A SWAT Raid Based On Faulty Information Kills a Man Over His ‘Huge Stash.’ Worth Maybe All of $2.

[n2doc]

In a sad case of investigative error, a man has tragically lost his life in a SWAT raid. The raid turned up only $2.00 worth of marijuana in his possession.

A drug informant identified and accused Jason Westcott of dealing drugs for the Tampa Bay Police Department, despite Westcott’s having no previous criminal record.

The informant, known as Ronnie “Bodie” Coogle, has confessed to lying to the police after it was too late, according to the Tampa Bay Times:

Coogle said they were all wrong. He said he repeatedly lied about suspects, stole drugs he bought on the public’s dime and conspired to falsify drug deals.

One of those he lied about, he said, was Jason Westcott, a young man with no criminal convictions whom a SWAT team killed during a drug raid that found just $2 worth of marijuana. Critics from across the country condemned the Police Department’s handling of the case as an example of the drug war’s lethal excesses.

“They’re making statements that are lies, that are absolute untruths, that are based on shady facts,” Coogle said of Tampa police. “Everything they’re saying is based on the informant. And I was the informant.”

more

http://www.ijreview.com/2015/01/232044-3-man-killed-swat-raid-based-faulty-information/

[joshcryer]

1. Using "informants" should be banned.

The opportunity cost is too high. Too much room for lies, too much room for deceit.

There was a really messed up one awhile back where an "informant" planted coke in a smoke shop. If it wasn't for a camera in there the owners / employees would've went to jail for 4 years minimum. Can you imagine?

Video:

[Half-Century Man]

2. If I were the shop owner, I'd ask for a photo lineup of all the LEOs working that county

That "informant" looks like a cop in civvies to me.

[frylock]

3. unfuckingconscionable..

and NOTHING will change. the pigs will continue to use crackhead informants like the hero in our story to rake in the bucks on forfeiture.

[BubbaFett]

4. How do you even quantify $2 worth of bud to begin with?

Police ain't no damn good.

[Glassunion]

5. It aint the $2 they are after. The police get the house, the stuff in the house, the car, etc...

[rhett o rick]

6. Now some might look at this mistake, cops believing a low-life informant, but IMO

the cops don't care. They love to bust down doors, use stun and smoke grenades, and all the latest hotshotshit. There is no penality for making mistakes even if it takes lives. The lives are deemed insignificant by society that puts up with this shit.

[avebury]

7. American police officers are the biggest

terrorist threats to this country. It seems like every day there is a report of one cop (or group of cops) committing a heinous act on one or more citizens with no consequence for their actions. We are becoming a banana republic. Even second amendment right to gun ownership cannot guarantee a person is safe because the cops will just shoot him/her down (especially if they are a member of a minority race). The no knock warrants have turned them into the modern day equivalent of the mafia, shaking down citizens for their assets with suspect motives.

[ManiacJoe]

8. Story is from July.

Slow news day at IJreview?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025222586

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. first.i've heard it

[ManiacJoe]

10. Them, too, apparently.