Brickbat: To Protect and Serve

David Hooks had reason to be a little nervous. Someone had taken items from a pickup at his Dublin, Georgia, home and stolen an SUV from him the night before. So when his wife reported seeing armed men in camouflage in their yard around 10 p.m., he grabbed a shotgun. Minutes later, the men kicked in their back door and shot Hooks dead. The armed intruders turned out to be Laurens County sheriff's deputies. They'd found Hooks' SUV earlier in the day and arrested Rodney Garrett. Garrett admitted stealing the SUV but claimed the meth they found on him was not his but had been stolen from Hooks' truck. Based solely on that, they got a warrant to search Hooks' house. They searched the home for 44 hours and found no drugs.

Comments

[SusanM]

I really wonder what would have happened if they'd called the cops about strange armed men lurking around. Would they have sent another SWAT team armed and twitchy...?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

It is way too early in the morning for a Drago-sized nutpunch like that. Fuck.

[SusanM]

I vill nutpuch you

[Fist of Etiquette]

I must nutpunch you. Jesus, did you even see that movie?

[UnCivilServant]

It was the one where 5,000 people were sent to the gulag for cheering an amerikanski, right?

[SusanM]

More times than I'm comfortable admitting but the faux-Russian sounds better wit the V.

[Mr. Soul]

vhen ve voke up, ve had dees bodies.

[Almanian!]

Maybe we can ALL change, Fist!

[PM]

Is the concept of actually knocking on a fucking door to serve a search warrant just completely dead now? Like, is that even a thing still?

[Rev-Match]

I believe that law enforcement should always identify themselves. That said, it appears that the concept is mostly dead.

[Drake]

They identify themselves with a hail of state authorized bullets.

[croaker]

They tap on the door and whisper "police" right before they throw the grenade into baby's crib.

[Pope Jimbo]

Be fair. They don't whisper it.

Of course, it is hard to hear anything they say over the noise a crying baby who has just been flash banged makes...

[Mr. Soul]

the Geneva Convention agrees with you.

[gaoxiaen]

They knock with a battering ram.

[JD the elder]

Yeah, it's pretty much completely dead. There's a bit from the Waco hearings in which some pig states, almost in these exact words, "That whole knocking on the door and showing a warrant thing - yeah, we don't do that anymore." And that was twenty years ago.

[Rev-Match]

the warrant did not have a "no-knock" clause and therefore required law enforcement to identify themselves.

But, let's not trouble ourselves with technicalities like Law.

"This is not a person who needs to be involved in criminal activity for financial gain. He did very well financially," Shook said.

They believed a guy who had committed grand theft auto over a guy who, I presume, had no record.

[SusanM]

I guess "These ain't my pants" works.

[Snark Plissken]

Shook told the Macon Telegraph that Hooks owns a construction company that does work on military bases and has passed background checks by state and federal authorities.

Sounds like your typical meth-head.

[SusanM]

Maybe they watched too much Breaking Bad? Maybe they just don't give a shit, too.

[Whahappan?]

What's the life of a peasant compared to the fun of playing army?

[UnCivilServant]

He has more assets to forfeit, so of course they went after the guy who had no reason to be selling Meth.

[croaker]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the bottom line. Showing the authorities you have something to steal is a really bad idea, that's why lottery winners end up in jail.

[PM]

Looking forward to Dunphy's sophisticated process-based analysis to explain to us why this was a good shoot.

[some guy]

Cops had a legit search warrant. Whether the warrant was should have been written is irrelevant because. Then this guy had a shotgun and the cops reasonably feared for their lives, so they were justified in ending his.

/paraphrased dunphy (I don't do 1000 word triple-posts)

[WTF]

That's about the gist of it. Throw in some gratuitous self-aggrandizing bullshit about how he opposes the war on drugs and his force has special procedures in place, and he personally has saved lives yada yada and add some "smooches hth".

[Restoras]

And don't forget that the public actually loves cops, especially really hot chicks like Morgan Fairchild who he has banged, and he can bench 350.

[FUQ]

He banged her while surfing naked and benching 350 while the hero worshipping civilians voted him super brah.

Smooches

Hth

[Adans smith]

The cops saw dollar signs.They could keep the SUV and anything they found in the house.Plus,drugs bad,worse than grand theft auto.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Who's the copstache in the picture?

[some guy]

Was wondering the same thing. This guy needs to be named and the locals should probably consider going full-Ferguson protesting this.

[PM]

According to Google image search, that would be Laurens County Sheriff Ricky W. Chastain

[Redmanfms]

Every adult I've met who still goes by "Ricky" is retarded, and not metaphorically retarded, no actually mentally handicapped.

[gaoxiaen]

Some Rickys are not retarded. They're just gay.

[SugarFree]

The judge that signed a warrant based on the word of a thief should be subjected to the pear of anguish.

[SIV]

Deputy Magistrate Faith Snell

478-296-0700

[SugarFree]

Lisa: Bart! I figured it out. Who's someone you've been making irritating phone calls to for years?

Bart: Linda Lavin?

Lisa: No, someone who didn't deserve it.

[Jerryskids]

Garrett admitted stealing the SUV but claimed the meth they found on him was not his but had been stolen from Hooks' truck. Based solely on that, they got a warrant to search Hooks' house.

Warrants don't mean a damn thing - these cops could have gotten a warrant rubber stamped to search his house on suspicion that he killed Jesus and, having found a gun in the house, a prosecutor would take 52 seconds to get a grand jury to rubber stamp an indictment on the charge.

[Restoras]

They took the word of a admitted criminal at face value. Mind-blowing stupid.

[perlhaqr]

Stupid? Genius! They got to play Army! But without really much of any chance whatsoever that they'd be in any danger, unlike joining the actual Army. Come to think of it, without any actual rules of engagement restrictions like the Army, either. Dude. They even got to kill some guy!

I don't see how you can deride their obvious genius as stupidity.

[WTF]

It's comforting to know that if some crackhead steals my car and gets caught in it with his crack that I and my family are subject to murder by the state if the crackhead says he found it in my car.

[Restoras]

It seems every homeowner should harden all the doorways and install surveillance to guarantee his/her safety...from the cops.

[perlhaqr]

I gotta admit, the prospect seems like a better plan every day.

[Lady Bertrum]

These cops are murderers. I'm wondering how Mr. Hooks children are going to feel about law enforcement as they grow into adults.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

JESUS CHRIST.

How is this not fricken murder?

Man.

Just fucking WOW.

[WTF]

It is murder, conspiracy to commit murder, breaking and entering, assault, etc. but no one will be held to account because IMMUNITY. And everyone from the judge on down has IMMUNITY because FYTW.

[croaker]

And then they wonder why people cheer when a cop stops a bullet. Pretty soon there will be protests at cop's funerals along the lines of Westboro Baptist Church, only these protests will be completely justified.

[Drake]

I was really disappointed he didn't take a few down with that shotgun.

[Restoras]

I might have to upgrade my home defense shotgun to an semiauto permanently loaded with slugs.

[Whahappan?]

Most people aren't like cops, they don't fantasize about killing someone.

[gaoxiaen]

They need to start. Especially when they're being assaulted in their own homes.

[sarcasmic]

People may try, but they'll be beaten and arrested.

[croaker]

Because FUCK YOU, that's why.

[DK]

How is this not fricken murder?

Oh, it is, but Mr. Grand Theft Auto will be charged with it.

[An Innocent Man]

They searched the home for 44 hours...

Quitters

[Drake]

I'm sure they cleaned up after themselves for a few hours.

[Restoras]

And I'm sure they cleaned out whatever was valuable.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Could you imagine the internal anger a human must feel watching these piecesof shits rummage through your house after they murdered your spouse, pet or family member?

This sort of shit can't be good for the spirit of a community.

[SusanM]

Did they have young children? Now they'd have to call CPS because the widow's a single mother.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Some many sads in this story. But I'll add another, it's sad he didn't get a shot or two off into this murderers.

[gaoxiaen]

The cops need to run into someone with a real arsenal. Someone with an M-60 or TOW missiles. Maybe that would teach them some etiquette.

[JW]

This is a Brickbat. Where's the eye-rolling punch line?

[croaker]

The entire article was eye-rolling.

[Restoras]

Someday, something like this will happen but it'll end up with a lot of dead cops. Won't be a good day.

[gaoxiaen]

Au contraire. It would be a great day.

[croaker]

Until the cops go full storm trooper on us. What's happening in NE PA will be minor compared to that.

[AdamJ]

How about try this:
Hello sir, we are with the police (as you can tell by the normal police uniform I'm wearing). We have recovered your car, which is great news. The guy we got stealing your car had meth on him that he claimed he found in your car, could that be true? Mind if we look around?

Done. No GI Joe bullshit, no murders, no news stories.

[sarcasmic]

Where's the thrill in that? Here's the thing. People join the police force to kill people. That's the truth of the matter. They seek out the job because they are thugs who want to commit murder and get away with it. They want to choke and beat people. They want to hold their pistol against women's head until they pee their pants. That's who they are. They have no interest in enforcing the law. They are only interested in enforcing their will.

[gaoxiaen]

Or hold their pistol against the woman's head until she pulls her panties down. That's SOP in Oklahoma.

[Andrew S.]

Well, if those women didn't want to be raped, maybe they shouldn't have done something that would put them in contact with a cop! Even though it's impossible not to! (If I could pick a single cop to punch in the face right now, it would be that asshole Police Chief in Oklahoma who said that)

[FUQ]

To anyone over 40 that is the way it was handled in the not recent past. Right around the Rodney King fiasco was when this mess really got going

[Steve G]

Too bad he couldn't have taken at least one of the deputies with him on the way out

[Griffin3]

BrickbatNutpunch: To Protect and Serve

Can someone please push through an editorial decision to title these correctly?

[gaoxiaen]

Why would a car thief with a bag of meth lie about anything? Hell if I know, or the local Barney Fifes.

[Fatwa Arbuckle]

Someday, something like this will happen but it'll end up with a lot of dead cops. Won't be a good day.

It'll be a fucking great day if the cops and non-attorney magistrate are deservedly executed by honest, angry citizens. And those executions ought to go all the way up the chain of command to Sheriff Ricky Retardo.

Followed by the destruction of all their homes. Fuck them, fuck their families.

[gaoxiaen]

Burn their houses and blow up their kids with flash-bang grenades. Gang-rape their wives and daughters too. Karma's a mother-fucker.

[perlhaqr]

"Gang-rape their wives and daughters too. Karma's a mother-fucker."

Let us not become the monsters they are.

[croaker]

Indeed not. Just hang them all. If you want to get your rocks off there are plenty of prostitutes willing to serve.

[Fatwa Arbuckle]

Fuck them, fuck their families.

I didn't mean that in a rapey kind of way. (Or a Warty kind of way.)

Let us not become the monsters they are.

Agreed.

But given the system rarely holds LEOs and their enablers to any meaningful account, I would have surprisingly little problem with vigilantism in this particular case.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, All his ministers become wicked." Prov. 29:12 (NAB)

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!" Isaiah 5:20 (NAB)

"WTF?" - normal person reading this story