Colorado Cop Charged With Second Degree Murder

CBI

Last month in Rocky Ford, Colorado, Jack Jacquez, Jr. was shot in the back and killed by a cop who entered his home, according to Jacquez's sister-in-law, who was also home at the time. According to her and other family members the officer, identified as James Ashby,  also pepper sprayed Jacquez as he lay dying on his kitchen floor. At the time, police did not explain why an officer showed up at the home at two in the morning, why they targeted Jacquez, or why a cop shot and killed him.

Now the officer, Ashby, has been charged with murder in the second degree. But authorities are still refusing to disclose details of the incident. The Denver Post reports:

Ashby was booked Friday into the Otero County jail. He is being held on a $1 million bond, according to court records.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said Ashby was arrested at the La Junta Police Department. The Otero County Sheriff's Office and the Colorado State Patrol also assisted in the investigation.

Ashby's arrest warrant has been sealed by a judge, so details about the shooting were not available. 

In the meantime, police around the country say they are preparing for protests when the grand jury's decision is announced on whether to charge the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a case which unlike many other more police shootings, gained nationwide attention over the summer.

h/t Stanton Smith

Comments

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Now the officer, Ashby, has been charged with murder in the second degree. But authorities are still refusing to disclose details of the incident.

What in the actual fuck?! Is this America or a goddam Kafka story?

This makes me think it was a wrong-address he entered based on some junkie informant's opinion that there were drugs being sold there or something illegal.

[Riven]

I was thinking the same thing.

I understand we don't actually charge cops for their misdeeds very often, but is this practice of nondisclosure standard?

[C. S. P. Schofield]

The Media and the Poverty Pimps apparently have zero interest in investigating a shooting where the victim was doing nothing wrong. All their sympathy goes to a young thug who just committed a robbery and seems to have been attacking a man with a gun, mating him as less than brilliant.

I wish I could actually see a pattern here, but I don't. Maybe it's War on Drugs idiocy in some case, but not all. Perhaps it's simply that the Media are prepared to follow the lead of Al "I've never been on the right side of a racial issue in my life" Sharpton.

*spit*

[John]

They don't want a sympathetic victim. If they had that, white people would be outraged too and it would defeat the purpose of showing black people how white people hate them. So they only choose victims who were asking for it. That way white people will stand up for the cop and it can be used as evidence of how racist they are.

[Andrew S.]

Except the victim here wasn't white. And the earlier articles were playing up his arrest record.

No, I think it's more of the media not wanting to report anything to piss off the police. Wouldn't want to endanger their access, after all.

[John]

Except the victim here wasn't white.

That is the point. The victim is black but sympathetic. White people would be outraged by this too. So publicizing it serves no purpose.

And the media isn't afraid of the cops on race issues. They love to race bait the cops. But they can only race bait if the victim is unsympathetic.

[Andrew S.]

I just see it the other way around.

If they play up a case like this one, where the cop straight-out murdered the guy, you'd actually have legitimate outrage and calls for change. They don't play up those cases.

If they play up a questionable case where the cop is exonerated, they (and the police, and their unions) get to say "See? Cops are wonderful! How dare you all rush to judgement!"

[John]

If they play up a case like this one, where the cop straight-out murdered the guy, you'd actually have legitimate outrage and calls for change.

Sure they would. But they don't want change. They want racial division that they can exploit politically. They don't give a fuck about police brutality. If they did, they would choose sympathetic victims like this.

[Zeb]

Who is "they"? I think the media people mostly just care about getting a better job or keeping their good job. Some are pushing an agenda and some actually care, but mostly I think it is whatever works to advance their careers. Sharpton and his ilk are certainly as you describe.

[MJGreen]

Pretty simple explanation: Michael Brown was shot on the street in broad daylight with cell phones at the ready to capture the immediate aftermath. Hearing that someone was killed in their home at 2am is not as visceral.

[antisocial-ist]

I don't think the media is that bright, but I don't have a better explanation for their refusal to highlight all of the decent people whose lives have been ruined or ended by cops either.

[John]

The media just follows along. The race hustlers tell them what cases to cover and they only want to cover unsympathetic victims.

[Florida Man]

I'm not following. Why only unsympathetic victims John? Don't sympathic victims help their narrative more?

[John]

No. If the victim is sympathetic, the white community is just as outraged as the black community. So, the story becomes about one bad cop. If you choose an unsympathetic victim, the black community will still side with the victim out of racial loyalty. The white community, however, will not. This split is what the race hustlers exploit. A sympathetic victim doesn't create that and is thus worthless to them.

[Florida Man]

Got it. Thanks.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

What John is saying, and I disagree, is that Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were not sympathetic young adults because their criminal behavior contributed to their deaths.

So these guys are made cause celebre by the 'race hustlers' because white people will object to mourning young criminals and then the Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of America can talk about how racist white people are.

If they used Jacques as a martyr no one could possibly object, thus neutralizing the ability to race-bait white people.

I think that's far too complicated and cynical for the likes of Al Sharpton to come up with so that's why I disagree.

[John]

You under estimate them serious man. They have had decades to choose a sympathetic victim and never once have. That is by design.

[mad libertarian guy]

I'm not convinced it's about race, but about upholding the system. If they were to choose a sympathetic victim, whites would be outraged too (as you point out), but it isn't to race bait and keep racial divisions alive and well, but to keep whites from challenging the system along with blacks.

[Zeb]

I think it is mostly laziness on the part of the media people. They don't go looking for stories like this. They get onto stories like it only after someone like Sharpton decides to make it into something.

[Invisible Finger]

Exaclty. The Ferguson story was comment fodder here at H&R for a couple days before the mainstream could no longer ignore it. And they only covered it because riots are good video. As soon as there was actual issue behind the riots, the media tried to run and hide by covering other, cheaper stuff like ISIS and ebola.

[sth]

This is sad to read 🙁 I worked closely with Ashby in the Navy and considered him a friend. He had a bad temper though, and would sometimes get so red-in-the-face mad that he would start shaking and punch the lockers. He once said it scared himself too because when he would get angry enough he would black out. He got kicked out of spec ops because of his bad temper.

[Misanthrope]

They told me that if legal, recreational, commercial weed came to Colorado, police would go around murdering people and thinking they could get away with it...

[HeteroPatriarch]

You're not as good at this as Reynolds.

[John]

Cops who commit crimes are always charged two levels below what it should be. So a cop who commits assault isn't charged. One who commits manslaughter gets off with assault. A cop who commits murder gets involuntary manslaughter. Here, the guy committed capital murder but is charged two levels below to 2nd degree murder.

[Ken Shultz]

There's probably more than one reason for that.

I'm sure prosecutors who want to run for office are worried about getting the endorsement of their local police union.

I bet it's hard to convict a cop in front of a jury. It just takes one old lady to decide that because he's a cop he should be given the benefit of the reasonable doubt--to lose a trial.

The less harsh the charges, the easier it probably is to convict a cop.

[Catatafish]

Totally agree with your first point. The second, however, somewhat disregards the possibility to find someone guilty for lesser included offenses.

[Hyperion]

You know, some of the questions that they ask during jury selection should be illegal to ask. Last time I was doing jury duty they asked something to the effect of 'how many people here would take someone's word more seriously if that someone is a cop'. Out of about 50 people, 4 stood up. I'm sure those are the 4 that the prosecutor wanted.

[Clich? Bandit]

In all fairness that is a standard question and from my experience those people get booted pretty quickly. Juries shouldn't be filled with cop suckers unless the defense is brain dead. I watched a judge throw out a lady because of that question. the lawyer didn't have to use his peremptory.

It was funny too...the judge, a lady, asked the potential juror, another lady, if she thought cops never lie. Juror responded "If the defendant is in here he must be guilty of something".
...
"Thank you for your service you are excused."

[Trouser-Pod]

Oh, Thank God. That's a great anti-nut punch, CB.

[Invisible Finger]

I would think most prosecutors are smarter than that, especially when going up against defendants not using public defenders.

[sarcasmic]

And then they plea bargain it down to nothing.

[Aresen]

"The amusement of a bear riding a bicycle is not that the bear does it well, but that it does it at all." (source?)

Similarly, the surprise in a cop being charged with a is not that he was charged appropriately, but that he was charged at all.

[Catatafish]

Jacquez clearly was obstructing this officer's duty to protect the world from a deadly Canine of Mass Destruction.

[dantheserene]

Between the second degree murder charge and the sealing of everything, I assume we are talking Denzel in "Training Day" level shenanigans.

[The Late P Brooks]

What kind of shitshow must that raid have been, to result in an actual murder charge? Was the cop banging the guy's wife, or something?

[R C Dean (fka Clown Hunter)]

Was the cop banging the guy's prosecutor's wife, or something?

Seems more likely.

[DesigNate]

police around the country say they are preparing for protests

This is why people hate cops and their sycophants.

[The Late P Brooks]

So they only choose victims who were asking for it. That way white people will stand up for the cop and it can be used as evidence of how racist they are.

Seek help.

[John]

Go fuck yourself Brooks. Do you have anything interesting to say on here? Ever?

If you disagree with that, say why. If you can't say way, do the board a favor and shut the fuck up instead of being a whinny pussy about it. All you ever do is whine and bitch about me or someone else hurting your delicate feelings.

[sarcasmic]

Take a sedative.

[John]

I am tired of Brooks. He is worse than Bo or Tony. At least they have something to say. All Brooks does it bitch and moan. I wasn't talking to him and if he didn't like what I had to say too fucking bad. He can take his whinny ass elsewhere if he doesn't like it.

[sarcasmic]

Want a lolly?

[HeteroPatriarch]

Sedative lolly?

[John Titor]

Welcome to the internet?

[Hyperion]

If we want to end this, we have to demand that everything a cop does is filmed, and that cops get prosecuted for the same crimes as citizens, with no special treatment, including going into civilian population if convicted. I bet that will see a dramatic drop to this shit very quickly.

[John]

This guy seems to be a legitimate nut. I doubt anything would have deterred him.

[Hyperion]

Well if not, then at least we could enjoy knowing that he's Bubba's new GF.

[Mainer2]

UPDATE: District Attorney says investigation into officer-involved shooting will take time.

District Attorney Jim Bullock said he attended Tuesday's meeting to reassure city council and Rocky Ford residents that the right steps are being taken in this investigation to find answers.

He said he understands the community wants answers, but it will take time.

"To release information could result in misinformation and so I think for us to make an informed decision, we need to know what all the facts are and until the investigation is completed we really can't make any judgement," said Bullock.

Looks like they all follow the same well worn script.

No Double Standard, right ?

[Ranter]

Oh it's pretty much the same thing every time.

Cop Kills Citizen = WE MUST TAKE A DECADE TO INVESTIGATE THIS AND KEEP EVERYTHING HUSH-HUSH

Citizen Kills Cop = JUSTICE MUST BE SWIFT AND IMMEDIATE AND ALL CITIZENS SHOULD KEEP THEIR NOSES IN THE DIRT UNTIL THE MOURNFUL PARADE ENDS

[The Late P Brooks]

John's onto me. I'm part if the vast LEFT WING STATE RUN MEDIA CONSPIRACY.

[John]

No Brooks. You are not a leftist. You are just a whinny pain in the ass. If you were a leftist, you would be more interesting.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I'm not fully sure about John's, well, conspiracy theory, BUT - it's true that of all the sympathetic victims the baiters could choose, they pass them over for borderline cases - such as this one, where the anticipation seems to be that the grand jury won't indict.

I think the point is to take pre-existing "community outrage" and channel it to make political points - if the black community (or, more precisely, the violent minority in that community) ever rioted on behalf of a sympathetic victim, the Sharptons would go along with it.

IMHO, the kind of people who riot or threaten to riot aren't the nuanced sorts who want to defend purely innocent people - they riot on behalf of people they sympathize with, people who are like them, and that means would-be violent thugs.

The people who sympathize with purely innocent victims are the people who don't engage in riots, so naturally the "if it bleeds, it leads" media aren't going to be quite as interested.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Take a potential rioter - what's going to get his/her adrenaline going?

"Wow, this youth got shot while confronting the police. I can totally imagine myself/my boyfriend confronting the cops and getting shot, so I totally empathize!"

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Then there's the problem identified by Conor Cruise O'Brien in Ireland - the militants, though a minority, help set the tone - the moderate majority feels vaguely guilty that they're not as "idealistic" or "authentic" as the militants, so they're vulnerable to militant appeals.

[Fluffy]

What the fuck is up with suppressing the arrest warrant?

That's a public document.

What's their basis for sealing it?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Because it probably has some hair-raising stuff in it that doesn't make the cops look good.

[kelseleyuta]

my best friend's aunt makes $69 /hour on the laptop . She has been out of a job for nine months but last month her check was $17708 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Get More Info....

?????? http://www.payinsider.com

[The Late P Brooks]

Was the cop banging the guy's prosecutor's wife, or something?

Seems more likely.

On further reflection, maybe the dead guy was banging the cop's wife.

That would explain everything.

[R C Dean (fka Clown Hunter)]

Except the prosecutor wouldn't care to cross TEAM BE CONVICTED lines to indict the cop if that was the case.

Nah. Cops only get indicted when they commit crimes against TEAM BE CONVICTED.

[The Late P Brooks]

If you were a leftist, you would be more interesting.

Says the guy who spends all day every day (at taxpayer expense) banging his spoon on his high chair and screeching about how TEH PROGZ are ruining America. You're just about due for a MONGRELIZATION OF GREAT BRITAINcycle, aren't you?

Go ahead and blame me for that, too. I can take it.

[Invisible Finger]

Thank you.

[trig]

"unlike many other more police shootings" That doesn't sound quite right.

[abbyhamedini]

My buddy's step-aunt makes $89 every hour on the laptop . She has been without work for 8 months but last month her check was $14034 just working on the laptop for a few hours. check out here. ???? http://www.jobsfish.com

[Knarf Yenrab!]

As much as I'd love to believe that the usual Zimmerman/Ferguson race-frenzy of the media is the consequence of residual Marxian oppressor/oppressed sentiment in the media, it exists primarily because media consumers eat this garbage up.

Everyone loves to talk about race as long as it's white-on-black variety and not dog-bites-man. The left loves the grievance card, white conservatives love to play the secondary grievance card (+4/-1 enchantment), and libertarians love to talk about how markets necessarily punish racial discrimination.

In that environment, it's no wonder every cable news channel is drooling over the chance to report on the latest black teenager who's killed by a white or vaguely white-ish shooter. Ratings central.

[Officer Jim Lahey]

Maybe the media simply believe it was a crazy liquor and cheeseburger party gone wrong. I've seen that happen before.