John Geer case (office, area, place)

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by kieplangdu

The conclusion is that Fairfax county stonewalling. Now if they are not at fault, why would they need to? People like you on the other hand keep saying let it play out at the same time have no problem with stonewalling.

How do you expect it to play out when the cops are stone walling?

They turned over the documents have they not?

[car54]

FCPD would still be stonewalling had the Post and Senator Grassley not taken up the case.

A few years ago, they killed a guy that allegedly had stolen some flowers. Same stuff went on, although they quietly fired the officer involved.

Then there's Sal Culosi, an optometrist, with no record, that was allegedly running a sports book. They sent the SWAT after him. Supposedly a car door hit one of the officer's arm causing his gun to discharge, killing the optometrist. No charges in that case either, though the taxpayers took a multi-million dollar hit in court. That's right, send the SWAT team to arrest a guy for betting on football games!

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by car54

FCPD would still be stonewalling had the Post and Senator Grassley not taken up the case.

A few years ago, they killed a guy that allegedly had stolen some flowers. Same stuff went on, although they quietly fired the officer involved.

Then there's Sal Culosi, an optometrist, with no record, that was allegedly running a sports book. They sent the SWAT after him. Supposedly a car door hit one of the officer's arm causing his gun to discharge, killing the optometrist. No charges in that case either, though the taxpayers took a multi-million dollar hit in court. That's right, send the SWAT team to arrest a guy for betting on football games!

That is all deflection and has nothing to do with this case or with the stonewalling in this case. The police have weapons and have to make quick decisions on a daily basis. I am not saying that making mistakes is OK but I am not saying I am surprised when it happens. The police are not a toy. They are not robots. I actually feel better when someone says "A few years ago".

[r small]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

They turned over the documents have they not?

Are you serious? They turned over some documents after more than a year and a half had gone by, the case had been turned over to federal prosecutors, and a United States senator had gotten involved in the case.

[r small]

Originally Posted by car54

FCPD would still be stonewalling had the Post and Senator Grassley not taken up the case.

A few years ago, they killed a guy that allegedly had stolen some flowers. Same stuff went on, although they quietly fired the officer involved.

Then there's Sal Culosi, an optometrist, with no record, that was allegedly running a sports book. They sent the SWAT after him. Supposedly a car door hit one of the officer's arm causing his gun to discharge, killing the optometrist. No charges in that case either, though the taxpayers took a multi-million dollar hit in court. That's right, send the SWAT team to arrest a guy for betting on football games!

Yeah, the Culosi case. Why did that cop have his gun drawn when Culosi was in handcuffs and was offering no resistance? And the car door hit his (the cop's) arm and caused an unintended discharge? Even if that was true the gun wouldn't have fired unless his finger was on the trigger.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by r small

Are you serious? They turned over some documents after more than a year and a half had gone by, the case had been turned over to federal prosecutors, and a United States senator had gotten involved in the case.

So you acknowledge they have been turned over. Thanks.

[r small]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

So you acknowledge they have been turned over. Thanks.

Do you think that Fairfax Co. PD has acted reasonably and responsibly in this case (apart from any considerations of whether or not the shooting was justified)?

[kieplangdu]

Let hope some day Old Guard's relatives involve with police. I am surer he will be happy when they stonewall.

[Wahoo27]

Originally Posted by r small

Tom Jackman definitely deserves a Pulitzer for his work on this case. It's obvious that Fairfax Co. PD would simply have swept this case under the rug if they could have gotten away with. Hats off to Jackman and the Washington Post for not letting up on this story. And to Senator Charles Grassley for getting involved and putting on the pressure.

I'm glad you mentioned Senator Grassley's role in this. I think he was the main reason why this story kept moving and the report was released. But regardless, Think about it folks: we live in Fairfax County which is supposed to be so damn well run. I read the letter that Sharon Bulova wrote on the controversy. It read like some intern wrote it, full of platitudes and total Bull**** (sorry if I offended, but sometimes you just have to say it as strongly as possible). I posted as such somewhere, on washpost I think. But bloody hell, this case is an effing disaster and people's heads need to roll. People need to be fired, charged with facilitating a coverup, obstruction of justice, and failure to get off their asses and do their jobs. I'm talking about you, County Board of "Supervisors." ( I hate that title. These guys aren't supervising anything, they just kiss up to the bureaucracy who feeds them all kinds of misdirects and because we are a majority Democrat board, they buy it.) Can anyone tell me, did any of the Board members really speak out for a long time and forcefully follow this horrendous incident? They are so afraid of not getting the cop union's endorsement for reelection that they don't oversee them properly at all. We need to have an independent citizen's board to look into these things and make it ALL public. Stop assuming that just because we are Fairfax County with a Taj Mahal for a government building that we have no reason to have vigorous, independent oversight of the cops and sheriffs.

Sorry for the long post, but this case really gets me, and it should be of concern of everyone who lives in Northern Virginia.

[Wahoo27]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

To me it matters why police were called to check out a person and why that person is carrying loaded firearms around....especially in a town house community? Bullets go through walls.

I am not saying he deserved to be shot but you should not play with guns. I tried to find out why the police were called but at my glance the article seemed to gloss over it.

I don't know why you're doing it but you seem to persistently ignore key facts that don't fit in your storyline and you're critical of facts that do contradict you. When someone points out that the 3 cops who were there disputed the cop who shot Geer, you note criticism of eyewitness reports. And you lumped all the witness reports together as if they were all the same. I've been a jury foreman, and I am married to a criminal defense attorney and I know many other criminal defense attorneys, and none of them report having seen cops contradict their colleagues, especially in a case like this. So that should've given much more weight to their eyewitness reports, but you ignored it. You criticize Geer for having a gun in a townhouse (bullets go through walls), but you forget that Virginia laws allow even people in town homes (horrors!) to own guns and have them in their Own Homes. Theres no evidence that he was "playing" with his gun; why make such a deliberately negative, biased comment like that? There are other points I could make about your comments but I'd be here all night and Ive got stuff to do. I just think that people weren't fooled by your seeming passively aggressive "neutral" comments.