Crime and Punishment

[Soup4Rush]

sounds 100% to me.

[Devil's Advocate]

How many innocent people get executed..................hmmmmmmmmmmmm, don't know. How many guilty people get released..........hmmmmmmmmmmmm, more than innocent executed I bet.

More to the point, how many innocent people's executions are acceptable to you?

I don't think it is a matter of wether they expect to get caught, I just know that food clothes a bed and a roof are better than most scumbags live from day to day, so prison don't look too bad to them. So they do what they do.

If people commit crimes where you live in order to get a roof over their heads, then your society has even bigger problems than I thought.

And why is it prisoners get tv, and good food anyway. They should be eating pig slop and watching their cell mates sodomize each other.

It's a lesson that was learned in Victorian prisons in this country. If you don't give them anything to do, or if you give them repetative, tedious, useless chores, the result is insanity.

I think your constitution would disallow driving prisoners insane, on grounds that it would be a "cruel and unusual punishment."

How is what they serve in prison HARD TIME nowa days. They should be busting rocks, with feathers.

Why should it be a "hard time"? The purpose of imprisonment is to separate these people from society till they are no longer a threat to it. And if their crimes are so heinous that they can never be regarded as safe to be released, then their prison term would reflect that.

And if, while they're there, you can educate them, and make them better - more employable - people, so much the better. They'll be able to get jobs when they're released, and thereby pay rent, and get a roof of their very own.

As for eating steak and watching cable TV - I'd like to know where you get your information on this. Here in the UK, most prisons are overcrowded.

[Devil's Advocate]

sounds 100% to me.

100% of what?

Are you 100% certain that:

the story Hairball quoted is correct in all its details?
the story omits nothing, such as some form of provokation?
the police arrested the right guy?

One obvious question is: why was "[t]he victim ... either lifting her into a baby seat or taking her out"?
Another obvious question: how did Bishop manage to locate the victim's car amngst the traffic, after taking the time and presumably a detour to drop off his wife?

Questions like these don't prove the guy is innocent, of course. But they do drop the certainty of his guilt by at least a couple of percentage points.

[Walkinghairball]

No innocent persons execution is acceptable to me. But How many guilty people get off?
People in America don't necessasarily do crimes just to live better in prison, but sence we don't deal with the ones who really deserve it, prison life don't scare them.
Insanity is what most use to excuse their guilt.
Cruel and unusual punishment.................. so murder or rape is acceptable in your country D.A?

So I pose the same question to you as Rushlight D.A................. if someone raped or murderen someone you love.................what would you want, how would you feel. Especially if they we're comfy in prison?

Most prisons here are also overcrowded.............and baby rapers are still let out before drug dealers, or imbezzlers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100%

Are all your facts correct, I didnt see you quoting any facts D.A? Name some sources.
How does it matter why the dead guy was lifting his baby out of the car seat, other than it's not safe. ................ Wait, I don't see if there was another person driving the car, or was he trying to drive, parent his baby...................maybe he was also eating a cheese burger and talking on a cell phone.
Is that a reason to be crashed into and shot to death?
Don't have any info on how he found the guy again, but never underestimate a trained military man.

Anyhow, RL, D.A, I really grow tired of all this, I know it is a worthy debate and all, but we have different view points and alla that. At times on this board it seems like we all get along, and don't at all. I want to get along. Agree to disagree I believe is what Soupy said the last time.
You won't change me, that's ok. I won't change you, again, that's ok too.

If I had a pillow cannon in this thread, I'd get you both.......

Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.......................Still friends?

[Soup4Rush]

HUH The story I read is that 12 people saw him do it. wait....I know, the goverment hired those people, wait even better, George Bush hired those people to tell the police what they saw. Now all the police will have to do is beat the crap outta the guy and than we can get on with sticking the needle in his arm in about, oh say 30 years after he has exhausted his 1 millionth appeal. I have a confession.... it was me, behind the grassy knoll.

[rushlight]

Think of it like this RL, and heaven forbid it should ever happen.............What if someone you love was raped or murdered?

I did see a murder. She wasn't a relative but she was a neighbor, a 14 year old neighbor.

Would you lose your mind knowing that piece of shit was eating steak, watching cable tv? I know I would. I'm not saying starve them, or put them in solitary indefinitely, but what right do they have to live comfortably on our dime, when someone else suffered. It makes no sense to me.

I did lose my mind for a little while. I was going through a shock. Ask D.A. and that was before we got together.



DEA agents shoot innocent 14-year-old girl in the head, but deny any
wrongdoing.

On February 9, a quiet Sunday evening in San Antonio, Texas, 14-year-old
Ashley Villarreal washed the family car in the driveway of the well-kept
house where she lived with her 73-year-old grandmother, Nelly Villarreal.

Ashley celebrated her 14th birthday in January. She was an unusually tall
and beautiful Hispanic girl whose luminous skin, sense of humor, and
generosity endeared her to everyone she met. In her bedroom, pictures of
John F Kennedy and paintings of Christ and the Virgin Mary adorned the
walls. She was younger than her years, as yet untroubled by adolescence.

Her plans for the future were to continue doing well in school, become a
model and singer, and play for a volleyball team.

Assisting Ashley as she groomed the car was 44-year-old Danny Robles, a
long-time family friend who describes himself as a caretaker for Nelly,
who
had recently been hospitalized with heart problems.

As Ashley tended to the family's black Mitsubishi Eclipse, Danny put four
garbage cans out on the streetside curb for the next day's pick-up.

Ashley and Danny were happy and relaxed; they didn't see what a neighbor
had
already seen – a white male, approximately 29 years old, and another
individual, watching from an unmarked car directly across the street from
the Villarreal home.

"It's unusual to see an Anglo man sitting for a long time in a car around
here," said a witness, alluding to the fact that Ashley's home is in the
heart of San Antonio's predominantly Hispanic "West Side" neighborhood. "I
was suspicious. I went out and asked what he's doing. He says he is
waiting
for his girlfriend. But it looked to me like they were watching my
neighbors."

After Ashley had expertly washed and dried the car, she decided to move it
around the block to a covered area in the rear of her grandmother's
property.

Danny moved a car that was parked behind the Eclipse, backing it into the
street. Then Ashley backed the Eclipse into the street, and waited with
her
headlights on for Danny to re-park the other car and get into the
passenger
side of the Eclipse. She was eager to show him her short-distance driving
skills, even though she didn't yet have a license.

After Danny was in the car, Ashley slowly began to drive around the block.
As she drove near the home of her best friends Kayla and Pamela Hernandez,
a
few houses from where her grandmother lived, Ashley noticed she was being
too closely followed by a large unmarked vehicle that did not have its
lights on.

"Ashley didn't know what was going on," Danny Robles told me. "She put on
her right turn signal to go onto Motes street. She just wanted to get out
of
their way."

Suddenly, several unmarked vehicles converged on the Eclipse from all
sides,
forcing the car to a halt near the intersection of Motes and San Joaquin,
within sight of Ashley's home.

"They sandwiched the car so we had to stop," Robles said. "Then they
started
shooting. I thought we were getting attacked by gang members. I tried to
shield Ashley but I could tell right away she had been hit. She whispered
my
name. I felt her shaking and could see she had a hole in her head. Look
what
they did to poor Ashley. And then these men get out of their cars and come
at us, and we are out of the car and on the ground, and she is moaning and
crying. I see chunks of her head; her face had turned purple and blue. I
was
covered in her blood. She was dying and wanted me to hold her. I said to
one
of the men, 'Please let me hold her, she's going.' He stomped his foot
hard
on my back and said, 'Don't move.'"

Sisters

Pamela and Kayla Hernandez live with their parents in a home across from
the
intersection of Motes and San Joaquin streets. Pamela, 15, and Kayla, 14,
say they were "like sisters" to Ashley.
"We did everything together. She was like a member of our family,"
explained
Kayla, a soft-spoken girl whose gentle voice shook when she talked of
Ashley.

On the night Ashley was shot dead, Kayla and Pamela were in their bedroom
in
the front of the house.

"It was a real quiet Sunday night," Pamela recalls. "Around 11:15, we
heard
a car braking and then a crashing sound, so we looked out. There were a
bunch of different kinds of cars and trucks coming from everywhere toward
the corner. One of them drove over the grass. They looked like regular
cars;
there was no way to know it was police - I thought it was a gang. They
just
rammed this other car that they had trapped. From one car behind the
trapped
car a man in the passenger side of his car opened his door and pointed
something at the car.

"Then we heard shots, and as soon as the shots, somebody screaming, 'Open
the fucking door, get out of the fucking car!' And then we heard a man
crying and screaming."

The sisters left their bedroom, went out their front door, and ran out
onto
San Joaquin Street.

"We had seen a man from one of the cars put his vest on, and it said 'DEA'
on it," Kayla remembers. "I thought, 'Uh oh, the DEA has been after
Ashley's
dad, Joey.' One of the men was banging on something. Another man said, 'We
shot a young girl; call an ambulance.' A bunch of SUVs, police cars and
fire
trucks showed up. A city cop asked Pamela about Ashley, what she looked
like. Then Danny saw us. He said, 'They shot Ashley. Tell her grandma.' My
mom tried to go to her grandma's house, but the police wouldn't let her."

By now, the neighborhood was in an uproar. Ashley's Eclipse was caged
inside
a circle of unmarked cars. Federal and local police officers were running
in
circles. The crime scene was being altered. Danny was in handcuffs,
sobbing.
Kayla and Pamela were trying to get to the car, cursing the police.

"When I found out it was Ashley for sure, it was like a knife being put
inside me," Kayla lamented. "We went to Wilford Hall Medical Center where
they had taken her. It didn't even look like her.

"She was a girl who never had a scratch on her; she was so beautiful. It
was
terrible to see her like that. Her face was all swollen black and blue. I
was thinking, 'Any people who did this to my Ashley are monsters who need
to
be punished the rest of their lives.'"

DEA overkill

The DEA operation that resulted in Ashley's death was allegedly centered
on
37-year-old Joey Villarreal, Ashley's father. Joey is a Tex-Mex musician
and
businessman with a criminal history of minor cocaine offenses, all of
which
resulted in probation rather than jail time.

According to DEA records, drug agents had been conducting a months-long
"historical" drug investigation involving a Mexico-US cocaine marketing
cadre that used to operate in San Antonio. The investigation involved
federal wire-taps, surveillance, and the arrest of several of Villarreal's
associates.

On February 7, 2003, DEA agents and local authorities rousted Villarreal
and
his girlfriend, 29-year-old Teresa Ortega, from a hotel room in Kerrville
(45 minutes from San Antonio) at 5:30 in the morning.

"The local cops came with the DEA," explained Ortega. "There was like 10
DEA
agents wearing masks. They put a gun to my face when I opened the door,
pulled me out of the room, and put me up against a wall. Joey was in the
shower, and even though it was snowing, they pulled him outside, naked.
They
told me I was not under arrest, but somebody from the DEA wanted to talk
to
me. I told them I wasn't going anywhere with them, so they arrested me for
possession of marijuana. They went into the room and found some
confectioner's sugar from a donut. They scraped that up and said it was
cocaine. Then they arrested Joey."

After spending about 24 hours in jail, Joey was released from jail on
bond,
on February 8. The DEA says it decided to re-arrest Joey again, the very
next day, because agents thought he was going to "flee to Mexico."

A posse of DEA agents staked out his mother's San Antonio home, planning
to
arrest him Sunday night, even though they had no indictment, no criminal
complaint, and no arrest warrant. The same agents who participated in the
Kerrville bust were present outside Ashley's house; they claim to have
seen
Joey there in the late afternoon and unsuccessfully attempted to follow
his
car to arrest him.

I interviewed the principals and witnesses about the circumstances of
Ashley's killing, studied the site of her death during the day and at
night,
and examined case documents. I did not interview DEA agents, but only
because they refused to talk to me.

The DEA's explanation of events totally defies logic and believability.
The
DEA claims its agents somehow confused Danny Robles for Joey Villarreal.
Agents allege that Ashley was involved in some car trick scheme to decoy
agents away from some other vehicle containing Joey, or to herself drive
Joey away from the house so he could flee to Mexico.

These assertions are contradicted by obvious facts: Joey was not in the
car
or the neighborhood, and Danny Robles doesn't look like Joey Villarreal.

When agents in unmarked cars accelerated toward Ashley's car, they must
have
known that Joey Villarreal, later arrested on minor drug conspiracy
offenses, was not in the car. Yet a DEA agent driving a large truck rammed
the Eclipse from the front, and other DEA vehicles closed in on the car as
well. Agents in the front vehicle opened fire on Ashley's car, prompting
agents in the other vehicles to also shoot.

Young Ashley Villarreal, a friendly girl whose favorite recording artist
was
Nelly and who had just had a portfolio of photos taken as a first step
toward a modeling career, was fatally wounded by DEA crossfire.

A grandmother's grief

As soon as DEA agents realized they had killed an innocent Hispanic girl,
they began a vigorous damage control effort. They closed the crime scene
neighborhood and sent a team of agents to Nelly Villarreal's house.

Speaking through an interpreter a week after her granddaughter's death,
Nelly described the horror of that night. "They came to my front door with
their guns out, with no search warrant, and demanded to enter my home,"
Nelly said. "They said they would break open the door if I didn't open it
right away, but I am sick, and it is hard for me to find the key for the
locks, so they went around to the back and they went into the house
without
my permission, they just kept threatening me, while they kept me outside."

Several agents harassed and interrogated Nelly; she kept asking what
happened to Ashley.

"I only knew she was going to move the car with Danny and did not come
back," Nelly said. "I kept asking where is she. They said, 'She's fine,
don't worry.' They were going through everything in my house. Just taking
things out of there, including the deed to the house, jewelry, our safe,
other personal possessions and important papers. They spent five hours
doing
this. They brought dogs in to search. I kept telling them I don't want
them
in the house, but they laughed at me and made fun of me. The phone rang
but
they wouldn't let me answer it. They would pick it up and hang up, or they
would tell people I was not there. I was terrified."

Even though they ransacked Nelly's home for hours, agents found absolutely
no trace of illegal drugs, weapons, or evidence of drug trafficking. They
also found no evidence, in the home or in the Eclipse, to back up their
theory that Joey Villarreal was using his mother's house or car as a means
for his purported escape to Mexico.

There was no packed luggage or other indications that Joey had visited the
house recently, or that he was planning to flee.

"The DEA people were very angry, because they found nothing," Nelly said.
"They have come back, every time taking things from my house, like
thieves.
Even if they come back a thousand times, with a pack of dogs each time,
they
will find nothing illegal. We are innocent people. My chica Ashley was an
angel; they murdered her."

The 73-year-old grandmother and widow, who has lived in her home since
1962,
broke down in tears many times during our interview sessions. The way
agents
harassed her on the night of her granddaughter's death, as well as the
killing itself, sent her to the hospital soon thereafter.

She clutched a picture of Ashley to her chest and bowed her head in
prayer,
asking God why He had allowed the DEA to take Ashley from her.

Nelly's sadness and anger are of course understandable based solely on
Ashley's death, but the way DEA agents treated her added to her
bitterness.

"When they were done here, Ashley had still not come home. They told me
not
to worry about her, she was alright," Nelly recalls. At the time agents
said
this, Ashley was on life support at Wilford Hall Medical Center. "They
gave
me back my driver's license and said to me, 'Oh look, it's your birthday
today. Happy birthday. Just go on back to sleep now. Lock your doors. Have
a
good day.' As soon as they left, my neighbors came to tell me Ashley had
been shot."

Broken family

At Wilford Hall, Ashley's shocked friends and family gathered in tears
around her bed.

"The doctors told us she was not there anymore, that her brain had been
too
badly damaged," remembers Debbie Villarreal, Ashley's mother. "Adrianna
[Ashley's 18-year-old sister] had already been to the neighborhood before
they brought Ashley in, telling police Ashley was her sister, but they
shoved her back."

Danny Robles was held illegally all night by police and relentlessly
questioned by DEA agents about drug trafficking and Joey's whereabouts,
even
though he was covered in Ashley's blood and brain tissue.

"I can't get it out of my head – I should have protected her better," says
Robles. "When the police had me, and I asked about Ashley, all they would
say is, 'She has a fucking hole in her head.' These DEA are professionals.
Ashley didn't try to harm them in any way. They never warned us who they
were or what they were doing. They did just what they wanted to do. It was
an intentional killing. It was an execution."

As the hospital vigil continued into daytime Monday, Joey Villarreal went
to
the downtown office of his lawyer, Alan Brown, to turn himself in.

Brown, who describes himself as a "Libertarian, Christian fundamentalist,
conservative long-time Texas attorney," says police sent a combat-ready
SWAT
team to his office to arrest Villarreal.

"Joey was crying and sobbing about Ashley," Brown says. "They put him in
solitary confinement in a private prison in a bare cell without any
furniture, bedding or shower – just a hole in the floor. They wouldn't let
family members talk to him. They gave him 10 minutes at his daughter's
side
to say goodbye to her. They wouldn't let him go to the funeral."

While Villarreal was being held naked and alone in a bare cell on
relatively
minor cocaine charges, Ashley was being described as "beyond hope" by
physicians.

"I talked to Joey on the phone about stopping the life support," Debbie
Villarreal says. "He was falling apart, crying over Ashley. We agreed to
put
it in God's hands. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. To lose my
little girl because of these crazy, vicious DEA men – I will never get
over
this. We agreed to take her off life support. We prayed and told her we
loved her. She died 20 minutes later. My baby was gone forever."

With the little girl lost and the community in an uproar, the DEA's spin
machine kicked into high gear. DEA spin doctors alleged Ashley had driven
a
darkened car without its headlights on, had accelerated toward agents,
then
backed up to try to hit them, and that agents shot at the car only in
self-defense. Other sources floated ludicrous stories implying that
Ashley,
Danny, and Nelly were fronts for Joey's alleged coke sales. Pro-DEA
sources
said Ashley "caused her own death" because she was "driving a car without
a
driver's license."

The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) Homicide Unit, Bexar County
District Attorney's office, and a team of DEA investigators from
Washington,
DC, began looking into the incident, but lawyers for the Villarreal
family,
along with journalists and civil liberties groups, say the investigation
is
being mishandled and carried out with an unreasonable degree of secrecy.

The DEA refuses to comment on the case, other than to disparage Ashley and
her family while staunchly defending its agents' actions.

District Attorney spokesperson Michael Bernard told me he was confident
San
Antonio police were conducting a professional, unbiased investigation of
the
incident. Yet, statements from police officials indicate that SAPD
believes
the DEA's cover story, which alleges that agents saw Joey Villarreal enter
Ashley's car, that Ashley's car "sped away from her house with the lights
off at a high rate of speed," and that Ashley aimed her car at
clearly-identifiable DEA agents.

The only police report publicly available, written by Officer Edward
Miller,
is full of errors and unproven assumptions. It lists Ashley as the
"suspect," and a DEA agent "Bill Swiertc" as the "complainant," even
though
newspaper reports name the agent as "Bill Swierc." Miller's report parrots
the DEA's version of events without question.

Family members, Hispanic rights groups, attorneys and witnesses have
credibly challenged the DEA's story, as well as the intent and conduct of
investigators.

"They are lying about Ashley," Danny Robles said. "She didn't try to run
them over. She didn't back up. She had her headlights on. She didn't do
anything except try to get out of their way. They never identified who
they
were; they started shooting without warning. They moved the car after they
shot her, and they messed with the whole scene. They keep changing their
story, trying to find some story that justifies what they did."

Other witnesses say they saw DEA agents hitting DEA vehicles with their
batons just after the shooting, in an apparent attempt to make it look
like
Ashley had deliberately rammed them.

"They got out of their cars, and after they shot her, they put their vests
on real fast," Kayla Hernandez recalls. "They say that she was speeding
away
from her house, but the Eclipse had a loud muffler and we would have heard
it coming if she was speeding. They are liars."

On Valentine's Day, hundreds of mourners watched as Ashley was buried at a
cemetery a few miles from where she was killed.

Police officers tried to infiltrate the funeral. They had been harassing
Ashley's sister Adrianna, trying to get her to agree to leave the funeral
with an officer so she could be questioned.

"You will never understand what a mother thinks when she sees her precious
baby put in the ground," Debbie Villarreal said. "Ashley used to joke with
me saying, 'Mom, I'm gonna be a famous singer or model someday, do you
want
my autograph?' Now I'm thinking, 'Ashley, girl, you're famous now, but for
what reason? Because some bad man killed you.'"

Police immunity

The killing of Ashley caused anger among many San Antonio residents,
especially Hispanics, who claim that the DEA and other police agencies are
prejudiced against minority groups.

Such claims gain credibility from persistent reports of institutional
discrimination against black and Hispanic DEA agents by DEA supervisors
and
bureaucracy.

Hispanic civil rights groups routinely criticized former DEA Chief Asa
Hutchinson, who recently took a new and powerful job as the nation's first
Homeland Security undersecretary of border and aviation security, alleging
that he was anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant.

The Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association (HAPCOA), a
group
of some 1,100 command-level Hispanic law enforcement officers from across
the country and Puerto Rico who work on the local, state and federal
levels,
sent a letter to the White House last year, stating that Hutchinson has
"been a party to continuing an insidious 'good old boy' network [in the
DEA]
thus perpetuating an atmosphere of distrust, reprisal and retaliation
against minority employees for exercising their rights."

The DEA's record of dealing with minorities and others during
investigations
and arrests supports the assertion of Villarreal criminal defense attorney
Alan Brown, who says that "the drug war is a real war, with some of these
police agents acting as bullies, or even worse, as executioners."

According to First Assistant District Attorney Michael Bernard, whose
office
is in charge of assisting the San Antonio police investigation of Ashley's
death and prosecuting those responsible, DEA agents and other law
enforcement officers are treated differently than regular Americans.

"My boss, District Attorney Susan Reed, clearly stated that a 14-year-old
girl should not have been killed," he commented. "But the law is not
always
on our side. In Texas, self-defense is an important standard, and we would
have to prove that the shooter was not acting in self-defense. It is also
true that federal agents have all the due process rights in defending
their
innocence that any of us do, but that the law treats them differently, by
granting them immunity in some situations – immunity that is not granted
to
you or me."

If past history is any indication, DEA agents will not face criminal
charges
in this case. If there is any justice at all for Ashley, it will come from
a
massive civil lawsuit filed by Austin attorney Bill Reid on behalf of
Nelly,
Danny, and Joey.

For the Villarreals and others who loved Ashley, the fact that agents
involved in Ashley's death have not been arrested or punished is proof of
pervasive corruption, racism, and pro-police bias in America.

"The police always tell us that they are there to protect us from drugs
and
gangs," Pamela Hernandez noted. "But who is going to protect us from the
police? They get away with this stuff all the time. They always treat you
bad if you are poor, or Hispanic or young."

Ashley's sister Adrianna says she's angry about the lack of action taken
against those who ended her sister's life.

"They should lose their jobs, their money, and their lives," she said
resolutely. "They took a life. They have to pay. The system has to make
them
pay. For them to be out walking around, when my sister is dead in the
ground, that to me is the biggest insult."

Killer cops

In incidents involving DEA agents and other police officers, drug warriors
have inflicted severe injury and death on innocent people.

In St. Louis in 2000, DEA agents shot 21 times into a car they claimed was
racing towards them, killing the car's driver and passenger. Witnesses
said
that the car had not been moving at all. The DEA exonerated the agents.

In a Brooklyn incident two years ago, a DEA agent shot and killed an
unarmed
father of two in the back. The DEA said the shooting was "self-defense."

In 1992, DEA agents and Los Angeles sheriffs killed millionaire Donald
Scott
during a marijuana cultivation raid. Police documents showed the raid was
fueled by agents' desire to seize Scott's land, and that there was
absolutely no marijuana anywhere on Scott's property. No police officer
was
ever arrested for Scott's death.

In 2000, a 62-year-old African-American was shot dead by five white police
officers in his home in Lebanon, Tennessee. Officers had a faulty search
warrant with the wrong address on it.

Also in 2000, an 11-year-old Hispanic boy was shot in the back and killed
by
officers during a botched drug raid in Modesto, California.

In Tulia, Texas in 1999, a large percentage of the town's African-American
residents were arrested during a drug sweep based solely on the testimony
of
a now-discredited racist undercover cop named Thomas Coleman. Many of
those
arrested were jailed or otherwise had their lives ruined. Earlier this
year,
prosecutors moved to overturn their convictions while the county tried to
pay them off for wrongfully imprisoning them.

The Tulia case mirrors a drug war battle gone wrong in Dallas in 2001,
during which undercover cops set up dozens of impoverished Hispanics on
bogus drug charges, using powdered sheetrock that the cops alleged was
cocaine.

The list of drug war killings and frauds is long and getting longer, but
the
unifying feature of these tragedies is that police officers who commit
drug
war crimes are rarely if ever brought to justice.

Goodbye angel

On one of my visits to San Antonio to investigate this case, I knelt
examining tire marks apparently made by Ashley's car on February 9 in
front
of the house where she died. The curb was festooned with a memorial of
flowers and cards placed at the scene of her death.

Danny Robles was there; he gave me a picture of Ashley. I looked into her
lively eyes and saw her unique spirit; then I looked down at the broken
glass from her windshield, and dried spots of her blood.

I walked past rustic Catholic churches and modest homes – friendly Latino
children playing and laughing in yards and in the streets – to the
cemetery
where Ashley was buried under a thick collection of floral wreaths,
Valentine's cards, and other gifts, and then to Sol Russ Middle School,
where classmates and teachers told me of the anger and horror they felt,
will always feel, when they think of how the cherished girl's life was
stolen from her and the community.

Ashley didn't use drugs of any kind, I was told. She was "totally clean."
She was "a bright, energetic, happy child." The school created a memorial
to
Ashley. One of Ashley's best friends wrote devastating poems about her
death, and presented the poems in a plaque given to Nelly.

"Ashley was a sweet angel who brought a lot of people together, in life,
and
in death," her mother told me later, choking back tears. "I pray to God
every night, asking Him to bring her to me, asking Him just to let me talk
to her. I saw her a few hours before it happened, and I thank God that
when
we parted, we said 'I love you' to each other."

Debbie Villarreal and I sat quietly in a small park next to a Texas
freeway,
with heartbreakingly poignant childhood pictures of Ashley on a table
between us and wildflowers blowing in the wind. I had a despairing feeling
like I've never had before, even though I've written about, and suffered,
many drug war atrocities.

Finally, Ashley's mother spoke, in the somber, bewildered tones of someone
trying to find a way to keep on living after enduring unbearable loss.

"People tell me to forgive those DEA agents; leave it with God," she said.
"I don't know how to do that. I just pray that when they are alone at
night
or with their own little daughters, that their hearts will hurt so hard
with
the realization of what they have done. Their stupid drug war jobs,
chasing
people around because of some weed or some powder, and killing kids over
it.
I'm angry! They can go home to their daughters. They're still getting
paid.
They're walking around free, enjoying the springtime. But Ashley, my
angel,
is too soon back in heaven. We needed her here."

[awip2062]

There will always be examples of the government misusing its power and there will always be examples of the government making mistakes. I don't think that means we should not utilize capital punishment and hard time.

If I were to use the logic that we should curtail our punishment of criminals because the government had been mistaken or misused its power in the past, then, by that same logic, I should also believe that since the government has done cruel things to my family in the past (coming onto our farm and making us leave at gun point so that whites could have it, killing our people by giving us smallpox infested blankets, et cetera) then the government should not be in power at all. I mean, since they abused their power to govern, they shouldn't have it.

[Xanadu]

Sex offenders should be spayed/neutered

[rushlight]

I hate, REALLY HATE, animal cruelty. Just saw on the news, a puppy who was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire by a couple of rotten kids. He is safe though but he has to go through painful treatment. The kids that did this are getting charged with animal cruelty. As much as I respect my beloved D.A and he believes that justice is served if the person goes to jail, I'd prefer if they suffer the punishment they inflict on the innocent animal.

[Xanadu]

People who abuse animals usually progress into abusing humans...I use the term progress loosely because personally I beleive being cruel to an animal is just as sick. People take out their hate on something defensless because they feel helpless themselves...some start out on a real easy target...a child...a dog...and then ged bolder and bolder going "up the ladder". Sad.

[Walkinghairball]

Hey, here's something new for this one.

This took place right across the street from my mom's house over this last weekend.


Foster father charged with murder in toddler's death


John Langeler / News4 Reporter
Last updated: Monday, August 07th, 2006 06:04:17 PM

News4 Staff
Avery Sam made his first appearance in court on Monday August 7th to answer to charges that he killed a child in his care as a foster parent.


SPOKANE -- "Fantastically huge" is how doctors described to police the head injuries suffered by 20-month-old Devin Miller who died Sunday afternoon. His foster father, 37-year-old Avery Sam, was officially charged Monday with 2nd Degree Murder.
Authorities are saying Devin Miller's death appears to be a case of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Court documents allege Sam is responsible for Miller's death. The boy is related to Sam and was placed in the home by Tribal Court and Child Protective Services. Miller was one of two foster children in Sam's home, even though Sam and his wife have a lengthy criminal past including one felony conviction and 14 misdemeanor convictions. His wife is wanted on two felony warrants.
Investigators say Sam took the child to the hospital for medical attention Friday night after the toddler starting having seizures. At the time the parents said the severe head injuries were from falling in the bathtub, but doctors quickly found signs of Shaken Baby Syndrome, including serious brain injuries and bleeding eyes.
Along with a long criminal history , Sam was alleged in court to have a pattern of abuse. During Monday's hearing relatives of Sam proclaimed his innocence from the gallery while a judge ordered him held on a $500,000 bond.


Any thoughts?

[schuette]

Why the fuck were they given foster kids to begin with???

[Walkinghairball]

Why the fuck were they given foster kids to begin with???

That is exactly what we are wondering Schu.

It still boggles my mind.

[awip2062]

[Soup4Rush]

lethal injection now cruel and unusual. whatever!! I saw this on CNN.

34 minutes to die
It took 34 minutes for Diaz to die. Executions by lethal injection normally take about 15 minutes, with the inmate unconscious and motionless within three to five minutes.

Gravenstein said it can be difficult to get IV needles in their proper place. In a hospital setting, the average is 1.6 tries to successfully place an IV.

"The whole process has a lot of opportunity not to go as intended," he said.

He said someone should have realized what was happening.

"To have given somebody many times what is necessary and then to give them many more times again, it doesn't pass what one might call the 'red face test.' It just doesn't make sense. You have to be suspicious that something's not right," Gravenstein said.

Dr. Philip Lumb, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was critical of the second dosage given to Diaz. He said he has never made any statements for or against the death penalty.

"If an IV has to be given a second time, it is an indication it has not done right the first time," Lumb said.

An attorney representing Diaz's family, D. Todd Doss, said legal action was being considered.

"We are still grieving. It continues to get worse and worse, learning the details of what happened," said Sol Otero, Diaz' niece from Orlando. "The excruciating pain and torture my uncle went through for 34 minutes. He was literally crucified."


and the family is suing. for what?? what was his life worth? He is a or was a mudering SOB. I hope he did die in agony. How should we kill these assholes anyway??