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Original article: www.reason.com/blog/show/127920.html A Lima, Ohio jury has acquitted police officer Joseph Chavalia of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old Tarika Wilson. Chavalia shot and killed Wilson and wounded her infant son during a drug raid last January. Wilson was unarmed. During the raid, one of Chavalia's fellow officers shot and killed the two dogs owned by Wilson's boyfriend and the target of the raid, Anthony Terry. Chavalia testified that he mistook his fellow officer's shots at the dogs for hostile gunfire coming from the bedroom where Wilson was standing with her child. Chavalia then fired blindly into the bedroom. The jury concluded that Chavalia reasonably feared for his life when he heard the gunshots. I guess they were then willing to overlook Chavalia's mistaking an unarmed woman holding a baby for an armed drug dealer, and the fact that he fired blindly into a room without first identifying what he was shooting at. It's too bad that that same sort of deference isn't given to the people on the receiving end of these raids when they too understandably confuse the police officers who wake them from sleep and invade their homes for criminal intruders. This case illustrates the low margin for error in these raids, and why they're a bad idea even when the police do hit the correct house. Anthony Terry may be a bad man. But these sorts of tactics are too volatile and too dangerous to be using on anyone except for those people who pose an immediate risk to the public. Even the smallest mistakes can lead to unnecessary casualties. It also shows how layer upon layer of flawed arguments can allow something as unjustifiable as the shooting death of an unarmed woman and the near-killing of her infant son to be dismissed as mere collateral damage. The initial argument is that we need to prohibit drugs to protect people from the harm they cause. That's followed by the argument that we need to use aggressive, paramilitary raids to apprehend drug dealers, because they might dispose of evidence or shoot cops were drug warrants to be served by less confrontational means. That's followed by the argument that we have to forgive cops who kill innocent people in these raids because the raids themselves are incredibly volatile and dangerous. Never mind that the police created the danger and volatility in the first place. Put those arguments together and you get the absurd premise that the government's killing of Tarika Wilson -- and all of the drug raid deaths that came before her -- is an acceptable consequence of the government's responsibility to protect her (and all of us) from the effects of illicit drugs. That simply doesn't add up. August 5, 2008 -- Associated Press (US)Ohio Officer Acquitted Of Killing Mom Holding BabyLIMA, Ohio -- A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black. The all-white jury found Sgt. Joseph Chavalia not guilty of misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He had faced up to eight months in jail if convicted of both counts. Chavalia shot 26-year-old Tarika Wilson and her year-old son she was holding, killing her and hitting him in the shoulder and hand, during a Jan. 4 SWAT raid on her house. One of the child's fingers had to be amputated. Officers had been looking for Wilson's boyfriend, a suspected drug dealer. Wilson's family members stormed out of Allen County Common Pleas Court before visiting Judge Richard Knepper finished dismissing the jury. Outside the courthouse, Wilson's brother, Ivory Austin said he wasn't surprised by the verdict. "Now he (Chavalia) gets to get back on with his life," he said. "He took my sister's life." He said he was hoping someone from the police department would at least admit a mistake was made. "I'm not saying he went up there to kill her," Austin said. Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock said the jury made the right decision. "They confirmed what our sense was and our belief was in this," he said. Prosecutors said Chavalia recklessly fired into a bedroom where Wilson and her six children were gathered. He fired three times at her even though he could not clearly see her or whether she had a weapon, prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh said. "He couldn't tell Tarika had a child in her arms," he said during closing arguments Monday. Chavalia had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out the gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls. Following the shooting, many residents accused the police department of being hostile and abusive toward minorities. One group led a series of marches through the city to protest what they said was mistreatment by police. The Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the city and demanded that the officer who fired the fatal shots and those who planned the raid be held accountable. Chavalia was the only person charged. Black clergy leaders had criticized the two misdemeanor charges as too lenient. Defense attorney Bill Kluge told jurors Monday that Chavalia should not be judged on what wasn't known until after shooting, including the fact that Wilson did not have a gun or pose a threat. "It's Monday morning quarterbacking," he told jurors. "Put yourself in Joe's shoes that night." The jury's decision, he said in closing statements, will affect officers across Ohio. "What kind of world would it be if we didn't have police officers," Kluge said. "Joe was doing his duty." Wilson's boyfriend, Anthony Terry, was arrested and pleaded
guilty in March to charges of drug trafficking. |
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