These FBI agents are cowards. They remind me so much of the Gestopo that it is nauseating. Why can't they go after real criminals?

Norman Lepoff, M.D.

too bad she didn't happen to have a assault weapon around with 3 shot burst or something to take out a few more raiding assholes

Criminals all you have to do is shout police search warrant and you can break down doors and shoot people in there own home? We are losing the right to defend our own home! This woman should be let go and the FBI should learn a lesson from this death. I think she had a right to defend her home. Most free Americans have a gun for home protection I keep a 12 gauge with buckshot in it at all times by my bed. If I heard someone breaking in my house awaking me they would be in trouble. We must end the War on US (drugs) we have lost so many personal rights during this war. The cops feel if you have a joint in your home you are a criminal and they have the right to shot you in your own home and they are getting away with it. But on the other had if you defend your own home they will put you in jail? This war has cost our country so much it was illegal when it was started it strip of our rights and enslaves the poor and mainly black and Hispanics for exercising our right to free choice. Greed runs this war and must be stopped.

Cherokee Fred Hussein
Give me liberty or give me death!

the fact that that bitch Mary Beth is not charging her with 1st degree murder indicates to me that they know they have problems with their case.

ps. This word verification system sucks. I'm typing it in right, but it won't let me post!

There is a simple solution to all of this. GET RID OF NO-KNOCK WARRANTS. It was a bad idea when it was introduced and all evidence indicates it is still a bad idea. They should politely knock on the door and show the resident the warrant. It should not be done in pre-dawn times to avoid disturbing other residents. The Federal Bureau of Intimidation might even be able to give special training to their agents so that they can interact with citizens in a respectful manner.

If some "evidence" gets destroyed -- so what. Is it worth the death of an agent or an innocent person?

The FBI has strange priorities.

If you have drugs that you want to take , you are a dangerous criminal.

If you join a gang, become a "gang stalker" , and openly and notoriously poison and irradiate people, the FBI leaves you alone.

I Think most people would say that people who assault others with poisons and radiation are worse than people who just want to feel good ingesting what they like.

.

She is not being charged with first degree murder because this was not a premeditated attack, which is a requirement of that charge. Also while I understand that the sound of your home being broken into can alter your state of mind, wouldn't seeing 4-8 armed men dressed in tacticle gear lead you to think that this is not just a break in, nevermind their verbal communication. And why if she felt threatened did she fire only one round. Her argument would be more convincing if she would have emptied her weapon rather than firing only once. Lastly why is there no mention of how the suspect (husband) was finally arrested in the process of destroying the evidence, the very point of these style of raids. If the agents would have rang the doorbell and waited the husband would have easily destroyed the evidence the raid was meant to discover.

I understand that most who read this will not agree with it. Nor because my points are week, but just because I am supporting the evil FBI rather than the poor housewife who sat beside her husband on the couch with her two young daughters night after night while the husband trafficed coke through their home. Why was she not concerned for her kids when daddy came home with coke?

"She is not being charged with first degree murder because this was not a premeditated attack, which is a requirement of that charge." Premeditation can be formed in the twinkling of an eye. It is the government's theory that she knew he was an FBI agent and shot him to slow them down so her husband could destroy the evidence. That is 1st degree murder. If she didn't know he was an FBI or law enforcement agent then it is involuntary manslaughter at best.

Also, prosecutors aren't generally shy about overcharging in order to get a plea. Maybe Mary Beth isn't the complete zealot that we all thought.

Why did she only fire one round? Maybe she realized her mistake after she shot him?

Regarding the destruction of evidence - it was an arrest warrant, not a search warrant. The FBI should have had enough evidence at that point. If this guy was a major dealer he would likely not have been able to destroy the additional evidence before they came in.

Finally, the point about being concerned with her kids is irrelevant and a low blow. But maybe she was just an idiot and didn't know what he was doing for a living. Also, women sometimes do make bad choices about who they have relationships with. I've known women who law enforcement who have had boyfriends and husbands who were doing time for felonies. I can't explain it. Some women are just fucking nuts.

One dead cop? Well, it's a start.

Your "points" are weak to an epic degree. You assume that magically she could see what the intruders were wearing, who they were, what they were planning on doing, and what they were saying. That assumption is absolutely ridiculous as it was 6:00am and the level of disorientation from the event + waking up from sleep overwhelmingly would inhibit such observations. I know you only want to see things through your rose-colored glasses sitting around like some arm-chair expert, but your assumption falls flat when you take into account real-world circumstances.

You also assume that a person who is feeling threatened would automatically start spraying bullets endlessly, but this is just another case of you looking through rose-colored glasses and leaving out real-world factors. Not everyone behaves the same way when they feel threatened, not everyone has the same level of training with a firearm, not everyone is dealing with a 6:00 raid on their house with two children to protect, not everyone is just going to spray bullets randomly into their house, etc. For all you know she figured out that it was the cops after she fired the first shot, she thought she had subdued the threat with the one shot, or she was so disoriented from the conditions that the shot helped bring her back closer to a regular level of perception. Ultimately, we don't know for sure what happens, but for you to automatically assume that someone who feels threatened shoots multiple shots shows your lack of understanding.

The husband's actions in the basement are irrelevant to the incident with the woman. Him destroying evidence or the supposed need for this type of tactical approach has nothing to do with this lady's belief that she was defending herself/her family. Now if the husband had been in the same room or gave warning at the time of the raid, one could argue that she was attempting to give her husband time to destroy evidence, but I don't see anything about that. Plus, if she was trying to give him time, why would she only fire one bullet?

Ultimately, your assumptions just show a level of ignorance that often is found in TV shows. People don't always randomly fire endless bullets at a target when they are afraid. People don't always know exactly what is going on around them at all time, who is after them, or what the intruders' intentions are. People don't always hear perfectly through walls/doors while they are asleep at 6:00am. Etc...

It's my opinion that if a cops or cops raid a home, then they deserve to be SHOT on site. Getting shot at comes with the badge. Dont like it? Get another job. She should be given a medal for defending her home! I would LOVE to sit on that jury.

jess
www.Privacy-Center.net

What really sucks is that Joseph Chavalia , a cop from Lima Ohio was found INNOCENT of killing a mother who was armed with her baby during a drug raid... and yet this poor girl WILL get convicted and get the maximum sentence for 2nd degree murder... The circumstances surrounding these two incidents are hauntingly similiar but remember the police can get away with ANYTHING....

(I know I'm preachin' to the choir on this site but)
Legalize drugs and end this ridiculous victimless drug war that will NEVER, I repeat NEVER be won and senseless tragedies like this will not have to happen.....

The only thing that happens by the DEA and FBI and all other drug task forces and agencies trying to take all theses drugs off the streets is that prices go up and violence increases! It doesn't have to happen because where there is demand there will be supply and there will ALWAYS be demand! The war on drugs is nothing but a huge waste of money that could be better used toward education and heath care... It also puts law enforcement officers in harms way needlessly.... and as I have seen first hand many law enforcement officers focus solely on arresting people for drugs thus letting violent and property crime slip into the shadows.

The rationale is that things will get flushed down toilets, but when it comes to weapons charges, how can you flush a rifle or pistol down a toilet?

The reason we are seeing the militarization of the police has to do with the "toss them in prison and throw away the key" mentality among conservatives. These are the same conservatives ironically that want to keep their guns and want the government out of their wages. You can't have both.

The US has become a fascist police state. We are not safe from law enforcement they are just as dangerous as criminals.

The DEA/FBI/USA needs to stop this inane, insane war on drugs. It's getting innocent people killed, and it's getting the law enforcement personnel killed as well. There are several very good points being brought up in these posts regarding the fundamental rights of Americans to use whatever they want, as long as it is not threatening others. I think me sitting in my house smoking a joint and watching TV or listening to music does NOT make me a terrorist! Let the armed police forces in this country go after the violent criminals, the rapists and sodomizers (oh, wait, they ARE the rapists!) and leave the rest of us alone! And to you people who want to dictate to ME what I can or cannot do in my own home, on my own time, well then, you should move to Afghanistan and join the Taliban, you'd fit right in.
One last point: why is alcohol and tobacco, both of which are shown beyond any doubt to kill its users, legal in this country, but an herb like marijuana, which has been around since the dawn of Man, and is proven to help people, is illegal? Can anyone answer that one for me? I'd really like to know. Prohibition at its worst is useless and doesn't work, so let's give it up, divert that DEA money into education and health care instead. C'mon, America, we should be better than this!
Josephine

It seems to be a no-brainer that dangerous SWAT-style drug raids could be eliminated by employing a different means of arrest or capture.  The mayhem resulting from these types of raids is certainly uncalled for, especially when something as insignificant as a drug warrant is involved.  Botched raids should be a clue that militarized invasions of personal property really don’t protect police officers as much as some claim.  And the raids don’t protect the rights of suspects, their children or pets.

When drug raid tactics don’t make sense, it’s time to look to other, less obvious motives for the raids by asking some basic questions.  For instance, what would it take to eliminate the anti-drug storm troopers and their murderous methods?

For one, undercover cops would need to watch a residence long enough to know the occupant’s personal habits so well that arrests can take place outside the suspect’s home during optimum times and circumstances.  This means more effort, resources and money will be spent investigating and concluding each drug case.  With fixed resources, it might also mean fewer drug cases overall and lower arrest statistics for the cops.  In addition to the fact that SWAT teams have little to do if their job is restricted to cornered snipers, hostage situations and major street gunfights; the bottom line on militant drug raids is that doing it peacefully with a minimal loss of life simply costs too much money.  This cost overrun might be viewed by some police agencies as outweighing the cost of big lawsuits when things go terribly wrong.

At least some problems emerge because the use of SWAT teams for drug busts creates a division of labor between the investigators and certain types of thugs whose only talent seems to be terrorizing people by knocking down their doors in the middle of the night.  Communications have a high probability of becoming garbled when official police duties are handed off to emotionally wired up uber-commandos.

Needless to say, this is not the kind of policing we expect in return for our earned tax money, particularly in what is supposed to be a free, open and just society.  Anything that ratchets up brutality in the U.S. in the manner of the malignant tactics employed in drug cases increases the risk of a major blowback.  If history is to be our guide, then the blowback will comprise more and more crime and social disorder owing to an increasingly alienated and paranoid society that moves ever nearer to totalitarianism.

Giordano

Mr. Obama, please form a "constitution commitee" to review the abuse's that we are suffering due to a lack of "following the rules". Our constitution has been systematically torn down to represent "nothing". The rights "guranteed" by the constitution, to the people, are being recended by the supreme court, congress, and other entities of the government, illegaly. This must be corrected, and reversed, and the authors of these illegal "laws" must be brought to "justice", the same kind of "justice" they inflict on the citizens of this once great country.
These crimes against the people, by the government, are the reason for the constitution, in the first place.
Regards
The Captain

"collateral damage"?
Serves the bastards right.

She has every right to defend her home, if they did'nt idenify themselves she should have mowed them all down. The Federal goverment has way to much power. A bunch of thugs if you ask me cowards behind guns and a badge..............................

Fools, Bureaucrats, and Incompetents.

They should be renamed to the: F.I.B.

I find it ironic, that so many conservatives whine excessively about how "Obama" is going to take their guns away. Yet here during the Bu$h Administration this kind of thing happens again and again- and not one peep out of the RepubliCONS.

I guess it's O.K. for when the CONservatives pull Gestapo tactics.

Her hubby was a habitual cokehead/seller but was always walkn on charges. A rat? Back in coke start-up days (70's) you knew your party-house was a lil active. Why? There was ALWAYS a bucket of water next to toilet. Five-0 luved to get water dept. to turn off your water a few hours before gettin hit. You flush the evidence. Hubby was downstairs in basement trying to flush evidence. Ma and Pa knew the rules. I dunno about "home invasion" crap. We flush crap and cross our fingers. We don't pull heat, nor use it, on ANY local Five-0 or Feds. That Fed had kids also. It's a foot-race to those toilets. Nothing more. The rest is BS.

Alcohol And Tobbaco Kill More People Than All Drugs In the World Combined.
So Are We Fighting The Wrong War Or What.