SmarterthanYou
rebel
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2012/10/remembering-murder-of-donald-scott.html
A five-month investigation by Bradbury’s office produced a 64-page report documenting that the people who invaded Donald Scott’s property were part of a criminal conspiracy to steal his 200-acre ranch, in addition to whatever other cash or assets they found in the possession of the reclusive millionaire.
The invasion of Donald Scott’s death was an illegal act, Bradbury concluded. Yet he refused to charge those who committed that unlawful intrusion, and went so far as to describe the fatal shooting as an act of “self-defense” because the murderer was a deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
For several months before the fatal assault on Donald Scott’s home, Spencer and his accomplices had tried to find evidence that the wealthy eccentric was cultivating marijuana on his property.
No marijuana was found that night, or in subsequent searches of the ranch, so the seizure of the property wasn’t consummated. As a consolation prize, Spencer and his partner, Deputy John Carter, had to settle for a trophy photo taken outside Scott’s cabin. Beaming triumphantly, the deputies posed as “if they were white hunters who had just shot the buffalo,” in the disgusted words of former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Larry Longo.
The prospect of grabbing Scott’s land caused Deputy Spencer to lose his “moral compass,” Bradbury suggested. “This search warrant became Donald Scott’s death warrant,” concluded the prosecutor.
The shooting of Donald Scott was "justifiable homicide," Bradbury opined, because Spencer acted in "self-defense" and because "Scott was resisting Deputy Spencer in the execution of a search warrant."
However, Spencer himself admitted that Scott was in the act of lowering his revolver (which he had initially gripped by the cylinder, rather than the handle) before the shots were fired. This would mean that Spencer shot and killed a victim who was neither "threatening" nor "resisting" him.
Like practically everybody else in the business of official coercion, Bradbury believes (incorrectly) that a citizen has an unqualified obligation to submit to an unlawful search or arrest.
"If a search warrant is improperly issued, then the occupants can obtain a remedy in a court of law," he piously asserted, thereby prescribing a problematic remedy for an unlawful raid that leaves the victim dead.
He did concede that a "peace officer is not immunized for executing a search warrant when he acts with malice" -- and that Spencer's deliberate misrepresentations could meet that standard. Displaying a remarkably fertile gift for equivocation, Bradbury concluded that Spencer's malicious acts wouldn't justify criminal prosecution unless it could be shown that he employed "excessive force" -- such as fatally shooting a confused man who was lowering his gun, perhaps?
A five-month investigation by Bradbury’s office produced a 64-page report documenting that the people who invaded Donald Scott’s property were part of a criminal conspiracy to steal his 200-acre ranch, in addition to whatever other cash or assets they found in the possession of the reclusive millionaire.
The invasion of Donald Scott’s death was an illegal act, Bradbury concluded. Yet he refused to charge those who committed that unlawful intrusion, and went so far as to describe the fatal shooting as an act of “self-defense” because the murderer was a deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
For several months before the fatal assault on Donald Scott’s home, Spencer and his accomplices had tried to find evidence that the wealthy eccentric was cultivating marijuana on his property.
No marijuana was found that night, or in subsequent searches of the ranch, so the seizure of the property wasn’t consummated. As a consolation prize, Spencer and his partner, Deputy John Carter, had to settle for a trophy photo taken outside Scott’s cabin. Beaming triumphantly, the deputies posed as “if they were white hunters who had just shot the buffalo,” in the disgusted words of former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Larry Longo.
The prospect of grabbing Scott’s land caused Deputy Spencer to lose his “moral compass,” Bradbury suggested. “This search warrant became Donald Scott’s death warrant,” concluded the prosecutor.
The shooting of Donald Scott was "justifiable homicide," Bradbury opined, because Spencer acted in "self-defense" and because "Scott was resisting Deputy Spencer in the execution of a search warrant."
However, Spencer himself admitted that Scott was in the act of lowering his revolver (which he had initially gripped by the cylinder, rather than the handle) before the shots were fired. This would mean that Spencer shot and killed a victim who was neither "threatening" nor "resisting" him.
Like practically everybody else in the business of official coercion, Bradbury believes (incorrectly) that a citizen has an unqualified obligation to submit to an unlawful search or arrest.
"If a search warrant is improperly issued, then the occupants can obtain a remedy in a court of law," he piously asserted, thereby prescribing a problematic remedy for an unlawful raid that leaves the victim dead.
He did concede that a "peace officer is not immunized for executing a search warrant when he acts with malice" -- and that Spencer's deliberate misrepresentations could meet that standard. Displaying a remarkably fertile gift for equivocation, Bradbury concluded that Spencer's malicious acts wouldn't justify criminal prosecution unless it could be shown that he employed "excessive force" -- such as fatally shooting a confused man who was lowering his gun, perhaps?