A Laval police officer is shot to death by a homeowner in a 5am, no-knock raid ….
The report says police did not properly evaluate the risks to officers before entering the home. Furthermore, the report found that police did not find Parasiris’ name in the gun registry because they searched by address instead of by name.
When asked if an advanced search under “Occupation – Drug Dealer” might have warned the officers of the risk, a police spokesperson assured reporters that the registry database indicates that, to date, drug dealers remain unarmed.
Quebec police inept?
Not news.
This reinforces a dictum of military intelligence that bad intel is worse than no intel. Unfortunately, the gun registry will be a long standing source of bad intel. Viz the New Zealand experience with gun registration where after a few decades, fifty percent of all registered firearms could not be accounted for.
God bless Daniel Tessier and his family.
I feel for the cop’s family. The shooter may have been a dope dealer, but that does not preclude him from due process. The right to be protected from illegal search and seizure and the right to defend his home from violent intruders. Because if his story is true, and the cops did not announce who they were (which I find hard to believe), then they fall into that category.
The registry is a farce, still waiting for Harper to come through on that promise he made LAST election.
So the system does work, sometimes.
Well this news article is just stupid. With the large number of illegal, unregistered weapons out there, basing a threat risk for an impending search of a residence on whether or not an individual is listed in the gun reghsitry is an idiotic concept.
Too bad the frontline Police can’t file Health and Safety Grievances about the Registry.
Especially when they are forced to use it. Bad Intel, bad planning, bad warrant = Dead Constable.
Sad. Really.
A lawsuit against the CFC for providing bad intel might get it squashed and dismantled PDQ.
😉
But, But, But…They check it 5000 times a day! Or is it 6000?
5 am no-knock raids are a dumb idea.
Better to get the perp OUT and away from his base (and possible heavy artillery.) In a car is good, cars stop really nicely.
If they ‘knew’ no guns were there because they checked the registry, why did they feel the need to kick the door in?
“5 am no-knock raids are a dumb idea.”
I agree,, God Rest his Soul Constable Tessier, but I agree.
,
Even if the police did announce themselves, so what? When someone dressed in black kicks in your front door and runs up your stairs at 5:00 am, are you going to assume they are what they say they are, or are you going to shoot first and ask questions later.
And over at the CTV site the issue of storage violations came up. However, do storage regulations come into play if it’s on your bedside table for self-defense? I would think it could be regarded as in use and can be kept loaded.
Correction on the premise of this thread’s title.
It was not the gun registry’s incompleteness or accessability which got this cop killed. I was uncivil police state thug tactics. I think these guys were watching too many ATF-DEA training vids or US cop shows and thought that this jingoistic hollywood escapism was a basis for serving a warrant in a proper police investigation in Canada.
This no-knock “raid” BS is a symptom of the pernicious militarization of the police and a martial mutating of both the civilian police function and warranted use of force.
When your wife is screaming hysterically about armed intruders in your house at 5AM the law provides for armed response being a reasonable lawful reaction (as is being evidenced in this “inquiry?”)
Legitimate crown investigations are done during normal daylight hours through civilly respectful police service of warrant acquired by convincing a judge (with evidence) there is reasonable suspicion of ongoing criminal activity in a private residence.
Only criminals and thugs enter a private dwelling in armed night raids. Act like a thug share a thug’s fate.
If I am not mistaken, there is no evidence to date that Parasiris was a drug dealer. As for gun charges pending against him, aren’t we are fighting to be afforded means of protecting ourselves and loved ones? Regardless of my opinion that this man lived not so clean and smart lifestyle, he’s innocent in my books.
If the gun registry showed he had no guns, why did they feel the need to kick the door in?
Had been a series of home invasions just prior to that time-not to defend this guy, but;
home owners were being terrorized, beaten, robbed and held hostage in their own homes, his last victim died.
Although I will contend the guy in this was not the typical victim of that home invader/murder, in threat wise nor was it exactly the same MO.
Seem to recall this guy hit all over the place picking out seniors or the frail, on and off the island, so these home invasions and one dead, were on the news a lot in QC just before this event. People were very upset and concerned naturally.
I agree completely with WLMR on this issue. If someone kicked in the door of my house at 05:00, and I had a gun readily available I would shoot. There have been numerous instances of home invaders masquerading as police to take any other action.
Entering a residence unannounced in this manner is simply police state tactics and I’m encouraged by the verdict in this case. The police death in this case is yet another casualty of the war on some drugs (WOSD). I don’t like the totalitarian state that the WOSD’s has created in N. America and the drug war has been a dismal failure.
As far as referring to Parasiris as a drug dealer, he has not, to the best of my knowledge, been convincted of any drug related offence and is presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law. I’ve sent money to fund the defence against “Lucy’s” libel suit but won’t contribute to a fund if SDA gets sued by Parasiris.
IMO this cop lost his life for no reason. This appears to be a decision made on a risk/benefit assessment. Since the cops thought there wasn’t a gun in the home, someone decided the benefits of catching the suspect red-handed out weighted the risk of negative outcomes.
The way I see it, the wrong decision was made based on limited information. Who ever is responsible for that decision should be evaluated and disciplined (if necessary) accordingly. If whomever was in charge of the home invasion over stepped his authority by authorizing an illegal act, then charges against that individual should be looked at.
Could not say it better than Stan at 12:49
5:00 a.m. is a truly bizarre time to raid a house. The probable reason for it is so that the entire squad can max out on overtime for that day. If anybody has any direct knowledge about how the overtime pay system works for Laval police, please post it. It surprises me that no one has brought this up already (it doesn’t surprise me that the legacy media don’t have any information).
“When asked if an advanced search under “Occupation – Drug Dealer” might have warned the officers of the risk, a police spokesperson assured reporters that the registry database indicates that, to date, drug dealers remain unarmed.”
I haven’t quite figured out which one is the more assinine, The reporter for asking the question,or the cop PR flack for giving such a stupid answer. Now why do you suppose the registry says that drug dealers remain unarmed. Could it be crooks DON”T register their guns?
Seems to me that 2Billion for the gun confiscation…eeerrr…registery could have been better spent teaching some “common dogf&*k sense” to a few cops and reporters.
If said people kicked in the door at 5am and rushed in the household, you could and would expect the person whom has the gun to protect others and himself in household.
Imagine if it wasn’t the cops and it was home invaders. What would the punishment be, “a lite slap on wrist”.
“It’s quite difficult to be familiar with how to (use the registry) and make sure you will receive the right information,” he said. “You need training to work on that computer and that training was not, I would say, 100 per cent.”
We p***ed away over a billion dollars on the Registry,and still don’t have something that can be reeliably accessed by the average cop?!
This is supposed to be the electronic age, where accessing information is simple, easy, reliable.
Maybe we’d be better off with the old system of phoning someone and talking to a real human being if we want important information, but that would be “yesterday’s technology”, wouldn’t it?
Right on WLMR.
The dangers of NO KNOCK RAIDS this is the kind of action wanted by BARACK OBAMA and his imperial strom troopers or better yet call him EMPORER PALPATINE OBAMA
Stan,
The reason for no-knocks are to catch the drug dealer or offender before they can destroy evidence, such as throwing drugs down the drain, burning them, or other means of hiding or destroying evidence.
The U.S. uses them exceedingly often and many many innocent people get hurt. I’ve read numerous instances of no-knock raids on people who didn’t have any drugs, but who fired back at police and were either killed or severely wounded in return. In a few cases I read about, the victim of the no-knock didn’t have health insurance, and after getting emergency treatment was discharged and left to fend for themselves. They were unable to sue the government for compensation, and ultimately became destitute due to their inability to work.
Spurwing Plover,
Can you point for me where Obama ever supported no-knocks? I’m trying to find anything on Google and can’t, so I’m inclined to believe you’re making it up. It’s a supreme court decision, not an executive one. In fact, in the ruling on no knock warrnats, 5 conservative judges voted for no-knock warrants while 4 liberal judges voted against it, so really this would point towards Bush being the one at fault for this emerging trend.
Under Bush, no-knock warrants have exploded in number, and his appointments to the supreme court have ensured that no-knock warrants are still legal when it comes to drug charges, so you’re just about as wrong as you can possibly be Spurwing.
No knock in the darkness of night equal Gestapo no matter how you look at it. Indeed it is sad that anyone lost his life, cop or other, and the idiot higher up who ordered the raid should be prosecuted rather than the man acting in self-defence.
When asked if an advanced search under “Occupation – Drug Dealer” might have warned the officers of the risk, a police spokesperson assured reporters that the registry database indicates that, to date, drug dealers remain unarmed.
What a breath taking naively said remark. Do we even have police anymore, or have they been defanged as well? I guess if you spend most of your time giving out road tax tickets you get rusty in the brain. Now even the police have this adolescent idea that government can protect them because of a registry. Who in their right minds would trust a system so flawed ,or back ward? Not use of there own noodles to actually think, not assume, because of political cops with an agenda .Tell you the world is made of rain bows.
I feel for the family double because this was so, so, avoidable. This is what happens when police Chiefs become political, or part of the government machinery at any level. The Liberals did this & continue like
Ontario to see law enforcement in line with PC insanity, with a good dose of ethnic blindness for criminals.
Aside from the tragic consequence for a police officer …….
Serves em’ effin right for putting their lives on the line based on what the government says.
In passing through the To airport the other day, could not help but notice three Police Officers strolling through. Their dress indicated a force much more related to Mexico or some other civil hell than our own domestic Peace Officers. They looked every bit like the paramilitary Federallies one sees on vacation in one of the far southern countries. The only thing missing was the machine guns. Grey jump suits with black harness. My first impression was US Navy Pilots, never would have guessed Police until they passed and the lettering on their backs indicated so.
The Laval incident is already being touted as reason for gun confiscation.
The Laval incident is already being touted as reason for gun confiscation.
The specifics of this incident aside, there are probably still good reasons to let the police keep their guns 😉
If you have people, dressed all in black, bust into your home at 5:00 A.M., even if they announce loudly that they are with the police, why should you believe them? I mean, they could even have “POLICE” stencilled across their shoulders in letters 4 inches tall. There are such things as costume shops, you know.
There is no way, in the heat of such a moment, to reliably determine if the home invaders are really police officers, or just gangsters masquerading as officers. And if you have only a matter of seconds to shoot or be shot, what are you going to do?
No-knock raids like that are simply bad police work. If the guy was suspected of being a drug pedlar, then they should have tried to set up a buy, and catch him in the act.
IMHO, the only time a no-knock raid should be considered is in the rare event of kidnappers holding hostages in such a situation that such a raid might reasonably be expected to afford enough surprise to enable the rescue of the hostages. Simply “being” a drug dealer, even a drug king-pin is not a sufficiently immediate threat to the well-being of the public to justify the risk to the lives of police officers and bystanders in a no-knock raid. Time, and good old-fashioned police work will get them eventually.
Revnant and others: That part was Kate’s joke, not an actual quotation.
If you go over to Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air blog and look up No Knocks, you’ll see that she hates them, since they render the 4th Amendment meaningless.
Over 40,000 No Knocks in 2005 in the US.
No-knock warrants are the real reason we have gun control in this country. Certain people would like to expand this no-knock warrant service to include -all- warrants, particularly those issued by the Human Rights Commissions. This kind of expansion is much easier when the 3AM boot to the door isn’t answered by a shotgun slug.
Incidentally, as noted above yelling “POLICE!” while you batter in the door does not constitute identification. I can yell “POLICE!” too, and I certainly would if I were trying to rob a drug dealer.
Tried to leave a note yesterday….oh well, such are computers. Maybe I was too wordy?
A couple of observations:
Body Armour –
Was it in use or was the “alleged criminal” an excellent ‘shoot-to-kill’ marksman able to pin point a shot shortly after being awoken and frightened for his well being??
Number of Shots –
Don’t know SOP for you northerners but around here, when someone shoots at a cop, he and all his buddies (they always travel in packs)unload their magazines without hesitation. [personal opinion-I agree with that procedure]
Clerks – Apparently the scariest part of being a policeman is no longer the traffic stops or midnight raids, but rather the quality of minimum wage clerk that’s being hired to access data from the computers. For all those Wal-Mart-Union-wanna-bes from earlier posts, THIS particular clerk position might be a good starting point for the police union to review.
Just a thought (or two)
I lived near Parasiris’ neighbourhood at the time of the shootings. Two thoughts come to mind:
1) the police may have been at fault somehow, but please don’t paint him as an innocent victim. He had four – yes, four – loaded guns near his bed, as well as 17 cell phones etc etc.
2) yes, there were some well-publicised home invasions around that time, but in almost all cases, the victims were well-known to police. Everybody knew about the home invasions, but nobody I know felt the need to arm themselves with one gun, let alone four of them. Then again, noone of my friends or acquaintances are known to police…
Whether he is guilty is beside the point Barbara. Our justice system assumes innocent until proven guilty. In such a system we believe it is far more important to let someone who is guilty go free rather than convict an innocent.
When the police barge into a home with a no-knock warrant, they are assuming guilty until proven innocent, contravening common law inherited from the Brits as well as the U.S. constitution, because they do not announce themselves in a valid (well, its certainly questionable) manner.
So I went back and read the old articles…the stuff you northerners probably already knew all about. Kind of interesting. And it did answer some of my questions such as:
“How could the homeowner manage to miss the police body armour?” Sounds like it was tight quarters and close range. Still, a head shot is an accident in a panic situation.
“Number of rounds fired in return?” Not much detail, but of the 14 shots fired by the police, the only thing hit was the wife’s arm as she hid in the closet.
Also interesting is a set of laws you have up north there – that allows a jury to start thinking about the punishment without being informed that the warrant issued for the raid had been declared illegal – kind of a major point in the case. One would think that bit of information would have some baring on determining a decision of right and wrong.
Even more interesting is an attitude that implies a person is guilty of some crime depending on how much of a particular product they own.
Speaking of cell phones, I have many old ones that were never thrown away when replaced by newer models. How many of these can I have before my neighbors start thinking I’m a criminal too?
I wonder, can I use the use the same logic on my girlfriend and her affliction with diamond ear rings? I think two pair are too much, she has 20. I call that criminal – she just laughs.
And one last cut/paste from the old newspaper articles “…Officers shot back, firing 14 times. One shot hit Parasiris’ wife in the arm. But police did not fire a single shot until Parasiris opened fire first, St-Germain said. Police would later find a Ruger .357-Magnum in Parasiris’ bedroom, in addition to three other loaded weapons in the house…”
We all know how newspapers are and if the ‘other 3 weapons’ were in the bedroom it would have been made abundantly clear.
Guess I’m just an odd ball….as I and my acquaintances are well known by the local police – we’re all friends.