Devin Brown, thirteen years old and high on pot, stole a Camry in the middle of the night, and, with officers already on the way for the reported theft, ran a red light in it and attracted other officers. These other officers were in pursuit before the report had even been entered into the police database. They followed the car onto the freeway and tried to pull him over.

Fact 1: 03:49:00 – Broadcast by officers that they were attempting to stop the vehicle and then in pursuit of possible DUI vehicle.

Instead, he exited the freeway into an area he was familiar with, thinking his familiarity would help him evade the police. These other officers, Grant and Garcia, radioed the situation and position, and the officers who took the GTA report joined the pursuit. The kid loses control of the car, trying to negotiate a turn at 40-50 mph, and runs it into an iron fence. These are actual excerpts from the DA’s report of the events that follows in the next seconds:

“After [the passenger] fled the Toyota, Devin B. revved the engine loudly, and then shifted into reverse. The car’s tires squealed as the car gained traction and Devin B. rapidly drove the Toyota in reverse toward Officers Grant and Garcia and their car.

As the Toyota accelerated toward the officers, the open passenger door struck a traffic signal pole on the sidewalk. The force caused the door to be pushed beyond the normal hinge range, striking the right front tire and leaving a tire imprint on the passenger door. The door sprang back and remained in an open position at a right angle to the car itself. The Toyota continued accelerating in reverse towards Officer Garcia flushing him from his position of cover behind his door. The Toyota then crashed into Officers Grant and Garcia’s police cruiser.

Fact 2: Test runs where the tires broke traction establish a 1.7 to 2.0 second window of time from the point the Toyota’s tires broke traction to the collision with the patrol car. The shots were fired from within 12 feet.

The Toyota’s left rear bumper struck the police cruiser’s right front quarter panel and front passenger door. The Toyota impacted Officer Garcia’s open passenger door slamming it closed. The Toyota continued scraping along the length of the patrol car placing Officer Garcia in the path of the oncoming Toyota. Officer Garcia continued moving away from the Toyota and its open door.

Officer Grant told detectives that as the Toyota struck the police car, Officer Garcia was forced from his position of cover and began firing at the Toyota. Before they could reach a position of safety behind their car, Officer Winstanley heard the Toyota’s engine revving loudly, tires screeching, a collision, and shots fired. Officer Winstanley related that the shooting stopped before he saw the Toyota come to a stop. Neither Officer Ehrenburg nor Officer Winstanley reported hearing a break or pause in the firing sequence. Officer Grant said the Toyota ended up where Officer Garcia had been standing.”

Fact 3: 03:53:30 – Broadcasts that a traffic crash has occurred and simultaneously shouts that shots have been fired and requests help.

Officer Grant, in fear for her life, dives out of the way of the Camry, to the opposite side of the police cruiser. The Camry hit the cruiser with such force that there was glass lodged in her uniform, from the far side of the vehicle.

Fact 4: At pursuit termination, subject’s vehicle lays down 102’ of skid at an estimated speed of 40 to 50 mph.

“Miles Carthron was traveling westbound on 83rd Street approaching Western Avenue driving to work when he noticed a Toyota on the sidewalk and a patrol car stopped behind it. Mr. Carthron stopped his car in the middle of 83rd Street approximately three to four car lengths from Officer Grant and Garcia’s patrol vehicle. Mr. Carthron said, “[t]he car was moving so fast – the car was moving so fast it had already hit the car, and that’s when he started shooting … that was a spilt-second decision.” He described Officer Garcia’s position “like he was sandwiched in …” Mr. Carthron summarized, “[i]f that police (Officer Garcia) hadn’t jumped out, he would’ve been hit.”

The family of the victim, the NAACP, the media…all those normally opposed to the government and the public sector in general, like to call the boy a “baby” and say that he was “unarmed”.

My ass. Check out this picture of Garcia’s cruiser. The Camry blew out the glass in the car, by sideswiping it. The kid knew he was in trouble, and his way out was through the police. There are two possibilities here: one, he reversed and accelerated with the intent of taking out the police in his way and thereby evading his consequences. Or two, he was so stoned he couldn’t control the vehicle. Either way, he was a threat to the lives of the four policemen on the scene, and definitely a threat to the general populace at large.

In California in 2003 (the most recent data available) vehicular fatalities, including occupants and pedestrians, totaled 2,579—three quarters of the total non-self-inflicted firearm fatalities (3,467). That is a significant amount. Shame on anyone who would claim Devin Brown was unarmed. He was using deadly force, unconventional weapon or no. With or without a gun, he was wielding a weapon, and he was aiming at it Officer Garcia.

Bob Baker, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents about 9,100 LAPD officers: "Vehicles used as weapons have killed over 20 officers in the past four years.”

Fact 5: Penal Code §§ 692-694 specifically authorize any individual protecting himself or another to use all force which he believes reasonably necessary and which would appear to a reasonable person, in the same or similar circumstances, to be necessary to prevent the injury which appears to be imminent. The use of deadly force in self-defense or in defense of others is considered justifiable if the person claiming the right to use self-defense actually and reasonably believed that he or the person being defended is in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury.

Fact 6: Where the peril is swift and imminent and the necessity for action immediate, the law does not weigh into nice scales the conduct of the assailed and say he shall not be justified in killing because he might have resorted to other means to secure his safety. People v. Collins (1961) 189 Cal.App.2d 575

If you see any of the news stories, read any of the news articles, about this, you will hear about the family and the community talking about what an outrage this is, about how the injustice has to stop, about the racist corruption of LAPD, that they could allow something like this to happen…in other words, laying all the blame on the police. And people the world over like to talk about how pot doesn’t really affect your driving, or that it even makes you a better driver, that marijuana doesn’t cause accidents—and I guarantee you, people who wouldn’t otherwise care one way or the other will be incensed and activated by this, only because the kid was high on pot and they will defend to the death their right to be druggies, cling to every little thing that insinuates pot isn’t as bad as people think. Here are some numbers they, and we, should take into consideration before they decide someone other than the kid was at fault, that it had nothing to do with pot, that it was all about racism, and all that crap:

• Researchers have found that THC changes the way in which sensory information gets into and is acted on by the hippocampus. This is a component of the brain’s limbic system that is crucial for learning, memory, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivations. (http://www.theantidrug.com/drug_info/drug-info-marijuana.asp, http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/marijuana.htm)

• Reaction time for motor skills, such as driving is reduced by 41% after smoking 1 joint and is reduced 63% after smoking 2 joints. Data has shown that people high on marijuana show the same lack of coordination on standard "drunk driver" tests as do people who have had too much to drink. (www.big-milt.com/factfile.htm, www.victoryoutreach-austin.com/Statistics.html)

• In 2001, an estimated 38,000 high school seniors in the U.S. crashed while driving under the influence of marijuana (www.freevibe.com/Drug_Facts/steerclear.asp, http://mygeico.com/pdf/autosafety/IsItWorthIt.pdf) [a side note: this is only seniors, who theoretically already have about 2 years of driving experience—Devin Brown was years from his permit]

• A study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry showed that perceptual motor speed and accuracy, two important parameters of driving ability, are impaired immediately after marijuana use. They also found a significant decrease in the ability of impaired subjects to use acquired knowledge from earlier driving experiences. The short-term effects of marijuana include distorted perception with sights, sounds, time and touch; trouble with thinking and problem solving; loss of motor coordination and increased heart rate. (www.teensarenotadisease.com/Steer_Cleer.htm, http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-healthfam?healthfamwhat=10-30-03-healthfam.dat)

• A recent study sponsored by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) involving analysis of nearly 2000 fatal accident cases, found 6.7 percent of drivers positive for marijuana. (www.mfiles.org/Marijuana/user_impact/b2_accidents.html, http://www.drugtext.org/library/articles/marijuan.html)

• According to Bernard Laumon of the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research here. In a population-based, case-controlled study of more than 9,000 drivers with known drug and alcohol blood concentrations, he and colleagues found a positive test for cannabis to be associated with a three times greater risk of being responsible for a fatal road crash (http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2005/12/ file-under-they-needed-study-for-this.html, www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Addictions/tb/2250)

• Let me also give you some personal perspective on this. When I moved to California, I bought myself a car—coincidentally, a 1990 Toyota Camry. I used it to get to school and back, to get to work and back, to visit my doctor and buy food for my kittens. Last November, it got stolen from in front of my house in broad daylight; when I left for work at six that morning, it was there. When I got back at six that night, it wasn’t. It was that simple. They aren’t difficult cars to break into, or to steal. Fortunately, mine was recovered without damage. But what if that had been my 1990 Camry, driven by a druggie, used to mow down policemen? What if it had been my neighbor, or my child?

The truth of the matter is, no matter what the NAACP would like us to think, it doesn’t matter. Devin Brown’s mother can call him a “baby” all she wants, her attorney can holler about injustice all he wants. The truth of the matter is—he was no innocent angel. He was on drugs, he was responsible for the theft and destruction of an automobile and other public and private property, he was driving dangerously fast and recklessly (which is the only reason Officer Garcia was involved with him at all) and he attempted to assault and/or kill an officer.

The Rev. James Lawson, director of the local branch of the SCLC, said murders like Brown's occur four times a week in this country, "proof that lynching is still going on. This can be stopped, and it is up to us to make Devin Brown's death the last. The city council needs to just tell the police department to kill no more children."

If his mama didn’t want him to get shot, she should have taught him better than to steal cars. She should have taught him better than to smoke pot. She should have taught him better than to drive under the influence. She should have taught him better than to evade and assault officers of the law. And what the hell was a 13 year old doing in the parking garage of some other apartment complex at 1-3am?

In short, if she wanted her “baby”, she should have been a mama. She should have spent some time parenting. Next, she’ll sue the makers of Grand Theft Auto for their violent video game, she’ll sue the gangsta-wannabe rap stars the kid listened to for glorifying drugs and violence, she’ll sue the local television networks for putting violent shows on TV. It will never occur to her to blame herself for not spending more time with him. For not being a parent, not monitoring his activities. Oh, no. Couldn’t be. It must be that Officer Garcia is racist against blacks. She would never… her baby would never… it must be corrupt LAPD… yeah…

I will use the conclusion of the D.A. as my own conclusion—I just don’t think I could say it any better.

“In Graham v. Connor (1989) 490 U.S. 386, the United States Supreme Court held that the reasonableness of the force used “requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances” of the particular incident “including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” (Id., at 396) Further the Court stated, “[t]he “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” (Id., at 397) Moreover, “[t]he calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments – in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving – about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.” (Id., at 397-398)

Whether Devin B. intended to strike Officers Grant and Garcia or was merely attempting to flee from them will never be known but we cannot, as the United States Supreme Court cautioned, use 20/20 hindsight to second guess Officer Garcia’s decision to fire his weapon. The scientific tests conducted were, at best, inconclusive. And it would be improper to speculate as to those facts which could not be conclusively established. We must rely on the evidence before us. We cannot disprove that Officer Garcia was acting under an actual and reasonable belief in the need for self-defense and the defense of others.” http://da.co.la.ca.us/pdf/garciaois.pdf