History Repeats in Chesapeake

WAVY TV has an interview with James Broccoletti, the attorney for Ryan Frederick. The video also contains excerpts from the station's jailhouse interview with Frederick himself. Even those short clips are pretty wrenching. The state supreme court is also apparently appointing a special judge for the trial.

Another local news station notes that Frederick's case bears some resemblance to a case some 36 years ago, in which a police officer was killed after mistakenly breaking into an elderly couple's home. At least in that case, prosecutors had the good sense to not bring charges. At the time, way back in 1972, the Virginian-Pilot ran an editorial that included the following passage:

Faulty information is one thing, a faulty approach is another. Policeman storming into a house of sleeping occupants, who being legally armed is a matter of record, would seem to be an act of desperation. Surely the ordinary householder in an average neighborhood would not expect to be the target of such tactics, whether they meet the law's standards or not. And if storming has been the doctrine for narcotics raids, perhaps subtlety now should be explored.