July 12, Pedro Oregon Navarro was shot 12 times, nine of those in the back. Autopsy reports later concluded that these nine shots were fired from a "downward trajectory," meaning gang task force members who murdered this man were standing above Navarro. Where's the self defense? Unless Navarro had eyes on the back of his head and could point a gun over his head, I doubt he posed a threat. I also doubt he posed a threat after being shot three times.
Police insisted Navarro pointed a pistol at them when they unlawfully entered his apartment on an unregistered informant's tip, looking for narcotics. One of Houston's Finest yelled out that Navarro had a gun. A shot struck one of the officers and then all hell broke loose as "the gang that couldn't shoot straight" fired blindly, completely oblivious to the fact that the officer was hit by a bullet fired by another officer's gun.
So essentially, a man is dead because of some simple mistake. What a relief. I'd hate not to be able to trust the police.
Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford responded by saying there were indications the officers violated HPD policy.You think? That's brilliant, chief. Now go to Navarro's family and explain it just like that.
So, where was the outcry? It was limited, and for the most part confined to Spanish-language news. Hoping to get some answers, the Navarro family went to the Mexican consulate, which then vowed to get to the bottom of the issue.
You know, if you want to get to the bottom of something, going to the Mexican government might not be the best thing to do. They can't figure out how to run their own country. They sure as hell won't have a clue as to what's wrong with this one.
Ahh, here we go. Ed's being a Mexican when he feels like it, right? Wrong.
This isn't a Mexican thing. Two of the officers were Hispanic themselves. This is something that could affect everyone's idea of the whole "to protect and serve" thing. This was, at least, a bad mistake. We can only hope that's all it was. I, however, don't think it ends there.
There's something wrong when a man who's already been shot to the point of being able to be arrested is then shot nine times in the back, while on the ground. I don't think it's just a case of the officers' adrenaline making them trigger-happy. This borders on an execution-style killing.
This is again a case of letting the worst examples of a group speak for the entire group. The HPD can do something about it by looking into everything concerning this case and not just the night in question.
When the Mexican government is "quicker to the draw" than the HPD, you know there's something wrong.
De La Garza is a senior English major whose favorite show
as a kid was CHiPs.
He can be reached at
edelagar@bayou.uh.edu or EdDeLaGarza@
worldnet.att.net.