on wednesday, 26 november 2008, thanksgiving eve, a room renter at the greenbrier motel, 5711 masonic drive, alexandria, louisiana, was shot in room 16 by alexandria police corporal clifton fairbanks.
original kalb reports 26 november 2008 [screen grab | vid clip] | 27 november 2008 [screen grab] said that police were called because of "unruly behavior." however, diana raphael reported, that the victims wife said that she had called an ambulance and that there were no drugs in the room and that her husband was not armed, when corporal fairbanks, in plain clothes, arrived.
the victim, later identified as 36-year-old, richard j. goss, of 2045 bert kouns in shreveport, la., died that day from "multiple gun shot wounds" at st. francis cabrini hospital, in alexandria, la.
kalb says that they were told by authorities that it would take four weeks for them to complete the incident investigation. up to the date of their report forty days have elapsed but kalb says that they know that the investigation closed last week.
by way of comparison, the downtown alexandria, la. shooting incident occurred on 04 october 2007 and the rapides parish district attorney issued their review on 30 november 2007 a period of fifty-seven days. it was publicly released by the gannett/town talk after they filed a public records request. kalb doesnt say whether or not they have formally filed a public records request for the 26 november 2008 greenbrier motel shooting incident report.
nevertheless, kalb's report is interesting in how it shows our so called leaders operating together in suppressing information that they dont want the public to have.
alexandria, la. police chief daren coutee comes off like he is scared out of his mind to even speak of the incident. he says a couple of times that kalb should check with the rapides parish district attorney's office for an explanation. but why should we trust anything the rapides d.a. says when that office and the alexandria police department have a history of deceptive collusion?
chief coutee says that kalb should check with the city attorney "chuck" johnson but according to kalb, mr. johnson isnt talking either.
whats happened is that an american citizen was killed by a gun-totin' member of the state and now the chief of police, the city attorney and the district attorney are refusing to give an account of it to the citizenry. is mr. goss' life and rights any less valuable than anyone else?
and even if mr. goss was some drug-crazed, baby killer and we arent saying that he was -- nothing in the federal or state constitution give the police the right to commit extrajudicial executions of those citizens that they deem undesirable.
we disagree with mr. magnoli's "political puppet-strings" metaphor -- it's a political clown-car that they are riding in and the joke is on we the people;
when are the people going to demand honest, respectable leaders?
