Just past sunrise the morning after a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond, more than a half-dozen state agents piled into the victim’s house on Washburn Avenue, searching for blood, hair, guns, ammunition, knives, drugs or “writings” that would help them understand what happened.She was shot in the alley behind her house, after calling the cops to report a suspected assault. She apparently slapped the trunk of the squad car, scaring the cops. The officer in the passenger seat shot her through the driver's side window, right past his partner's head.
We don't know what the shooter was thinking, because he has so far refused to give any kind of statement. He's still on paid administrative leave.
The cops found nothing and took nothing from the house. But they killed her, and suddenly she's a suspect and her house is being searched. It really seems like this was a fishing expedition looking for some kind of dirt so they could blame the victim.
That was how the case against the officer who shot Philando Castile went. They searched Castile's house, looking for some kind of dirt. When they found THC in Castile's blood they had what they needed: a pretext for killing him. The killer then based his defense on the idea that Castile was a murderous madman because he had exposed other people to highly carcinogenic second-hand smoke. Smokers beware, the cops are gonna come gunning for you!
It's crazy how the judges and prosecutors and cops circle the wagons to find some way to sully the reputations of the victims of incompetent, trigger-happy officers who make horrendous errors in judgment.
Do the police search the houses of the cops who shoot innocent civilians? Do they test their blood for the presence of alcohol and drugs? Do they search their cars, lockers, Internet search history and cell phone call logs? I don't know -- that part of the investigation never seems to be performed, or at least reported on.
The lawyer representing Don Damond, Justine's fiance, doesn't think there's anything wrong with getting a search warrant for Damond's house because a phone call reporting an assault originated there.
That is sheer lunacy: who is going to call the cops to report a crime if doing so suddenly puts you in the police crosshairs, you become a suspect in the investigation, your privacy is invaded and your reputation is destroyed? Getting your house searched is not just an inconvenience: cops frequently bust down doors, guns drawn, and trash the place while serving a search warrant. And all too often they break into the wrong house and kill completely innocent people, like a mechanic in Mississippi last month.
Any time you have an interaction with a cop -- or any person with a gun -- you run the risk of getting shot. Why would any sane person want armed people inured to the dangers of guns rummaging around in their house?
Back in the Sixties America was aghast after a murder in New York, when no one called the cops as Kitty Genovese was knifed outside her apartment building. Her assailant stabbed her twice, ran away when someone yelled at him to leave her alone, then came back ten minutes later and killed and raped her, stealing $49. Eventually someone did call the police. Genevose died en route to the hospital. If someone had called the police immediately she would have likely lived.
Will you have second thoughts about calling the cops if you see someone sneaking out of your neighbor's house? Will you go outside to help someone crying for help after calling the cops? Or will you be afraid that the cops will try to pin a crime on you? Or maybe even shoot you?
Those same thoughts are probably going through your neighbors' heads.
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