Survived Iraq. Killed in Delaware.

[Roughneck]

The tragic, horrific, infuriating story of Sgt. Derek J Hale, USMC

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.

Read on for the full sickening story

 

[mula0207]

yea i read about this....it sucks to go through all that in iraq and then lose everything here....

 

[georges]

sad story

 

[WarAxe]

Sad weird story...

 

[Legzman]

This guy goes through all the shit in Iraq and then get's slaughtered by 8-12 heavily armed police? I say fry em all!!! Pure bullshit...pure bullshit!

 

[Philbert]

Remember the recently returned corporal told by an officer to get up from the ground, where he was because the officer had told him to get down there, and was shot as he was getting up per the officers order? It was video taped, or nothing would have been known.
I wonder what happened there?
Never heard any more stories on the unjustified shooting after the initial news-whore flurry of outraged-this-can-happen-here replays of the video.
Anyone know anything?

I am so sick of individuals misusing police powers...the rank and file eating-too-much-shit-for-what-they-get-paid officers also pay for every infraction by those other guys.



This story makes my head hurt...

 

[squallumz]

/me drools over phiberts avatar..

 

[Roughneck]

Few better examples can be found than the $975,000 settlement paid by the City of Wilmington, Delaware, to Elaine Hale, whose husband Derek was murdered by Wilmington Police on November 6, 2006.

The settlement brings to an end a federal lawsuit that was scheduled for trial next July -- more than four years after Derek, a Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq, was shot three times at point-blank range after being tasered seven times within the space of about a minute. Unarmed and cooperative, Derek was not a criminal suspect and had done nothing to justify arrest, let alone summary execution.

Pay-offs of this kind are part of a ritual of self-exculpation in which the police and the local criminal clique they serve loudly proclaim their complete innocence, even as their cynical actions offer eloquent testimony of their guilt. William S. Montgomery, one of the palace eunuchs who serve Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, performed his role perfectly.

"We were very confident in our case and know that our officers acted properly and professionally," lied Montgomery in announcing the settlement, which -- as he went on to say -- meant that the supposedly rock-solid case would be spared "the inherent risk of a jury trial."

Fortunately, Montgomery pointed out, the risk of a trial was "eliminated for less than the cost of defense."

Through the miracle of socialized municipal risk management, nobody will face accountability for the extra-judicial killing of a 25-year-old husband and father of two stepchildren who had celebrated his first wedding anniversary just days before he was murdered.

Full story

"Justice system"? Don't make me laugh.

pissed off,
- R.

 

[Ulysses31]

Sounds like nothing more than an execution. We had a similar case over here in the UK with terror 'suspect' Brazilian Jean Charles De Menezes who was shot 7 times in the head as he sat on a train by plain clothed police who failed to identify themselves. Makes me think there are some real psychos in the police forces.

 

[vodkazvictim]

At least in Iraq he'd have been carrying a carbine and been on the lookout for trouble.
Poor guy.

On a frivolous note:
I blame the Norwegians.

 

[rizwano]

it's a tragedy

 

[Baill Inneraora]

The story is 4 years old. Is there any unbiased reporting of this incident?

Does anyone really believe that police in Delaware walked up and blasted some dude with no provocation? Unjustified, but not without provocation, police shootings happen all the time. This sounds way too farfetched to me.

 

[Ulysses31]

The story is 4 years old. Is there any unbiased reporting of this incident?

Does anyone really believe that police in Delaware walked up and blasted some dude with no provocation? Unjustified, but not without provocation, police shootings happen all the time. This sounds way too farfetched to me.

I believe this was 'bumped' because a settlement was just reached, so the story was old but the settlement was just concluded in the past week or so. Again it's all opinions but the police shouldn't have paid a cent if they followed correct procedures so something must've gone wrong I guess.

 

[Baill Inneraora]

I believe this was 'bumped' because a settlement was just reached, so the story was old but the settlement was just concluded in the past week or so. Again it's all opinions but the police shouldn't have paid a cent if they followed correct procedures so something must've gone wrong I guess.

Oh, I see that now.