More on the Castillo Shooting
– Though a family spokesman (a representative of the Hisapnic advocacy group LULAC) claimed in a Houston Chronicle article yesterday that no drugs were found in the Castillo home, the DA continues to maintain that there were, though won't say what type of drugs, or how much was found. The local paper in Wharton claims two men, including Castillo's father, were arrested at the scene on drug charges. But that was Tuesday, and I've yet to see any subsequent reports of any arrests. I plan to make some calls today. Of course, the presence of drugs in the home wouldn't make the kid's death any more acceptable.
– Several people have emailed to say that the Castillo raid and shooting took place in the congressional district of Rep. Ron Paul. While Paul is as eloquent a drug war critic as you'll find in Congress, there doesn't appear to have been any DEA or federal law enforcement involved, so I'm not sure there's a federal angle, here. I generally have no problem with the federal government getting investigating these types of cases if its clear that there's a 14th Amendment violation of a suspect's civil rights, and if it's clear that local authorities aren't capable of conducting a proper investigation. I could be wrong, but I suspect Rep. Paul disagrees with me, here. But it'll be interesting to see if he or his staff has any interest in the case.
– I found the following passage from a newspaper in nearby Victoria interesting. The speaker is Wharton County Sheriff Jess Howell:
Howell added that in addition to providing a Texas Ranger for the investigation, the Department of Public Safety also sent in one of their critical incident teams, specially trained counselors.
"If any one involved needs to talk to someone about what happened the incident team is there for them," Howell said. "Back when I started in law enforcement 30 years ago we didn't have anything like this. We didn't abandon our people but we'd suggest they go to their clergyman or someone similar to talk to about what they were feeling. We didn't just tell them to 'suck it up.' And while that was effective, the incident team is trained to address these kinds of issues. It is a definite improvement."
The kind of taxpayer-funded care and counseling they give to the police who shoot citizens is great and all. But compare that passage to this one :
Daniel Castillo Sr. said no one with the district attorney's office or police department has talked to him since the shooting.