February 25, 2009
Crime and Punishment Department
A Response to Scott's Comments on the Frederick Conviction
A police officer named Scott in Hampton Roads has this to say about the Ryan Frederick verdict:
Ryan Frederick will forever be known as a cop killer. He shot and killed Detective Jerrod Shivers in January 2008 while the Chesapeake Police Department was serving a search warrant at his house. He is a cold blooded killer.
Our justice system, however, has seen fit to convict this... Frederick of Manslaughter and recommended a sentence of 10 years, the maximum. Frederick faced capital murder.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury? You have FAILED MISERABLY. You have failed the family of Detective Shivers, police officers, the City of Chesapeake, Commonwealth of Virginia and this nation. Failed. Failures each and every one of you.
Scott, you just don't get it. Frederick was convicted of manslaughter because that is what he did.
Yes, Frederick killed a cop. That's undisputed. But there is no reason to believe he intended to kill a cop at the time he pulled the trigger. The only testimony that disputes this comes from a bunch of snitches.
(Here's a quick test for any police officer who claims the snitches were credible: If you were interviewing one of these guys at the police station, and he asked you if he could examine your duty pistol---hold your loaded gun in his hands for just a minute---would you let him? If not, if you're not willing to let him have a deadly weapon, then you damned well shouldn't let them kill Frederick with their words.)
According to the jury, Frederick behaved stupidly---he shot without identifying his target---and Jerrod Shivers is dead. It was a tragic mistake, but a mistake he should have been able to avoid. And for that mistake, he will lose 10 years of his freedom.
The next time you need police, please be sure to tell them you were on the Frederick jury. While that is an emotional statement, I do know that no matter what, the officers will still be professional. But I bet it made you stop and think didn't it?
Just like all the people who have voted in the polls on PilotOnline. Voting for acquittal. The next time YOU need police, be sure to tell them you think that Frederick should have been let off for killing a cop.
Alright Scott, here's something for you to think about: All this happened because Ryan Frederick was suspected of growing marijuana, a crime which has no victims. The next time you or your police buddies decide to do an armed home invasion because you think there might be evil plants inside, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of potential jurors out here who won't mind too much if you get your ass killed. Maybe that will make you stop and think about what you're doing.
If the tables were turned, and it was a cop who shot blindly through a door, killing a civilian, I wonder how that would have turned out at a trial?
Well, Sgt. Joseph Chavalia of the Lima, Ohio SWAT team was on a raid when he heard other members of his SWAT team firing at a dog on the floor below. He misinterpred this as gunfire coming from a nearby room and fired into the room blindly, killing an unarmed woman named Tarika Wilson and mutilating her infant son's hand. Officer Chavalia was acquitted.
Even if he'd been convicted, he wouldn't have had to do more than eight months in jail because the prosecutor only filed misdemeanor charges. Once released, Chavalia could have gone right back onto the SWAT team.
Then there are the three Atlanta police officers---Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith, and Arthur Bruce Tesler---who stole drug evidence from one of their cases and planted the drugs on a suspected drug dealer in order to coerce him into giving them information about other drug dealers. He pointed out a house where he claimed to have bought drugs. The officers then used that information plus a few lies to get a no-knock search warrant.
The house turned out to belong to 92-year old Kathryn Johnston, who was a grandmother, not a drug dealer.
The crooked cops botched the no-knock entry, giving Johnston just enough time to get her gun to defend herself against what she must have assumed were a bunch of thugs breaking down her door. The police shot her to death (wounding each other in the panic fire) and then, finding no drugs, they tried planting some to frame her.
Officers Junnier, Smith, and Tesler were convicted, but only one of them got a sentence as long as Frederick's, and with good behavior he'll be out sooner.
So, since you asked, if "the tables were turned" and a cop shot blindly through a door and killed someone, I would expect the blue wall of silence to close comfortably around him. He'd get a light sentence. Assuming it even reached the trial stage.
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It's a tribal thing. From Scott's POV, a member of his tribe was killed by a barbarian, and that's the only thing that matters. I'm sympathetic to it mattering to him -- I'm not of his tribe, but I've a few of my own -- and rather not about it being the only thing that should matter.