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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,086
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 Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL]
#8576131 - 06/29/08 12:44 AM (3 months, 8 days ago) |
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Reefer madness: Trash search led to deadly police raid
June 28, 2008 - sun-sentinel.com
What prompted Pembroke Pines police to conduct a dawn paramilitary raid that ended with the June 12 shooting death of homeowner Vincent Hodgkiss?
In its application for a narcotics search warrant, police cited an anonymous complaint of drug dealing, surveillance of high-turnover visitors and two searches of Hodgkiss' trash by detectives, who found scraps of paper with handwritten numbers and trace amounts of "green, leafy substance" that tested positive for marijuana.
Police conducted the raid with its Special Response Team (similar to SWAT) two days after Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen approved the search warrant.
As a result of the investigation, police recovered about an ounce and a half of pot — and a 46-year-old father ended up dead.
Is this what America really wants from its War on Drugs?
"None of this makes sense," said Roger Scott, an Orlando defense attorney who heads the Florida chapter of NORML, which advocates the legalization of marijuana. "Do you realize that right now prisons are releasing violent criminals early to make room for drug offenders?"
Instead of relaxing marijuana laws, the Florida Legislature keeps getting tougher. This year, it approved a new law increasing penalties for marijuana growhouses. Those possessing more than 25 plants would get mandatory prison time, up to 30 years if children live at the house.
Scott was upset to hear about Hodgkiss' death, and he called the ongoing drug war "a fiasco."
Police say they also found weapons, $1,600 in cash, prescription drugs, a digital scale and smoking paraphernalia in Hodgkiss' home. Hodgkiss had a valid concealed weapons permit, and friends and family said he took several medications for a serious illness they declined to specify.
In the search warrant affidavit released last week, Pembroke Pines Detective Bryan Dietrich wrote that he saw many cars stop at the home in May and early June, "with very few staying for more than 10 minutes." He and partners twice searched trash that had been taken out for pickup, each time finding traces of pot inside.
The totality of the evidence could add up to a small-time pot dealer. Was an early morning raid with a mini-battalion really the best way to go about serving the warrant?
The increasing use of SWAT teams for basic police functions troubles Jack Cole, a former New Jersey narcotics and fugitive detective. He now heads Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of retired police, judges and prosecutors who advocate drug-law reform.
Cole said SWAT was developed to handle barricaded suspects holding hostages. Agencies invested heavily in SWAT training and equipment, and soon began using these teams on an expanding range of missions, including drug, pornography and gambling raids. Pembroke Pines police uses its SRT unit to serve all drug warrants. It might be time for agencies to reconsider blanket policies and assess each case individually.
This wasn't some violent gang that moved into the neighborhood three months ago. Hodgkiss spent 14 years in the house, raising his family there. He had no previous felonies or history of violence. I bet two detectives approaching him when he made a trip to the corner store might have been more effective, and certainly less confrontational.
The attorney for Officer Javier Diaz, who fatally wounded Hodgkiss, said Diaz shot Hodgkiss twice after Hodgkiss pumped his loaded shotgun and carried it into his bathroom. The attorney said Diaz fired in "justified self-defense."
I'm not saying the shooting was unjustified. I'm sure Diaz felt threatened and compelled to shoot. The bigger point: Tragic outcomes like these are inevitable given our nation's drug policies and police procedures.
For the sake of both Hodgkiss' family and Officer Diaz (these tragedies are traumatic for the shooter, too), maybe it's time for a more measured and rational approach.
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Mush 4 Brains
Stranger
Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 284
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: veggie]
#8576453 - 06/29/08 04:44 AM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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It doesn't seem like they were completely innocent, but wow! But i have to say if i was gonna be put in a cage like an animal for a harmless weed, FUCK THAT!! Id be grabbing for a gun too, especially considering there case didn't seem to strong, maybe i don't understand Florida laws. An anonymous call and searching trash, can they even legally search your trash without a warrant? It sounds like they really were out for blood, they got it.
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 LoWgRoW
Strange
 
Registered: 09/22/07
Posts: 251
Loc: NYCHITY
Last seen: 1 month, 7 days
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: Mush 4 Brains]
#8576710 - 06/29/08 08:18 AM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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NAZIS!!!
--------------------
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.
Your fortune for today...
Avoid negative people.
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Justice_Fish
Fustice_Jish
Registered: 01/06/07
Posts: 1,803
Loc: Québec
Last seen: 8 hours, 11 minutes
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: Mush 4 Brains]
#8576871 - 06/29/08 10:12 AM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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Quote:
Mush 4 Brains said:
can they even legally search your trash without a warrant?
sadly, yes
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CptnGarden
Tabaquero
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 8,956
Loc: the microbial layer
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: Justice_Fish]
#8577111 - 06/29/08 12:09 PM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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i thought they cant search your trash until its in the possession of the garbage guy.
meaning they have to have him collect it separately.
as long as the trash can is on your property, its your property and therefore needs a warrant.
dont put stuff in your trash, if u have to just drop it off in a gas station trash can inside of a fast food bag or something.
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The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding over you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.
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wolfiexiii
Oddity
Registered: 06/24/07
Posts: 117
Last seen: 25 days, 4 hours
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: LoWgRoW]
#8577355 - 06/29/08 01:27 PM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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Quote:
LoWgRoW said:
NAZIS!!!
This is America... the new fascist regime, the Nazi's are mostly dead, this time it's the christian right. =)
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 5,433
Last seen: 26 minutes, 46 seconds
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: CptnGarden]
#8577416 - 06/29/08 01:52 PM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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Quote:
as long as the trash can is on your property, its your property and therefore needs a warrant.
Once you put it out for the garbage people to pick up, anyone can legally go through it and take things.
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hpi
stoner
Registered: 01/17/07
Posts: 1,424
Last seen: 21 days, 3 hours
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Re: Trash search led to deadly police raid [FL] [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#8577544 - 06/29/08 02:35 PM (3 months, 7 days ago) |
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Don't law enforcement and THE DEA have something else better to do in the US?
Ive heard endless stories of drugs and when they go people always getting killed. Whether it's cops or the people a lot get killed for nothing.
The guy was selling a bit of weed and they set up something like a SWAT team.
SWAT= special weapons and tactics, why is a team like that sent for 1 person probably selling an 8th or 2 at a time?
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