Do we live in a free country, or a police state?<\/p>\n
In a free country, police (to the extent they\u2019re needed — more private property rights and less \u201cpublic property\u201d would vastly increase the ratio of private security guards) live under and must obey the same laws as the rest of us.<\/p>\n
In a police state, government police enjoy special laws and protections that allow them to do things that would be considered crimes if done by the rest of us.<\/p>\n
Back on June 11, Metropolitan Police Department Detective Bryan Yant led five other armed officers as they beat down the door of an east Las Vegas apartment late at night to arrest a suspected minor marijuana dealer named Trevon Cole.<\/p>\n
Finding Cole in the darkened bathroom, where police assert he was flushing the dried medicinal plant down the toilet, Detective Yant, whose flashlight wasn\u2019t working and who neglected to bring along a partner, shot the young black suspect dead.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 21, a local coroner\u2019s jury, instructed that they could reach another finding only if they believed Detective Yant had \u201ccriminal intent,\u201d took 90 minutes to exonerate him in the shooting.<\/p>\n
Despite contradictory statements by nearly everyone who testified — and forensic evidence that the fatal AR-15 rifle bullet penetrated down through the cheek into the deceased\u2019s neck, meaning he had to be squatting or kneeling on the floor — Detective Yant stood by his story that he fired the fatal shot only after Cole stood up, turned and thrust his hands toward Yant as if he had a gun.<\/p>\n
No gun was found in the apartment. Oddly, a yellow tube of lip balm was found in the dead man\u2019s left hand.<\/p>\n
In the estimation of the medical examiner and homicide detective who investigated the case, Cole turned in Detective Yant\u2019s direction while crouched over the toilet. But based on how Cole\u2019s body was found, the medical examiner said it was highly unlikely that Cole took a step toward Yant, as the detective claimed.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens noted that the evidence — including testimony from fellow officers who did not hear both a door kick and gunshot — pointed toward an accidental discharge simultaneous with the door kick.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time Officer Yant\u2019s story has failed to match the physical evidence. Back in the early morning of Nov. 17, 2001, Officer Yant said he was chasing Richard Travis Brown, dubbed \u201cThe Candy Bar Robber\u201d by police for his 41 heists, on foot. Yant told THAT inquest jury that Brown reached for a gun as the two ran down the sidewalk. Yant fired three to four rounds. Brown fell, face first. Yant said Brown then tried to re-aim the gun at him, requiring Officer Yant to fire three to four more rounds, killing Brown.<\/p>\n
But crime scene analysts recovered Brown\u2019s handgun on the sidewalk 35 feet away from where he\u2019d been shot.<\/p>\n
During this month\u2019s inquest into Officer Yant\u2019s second killing, Narcotics Sgt. John Harney testified about a number of errors leading up to Trevon Cole\u2019s death, beginning with Detective Yant\u2019s affidavit seeking a search warrant.<\/p>\n
In Detective Yant\u2019s affidavit, he mistakenly said Cole had a history of drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
Despite having a copy of Cole\u2019s California driver\u2019s license complete with a physical description and date of birth, Detective Yant confused Cole with a Trevon Cole from Houston and California, who was seven years older, at least 3 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter.<\/p>\n
The false information on the affidavit was relied upon by the judge who authorized the nighttime raid.<\/p>\n
But Detective Yant\u2019s own testimony convinced the seven jurors that his actions were justifiable, a Clark County coroner\u2019s jury forewoman said last week.<\/p>\n
Shannon, who asked that her last name be withheld, said the jury never considered Yant\u2019s actions criminal because it assumed \u201cintent\u201d to harm was necessary for an action to be considered criminal. She said the instructions given to the jury before deliberations didn\u2019t define what could have constituted a criminal act.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis testimony was taken in high regard,\u201d said Shannon, 35. \u201cHe was the only one who witnessed the entire thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, Shannon. He was the only one who witnessed the entire thing … and survived.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say that a 70-year-old man who knows he has committed no serious crimes wakes up in the middle of the night this week in his darkened Las Vegas home, to the loud noise of his front door being broken down by home invaders.<\/p>\n
He has only seconds to gather his senses as men come stampeding down the hall towards his bedroom. He manages to get on his glasses but not his hearing aid, so he can\u2019t make out when the men — who wear dark clothes and no visible badges — are yelling.<\/p>\n
He is, however, a combat veteran who has shot some trap and skeet in his time. He rolls to the floor. Grabbing his loaded shotgun from under the bed, he stays on his knees, steadies his elbows on the bed and takes aim in the dim light, to which his eyes have already adjusted.<\/p>\n
As the badly organized home invaders with malfunctioning flashlights pour from the hallway into his bedroom, peppering the walls as they accidentally discharge assault rifles on whose triggers they shouldn\u2019t even have their fingers, our home defender calmly and methodically leads his assailants, killing two and seriously wounding another by placing 12-gauge deer slugs through their heads and necks.<\/p>\n
The remaining assailants pull back and manage to convince the resident that they\u2019re police, whereupon he surrenders to the surviving officers, who turn out to have the right house NUMBER but to be one street away from the house they wanted.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I want to know:<\/p>\n
Would our 70-year-old homeowner be left free on his own recognizance for a couple of months, pending his coroner\u2019s inquest, as killer policemen are?<\/p>\n
At his coroner\u2019s inquest, would the seven-member jury be instructed that they must find his actions either \u201cjustifiable\u201d or \u201cexcusable,\u201d unless they believe he went to bed that night with \u201ccriminal intent\u201d to kill those cops?<\/p>\n
Would the jury forewoman later be likely to explain that they had to find the killings justifiable because the homeowner testified \u201cHe believed they had guns and he was in fear for his life\u201d? that \u201cHis testimony was taken in high regard\u201d since \u201cHe was the only one who witnessed the entire thing\u201d?<\/p>\n
And, once our killer of two cops had been cleared by the coroner\u2019s inquest system, would the local district attorney be likely to wash his hands of the matter, saying, \u201cThe coroner\u2019s jury has spoken; there\u2019s nothing we can do; he\u2019s a free man\u201d?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think things would be likely to work out quite that way. Do you?<\/p>\n
But if that\u2019s not the way things would work for a man who makes a split-second decision to kill two armed home invaders, then do our police live under and obey the same laws as the rest of us, or do Las Vegas police today enjoy special laws and protections that allow them to do things that would be considered crimes if done by the rest of us?<\/p>\n
And if that\u2019s the case, do we still live in a free country … or in a police state?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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