Don’t Start Making Those “Free Cory Maye” Signs Yet Part 2

15 Dec, 2005 by John Hawkins

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Radley Balko over at his fine blog, The Agitator, responded to that last post on Cory Maye and you can read what he had to say here.

After reading Radley’s post and few other comments about the Maye case around the blogosphere, let me add a few quick notes to what I said about the original case.

#1) In this case Radley, along with some others, are taking the word of the murderer and his defense lawyers, over the word of the cops. Why they’re doing this, other than perhaps because of generalized dislike or distrust for police officers, I have no idea.

However, you simply cannot run a criminal justice system when the word of several police officers is considered to be less trustworthy than the word of a cop killer. Yes, there may be incidents where the police have lied or falsified evidence. But, I would suggest to you that the percentage of criminals who lie to try to escape responsibility for their crimes approaches 100%.

That’s why, unless there are extenuating circumstances (which certainly don’t appear to exist at present in this case), I always take the word of the cop over the word of the criminal.

#2) A lot of Libertarians seem to have a bee in their bonnet because this was a drug bust and they think all drugs should be legal. Well, I got news for you; drugs aren’t legal and whether the police were there because of drugs, rape, robbery, or murder makes no difference. The officers had a warrant, were allowed to enter the house, and did so because they were investigating a crime. Whether it was drug related or not makes no difference whatsoever.

#3) This was not a, “knock, give the perp 2 seconds, and kick in the door.” raid. The cops announced themselves at the front door, Maye turned on a light, so he certainly heard them and was awake, they announced themselves at the back door, and then they knocked the door down. It’s worth noting that in the other duplex that was searched, the person there had time to simply go to the door and let the police inside.

#4) Some people are asking why Maye would deliberately kill a police officer when he had no criminal record? Maybe he hated cops. Maybe he thought he could beat the rap in court. Maybe he committed some other crime and thought the police were coming to arrest him for that. Heck, maybe he did something cataclysmically stupid for no good reason. Two examples from my high school years come to mind:

A friend of mine was speeding and a cop came up behind him and turned on the siren. Despite the fact that he had no criminal record and nothing incriminating in his car, he freaked out and tried to outrun the police — which, quite frankly, was impossible in the car he was driving. He ended up crashing into a ditch and knocking himself unconscious.

I had another friend, a real nice guy — again with no criminal record — who was driving his ex-girlfriend to school on icy roads. In the middle of a big argument, he wrecked. He was shaken up, but the girl was seriously hurt. Well, a policeman shows up to help and my friend was so freaked out he actually took a swing at the cop for what he himself admitted was no good reason whatsoever.

Whatever the case may be with Maye, we’re talking about uniformed officers, who announced themselves twice at the front and the back door of the residence, and Maye knowingly shot one of them to death.

#5) Some people seem to be taking the position that this was a righteous shooting by Maye just because he couldn’t be sure that it was the police at the door. That position just makes no common sense, especially in a world where the police can actually get no-knock warrants and simply kick a door in. If uniformed police officers, with police cars in the background, with a warrant, announcing themselves twice before breaking down a door isn’t good enough for you, then you’re basically saying criminals should be allowed to take a free shot at the police if they bust into their homes.

Once again, what it all boils down to is that Cory Maye chose to murder a police officer, was convicted of doing so in a court of law, and is now scheduled — and I hope destined — to pay the ultimate price for his crime. If you’re looking to dole out some sympathy in this case, I’d suggest you save it for the family and friends of officer Ron Jones, not for his murderer, Cory Maye.