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Title: Death Squad in Delaware: The Case of the Murdered Marine
Source:
Lew Rockwell
URL Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w10.html
Published: Mar 29, 2007
Author: William Norman Grigg
Post Date: 2007-03-29 06:59:20 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 471
Comments: 34
He survived Iraq, only to suffer Death By Government in the "Land of the Free": Sgt. Derek J. Hale, USMC, ret. ~ RIP Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. It may be the first state to be afflicted with a fully operational death squad – unless a civil lawsuit filed on Friday against the murders of Derek J. Hale results in criminal charges and a complete lustration (in the Eastern European sense of the term) of Delaware's law enforcement establishment. Hale, a retired Marine Sergeant who served two tours in Iraq and was decorated before his combat-related medical discharge in January 2006, was murdered by a heavily armed 8–12-member undercover police team in Wilmington, Delaware last November 6. He had come to Wilmington from his home in Manassas, Virginia to participate in a Toys for Tots event. Derek was house-sitting for a friend on the day he was murdered. Sandra Lopez, the ex-wife of Derek's friend, arrived with an 11-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter just shortly before the police showed up. After helping Sandra and her children remove some of their personal belongings, Derek was sitting placidly on the front step, clad in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, when an unmarked police car and a blacked-out SUV arrived and disgorged their murderous cargo. Unknown to Derek, he had been under police surveillance as part of a ginned-up investigation into the Pagan Motorcycle Club, which he had joined several months before; the Pagans sponsored the “Toys for Tots Run” that had brought Derek to Delaware. As with any biker club, the Pagans probably included some disreputable people in their ranks. Derek was emphatically not one of them. In addition to his honorable military service (albeit in a consummately dishonorable war), Derek's personal background was antiseptically clean. He had a concealed carry permit in Virginia, which would not have been issued to him if he'd been convicted of a felony, a narcotics or domestic violence charge, or had any record of substance abuse or mental illness. On the day he was killed, Derek had been under both physical and electronic (and, according to the civil complaint, illegal) surveillance. Police personnel who observed him knew that his behavior was completely innocuous. And despite the fact that he had done nothing to warrant such treatment, he was considered an “un-indicted co-conspirator” in a purported narcotics ring run by the Pagans. The police vehicles screeched to a halt in front of the house shortly after 4:00 p.m. They ordered Lopez and her children away from Derek – who, predictably, had risen to his feet by this time – and then ordered him to remove his hands from his the pockets of his sweatshirt. Less than a second later – according to several eyewitnesses at the scene – Derek was hit with a taser blast that knocked him sideways and sent him into convulsions. His right hand involuntarily shot out of its pocket, clenching spasmodically. “Not in front of the kids,” Derek gasped, as he tried to force his body to cooperate. “Get the kids out of here.” The officers continued to order Derek to put up his hands; he was physically unable to comply. So they tased him again. This time he was driven to his side and vomited into a nearby flower bed. Howard Mixon, a contractor who had been working nearby, couldn't abide the spectacle. “That's not necessary!” he bellowed at the assailants. “That's overkill! That's overkill!” At this point, one of the heroes in blue (or, in this case, black) swaggered over to Mixon and snarled, “I'll f*****g show you overkill!” Having heroically shut up an unarmed civilian, the officer turned his attention back to Derek – who was being tased yet again. “I'm trying to get my hands out,” Derek exclaimed, desperately trying to make his tortured and traumatized body obey his will. Horrified, his friend Sandra screamed at the officers: “He is trying to get his hands out, he cannot get his hands out!” Having established that Derek – an innocent man who had survived two tours of duty in Iraq – was defenseless, one of Wilmington's Finest closed in for the kill. Lt. William Brown of the Wilmington Police Department, who was close enough to seize and handcuff the helpless victim, instead shot him in the chest at point-blank range, tearing apart his vitals with three .40-caliber rounds. He did this after Derek had said, repeatedly and explicitly, that he was trying to cooperate. He did this despite the fact that witnesses on the scene had confirmed that Derek was trying to cooperate. He did this in front of a traumatized mother and two horrified children. Why was this done? According to Sgt. Steven Elliot of the WPD, Brown slaughtered Derek Hale because he “feared for the safety of his fellow officers and believed that the suspect was in a position to pose an imminent threat.” That subjective belief was sufficient justification to use “deadly force,” according to Sgt. Elliot. The “position” Derek was in, remember, was that of wallowing helplessly in his own vomit, trying to overcome the cumulative effects of three completely unjustified Taser attacks. When asked by the Wilmington News Journal last week if Hale had ever threatened the officers – remember, there were at least 8 and as many as 12 of them – Elliot replied: “In a sense, [he threatened the officers] when he did not comply with their commands.” He wasn't given a chance to comply: He was hit with the first Taser strike less than a second after he was commanded to remove his hands from his pockets, and then two more in rapid succession. The killing took roughly three minutes. As is always the case when agents of the State murder an innocent person, the WPD immediately went into cover-up mode. The initial account of the police murder claimed that Derek had “struggled with undercover Wilmington vice officers”; that “struggle,” of course, referred to Derek's involuntary reaction to multiple, unjustified Taser strikes. The account likewise mentioned that police recovered “two items that were considered weapons” from Derek's body. Neither was a firearm. One was a container of pepper spray. The other was a switchblade knife. Both were most likely planted on the murder victim: The police on the scene had pepper spray, and Derek's stepbrother, Missouri resident Jason Singleton, insists that Derek never carried a switchblade. “The last time I saw Derek,” Jason told the News Journal, “he had a small Swiss Army knife. I've never seen Derek with anything like a switchblade.” Within hours, the WPD began to fabricate a back-story to justify Derek's murder. Several Delware State Police officers – identified in the suit (.pdf) as “Lt. [Patrick] Ogden, Sgt. Randall Hunt, and other individual DSP [personnel]” contacted the police in Masassas, Virginia and informed him that Derek had been charged with drug trafficking two days before he was murdered. This was untrue. But because it was said by someone invested with the majestic power of the State, it was accepted as true, and cited in a sworn affidavit to secure a warrant to search Derek's home. Conducting this spurious search – which was, remember, play-acting in the service of a cover story – meant shoving aside Derek's grieving widow, Elaine, and her two shattered children, who had just lost their stepfather. Nothing of material consequence was found, but a useful bit of embroidery was added to the cover story. Less than two weeks earlier, Derek and Elaine had celebrated their first anniversary. The Delaware State Police officer is guilty of misprision of perjury, as are the officials who collaborated in this deception. And it's entirely likely that the Virginia State Police had guilty knowledge as well. Last November 21, in an attempt to pre-empt public outrage, the highest officials of the Delaware State Police issued a press release in conjunction with their counterparts from Virginia. The statement is a work of unalloyed mendacity. “Hale resisted arrest and was shot and killed by Wilmington Police on November 6, 2006,” lied the signatories with reference to the claim that he "resisted." “Hale was at the center of a long term narcotics trafficking investigation which is still ongoing.” As we've seen, Hale did not resist arrest, as everyone on the scene knew. And he was not at the “center” of any investigation; before his posthumous promotion to “un-indicted co-conspirator,” he was merely a “person of interest” because of his affiliation with a motorcycle club. Most critically, the statement – which bears the august imprimatur of both the Delaware and Virginia State Police departments, remember – asserts: “Both [State Police] Superintendents have confirmed that there was never any false information exchanged by either agency in the investigation of Derek J. Hale, or transmitted between the agencies in order to obtain the search warrant.” This was another lie. “Delaware State Police spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Zebley conceded last week that no arrest warrant for Hale was ever issued,” reported the News Journal on March 22. Three days after Hale was murdered, police arrested 12 members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club on various drug and weapons charges, but identified Hale at that point only as a “person of interest.” Last Friday (May 23), the Rutherford Institute – one of the precious few nominally conservative activist groups that gives half a damn about individual liberty – and a private law firm in Virginia filed a civil rights lawsuit against several Delaware law enforcement and political officials on behalf of Derek's widow and parents. They really should consider including key officials from the Virginia State Police in the suit, as well. Those who persist in fetishizing local police – who are, at this point, merely local franchises of a unitary, militarized, Homeland Security apparatus – should ponder this atrocity long and hard. They should contemplate not only the inexplicable eagerness of Lt. William Brown to kill a helpless, paralyzed pseudo-suspect, but also the practiced ease with which the police establishments of two states collaborated in confecting a fiction to cover up that crime. According to the lawsuit, Lt. Brown, Derek's murderer, “has violated the constitutional rights of others in the past through the improper use of deadly force and has coached other WPD officers on how to lie about and/or justify the improper use of deadly force.” Rather than being cashiered, Brown was promoted – just as one would expect of any other dishonest, cowardly thug in the service of any other Third World death squad. Derek J. Hale survived two tours of duty in Iraq, a country teeming with Pentagon-trained death squads, only to be murdered by their home-grown equivalent.
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
I assume he's white. If he were black, gay, hispanic, or perhaps a combination thereof, the WPD would be feeling the heat of federal power.
Every single one of the police in question involved in this murder, should be taken out and shot. The police, with superior numbers, and of course superior firepower, with complete knowledge of the suspect who willingly murder an unarmed civilian, are not cops, they're murderers, and deserve nothing more in the way of compassion than a bullet to the brain pan. I am so fucking sick of seeing people getting killed by the police, when they've done absolutely nothing wrong, while real gang violence, and unchecked illegal immigration go unhindered.
Dying for old bastards, and their old money, isn't my idea of freedom.
I hope these cops go to prison over this.
"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." - Napoleon Bonaparte.
Based soley on the lack of appearance of the Sharpton/Jackson/et. al. protest parade, that is a safe assumption. Besides that, it is fact. Where is the cabal of white preachers decrying this incident of police brutality? -- conspiciously absent. Interesting inferrrences of our society and culture can be drawn from this aspect of this case. Why do whites react differently? Where is thier equivalent of the Sharton/Jackson protest machine?
Supporters of Bush and the Iraq war for Israel and oil are traitors to America and they hate American troops.
Cops are encouraged to kill innocent unarmed US citizens, and get promoted when they do. It's only the ones that shoot at real criminals that go to jail.
There was a time when the police station and their vehicles would have been pelted with bricks and rocks. However, people see what happens to INNOCENT victims of the police, and don't want to roll the dice to see what would happen to them if they did something that might justify the same sort of treatment as the innocent victim, or worse.
IMO, whites react differently because they've been intimidated by a PC culture, and a dual standard of justice. "Hate" crimes and thoughts flow one way; from protected minority to white offender. When a bold white does stand up and make this observation in public, he/she is shunned, ridiculed and, if necessary, jailed. The next time someone suggests we have the NWO on the run, remind them we’re getting our asses kicked. Without recognizing the realistic state of our nation, no change will be possible.
And this combination of complacency/apathy/indifference/intimidation is indicative of the overall political emasculation of the American populace. We have been politically corrected and effectively diversified to shut up and take it. On a larger scale, it allows traitors, idiots, Zionists, the big business elite to run roughshod over collective America. Hell, remember those public, big city pro-illegal immigration protests that drew hundreds of thousands? If the current political attitude of Americans existed back in the 1750s, we'd all still be waving the Union Jack. [Yes, JT]
Supporters of Bush and the Iraq war for Israel and oil are traitors to America and they hate American troops.
On a larger scale, it allows traitors, idiots, Zionists, the big business elite to run roughshod over collective America. I think it all pretty much got out of hand when they killed JFK. People that don't buy the "lone gunman" story think to themselves, "well if they can get away with killing the President of the United States, what would happen to ME if I caused them trouble?". Add the injustices of Waco and Ruby Ridge, the multitude of death by cop and 4AM "no-knocks", people are rightfully worried about their safety. There was a time where no matter what you did (within reason), a person would feel secure in the knowledge that they were living in America, and they had Rights that would not be violated by the government that they believed in. Such security no longer exists.
irrelevant comment deleted :P
So do I. The whole thing reeks. I wonder what he witnessed in Iraq.
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes nor between parties either — but right through the human heart." — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I'm actually with Tommy (#2) on this one.
That's too quick.
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes nor between parties either — but right through the human heart." — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I wonder how many of those "hero" cops are ex-military bringing their war to the streets here. Betcha it's almost all of them.
Yes, he was. My barber told me the official whisper campaign that the cops want to circulate. He joined the Pagans. "Oh, that explains it."
"Oh, that explains it." I guess Rolling Thunder marches to a different tune, and thus is 'acceptable' to these dumbfucks called cops. I have a retired lady friend who was a Marine officer. And she's been involved with Toys for Tots for quite some time. I'm going to send this article to her and see what she thinks. Even the Hells Angels do some good things. I certainlyl hope this bastid lt. gets prison time. Most likely he'd be in one of the fancy prisons, or most definitely in solitary because the regular rank and file criminals can't stand bastids like him. Well.....perhaps his new rank would be Queenie, or maybe 'my ho' by some of the fellas there.
The police are worshiped in DE. If no charges have been filed by now against any of the police, then the DE AG obviously hopes this will blow over, and the cop will be able to live with a bad shooting to his credit.
The two "agencies" have become interchangeable. Heroes? Scum is more appropriate.
It's so predictable. If he were black (other) he'd be shown in his 8th grade graduation picture, despite his age.
How can you stand to live there? Gads, I believe my last straight line descendant got the hell out of DE back ca 1800. :)
Because the guys doing the shooting are almost universally white. Hence, they're "our team". Whites don't get upset at cops killing innocent folk because generally they "ain't our kind of folks" that get killed.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
Such security no longer exists. It absolutely doesn't. And if you take unpopular or "rebellious" positions, you can expect to be fired from your job at the very least.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
That ain't the way it works, unfortunately. Cops don't get punked out in prison because they are protected by the guards (who realize how easily it could be them). Gang members don't get punked out because they are gang members. To be raped in prison you have to 1) not have any friends, and 2) not be tough enough or big enough to put up a fight. Victims of rape in prison are the same kinds of folks who are victims in the free world.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
I've been told a good many number of things by my kid brother--he was well acquainted with the prison system. And he wasn't in 'blue suit' settings.
Betcha it's almost all of them. I disagree. I don't believe any of them were. I believe everyone of them were wannabe warriors who never had the guts to join the military. On top of that, I bet they knew the murdered marine was a 2x Iraqi veteran and were scared to death of him and this is why they over reacted and were "scared for their safety." Cops are fucking cowards. That's why they become cops.
The police are worshipped everywhere. It comes from watching the various flavors of Law and Order, CSI , and the various other TV shows which portray government thugs as heroes, every single night, all night long.
Such security no longer exists. The police, with superior numbers, and of course superior firepower, with complete knowledge of the suspect who willingly murder an unarmed civilian, are not cops, they're murderers, and deserve nothing more in the way of compassion than a bullet to the brain pan. I am so fucking sick of seeing people getting killed by the police, when they've done absolutely nothing wrong, while real gang violence, and unchecked illegal immigration go unhindered. That needed to be restated. I'm so pissed at this shit I can't see straight. Heaven help the SS if they ever run a "warrant" on me; regardless of my innocence of any crime, we all know they will find a reason to kill me anyway, especially because I'm white and they know whites won't riot..therefore, I'll take several with me and see 'em all in Hell. Your quote above is my rational that ANY time a police officer knocks on my door, I am in FEAR OF MY LIFE and will act accordingly if it is forcefully opened.
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may know peace." -Thomas Paine In a CorporoFascist capitalist society, there is no money in peace, freedom, or a healthy population, and therefore, no incentive to achieve these. I think it all began with Cops on Fox. Now, Jack Bower and 24, have brought the idolazation to a federal level.
It goes back a lot further than that; think Dragnet, Adam-112, Kojack, Starsky and Hutch, Hill Street Blues, etc., etc. The goal of these shows has always been to get "the people" to look up to and identify themselves with the police. In the old days it wasn't as obvious and everything was cut and dry: Good guy, bad guy. It has changed recently though. If you watch Law and Order or CSI (especially CSI Miami), the cops look at everyone as suspects and speak disrespectfully to every "civilian" they meet. This conditions "the people" to look at this type of behavior as normal and acceptable. We're all Pavlov's dog being conditioned to accept disrespect, degradation and humiliation from government officials. If you ever watch these shows, watch them carefully and you will see multiple little things per episode which confirm my belief. We don't watch them anymore for the simple fact that my wife gets tired of hearing me point out the instances when they are trying to brainwash people. The good thing about though is that I've pointed it so much that she has been able to see it as well. For those that think this is just paranoia and that Hollywood would never work with D.C. to produce manipulative propaganda, then I wuld suggest they read the history of Hollywood during WWII and the cold war.
I totally agree that it's propaganda, and yes I do go back to the days of Joe Friday. The difference between him, Colombo, etc. was that they weren't "live" - that is, an embedded camera crew didn't ride patrol w/a team of actual cops (who if they didn't have an active night, they'd be no show). IOW, the mother effers created slam-bang incidents for the sake of TV. Leave it to Fox to push Nazi-like tactics.
I didn't mean to make it sound as if COPS wasn't part of the problem. There is no doubt that "COPS" has ratcheted up the abuse. The point I was making is that it has been going on for a long, long time.
People wonder why I would have a serious moral dilema on my hands if I was on my way to a restroom to take a leak and saw a cop on fire...
Derek J. Hale
#2. To: Ada (#0)
#3. To: Ada (#0)
#4. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
I assume he's white
#5. To: Ada (#0)
You appear to be a major trouble maker...and I'm getting really pissed. - GoldiLox, 7/27/2006
#6. To: wbales (#4)
Why do whites react differently? Where is thier equivalent of the Sharton/Jackson protest machine?
You appear to be a major trouble maker...and I'm getting really pissed. - GoldiLox, 7/27/2006
#7. To: wbales (#4)
Why do whites react differently? Where is thier equivalent of the Sharton/Jackson protest machine?
#8. To: FormerLurker, Jethro Tull (#6)
(Edited)
There was a time when the police station and their vehicles would have been pelted with bricks and rocks. However, people see what happens to INNOCENT victims of the police, and don't want to roll the dice to see what would happen to them if they did something that might justify the same sort of treatment as the innocent victim, or worse.
#9. To: wbales (#8)
And this combination of complacency/apathy/indifference/intimidation is indicative of the overall political emasculation of the American populace. We have been politically corrected and effectively diversified to shut up and take it.
You appear to be a major trouble maker...and I'm getting really pissed. - GoldiLox, 7/27/2006
#10. To: oops (#7)
(Edited)
#11. To: YertleTurtle, Jethro Tull, Ada, FormerLurker, wbales (#3)
I hope these cops go to prison over this.
#12. To: robin, TommyTheMadArtist, wbales, christine, all (#11)
#13. To: Jethro Tull (#12)
#14. To: Jethro Tull (#12)
#15. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
I assume he's white.
#16. To: HOUNDDAWG (#15)
He joined the Pagans.
#17. To: rowdee (#16)
#18. To: Esso (#14)
I wonder how many of those "hero" cops are ex-military bringing their war to the streets here.
#19. To: HOUNDDAWG (#15)
Yes, he was.
#20. To: HOUNDDAWG (#17)
#21. To: wbales (#4)
Why do whites react differently?
#22. To: FormerLurker (#9)
There was a time where no matter what you did (within reason), a person would feel secure in the knowledge that they were living in America, and they had Rights that would not be violated by the government that they believed in.
#23. To: rowdee (#16)
Well.....perhaps his new rank would be Queenie, or maybe 'my ho' by some of the fellas there.
#24. To: bluedogtxn (#23)
#25. To: Esso (#14)
I wonder how many of those "hero" cops are ex-military bringing their war to the streets here.
#26. To: HOUNDDAWG (#17)
The police are worshiped in DE.
#27. To: TommyTheMadArtist, jethro tull, former lurker (#2)
(Edited)
Add the injustices of Waco and Ruby Ridge, the multitude of death by cop and 4AM "no-knocks", people are rightfully worried about their safety. There was a time where no matter what you did (within reason), a person would feel secure in the knowledge that they were living in America, and they had Rights that would not be violated by the government that they believed in.
Every single one of the police in question involved in this murder, should be taken out and shot.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
- - IndieTX
#28. To: Hayek Fan, IndieTX, All (#26)
The police are worshipped everywhere. It comes from watching the various flavors of Law and Order, CSI , and the various other TV shows which portray government thugs as heroes, every single night, all night long.
#29. To: Jethro Tull (#28)
(Edited)
I think it all began with Cops on Fox. Now, Jack Bower and 24, have brought the idolazation to a federal level.
#30. To: Hayek Fan, IndieTX, All (#29)
For those that think this is just paranoia and that Hollywood would never work with D.C. to produce manipulative propaganda,
#31. To: Jethro Tull (#30)
I totally agree that it's propaganda, and yes I do go back to the days of Joe Friday. The difference between him, Colombo, etc. was that they weren't "live" - that is, an embedded camera crew didn't ride patrol w/a team of actual cops (who if they didn't have an active night, they'd be no show). IOW, the mother effers created slam-bang incidents for the sake of TV. Leave it to Fox to push Nazi-like tactics.
#32. To: Ada (#0)
A new truth movement friendly digg type site: Zlonk it!
#33. To: rowdee (#24)
I've been doing criminal defense for something like 12 years. My clients (esp. first timers) are acutely interested in what they will face in prison, so I do my research quite thoroughly.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
#34. To: bluedogtxn (#33)
You have mail.
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