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VegasPatriot
05-22-2011, 04:27 AM
May 21st, 2011
Oath Keepers to Rally in Tucson on Memorial Day Over Death of Young Marine Veteran (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/05/21/oath-keepers-to-rally-in-tucson-on-memorial-day-over-death-of-young-marine-veteran/)

Update from Elias Alias May 21, 2011: Update: Below is Stewart Rhodes’ announcement and call to action for all Oath Keepers who can make it to Tucson on Memorial Day. Since Stewart wrote this article, he has informed me of the following update: Oath Keepers will join Vanessa Guerena, the widow of Jose Guerena, to conduct a Memorial at the Guerena home on Memorial Day. There will be various Oath Keepers activities over the Memorial Day weekend. Please check at Oath Keepers’ national site for updates and details.

* * *
Oath Keepers to Rally in Tucson on Memorial Day Over Death of Young Marine Veteran Stewart Rhodes

Oath Keepers (http://www.oathkeepers.org/)
May 21, 2011
(Article published at InfoWars dot com – link below article.)
Tucson, ArizonaMay 30, 2011March and rally from 9am to 3pm, followed by formal indoor meeting with speeches and additional memorial ceremonies into evening.
CALLING ALL OATH KEEPERS, ALL VETERANS, ALL PATRIOTIC POLICE OFFICERS, ALL GUN OWNERS, AND ALL LIBERTY LOVING AMERICANS.
This is an urgent call-out to all Oath Keepers, all veterans, all patriotic police officers, all Americans who cherish our liberty and our Constitution, and to all liberty leaders and patriotic organizations to join us in Tucson, Arizona this Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 to take a stand in defense of our Constitution, which our war dead fought to defend, and to take a stand against the egregious policy of using SWAT teams to serve search warrants on veterans and gun owners with no violent criminal history.

As you may know, on May 5, 2011, a young 26 year old Marine veteran who had survived two tours in Iraq, and father of two, Jose Guereńa, was killed in a SWAT raid in Tucson, Arizona (see below news articles for details). At approximately 9:30 am, two hours after he hit the rack after working a twelve hour graveyard shift at an Arizona mine, his wife woke him by yelling that there were men with guns outside (she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her). He told her to take their four year old son and hide in a closet, grabbed his AR-15, and stepped out into the hallway of his home just as his front door was battered in.
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/wp-content/uploads/Jose-Huerena1-230x300.jpgJose Guerena * USMC

He died with his safety still on. He didn’t fire a shot. The Pima County, Arizona (Sheriff Dupnik’s department), SWAT Team fired 71 rounds at him, hitting him with approximately 60 rounds. He had no criminal record. The only justification given by the Sheriff’s spokesman for using SWAT to serve the warrant was that it was a search warrant in a narcotics conspiracy investigation (with three other homes searched in the same neighborhood), and that this is their policy when the home-owner may be armed
This policy of using SWAT to serve mere search warrants on people with no violent criminal history will lead to more deaths of veterans and other trained American gun owners because a trained man will react precisely the same way this young Marine did.
We must take a stand on this use of SWAT against gun owners and veterans who have no violent crime history, and that stand needs to be a firm one.

Therefore, we are going to rally in Tucson this coming Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 to honor this young Marine’s service and to express our opposition to the destruction of our liberty, and our opposition to this policy of using SWAT Teams to serve mere search warrants on gun owners and veterans who have no violent criminal record.

We don’t yet know the exact details of where precisely we will meet for a rally point in Tucson. We are still working out the details, which will depend on Jose’s family’s wishes, and other variables, but at a minimum we will conduct a solemn march and memorial for this Marine, Jose Guereńa, to be followed by a formal gathering of remembrance for all of our war dead, with patriotic speeches by liberty leaders, patriotic police officers,and veterans.

We are seeking permission of the family to hold a memorial ceremony at Jose Guereńa’s grave, present his wife with an award for valor for him, from us, for his service to his country, and to his family for doing exactly what any warrior should do. If we get permission from his widow and family, we will march to his grave, hold the ceremony, and march back to a rally point, and then we will go to a meeting hall (VFW, Marine Corps League, American Legion, or a local church – still to be determined) and have speeches and further fellowship and remembrance of him and of all our fallen. We will invite ALL who cherish our Constitution and want to honor him and all our fallen. We will see who shows up and who does not. We will let that speak for itself.

We will also issue a formal statement and press release condemning the policy that lead to his death. that statement will be signed by our current serving and retired police officer leadership who oppose this misuse of SWAT, and also by our Marine combat veteran leadership who are outraged at what was done to this young Marine, as well as other veterans within our leadership, on behalf of all 12,000 official members of oath keepers who are current or retired military and police, and on behalf of all American veterans, retired police, and gun owners who are placed at risk by this dangerous policy precisely because they would react the same way this Marine did.

And we will petition the Governor, Attorney General, and Legislature of Arizona to conduct independent investigations into this Marine’s death. We will present those petitions in person the next day, Tuesday May 31 in Phoenix, and we invite you to go with us to the Capitol of Arizona. We may also present a formal letter of grievances directly to Pima County Sheriff Dupnik. We are still sorting out the details of exactly what we will do in that regard.

What better way to honor our war dead and veterans this Memorial Day than to defend our Constitution and our God given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which is what they all fought, bled, and died for?

And yet those are the very freedoms that are now being taken away, and the Constitution they all swore to defend and gave their lives defending is now being trampled all over by corrupt oath breakers. Our Constitution truly hangs by a thread. If we don’t step up and defend it, there won’t be many more Memorial Days, and our Republic will fall.

We must stand against this policy that puts all veterans at risk of being shot by SWAT if their homes are searched, and we must honor the service and courage of this young Marine who simply did as any of us would have done by defending his family. And while there, we will also honor all other American warriors who have given their lives in defense of their homes, our way of life, and our Constitution. Let’s honor the oath keepers of the past by standing as oath keepers now
So, if you can at all make it to Tucson, please join us there to stand with us this Memorial Day, May 30, in Tucson.

This will be but the first salvo in a long campaign to fight this flawed policy, by placing the blame where it belongs – on the militarization of the police, on the trend to consider gun ownership the equivalent of a violent criminal record as justification for such SWAT raids to serve mere search warrants on gun owners who have no violent criminal history, and also at the feet of DHS and the Southern Poverty Law Center which have demonized both returning veterans and gun owners in general with their rhetoric of hate (labeling them “extremists’ and potential terrorists) that lead to this killing and will lead to many more. We will make sure that this young man will not have died in vain.

Why This Rally Must Be Done in Reaction to the Killing of this Marine
I want you to imagine yourself in the same situation this young Marine veteran, Jose Guereńa faced. What would you do if your wife woke you up by screaming that there are armed men outside. I think you would do as this young Marine did – you would grab your gun to defend your family. And then a few seconds later your door is busted in, and you come face to face with unknown armed intruders (not knowing if they are street criminal home invaders or police). You would be in the same situation this young Marine was in. And if it turned out to be a SWAT team, it is likely you too would be shot dead while you are trying to sort out whether those armed men are police – as Jose was likely doing, which would explain why his safety was still on.

Those of us who are trained know and understand that the only way your family is going to be safe from a criminal home invasion is if you step up and defend them, but if you do that, if you dare to arm yourself and defend your family against home invasion, if it turns out to be the police conducting a dynamic SWAT raid, you will be at risk of being shot on sight every time. You will die for simply defending your family.

And that’s the problem with this policy of using a SWAT team just to serve a search warrant. Jose had a clean record – no criminal history. It wasn’t like he had a long rap sheet of violent crime convictions. So, what was the reasoning for going in like a military counter-terrorism unit? The sheriff’s spokesman, Lt. Michael O’Connor, said they do this when a suspect may be armed. So, they are telling us that whenever they serve a search warrant on any gun owner, this is how they are going to come in – with a dynamic entry by a heavily armed SWAT team a mere 15 seconds after pounding on the front door. Fifteen seconds is not enough time for you to get out of bed, figure out who it is, and then go answer the door, especially after your wife is screaming that there are armed men outside – are you really going to just stick your face in a window to see what’s outside? Or are you going to react in a tactical manner, arming yourself and being careful about taking a peek outside? By that time, your door will be battered in and you will be face to face with unknown gunmen (and don’t forget that many street criminals now impersonate police when they do home invasions). This is a recipe for disaster and death every time. Our New Mexico Chapter President, retired police officer Juli Adcock, wrote me to say:
“My utter sorrow simply cannot be expressed. It could just as easily have been my 26 year old son, a Marine Vet, with 2 babies and a wife.”
She’s right. It could have been her young Marine son, it could have been her, it could have been me, it could have been you – it could happen to any of us since we would all do the same thing he did in response to an apparent home invasion.

Oath Keepers Board member Rand Cardwell, a Marine Scout-Sniper combat veteran, agrees. He told me that the same thing would happen to him or to his son, who is a current serving Marine Scout-Sniper, or to his Marine son-in-law. All of them would react in the same way under those same circumstances. And he agrees that it is most likely this young Marine still had his safety on because he was trying to ID the threat before he fired, as he had been trained to do.

And Arizona Oath Keepers Chapter President Ray Epps, also a Marine infantry veteran, agrees that he would react the same way under those circumstances. And indeed, the same response was voiced by retired Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Dave Freeman, my Western US Vice President and National Peace Officer Liaison. Indeed, every current or former police officer (several with SWAT experience) or military service member I have asked has had the same opinion.

If the Pima County Sheriff’s office were really concerned about avoiding this kind of near guaranteed firefight against a well trained gun owning veteran, they could have stopped him on the road on his way home from work. How hard would that have been? Just pull him over in a traffic stop, tell him they have a search warrant to search his home, and then conduct the search. But instead, they went in exactly as they would against a barricaded suspect with a long history of violence.

This policy is going to lead to more deaths, and especially among veterans, among retired police, and among any Americans who have had some training in defensive weaponcraft. Perversely, the better trained you are, the more likely you are to be shot by a SWAT team because you will not just curl up in a fetal position when your door is kicked in and armed men enter your home screaming obscenities. That only works on the untrained. It doesn’t work on Marines, all of whom are riflemen first, or on any other veteran who has had combat arms training. Nor will it work on retired police officers, or on well trained citizens who have been to any high quality civilian shooting school such as Suarez International, Thunder Ranch, Gunsite, Front Sight, etc. The better trained you are, the more likely you are to be shot dead by a SWAT team because you won’t freeze, and because you will react in a competent, effective manner to defend your family.

And such use of SWAT is not confined to search warrants in drug investigations. Tea Party founder Walter Reddy recently had a SWAT raid conducted on him by his local police department, based in part upon an unsubstantiated FBI statement that Reddy was a “person of interest” in a domestic terrorism investigation. The local SWAT Team executed a search and seizure warrant, seizing all of his guns. He was never charged with a crime, and yet his guns were taken for a year. You can read the details here:
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/05/19/the-new-american-on-the-railroading-of-walter-reddy/ (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/05/21/2011/05/19/the-new-american-on-the-railroading-of-walter-reddy/)
As egregious as has been the lack of due process in Reddy’s case, the most dangerous aspect was the use of a SWAT team on him to merely serve a search warrant. Reddy is fortunate that he did not end up like this young Marine in Tucson. What was the basis for using SWAT on Reddy to serve this warrant? It wasn’t drugs. Aside from the mere fact that he is a gun owner, it could only be his political activities. Reddy is the founder of Committees of Safety and a known “patriot” leader who helped orchestrate the first modern Tea Party event in Boston, on December 17, 2007, and is now working on an alternative money system, with his “Sovereign State Depository, Inc.” which was recently incorporated in Delaware and is being designed to help the dozen or so state legislatures that have passed gold and silver resolutions in the past year to find a way to make commercial transactions in units of gold and silver. Such a dangerous man!
As I have said many times before, that is precisely the kind of heavy handed, dangerous use of SWAT that Southern Poverty Law Center and others of their ilk would like to see done to all of us, for merely defending the Constitution and advocating for constitutional government.

This policy of using SWAT to serve search warrants on gun owners simply because they are armed, and where there is no long history of violent crime, has got to stop. I think taking a stand over the use of SWAT against this young Marine in Tucson is a good place to start. And we also need to demand some answers from Pima County Sheriff Dupnik about exactly why this young Marine was left to bleed out while paramedics were prevented from treating him for an hour and fifteen minutes. Jose would have had a better chance if he had been shot in Iraq, where a corpsman would have braved enemy fire to treat him.

As we head toward Memorial Day, I find it disgusting that this young Marine survived two tours in Iraq and returned home to a family who was no doubt relieved and grateful to God that he had survived war, only to be gunned down in his own home, by his own government. As a veteran, I am just plain ticked off. But also as the Founder of this organization, I am convinced that we Oath Keepers veterans need to step up with as much resolve as we expect the current serving to do. We ask them to “steel their resolve” to do what’s right by their oath. We veterans need to do the same, and we Oath Keepers need to take the lead on encouraging other veterans and veterans organizations to step up.

And as for any concerns about not knowing all the facts in this case, what is at issue is the policy of using SWAT to serve a search warrant on a veteran with no criminal history that is at issue here. The facts related to that decision are clear. And it is that practice that is being used across this nation, in direct conflict with our right to bear arms and our right to defend our homes. And that policy will lead to more deaths, and it must be stopped. That is the point, not any ultimate outcome in this particular case – and since the Sheriff’s office has sealed all documentation and is now refusing to answer any further questions, it will be months or perhaps even years before all facts are known in this particular case. By then, people may have forgotten all about it. So now is the time to step up.

At this Memorial Day rally, we will conduct ourselves in a professional manner that does due honor to the dead, due honor to our Republic, and due honor to this young Marine’s service. Just like during the 912 March in DC, where there was not a scrap of paper on the ground after a million people were done speaking their minds, we will conduct ourselves in such a manner as to not give the domestic enemies of the Constitution a leg to stand on. Liberty is preserved by four boxes of freedom. Let’s use the first box, the soap box, by exercising our right to freedom of speech, assembly, and our right to petition government for a redress of grievances. Conduct yourselves with honor and due respect for Memorial Day, but let’s do send a firm, resolute message that we will not let our Constitution be destroyed, and we will not let our children’s heritage and birthright of liberty be stolen. Not on our watch!

For the Republic,
Stewart Rhodes
Army Airborne veteran and Founder of Oath Keepers (http://www.oathkeepers.org/)
-
Read article at InfoWars dot com:
http://www.infowars.com/oath-keepers-to-rally-in-tucson-on-memorial-day-over-death-of-young-marine-veteran/

squarepusher
05-22-2011, 05:09 AM
this whole story just is so terrible

pcosmar
05-22-2011, 08:45 AM
Good Deal, They have a platform to wake and educate some.

Pericles
05-22-2011, 11:50 AM
Got the email yesterday - been a while sine I've been in AZ and been thinking about a trip west anyway .....

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 11:54 AM
Wish I lived closer...O.K. FTW!

heavenlyboy34
05-22-2011, 11:55 AM
this whole story just is so terrible
qft. And it was only in the local MSM for a day or so. I bet hardly anyone in the Phoenix/Metro area knows about the incident. :( Dupnik's department (like Arpaio's) is notorious for misconduct and corruption.

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 12:05 PM
And as for any concerns about not knowing all the facts in this case, what is at issue is the policy of using SWAT to serve a search warrant on a veteran with no criminal history that is at issue here. The facts related to that decision are clear. And it is that practice that is being used across this nation, in direct conflict with our right to bear arms and our right to defend our homes. And that policy will lead to more deaths, and it must be stopped. That is the point, not any ultimate outcome in this particular case – and since the Sheriff’s office has sealed all documentation and is now refusing to answer any further questions, it will be months or perhaps even years before all facts are known in this particular case. By then, people may have forgotten all about it. So now is the time to step up.

This + ∞

Meatwasp
05-22-2011, 12:19 PM
60 rounds pumped into him and he with one gun on safety. Are we now in Stalin Russia?

heavenlyboy34
05-22-2011, 12:20 PM
Wish I lived closer...O.K. FTW!

ummm...looking over the OK's FB page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oath-Keepers/73099785309?ref=ts&sk=wall), I'm not so sure about that anymore. Some pretty weird characters there.
Chris Billy Bob Curpen (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601622343)
We need to all stand up and bring the real terrorists, murderers, seditionists and treasonists to justice and start reclaiming all the stolen assets, and wash off the desecration of the sacredness of the Office of the President of the United States of America

I'm pretty sure the POTUS office isn't "sacred". Perhaps you could ease my concerns somehow, AF?

AGRP
05-22-2011, 12:21 PM
So, he survives two tours only to come home to be killed by the police state.

MelissaCato
05-22-2011, 12:23 PM
I think we should make this big. I'm going to post it everyday on facebook, this Marine and family need support. I can't believe this happened in America to a Marine in his own kitchen. They cannot get away with this shit. No way.

I'm glad the OathKeepers got involved meaning America is still America. Some appreciate that, some don't.

Good Luck OathKeepers.

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 12:31 PM
ummm...looking over the OK's FB page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oath-Keepers/73099785309?ref=ts&sk=wall), I'm not so sure about that anymore. Some pretty weird characters there.
Chris Billy Bob Curpen (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601622343)
We need to all stand up and bring the real terrorists, murderers, seditionists and treasonists to justice and start reclaiming all the stolen assets, and wash off the desecration of the sacredness of the Office of the President of the United States of America

I'm pretty sure the POTUS office isn't "sacred". Perhaps you could ease my concerns somehow, AF?

Nope, can't help you there HB, I can't fix stupid.

You and I both know that there are those that worship the office of president, as long as their guy is sitting in the catbird seat.

But, through continual outreach and education, maybe we can show folks like that the light.

Overall, O.K. is vital organization that has done some fantastic work.

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 12:34 PM
So, he survives two tours only to come home to be killed by the police state.

Silence, Mundane!

He refused to comply.

He should have known, better than anybody else, that immediate and total compliance is the only response permitted when dealing with authorities and peace keepers.

heavenlyboy34
05-22-2011, 12:36 PM
Nope, can't help you there HB, I can't fix stupid.

You and I both know that there are those that worship the office of president, as long as their guy is sitting in the catbird seat.

But, through continual outreach and education, maybe we can show folks like that the light.

Overall, O.K. is vital organization that has done some fantastic work.

Cool. :cool: I can deal with a few fringe characters as long as that sort of quackery isn't institutionalized in the organization. I've had good experiences with O.K. so far myself. :)

MelissaCato
05-22-2011, 12:47 PM
Cool. :cool: I can deal with a few fringe characters as long as that sort of quackery isn't institutionalized in the organization. I've had good experiences with O.K. so far myself. :)

Are you saying the OathKeepers are quackery fringe characters ? Just wondering.

heavenlyboy34
05-22-2011, 01:05 PM
Are you saying the OathKeepers are quackery fringe characters ? Just wondering.
Not at all. So far, I like OK. I was being very specific to the person I quoted earlier in the thread and others who agree with him. (see post #9 on this thread)

VegasPatriot
05-22-2011, 02:45 PM
Nope, can't help you there HB, I can't fix stupid.

You and I both know that there are those that worship the office of president, as long as their guy is sitting in the catbird seat.

But, through continual outreach and education, maybe we can show folks like that the light.

Overall, O.K. is vital organization that has done some fantastic work.

Thanks for the support!


ummm...looking over the OK's FB page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oath-Keepers/73099785309?ref=ts&sk=wall), I'm not so sure about that anymore. Some pretty weird characters there.
Chris Billy Bob Curpen (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601622343)
We need to all stand up and bring the real terrorists, murderers, seditionists and treasonists to justice and start reclaiming all the stolen assets, and wash off the desecration of the sacredness of the Office of the President of the United States of America

I'm pretty sure the POTUS office isn't "sacred". Perhaps you could ease my concerns somehow, AF?

Some yahoo from Canada writing a random comment on OK's facebook page should be no concern.

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 05:23 PM
///

AFPVet
05-22-2011, 06:20 PM
It's good to see organizations backing up this veteran's honor.

Pericles
05-22-2011, 10:09 PM
60 rounds pumped into him and he with one gun on safety. Are we now in Stalin Russia?

If we are not there, we can certainly see it from where we are.

Anti Federalist
05-22-2011, 10:16 PM
It's good to see organizations backing up this veteran's honor.


If we are not there, we can certainly see it from where we are.

Those ^^^^

Mani
05-22-2011, 11:17 PM
All along I've been thinking...They just got the wrong house and now it's all about CYA and a tragic accident. And maybe that is all it is, but after reading about the Costco shooting in Vegas and this one, I realize this is the perfect way to get around the 2nd amendment.

Just eliminate them one by one. I hadn't figured it out until I read this. Anyone who is a known gun owner, find a reason to get a valid search warrant. And break the door down guns blazing. Walk away saying, "Hey! He was pointing a gun at us in a threatening manner. We had no choice but to shoot when our lives and other officer's lives were in immanent danger."

It's perfect. During simple search warrant process: "...ah, but this guy is armed, take a look at his registered firearms. We need a SWAT team." BINGO, the precedence is set, yet the 2nd amendment has simply been walked around, not directly violated.

Anyone who owns a gun can have a SWAT team show up at their door. Without being violent and having NO criminal history, you can be TREATED like a violent criminal for the possession of a weapon. THEREFORE you are A THREAT for mere POSSESSION. You are SAFER by not owning a weapon, as several of the sheriff's and spokespersons in the incidents have indicated the marines appeared to be THREATS and the police did their job, had they simply been unarmed, they would not have been killed.

So this is the way the 2nd amendment is defeated. You are an implied threat for POSSESSION. The costco marine was killed with his gun in his holster, and his killers were rewarded as heroes. This marine is killed in his home with his safety on, but he possessed a weapon, he was a THREAT.

Of course these are accidents nothing intentional, but boy if someone had a game plan to demonize and eliminate innocent law abiding citizens with gun permits, this is the perfect way to do it.

doodle
05-23-2011, 11:53 AM
This is really tragic story.

Anti Federalist
05-23-2011, 09:02 PM
Death Squad Damage Control in Tucson

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/05/death-squad-damage-control-in-tucson.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QGDg9HOtKZk/TdqLlW6psHI/AAAAAAAAHKw/kkCkwtioOXI/s320/Guerna+family.jpg

...no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (emphasis added)

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land…. No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.

Sections 3 and 8 of the “Declaration of Rights” from the Arizona State Constitution’s “Declaration of Rights”



People seeking to defend the manifestly indefensible often sabotage themselves by disclosing critical details that undermine their argument. Mike Storie, the police union lawyer representing the SWAT operators who murdered Jose Guerena in his home on May 5, did this during his May 19 press conference in an attempt to assign all of the blame for Jose’s death on the victim and his terrorized wife.

As reported by the Arizona Star, Storie insisted that if the Guerena family had permitted the armed intruders into their home, those inside “probably … wouldn’t have been arrested." This is because the "warrant was not directed at any particular person, and Guerena’s home was not mentioned, but it was targeting whoever might be inside the residence...."

That is to say that this was not a legitimate search warrant, under the requirements imposed by the Fourth Amendment (and expressly incorporated in Arizona law through the state constitution). The instrument used as supposed justification for the armed assault was akin to the "writs of assistance" used by British soldiers during the years leading up to the American colonial rebellion.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano summarizes, writs of assistance were "self-written search warrants" that "enabled [British] soldiers and government agents to enter any private building or dwelling and search for whatever they had authorized themselves to search for." In this way, occupation forces could invade any home or business they chose, confiscate any item they suspected might be contraband, and haul away in irons anybody who attracted their malevolent attention.


The only material difference I can identify between that tyrannical practice and SWAT raids of the kind that resulted in the murder of Jose Guerena is the fact that British Redcoats were considerably more restrained in their behavior.

Writs of assistance were conspicuous among the grievances that led the colonial Patriots to rebel against the British government, and they were the direct inspiration for the Fourth Amendment, a provision that as of May 16 is de jure dead letter in the American Imperium.

On that date, two rulings were announced -- one by the Indiana State Supreme Court, the other by the U.S. Supreme Court -- that formally vitiated constitutional impediments to warrantless intrusions by police.

Those rulings simply formalized the state of affairs that has long existed in the United States; after all, owing the fraudulent, murderous enterprise called the "war on drugs," the Fourth Amendment has had no tangible relationship to public policy for decades. Nonetheless, that Amendment remains on the books as part of the "supreme law" -- which means that the raid on the Guerena home was, in a literal, legally binding sense, a home invasion robbery.

Michael Storie is a living illustration of the fact that there is no "mob lawyer" more drenched in disrepute than a barrister who prostitutes himself in the service of a police union.


"Who's being evasive? I'm not being evasive! Why are you being evasive?"
Storie is lead criminal attorney for the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS). Through no fault of his own, Storie somewhat resembles Nathan Thurm, a fictional corporate attorney played by Canadian comic genius Martin Short.

In his performance at the May 19 news conference, Storie did a pretty creditable impression of Thurm, capturing the same odd combination of oleaginous dishonesty and prickly passive aggression that Short brought to his character, who was paid extravagantly well to protect the powerful and corrupt.


While he has been employed by AZCOPS, no member of that union "has ever been convicted of crimes relating to on-duty conduct," boast the organization. This isn't strictly correct: Storie represented former DARE officer Ramon Fernando Borbon, who was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl while he was on-duty.

In the Borbon case, Storie employed a two-pronged defense strategy: He tried to depict the adult victim as a consenting party, and the child as a gold-digging opportunist. In other words: They were asking for it, and now they're just interested in money. He's using a variation on that approach in defending the SWAT team members who murdered Jose Guerena: It was all the victim's fault, and his family is now simply "trying to make money" through a lawsuit.



The SWAT operators "had no choice but to shoot" after engineering a completely illegal raid, Thurm -- er, Storie insisted. After all, Guerena was armed with an AR-15, and several officers "did report that they saw a muzzle flash from the shooter" -- which means that their lives were in danger.

Well, actually, they didn't see a muzzle flash, since -- as the Sheriff's Office has admitted -- Guerena never removed the safety from his rifle. Ah, but he could have, you see, and since the omniscient heroes on the SWAT team "know that [the] walls [of the Guerena home] are stucco ... if this man starts shooting his rounds, every neighbor in the vicinity is in danger, including possible innocent residents that are in the residence itself."

So we're told that waiting even a few seconds before opening fire was too risky; the only safe choice was for the SWAT team to unleash a 71-one-round barrage, since, as everyone knows, high-velocity rounds fired by sanctified personages in police uniforms possess a magical property that prevents them from endangering innocent people.


That magical property, incidentally, is "qualified immunity" -- and it protects the only "innocent" people that police unions care about: Police officers who injure or kill Mundanes.

Within seconds of violating the Guerena home, the invaders had perforated Jose’s body with at least 60 gunshots. While Jose bled to death, his killers refused to allow paramedics to treat him. During that period the SWAT team actually inserted a remote-controlled robot -- another pricey toy provided by the Pentagon's LESO program -- to clear the house. While Jose was dying on the floor, the SWAT team found "everything they [thought] they’re going to find in there," Storie insisted.



What, exactly, were they looking for, and what did they find? After scraping away the layers of dissimulation applied by Storie, we arrive at this answer: They were looking for nothing in particular, and that's exactly what they found.

They found no narcotics, no stash of suspected narcotics proceeds, no documentary or physical evidence of a crime of any kind. Neither Jose nor Vanessa has a criminal record.

Yet Storie, who appears congenitally incapable of decent shame, has left the air clotted with insinuation: He reports that handguns, rifles, body armor, and “part of a police uniform” were found in the Guerena household, along with a picture of Jesus Malverde, described as a "patron saint" of narcotics traffickers. In other words, in terms of actual criminal evidence, they found nothing.

Guerena, recall, is a former Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq, so the presence of body armor – as well as a small gun collection – would hardly be inexplicable. It's quite likely that his gun collection was smaller than those of many other Arizona residents who never served in the military.

Furthermore, what, exactly, constitutes “part” of a police uniform? Might it be military-issue clothing in Guerena’s possession – the kind of combat couture affected by jock-riding poseurs of the kind who gravitate toward SWAT teams? Again, Storie hasn’t supplied the details, apparently in the hope that public perceptions will be governed by headlines, rather than details.


Like everything else Storie said at the press conference, he extracted the detail about Jesus Malverde from the same bodily orifice he uses to dispose of used food. Malverde is not a Narcotrafficante, nor is he their proprietary saint. He is a semi-mythical Robin Hood figure venerated by ethnic Mexicans throughout the Southwest.

By bringing up this inconsequential detail, Storie was trafficking in something that smells an awful lot like race-baiting. That comment could be dog whistle directed at the segment of Arizona's population that considers Joe Arpaio a champion of law and order, rather than a viscous, opportunistic thug: Rather than seeing Jose Guerena as an honorably discharged Marine and (of infinitely greater importance) loving young husband and father, at least some Arizonans now have an excuse to suspect that he's an agent of the Reconquista plot.

The original story put out by the Pima County Sheriff's Office was that the raid in which Guerena was murdered was part of a large operation investigating a marijuana trafficking conspiracy. As outrage coalesced over Guerena’s death, the official line was revised: Now we are told that Jose and his family were somehow “connected” to an alleged home invasion robbery ring, as were three other homes targeted in the same May 5 SWAT rampage.

Apart from the fact that Jose himself was murdered in a home invasion conducted under the color of supposed State authority, there is another connection to a previous crime of that kind: Two of their relatives were murdered a year ago in a home invasion of the non-government-approved variety.

That fact might well have colored Vanessa’s perceptions of what was happening with a government-licensed home invasion crew materialized outside her home, began to vandalize the house, and threatened her life and that of her baby. It’s also quite possible that the murder of a relative, coupled with combat experience in Iraq, played a large role in Jose’s perceptions and actions on that horrible morning.

The search warrant has been sealed, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department refuses to release details. Other than upbraiding local reporters who have abandoned stenography in favor of legitimate adversarial journalism, Clarence Dupnik, the Epsilon-grade personage in charge of Pima County’s Sheriff’s Office,has petulantly complained that the press has been “irresponsible” in “questioning the legality” of a military operation that resulted in the entirely avoidable violent death of a young father who was defending his wife and child against a feral pack of armed strangers.


Like practically everybody else in the same racket, Sheriff Dupnik considers himself to be at war with the population his department ostensibly protects and serves. That's the only rational explanation for the fact that he is treating the details of this incident as if they were classified secrets in a combat zone, rather than facts he is obliged to provide to the public that employs him.

While grousing that "it is unacceptable and irresponsible to couch ... questions with implications of secrecy and cover-up," Dupnik's office maintains that there is a "very real threat to innocent lives if ... details [about the killing] are released prematurely." Those "innocent" lives, we are entitled to suspect, are undercover police operatives -- informants and, what's much the same thing, provocateurs -- who helped precipitate the crime on May 5.

Storie peddled a similar line in his May 19 press conference, insisting that although Guerena was not individually targeted by a search or arrest warrant, detectives had concluded that someone at his residence had been keeping police investigators under "counter-surveillance."

"Now, what I mean by this is, at some point detectives, as is usually the case, were driving by this house to get some intelligence," Storie said. "At one point, when detectives were driving past this house once, the resident of this house, suspected to be Guereno [sic], jumped in his car and followed this detective. They then got a report from MVD" -- that's the Motor Vehicles Division, not the Soviet Ministry for State Security, despite the institutional kinship of those entities -- "that there was a hit on this license plate driven by this detective by someone. So, Guereno [sic!] or someone very similar to him, who followed this detective, searched the identity of this driver, who was the owner of his vehicle. This is known as counter-surveillance measures done by people who are in this type of business. OK?"

It is a credit to his composure, if not his character, that Storie could ladle out this is a greasy porridge of self-serving supposition and speculation with a straight face. How could "someone" -- just anyone, really -- get instant access to the information at the Motor Vehicles Division? Who was that "someone," incidentally? Who were the "detectives" who had been staking out Guerena's home, and stalking his family? For that matter, was it a detective, or more than one -- seeing that Storie can't seem to get that detail nailed down? What evidence, apart from inchoate suspicions, justified the initial surveillance of that home? For that matter, was the subject of surveillance Jose Guerena, or someone whose surname is "Guereno"?

During the same press conference Storie admitted that the SWAT team "had no specific information about what particular kids were in this house, or if there were any" before laying siege to a home containing a young mother and her four-year-old son -- and a husband trying to get some sleep after pulling a long graveyard shift at a local mine. In other words, they knew nothing of any value about the home they attacked -- yet Storie, Dupnik, and the murderers themselves all insist that the violent death of Jose Guerena was an entirely appropriate outcome, and that only irresponsible people would suspect otherwise.

BlackTerrel
05-23-2011, 09:18 PM
Thanks for posting. This is an incredibly sad and jarring story all around.

Posted on my facebook.

MelissaCato
05-23-2011, 10:23 PM
Was this on Freedom Watch yet ?

MelissaCato
05-24-2011, 05:39 AM
bump