Pubdate: Mon, 10 Mar 2003
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 Fayetteville Observer
Contact:  http://www.fayettevillenc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

CITIZEN DOWN

Pervasive Silence Benefits No One

Nobody expects law enforcement to crank out a double-spaced press release 
two minutes after a drug raid goes bad and someone who's not a suspect is 
shot. What is expected is an outside inquiry followed by a public accounting.

By the same token, no one should expect instant, detailed reports about the 
ongoing investigation of people who are suspects and who were the intended 
objects of the raid. Details will begin to come out as the cases develop.

Fair enough. But here, almost two weeks after the shooting, are five 
questions that could have been answered without jeopardizing the inquiry 
into the Feb. 27 shooting of Charles Alford at his residence by a 
Cumberland County deputy, or the investigation of Garry Jermaine Alford and 
Lakina Paulette Alford:

Was an arrest warrant issued for Charles Alford?

Was an arrest warrant issued for Andrea Whitted, aunt of two children who 
were with her in the house at the time of the raid?

Was an arrest warrant issued for either of the children, Xavier Whitted or 
Makayla Whitted?

Did the special-response team know that any of those people were in the house?

Did the team know that neither Garry Jermaine Alford nor Lakina Paulette 
Alford, who, according to a Sheriff's Office spokesman, had been under 
investigation "for a number of months," was in the house?

The public has a reasonable curiosity about all that.

A Sheriff's Office spokesman listened only to the first question and then 
referred all of them to the SBI. At the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration the proprieties were observed - transfers, phone mail, more 
phone mail, etc. Perhaps a call will have been returned before this sees 
print, although that, too, can come under the heading of "phone tag." An 
SBI agent was more forthcoming. In order, his answers were: "Not to my 
knowledge," "Don't know," "No," "Don't know," and "Don't know."

These agencies have work to do. But a man lies critically wounded because 
officers sworn to uphold and enforce the law forced their way into a house 
in which it seems that no one present was a suspect, and one of them shot him.

Some agency head could make a public acknowledgment of that much, at the 
least. The very least. The law may not require it, but it's the right thing 
to do.
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MAP posted-by: Alex