A Cop is Dead Because An Informant Mistook Japanese Maple Trees For Marijuana
This is one of those stories that is simultaneously so unbelievable and yet nauseatingly familiar that you just know our deeply flawed drug laws are behind it.
Ryan Frederick is an amateur gardener who grows tomatoes and Japanese maple trees, which look like marijuana. An informant told police there was pot growing at the residence and a warrant was issued. Frederick, who had been burglarized earlier in the week, mistook the police for thieves and sought to defend his home by firing on the unexpected intruders. Police officer Jarrod Shivers was killed.
Now, as we learned in the strikingly similar case of Cory Maye, law-enforcement does not take kindly to people defending their homes during mistaken drug raids. Ryan Frederick has been charged with first-degree murder on the theory that he knew the intruders were police and fired on them anyway.
Frederick had no criminal record and no marijuana plants. The informant was just wrong. Although a few joints were found in the home, it just doesn’t make much sense to contend that Frederick would provoke a shoot-out with police over a misdemeanor. Nonetheless, he's being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and can only hope the jury understands the horrible situation he's been placed in.
This is still a developing story, but at this point it seems pretty clear that the only reason this raid ever happened is that some idiot mistook Japanese Maple trees for marijuana. That's all it took. There are no safeguards built into the drug war to prevent this type of thing. If you call in a suspected marijuana grow, you are assumed to be a botanist capable of accurately identifying plants. Police will even risk their lives to investigate your idiotic claims.
Prosecuting Ryan Frederick for murder will do nothing to curb the inevitable result of continuing to raid homes based on informant testimony. This is all just one more injustice stacked atop a precarious edifice. Like Cory Maye, Ryan Frederick is lucky to even be alive, which begs the question of how many dead innocent people would have been unfairly charged with attempted cop-murder if they'd been fortunate enough to even survive the raid.
Much more at The Agitator and DrugWarRant.
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Comment posted by aahpat on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 11:12amthat has bothered me for a lot of years is illustrated with this story. The police got a warrant not knowing what was in the house.
Police justify their need to use storm trooper raid tactics on the basis that there 'may' be weapons in the place but they frankly don't know so they need all of the armor. But these same cops swear to the court in advance that they know that there are drugs in the target.
In this case they didn't even know if there were drugs. But in most all cases they NEVER know if there are weapons in the place.
It seems to me that if you can investigate enough to know that there are drugs in the target place that you would take the time to find out if there are guns there, that can kill you when you storm in.
These cops did not know if there were drugs. They did not know if there were weapons. they blindly stormed the place and got their nuts shot off for their ignorance.
Where is the informant?
Comment posted by Matt_Potter on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 12:04pmOk, I've read a few articles about this now and does it seem to anyone else that the informant used by the police in this case was a common burglar who got his information while trying to rob Frederick out? He said in an earlier article that the burglar was rummaging through his shed. This whole incident just reeks of police incompetency.
Matt Potter
North Carolina State University
Chair, Student Senate Campus Community Committee
President, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
don't blame the wreck on the train
Comment posted by rita on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 1:13pmInformants are, by definition, liars; they are also (generally) weak, vulnerable people who are taken advantage by the same cops who are all too eager to find an excuse to terrorize the public.
Officer Shivers is dead because he and his colleagues BROKE THE LAW.
I hope you're right
Comment posted by Malkavian on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 7:02pmBecause it didn't really go that well for Cory who got the death sentence for pretty much the same sequence of events.
And to those of you wondering if Japanese Maple trees will be prohibited. Well, I can't help but think that it's IN FACT a possibility if someone like Rudy Giuliani wins the presidential race. I assume you all know how be banned ferrets (of all things) in NY, and what he said to that one disgruntled caller on the radio show?
Good luck with the whole presidential think, anyway. Cheers from Denmark :o)
welcome to America
Comment posted by Our Future on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 12:08amAnother innocent man possibly on his way to prison, probably a productive part of society! Protecting what belongs to him. Law Enforcement too embarrassed to admit they were wrong. I wonder if the cops were under the influence when they invaded his house? I wonder if the informant was under the influence of some kind of drug not to be able to notice the difference and why didn't they go about this in a mannerly way? I don't think he would have ran to dig the tree up while the police were knocking on his door. And if they thought that to be the case, they should have covered all bases beforehand, including the Japanese Maple Trees!!! C'Mon people (Law Enforcement) especially. We have "Over Eager-Jump to Conclusion Cops" and "Know Nothing Informants" ruining the perfectly normal everyday lives of these NORMAL people and they call this "Justice"? As Sad as it is.......This man is most certainly and unfortunately "Guilty Until Proven Innocent"!!!
My Thoughts and Prayers are with Ryan~
An informant should have
Comment posted by Our Future on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 12:11amAn informant should have known that that was NO MARIJUANA PLANT! Similar in looks???..............possibly to some idiot but, to an informant................give me a break!!!!
Helping
Comment posted by mblunk on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 1:56amIs there anything we can do to help Ryan out? I'm not sure how to go about doing anything, but I imagine there has to be a way for us to help.
- Michael Blunk