{"id":14430,"date":"2020-03-18T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=14430"},"modified":"2020-03-18T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:33:07","slug":"maryland-police-coverup-of-their-killing-of-duncan-lemp-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/18\/maryland-police-coverup-of-their-killing-of-duncan-lemp-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Police Coverup of Their Killing of Duncan Lemp Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Conservative, March 18, 2020<\/h3>\n

The Mystery Deepens Over the Pre-Dawn Police Killing of Duncan Lemp<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

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Screengrab from\u00a0Cryptocurrency Market Making With Duncan Lemp | You Tube <\/a><\/div>\n
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Jim Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Five days after shooting 21-year-old Duncan Lemp in a predawn raid<\/a>, the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department announced Tuesday that the killing was immaculate.<\/p>\n

Under pressure by media criticism, the police department issued a detailed statement this<\/a> afternoon purportedly exonerating itself. But that statement\u2014the third revision of their official account of the fatal raid\u2014is contradicted by multiple eyewitnesses.<\/p>\n

Police now say that the raid was spurred by \u201can anonymous tip at the beginning of the year, indicating that Lemp was in possession of firearms.\u201d A response from the Lemp family, delivered by their lawyer, Rene Sandler<\/a>, noted, \u201cUsing a three-month old \u2018anonymous\u2019 tip, the police sought and obtained a no-knock search warrant on March 11, 2020 at 2:38 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police department states that the warrant \u201cwas served in the early morning hours, consistent with Montgomery County Department of Police practice.\u201d So an anonymous tip is all it takes for a SWAT team to launch violent predawn assaults on Montgomery County homes? The press statement declared, \u201cThe officers entering the residence announced themselves as police and that they were serving a search warrant.\u201d Why did they obtain a no-knock warrant if they intended to enter the residence and announce themselves?<\/p>\n

According to the statement from the family, the raid began when \u201cSWAT officers initiated gunfire and flash bangs through Duncan Lemp\u2019s bedroom window in the front of the house.\u201d According to the police, \u201cUpon making contact with Lemp, officers identified themselves as the police and gave him multiple orders to show his hands.\u201d The press release reads almost as if Lemp died from an overwhelming sense of guilt, rather than being shot perhaps multiple times by police. It also doesn\u2019t specify whether they\u2019d shot or otherwise wounded Lemp before \u201cmaking contact\u201d and issuing commands. According to Lemp\u2019s pregnant girlfriend, who was in bed with him at the time of the police attack, \u201cpolice never made verbal commands upon either her or Duncan until after Duncan was shot and lay bleeding on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press release declares: \u201cUpon entrance by officers into Lemp\u2019s bedroom, Lemp was found to be in possession of a rifle and was located directly in front of the interior bedroom entrance door.\u201d<\/b> Was he \u201cfound to be in possession\u201d as he lay on the floor bleeding? And was it Lemp or the rifle that was directly in \u201cfront of the interior bedroom entrance door\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The police claim to be vindicated because they found five firearms in the house and because they asserted today that Lemp had a \u201ccriminal history as a juvenile\u201d that \u201cprohibited [him] from legally possessing or purchasing firearms in the State of Maryland until the age of 30.\u201d Do the police have a right to kill anyone who possesses a firearm in violation of any statute on the books? If so, that\u2019s bad news for the tens of thousands of Maryland gun owners who are federal felons because they use marijuana or other illicit drugs.<\/p>\n

The police department has offered a sham of transparency. They refused to answer any of my questions last Friday. I sent another set of questions to them this morning prior to the latest revision of their story, among them:<\/p>\n