This sounds like a tragedy just waiting to happen. If Mr. Singletary had shot and wounded or killed an officer you'd of had an 81 year old man facing a variety of charges. You'll get to see the other side of the coin play out in what really happened. Why the police didn't use some common sense and approach this property owner before they started their operation is the big question.

Ya think? Or should the general, law-abiding public take telepathy lessons?

I wonder how long the old gent had to put up with the torment before the police decided to clean it up?
At least he died in a brave manner. Sometimes you gotta kick a little ass.
I hope the community becomes angry with the right people: The police? no, the drug dealers? no, the piece of shit drug users. That means their children, brothers, uncles, and all the rest. Themselves included.
The neighbors and police should become so pissed... that drugs are never tolerated there again.
Mr.Singletary would not be wasted in that way.
Oh yea, name a street and park for him, and put up a statue.
I hate fng drugs.

the house my Dad died in, went through an annexation in the 80's boom...not without some measure of
discontent on the property owner's behalf. In fact, he was the primary leader of an effort to prevent it. The end result was that the property in question was no longer in the county, so he would have to curtail his firearm habits...you know killin varmits and such.

The mayor of the city gave him a 'courtesy card' in the event he was ever confronted about his peculiar means of keeping the squirrels off his fig trees.

One afternoon, he was standing out in the yard, shooting squirrels, when a police cruiser rolled by. (the house is on a busy curvy lake road)

Next thing you know, these officers sneak around behind him from the back yard and order him to the ground, etc...which he refuses.

As the officers closed in, my Mom came out the door with her pistol, as well as my brother who was sitting at his keyboard in his little 'office'. It was quite a scene. The police actually were reprimanded by the Chief of Police for abusing their 'walk on' powers or something..

All I know was, they still talk about it at the barber shop, and it happened 20 years ago.

The problem with law enforcement these days, is everybody speeds, or doesn't wear their seatbelts, or any other myriad ways of defying authority.
It is actually funny. We live in a society where you we hire people to stop us from behaving badly, then allow the sale of items (like radar detectors) that prevent them from catching us.

The real drug dealers aren't ever caught. They are too far away from the heat.

Having lived in Jacksonville, I can tell you they take their duty seriously..it is just a shame this guy got in the way.

Just for the record, if I am within my rights, on my property and an unmarked policeman (undercover)
started some shit with me, there'd be a shootout.

This makes several police shootings over the past couple of weeks in Jacksonville. There was yet another this morning (Wednesday).

The shooting of Mr. Singletary has the NAACP and the Black Panthers enraged. It also has the governor's office investigating.

Jacksonville deputies had a reputation of being quick on the trigger in the 80s and early 90s under Sheriff Jim McMillan. (If you don't know, Jacksonville and Duval County have a unified government - the Sheriff is responsible for all law enforcement.) The police shootings dropped off under Sheriff Nat Glover (8-years) but now under John Underwood, they seem to be on the rise again.

I don't know enough to claim to know the cause - whether there's an increase in crime, or whether there are new police policies in place. I tend to suspect the increased militarization of our police forces is at least partly to blame.
juan

As quoted in the cited article, according to eyewitnesses Price Benton III and Shafonda Boyeoten, the undercover police were in Isaac Singletary's yard when the incident occured.

Undercover sting or not, the police had no legal business being on this man's property (unless an emergency or pursuit situation is posited--or unless Mr. Singletary had been declared a so-called "enemy combatant"--none of which apply in this case). Apparently the police think they own all that they survey--at least they certainly act like it.

The police have been trained in a militarized "us against them" mentality--with "them" being us, the general public--along with a "shoot first and ask questions later" mindset. The reason for this training is that the government views the average citizen as the foremost enemy. The police have been militarized in order to deal with the citizen-uprisings that the government expects against its ever-increasing usurpations and depredations. For more on that, see the below article by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
Administration:

"The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry: Your Local Police Force Has Been Militarized," Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., Baltimore Chronicle, January 24, 2007
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/012407Roberts.shtml
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01242007.html

The sight of an armed citizen requesting that these undercover police desist from trespassing on his property (all perfectly legal) obviously was just too much for these cowards. They obviously don't take kindly to seeing an armed plebeian giving them a perfectly rightful order.

Based upon what I could gather of their sting operation, the police were acting as the pharmaceutical sellers--that is to say, as dope-selling "hoods." No other interpretation makes sense at this point, as there would be no reason for a buyer to stand around on this man's property.

According to Donnah's cited article, the police managed to snag five people from this sting. In other words, this man lost his life in order to give five crack-smokers (or whatever type of drug they were buying) a bit of legal hassle.

I think the first question I would be asking the police department is, what is their response time when citizens call to complain about drug sales in their yard or neighborhood?

I think the responsiveness (or lack of it) of the police would be key here. Unless there is an immediate threat - someone was trying to enter his house or steal his property - then he would have been expected to call the police rather than confront the people on his property. "Stand your ground" means you don't have to run away, I'm not sure that it applies when you leave a place of safety (inside) to confront someone who is not an immediate threat.

On the other hand, if the police are slow in responding (or don't respond) to complaint calls I think that would make Singletary's decision to confront them reasonable.

If they don't get enough complaint calls to judge response time then the whole neighborhood shares the blame for tolerating drug sales.

btw ...drugs (crack, weed, etc..) are NOT illegal in this country, they just have a heavy surcharge if you forget to claim them on your way in.

Now Montecristos from Cuba..*they* are in fact an illegal substance...Rhino horn, that I hear is illegal

So you can walk right in to the U.S., but now you have to have a passport to leave (legally ha ha), but youre a dead man if you ask an undercover to get off your property.

I was at a cops house the other day. He said he had three months to go till he qualified for his pension, at which time he was going to quit.

His reasoning was that everybody hated him, his wife HAD to shop alone..he couldn't go anywhere without being harrassed and threatened. I felt sorry for him.

The truth is we have streets full of thugs and not enough police and/or the right means to eradicate the problem. I venture into every nook and cranny of our streets-and I have been threatened, so I understand the frustration.

here is an example of our law abiding streets..going out for pancakes

http://www.540wfla.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=155735&article=1653173