Agent Walker Found Not Guilty

What a crying shame. I am so disappointed at the injustice system in this world. My prayers are with the cardenas family.

Sorry for those that this reaches that normally aren't
on my list but i'm just sending this off to everyone.
Well again, i'd like to thank everyone that has
supported us during this difficult time. It's sad to
say but justice was NOT served once again. I can't
begin to explain all the emotions that i'm going
through right now but I guess I should feel foolish
for believing that NOT GUILTY wasn't a possibility.
Based off of all the evidence I couldn't even conceive
that verdict was possible. I could maybe see a hung
jury but for all 12 jurors to agree that he was not
guilty???? Something wasn't right. Something went
wrong. What influence did the Attorney Generals have
over this case? Why were all the testimonies different
from the Grand Jury all of a sudden? Is it not purjury
if you have a badge? I don't understand how this
happened.
We are having a vigil tonight at 6:30 on 4th and
St.James. Show your support for us and our community
and how we shouldn't stand for this. We need to get
people out there to show their support.

all this bad stuff keeps happening in December.
There have been a number of other bad trends lately.

typical bullshit.

WAKE THE FUCK UP AND REALIZE YOURSELVES!!
It's not like you're not already galley slaves
How much more do you think you have to lose?

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number—
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few.

Ye are many—they are few.

Ye are many

THEY ARE FEW

Jury's verdict for drug agent doesn't square with reality
By Scott Herhold
Mercury News

An old saw says trials don't so much reflect reality as create their own. Never was that maxim clearer than when a jury filed back at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday to announce they had found state drug agent Michael Walker not guilty in the shooting of Rudy Cardenas.

It was the wrong call, a mistake, a verdict that ignored common sense. With plenty of cover, Walker shot the wrong man in the back. His unarmed victim was running away. As prosecutor Lane Liroff said, ``If you shoot someone in the back, it's the same as the Old West. It's not self-defense.''

What Walker did to Cardenas on a February day in 2004 wasn't just the product of a split-second decision gone horribly wrong. It was the crowning folly of a Keystone Kops chase by state drug agents who knew better.

Sure, defense attorney Craig Brown put on a vigorous and well-funded defense. Walker came across as a likable guy. The defense created a computer animation of the shooting that suggested Cardenas could have turned on Walker.

Toward the close of the two-month trial, a cadre of well-built officers sat on the right-hand side of the courtroom, silently supporting a comrade. Brown urged the jurors to put the badge on themselves mentally before judging Walker.

But in the end, for all Brown's eloquence, the verdict should have been guided by common sense. When you shoot someone in the back, it's not self-defense.

The truth is that you might have made a case for second-degree murder. The adrenaline in that chase -- and the refusal to make sure they had the right man -- constituted a kind of malice, a reckless disregard for procedure.

The trial nonetheless offered plenty of evidence that pierced Walker's story of self-defense. First, there was a videotape, which showed that the fatal shots occurred 8.6 seconds after Walker pulled up on Fourth Street outside the Shires Memorial Center apartments and began chasing Cardenas down an alley.

Walker's version was that he pursued Cardenas down the alley quickly but not full-out, and that the pursued man tried a couple of times to get over the chain-link fence before running 30 feet forward. Then, Cardenas turned toward him for a threatening three seconds. All that couldn't have happened in 8.6 seconds.

Next was the way Walker's story got inflated over time: He told San Jose police that he ``thought'' Cardenas had a gun. At the trial, he was certain he had a gun -- even though none was found.

And finally were the stories of the witnesses. One, Sherrie Green, said she saw Cardenas running away ``like Flo-Jo,'' the storied Olympic runner Florence Joyner. That doesn't square with a man turning to threaten Walker.

Why couldn't the jury find Walker guilty? I know the jurors were conscientious and worked hard. But trials create their own reality. In the sixth-floor courtroom of Judge Rene Navarro, the six men and six women of the jury could see Mike Walker, a friendly guy, a guy with buddies, a man not so unlike themselves.

For all the discrepancies in his story, they gave Walker the benefit of the doubt. If he thought he saw an armed Cardenas turning toward him, well, that constituted reasonable doubt, didn't it?

Outside the courthouse, the protesters chanted ``No justice served! No justice served!'' as defense attorney Brown talked about the verdict with reporters. For once, I had to agree with them.

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