Navy veteran killed during “welfare check”
86-year-old Korean War vet Eugene Craig thought burglars were breaking into his home when he heard banging on his front door and saw flashlights outside his windows. When the intruders forced their way into his home through the back door, he met them with a .38 caliber revolver, unfortunately, the intruders were Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputies attempting a “welfare check” on the octogenarian and his ninety-year-old wife. The officers say that they told Craig to drop the gun three times before they shot him four times. From Bay Area NBC;
“If you’re there at someone’s house to check on their welfare, why do you kick two doors down at night time when my client is 86 years old, his wife is 90, and they live alone at that house and they have for years?” asked [Dennis Luca, civil attorney].
A family friend who says he’s known the Craigs for decades and was outside the home at the time of the shooting raises similar questions about whether the deputies followed proper procedure and their own policies.
[…]
That “wellness check” was not because of any reported crime and it ended up in the shooting death of Craig as he stood inside his own home.
The official press release from that incident released by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office right after the shooting says the deputies went to the 1200 block of Titus Avenue around dusk on September 12, 2016, believing an elderly person inside had medical issues.
The Sheriff’s official news release says that after calling out for about fifty minutes, deputies tried to force their way through the front door.
Because the door was steel encased the deputies couldn’t force entry and so the news release says they tried another location and went through a side door.
There they found Eugene Craig who, according to the official news release “displayed” a .38 caliber revolver, prompting Sergeant Douglas Ulrich to shoot Craig where he stood in his own home.
Well, they checked his wellness, and determined he was deceased. Protect and Serve Baby!
They won’t have to check on him anymore.
The cops now have a mentality: if they think something is wrong or a crime being committed they HAVE TO PURSUE IT AT ALL COSTS.
So the old guy doesn’t answer. Why not ask their superiors what to do? Same as petty crime where they will go to any length (high speed chase through town) to catch a suspect.
Seems they have zero judgement.
Seems they have zero judgement.
The problem is they have zero accountability and face zero consequences for their actions.
Like EVERYTHING that falls under the umbrella of the government monopoly. Time to bring the monopoly and the government to an end. Private, competitive security services, operating in a free and truly competitive marketplace would ensure greater safety and absolutely greater accountability than will EVER be found by allowing this power and violence to remain in the hands of the unaccountable government monopoly.
Prosecute the fuckers.
So many ways this man’s death could have been avoided. It calls into question what type of training these cops had been through and their overall level of intelligence. They sound like brain dead and stubborn LEOs, especially for refusing help from the deceased’s best friends.
As the attorney said, the cops can not create their own exigent circumstances, but it appears that in this case they did, and that they will perhaps use that as a defense. Might as well, it’s gotta work better than the truth, right?
brain dead and stubborn is a requirement
I’m not a cop hater. I’m not a cop sucker. But something’s seriously wrong with whatever training modules that are in place. This has got to end. There’s a certain amount of risk in being in LE. If these guys are that jumpy, that psychologically skewed, that unwilling to undertake the risk, maybe they should be bagging groceries at Safeway.
Murder Lock em up throw away the key,period
I have posted this on various sites. If you have seen my screed before, apologies…I post this for possible solutions to reign-in out-of-control public officials…
Here goes…
If anything, police should be held to a higher standard than that of the public…As it stands now, police can commit crimes with impunity because, in most situations, they investigate themselves…Behavior that would get an ordinary citizen charged, convicted and incarcerated is routinely ignored by “the powers that be” because police are considered to be “above the law” as the “law” is whatever they say it is, the Constitution be damned…
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, and by necessity, its police tactics are very different.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond= no job.
3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned for 48 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
That being said, I have no problem with police officers who do their job in a fair, conscientious manner…however, it is time to call to task those police officers who only “protect and serve” themselves.
Yeah, all those things, and while they are at it . . . STAY THE FUCK OUT OF CITIZEN’S HOMES IN WHICH THEY ARE NOT INVITED!
NEVER, EVER call the police.
Truer words were never spoken.
Man, the stories I could tell.
If people come in to your house uninvited, shoot the motherfuckers. If they happen to be dressed liked cops, assume they are burglars in disguise, and shoot the motherfuckers. Your life may depend on it! If they happen to be actual cops, who are doing a “wellness check”, ( i.e., trespassing on private property) nothing demonstrates your well-being better than zipping off a thirty round mag in and around their general direction. They will realize instantly that the inhabitant of that particular domicile is doing “well”.
Too bad you’ll only ever attempt that response exactly one time.
Far to many police for our population in Maryland we have 240 separate police agencies all with homeland security and asset forfiture funds to purchase all the toys like the Intercontinental Ballistic Winnebago Crisis Command Center with every electronic gadget and automatic weaponry all in the hands of Deputy Barney Fife ! Yes we as a society need well trained and equipped police force but what our good old local community cops have become is a para-military force designed to fleece the public for funding thru fines and confiscation of assets ! For profit prisons and the list goes on like a drug war Wake Up America HERION use skyrocketing and we are deeply involved spending $8.5 billon to eradicate poppie fields and opium production in Afganastan and HERION production up 24% . Not to mention what local law enforcement recieve for “DRUG INTERVENTION” It all sounds like a self perpetuating taxpayer funded jobs program ! Mean while local cops harass homeless cut their tents and tarps yes protect and serve ! Keep wondering why informed Americans know never ever talk to police without proper legal counsel , police can lie and twist any and all and the blue line will only bend in the most agregious of cases ! We need good law enforcement that remember who they actually work for !
Well trained and intelligent officers are a thing of the past. The reason? The same reason why no one with an IQ stays a teacher very long, or works in any other branch of the Government – Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, quickly realizes that the idyllic picture they have in their mind of law and order is nothing but a hornets nest of political favor, who you know, whose ass you need to kiss, and who is “protected” from being prosecuted.
Good examples would be;
1. How would you like to be the homicide investigator trying to get the truth on the Kennedy kid killing that girl back in the day. As I remember, the Moxley case. You try to gather evidence, confront witnesses etc. and quickly figure out that because this spoiled brat is a “Kennedy” that certain evidence does not matter and that your superiors want you to skew the investigation so they can have a better shot at a promotion.
2. You are on patrol, and you see some black kid beating on a white kid. You roll up, and yell for the black kid to stop, and put their hands against the wall. You go to frisk this obvious model citizen, and he reaches around and tries to get your gun. You wrestle with him, and eventually gain the upper hand. You end up beating up this kid. Naturally, the dash-cam does not show the incident, and when you file the report, you tell the whole truth. Then you find out that the kids parents are on CNN, or the local news spewing about their little “Trayvon” should have never been roughed up cuz he is “such an inspiration”. You are suspended, ridiculed and your are now whitey roughing up the BLM kid.
3. Imagine spending months (sometimes years) tracking a serial rapist / killer. He has brutalized several women, and you know who he is. You dot every I, and cross every T, you then send the case to the county prosecutor. He takes the case, you get a conviction, and all of a sudden you discover that because of “overcrowding” in the bloated prison system he gets a relatively light sentence. You find out it is because the private prison is full to the gills with drug related offenses, and REAL criminals have to be pruned so they can continue to house the most “profitable”, oops I mean “dangerous” drug offenders. Really? Because brutalizing women is so much less of a problem in society than drugs…Oh and some liberal psychologist has said to the prison board that this person is “reformed”, so we should give him a chance….hmm. Wonder how that will go over with the raped and beaten girl’s fathers…?? He must be a deplorable, so his daughter does not matter politically.
I could site a few more examples, but the result is the same. Good, smart cops quickly realize either A. Stay around and keep your nose clean for your pension, or B. Find another line of work – quickly. Then the only ones you have left are the bullies from high school, or the steroid induced SWAT guys that are just itchin to use their new toys on some unsuspecting “citizen”. Thus the chaff being left after the wheat has long since departed.
If we want good intelligent cops, we have to have rule of law in the agencies. Good cops don’t mind law and order, that is what they signed up for. Good cops HATE inconsistency, laws only applying to some, no checks and balances and especially don’t like political appointees who are just interested in their careers. Until there is a culture of accountability, we can kiss good cops goodbye.
How about when the cops see the old man with a gun they back off and leave the house, diffusing the situation.
“Cop” is a mental disorder and most of them, including those in this story belong in jail