The Eurie Stamps Investigation Goes Into Lockdown

Last week, Framingham, Massachusetts, District Court Judge Douglas Stoddart imposed a seal on the search warrants and return sheets for the raid in which police shot and killed 68-year-old Eurie Stamps. Stamps wasn't a suspect in the drug raid, and he was unarmed when he was shot.

By impounding the returns, any information collected during the drug and shooting investigation remains in the court clerk's office and can't be examined by the public or press.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone's office yesterday released no new information about Wednesday's fatal shooting of Eurie Stamps Sr.

Leone also says the name of the police officer who shot Stamps won't be released until after the investigation has been completed.

In related news, 27-year-old Natasha Sams said Stamps' shooting and the refusal of law enforcement authorities to release information has motivated her to run for the Framingham Board of Selectmen.

Comments

[Suki]

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

[R C Dean]

Let's hope the local media has the stones to challenge this.

"If you haven't done anything wrong. . . ."

[Aresen]

If the MSM had any balls, there would be a lineup at the courthouse to file First Amendment petitions and this would be headline news everywhere.

All the news they see fit to print.

[Reason Readin Female]

Some of the comments on the story are people blaming the victim for having his son and nephew living with him....so, of course, he WAS doing something wrong.

There are some sick people out there.

[Gomer Pyle]

Last week, Framingham, Massachusetts, District Court Judge Douglas Stoddart imposed a seal on the search warrants and return sheets for the raid in which police shot and killed 68-year-old Eurie Stamps.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

[Rather]

It's "Shame, shame, shame".

[Rather]

That's what I felt after I rimmed my dealer last night. My breath smells like shit, but this is some good crack! Read my blog entry about it!

[rather]

I don't even drink but I can tell by your *clever* remarks that no only you do but your mother did too-FAS is a bitch!

[Rather]

Damn this crack is messing with my communication skills...

[fuck off]

helle

[Rather]

Just gimme the stuff man! Just gimme my fix! I need it man!

[fuck off heller the stalker]

jackass,I don't even drink

[Rather]

I swear man, I don't drink, I just need money for the bus, for the bus man, I'm not gonna spend it on beautiful pure white crack, I swear.

[Almanian]

No dogs were harmed in the making of this tragedy.

[Beezard]

They said they're investigating the matter. That should enough for all of us.

[Al Wrightythen]

Top. Men.

[Jeffersonian]

If a private citizen tried to do this, wouldn't it be obstruction of justice?

[The Judge]

No, no, NO!! You have this all wrong! I want to make certain justice is done.

[Jeffersonian]

And what better reason to do it in the shadows? If people see justice out in the open, they may want it all the time!

[BakedPenguin]

Transparency, how the fuck does it work?

[Justice is]

kinda like sex but we all feel fucked

[Almanian]

You're not catching me off guard, Balko - I wore a CUP. HAHA!

Good Monday Morning, Reasonoids. I'll have a cup o' nut protection for breakfast - you just never know when Balko's gonna go for the low blow any more.

[Aresen]

Is this judge elected?

If so, how about an investigation into what campaign contributions he received from the police?

[Destrudo]

What, no morning links on MLK day? Does anybody but public union workers even get this day off?

[Bored]

Seriously, give some reading fodder please.

[JD]

I'm a graduate student at a private school, and I'm pretty much the only one here today. Even the Chinese postdocs are taking the day off.

[P Brooks]

Leone also says the name of the police officer who shot Stamps won't be released until after the investigation has been completed.

They don't want some moron with a hyperactive imagination to do something crazy, like go to his house, kick the door in, and shoot him. Because that would be wrong.

[Mainer]

..not shooting his dog, on the other hand........

[Wikileaks]

Shall we step in?

[Derp]

Yes, please.

[Youtube]

No need we've got this taken care-

[video has been removed]

[P Brooks]

If people see justice out in the open, they may want it all the time!

Justice is complicated; the little people (civilians!) can't be expected to comprehend its nuance and subtlety. After all, it's not like everyone deserves equal treatment, or anything.

It's best to leave it to the Learned Men behind the curtain.

[Episiarch]

Uh, this is Massachusetts, folks. Expect corruption to reign supreme.

Why is it that the most significant seats of liberty in the Revolution have become the most corrupt shitholes in the nation?

[Ska]

Established tradition?

[Episiarch]

I was thinking: the micks.

[rather]

Wops wouldn't know anything about corruption

[cynical]

So the nativists were right all along?

[Brett L]

I blame Joe Kennedy and the rest of the Irish. What else has changed up there?

[kinnath]

Well, the Puritans were there first.

[hmm as an Irishman]

Fuckya ya wank. Ya wanna go? Hick..

[Brett L]

Please. I'm 3/4 Irish. I only fight family. I do hope my grandfather's family contributed to the problem before we left for freer states.

[Carl Pham]

Maybe you have it backward. Maybe the tradition of being a corrupt shithole helped birth revolutionary sentiments in those sufficiently disgusted with it.

I don't recall the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony being a big ol' beacon of free thinking even well before Lexington and Concord.

[X]

has joe quit the state yet?

[X]

the comments on that story are unbelievable. an "allegedly innocent man"?

[Brett L]

Well, he was never acquitted of anything at trial. Excuse me, I'm going to mourn the death of liberty now.

[Aresen]

It's not dead yet, but it's definitely in the tumbrel.

[fresno dan]

c'mon - he wasn't proven innocent in a court of law. Geez, its like you think its innocent until proven guilty or something...

[hmm]

You learn not to read the comments of articles Balko links.

[hmm]

Thread Jack:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....07095.html

Looks like administration through regulation is picking up steam, pulling permits that are already granted.

[hmm]

I know Arch Coal has taken them to court over this and it was my understanding that the EPA violated an agreement to wait for that process to finish.

[hmm]

Does FOIA cover crap like this?

[antonin scalia]

Remember, you have to little to fear due to the new professionalism of law enforcement.

Stamps has absolutely nothing to fear.

[Aresen]

Stamps has had nothing to fear.

FIFY

[fresno dan]

As this is a nation of laws, I'm sure he will be buried in accord with all applicable rules and in conformity to all local ordinances.
Remember all you constitution readers - it only guarantees a fair trail - nothing at all in their about not getting shot dead before your trial...

[R C Dean]

Apparently, he did indeed have something to fear.

[Axman]

Not any more, though. But it's like that spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church said about Loughner: he was fulfilling a greater plan.

"A man can die but once;
we owe God a death.

"He that dies this year is quit for the next."

See? The police just made sure Mr. Stamps didn't welch on God.

[Joe M]

I don't know if I can handle all Radley Blako posts today.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

What part of "isolated incident" don't you understand?

[P Brooks]

Nice.

It's a grim spectacle on both sides, and last week's pointless controversy was a particularly low point. So let me play the relationship counselor. To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she's the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn't.) Stop suggesting that she's the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn't.) And every time you're tempted to parse her tweets for some secret code or crucial dog whistle, stop and think, this woman has fewer Twitter followers than Ben Stiller, and then go write about something else instead.

Links?

We don' need no steenkeen links...

[P Brooks]

Krugabe has a column today, as well, but I cannot decipher it. If I understand the gist of it, it goes like this:

"Republicans suck. Period; the end."

[mr simple]

I saw Pete Boettke (GMU economist) give a talk last week. He said that even though he thinks the man is misguided, Ben Bernanke is actually a friendly, intelligent man. Then he said he couldn't say the same for Krugman. Nobody likes Krugman.

[Aresen]

You mean, nobody but the NYT, Olberman and other lefties.

[Andrew]

The cops and judges can do damn well whatever they want to do. What are you going to do about it?

[Bob Smith]

This stinks of corruption. Sealing the records while they use the time under seal to alter them and destroy evidence?

[Aresen]

OH NO NO NO!

They would never destroy evidence. That would be a crime.

It will merely be 'corrected' so that people don't get the impression that Framingham cops aren't power-tripping psychopaths.

[creech]

If Mr. Stamps were a Harvard prof, he'd be sitting in the Rose Garden right now, with the unnamed cop, having a beer.

[omg]

I would suggest we have a betting pool on how light the police officer's charge would be, but I'd be worried one of you would befriend me and then shoot me over it.

[wylie]

Foiled again! *tiny shaken fist*

[tom swift]

This is an odd story all around. I've lived in Framingham for decades. The Framingham police have to rank pretty far down on the Corrupt-O-Meter. Not perfect, but they're not known for taking potshots at random citizens, either. Very odd.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

That's because this kind of thing isn't related to corruption in the sense of taking money from Al Capone. Instead it results from a combination of (1) a structural problem with the use of force (have to use the SWAT team enough to justify the grant requests and keep the hormone high going but there aren't enough incident that actually call for it, so you define the threshold down...) and (2) The Thin Blue Line.

[warlord]

This occurred because of the SWAT mentality, and the militarization of our local police forces. The public is no longer to be protected and served, we have become the enemy. They are supplied with the latest in
sniper and crowd control equipment by
the military, along with armored personnel carriers and the like. Is it
any surprise that someone is killed?

[Bryan C]

"By impounding the returns, any information collected during the drug and shooting investigation remains in the court clerk's office and can't be examined by the public or press."

Are attorneys part of "the public"? How about the mayor, etc?

[James Solbakken]

Police are ALWAYS dangerous to life, liberty, and property.
That's why police must only be aimed at true crime, and should never ever ever be used for mundane social control.
The problem of police oppression would still exist if police were not used to protect us from ourselves, e.g. controlling what medicines, foods, entertainment, etc, we enjoy, but at least the injustices would be aimed at those who are suspected of serious offenses, rather than what we have now where people suspected of betting on football games with their buddies are shot dead as part of the investigation. I think the injustice and chickenshitedness of the system is part of the game intended to keep the people off balance.
James