Another Damned Drug War Death

Radley Balko | January 29, 2007

Add 81-year-old Isaac Singletary to your list of wrongful drug war victims.

Police were apparently conducting an undercover drug investigation when Singletary asked them to leave his property. They didn't. So he asked again, this time with a handgun.

And that was the end of Isaac Singletary.

Whether or not he had reason to know the men on his lawn were police is still under investigation. It seems unlikely. The officers were undercover. And neighbors and relatives say Singletary was protective of his property precisely because of the drug activity in the area.

It's the third shooting involving the Jacksonville, Fla. sheriff's office in three weeks, causing local state's attorney Harry Shorstein to ponder, "If we're just selling drugs to addicts, I don't know what we're accomplishing."

Shame that it takes a pile of bodies to come to that realization.