Botham Jean was shot dead, unarmed and in his own apartment, by a Dallas police officer who said that she was confused and mistook the apartment for her own and Jean for an intruder.
That officer, Amber Guyger, has since been arrested and charged with manslaughter. Later, while executing a search warrant of the apartment, a small amount of marijuana was found in an unspecified location along with the expected bullet casings, police bag and other items from the shooting.
Although the initial tweet on the story seems to link the marijuana to Jean (“DEVELOPING Search warrant: Marijuana found in Botham Jean’s apartment after deadly shooting”) the search warrant itself does not.
As local Dallas station, Fox 4, noted, the search warrant, made public on Thursday when it was returned to the judge, “does not say where any of the items were located in the apartment or who the items belong to.”
Even if it turns out that it was Jean’s marijuana, it has no bearing on the shooting. A police officer forcing her way into an apartment and then seeing marijuana and shooting someone because of it would be no more legal or justifiable than what actually appears to have happened. She had no lawful reason to be there in the first place, and certainly no reason to discharge her weapon.
The recent discussion around the finding of marijuana in Jean’s apartment, however, is a good reminder that if police officers got a search warrant for most people’s homes, they might well find evidence of a crime. It might be those movies or songs that you downloaded illegally, or the alcohol that you bought in a different state, or perhaps you’re one of millions of Americans who smoke marijuana and you have some in a box in your nightstand drawer.
When the police dig up such dirt on apparently innocent victims of police shootings, and then publicize it, they are attempting to excuse an inexcusable act. Even if it isn’t quite in the same category as actually planting real or toy guns on victims (in Baltimore, officers admitted to carrying BB guns just for this purpose), it’s an odious and unethical practice.
The bottom line, as the police themselves demonstrate by trying to find or create an excuse, is that these shootings should not have happened.
That they did is unacceptable. That sworn officers would cover up crimes and smear victims, even more so.
