Liberty Maven

I’ve been following the coverage by Radley Balko at Reason Magazine on the Ryan Frederick case. Ryan Frederick is accused of first-degree murder for shooting and killing officer Jarrod Shivers earlier this year in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Shivers was executing a “no knock warrant” on Frederick’s home. Frederick was home sleeping at the time. He stated in an interview following the event that he thought someone was breaking into his home. Apparently, someone had done so a few days prior.

The warrant was issued because of a confidential informant who told police that Frederick was “operating a sophisticated marijuana grow operation”. Later, it came out that only a small amount of marijuana was found in the home. And that Frederick was an avid gardener who raised japanese maples, which apparently look very similar to marijuana plants when young.

This is such an unfortunate event and the circumstances seem almost like a perfect storm for these exact events to unfold. However, there have been many unfortunate events over the past several years related to “no knock warrants”.

In this latest event, a father, husband, and police officer is dead. A man in his twenties is in prison, facing a lifetime of incarceration, or worse. Where does the fault lie? Does it rest with Frederick who believed he was defending his home from invasion. Does it rest with Shivers being negligible in the method of executing the “no knock warrant”? Or does it rest with the issuing of “no knock warrants” themselves?

Apparently, many in Frederick’s neighborhood have come out defending him according to Balko’s latest report on the case. It will be interesting to see how this case develops.

Follow the entire case on this wiki page dedicated to the case. Also monitor Reason magazine’s Hit & Run Blog for up to the minute reports.