head upon being ordered to the ground by armed men in his own home. He enumerated several distinct acts of incompetence and brutality that characterized the raid on his home and the killing of his dogs.

*That they never checked who owned the home before raiding and initially literally thought he was delusional when he claimed to be the mayor.

*That they argued their violent entry was his mother-in-law’s fault for "compromising" their operation because she screamed when she saw them pointing guns at her through the kitchen window.

*That they continued to accuse him of behaving suspiciously even after learning who he was and observing considerable evidence of his innocence.

*That they essentially hunted his dogs down within the home, yet insist that the dogs "engaged" officers.

*That the police spokesman told the press that the raid had been conducted appropriately before anyone spoke with the Calvos to hear their side of the story.

This list just goes on and on. We would be dreaming if we thought that anyone would actually come forward to defend these things in a forum that provides equal time and allows questions. Fortunately, unlike so many botched drug raids before it, this incident isn’t going to be forgotten. The FBI is currently investigating the officers’ actions and, to his credit, Mayor Calvo doesn’t seem the least bit interested in letting this go.

Moreover, while there may well have been some actionable violations of protocol, I think the likely conclusion is that the totality of what took place here was essentially legal under Maryland law. While I’d certainly be pleased to see some officers face disciplinary action, I’m much more interested in whether political leaders in Maryland recognize the systemic conditions that brought this outcome about. And that won’t happen if a couple officers take the fall Lynndie England-style. Until the law itself is exposed as an instrument of violence against the innocent, we can be sure the next bloody botched drug raid fiasco is only days away.

In December 2006, newly elected Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced a bold escalation in that country's decades-long struggle with wealthy, powerful, and violent drug trafficking organizat

Also from Radley Balko, another horrific botched drug raid. This one happened a couple weeks ago, but didn’t get nearly as much press coverage as the Cheye Calvo raid, maybe because no dogs were shot. These folks must not have had any dogs. Instead, police hit an epileptic man in the head with a gun.

Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight.

The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.

And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Schavon Pennyamon, who lives at the mistakenly raided apartment on Sherwood Street with her husband, Terrell, and six children.

Pennyamon alleges that after wrongly breaking into her apartment, police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment. [BuffaloNews.com]

And just listen to this pathetic excuse for an excuse:

"We wouldn’t be comfortable discussing the internal investigation," [Chief of Detectives, Dennis J.] Richards said. "We can say comfortably that over 1,100 search warrants were executed last year and 580 to date this year and that, with such a high volume and such a fast-paced environment, it is understandable that mistakes could happen."

No, it’s not understandable! It’s inevitable. It's deeply disturbing. But it is not understandable. If doing multiple aggressive drug raids each day leads to outcomes like this, then stop doing them. If you can’t keep track of the addresses and your officers are clubbing the innocent, then please do something about it and don’t tell us we should be more understanding.

What sort of defense is it to point out that his officers smash down 1,100 doors a year? That, rather obviously, is exactly the problem.

…as well he should since Ryan Frederick is innocent and the whole thing is a colossal travesty. Radley Balko notes that the prosecution is hoping for a change of venue:

The special prosecutor in the case against Ryan Frederick, the Chesapeake man accused of killing a city detective, wants the murder trial moved out of the Hampton Roads area.

The commonwealth has urged the court for a change of venue from Chesapeake to a court elsewhere in the state. Frederick is to stand trial Jan. 20 in Chesapeake Circuit Court on charges of capital murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. [PilotOnline.com]

It’s a devious move, necessitated by the fact that a lot of folks in and around Chesapeake, VA know that Ryan Frederick didn’t do anything wrong. Police thought he was growing marijuana, but he wasn’t. When they raided his house, he thought he was being robbed and fired on the intruders, killing an officer that he didn’t realize was a cop. The marijuana growing operation they were looking for just wasn’t there and I’m still unclear on why they’re pursuing distribution charges for the tiny amount of pot found in his home.

Let’s hope the judge has the sense to see through this sham of a trial and blocks these pathetic efforts to gain leverage for charges that should never have been filed to begin with.

According to Mexican press reports this week, Mexico's Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD -- Democratic Revolution Party) is preparing to consider legalization of the drug trade as a respo

Looks like there will be no accountability or apologies for one of this year's worst botched drug raids:

A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black.
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Chavalia shot 26-year-old Tarika Wilson and her year-old son she was holding, killing her and hitting him in the shoulder and hand, during a Jan. 4 SWAT raid on her house. One of the child's fingers had to be amputated.
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Chavalia, an officer of 32-years, had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out the gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls. [ABCNews]

So police shooting innocent dogs downstairs became an excuse for police shooting innocent people upstairs. I'm never surprised to see a jury (an all-white jury, no less) ruling in favor of police in a case like this. Still, I can’t get over the officer's admitted failure to even observe what he was shooting at. An officer who panics and fires at "a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door" is incompetent at best, but clearly criminal if we're to hold police to anything approaching the same vicious standards applied to civilians in these raids.

I shudder to contemplate the sort of carnage it may require to get out the message that modern drug war police tactics are not a necessary precaution, but rather a genuine and growing threat to public safety.

If we had a sensible marijuana policy in America, things like this wouldn't happen:

A routine marijuana check in Cass County, Michigan, turns deadly.

Michigan State Police say 51-year-old Niles Wilson shot himself when he realized he had been caught growing nearly 130 marijuana plants on his property. [wndu.com]

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, a young father was shot and killed (questionably) by police after fleeing during a traffic stop. It appears he fled because he had a joint of marijuana:

I don't think either of these people made smart choices. But the reason their judgment was clouded has everything to do with the frightening consequences of our drug laws. People are terrified of the drug war and sometimes make unfortunate decisions. Sure, they could refrain from using if they're afraid of jail, but that's no excuse for marijuana laws that hurt people worse than marijuana. Events like these are not the sign of a healthy society with a healthy drug policy.

If our laws cause suicides and police chases, they are quite clearly not making us safer.

The mayor of Berwyn Heights, MD is the latest botched drug raid victim:

A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.
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"My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs," Calvo said. "They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don't think they really ever considered that we weren't." [Washington Post]

Nothing about this guy says "drug dealer," and while anything is possible, I think the most likely explanation is that the package was meant to be intercepted by its intended recipient prior to ending up in the possession of the mayor. A neighbor or someone at the post office was probably keeping an eye out for it, which seems not to have occurred to police.


Since this happened in the D.C. area, I got to hear callers discuss the incident on a popular NPR call-in show. It was frustrating to hear multiple people complain that this should have been dealt with more delicately because the suspect was the mayor. It's bullshit. Almost any drug raid can be handled better than this, regardless of who the suspect is. You can't flush 32 pounds of marijuana down the toilet. There was no risk of flight or destruction of evidence and no reason why a simple knock on the door wouldn't have sufficed.

This is big news in Washington, D.C. today. Everyone seems to be very shocked by what has taken place, except for those of us who've been following the drug war and know that this type of thing (hell, this exact thing) happens to innocent people and their pets all over the country all the time. Ladies and gentlemen of the nation's capital, welcome to the war on drugs.

Yet another needlessly violent drug raid, this time in Louisiana:

HOUMA -- A 26-year-old Crozier man shot by a narcotics agent in a drug raid Thursday morning remains in intensive care, though his condition has stabilized, relatives said.

Floyd Franklin Jr. was shot inside his home at 112 Edgewood Drive after agents from the Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force raided the trailer about 6:45 a.m. and found Franklin pointing a gun at them.

The agents were executing two search warrants that are related to an investigation into the distribution of a "large amount of illegal narcotics," Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said. [Daily Comet]

A large amount of narcotics, huh? So what did they find?

…two containers of liquid codeine agents found in the house, Bourgeois said. The drug, an opiate available by prescription, is used illegally to lace marijuana cigarettes or add to drinks, the sheriff said.

They've got to be kidding. Yeah, I'm sure people have been known to mix codeine with other drugs, but is that the default assumption we should reach anytime a drug suspect is found in possession of extremely common prescription medicines? The author of the story has yet to return my email inquiring whether the codeine was found in the medicine cabinet.

Regardless, this is just a disgraceful attempt to portray the man they shot as some weirdo poly-drug abuser. Absent evidence that he actually intended to use the codeine for such purposes, there's no justification for including these pathetic smears in the article. The guy probably also had a few steak knives which could be used to murder the elderly, but I didn't see that in the article so spare us the insinuations and put the cough syrup back where you found it cause no one cares.

Moreover, does anyone really think this guy would try to shoot it out with police over that? Officers say they announced, but that doesn't mean Franklin heard them. This could easily be another case of an innocent drug suspect mistaking police for burglars and merely attempting to defend his home. After all, there certainly wasn't a "large amount of illegal narcotics" present for which he might seek to evade capture. How many more innocent people have to get shot before police realize that charging into homes with guns drawn increases rather than reduces the risk of something going wrong?

In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexico border as part of the War on Drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández Jr. Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18-year-old was, in fact, a U.S.

Three Greek police officers taking part in a raid on a hashish plantation were ambushed and shot by suspected growers armed with AK-47s Sunday night, leaving one officer in critical condition with

Two recent incidents involving SWAT teams are adding fuel to the fire in the emerging controversy over the routine use of such paramilitarized police units to prosecute the drug war.

Radley Balko has much more information from Ryan Frederick's preliminary hearing, which I mentioned yesterday.

Of particular interest is the fact that special prosecutor Paul Ebert has threatened to file felony drug charges against Frederick, despite the fact that only a tiny amount of marijuana was recovered in the raid. The suspected marijuana grow that prompted the raid simply didn’t exist, so any new drug charges at this point are almost certainly a trumped-up character assassination designed to smear Frederick in front of the jury.

It's a critical move for Ebert, who clearly realizes that it will be hard to explain why Frederick would have shot a cop over a few flakes of pot. Unless Frederick can be painted as a hardened criminal, his persistent claim that he thought the police were burglars would likely prevail.

It is just amazing the amount of effort being put into prosecuting an innocent man for a murder that wasn't his fault, all so that the real killer (the drug war) can remain on the loose.

Radley Balko reports:

He was formally charged with first degree murder and with the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. So yeah. They really are going to go through with this.

The misdemeanor marijuana possession charge was nolle prossed. Which means the reason the police tried to ram their way into Frederick’s house in the first place is now pretty much moot. They didn’t even find enough marijuana to merit a charge. Now they’re trying to make him pay for the consequences of their mistake.

So to recap, police charged into Ryan Frederick's home looking for a marijuana grow that didn’t exist. Mistaking the intruders for thieves, Ryan opened fire, killing a police officer. He's now charged with knowingly and deliberately killing a cop, even though that's the least plausible explanation for his actions.