Breaktime

[bronwynrh]

I'm about to take a break and venture out for some Baskin Robbins ice cream, assuming I can make the trip without getting lost.

I want to share something with all of you, first. Some of you may know that I'm pen pal friends with a man named Cory Maye, currently living at Parchman, MS. He was on death row, but I am happy to say that that sentence has been removed. Whenever I mention that I'm friends with man at Parchman, people give me funny looks and they're skeptical when I explain. Only when you dive fully into the story can you grasp the magnitude of the travesty that has occurred. I well understand that few people have the time or the inclination to dive so deeply into such a difficult story.

Now you can learn about Cory Maye in about 30 minutes. Please watch this, and spread it as far and as wide as you are able.

Comments

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Even after we set aside the racial issues of the case, it still comes down to an issue of whether he heard the police announce themselves. And since there's no way to tell that either way, I probably would have had more than a reasonable doubt and voted to acquit. But then I would have strung him up by the huevos for smoking dope in an apartment with an infant.

This case, by the way, perfectly illustrates why I'm against the death penalty.

[bramey.livejournal.com]

Those details - of the spent roach and the "did they announce?" - become much more clear when reading the transcripts.

Particularly the announce bit, which of course is the crux of the matter. Bad neighborhood, you suspect your neighbor's dirty, you're gonna be a little more on edge. Cory was actually talking about moving back home to get out of the neighborhood.

All we have is one man's word (a man who was asleep at the time of raid) against that of the police. We all know whom most people are apt to believe first :-/

This speaks more to the problem of these middle-of-the-night SWAT raids on nonviolent suspects. If somebody bashes in my door or window at oh-dark-thirty, is my first thought going to be "police" or "thugs"? How long does it take for a sleeping person to come to enough to process an announcement, if it's even given or heard?

In many jurisdictions, the procedure isn't "knock, announce, pause, BLAMMO," rather it's "announceBLAMMO."

In the interest of public safety, SWAT teams just shouldn't be used in non-emergent situations because they instantly produce risk to life when none existed before.

Imagine if that warrant had been executed during the day? A suspect can be approached outside the house (so they can't flush any evidence) and presented with the search warrant.

Using violent tactics in non-emergent situations does nothing but put lives at risk.

Which is why this case perfectly illustrates why I'm against the militarization of the police.

Remember when the police were civilians, just like us? Now they talk as if they were the military - which, with toys from DHHS and forces swelling with vets, they essentially are.