Archive for the 'Gonzalo Guizan' Category

Coupla’ Raid Updates

Thursday, June 26th, 2008
  • Ryan Frederick’s trial has been set for January 20, 2009.
  • Strong editorial from the Fairfield Minuteman in the Connecticut raid where police shot and killed unarmed Gonzalo Guizan. It now appears that the only drugs found in the home were cocaine “resin.” The paper writes:

    Guizan died for nothing more than some resin and a scale, and the hope that a den of iniquity would be destroyed.

    Should Terebesi accept admittance into a six-month rehab program, the actions of the special task force involved in the raid are given credence. The accused’s not-guilty plea keeps the focus on the actions of the police, which resulted in a death. Terebesi’s crimes, should he be found guilty by a jury of his peers, pale in comparison; at no point was he accused of taking a life.

    Yes, crimes are crimes and should be treated as such, whichever direction on the moral compass they point. But actions must be viewed in context, and the possession of a scale, some paraphernalia and some resin in no way justifies the force needed to take an unarmed man’s life.

    If the law does not take such things into consideration when prosecuting what by comparison are minor crimes, it has failed to be balanced and blind. And if law enforcement personnel are not trained to use judgment and discretion when using deadly force, they have failed to bring professionalism, respect and dignity to the law enforcement profession.

    We wait with bated breath for the real charges - those of unnecessary force - to be brought.

    Keep waiting.

    • Posted in Drug War, General Drug War, Gonzalo Guizan, Police Militarization, drug raid, jarrod shivers, ryan frederick | Comments Off

    Here We Go Again

    Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

    Yesterday, I briefly noted a drug raid in Connecticut in which police killed 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan, an unarmed man they say charged at them as the raid transpired. Guizan was a guest at the home at the time of the raid. More information’s coming out, now, and it’s looking ugly. The police say they’re still looking to see if there were drugs in the home. They were apparently looking for two small pipes and a small tin of crack, none of which was found. Thus far, there have been no charges resulting from the raid.

    The police make reference to a shooting at the house a few weeks ago, but oddly, those shots were fired at the house, not from it. In any case, again, the fact that an unarmed man is dead is a fairly good indicator that perhaps this show of force wasn’t the best way to handle a search for a couple of pipes and a small tin of crack.

    The article itself linked above is rather one-sided, citing three criminal justice professors who take a “nothing to see here” position, who attest to the importance of using overwhelming force while serving drug warrants, and who talk about the “disadvantage” police face when they bust in unannounced to a house with a battering ram, flash grenades, body armor, and weapons. All three professors quoted in the article are former police officers.

    The police department has thus far refused to release the names of the officers who fired the fatal shots. They also won’t release the affidavits leading up to the search warrants, or the personnel files of the two officers the unarmed man charged during the raid.

    Is it just me, or have there been an unusually high number of botched raids in the news of late?

    Posted in General Drug War, Gonzalo Guizan, Police Militarization, drug raid | Comments Off