Elk County Forum

I read several of these incidents every month they happen clear across our nation and I think they deserve attention brought to them. I believe they deserve their own thread!


By/Crimesider Staff/CBS News/February 19, 2014, 4:18 PM

EUHARLEE, Ga. – An attorney representing the family of a 17-year-old Georgia boy who was shot and killed by a police officer says the boy was holding a video game controller when he was shot after opening his door.

Christopher Roupe was fatally shot in the chest Friday, Feb. 14 when Euharlee officers showed up at the door of his mobile home to serve a probation violation warrant for the boy's father, WSB-TV reports. A female officer reportedly told the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that Roupe pointed a gun at her after he opened the door.

But the family's attorney, Cole Law, said the boy was holding a Nintendo Wii video game controller, and was about to watch a movie.

"The eyewitnesses on the scene clearly state that he had a Wii controller in his hand. He heard a knock at the door. He asked who it was, there was no response so he opened the door and upon opening the door he was immediately shot in the chest," Law told WSB.

Neighbor Ken Yates said that he saw the female officer immediately after Roupe was killed and described her as being visibly distraught.

"This is tragic," Yates told the station. "She came out of this house. She put her head in her hands and she was sobbing. Supposedly, he opened the door with a BB gun and in my opinion I think he was playing a game with his neighborhood buddies."

Tia Howard, another neighbor, told WSB that she also came over to the house immediately after the shooting. Howard says she was told that "there was a Wii remote in his hand and [the officer] shot him."

Officials did not disclose if a weapon was found on the scene.

The case has been turned over the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Roupe was an ROTC student at Woodland High School in Cartersville and his family said he planned to join the Marines.

A funeral has been scheduled for Friday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/attorney-georgia-teen-killed-by-cop-was-holding-wii-controller/

A little different take on this story.



(Before It's News)
by Guerilla Girl Alexis The Pete Santilli Show & The Guerilla Media Network
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 22:15

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/Cop%20pic.png)

EUHARLEE — A teenage boy who was about to graduate high school to join the Marines has been executed by a female officer.

17 year old Christopher Roupe was shot and killed just moments after sitting down to watch a movie. At 7:30 pm, Christopher took his Wii remote controller and started a movie when he heard a knock at the door. He responded to the knock by saying, "who is it"? There was no response. Christopher got up from his chair and opened the door. To his amazement, it was a female police officer, who had her gun drawn and pointed at him according to the reports.

The police officer fired a fatal shot, that pierced into Christophers chest, killing him, according to his aunt, Renee Vance. The police claimed, "he had a gun". The boy's aunt said it was the "Wii" controller.

The Police were actually at the home regarding a "probation" matter that had nothing to do with Christopher. According to reports, Christopher's sister held him in her arms, trying to comfort her brother as he lay in pain. The report goes on to say, that's when the officer pointed the gun at the child and told her to shut up. Moments later Christopher bled to death.

The family has set up a Facebook page to inform the public, friends and family about the incident.

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/Christopher.jpg)

I believe that this not-for-profit, educational, and/or criticism or commentary use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).

Here's another one:

Woman who recorded traffic stop spends night in jail

http://www.local10.com/news/woman-who-recorded-traffic-stop-spends-night-in-jail/24532912 

By George Chidi
Saturday, February 22, 2014 22:21 EST

Evidence from a dashboard camera on a police cruiser ended a nightmare for a New Jersey man facing false charges of eluding police, resisting arrest and assault.

Prosecutors dismissed all the criminal charges against Marcus Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, N.J. and instead indicted two Bloomfield police officers for falsifying reports and one of them for assault after the recording surfaced showing police officers beating Jeter during a traffic stop, according to WABC of New York. A third has pleaded guilty to tampering.

Jeter's defense attorney requested all recorded evidence, but the police failed to hand over a second tape until additional evidence surfaced of a second police car at the scene. The tape showed Jeter complying with police, even as one punched him in the head repeatedly.

Without the tape, prosecutors had been demanding a five-year prison sentence.

Watch the WABC report, below.



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/22/new-jersey-man-escapes-5-year-sentence-after-dash-cam-footage-clears-him-indicts-cops/

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 13:55

GRAPHIC: Raw video of arrest released after man dies in Moore police custody

MOORE, Okla. – After weeks of accusations, the public is now getting the chance to see a video that was taken the night a local man died in police custody.

Nair Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez's wife, said from the beginning her husband was beaten by police.

On Tuesday, her attorney's office released the video, allowing everyone to decide for themselves what happened to him.

In the video, Nair Rodriguez is heard calling for her husband to tell her if he's okay.

However, he did not answer.

It was just one of the scenes that unfolded in the video.

After about a minute, an officer approaches her to discuss what happened.

Kyle Eastridge is a former homicide investigator and is now working as a private investigator.

As he watched the video, Eastridge said, "Those guys are out of breath."

As the video continues, Eastridge notes that Rodriguez does not seem to be responsive.

Read Here: http://kfor.com/2014/02/25/graphic-raw-video-of-arrest-released-after-man-dies-in-moore-police-custody/



Welcome to the new Amerika, where it seems we now hear of at least one story per day where the police murder the very citizens they are sworn to protect. In another example of absolute tyranny, five Oklahoma police officers beat a loving father to death in front of an Oklahoma Movie theater  while his family watched in absolute horror.

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/Screen%20Shot%202014-02-18%20at%203_18_33%20PM.png)

Three Moore Police officers were put on administrative leave while detective investigate an in-custody death from overnight. The family of the man who died said police beat him badly and they recorded it with a cell phone camera.

Nair Rodriguez and her daughter Lunahi told News 9 they got into an argument at the Warren Theater around midnight. Nair said she slapped her daughter then stormed away. Her husband, Luis, chased after her. That was when the family said officers confronted Luis Rodriguez and asked to see his identification.

According to Lunahi and Nair, he tried to bypass the officers to stop his wife from driving off because she was so angry. They said officers took him down and it escalated.

Lunahi Rodriguez said that five officers beat her father to death right in front of her, in the parking lot of the movie theater.

"When they flipped him over you could see all the blood on his face, it was, he was disfigured, you couldn't recognize him."

Read Here: http://www.news9.com/story/24735856/family-says-moore-police-beat-father-to-death

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/02/tyrannical-police-beat-father-to-death-in-moore-ok-2901486.html

February 26, 2014 By 21wire

The militarization of US police forces is a disturbing trend for sure. But will the MRAPs pull up when your neighborhood is burning?

Fat chance...

(http://www.cmt.com/sitewide/assets/img/promo/shows/fat_cops/season_1/109/6/456x330.jpg)

INEFFECTIVE: Police are becoming a joke in some parts of America, and often flex their muscle in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Yet, when Americans really need law and order in their communities, the police are sometime nowhere to be found, and can also be seen fleeing the scene – in the interest of their own safety first. They tend to reserve their impressive show of force for trivial incidents like raids on medical marijuana depositories, or closing down organic farms (see video below).

Below are a selection of graphic displays – of what you can count on from "law enforcement" when it really the Cannelloni hits the fan. Given their traditional role as peace officers, it's still pretty shocking to see how the police no longer function in cities like Oakland, California...

When they are informed, prepare well in advance and use overwhelming force, police can almost operate effectively.

You know, beating non-violent protesters and raiding the homes of families that might have marijuana (assuming they get the address right.)

But when it comes to dealing with what's really out there, "mano a mano", it's advantage criminals. Overwhelmingly.

The only thing that "keeps us safe" is that fact that an overwhelming percentage of the population is peaceful, and even criminals keep things to a reasonable level.

But those percentages can change.

Note: In NYC cops have already completely lost control of the roadways. The only thing that prevents total mayhem is a lack of ambition on the part of the bad guys. They only come out and assert their real control occasionally...




In California, it's well known about the police's traditional function of generating revenue through issuing traffic tickets, but some officers rarely miss an opportunity to get intimate with attractive females, even if it takes a half-hour or more. Fighting crime can be a real chore it seems...




Also, we can't forget the California police force from Fullerton, engaging is sadist beatings of homeless persons, and in the case of mentally disabled drifter, Kelly Thomas, where it took 4 or  more 'officers' to beat him to death – before being let off the hook for this particular murder caught on camera...




And lastly, here is a peak at one of US law enforcement's new fetishes. Forget about anarchy in urban areas, and forget about drug trafficking flooding their streets with cheap heroin and meth – the real danger, according to police, is shutting down organic food outlets:



READ MORE POLICE STATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Police State Files http://www.21stcenturywire.com/tag/police-state

http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/26/watch-us-cops-run-away-when-anarchy-ensues-on-our-streets/

Less Than Ground Zero: NYC police and firemen pilfer $400 million from taxpayer in bogus 9/11 claims
February 27, 2014 By
21st Century Wire says...

New York's finest. Many first responders put their lives on the line on 9/11, and were recognized for their sacrifice and for saving lives at Ground Zero on the day. For others, that simply wasn't enough...

All police and firefighters were deemed unequivocally to be 'national heroes' following the fateful September 11, 2001 event in New York City. To question this was considered an act of heresy akin to treason, and it seems than more than a few of these 'heroes' took full advantage of that situation...

More lies and fortunes, built on top of other lies and fortunes, built on top of an official story that no one can prove actually happened. How fitting.

Read the full report below on America's latest shame...


Nearly 30 retired New York City firefighters and police officers have been arrested for falsely claiming Social Security benefits in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Already, more than 100 retired firefighters and police officers had been arrested in January as a result of a wide-ranging pension fraud investigation. Retirees allegedly lied about their mental and physical abilities in order to qualify for Social Security benefits they would not have received otherwise.

Of the 106 originally arrested, 80 are believed to have claimed to suffer from severe mental and emotional trauma at Ground Zero on September 11, even though some of them were never at the scene.

Now, Reuters is reporting that 28 more retirees have been arrested on similar disability fraud charges – 16 former police officers, four firefighters, and a New York City Department of Corrections worker.

"The idea that many of them chose the events of 9/11 to claim as the basis for their disability brings further dishonor to themselves," New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, according to the news service.

More than 130 city employees have been arrested during the investigation so far, though it's possible more are to come. Investigators believe that up to $400 million in taxpayer funds could have been stolen.

According to the New York Post, many of the retirees claimed they couldn't sleep, work, drive a car, or even leave their homes as a result of their disabilities, only for investigators to find they were flying helicopters, riding on jet skis, leading martial arts classes, and more. Some former officers claimed mental handicaps even while holding gun permits.

"That's about as inconsistent with being disabled and unable to perform physical or mental chores as you can get,'' said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to the newspaper.

Investigators also claimed that four of the people involved were coaching retirees on how to qualify for disability benefits. In exchange, these ringleaders allegedly received kickbacks to the tune of 14 monthly Social Security checks per person they successfully enrolled into the program.

"As a New Yorker and as a US citizen, I can only express disgust at the actions of the individuals involved in this scheme, particularly the 72 former members of the New York City Police Department who have certainly disgraced themselves, embarrassed their families with their abuse of this system," Bratton said during a press conference in January.

Lawyers for the alleged ringleaders, however, stated their clients were innocent.

READ MORE 9/11 NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 9/11 Files

Activist police officers, it seems, are following the federal government's lead by asserting power over citizens for which they have no lawful claim.

(http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/baltimore-county-police-1140x641.jpg)


As smartphones with built-in camcorders become more ubiquitous, citizens who witness arrests and other police activities increasingly use the technology to capture such moments on tape.

For fans of law enforcement transparency, such added accountability is a positive trend. Many officers, however, express a different point of view.

When police in Towson, Md. initiated the arrest of two suspects this week, a local CBS affiliate reported a bystander reached for his phone and immediately began capturing footage of the unfolding event. A short time later, one officer approached the amateur videographer, who expressed his belief that he had a right to record the interaction.

"Get out of my face," the officer snapped, despite the fact that the unidentified man was positioned a considerable distance away from the action. This prompted the civilian to once again verbally uphold his right.




"You have no rights," the cop shot back. After momentarily leaving – and after another officer approached the same individual – the first officer returned, unleashing a profane tirade.

"Do you see the police presence here?" the officer asked. "Do you see us all? We're not f***ing around."

He warned the man to "shut your f***ing mouth or you're going to jail," at which point the officer again momentarily retreated. In a matter of moments, however, he returned and appeared to physically push the citizen.

"I thought I had freedom of speech here," he told the officer.

"You don't," the cop barked back. "You just lost it."

An example of the rare instances in which those on the left and right can find some common ground, a local American Civil Liberties Union spokesperson expressed the common assertion that this officer acted in an extremely inappropriate manner.

David Rocah called his behavior "highly problematic," noting that the "fact that officers an act this way, knowing that they're being filmed, I think shows a level of impunity that is quite troubling."

Baltimore County police spokesperson Elise Armacost confirmed the department is "concerned about what we saw in the video" and "will be taking a thorough look at that video."

Reports of such apparent overreaction, however, are surfacing in communities across the nation with alarming regularity. Obviously, just a small fraction of these are actually captured on video.

Activist police officers, it seems, are following the federal government's lead by asserting power over citizens for which they have no lawful claim. Further suppressing the individual's integral freedoms of speech and expression only strip the only recourse Americans have against such blatant abuses.

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/maryland-cop-citizen-rights/#XmvS4YrSlyTpbzSi.99

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 12, 2014 5:15 PM CDT

(http://img1-cdn.newser.com/image/971688-6-20140312165021.jpeg)

(Newser)  – Police shot an unarmed Air Force airman in the stomach Thursday after the 20-year-old pulled over on an Alabama freeway, the man's family says. Michael Davidson was driving from Texas to an Air Force base near Goldsboro, NC, when he became too tired to drive, decided to pull over, and clipped a semi-truck with his driver's side mirror, Raw Story reports. Davidson got out and walked toward the truck driver when he heard someone yell at him from behind, his father tells the Panola Watchman: "Realizing it was the police, [he] raised his arms and turned around."

That's when seven-year veteran officer Phillip Hancock shot Davidson in the stomach. Hancock then asked Davidson where "the other one" was, and officers searched his car before the airman first class received medical attention, his father said. By the truck driver's account, Davidson had been driving erratically and was told to put his hands up twice before being shot, the Opelika-Auburn News reports. Police haven't explained the shooting yet, but word is Hancock will be suspended. As for Davidson, he underwent extensive surgery and will likely have to wear a colostomy bag for life, his pastor says: "This is a life-changing event for him. He's in an acute state of depression right now."

http://www.newser.com/story/183678/police-shoot-unarmed-airman-in-stomach-by-freeway.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_topnews

They may very will force decent people into a being lawless society. Push them to far and find out!


March 1, 2014 / Clark Kent /Anthony Martin via The Examiner

A journalist in Connecticut reports that the highly restrictive and punitive gun control laws the state passed last year carry an ominous threat for citizens.

Those who missed the deadline to register their "assault weapons" and high capacity magazines, which have been outlawed, will be treated as criminals although they may have attempted to obey the law but just missed the deadline.

Ed Jacovino of The Journal Inquirer further stated that Michael P. Lawler, a top aide to Gov. Dannel Malloy, contends that the state will punish those who missed the registration deadline whether they intended to or not.

According to Jacovino,

And while the state won't immediately prosecute those who missed the deadline, it isn't ignoring that information, either.

The rifle and magazine declarations will be included in information given to police responding to a certain address. "This would be a factor in deciding how to respond to different situations," Lawlor says.

Read that statement closely. Lawlor is saying that if a citizen calls the police to report a crime in progress, officers will be able to see whether or not the person reporting the crime has registered their assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and will approach the emergency call accordingly.

Mike Vanderboegh, who wrote and posted an open letter to every member of the Connecticut legislature about this issue, was quick to catch Lawlor's quip and responded with the following:

In other words, "we'll send a Connecticut state police SWAT team to your door if you are reporting a home invasion — not to arrest the perpetrator attacking you and your family but to arrest and, if necessary, kill you."

Lawlor, thus, is calling for bloodshed against those who disobey the new gun laws in Connecticut at the hands of law enforcement officers.

The bottom line is that Vanderboegh has outed the hidden mindset and true intent of the anti-gun bigots in states such as Connecticut. They wish to kill. They wish to shed blood. The irony of such a thing should not be minimized, given that they have always claimed that their intent is to prevent bloodshed and killing.

http://www.americasfreedomfighters.com/2014/03/01/special-report-connecticut-anti-gun-officials-call-for-bloodshed-2/

Saturday, March 22, 2014 11:50

In yet another display of psycho tyrannical cop behavior, on March 19, 2014 police Sergeant Brice Woolley responded to a call pertaining to a dog that had escaped someones yard, and was roaming the neighborhood. Instead of waiting  for animal control to arrive to apprehend the dog, according to an eyewitness report, SGT Woolly stated "I'm not waiting for animal control", and went back to his police cruiser to get his shotgun. He then shot the dog in the neck, killing "Cali" instantly, and if that wasn't bad enough,SGT Woolly laughed about killing "Cali", and stated " Did you see her collar fly off when I shot her? that was awesome" he stated to the animal control officer, who then replied to officer woolly, " We'll just write in the report that it tried to attack you and others in the neighborhood."


•Petitioning Ardmore Police Department
http://www.change.org/petitions/ardmore-police-department-justice-for-cali?share_id=mSaXZTnlHU&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&v=control&x=~open_graph_autopublish_experiment

Justice for Cali

Cali was a fun-loving, caring, peaceful family dog. On March 19, 2014, she escaped the backyard fence and was roaming through the neighborhood. A neighbor called animal control to come and retrieve the dog. The cops showed up before the animal control. When the cops pulled up, someone informed them , animal control was already on their way. Officer Brice Woolley said, "I'm not waiting for animal control."                                                                                                                                   

He then went to his car, pulled out his shotgun and shot Cali in her neck. After he shot her, he laughed and bragged about how "awesome" it looked when her collar flew off. She had done nothing to provoke the officer. She died immediately.

Read Here:http://www.change.org/petitions/ardmore-police-department-justice-for-cali?




http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/psycho-oklahoma-cop-executes-family-dog-with-shotgun-and-laughs-about-it-2923900.html?utm_medium=facebook-share&utm_campaign=&utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FqWT6

The Albuquerque Police Department's use of deadly force is under fire again, after officers fatally shot a homeless man camping in the foothills last Sunday following a long standoff with officers.

"I'm shocked," attorney Joe Kennedy told KRQE-TV of a new tape showing officers fatally shoot James Boyd. "I've never seen a murder captured on videotape before."

The full video, released by APD, shows officers repeatedly giving instructions to Boyd, who refused to comply and allegedly threatened the lives of officers in the hours before the shooting. After deploying a flash bang, K9 and non-lethal rounds, Boyd is seen in the video slightly turning away. That's when two officers fired three bullets each, causing the homeless man to collapse to the ground.

Kennedy, who previously won a $10 million lawsuit against APD for a wrongful shooting death, told KRQUE-TV that he's "never seen anything quite like this."

"You can contain, create distance and time, distance and time every police officer knows benefits the police officer," he said.

The shooting also comes amid a U.S. Justice Department investigation over allegations of excessive force by the police department.

Peter Simonson of the American Civil Liberties Union told KRQUE-TV that the federal investigation into the department should include this case.

"Was there another way to approach this situation that didn't have to result in someone dying?" Simonson asked. "I think that is a serious open question and its a different question than that of whether is was justified or not."

APD police chief Gorden Eden, however, adamantly defended his officer's use of force in the shooting, emphasizing that multiple attempts were made to use non-lethal force.

"It was when the canine officer was down directing the canine dog that the suspect pulled out the two knives and directed a threat to the canine officer who had no weapons drawn," he said.

The incident started when officers approached Boyd to talk to him about illegally camping. Boyd refused to comply and threatened the officers.

"I'm almost going to kill you right now. Don't give me another directive. Don't attempt to give me, the Department of Defense, another directive," Boyd reportedly said at the beginning of the incident.

Hours passed, according to KRQE-TV, and both the APD's Crisis Intervention Team and a state police liaison were brought to the scene. Boyd still refused to comply, continuing to issue threats.

"In a private world, if you were down at a bar or a bus stop, I would have the right to kill you right now because you're trying to take me over. Don't get stupid with me!" he warned, according to KRQE-TV.

That's when officers began moving in on the homeless man and started deploying non-lethal rounds, before shooting him.

It wasn't immediately clear how many live rounds struck Boyd, but because video shows that he was turning away after the non-lethal force was used, the shooting is raising questions.

"The big lie is anytime our officers shoot, they had a right to shoot because they felt threatened, and if this doesn't convince this chief and this mayor that officers are out there killing people without justification, I don't know what will," Kennedy said.

Nevertheless, Boyd does have a violent past, extending up to 20 years. According to KRQE-TV, he once punched an officer and sliced another man with a box cutter during a fight.

Earlier this month, new graphic footage was released showing the moment APD shot and killed a man who charged at them with a hammer after attempting to evade authorities.

(There there are two flash video's that are worth watching. I don't know how to transfer flash videos over to this post. Sorry.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/24/im-shocked-ive-never-seen-a-murder-captured-on-videotape-before-new-footage-raises-questions-of-excessive-force-by-albuquerque-police/

Monday, March 24, 2014 16:31
by Guerilla Girl Ashley

The Amerikan Police state is getting worse by the day. On March 6,2014 20 yr old First Class Airmen Michael Davidson was traveling on I-85 near Opelika, Alabama when he got into a minor traffic accident with a trailer truck. Davidson then got out of his vehicle to go and talk the the truck driver, when he was about half way there, he heard someone hollering behind him, which later turned out to be officer Hancock of the Opelika Al Police that was shouting at Airmen Davidson to put his hands in the air. Airmen Davidson with wallet still in hand put his hands in the air and started to turn around towards the officer to tell him that he was an Airmen heading back to his base in N.C, but thats as far as he got, as he turned around he felt something hit him in the stomach, which turned out to be a bullet from Officer Hancock's gun.

Tyrannical Alabama Cop Shoots Unarmed 20 Yr Old Airmen Holding Wallet In The Air

http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/Screen%20Shot%202014-03-24%20at%207_25_58%20PM.png

Police shoot man holding his wallet after minor traffic accident

OPELIKA, AL — While on an interstate drive to his next assignment in the USAF, a young man got in a minor traffic accident.  When police arrived to help, they told him to raise his hands.  An officer "perceived a threat" presumably because he was holding his wallet — and opened fire.  The young airman was shot him in the stomach and will now live the rest of his life attached to a colostomy bag.  The department "fully supports" the shooting.


http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/tyrannical-alabama-cop-shoots-unarmed-20-yr-old-airmen-holding-wallet-in-the-air-2925308.html?utm_medium=facebook-share&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_campaign=&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FhW12&utm_content=awesm-publisher

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

In a little over a week, on Tues night March 25,2014, the Albuquerque New Mexico police  murdered another man in cold blood as multiple witnesses watched in horror. This horrifying event was started by a neighbor who made a 911 call to the police alleging a man was pointing a gun at someone.  However, several eyewitnesses and family members that were on scene dispute that account, and say the man had never threatened anyone with a gun. In fact, the witnesses say when the man exited his apartment to speak with the officers while holding a gun to his own head, the police shot and killed him without giving him a chance to surrender.

Prior to killing the man,police used his sister to get him to exit the apartment, where he and his to nephews were held up.

Wynema Gonzagowski, a neighbor who was on scene, and witnessed these events unfold told this story to the news media.



"She (the sister) tells him (a police officer) 'I've got my brother on the phone. I'm talking to him. He wants to come out. He's scared. He's going to send the boys out and then he's going to follow them out.'"

"...She (the sister) kept telling her brother over and over 'They're not going to shoot you, they're not going to shoot you. They're not going to hurt you.

"The cop tells her (the sister) to tell him to drop the cell phone, so obviously the cop knew he had a cell phone in his hand. She (the sister) starts to tell him (the suspect) to drop the cell phone, and the cop grabs the phone out of her hand and hangs it up. He hung it up. He could have talked with the guy and told the guy himself to drop the cell phone, but he (the cop) hung up."

"Not even a minute later, they just shot him," another neighbor recalled, noting he had heard family members "begging" officers not to kill Redwine. "I didn't expect this to happen, for them to shoot him right away."

APD chief provides details on latest officer-involved shooting

Neighbors who witnessed a man getting shot and killed by Albuquerque police late Tuesday night said they saw the man holding a gun to his head — but never pointing or shooting it at officers — when he stepped out of an apartment in southwest Albuquerque, and they said police officers shot and killed him without giving him a chance to surrender.

Neighbors who watched the shooting unfold within 20 feet from behind windows also confirmed that the suspect, whom family and neighbors identified as 30-year-old Alfred Redwine, was holding a gun to one ear and a cell phone to the other when he exited the apartment behind his two teenage nephews, who walked out of the apartment with their hands up.

The neighbors' accounts contradict preliminary information APD Chief Gorden Eden gave during an early-morning news briefing, in which he said the suspect shot at officers and that officers returned fire.

Read Here: http://www.abqjournal.com/374422/abqnewsseeker/apd-chief-suspect-in-hospital-after-officers-fire-at-him-2.html


http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/tyrannical-albuquerque-new-mexico-police-murder-another-man-in-cold-blood-2926796.html?utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_campaign=&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FjWFT&utm_medium=facebook-share

Thursday, April 3, 2014 10:52

(Before It's News)

by Guerilla Girl Ashley The Pete Santilli Show & The Guerilla Media Network

While Albuquerque residents were taking to the streets to protest against the ongoing killings of there fellow citizens by their local police department, federal marshals decided to get into the act by shooting an unarmed fugitive Tuesday morning April 1, 2014, then seizing cameras from witnesses of the shooting in an attempt to cover up their crimes. But more witnesses with cameras showed up on scene, much to the dismay of the US Marshals.


U.S. Marshals Shoot Unarmed Man in Albuquerque, Seize Cell Phone Cameras from Witnesses

But more citizens with cameras arrived on the scene as a group of U.S. Marshals stood around the victim, Gilberto Angelo Serrano, proving unafraid to voice their displeasure at the trigger-happy culture that apparently has seeped into all levels of law enforcement in Albuquerque.

Realizing they were outnumbered by cameras, the U.S. Marshals could only ask people to  stand back, not bothering to try and stop them from recording as they tried to wrap a bandage around the head of the man they had just shot, who was laying on the sidewalk bleeding.

But a witness named Gabriel Valdez said the Marshals confiscated his cell phone camera as well as his mother's camera as "evidence," when he did not even start recording until after the shooting.

The incident took place around 10 a.m. when a group of Marshals were trying to apprehend a fugitive who was driving his truck.

Read Here: http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/04/02/u-s-marshals-shoot-unarmed-man-albuquerque-seize-cell-phone-cameras-witnesses/

Thursday, April 3, 2014 13:44

(Before It's News)

by Guerilla Girl Ashley The Pete Santilli Show & The Guerilla Media Network

In the latest police state news of the day comes a truly remarkable example of our out of control unconstitutional police. On Tuesday April 1,2014 a video of cop breaking into a mans home without  a 4th Amendment search warrant was posted on Facebook, and his since gone viral. The video actually shows the cop forcing his way into the mans home and following him into his living room, and tackling him to the couch and trying to cuff him. Another man that also lives there and is the one that filmed this latest police state incident is told by the cop "Get out of here, I'm not talking to you," to which the youth responds, "This is my house though".  When the homeowner asks the officer his name, the cop responds, "I'm not answering you, you answer to me," before tackling him and attempting to handcuff him.

RIVER RIDGE, La. —A man arrested during a videotaped incident in Jefferson Parish tells the WDSU I-Team he believes a deputy clearly crossed the line.


•

In the video, 26-year-old Donrell Breaux asked the deputy why he was trying to enter a River Ridge home. What followed was recorded on a mobile phone.

The video was posted to Facebook Tuesday night and quickly went viral. The video was shared on Facebook thousands of times within hours.

The I-Team talked with Breaux Wednesday night.

When asked why the deputy was at the home, Breaux said, "I think one of the neighbors called them because we was cussing and cutting up on the porch."

Read Here: http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/man-seeks-answer-for-jefferson-parish-arrest-after-video-goes-viral/25296730?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=wdsu%2Bnewschannel%2B6#mid=18739132

Thursday, April 3, 2014 16:04

DALLAS, TX — An innocent pedestrian was attacked by police, beaten up on camera, framed with 2 felonies, and then sat in jail for 15 months.  He was finally exonerated when the dash-cam video showed that everything the police had claimed was a lie.  That officer blatantly attempted to ruin a man's life but was never  charged with a crime.

A Night to Remember

Ronald B. Jones, age 62, was walking down the street on December 18, 2009, when his life was changed forever as he was singled out by a ruthless predator employed by the Dallas Police Department.


DPD Officer Matthew Antkowiak was supposed to be in the area looking for two white males who were fighting.  Instead he saw Mr. Jones, a black male who was doing nothing wrong and did not match either suspects' description.

Officer Antkowiak begins the encounter by ordering Mr. Jones to the front of his police cruiser.   Jones complies and places his hands on the hood.  For no apparent reason, Antkowiak began to place Jones in handcuffs.  When the officer aggressively wrenched Mr. Jones' arms behind his back, he spun around, as if to try and understand the cause for the arrest.

Officer Antkowiak escalated the violence by slamming Jones backward onto the hood and placing him in a chokehold.  The unhinged officer had placed a hand around his victim's neck.

As the struggle continued, the pair tumbled off of the hood onto the concrete street.   Soon after, more officers arrived and began to repeatedly kick the 62-year-old man.

When all was said and done, Mr. Jones was badly bruised and taken to jail.

Read Here: http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/ronald-jones/


http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/04/corrupt-cop-goes-free-62-year-old-black-man-jailed-for-15-months-dashcam-proves-he-was-framed-by-cop-2931866.html?utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FcVCL&utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_medium=facebook-share&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_campaign=

Is justice for sale in Delaware?

Posted on March 31, 2014 by PSUSA in News


DELAWARE — A member of a billionaire family who received a felony for raping a child is dodging prison time because a judge says "he would not fare well" behind bars.  The judge's preferential treatment exposes a glaring crack in the justice system.

Robert H. Richards IV admitted to both molesting his infant son and raping his daughter between the ages of 3-5.  He ultimately plead guilty to a single count of fourth-degree rape in a deal struck with prosecutors.   Richards is legally a rapist and is listed on the sex-offender registry.
Robert H. Richards IV, admitted child rapist. 
Robert H. Richards IV, admitted child rapist.
 
He also happens to be fabulously wealthy, and apparently impervious to punishment.  His family owns the du Pont chemical company and has a net worth in the billions.  Richards is heir to the du Pont fortune.  When not sexually-abusing innocent children, Richards lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, surviving off of the wealth amassed by his forebearers.

The Class C felony of which he was plead guilty to could have brought him up to 15 years in prison.   Instead he will face zero years in prison, thanks to the suspicious leniency of his judge, Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden.

In her sentencing order, Judge Jurden wrote, "Defendant will not fare well in Level 5 setting."  In Delaware, Level 5 refers to prison.

While offenders are occasionally given such treatment for non-violent crimes, and in extenuating circumstances such as failing health, it is perplexing to write off the sentence of a rapist.

"I've never heard of the judge saying in general that he is not going to do well," attorney Michael W. Modica said to Delaware Online. "Who thrives in jail?"

Instead of hard time in prison, Richards will receive a slap on the wrist.  He will keep his freedom, participate in a "treatment" program, and continue to live a comfortable lifestyle — with orders to stay away from children.

While a great many crimes are over-punished in the United States, violent crimes such as rape and child molestation are not among them.   Millions of people have suffered much harsher sentences for offenses which had no victim and had no violent component.  In fact, a number of people in the USA are serving life without parole — for marijuana.

Some would suggest mandatory minimum sentencing, but there are compelling arguments against these one-size-fits-all policies, which many contend lead to prison overcrowding and a number of unforeseen injustices.  The best solution seems to be the hardest to attain: competency and integrity at the bench.

Was justice served by letting the billionaire rapist escape a day in prison?  Is justice for sale in Delaware?

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/judge-excuses-wealthy-child-rapist/

Try reading this in the paper that ran it instead of some slanted rag. Money had nothing to do with it. It happened 6 years ago. He's been in treatment ever since. Unfortunately it was a very weak case. One can only do what the law allows based on evidence and there was none. Check out delawareonline for the News Journal paper.
I only saw what you wrote because some one wondered if I'd seen it. Normally I don't read this thread  because it's mostly stuff I don't care to read....Disturbing crap on all sides.
Now don't go deciding to put words in my mouth about what I think about this article or don't. Just because I'm an elite rich lady, according to your comments, ;D ;D ;D doesn't mean you can read my independent mind. Why don't ya pick on California or Oklahoma or  Colorado or Texas for awhile. They have their share of terrible people too.
   Care to have an opinion of Fort Hood? Why, doesn't it mean that all military personnel have the potential to go nutz at any time and kill us all? Wanna throw around some labels? HA!

Quote from: Diane Amberg on April 05, 2014, 01:49:10 PM
Try reading this in the paper that ran it instead of some slanted rag. Money had nothing to do with it. It happened 6 years ago. He's been in treatment ever since. Unfortunately it was a very weak case. One can only do what the law allows based on evidence and there was none. Check out delawareonline for the News Journal paper.
I only saw what you wrote because some one wondered if I'd seen it. Normally I don't read this thread  because it's mostly stuff I don't care to read....Disturbing crap on all sides.
Now don't go deciding to put words in my mouth about what I think about this article or don't. Just because I'm an elite rich lady, according to your comments, ;D ;D ;D doesn't mean you can read my independent mind. Why don't ya pick on California or Oklahoma or  Colorado or Texas for awhile. They have their share of terrible people too.
   Care to have an opinion of Fort Hood? Why, doesn't it mean that all military personnel have the potential to go nutz at any time and kill us all? Wanna throw around some labels? HA!

I only read your take on Common Core and this one because some one told me it was here,otherwise I wouldn't have. The rest of your complaints I don't bother with. Same old, same old, ad nauseaum. Yawn... ;)

Quote from: Diane Amberg on April 05, 2014, 04:07:16 PM
I only read your take on Common Core and this one because some one told me it was here,otherwise I wouldn't have. The rest of your complaints I don't bother with. Same old, same old, ad nauseaum. Yawn... ;)

LOL

Quote from: Diane Amberg on April 05, 2014, 01:49:10 PM
Try reading this in the paper that ran it instead of some slanted rag. Money had nothing to do with it. It happened 6 years ago. He's been in treatment ever since. Unfortunately it was a very weak case. One can only do what the law allows based on evidence and there was none. Check out delawareonline for the News Journal paper.
I only saw what you wrote because some one wondered if I'd seen it. Normally I don't read this thread  because it's mostly stuff I don't care to read....Disturbing crap on all sides.
Now don't go deciding to put words in my mouth about what I think about this article or don't. Just because I'm an elite rich lady, according to your comments, ;D ;D ;D doesn't mean you can read my independent mind. Why don't ya pick on California or Oklahoma or  Colorado or Texas for awhile. They have their share of terrible people too.
   Care to have an opinion of Fort Hood? Why, doesn't it mean that all military personnel have the potential to go nutz at any time and kill us all? Wanna throw around some labels? HA!

What I posted, happened just recently not 6 years ago and on several slanted news media. I was not picking on Delaware, but the way the law is totally out of whack. The man admitted guilt and there is nothing weak about that. So he got therapy instead of sentencing and you are proud of that because -----?

Right here are some more slanted news media reports:

CNN Headline: Du Pont heir convicted of raping daughter spared prison  Wed April 2, 2014
                       http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/justice/delaware-du-pont-rape-case/

(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/delawareonline/images/site-masthead-logo@2x.png)
Headline:Judge said du Pont heir 'will not fare well' in prison
                              A Superior Court judge who sentenced a wealthy du Pont heir to probation for raping    his 3-year-old daughter noted in her order that he "will not fare well" in prison and needed treatment instead of time behind bars, court records show. April 2, 2014
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2014/03/28/sunday-preview-du-pont-heir-stayed-prison/7016769/

(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2014/img/time_logo.png?m=1387270705g)

Headline: Wealthy Child Rapist Given Probation As Judge Felt He Would 'Not Do Well' in Jail
                March 31, 2014
                The heir to the du Pont fortune pled guilty in 2009 to charges of raping his three-year old daughter, but never spent time in jail.

Newly released documents reveal that in 2009 a Delaware judge sentenced a wealthy heir to probation after he admitted he had raped his 3-year old daughter, saying the rich white man would "not do well" in prison.

Thank you Diane for prompting me to post from DelawareOnLine News. They seem to recognize what you do not seem to recognize. Possibly due to your prejudice to defend the state of Delaware where you live.

A confessed rapist of a 3 year old should be in prison like any other child rapist or any other rapist IMHO. But as it is in our legal system if you can afford it you can walk free. If you are poor expect to be gunned down armed or not.

The legal system needs repair, IMO.

Thank you for your help Diane and your encouragement.

FROM WATCHDOG WIRE


Student sues state and ABC agents

March 31, 2014


In April of 2013, Elizabeth Daly and two of her sorority sisters at the University of Virginia purchased cookie dough and canned sparkling water at a Harris Teeter right next to campus in Charlottesville, VA. Little did she know this would soon be the most expensive grocery store purchase of her life.

After leaving the store, Daly got back into her vehicle and was confronted by two ABC agents who were on the lookout for underage purchases and possession of alcohol. It was 10:00 at night, and the agents were not in uniform.

They were telling her to roll down her window, something she couldn't do with the car off. Once she turned it on, several other agents rushed to her car, and Daly panicked when one pulled out a gun. Another agent jumped on the hood, attempting to break the passenger window using a flashlight.

These men were in regular clothes, not acting like agents. Daly had a right to be terrified.

Naturally, Daly attempted to flee the scene. Her friend, Ann Downy, dialed 9-1-1 to report the issue; upon finding out the men actually were agents, they pulled over and complied with the officers who came on the scene.

Ms. Daly was charged with two felonies for hitting two agents with her car, and spent the night in jail.

Her lawyers, James B. Thorsen and John K. Honey Jr. claim:


The agents acted with actual malice, out of embarrassment and disgrace for their own intentional and grossly negligent acts and charged (Daly) with three felonies and did so out of anger and personal spite.

After the truth came to light, her charges were expunged.

Since the incident, Daly has struggled with anxiety issues and a tremor in her right hand.

This past Tuesday, she filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution, six counts of assault and battery, and failure to train ABC agents. She is seeking $40 million.

The suit claims:
Ms. Daly does not and never has consumed alcohol or abused drugs, and/or her parents, on her behalf, have incurred significant legal, medical and other costs, and will continue to do so in the future due to the malicious, intentional, and/or grossly negligent actions of the defendants.

http://watchdogwire.com/blog/2014/03/31/after-being-wrongfully-arrested-uva-student-seeks-40-million/

I figured you would have more to say about the Delaware case, so I came back.
Ross, I just can not believe what you had to say. I didn't defend my state, in fact I told you to where the accurate information could be found.
I don't consider 2008/9 "recent".  You must have an odd idea of time.Where were you when the case first appeared?
The prosecution stated it had a weak case. There was no reliable evidence and  the testimony was not reliable either. It has to do with the law, not my opinion! By the time you are done "adjusting" the facts, I'll be the guilty one. >:( Stop suggesting how I feel about things.You have no idea.
They thought if it went to jury they would have had to have found him not gulity based on the evidence, or lack of it, and he would have walked with no treatment or restrictions of any kind. They offered him a fourth degree rape charge, which can have  "no prison to 30 months" as a sentence. Go back and reread pages 13 and 17 for the legal details. He did not get away free and without consequences.
We heard a lot more here on the radio than was ever printed in the paper.There was a lot of discussion on the term "rape" and the various kinds came up then. In fact, they discussed how many parents could be convicted of rape, or some form of it, for just properly washing their baby/young child/toddler's private parts.Think about it..
  He has been under treatment for years and that was considered. It had to do with the "not do well in prison" comment. He couldn't get the same treatment while incarcerated... not my opinion, just the facts as stated. Some had to do with a child that young giving reliable testmony in court. It's a very upsetting experience for younger ones.
I've sat on juries quite a few times over the years and sometimes I really wondered what the laws were for when we got our charges from the judge...but that's the way it is. And that's enough about that.

Quote from: Diane Amberg on April 07, 2014, 09:02:22 AM
I figured you would have more to say about the Delaware case, so I came back.
Ross, I just can not believe what you had to say. I didn't defend my state, in fact I told you to where the accurate information could be found.
I don't consider 2008/9 "recent".  You must have an odd idea of time.Where were you when the case first appeared?

First Diane, I repeat, once again I did not write the articles.

The court case took place in 2009 that was in the article as well. The articles are now 2014.

Second, the articles are dated.

Third, you were trying to defend Delaware by telling me to pick on other states.
You need not defend Delaware as Delaware was not on trial.

Forth, I did go to Delawareonline as you pointed out and posted their article as well.

Finally, the article said, (not me) that the man plead guilty. Guilty is guilty and a infant rapist in my personal opinion should be in prison for many years at best.

What does it take for you to accept guilt. If the man was not guilty and had not plead guilty he would have one hell of a law suit.

So who is cornfused about the dates?

I am quoting myself with the headlines just for you.

Now remember I did not write the articles, wake up and smell the roses. It makes no difference how many jury's you may have sat on, they have absolutely nothing to do with these media stories, none, period.

Quote from: ROSS on April 06, 2014, 09:20:36 AM
CNN Headline: Du Pont heir convicted of raping daughter spared prison  Wed April 2, 2014
                       http://www.CNN.com/2014/04/02/justice/Delaware-du-Pont-rape-case/

(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/delawareonline/images/site-masthead-logo@2x.png)
Headline:Judge said du Pont heir 'will not fare well' in prison
                             
Headline: Wealthy Child Rapist Given Probation As Judge Felt He Would 'Not Do Well' in Jail
                March 31, 2014
                The heir to the du Pont fortune pled guilty in 2009 to charges of raping his three-year old daughter, but never spent time in jail.

Newly released documents reveal that in 2009 a Delaware judge sentenced a wealthy heir to probation after he admitted he had raped his 3-year old daughter, saying the rich white man would "not do well" in prison.

Please at least read the red and blue highlighted sentences and the dates of the articles.

If you can not read and comprehend the dates on the articles of March 31, 2014 and Wed April 2, 2014 as recent dates perhaps you were educated under Common Core. I apologize for that, the devil made me do it.
I just can not help you understand beyond what I have posted. Sorry!

Thank you Diane.
Bye-bye

April 7, 2014 by MR.H —


A Ruby Ridge-style standoff is brewing in Nevada, where dozens of armed federal agents are closing in on cattle rancher Cliven Bundy over claims that Bundy has allowed his cows to graze illegally on government land, endangering a protected species of tortoise.

Vowing to take a stand for, "your liberty and freedom," Bundy says he is prepared to be killed as authorities surround a 600,000 acre section of public land as a result of Bundy violating a 1993 Bureau of Land Management ruling which changed grazing rights in order to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

"With all these rangers and all this force that is out here, they are only after one man right now. They are after Cliven Bundy. Whether they want to incarcerate me or whether they want to shoot me in the back, they are after me. But that is not all that is at stake here. Your liberty and freedom is at stake," Bundy said.

Bundy's refusal to recognize federal authority over the land under dispute and his failure to pay tens of thousands of dollars in grazing fees stems from his assertion that his family's history trumps bureaucracy.

"My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley ever since 1877. All these rights I claim have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and water. I have been here longer. My rights are before the BLM even existed," Bundy said.

Accusing feds of seizing Nevada's sovereignty, Bundy says he has fought the battle legally, through the media, and is now gearing up to fight it physically.

"Armed agents are forming a a military-like staging area to prevent anyone from approaching the area," writes Mike Paczesny.

Bundy asserts that his case is emblematic of how America has been transformed into a "police state," labeling the government's actions "pathetic".

Hundreds of federal officials, aided by helicopters, low flying aircraft and hired cowboys, began rounding up Bundy's cattle on Saturday as Bundy accused them of "trespassing," adding that the impact will only serve to raise beef prices for residents of Las Vegas 80 miles away.

Feds postponed a similar raid in 2012 over fears the action would spur violence. Bundy has drawn a lot of support from the local community and protesters are heading to the area to demand authorities back off. Officials have created a taped off "First Amendment Area" where demonstrators can voice their concerns. A sign placed inside the area reads "Welcome to Amerika – Wake Up" alongside a hammer and sickle logo.

"The rights were created for us," Bundy told the Las Vegas Review Journal. "I have the right to use the forage. I have water rights. I have access rights. I have range improvement rights, and I claim all the other rights that the citizens of Nevada have, whether it's to camp, to fish or to go off road."

Addressing the justification of seizing the cattle to protect a species of tortoise, Bundy stated, "I'll never get it. If it weren't for our cattle, there'd be more brush fires out here. The tortoises eat the cow manure, too. It's filled with protein."

The standoff has echoes of the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident, during which Randy Weaver, accused of selling an ATF agent two illegal sawed-off shotguns, became embroiled in a tragic confrontation with the the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and the FBI, resulting in the death of Weaver's son Sammy, his wife Vicki, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Francis Degan.

The story also brings back memories of New Hampshire couple Ed and Elaine Brown, who were involved in a nine month standoff with armed law enforcement and feds as a result of their refusal to pay income tax. The Browns were later convicted of "plotting to kill federal agents" because of their refusal to surrender and were both given de facto life sentences.

In a series of YouTube videos, Cliven Bundy and his wife outline the background behind their decision to take a stand against the feds, arguing that their fight is a constitutionally-driven line in the sand to push back against the usurpation of big government.


http://banoosh.com/blog/2014/04/07/armed-feds-prepare-showdown-nevada-cattle-rancher/

Hey Ross,ya better go back to delawareonline again. Richards pulled a fast one. There is a big article in the paper this morning.I can't wait to see what the court system does about it
Also, my good friend and neighbor Luke Chapman got re-elected to Newark City Council yesterday. Hooray! We worked for his re-eletion. Al will remain on the Planning Comission too.No police state here.

Quote from: Diane Amberg on April 09, 2014, 07:57:37 AM
Hey Ross,ya better go back to delawareonline again. Richards pulled a fast one. There is a big article in the paper this morning.I can't wait to see what the court system does about it
Also, my good friend and neighbor Luke Chapman got re-elected to Newark City Council yesterday. Hooray! We worked for his re-eletion. Al will remain on the Planning Comission too.No police state here.

Well thank you Diane,

The article reads like so much lip service on his part and a failure of the court to enforce it's own rules. This man should definitely be in jail. But as they say "money talks and B.S. walks and also if you can't dazzle the brilliance baffle them with B.S.

If it was some like you or me the key would have been thrown away.

Du Pont heir didn't go to court-ordered clinic
The article is at: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2014/04/08/du-pont-heir-finish-treatment-records-show/7475045/

Oh Diane I was not referring to Delaware as a particular police state. I do believe the name police state refers to the country as a whole.

Thanks once again Diane for the extra info.

I have had quite enough of this Dupont person.

Thursday, Aug 22, 2013 10:18 AM CSTMany innocent victims have become collateral damage in our pointless, destructive drug war.
Alex Henderson, Alternet


This article originally appeared on Alternet.

AlterNet
In a democratic republic, the "innocent until proven guilty" concept is supposed to be sacrosanct. Jurors, police officers, judges and prosecuting attorneys—at least in theory—are required to err on the side of caution, and if a guilty person occasionally goes free, so be it. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. The war on drugs is not only fought aggressively, it is fought carelessly and haphazardly, and a long list of innocent victims have been killed or maimed in the process.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently addressed the war on drugs during a speech for the American Bar Association's annual meeting, calling for the United States to seriously reevaluate its harsh policy of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses. Holder acknowledged that "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason," and he pointed out that according to one report, black males convicted in drug cases typically receive sentences that are 20% longer than the sentences imposed on white males for similar offenses. It was refreshing to hear an attorney general make those statements; also encouraging is a recent Rasmussen poll finding that 82% of Americans see the war on drugs as a failure.

Many people from across the political spectrum—from the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to right-wing libertarians like Ron Paul, Walter Williams and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson—have pointed out that the war on drugs has become much deadlier than the drugs themselves. Innocent civilians have more to fear from botched drug raids and careless police work than they do from drug dealers.

Below are 10 innocent victims who became collateral damage and lost their lives in the war on drugs (there are many, many more).

1. Kathryn Johnston; Atlanta, Georgia, 2006.

Narcotics officers who kill innocent people in the war on drugs often don't even face suspensions, let alone criminal charges. But the conduct of three Atlanta police officers in the killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was so unscrupulous that all three faced criminal charges.

On November 21, 2006, plainclothes officers Jason R. Smith, Gregg Junnier and Arthur Tesler carried out a no-knock drug raid on Johnston's Atlanta home based on bad information from an informant/marijuana dealer named Alex White. When they broke in, Johnston (who lived alone in a high-crime area of the city and kept a gun in her house for protection) assumed she was being the victim of a home invasion and fired a shot. But a lot more shooting was done by the officers: a total of 39 shots were fired, several of which hit her. And while Johnston was lying on the floor dying, Smith handcuffed her.

An investigation revealed that after Johnston's death, a major coverup was attempted, including planting bags of marijuana in her house and trying to bully White into lying and saying that Johnston was selling crack cocaine. Smith, Junnier and Tesler faced a variety of charges from both the federal government and the state of Georgia. Smith and Junnier both pled guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter; Smith also pled guilty to perjury and admitted he planted the marijuana in Johnston's house. And all three of them pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate her civil rights. In a civil suit, Johnston's family was awarded a $490,000 settlement.

2. Tarika Wilson; Lima, Ohio, 2008.

On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. Wilson, a single mother, had been romantically involved with a suspected drug dealer named Anthony Terry (who later pled guilty to selling drugs). When Chavalia and other narcotics officers raided the house where Wilson was living, Terry was nowhere to be found. Wilson, however, was in one of the bedrooms; when Chavalia fired shots into that bedroom, she was killed. Wilson's one-year-old child was also shot but survived, although one of his fingers needed to be amputated.

Chavalia later said he thought shots were coming from that bedroom, but the fact that he killed an unarmed woman holding a baby was inexcusable, especially in light of the fact that Wilson, according to her sister Tania Wilson, was not involved in drug sales herself. In a democratic republic, civilians are not executed in paramilitary-like raids based on guilt by association. And using a SWAT team to go after a small-time drug dealer is bad police work. Although Chavalia was acquitted of criminal charges, Wilson's family was awarded $2.5 million in 2010 in a civil lawsuit against the city of Lima.

3. The Rev. Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994.

The Rev. Accelyne Williams was no drug dealer. In fact, the 75-year-old minister was a substance abuse counselor in Boston and had a long history of doing good work in that city's African-American community. But no good deed goes unpunished, and on March 25, 1994, Williams' efforts to help a substance abuser led to his death.

That substance abuser was a police informant who gave Boston narcotics officers the address of an alleged drug dealer who lived in the same building as Williams, but a SWAT team raided the wrong apartment—Williams' apartment—and after being violently shoved onto the ground and handcuffed, the minister began to vomit. Williams suffered a heart attack and died.

4. Annie Rae Dixon; Tyler, Texas, 1992.

Annie Rae Dixon, an 84-year-old African-American woman, was killed by a narcotics officer in Tyler, Texas on January 29, 1992. Dixon, who was a paraplegic and was battling pneumonia, was in her bedroom when narcotics officers raided her home at 2am; an informant claimed he had bought drugs from Dixon's granddaughter. Narcotics officer Frank Baggett, Jr. said that when he kicked down the door to Dixon's bedroom, he stumbled—which caused his gun to go off and sent a bullet into Dixon's chest. No drugs were found in her house.

At an inquest, a predominantly white jury decided that the shooting was accidental and that Baggett should not be charged with anything. Many African Americans in that part of Texas, including members of the local NAACP chapter and Smith County Commissioner Andrew Mellontree, were outraged that Baggett dodged both criminal and civil charges. Mellontree, in a 1992 interview, told the New York Times: "People can't accept the idea that a 84-year-old grandmother gets shot in her bed, and it's not even worth a negligence charge."

5. The Rev. Jonathan Ayers; Toccoa, Georgia, 2009.

One of the most disturbing examples of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs was that of the Rev. Jonathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist minister from northern Georgia. Ayers, who was white, had a reputation for being the type of Christian who didn't spend all of his time on a soap box preaching about sin and salvation—he actually put his money where his mouth was, became active in his community, and did things to help people. Tragically, that cost Ayers his life when, on September 1, 2009, he gave a woman named Johanna Jones Barrett $23 to help her pay her rent.

Undercover narcotics officers who had been trailing Barrett suspected that she was selling crack cocaine, and when Ayers gave her $23, they began trailing Ayers. When Ayers left a gas station/convenience store after using an ATM and saw three plainclothes officers pointing their guns at him, he had no idea they were cops. Ayers, who obviously thought they were gang members or carjackers, tried to escape but was shot and killed. Not surprisingly, no drugs were found in either Ayers' vehicle or on his dead body, although one of the officers claimed that before the killing, Barrett had sold him $50 worth of crack cocaine.

6. Rodolfo "Rudy" Cardenas; San Jose, California, 2004.

Had the narcotics officers who confronted Ayers been wearing uniforms that made them easily recognizable as cops, it's possible that he would not have fled and would still be alive today. But Ayers had no way of knowing he wasn't being attacked by carjackers or gang members; in fact, the officers who killed him went out of their way to look as thuggish and intimidating as possible. A similar tragedy occurred in San Jose, Calif. on February 17, 2004, when plainclothes officers were attempting to serve a warrant for a drug-related parole violation and 43-year-old Rodolfo Cardenas, a father of five, had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The officers saw Cardenas and assumed he was David Gonzales, the man they were looking for—and when they pointed their guns at Cardenas, he fled (first in a vehicle, then on foot) but was shot in the back and killed. Cardenas, clearly, found himself in the same position as Ayers: he was violently confronted by police officers he didn't know were police; he ran for his life and was shot dead. Dorothy Duckett, a 78-year-old neighbor, told the San Jose Mercury News that when Cardenas was running away, he had his hands in the air and was yelling, "Don't shoot."

Michael Walker, the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement officer who fired the fatal shot, was charged with voluntary manslaughter but was acquitted by a San Jose jury in 2005.

7. Ismael Mena; Denver, Colorado, 1999.

SWAT teams can serve a valuable function in law enforcement. In hostage situations, for example, a SWAT team can save lives. But in the drug war, the combination of SWAT teams, no-knock raids and sloppy police work can have deadly consequences for innocent people. In Denver, one such person was 45-year-old Ismael Mena, who was shot and killed by a SWAT team during a no-knock raid on September 29, 1999. The raid was conducted based on bad information from an informant, but a thorough search of the house turned up no evidence of drug dealing—and an autopsy showed no evidence of drugs in Mena's body. Apologists for the killing claimed that Mena (a Mexican immigrant) had a gun, and LeRoy Lemos (a community activist) responded: "If police hadn't gotten the wrong house, Mena would be alive. No matter what the misconduct is, the police are always exonerated."

ACLU members were critical of the way the raid was handled and asserted that a no-knock raid was totally uncalled for; Mark Silverstein, legal director for the Colorado ACLU, said, "If the government officials who authorized the warrant had followed the law, Ismael Mena would be alive today."

8. Mario Paz; El Monte, California, 1999.

On August 9, 1999, 64-year-old Mario Paz was in his home in Southern California when up to 20 narcotics officers for the city of El Monte conducted a no-knock raid and used a grenade during the attack. Some of the officers claimed that Paz appeared to be going for a gun, and they fatally shot him twice in the back in front of his wife. Although Paz was a gun owner, he never shot at the officers—he didn't live long enough. No drugs were found in the house, and Bill Ankeny (El Monte's assistant police chief) later acknowledged that there was never any evidence of the Paz family being involved in drug dealing.

The decision to raid the Paz home, according to Ankeny, was made after narcotics officers found some bills and Department of Motor Vehicle records containing the family's address among the possessions of a drug suspect named Marcos Beltrán. Back in the 1980s, Beltrán had lived next door to the Paz family—and at one point, they agreed to let Beltrán receive mail in their home. So in other words, El Monte officers conducted a commando-style raid on the Paz home based on the fact that a drug suspect (who was out on bail and hadn't been convicted) had received some mail in their home during the previous decade.

9. Alberta Spruill; New York City, 2003.

In many cases, politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) are so afraid of being considered soft on drugs that they are reluctant to say anything critical of narcotics officers no matter how badly they screw up. But in the case of 57-year-old Harlem resident Alberta Spruill, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg admitted: "Clearly, the police made a mistake."

Around 6:10am on May 16, 2003, officers executed a no-knock drug raid on Spruill's apartment based on bad information they had received from an informant/alleged drug dealer. A concussion grenade was thrown into the apartment; Spruill, a city employee who was getting ready to leave for work, suffered a heart attack and died. After causing Spruill's death, the officers realized that they had just killed an innocent person. Attorneys for the city of New York agreed to pay $1.6 million to Spruill's family.

10. Pedro Oregon Navarro; Houston, Texas, 1998.

Drug raids are often conducted based on information from informants (many of them drug users and/or low-level drug dealers), but all too often, the information is unreliable and costs innocent victims their lives. One such victim was 22-year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro. On July 12, 1998, Houston officers raided Navarro's home based on an alleged drug user's claim that drugs were being sold there. A total of 30 bullets were fired, and Navarro was shot 12 times. Officers claimed Navarro had a gun and fired at them, but ballistics tests proved that all 30 shots were fired by the officers.

In 1999, Al Robison (president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas), denounced the killing of Navarro as a "very clear illustration of the insanity of our current drug policy." The officers who raided Navarro's home violated department policy by failing to obtain a search warrant. No illegal drugs were found in Navarro's home, and blood tests conducted after his death showed no traces of any illegal drugs in his system.

Posthumously, Navarro was proven innocent, and his senseless death underscored the need for the United States to seriously reform its misguided drug laws. Had war on drugs supporters learned a lesson from Navarro's death, it is quite possible that the killings of the Rev. Jonathan Ayers, Rodolfo "Rudy" Cardenas, Alberta Spruill, Mario Paz, Kathryn Johnston and others could have been prevented.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/10_shocking_examples_of_police_killing_innocent_people_in_the_war_on_drugs_partner/

allgov.com
February 3, 2014

Here's a pitch for a procedural: Cops track down the number of police shootings in the United States in a given year. Why should that require any detective work? It's that there are currently no national statistics on how many people are shot by police each year.

In some areas, such as Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and Massachusetts, police shootings have increased, according to a report in Salon. Whether those numbers can be extrapolated to a national trend is not known though. Police departments are not required to release data on how many civilians are shot by officers each year and many don't.

Some observers believe that there are more police shootings than there had been five or 10 years ago. Those who want to hold police accountable are stymied by the lack of nationwide statistics on the issue.

So, we're left to try to find the information on our own. Jim Fisher tried in 2012. According to his True Crime blog, in 2011, 1,146 people were shot by police, with 607 killed. To come up with those numbers, Fisher scoured the Internet for data about every shooting that year. But that system is not comprehensive.

What statistics there are do show that police shootings often involve racial minorities, those with mental illnesses and sometimes victims who fall into both categories.  For instance, there were 57 police shootings in Chicago in 2012, according to the city. Fifty of those shot were African-American. A review of police shootings in Maine by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram showed that between 2000 and 2012, 57 people were shot by police in Maine. Of those, at least 24 of the shootings involved victims with mental health issues.

Police shootings may be on the rise because of state laws that empower more firearm use by citizens. Indiana passed a law in 2012 that allowed people to use deadly force against public servants, including law enforcement officers, who illegally enter their homes. Of course, police have no way of knowing whether the occupant of a home thinks the authorities are there legally, so some officers are nervous. "It's just a recipe for disaster," Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police president Tim Downs told Bloomberg News. "It just puts a bounty on our heads."

-Steve Straehle

Texas police officer suspended after video shows him kicking, tripping students.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/georgetown-police-officer-filmed-pushing-tripping-/nfd25/

Puppycide: Burglary victim calls police. Deputy shows up and reportedly shoots the victim's dog.
And an attempted puppycide: The cop was writing up an illegally parked trailer when he shot the owner's dog. http://m.kltv.com/#!/newsDetail/25302236

And one more: Sheriff's deputy attempts to shoot dog, mistakenly shoots himself instead.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Sheriffs-Deputy-Accidentally-Shoots-Himself/255584201





http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/04/22/morning-links-obama-may-grant-mass-clemency-in-drug-cases/

By Dustin Hurst  /   April 22, 2014
By Dustin Hurst | Watchdog.org

Nearly a decade ago, a bespectacled loner with sweet bo-staff skills offered a dire indictment of his small Idaho high school.

"You know ... there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school," Napoleon Dynamite told Pedro Sanchez, his Mexican immigrant pal with political ambitions.

To save himself in the gang-ridden school in Preston, Idaho, Napoleon relied on his bo-staff, nunchuks and, if things got real heavy, his wolverine-killing 12-gauge shotgun — at least until local police decided to pitch in.

Recently, Preston police stepped up in a major way: They acquired a military-grade vehicle previously used on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan, a behemoth truck originally designed for protecting American soldiers from roadside bombs.

If the massive truck — known as an MRAP — seems an odd fit for Preston, a tiny town of just more than 5,000 in southeastern Idaho, it's because it's just that. The city's crime checks in far below the U.S. average, and there's hasn't been a murder there since 2006. The city's not exactly a crime-ridden hell hole where police might need an ambush-resistant and bomb-proof troop carrier.

An eight-week course of Rex Kwon Do just wasn't enough for residents of Preston, I guess.

The city's ownership of such heavy equipment reveals a few of inconvenient and uncomfortable truths for people worried about the creep of the modern militarized police state: It's here, it doesn't care the size of your town and officials really don't care about your concerns.

That's evident by the places these vehicles are popping up across the map as the American military winds down its efforts overseas. Another tiny town, Storm Lake, Iowa, recently received one. Storm Lake, like Preston, is far from a haven for crooks, mobsters or gangsters. The town hasn't logged a murder since 2001.

Besides  procurement of ostentatious military vehicles, the creep of the paramilitary police state reveals itself in other ways.

Take 30 seconds to watch a police recruiting video for the Hobbs Police Department in Hobbs, N.M., a town of just more than 43,000. Instead of protect and serve, the clip shows police busting into a home in full SWAT gear. The video also features the town's SWAT truck, a heavily armored vehicle in its own right.

Radley Balko, author of "Rise of the Warrior Cop," wrote this about the message the Hobbs recruiting clip sends: "What sort of person would be attracted to a career in law enforcement based on the images and activities depicted in that video? And is that the sort of person you'd want wearing a badge and carrying a gun in your neighborhood?"

It's safe to say that Hobbs is not Mayberry, given that the city's crime rate is higher than the national average in nearly every category. That said, it's not Chicago or Detroit, either.

Or, consider the story of Katie Watson, the Watchdog.org reporter bold enough to ask Virginia police for all the pictures of her car they've taken using controversial license plate scanners. The police turned over 16 photos, including one snapped as she made her way to weekly Bible study on a Wednesday night.

Though people like Balko and Watson sound the alarm, police don't seem too interested the problem. That, or they just don't think there is one.

"I hope it is not going to be used," Preston Police Chief Ken Geddes said of the MRAP. "Aren't our people as important as anybody else? Why wouldn't we be interested in using it?"

"It's a representation of an aspect of the police department that is there, what we do every day, the tools that we use and work with," Hobbs Police Chief Chris McCall told Watchdog.org about the aggressive advertisement.

Yet, with the rise of the 24-hour news network and myriad social media sharing platforms, Americans are constantly bombarded with stories of overly aggressive cops behaving badly.

Take, for example, cops in Albuquerque shooting a 38-year-old homeless man after a tense standoff.  Or, a cop in Filer, Idaho, who shot a service dog in front of a 9-year-old By Dustin Hurst | Watchdog.org

Nearly a decade ago, a bespectacled loner with sweet bo-staff skills offered a dire indictment of his small Idaho high school.

"You know ... there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school," Napoleon Dynamite told Pedro Sanchez, his Mexican immigrant pal with political ambitions.

To save himself in the gang-ridden school in Preston, Idaho, Napoleon relied on his bo-staff, nunchuks and, if things got real heavy, his wolverine-killing 12-gauge shotgun — at least until local police decided to pitch in.

Recently, Preston police stepped up in a major way: They acquired a military-grade vehicle previously used on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan, a behemoth truck originally designed for protecting American soldiers from roadside bombs.

If the massive truck — known as an MRAP — seems an odd fit for Preston, a tiny town of just more than 5,000 in southeastern Idaho, it's because it's just that. The city's crime checks in far below the U.S. average, and there's hasn't been a murder there since 2006. The city's not exactly a crime-ridden hell hole where police might need an ambush-resistant and bomb-proof troop carrier.

An eight-week course of Rex Kwon Do just wasn't enough for residents of Preston, I guess.

The city's ownership of such heavy equipment reveals a few of inconvenient and uncomfortable truths for people worried about the creep of the modern militarized police state: It's here, it doesn't care the size of your town and officials really don't care about your concerns.

That's evident by the places these vehicles are popping up across the map as the American military winds down its efforts overseas. Another tiny town, Storm Lake, Iowa, recently received one. Storm Lake, like Preston, is far from a haven for crooks, mobsters or gangsters. The town hasn't logged a murder since 2001.

Besides  procurement of ostentatious military vehicles, the creep of the paramilitary police state reveals itself in other ways.

Take 30 seconds to watch a police recruiting video for the Hobbs Police Department in Hobbs, N.M., a town of just more than 43,000. Instead of protect and serve, the clip shows police busting into a home in full SWAT gear. The video also features the town's SWAT truck, a heavily armored vehicle in its own right.

Radley Balko, author of "Rise of the Warrior Cop," wrote this about the message the Hobbs recruiting clip sends: "What sort of person would be attracted to a career in law enforcement based on the images and activities depicted in that video? And is that the sort of person you'd want wearing a badge and carrying a gun in your neighborhood?"

It's safe to say that Hobbs is not Mayberry, given that the city's crime rate is higher than the national average in nearly every category. That said, it's not Chicago or Detroit, either.

Or, consider the story of Katie Watson, the Watchdog.org reporter bold enough to ask Virginia police for all the pictures of her car they've taken using controversial license plate scanners. The police turned over 16 photos, including one snapped as she made her way to weekly Bible study on a Wednesday night.

Though people like Balko and Watson sound the alarm, police don't seem too interested the problem. That, or they just don't think there is one.

"I hope it is not going to be used," Preston Police Chief Ken Geddes said of the MRAP. "Aren't our people as important as anybody else? Why wouldn't we be interested in using it?"

"It's a representation of an aspect of the police department that is there, what we do every day, the tools that we use and work with," Hobbs Police Chief Chris McCall told Watchdog.org about the aggressive advertisement.

Yet, with the rise of the 24-hour news network and myriad social media sharing platforms, Americans are constantly bombarded with stories of overly aggressive cops behaving badly.

Take, for example, cops in Albuquerque shooting a 38-year-old homeless man after a tense standoff.  Or, a cop in Filer, Idaho, who shot a service dog in front of a 9-year-old boy's birthday party. How about the cop who shot and killed a 24-year-old unarmed North Carolina man who'd just been in a car crash and was desperately seeking help?

The stories keep coming and coming.

Connor Boyack, president of the Utah-based Libertas Institute, told Watchdog.org the militarization of police forces can destroy the sense of community small towns often enjoy.

"Police operate effectively when they are deeply integrated into, and have the trust of, the communities in which they operate," Boyack said. "The increasing militarization of police forces alienates them from the average individual, thus creating an 'us versus them' scenario that erodes trust and leads police officers to see the citizens they serve (and who employ them) as potential threats to their own safety."

Who's to blame for the mess? Boyack said it's the citizenry itself.

"Most importantly, there needs to be greater conversation amongst neighbors in a community as to whether such tools and tactics are acceptable. Do small towns, for example, really need armored vehicles?" he asked. "Ignorance and apathy has allowed for the slow creep of militarization to happen, and only an informed and active citizenry can stop it. "

As Kip Dynamite, Napoleon's older brother said, "I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious."

http://watchdog.org/139269/napoleon-dynamite-tank/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Trending%20Email

By Rob Nikolewski  /   April 22, 2014

SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico Watchdog story about a 30-second commercial for the police department in Hobbs has drawn national attention, with a well-known author and civil libertarian criticizing the ad running on television stations across the state emphasizing aggressive, military-style policing.

But Radley Balko points out the Hobbs video isn't unique. In fact, the author of "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces," gives examples of police departments across the country who showcase recruiting videos that highlight the "shoot 'em up" aspects of the job.

To recap, here's the 30-second Hobbs ad:

"Now ask yourself: What sort of person would be attracted to a career in law enforcement based on the images and activities depicted in that video? And is that the sort of person you'd want wearing a badge and carrying a gun in your neighborhood?" Balko asked in the online edition of the Washington Post.

"The video isn't disturbing only because of the type of police officer it's likely to attract. It also suggests that the leadership in the Hobbs police department believes that these are the aspects of police work most worth touting — that this is the face they want to project to the community," Balko said in the civil liberties and the criminal justice blog that he writes called "The Watch."

Hobbs isn't alone. Balko said the video is part of a trend and offered seven other examples from around the country.

Such as Newport Beach, Calif.:


And Springdale, Ark., a town of 70,000 that seemingly had a budget big enough to make a video that looks like something out of a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie:


Working on a tip from a colleague in Minnesota, we came across a story from last fall about how the police department in St. Cloud, Minn., rolled out an armored vehicle that was originally used for military training:
ROLLING OUT IN ST. CLOUD: A retrofitted armored military vehicle is in use by the police department in the town of St. Cloud, Minn.

According to WJON Radio in St. Cloud, the vehicle is an MRAP — Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected — and came from the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department. It's worth $400,000 and the town of just under 66,000 residents spent $10,000 to retrofit it for the city's SWAT team.

Lt. Jeff Oxton said during the unveiling that the MRAP "has full ballistic capabilities, which will help us against any kind of small arms fire, rifle fire, even explosives and things like that."

Back in 1988, hundreds of students at St. Cloud State University rioted during homecoming week at the school. As many as 1,500 people were involved and about 50 arrests were made.

In our original story, we mentioned a video of the Hobbs SWAT team that's on the police department's website. We have since found a link to the video that combines shots of officers firing automatic weapons to a heavy-metal music soundtrack:

Former New Mexico Gov. and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson also tweeted the NM Watchdog story out to his 123,000 followers:


http://watchdog.org/139868/militarized-police-departments/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Trending%20Email

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 23, 2014



(Newser) – A New York City Police Department campaign to get Twitter users to share photos of themselves with officers got a massive response—but not the kind the department had in mind. Instead of citizens posing with friendly cops, the #MyNYPD tag became the top trending hashtag on Twitter with thousands of photos of police brutality, Occupy Wall Street arrests, and headlines about unarmed citizens being shot, reports the New York Daily News. (See plenty of examples at the Daily Dot.)

"Free massages from the #NYPD," read one tweet with a picture of riot cops pressing a man against a car. There were a few friendly submissions but they were massively outnumbered by those slamming the department, NBC notes. In a statement, the NYPD said it is "creating new ways to communicate effectively with the community" and "Twitter provides an open forum for an uncensored exchange and this is an open dialogue good for our city."

http://www.newser.com/story/185749/nypd-twitter-campaign-backfires-big-time.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_topnews

A dumb cop in my opinion. I bet there will be a lawsuit for false arrest.
Better disarm her before she kills an innocent person.


by Josh Feldman | 3:53 pm, April 22nd, 2014

A North Carolina deputy confiscated two separate cell phones recording her in the midst of confronting a retired Marine combat instructor. A video provided to Photography Is Not a Crime shows the deputy losing her cool and snatching the phones, but the video directly contradicts her claim that she arrested Carlos Jaramillo for acting aggressive.

The deputy showed up to handle a dispute between Jaramillo and a neighbor, asking him for an ID. He provided his Veterans Affairs card, a government-issued form of identification, but she did not accept it. When he questions her on why she won't take it, she raises her voice, warns him not to act up, and tells him to put the phone down.

Jaramillo refuses, and she shouts, "For my safety, put the phone down!" She grabs the phone and puts handcuffs on him. Jaramillo's son shows up to record his father being detained, but the deputy takes that phone too. She screams, "I'm snatching everyone's phone and I will take everyone in!"

Jaramillo's son records them with another phone, but this one wasn't confiscated by the deputy. Jaramillo was eventually released on no charges.

Watch the video below, via Photography Is Not a Crime: (the video is a flash and I can't post it here. But you can watch it on the web site,)

http://www.mediaite.com/online/nc-deputy-flips-out-grabs-cell-phones-filming-her-arrest-of-marine-vet/

by Luke O'Neil | 2:31 pm, April 23rd, 2014

Yesterday the internet had a bit of fun with the New York Police Department's hapless attempt at social media outreach by hijacking the #MyNYPD tag. On Monday came another reminder that it's not only big city police departments that know how to get their hands dirty with a video from an incident in Green Bay that shows a police officer brutally assaulting a bystander to an arrest who had been criticizing him.

The video, which was posted to Facebook on Monday, has since been shared over 40,000 times, and tens of thousands of other times on various YouTube posts. It shows Green Bay Police Officer Derek Wicklund attempting to arrest a man for allegedly carrying a drink outside of a bar, while Joshua Wenzel and a crowd of onlookers question the reasoning behind the arrests. As is often the case when inebriated college kids and overly-aggressive police officers collide, things do not go well from that point.

Wenzel, who appears to be screaming expletives at the officer but posing no physical threat, is pushed onto a car, body slammed to the ground, then punched in the face by Wicklund. "I'm turning that in, that was brutal," an onlooker yells. He is correct.

All of the officers in the video remain on duty, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports, although the department is conducting an investigation, they say. I wonder how that will go!

And so it will be looked at, all over the internet.

Elsewhere in police hurting people news, the Albuquerque Police's reign of terror continues, as they've killed yet another person, the third in five weeks. The woman in question pulled a gun on the officer, which is a bit more understandable as a cause for use of force than yelling bad words.

It is not illegal to swear at a police officer.


http://www.mediaite.com/online/video-captures-green-bay-police-brutally-assaulting-mouthy-bystander/

Do these look like military vehicles?
Do they look like police cars?

What army are they going up against?
Would that be patriots and military veterans that have been called domestic terrorists?

Are the vehicles being taken on to instill fear in the population?

What is de-militarized about the appearance of these vehicles?

Is the high cost of storage, maintenance and operation of these vehicles which they say they hope they never have to use a viable expense to the taxpayers? They claimed they already have the use of a Kansas Bureau of Investigation armored vehicle. Just something to think about.


Doraville, Ga. population 8,830
Coffeyville, Ks population 9,993

COFFEYVILLE, KS.--- The Coffeyville Police Department has a new vehicle in their force that is heavily armed. The department has taken possession of a 2007 BAE Caiman MRAP armored vehicle. The Department of Defense awarded the vehicle to the Coffeyville department through the Military Surplus Program. The vehicle has been demilitarized and was used to protect U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The police department plans to use the vehicle in emergency situations like an active shooter or an armed suspect.

A simple Google search for "police armored vehicle" turns up a list of articles from the last several weeks about nearly a dozen police departments that have acquired armored trucks: Cullman, Ala.; Murrieta, Calif.; Jacksonville, N.C.; Madison, Ind.; Yuma, Ariz.; Watauga County, N.C.; Oxford County, Maine; and Coffeyville, Kan.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/police-are-getting-the-militarys-leftover-armored-trucks/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Default Military Gives Coffeyille Police Department An Armored Truck

    http://www.newson6.com/story/2360988...-armored-truck


The city of Coffeyville got the armored vehicle at essentially no cost.


The police department was given a 2007 BAE Caiman MRAP armored vehicle.

Police Chief Tony Celeste hopes the police department would never have to use it.


COFFEYVILLE, Kansas - The Coffeyville Police Department now owns a 2007 BAE Caiman MRAP armored vehicle.

Police Chief Tony Celeste says his department received the demilitarized vehicle thanks to the Department of Defense's Military Surplus Program. He says the truck was used to protect U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Celeste says the city of Coffeyville got it at essentially no cost, other than nominal transportation expenses.

In a news release, Celeste said he hoped the police department would never have to use it, but should an event like an active shooter incident occur, the armored truck could be critical in saving police and civilian lives.

Celeste says the department was notified it would be getting the BAE Caiman MRAP armored truck, after a September 23 incident which required the use of a Kansas Bureau of Investigation armored vehicle. He says the timing was a coincidence.

When does Elk County get theirs?

April 28, 2014 4:42 pm


A sheriff's deputy in Knox County, Tennessee has been caught in the act of choking a handcuffed college student until he passed out. Deputy
Frank Phillips, 47, was found "unsuitable for continued employment," as stated by a termination notice uploaded late Sunday night on the Knox County Sheriff's Office's website.

"In my 34 years of law enforcement experience, excessive force has never been tolerated. After an investigation by the Office of Professional Standards, I believe excessive force was used in this incident," Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones stated about the photographed events.

"Therefore, Officer Phillips' employment with the Knox County Sheriff's Office is terminated immediately."

The investigation has now be turned over to the Knox County Attorney General's Office. They will ultimately determine whether any further action is "necessary."


The photos were captured by John Messner, a freelance photographer in Knoxville. He started recording as soon as he saw the University of Tennessee student Jarod Dotson being choked. The 21-year-old student can be seen falling to his knees after the deputy's grip brings him to unconsciousness.

Dotson had been drinking from a cup "that had an odor of an alcoholic beverage" at 23rd Street and Laurel Avenue. Apparently, this told the arresting deputies that they had the right to do essentially whatever they wanted to him.


Dotson was charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest, but was released Sunday morning on a $500 bond. The report filled out by arresting officers states that Dotson "began to physically resist officers' instructions to place his hands behind his back, and at one point grabbed on to an officer's leg."

But it is clear from the photographs that he was already cuffed, with his hands behind his back when he was being choked out.

After he was rendered unconscious, the deputy who choked him continued slapping him around on the head before walking off.

Sheriff Jones has demoted the other five officers involved in the incident.

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/04/cop-caught-on-camera-choking-a-handcuffed-college-student-until-he-passed-out/

Miami-Dade Police Dept


See video at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/22-year-syndrome-beaten-police-bulge-pants-colostomy-bag/#pAssklStkxcRJyC0.99

Tuesday, May 6, 2014 14:08

(Before It's News)
by Guerilla Girl Ashley The Pete Santilli Show & The Guerilla Media Network

On Tues May 6, 2014 about 40 irate citizens who are fed up with the amount of citizens the Albuquerque Police have killed in just the last six weeks (4 citizens) took over a city council meeting, and presented a Peoples arrest warrant on Police Chief Gordon Eden, who then fled the scene to escape the people from his crimes. One of the protesters  David Correia, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, said into a commandeered microphone

You are walking away from justice," protester David Correia shouted from the council podium. "This is no longer your meeting, this is the people's meeting,"

"We now serve a people's warrant for arrest on Albuquerque Police Chief Gordon Eden."

We must say, this is another proud moment for GMN, as this is exactly what we have been telling our listeners to do, and that is to rise up and take our country back beginning at the local level.

After watching this video, I'm sure you will feel the same amount of Patriotism that we do today.


Protesters shut down council meeting

Monday's meeting of the City Council ended amid shouts and chaos as at least 40 protesters tried to serve a "people's arrest warrant" on Police Chief Gorden Eden, who left before anyone touched him.

"You are walking away from justice," protester David Correia shouted from the council podium.

Council President Ken Sanchez immediately halted the meeting, and most city employees fled the chambers as protesters swarmed the speaker's podium and took over the dais where councilors sit.

Then a new meeting started.

The protesters – often shouting and chanting into the council microphone – called for a series of votes and announced they had unanimously agreed on votes of "no confidence" in Mayor Richard Berry and his top administrator, Rob Perry.

There were also chants of "Fire Gorden Eden" and a healthy dose of profanity. The informal meeting lasted about 30 minutes, then protesters went outside and broke up quietly.

City councilors weren't happy.

Sanchez said he adjourned the meeting because of safety concerns. He tried calling a brief recess at first but then couldn't restore order to restart the meeting.

He and several other councilors stayed to speak with protesters afterward, amid the shouting.


http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/05/citizens-reclaim-their-government-in-dramatic-fashion-seize-council-chambers-2951896.html?utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_medium=facebook-share&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_campaign=&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FgYKe

Tuesday, May 6, 2014 12:50

On Monday night May 5,2014 William Baer, a New Hampshire father whose 9th grade daughter attends Gilford High School was arrested for speaking out about a controversial book called nineteen minutes that his daughter was assigned to read that contained a description of rough sex between two teenagers at a school board hearing

Please watch this disturbing video were public servants from the school board uses another one of our public servants( other wise known as a police officer) to incarcerate a father for caring aboutt what goes into his daughters mind.

Video at http://www.caintv.com/video-dad-arrested-for-speakin

By Vivian Kuo, CNN
updated 1:25 AM EDT, Thu May 8, 2014

(CNN) -- Texas Rangers are investigating why police in a small central Texas town fatally shot a 93-year-old woman at her home.

Pearlie Golden, a longtime resident of Hearne, a town of approximately 4,600 people about 150 miles south of Dallas, was shot multiple times Tuesday.

A man believed to be a relative of Golden's made the 911 call asking for help from police, Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert said.

"What I understand is (Hearne police) were called out because a woman was brandishing a firearm," Siegert said.

"An officer asked her to put the handgun down, and when she would not, shots were fired."

Hearne City Attorney Bryan Russ Jr. said Officer Stephen Stem told Golden to drop her weapon at least three times.

Stem fired three times, and Golden was hit at least twice, he said.

She was transported to a local hospital, where she died.

The Hearne Police Department placed Stem on administrative leave pending the inquiry.

"We're very saddened by this. Everybody in the city government is deeply disappointed that this lady was killed," Russ said. "Now, the investigation is out of our hands. It's under the Texas Rangers, which is where we want it to be."

According to police, the Texas Rangers have a revolver believed to have been in Golden's possession at the time of the shooting.

Community members told CNN affiliate KBTX that Golden, known affectionately as "Ms. Sully," was a sweet woman.

"Even if she did have a gun, she is in her 90s," Lawanda Cooke told KBTX. "They could have shot in the air to scare her. Maybe she would have dropped it. I don't see her shooting anyone."

The case will eventually be presented to a grand jury, which is standard procedure when dealing with officer-involved incidents, Russ said.

In the meantime, Hearne City Council members will meet Saturday to discuss Stem's employment or whether any disciplinary action will be taken.

"I would expect people to be upset about this, a young police officer shooting a 93-year-old lady," Russ said. "I'm upset about it. Most of our citizens are upset but at the same time I don't believe all the facts have come to the surface yet."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/us/texas-police-shoot-elderly-woman-93/index.html?c=us

The LAPD is one of the most militarized police forces in the country and Daryl Gates and William H. Parker L.A. Police chiefs made it a point to hire military men to be on the force. Former Navy Seals, Green Berets, Marines, Special Forces and SWAT teams make up the ranks of LAPD and Southern California police forces in general.

Why would one man who "just wanted to clear his name" spook the LAPD?

Los Angeles is home to some of the most ruthless, well armed and vicious organized gangs. The Crips, Bloods, Mexican Mafia, Armenian Mob, Aryan Brotherhood, Skinheads, Russian Mob and of course the drug cartels. The gangs are real and are openly hostile to the LAPD, yet we have never seen the Police go after those same gangs with the same determination and resolve. Even after those criminals were deemed terrorists and murdered entire families.

During the height of the LA rebellions in 1992 we saw the Parker Center police headquarters destroyed by angry mobs but we didn't see a thousand cops on the streets "looking" for anyone. Police officers' families weren't protected. Million dollar rewards weren't offered, freeways weren't shut down for hours and protection squads weren't assigned to everyone in "danger."

What about the niece of former L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks who was killed by gang members in 2000? Where was the manhunt to eradicate the gang that killed her?

There have long been rogue officers, some friendly, some not so friendly to the force, but never has there been a statewide manhunt to stop them. The LAPD, no matter what they say, could not have been in the imminent danger they claimed – not with all their resources, manpower and history.

I have only two possibilities to explain what really happened:

1)    Monica Quan is the daughter of Randall Quan, the first Chinese-American captain in the Los Angeles Police Department. Randal Quan, who became a lawyer in retirement [2], was hired by the LAPD officers' union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, to represent Dorner at an internal LAPD hearing prior to his termination in 2009. During that time Dorner confided in Quan something the LAPD has been keeping secret for years. Dorner involved in trying to clear his name may have threatened to disclose the LAPD secret. Silencing Dorner was simple, "he never had the opportunity to have a family," but Quan we can assume realized the danger he posed to the LAPD and stored away one of those "open if something happens to me letters." How do  you keep Quan quiet? You kill one of his four children and blame it on Dorner in a rambling manifesto. [3]

2)    The police are under pressure to explain the rise in police shootings of unarmed individuals.

If you recall, two women in Torrance delivering newspapers were mistakenly shot by LAPD officers searching for Christopher Dorner. There was no warning, no orders, no commands, the police officers just opened fire on their vehicle. News Services Fake Dorner Manifesto, Quick-Shooting Police Mistake Little Women for a Big Man

Was this really a tragic case of mistaken identity, as LAPD Chief Charlie Beck would have us believe?

The Police believed the two Hispanic women throwing papers out the driver side window driving a late-model blue Toyota Tacoma pick up truck, were Christopher Dorner, a 6' 2" black 33-year old male on a rampage-killing spree in a charcoal colored Nissan Titan pick up truck.

As Margie Carranza drove her Toyota Tacoma down Redbeam she and her mother Emma Hernandez threw papers to the designated addresses.  Not only were the headlights on and the hazard flashers blinking  but since the women deliver five different papers from a route list, the lights in cab were on as well.

The LA Times reports that a total of seven different officers fired on the women's truck in Torrance. Police seem more concerned about killing a threat to them instead of protecting the public.

An unidentified witness to the shooting looked out his window and saw a half-dozen cops shooting wildly in all directions, yelling extreme profanity at the women and pointing weapons at anyone driving by or near, like "little boys with big guns, lots of vengeance and no brains. Makes me root for the bad guys, and not those crazy cops."

Unfortunately this wasn't the first time the Police went ballistic and started shooting at innocent people. In what has become a reoccurring theme, LAPD Police Officers Are Shooting Unarmed People, Everywhere since 2010.

December 20, 2013, just two days ago, the Police shot and killed an unarmed man following a pursuit of his Corvette through Los Angeles.

October 10, 2013, Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies kicked and fatally shot a homeless man for, they claim, was waving a stick.


"Deputies with the Transit Services Bureau came into contact with the man when he suddenly armed himself with a wooden stick. He then advanced toward the deputies with the wooden stick overhead, prompting them to open fire. Officials said the man, who has not been identified, was taken to a hospital, where he died."

April 11 2013, LAPD kills 19-year old Abdul Arian after he led police on a high-speed chase after he refused to pull over for a traffic stop. According to the Police they felt their lives were in danger because of the gestures made after he got out of the car. At the end of the chase, Arian jumped out of the car and started to run, but also turning towards officers in what they describe was a "menacing" motion where he appeared to have a weapon. He did not.

April 8th, 2013, Ernesto Duenez, unarmed,  was shot 11 Times by Police.  The video from one of the patrol car cameras shows Duenez parking his pickup truck and officer James Moody approaching him with a drawn gun. He suspected that Duenez had a knife and shouted at him to drop it and put his hands up. As Duenez was exiting the vehicle over the passenger seat, he tripped and turned around which provoked the officer to fire 13 shots in just 4.2 seconds. Duenez was shot once in the head, eight times in the body and two times in the extremities and died from wounds to his chest and abdomen.

March 24, 2012, Kendrec McDade,  unarmed, was killed by Police because they were told that he had a gun by a 911 caller reporting a robbery and he according to the Police was reaching into his waistband. The caller later admitted that he lied about the gun. The officers who shot McDade however, have not been held responsible. Local civil rights activists have also noted that Pasadena police are going against California law that says officers who shoot and kill citizens must be identified to the public. Neither officers' identity has been revealed.

February 24, 2013, Moises De La Torre, unarmed, fatally shot By LAPD. According to police reports officers from the LAPD's North Hollywood Division responded to a call of a man with a gun in the area of Vineland Avenue and Archwood Street. A female 9-1-1 caller reported she had been approached by a man who threatened to kill her and then reached into a bag he was carrying. She said she believed it was to retrieve a gun. When they arrived, officers found De La Torre standing in lanes of traffic, according to a statement issued by the department afterward. Police instructed him to drop the bag, but De La Torre failed to do so, and officers said he allegedly moved forward, threatening to kill them. He reached into the bag and officers opened fire.

February 8, 2013, two women in Torrance were delivering newspapers when they were mistakenly shot by LAPD officers searching for Christopher Dorner. There was no warning, no orders given, no commands issued, the police officers just opened fire on their vehicle.

"Officers are discharging their weapons  because they are being attacked," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck

In 2011, as the number of police shootings soared, Police Chief Charlie Beck repeatedly gave his bosses and the public an explanation: Officers were discharging their weapons more because they were coming under attack more. He attempted to bolster his assertion with LAPD statistics that showed an increase in the number of assaults on officers. Alex Bustamante, the inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD disputes the statistics and Beck's assertion of a link between the jump in officer-involved shootings and assaults on officers in a report by the Police Commission inspector general. Watchdog disputes LAPD rationale for rise in police shootings

The independent LAPD watchdog concludes there was no link between the dramatic rise in officer-involved shootings and assaults on officers.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/12/27/exclusive-the-chris-dorner-enigma-what-really-happened-and-why/

A swat team and police tank were deployed to a residence in Fairfax Co. Virginia which lead to an unarmed man being gunned down in his home. The reason for this brutal show of force by the state was that they received a 911 call from a woman stating that, "The man had weapons."

According to NBC News Washington,

John Geer, 46, of Pebble Brook Court, was killed by police last month after barricading himself in his home.

Officers were called about a domestic disturbance that may involve a weapon.

Police used a tanker to knock down Geer's front door before going inside.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation into the shooting. The officer is on paid vacation pending the outcome.

It is a frightening thought to think that any one of us "legal gun owners" could undergo the same overreaction by militarized and aggressive police forces across the country.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/paramilitary-police-shoot-kill-unarmed-man-home/

John Vibes
May 21, 2014




This week, the Jacksonville Sheriff's office announced that they would be installing new security cameras around the city and knocking on more than 18,000 doors, without warrants, as a part of an initiative called "operation ceasefire".

Sheriff John Rutherford, Mayor Alvin Brown and Councilwoman Denise Lee made the announcement this Tuesday at a press conference outside of the local Sheriff's office. The sheriff admitted that many aspects of the program, including the security cameras, would be paid for with money that was taken from victims of the drug war.

"We're going to use the drug money we pull out of this neighborhood to protect this neighborhood," Rutherford said.

In addition to the aspects of the project which are being funded through asset forfeiture, the department is also asking for tax funding of over 3 million dollars for new officers.  The stated goal of this program is to decrease violent crime, most of which is related to the drug trade.  However, the violence of the drug war is a direct result of prohibition, and the best way to stop that violence is to end prohibition.

Mayor Brown said at the press conference that "We must also be tough on the causes of crime. One of the best ways to stop crime is to prevent it."

Unfortunately, he does not seem to realize that prohibition is actually one of the main things causing violent crime.

(There is a video at the following link)
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/jacksonville-police-18000-doors/#igs3MicQlvy6PrZJ.99

Ross, while I try to stay away from the Politics thread (and I am sure that will draw some comments from more than a few people), I think you should realize the part that demographics play here.  If, in Elk County population in 2010 of 2,882 people, there is one person who seemingly threatens the safety of a police officer, that roughly translates to approximately 3,000 to 4,000 thousand people in a county the size of Los Angeles.  This means for every nut job that threatens a cop in Elk County, we have that many more thousand potential individuals who could do the same.  If you have 2 nut jobs then there is maybe 7,000 of them here and I will grant you we have more than our fair share of nut jobs many of whom are armed and on drugs,  Because of the lure of big city jobs and easy access to drugs and guns we attract them by the thousands.  if I were a police officer and I was faced with an individual who wasn't complying to commands such as "keep your hands where I can see them" and they reach into their pocket or a bag, you can bet I am going to shoot first.  Any person in their right mind in this area would follow the police officers instructions for fear of getting shot.  And, because of the those same demographics there are going to be mistakes like the ones you mentioned. 

As far as the LAPD being a militarized group, hiring former military personnel is more reasonable than hiring someone who has not had military training.  Back in the dark ages, I once applied to the local police department here for a job and although I was a veteran and scored high on their tests and did well in the interview the job was given to a former Green Beret who had just returned from Vietnam.  Why?  Because he had combat experience, had handled weapons in a shooting situation and faced the threat of losing his life.  I did not go to a war zone, well, an active was zone and I was a medic.  In the police department's eyes he was the easier person to train, one who would willingly follow orders and would see a dangerous situation faster than I would.  It was the right decision.  Many police agencies will hire those who have been through the police academy before hiring anyone else.

So my point here is.........They are what they are because they have to be.  I don't blame any police officers for doing their job.  In a police force the size of the LAPD there are going to be those who make mistakes.

It happens.

Larryj

LarryJ

I fully understand what you are saying. I am not putting down any good cops. I have several LEO's in my family. The cities also have a much larger chance of having corruptions but none of that allows for shooting down unarmed citizens. In my personal opinion.

Cops are not Gods and they don't necessarily have the right to give orders every time they open their mouths either? It is attitude that leads to shootings of totally unarmed citizens, which leads to a police state.

The beating of unarmed homeless people by a half a dozen police officers is totally uncalled for as well.

But as you know, we all have different opinions.

Thanks for replying LarryJ

By MATT APUZZO
June 8, 2014

NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.

The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America's "long season of war," the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice.

During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.

The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of "barbering without a license."

When the military's mine-resistant trucks began arriving in large numbers last year, Neenah and places like it were plunged into the middle of a debate over whether the post-9/11 era had obscured the lines between soldier and police officer.

"It just seems like ramping up a police department for a problem we don't have," said Shay Korittnig, a father of two who spoke against getting the armored truck at a recent public meeting in Neenah. "This is not what I was looking for when I moved here, that my children would view their local police officer as an M-16-toting, SWAT-apparel-wearing officer."

A quiet city of about 25,000 people, Neenah has a violent crime rate that is far below the national average. Neenah has not had a homicide in more than five years.

"Somebody has to be the first person to say 'Why are we doing this?' " said William Pollnow Jr., a Neenah city councilman who opposed getting the new police truck.


Neenah's police chief, Kevin E. Wilkinson, said he understood the concern. At first, he thought the anti-mine truck was too big. But the department's old armored car could not withstand high-powered gunfire, he said.

"I don't like it. I wish it were the way it was when I was a kid," he said. But he said the possibility of violence, however remote, required taking precautions. "We're not going to go out there as Officer Friendly with no body armor and just a handgun and say 'Good enough.' "

Congress created the military-transfer program in the early 1990s, when violent crime plagued America's cities and the police felt outgunned by drug gangs. Today, crime has fallen to its lowest levels in a generation, the wars have wound down, and despite current fears, the number of domestic terrorist attacks has declined sharply from the 1960s and 1970s.

Police departments, though, are adding more firepower and military gear than ever. Some, especially in larger cities, have used federal grant money to buy armored cars and other tactical gear. And the free surplus program remains a favorite of many police chiefs who say they could otherwise not afford such equipment. Chief Wilkinson said he expects the police to use the new truck rarely, when the department's SWAT team faces an armed standoff or serves a warrant on someone believed to be dangerous.

Today, Chief Wilkinson said, the police are trained to move in and save lives during a shooting or standoff, in contrast to a generation ago — before the Columbine High School massacre and others that followed it — when they responded by setting up a perimeter and either negotiating with, or waiting out, the suspect.

The number of SWAT teams has skyrocketed since the 1980s, according to studies by Peter B. Kraska, an Eastern Kentucky University professor who has been researching the issue for decades.

The ubiquity of SWAT teams has changed not only the way officers look, but also the way departments view themselves. Recruiting videos feature clips of officers storming into homes with smoke grenades and firing automatic weapons. In Springdale, Ark., a police recruiting video is dominated by SWAT clips, including officers throwing a flash grenade into a house and creeping through a field in camouflage.

In South Carolina, the Richland County Sheriff's Department's website features its SWAT team, dressed in black with guns drawn, flanking an armored vehicle that looks like a tank and has a mounted .50-caliber gun. Capt. Chris Cowan, a department spokesman, said the vehicle "allows the department to stay in step with the criminals who are arming themselves more heavily every day." He said police officers had taken it to schools and community events, where it was a conversation starter.

"All of a sudden, we start relationships with people," he said.

Not everyone agrees that there is a need for such vehicles. Ronald E. Teachman, the police chief in South Bend, Ind., said he decided not to request a mine-resistant vehicle for his city. "I go to schools," he said. "But I bring 'Green Eggs and Ham.' "

The Pentagon program does not push equipment onto local departments. The pace of transfers depends on how much unneeded equipment the military has, and how much the police request. Equipment that goes unclaimed typically is destroyed. So police chiefs say their choice is often easy: Ask for free equipment that would otherwise be scrapped, or look for money in their budgets to prepare for an unlikely scenario. Most people understand, police officers say.

"When you explain that you're preparing for something that may never happen, they get it," said Capt. Tiger Parsons of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office in northwest Missouri, which recently received a mine-resistant truck.

Pentagon data suggest how the police are arming themselves for such worst-case scenarios. Since 2006, the police in six states have received magazines that carry 100 rounds of M-16 ammunition, allowing officers to fire continuously for three times longer than normal. Twenty-two states obtained equipment to detect buried land mines.

In the Indianapolis suburbs, officers said they needed a mine-resistant vehicle to protect against a possible attack by veterans returning from war.

"You have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build I.E.D.'s and to defeat law enforcement techniques," Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department told the local Fox affiliate, referring to improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. Sergeant Downing did not return a message seeking comment.

The police in 38 states have received silencers, which soldiers use to muffle gunfire during raids and sniper attacks. Lauren Wild, the sheriff in rural Walsh County, N.D., said he saw no need for silencers. When told he had 40 of them for his county of 11,000 people, Sheriff Wild confirmed it with a colleague and said he would look into it. "I don't recall approving them," he said.

Some officials are reconsidering their eagerness to take the gear. Last year, the sheriff's office in Oxford County, Maine, told county officials that it wanted a mine-resistant vehicle because Maine's western foothills "face a previously unimaginable threat from terrorist activities."

County commissioners approved the request, but recently rescinded it at the sheriff's request. Scott Cole, the county administrator, said some people expressed concerns about the truck, and the police were comfortable that a neighboring community could offer its vehicle in an emergency.

At the Neenah City Council, Mr. Pollnow is pushing for a requirement that the council vote on all equipment transfers. When he asks about the need for military equipment, he said the answer is always the same: It protects police officers.

"Who's going to be against that? You're against the police coming home safe at night?" he said. "But you can always present a worst-case scenario. You can use that as a framework to get anything."

Chief Wilkinson said he was not interested in militarizing Neenah. But officers are shot, even in small towns. If there were an affordable way to protect his people without the new truck, he would do it.

"I hate having our community divided over a law enforcement issue like this. But we are," he said. "It drives me to my knees in prayer for the safety of this community every day. And it convinced me that this was the right thing for our community."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html

Quote from: larryJ on June 02, 2014, 03:18:13 PM
Ross, while I try to stay away from the Politics thread (and I am sure that will draw some comments from more than a few people), I think you should realize the part that demographics play here.  If, in Elk County population in 2010 of 2,882 people, there is one person who seemingly threatens the safety of a police officer, that roughly translates to approximately 3,000 to 4,000 thousand people in a county the size of Los Angeles.  This means for every nut job that threatens a cop in Elk County, we have that many more thousand potential individuals who could do the same.  If you have 2 nut jobs then there is maybe 7,000 of them here and I will grant you we have more than our fair share of nut jobs many of whom are armed and on drugs,  Because of the lure of big city jobs and easy access to drugs and guns we attract them by the thousands.  if I were a police officer and I was faced with an individual who wasn't complying to commands such as "keep your hands where I can see them" and they reach into their pocket or a bag, you can bet I am going to shoot first.  Any person in their right mind in this area would follow the police officers instructions for fear of getting shot.  And, because of the those same demographics there are going to be mistakes like the ones you mentioned. 

As far as the LAPD being a militarized group, hiring former military personnel is more reasonable than hiring someone who has not had military training.  Back in the dark ages, I once applied to the local police department here for a job and although I was a veteran and scored high on their tests and did well in the interview the job was given to a former Green Beret who had just returned from Vietnam.  Why?  Because he had combat experience, had handled weapons in a shooting situation and faced the threat of losing his life.  I did not go to a war zone, well, an active was zone and I was a medic.  In the police department's eyes he was the easier person to train, one who would willingly follow orders and would see a dangerous situation faster than I would.  It was the right decision.  Many police agencies will hire those who have been through the police academy before hiring anyone else.

So my point here is.........They are what they are because they have to be.  I don't blame any police officers for doing their job.  In a police force the size of the LAPD there are going to be those who make mistakes.

It happens.

Larryj

Well stated, Larry. 

Opinion's are great, everyone has one. Me. Too!

Ya failed to mention the ratio of cops to civilians.

While militarizing the police force and trying to disarm America's and labeling nearly every American a national terrorist of one kind or anther and terminating Military Officers that say they will follow the law and that they will not fire on American Citizens and saying it is okay for police to shoot and kill an un-armed homeless man or have ten cops beat an un-armed homeless man is just plain wrong.

That is what this thread is about.

So Larry J claims to e qualified, look for a job somewhere else. He won't be the first beat out by a veteran and won't be the last. None of what you say justifies police abuse of power.

I do have family members that are LEO's and I would expect exemplary behavior from them.

The Police and Law enforcement motto is to "Protect and Serve" not Over Power and Abuse their positions."

That is my opinion --- far too much is done inappropriately when innocents are killed just because.

I have informed our local Sheriff and deputies if I happen to be in an area where they may be having trouble and ask my help, I will help, I will follow their lawful instructions. Just don't ask me to do anything unlawful.

No, I am not a radical, I won't do crazy.

Thank You.

By Travis Perry │ Kansas Watchdog  June 19, 2014


OSAWATOMIE, Kan. — Have you ever driven a car through Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park or Prairie Village? Then congratulations! Local law enforcement considers you and me — everyone on the road — to be a potential criminal.

In April, my fellow Watchdog.org reporter Kathryn Watson had the tenacity to ask police in Alexandria, Va., what information they had collected on her through the use of automatic license plate readers. What she found was nothing short of creepy. Law enforcement records tracked her vehicle home, around Old Town Alexandria and even on her way to Bible study.

My curiosity piqued, I set out to do the same, only to run into a brick wall tossed up by law enforcement.

I have no way of knowing when and where police in Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park or Prairie Village have recorded my movements with automatic license plate readers, because all three departments cite an exemption to the Kansas Open Records Act.

What exemption is that, you ask? The one explicitly reserved for "criminal investigation records."

I was more than a little alarmed the first time this blockade was tossed in my face. Sure, I have a few speeding tickets on my record, but as far as I know I haven't committed any criminal activity in the aforementioned municipalities. Wes Jordan, Prairie Village chief of police, John Knoll, Overland Park assistant city attorney, and MacKenzie Harvison, Lenexa deputy city attorney, assured me I wasn't the focus of any investigation.

I'm still waiting on clarification from the Olathe Police Department, but I expect a similar response.

With that being the case, I'm left with only one alternative.

These law enforcement agencies consider everyone to be a potential criminal — you just may not have committed the crime yet.

"It seems to infer that," said Holly Weatherford, advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas.

For the record, state law defines criminal investigation records as any police evidence or information "compiled in the process of preventing, detecting or investigating violations of criminal law."

"To me, you know, it seems like a core principle in our society that government doesn't invade peoples' privacy, they don't collect information about citizens and our activities just in case they do something wrong," Weatherford said. "And refusing to disclose your personal activities or information to you claiming it's a part of a criminal investigation seems to fly in the face of that principle."

My colleague in Virginia was able to acquire her information because of the state's Government Data Collection and Dissemination Act, which instructs public entities to fulfill open records requests for personal information like this. Kansas has no such directive.

"Kansas has one of the most restrictive open records laws in the country, so we're paying attention and we're really interested when people are asking for information and being denied and for what reason, we're really trying to understand how the different government agencies in Kansas use those exemptions," Weatherford added. "This is one I haven't heard yet."

For what it's worth, Harvison said while Lenexa wouldn't give me any actual information because of the cited exemption, they don't yet have any record of my plates in the system.

Hooray?

http://watchdog.org/155274/automatic-plate-reader-criminal/?roi=echo3-21041033561-20535803-3b14ff0e80147fdda35fa2ddbdf38d33

By Eric Boehm  /   June 25, 2014

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org

MINNEAPOLIS — It's the land of the not so free and the home of the heavily armed.

The week has been filled with stories from all sides of America's growing police state. New studies show we're not just at the top of the world's incarceration list but we're running away with the title, while police misconduct and the militarization of those same police forces are raising questions from coast to coast.

Here's five reasons the United States is the world's biggest police state:

1. If the states were individual countries, the U.S. would have the 35th-highest incarceration rate in the world

It is common knowledge — or at least it should be — that the United States jails a larger part of its population than any other country on the planet, with the possible exception of North Korea; it's hard to get reliable statistics from there.

The United States has about 5 percent of the world's total population but about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. About 700 out of every 100,000 people in the United States are serving time behind bars, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies. The regimes in Russia, Rwanda and Cuba only wish they could do as well at locking up their own citizens.

But when you break the numbers down, things look even worse.

If the United States were divided into 51 separate countries — all the states plus Washington, D.C. — 35 of those new countries would have a higher incarceration rate than Cuba, which ranks second on the world list, according to a new study from the Prison Policy Initiative.

In the new hierarchy, Louisiana would lead the way because more than 1,300 out of every 100,000 residents of that state are in prison.

Vermont, with the lowest incarceration rate in the United States — a measly 254 inmates per 100,000 residents — still ranks ahead of Colombia, Mexico, Botswana and, well, most of the rest of the world.

2. Insane prison sentences help keep us on top[/b]

Maybe you think people should go to jail for doing drugs. Maybe you think all drugs should be legal and no one should go to jail for making the voluntary choice to use drugs, unless they hurt other people in process.

Either way, you'd probably agree it's ridiculous to sentence someone, anyone, to life in prison without parole because they were caught with 32 grams of marijuana. In case you're not aware how much pot that is, a gram is about the size of a quarter, give or take.

But that's exactly what happened to Anthony Kelly in 1999. He was arrested with enough marijuana to barely fill a sandwich bag and will spend the rest of his life in a Louisiana prison.

He is only one of 175 inmates serving life without parole in Louisiana for nonviolent crimes — mostly drug offenses, according to the Reason Foundation.

These 175 inmates alone will cost Louisiana taxpayers about $87.5 million over the duration of their incarceration, according to the ACLU.

Although Louisiana has particularly harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws and requires harsh punishments for repeat offenders, even nonviolent ones, most states have some sort of mandatory sentencing provisions for repeat offenders, taking decisions out of the hands of judges and juries and driving up incarceration rates.

3. With all those "criminals" out there, police forces are bulking up

The Department of Defense is unloading vehicles, fresh from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, at bargain-basement prices, and local police departments are acting like your crazy aunt at the flea market.

Michael Gayer, sheriff of Pulaski County, Ind., is the new proud owner of an MRAP — mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, or basically a lighter version of a tank with wheels instead of treads — which, he says, is necessary for his sleepy corner of middle America because "the United States has become a war zone."

Gayer told the Indianapolis Star police departments had to start using military-class vehicles because of more violence in schools, workplaces and the streets.

Never mind the fact that crime rates in most states are lower than they've been in decades. In Indiana, the violent crime rate in 2012 was at its lowest since 1988.

But from New Mexico to Minnesota and from Idaho to Iowa, cops are loading up with the sweetest toys, as Watchdog.org has reported. And it's not just vehicles on offer from the DoD, everything from rocket launchers to bandages are being gift-wrapped for local police.

4. Tactics that match the fear, not the facts

Most police departments began using SWAT teams over the past few decades, but unlike the cop dramas on TV, in which their use is always justified to stop a homicidal maniac or disrupt a hostage situation, the majority of SWAT deployments in the United States are used for routine police work.

Maryland is the only state that requires police departments to file public records regarding their usage of SWAT teams, but there is no reason to think it's an outlier on the national stage.

Since Maryland starting tracking SWAT deployments in 2009, there have been an average of 4.5 deployments per day, two of every three deployments included forced entry and 90 percent of all deployments have been for the purposes of serving warrants — not confronting dangerous and deadly criminals posing an immediate threat to human life.

The middle-of-the-night SWAT raid on a home in Georgia made national headlines last month when officers detonated a "flash-bang" grenade and burned an infant so severely that doctors had to induce coma — all to serve a warrant for someone who was not in the home at the time.

According to the ACLU, which released a new report this week after researching 800 SWAT deployments by 20 law enforcement agencies over the past two years, 68 percent of all SWAT team uses involved drug searches.

"The use of hyper-aggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians and police officers, escalates the risk of needless violence, destroys property, and undermines individual liberties," the ALCU concluded.

5. These cops arrested someone and didn't like getting filmed, and you won't believe what happened next

While the United States is putting more people in prison and giving cops more firepower to use on the streets, there's also a dangerous shortage of accountability for the actions of those same officers.

We could talk about the unfortunate habit of New York City police officers getting drunk and discharging their weapons at innocent civilians, or we could talk about the Green Bay, Wis., officer who recently body-slammed and assaulted a young man for no good reason.

But the best, most recent example comes from California.

Two police officers in Glendale were in the process of arresting a man suspected of driving while intoxicated, but they decided to harass someone filming the DUI checkpoint at the same time.

While the officers walked halfway down the block to confront a man with a cell phone camera, the suspect took advantage of the situation and fled the scene. Of course, the police then tried to arrest the guy with the camera (and his friend) for distracting them from the investigation.

The Glendale Police Department did not return calls from Watchdog.org

http://watchdog.org/156142/police-states-america-five-stories-prove-weve-lost-battle-police/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=saturday_26

Greetings,

     Would you believe it if I told you that armed federal agents with the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General broke down the door of a Stockton, California, home one morning at 6 a.m., and handcuffed a man suspected of student aid fraud? 

How about if I told you that the Department of Agriculture is seeking to order a large stock of submachine guns? 

Or that armed EPA officials raided a mine for suspected violations of the Clean Water act?

     Over the last decade, federal agencies have steadily accrued larger budgets they don't know what to do with.  Of course, they'll tell you that their limited resources prevent them from being able to competently execute their missions, but you and I know better.  After all, these agencies have so much money that they've been beefing up their armories.

     Yes, you read that right:  Their armories. 


On Monday, I joined Congressman Chris Stewart as he introduced the Regulatory Agency De-militarization Act, which seeks to stem the trend of federal regulatory agencies developing SWAT-like teams.  From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Food and Drug Agency to the Department of Education, federal agencies have created their own special law enforcement teams to conduct their own arrests and raids.  This is in part a product of the 2002 Homeland Security Act, which gave most Offices of Inspector General arrest and firearm authority.

     This law repeals that authority.  Not only has such power been overkill (no pun intended), but also we simply can't afford to turn federal regulators into weekend warriors.  That's not their job.

     It's crucial that regulators understand that their job is to work with the American people, not arm up to raid them. We need common sense in Washington--not more paramilitary regulators.

Sincerely,


(http://pompeo.house.gov/UploadedPhotos/LowResolution/f7a37d46-ff5f-4444-afe8-78d9c892888a.jpg)


Mike Pompeo
Member of Congress

A trucker, Brian Miner, caught an Illinois state trooper speeding while talking on his cell phone on a wet road. Miner used his horn to pull him over.

The trooper pulls over and when the trooper confronts Miner, he threatens to write him a ticket for unlawful use of a horn.

Miner tells the trooper that he's being recorded, and the trooper then goes back to his squad car with his information.

Suddenly, the officer has a very obvious (and very immediate) change of heart; he decides to not write a ticket and even does something to help Miner. He records the stop as a safety inspection with no violations, which may just earn the driver some brownie points with his company.

Maybe it is sometimes a good idea to record your encounters with the police...

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/06/152176-trucker-pulls-cop-speeding-gets-away/

June 28, 2014


By Rev. Austin Miles


WASHINGTON, DC – Obama does keep his promises. He has let it be known that He intends to control the internet. That would include blogs and websites not to his liking. As his former "pastor" Jeremiah Wright proclaimed, "The chickens have come home to roost." They sure have with more coming.

My website, www.revaustinmiles.com, in the few years it has been up, had become the 'go-to' website, with almost 3 million viewers with a couple thousand new visitors every day. We broke original stories that the Socialist media tried to hide and many readers gave their hearts to God reading the posts. This has upset Obama and his Communist handlers more than anything else.

On Friday, June 20, 2014, my website, without any notice or warning was suddenly shut down. The explanation was that it needed to be 'renewed.' We hit that link and were confronted with demands for personal information that nobody could produce. At one point, after providing the answers demanded, with the help of my webmaster, Timothy Vaughn, Jr., we received notice that all information requested had been completed and that we should be back on the air in 72 hours.

When that time passed I contacted the people who had shut me down saying that I had been promised it would be back up. The "customer service" rep stated that the one who told me that had no authority to say such a thing.

There was no particular name that I could request to talk to since nobody seemingly knew who was there or where. I asked to speak to a supervisor and that was denied.

I called in Pati Neal, whose husband LB Neal had set me up on the web, and she contacted them. She and her husband, who passed away last year, were partners in owning the site. She too was yanked around by the staff. No matter what she provided to them was not enough.

Now the final insult: We have been informed that my site will go up for auction and that we could bid in that 'auction.' And you can bet that even if I took part in that outrage, to bid for my own site, the bid would never go through.

This is only a start in what is coming down the pike with more and more chickens coming home to roost as Obama's promises are fulfilled..

I once wrote for a prominent Christian news site based in D.C. I wrote about the coup of The White House by Obama and his handlers, Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and how he claimed to be voted in. Those 'votes,' were proven fraudulent including hundreds of thousands of votes by dead people. So many dead people "voted" with 'votes' that were counted that they should put up polling stations in cemeteries.

Within an hour of the posting of that story, it was yanked down and scrubbed. The editorial offices are within walking distance of The White House. The only explanation given was that 'somebody' complained about the story. When one of the editors of that news site quit and moved on, he told me that yes, they had 'a visit' from somebody requiring my story to be taken down. And I was axed from the pool of writers there.

This is only the beginning. Obama has done everything he has promised. He promised Joe the Plumber, before he was put into office, that he would 'redistribute the wealth.' And he has kept that promise, even though a lot of that wealth was received by him and his family who have squandered at least a billion dollars taking elaborate vacations and using Air Force One as a taxi while the nation struggled..

He promised CHANGE in America. Why did we need change from our Constitution and the Godly principles of our founders? He made a change which we see daily. Today, San Francisco along with other cities in the U.S. and overseas, are celebrating Gay Pride Day, with shocking vulgar displays including nude people and sex on display. And last night, San Francisco had its first ever Transgender Parade. Again he TOLD us that is what he would do. And nobody challenged him.

He has destroyed the morals of our country which weakens everybody, making us vulnerable for take-over. Do you notice how many muggings and robberies take place near porn shops or bars? The robbers look for weak people exactly like the Communist Party has engineered.

Efforts to bring us to Communism dates back a long way with individuals. In 1900, the first ever Communist Organizational Meeting took place in Indianapolis. In the 1960s, fully orchestrated, it broke forth with the stoned hippies as 'useful idiots,' who, given the promise of 'freedom,' were supplied drugs, alcohol and easy women. Slam-bang Rock music replaced the soothing music of the past.

Their chant was "challenge authority" which would have meant Christian based government, the churches, marriage and family.

U.C. Berkeley became noted for The Free Speech Movement. What a misnomer and deception. We had that already. They meant free speech for those who would deviate from ethical living and open the way for those who want open vulgarity, sex, drug use and chaos.

Communism which is already in place, is brought to light gradually. It is due to hit full blast soon, when a 'neighborhood captain,' will knock on your door and say, "Here are your orders.

There will be no election in 2016. Obama intends to expand a crises just before that time, declaring a national emergency and proclaiming himself Dictator for Life. That is exactly the plan unless Congresspersons do what they should have done the moment of the fraudulent takeover of the Oval Office and remove Obama from that office before we are totally destroyed. He CAN be removed..

Even if my website goes back up there will no doubt be a loss of visitors. That is the goal. To do their best to silence. and to slow down those of us who write truth.

Meanwhile I will continue to write on internet websites where truth can be found.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/miles/140628

Opinion

License, registration—and your cash.

A deputy for the Humboldt County's Sheriff Office in rural Nevada has been accused of confiscating over $60,000 from drivers who were never charged with a crime.  These cash seizures are now the subject of two federal lawsuits and are the latest to spotlight a little-known police practice called civil forfeiture.

Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize property (including cash and cars) without having to prove the owners are guilty.   Last September, Tan Nguyen was pulled over for driving three miles over the speed limit, according to a suit he filed.  Deputy Lee Dove asked to search the car but Nguyen said he declined.  Dove claimed he smelled marijuana but couldn't find any drugs.  The deputy then searched the car and found a briefcase containing $50,000 in cash and cashier's checks, which he promptly seized.  According to the Associated Press, Nguyen said he won that cash at a casino.

Nguyen was not arrested or charged with a crime—not even a traffic citation.  In the suit, Dove threatened to seize and tow Nguyen's car unless he "got in his car and drove off and forgot this ever happened."  That would have left Nguyen stranded in the Nevada desert.

Almost three months later, Ken Smith was also pulled over for speeding.  During the stop, Deputy Dove performed a warrant check and found a warrant for a Ken Smith.  On that basis, Dove detained Smith.  But according to a lawsuit filed by Smith, the Ken Smith on the warrant had a different birthday and was black.  The pulled-over Smith was white.  As the lawsuit puts it, Smith "should have been cited for speeding and let go, if there was probable cause for speeding violations."




Instead, Smith was "unarrested" and allowed to leave with his car if he signed a waiver to surrender $13,800 in cash he had in the vehicle.  The Humboldt County Sheriff's office also seized a .40 caliber Ruger handgun from Smith, though Smith claimed he did not waive his right to that firearm.

After their experiences, both lawsuits argue these stops and cash seizures violate the Fourth Amendment's right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.  Americans for Forfeiture Reform has links to the two suits filed against the deputy.

The incentives behind civil forfeiture make accusations like these all too plausible.  Nevada has scant protections for property owners against forfeiture abuse, according to "Policing for Profit," a report published by the Institute for Justice (IJ).  Police can seize property under a legal standard lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used in criminal convictions.  Owners bear the burden of proof, meaning they have to prove their innocence in court.  In addition, law enforcement agencies keep 100 percent of the forfeiture proceeds.  While they are required to keep records on forfeiture, Nevada law enforcement refused to provide IJ with such information.

Nor is Nevada an outlier.  Twenty-five other states allow police to pocket all of the proceeds from civil forfeiture.  Property owners must prove their innocence in civil forfeiture proceedings in 37 other states.

"Asset forfeiture today, the way it exists federally, as well as in many states, is an institutional corruption,"  said Judge Jim Gray, who had three decades of experience on the bench in California.  Now retired and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Gray would rather see forfeiture proceeds funneled to a specific neutral fund like education or feeding the homeless.  "None of the [forfeiture] money should go to law enforcement.  That provides them an inappropriate incentive," he continued.

Across the country, institutional incentives have led to police misconduct.  Virginia State Police stopped Victor Luis Guzman for speeding on I-95 and seized $28,500 from him. But law enforcement didn't ticket or charge him with any crime.  A church secretary, Guzman said he was transporting the cash for his church.  The money in question was from parishioners' donations.  He was able to retrieve the cash only after an attorney who served in the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Office during the Reagan administration took his case pro bono.




In a similar vein, police in Tenaha, Tex. stopped hundreds of predominantly African American and Hispanic drivers and seized about $3 million from them.  If drivers refused to cooperate, police would then threaten to file "baseless criminal charges," according to the ACLU, which settled a class action lawsuit against the town in 2012.  The New Yorker reported that cops even threatened drivers, that, if they didn't turn over their cash, their children could be taken by Child Protective Services.

Unsurprisingly, seizing cash from traffic stops can earn millions for law enforcement.  Two of the biggest moneymakers in the country were Sheriffs Bob Vogel and Bill Smith.  Vogel seized $6.5 million in cash from cars going southbound on I-95 in Volusia County, Florida.  But usually the cars that smuggled drugs went northbound.  Plus, part of the "drug courier" profile for Sheriff Vogel "was that cars obeying the speed limit were suspect—their desire to avoid being stopped made them stand out."  The Orlando Sentinel later found that in three out of every four cases, no charges were filed.  Ninety percent of the seizures involved African Americans or Latinos.

About two hours up north on I-95 was Sheriff Smith's forfeiture corridor in Camden County, Ga.  The sheriff seized more than $20 million over two decades, with most of the money coming from intercepting cars on the highway.  As mentioned in the video below, Smith would use these proceeds to make ridiculous purchases, including a $90,000 Dodge Viper and paying convicts to build him a "party house."   As Kevin Drum at Mother Jones put it, "'forfeiture corridors' are the new speed traps."

Cops' desire for fast cash cannot trump the Constitution.  It's time to end policing for profit.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/

By Marian R. Williams, Ph.D.
Jefferson E. Holcomb, Ph.D.
Tomislav V. Kovandzic, Ph.D.
Scott Bullock

Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today.  Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—all without so much as charging you with a crime.  Unlike criminal forfeiture, where property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law, with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property.

Americans are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but civil forfeiture turns that principle on its head.  With civil forfeiture, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent.

Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture chronicles how state and federal laws leave innocent property owners vulnerable to forfeiture abuse and encourage law enforcement to take property to boost their budgets.  The report finds that by giving law enforcement a direct financial stake in forfeiture efforts, most state and federal laws encourage policing for profit, not justice. 

Policing for Profit also grades the states on how well they protect property owners—only three states receive a B or better.  And in most states, public accountability is limited as there is little oversight or reporting about how police and prosecutors use civil forfeiture or spend the proceeds.

Federal laws encourage even more civil forfeiture abuse through a loophole called "equitable sharing" that allows law enforcement to circumvent even the limited protections of state laws.  With equitable sharing, law enforcement agencies can and do profit from forfeitures they wouldn't be able to under state law.

It's time to end civil forfeiture.  People shouldn't lose their property without being convicted of a crime, and law enforcement shouldn't be able to profit from other people's property.


http://www.ij.org/policing-for-profit-the-abuse-of-civil-asset-forfeiture-4

Good one for sure. 

Just goes to show how the Republicans and democrats have ignored the Constitution.

Don't you believe that local sheriffs ought to be defending their citizens, at least - instead of participating in another Federal racket?

Thursday, 24 Jul 2014 10:23 AM

By John Stossel

I want the police to be better armed than the bad guys, but what exactly does that mean today?

Apparently it means the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security equip even the tiniest rural police departments with massive military vehicles, body armor and grenade launchers.

The equipment is surplus from the long wars we fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To a hammer, everything resembles a nail. SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams were once used only in emergencies such as riots or robberies where hostages were taken.

But today there are more than 50,000 no-knock raids a year.

It's not because crime got worse. There is less crime today.

Crime peaked around 1990 and is now at a 40-year low. But as politicians keep passing new criminal laws, police find new reasons to deploy their heavy equipment.

Washington Post reporter Radley Balko points out that they've used SWAT teams to raid such threatening haunts as truck stops with video poker machines, unlicensed barber shops and a frat house where underage drinking was reported.

In New York City, these men in black raided standup comedian Joe Lipari's apartment.
"I had bad customer service at the Apple Store," Lipari told me in an interview for my upcoming TV special "Policing America." "So I bitched about it on Facebook. I thought I was funny. I quoted 'Fight Club,'" the 1999 movie about bored yuppies who attack parts of consumer culture they hate.

"People (on Facebook) were immediately responding that it was obviously from 'Fight Club,'" says Lipari. "It was a good time, until 90 minutes later, a SWAT team knocked on my door. Everyone's got their guns drawn."

It took only that long for authorities to deem Lipari a threat and authorize a raid by a dozen armed men. Yet, says Lipari, "if they took 90 seconds to Google me, they would have seen I'm teaching a yoga class in an hour, that I had a comedy show."

Lipari has no police record. If he is a threat, so are you.

SWAT raids are dangerous, and things often go wrong. People may shoot at the police if they mistake the cops for ordinary criminals and pick up guns to defend their homes against invasion.

Sometimes cops kill the frightened homeowner who raises a gun.

Because America has so many confusing laws, and because cops sometimes make mistakes, it's harder to assume — as conservatives often do — that as long as you behave yourself, you have nothing to fear.

The raids should also trouble libertarians who sometimes believe that government can mostly be trusted when it sticks to legitimate functions like running police, courts and the military.

Government always grows, and government is force. Force is always dangerous.

It's healthy for conservatives, libertarians and liberals alike to worry about the militarization of police. Conservatives worry about a repeat of incidents like the raids on religious radicals at Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas. Liberals condemn police brutality like the recent asphyxiation death of a suspect at the hands of police in New York.

This is a rare issue where I agree with left-wing TV host Bill Maher. On his TV show last week, Maher ranted about no-knock raids, "breaking up poker games, arresting low-level pot dealers."

Maher's right to point out that most SWAT raids are now done to arrest nonviolent drug offenders. "It's a guy who sells weed," says Maher. "You don't need to shoot his dog and crash through his window."

But they do. If cops continue to take a warlike us-versus-them approach to policing the population, they just might bring the left and right together.

Government is reckless, whether it is intruding into our lives with byzantine regulations that destroy a fledgling business or with a flash-bang grenade like the one that critically wounded a child in a recent SWAT raid in Janesville, Georgia.

Regardless of our political leanings, we should be wary of big government in all its forms.

http://www.newsmax.com/JohnStossel/Government-Police-Homeland-Security/2014/07/24/id/584635/

News / USA



VOA News

July 27, 2014 3:53 AM


WASHINGTON —
A U.S. federal judge has ruled that a ban on carrying handguns in Washington, DC is unconstitutional.

The ruling, made public Saturday, overturns the city's prohibition on carrying a gun in public.

Judge Frederick Scullin said in his opinion "there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny."

It was not immediately clear whether the city intends to appeal the ruling.

The U.S. capital had a law prohibiting anyone from carrying a handgun outside the home. 

Proponents of carrying handguns usually base their claims on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-guns/1965959.html

by Guerilla Girl Ashley The Pete Santilli Show & The Guerilla Media Network



A Pennsylvania man named Kevin McCullers was shot while backing out of his driveway by a Pennsylvania Constable who was there to arrest Mr. McCullers for the terroristic crime of unpaid parking tickets. According to Mr. McCullers girlfriend, who said her boyfriend was on his way to Dunkin Dounuts and was surprised by the constable.   "They never knocked on the door! No nothing! I just heard the gunshots! He pulled the car out of the garage and all I heard were gunshots," said Hafeezah Muhammad, who added that McCullers, who was hit in the back, may not walk again. "For parking tickets?! It's insane."  However, the constable had a very different point of you for shooting Mr. McCullers. The constable used the old tried and true excuse of (" I felt my life was in danger")  that is always used by law enforcement when they kill or maim the very people they are sworn to protect. If thats not bad enough for you, wait till you hear how District Attorney Jim Martin said the shooting could have been avoided.  He said that "if only Mr. McCuller had entered into a payment plan for the unpaid parking tickets, the shooting would have never occurred".

I am truly speechless at the arrogance of this beaurucrat having the gall to say something like that   about a man who was shot in the back over unpaid parking tickets, and may now never walk again.



http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php?action=post;topic=15917.60;last_msg=221169

Nobody in the world loves locking people behind bars as much as Americans do.  We have more people in prison than any other nation on the planet.  We also have a higher percentage of our population locked up than anyone else does by a very large margin.  But has all of this imprisonment actually made us safer?  Well, the last time I checked, crime was still wildly out of control in America and for the most recent year that we have numbers for violent crime was up 15 percent.  The number of people that we have locked up has quadrupled since 1980, but this is not solving any of our problems.  Clearly, what we are doing is not working.


Nobody wants more crime.  And it seems logical that locking more people up and keeping them in prison for longer terms would "clean up our streets" and make our communities safer.  But instead, we have spawned a "prison industrial complex" that costs taxpayers more than 60 billion dollars a year but that does very little to turn the lives of the men and women inside around.  The chart posted below is a bit old, but it shows that we have a massive problem with recidivism in this country...

So what should we do?

To keep people from committing the same crimes should we just lock them up even longer?

Should we penalize a young kid for the rest of his life for a non-violent mistake that he made when he was 19 years old?

Should we continue to tear apart families and communities just so that we can have the illusion of feeling a little bit safer?

Or could it be possible that there is a better way to deal with all of this crime?

The following are 21 amazing facts about America's obsession with prison...

#1 There are more than 2.4 million people behind bars in America as you read this article.

#2 Since 1980, the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons has quadrupled.

#3 The incarceration rate in the United States is more than 4 times higher than the incarceration rate in the UK and more than 6 times higher than the incarceration rate in Canada.

#4 Approximately 12 million people cycle through local jails in the U.S. each and every year.

#5 Overall, the United States has the largest prison population and the highest incarceration rate in the entire world.

#6 Approximately one out of every four prisoners on the entire planet are in U.S. prisons, but the United States only accounts for about five percent of the total global population.

#7 The state of Maryland (total population 5.9 million) has more people in prison than Iraq (total population 31.9 million).

#8 The state of Ohio (total population 11.6 million) has more people in prison than Pakistan (total population 192.1 million).

#9 Incredibly, 41 percent of all young people in America have been arrested by the time they turn 23.

#10 Between 1990 and 2009 the number of Americans in private prisons increased by about 1600 percent.

#11 At this point, private prison companies operate more than 50 percent of all "youth correctional facilities" in this nation.

#12 There are more African-Americans under "correctional supervision" right now than were in slavery in the United States in 1850.

#13 Approximately 90 percent of those being held in prisons in the United States are men.

#14 The incarceration rate for African-American men is more than 6 times higher than it is for white men.

#15 An astounding 37.2 percent of African-American men from age 20 to age 34 with less than a high school education were incarcerated in 2008.

#16 Police in New York City conducted nearly 700,000 "stop-and-frisk searches" in 2011 alone.

#17 The "SWATification" of America has gotten completely and totally out of control.  Back in 1980, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids in the United States for the entire year.  Today, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids in the United States every single year.

#18 Illegal immigrants make up approximately 30 percent of the total population in our federal, state and local prisons.

#19 The average "minimum security" inmate in federal prison costs U.S. taxpayers $21,000 a year.

#20 The average "maximum security" inmate in federal prison costs U.S. taxpayers $33,000 a year.

#21 Overall, it costs more than 60 billion dollars a year to keep all of these people locked up.
And it certainly does not help that we treat ex-cons as pariahs once they leave prison.

Most people will not hire them, and in many cases public assistance is not available to them.  Often their wives and families have abandoned them, and they have no roots in their communities after being away for so long.  Without any options, it is really easy for many of them to fall back into crime.  And that is the last thing that we should want to see happen.

It is almost as if we give up on someone once that person is convicted of a felony.  We want criminals locked up for as long as possible, and then once they get out we make it extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into society.

Without a doubt, there are a lot of really bad people locked up in our prisons.  And criminals should be punished for their crimes.  But there are also a whole lot of people that made one stupid mistake when they were young, and there are also a whole lot of people that do not deserve to be there at all.

Perhaps instead of totally rejecting our prison population, we should have a little bit more love and compassion for them.

Perhaps instead of treating them as worthless pariahs, we should be doing more to change their hearts and to help them eventually reintegrate into society.

In the end, the truth is that none of us is perfect.

We all need grace and we all need forgiveness.

Perhaps we should remember that.

     

The number of SWAT team raids in the United States every year is now more than 25 times higher than it was back in 1980.  As America has conducted wars overseas in recent years, our police forces have become increasingly militarized as well.  And without a doubt, many of our cities have become much more dangerous places.  Thanks to relentless illegal immigration, drug cartels are thriving and there are now at least 1.4 million gang members living in the United States.  But there are many that believe that the militarization of our police forces has gone way too far.  Almost weekly, SWAT team brutality somewhere in America makes national headlines.  You are about to read about a couple of horrific examples of this below.  Once upon a time, police in America were helpful and friendly and the public generally trusted them.  But now our police forces are being transformed into military-style units that often act like they are in the middle of Iraq or Afghanistan. 

The following are 10 facts about the SWATification of America that everyone should know...

#1 In 1980, there were approximately 3,000 SWAT raids in the United States.  Now, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country.

#2 79 percent of the time, SWAT teams are deployed to private homes.

#3 50 percent of the victims of SWAT raids are either black or Latino.

#4 In 65 percent of SWAT deployments, "a battering ram, boot, or some sort of explosive device" is used to gain forced entry to a home.

#5 62 percent of all SWAT raids involve a search for drugs.

#6 In at least 36 percent of all SWAT raids, "no contraband of any kind" is found by the police.

#7 In cases where it is suspected that there is a weapon in the home, police only find a weapon 35 percent of the time.

#8 More than 100 American families have their homes raided by SWAT teams every single day.

#9 Only 7 percent of all SWAT deployments are for "hostage, barricade or active-shooter scenarios".

#10 Even small towns are getting SWAT teams now.  30 years ago, only 25.6 percent of communities with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 people had a SWAT team.  Now, that number has increased to 80 percent.
And thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, police forces all over the nation are being showered with billions of dollars of military equipment that is coming home from overseas.  The following is what a recent Time Magazine article had to say about this phenomenon...

As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have wound down, police departments have been obtaining military equipment, vehicles and uniforms that have flowed directly from the Department of Defense. According to a new report by the ACLU, the federal government has funneled $4.3 billion of military property to law enforcement agencies since the late 1990s, including $450 million worth in 2013. Five hundred law enforcement agencies have received Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, built to withstand bomb blasts. More than 15,000 items of military protective equipment and "battle dress uniforms," or fatigues worn by the U.S. Army, have been transferred. The report includes details of police agencies in towns like North Little Rock, Ark., (pop: 62,000), which has 34 automatic and semi-automatic rifles, a Mamba tactical vehicle and two MARCbots, which are armed robots designed for use in Afghanistan.

But when you start arming the police like military units and your start training them like military units, eventually they start acting like military units and the results are often quite frightening.

For example, just check out what happened when a SWAT team in Florida raided the home of one young couple earlier this month...

At approximately 6:16 am on June 10th, 2014, Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were seized upon by a SWAT team who smashed in the door and using flashbangs and armed to the teeth, swarmed upon the couple and even stripped Ms. Edwards naked in the process.

The couple says that the group entailed personnel from DHS, for whom Edwards once worked. After smashing in the door, the tactical team threw in flashbang grenades, traumatizing their cat and swarmed upon Edwards's boyfriend and Edwards who had just gotten out of the shower.

"They busted in like I was a terrorist or something," Edwards said.

"[An officer] demanded that I drop the towel I was covering my naked body with before snatching it off me physically and throwing me to the ground."

"While I lay naked, I was cuffed so tightly I could not feel my hands. For no reason, at gunpoint," Edwards said. "[Agents] refused to cover me, no matter how many times I asked."

That is the kind of thing that I would expect to happen in Nazi Germany, not the United States of America.

But this next example is even more horrifying.  The following is what one mother says happened to her 2-year-old son when a SWAT team raided her home...

After the SWAT team broke down the door, they threw a flashbang grenade inside. It landed in my son's crib.

Flashbang grenades were created for soldiers to use during battle. When they explode, the noise is so loud and the flash is so bright that anyone close by is temporarily blinded and deafened. It's been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby, and he's still covered in burns.

There's still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs. At least that's what I've been told; I'm afraid to look.

My husband's nephew, the one they were looking for, wasn't there. He doesn't even live in that house. After breaking down the door, throwing my husband to the ground, and screaming at my children, the officers – armed with M16s – filed through the house like they were playing war. They searched for drugs and never found any.

I heard my baby wailing and asked one of the officers to let me hold him. He screamed at me to sit down and shut up and blocked my view, so I couldn't see my son. I could see a singed crib. And I could see a pool of blood. The officers yelled at me to calm down and told me my son was fine, that he'd just lost a tooth.

Does that make you angry?

It should.

That young child is probably going to be disfigured for the rest of his life because of the brutality and the carelessness of that SWAT team.

Yes, we live in perilous times and many of our communities would rapidly descend into anarchy if there were no police.

But that does not mean that they have to act like Nazis.  They should be able to protect us while treating us with dignity and respect at the same time.

Quote from: ROSS on March 23, 2014, 09:07:49 AM

Psycho Oklahoma Cop Executes Family Dog With Shotgun And Laughs About It.

Saturday, March 22, 2014 11:50

In yet another display of psycho tyrannical cop behavior, on March 19, 2014 police Sergeant Brice Woolley responded to a call pertaining to a dog that had escaped someones yard, and was roaming the neighborhood. Instead of waiting  for animal control to arrive to apprehend the dog, according to an eyewitness report, SGT Woolly stated "I'm not waiting for animal control", and went back to his police cruiser to get his shotgun. He then shot the dog in the neck, killing "Cali" instantly, and if that wasn't bad enough,SGT Woolly laughed about killing "Cali", and stated " Did you see her collar fly off when I shot her? that was awesome" he stated to the animal control officer, who then replied to officer woolly, " We'll just write in the report that it tried to attack you and others in the neighborhood."


•Petitioning Ardmore Police Department
http://www.change.org/petitions/ardmore-police-department-justice-for-cali?share_id=mSaXZTnlHU&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&v=control&x=~open_graph_autopublish_experiment

Justice for Cali

Cali was a fun-loving, caring, peaceful family dog. On March 19, 2014, she escaped the backyard fence and was roaming through the neighborhood. A neighbor called animal control to come and retrieve the dog. The cops showed up before the animal control. When the cops pulled up, someone informed them , animal control was already on their way. Officer Brice Woolley said, "I'm not waiting for animal control."                                                                                                                                   

He then went to his car, pulled out his shotgun and shot Cali in her neck. After he shot her, he laughed and bragged about how "awesome" it looked when her collar flew off. She had done nothing to provoke the officer. She died immediately.

Read Here:http://www.change.org/petitions/ardmore-police-department-justice-for-cali?

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/cali4.jpg)

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/cali5.jpg)

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/cali6.jpg)

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/cali8.jpg)

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/12342/images/cali10.jpg)

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/03/psycho-oklahoma-cop-executes-family-dog-with-shotgun-and-laughs-about-it-2923900.html?utm_medium=facebook-share&utm_campaign=&utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_source=direct-b4in.info&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FqWT6

UPDATE to Ross' article on the psycho son of a b!tch that shot Cali, above. http://www.yousign.org/en/ardmore-dog

According to the Video on YouTube, the same police officer Sgt. Brice Woolly, shot and killed a man back in Nov. 2000.
while working for the Tishomingo, OK police dept.  The case went to court and the plaintiffs family won.
They settled out of court with the city of Tishomingo.  Officer Brice Woolly was fired from from their police force.

Watch video:

Video Published on Sep 18, 2013

Oklahoma Officer Brice Woolly Murders Unarmed Man, City Settles Lawsuit

Jeff Baxter was murdered by Tishomingo Police Officer, Brice Woolly In November of the year 2000

Officer Woolly was reported to have staked out a local bar in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Jeff Baxter and a friend left
the pub to visit another friend to pick up a carburetor because working on motors was one of the mens past time/job.

They noticed officer Brice Woolly was watching them. After Jeff Baxter and his buddy left his friends house,
officer Brice Woolly initiated a traffic stop. The victim, Jeff Baxter was the driver and did not immediately stop.
After the short pursuit the victim and the other man jumped out of the vehicle and started to run. 13 seconds
later Jeff Baxter was murdered by Tishomingo Oklahoma Police Officer, Brice Woolly.

Officer Brice Woolly is seen reenacting the murder but notice he never makes the same screams in the reenactment
and he did in the actual video. The unarmed man exits the vehicle and 13 seconds later he is murdered. Also in
the reenactment Officer Woolly Acts like he struggled with the man for quite sometime.

This appears to be false and the reenactment DOES NOT corroborate with the actual dashcam video.
See for yourself!



Officer Brice Woolly (The man who killed Jeff Baxter and Cali, the dog)
is currently employed with Ardmore Oklahoma Police Department.
http://www.ardmorecity.org/police/patrol.htm

August 1, 2014 By Matthew Burke




Another example of how the Obama regime is weaponizing federal government bureaucracies against U.S. citizens is being reported from the raid of a home in North Carolina.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), established as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks to protect U.S. citizens from terrorism the American homeland, has taken on new tyrannical and thuggish duties.

WBTV  reports: that when Jennifer Brinkley saw a line of law enforcement vehicles in her and her husband's driveway she had no idea what the problem was. "I haven't done anything wrong," she said.

Jennifer Brinkley's home was raided by Homeland Security agents, who apparently have no other pressing problems facing the country to be worried about, because Brinkley's classic and rare 1985 Land Rover Defender supposedly didn't meet Obama EPA emission rules, according to the Washington Times.

"They popped up the hood and looked at the Vehicle Identification Number and compared it with a piece of paper and then took the car with them," Brinkley told WBTV.

"I'm sad because I owned the car. It's just an iconic car. I'm in disbelief...and surprised that somebody can come in and take your property. It's scary. It's scary when it happens to you," Brinkley told FOX News.

Brinkley, who paid $60,000 for the classic SUV, believed that the vehicle was exempt from EPA standards because it was over 25 years old.

"I want my car back," Brinkley pleaded.

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/01/police-state-update-obama-feds-raid-home-the-reason-why-is-shocking/

Donald Flores was the victim of a hit and run, bloody and hurt, he was in need of help. But when Sgt. Schultz of the Blue Island PD showed up, he got anything but.

Flores began walking back to his house after the accident, "I just wanted to go home to basically die, where I felt more at peace."

According to Flores, he first encountered two cops that did the right thing, but next he came across, Sgt. Schultz.

"Are you out of your effin' mind? You're bleeding.'"

Stunned, Flores says he yelled back and then it escalated. When the sergeant threatened to use a stun gun on him, Flores said he implored him not to because he has an electronic spinal device to treat a previous injury to his hand.

When the stun gun was used, Flores says it caused a seizure. "When I was seizing they told me, 'Stop it. Quit resisting,'" he says.

The attorney for Blue Island, Patrick Ward, tells a different story. He says Flores was the aggressor and shoved the sergeant with two hands, causing him to stumble backward.

He says Flores didn't tell officers about the electronic device until after the stun gun was used.

 



"Their actions were justified," Ward says.

Of course tasering an innocent man, whose just been in an accident and is covered in blood, is "justified"....if you're the police.

Flores was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, assault and battery.

All charges have since been dropped and he is now suing the Blue Island Police.

Something has to be done here, all too often the tax payers are the ones held accountable for the negligence of police. Nothing will ever change as long as the incompetent state can defer its liability to the citizens of the tax farm.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-tasers-injured-hit-run-victim-starts-seizing-cops-quit-resisting/

Floating around the iternet!


Also Eric Holder who won't do his job in Washington is going to Missouri with his bias and 50 FBI investigators to screw things up there a lot worse.

The truth there will probably never be known.

After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America's highways.

Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice spent millions on police training.

The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back.

Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of "highway interdiction" to departments across the country.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.

Many of the reports have been funneled to federal agencies and fusion centers as part of the government's burgeoning law enforcement intelligence systems — despite warnings from state and federal authorities that the information could violate privacy and constitutional protections.

A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in the network's chat rooms and sharing "trophy shots" of money and drugs. Some police advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.

"All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine," Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Ill., wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonym. Hain is a marketing specialist for Desert Snow, a leading interdiction training firm based in Guthrie, Okla., whose founders also created Black Asphalt.

Hain's book calls for "turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods."

Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired.

The practice has been controversial since its inception at the height of the drug war more than three decades ago, and its abuses have been the subject of journalistic exposés and congressional hearings. But unexplored until now is the role of the federal government and the private police trainers in encouraging officers to target cash on the nation's highways since 9/11.

"Those laws were meant to take a guy out for selling $1 million in cocaine or who was trying to launder large amounts of money," said Mark Overton, the police chief in Bal Harbour, Fla., who once oversaw a federal drug task force in South Florida. "It was never meant for a street cop to take a few thousand dollars from a driver by the side of the road."

To examine the scope of asset forfeiture since the terror attacks, The Post analyzed a database of hundreds of thousands of seizure records at the Justice Department, reviewed hundreds of federal court cases, obtained internal records from training firms and interviewed scores of police officers, prosecutors and motorists.

The Post found:
•There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.

•Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases — 4,455 — where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money. The appeals process took more than a year in 40 percent of those cases and often required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures.

•Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.

•Agencies with police known to be participating in the Black Asphalt intelligence network have seen a 32 percent jump in seizures beginning in 2005, three times the rate of other police departments. Desert Snow-trained officers reported more than $427 million in cash seizures during highway stops in just one five-year period, according to company officials. More than 25,000 police have belonged to Black Asphalt, company officials said.

•State law enforcement officials in Iowa and Kansas prohibited the use of the Black Asphalt network because of concerns that it might not be a legal law enforcement tool. A federal prosecutor in Nebraska warned that Black Asphalt reports could violate laws governing civil liberties, the handling of sensitive law enforcement information and the disclosure of pretrial information to defendants. But officials at Justice and Homeland Security continued to use it.

Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the department had no comment on The Post's overall findings. But he said the department has a compliance review process in place for the Equitable Sharing Program and attorneys for federal agencies must review the seizures before they are "adopted" for inclusion in the program.

"Adoptions of state and local seizures — when a state and local law enforcement agency requests a federal seizing agency to adopt a state and local seizure for federal forfeiture — represent an average of only 3 percent of the total forfeiture amount since 2007," Carr said.

The Justice Department data released to The Post does not contain information about race. Carr said the department prohibits racial profiling. But in 400 federal court cases examined by The Post where people who challenged seizures and received some money back, the majority were black, Hispanic or another minority.

A 55-year-old Chinese American restaurateur from Georgia was pulled over for minor speeding on Interstate 10 in Alabama and detained for nearly two hours. He was carrying $75,000 raised from relatives to buy a Chinese restaurant in Lake Charles, La. He got back his money 10 months later but only after spending thousands of dollars on a lawyer and losing out on the restaurant deal.

A 40-year-old Hispanic carpenter from New Jersey was stopped on Interstate 95 in Virginia for having tinted windows. Police said he appeared nervous and consented to a search. They took $18,000 that he said was meant to buy a used car. He had to hire a lawyer to get back his money.

Mandrel Stuart, a 35-year-old African American owner of a small barbecue restaurant in Staunton, Va., was stunned when police took $17,550 from him during a stop in 2012 for a minor traffic infraction on Interstate 66 in Fairfax. He rejected a settlement with the government for half of his money and demanded a jury trial. He eventually got his money back but lost his business because he didn't have the cash to pay his overhead.

"I paid taxes on that money. I worked for that money," Stuart said. "Why should I give them my money?"

In defense of seizures

Steven Peterson, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who arranged highway interdiction training through a company called the 4:20 Group, said that patrol officers used to try to make their names with large drug busts. He said he saw that change when agency leaders realized that cash seizures could help their departments during lean times.

"They saw this as a way to provide equipment and training for their guys," Peterson said. "If you seized large amounts of cash, that's the gift that keeps on giving."

There is no question that state and federal forfeiture programs have crippled powerful drug-trafficking organizations, thwarted an assortment of criminals and brought millions of dollars to financially stressed police departments.

Advocates of highway interdiction say it plays an important role in protecting the public and that officers take care to respect the rights of citizens.

"We don't go hunting for money in general," said Sandy Springs, Ga., Officer Mike DeWald, who has served as a trainer for 4:20. "I never have been pressured to go after money. We are in pursuit of the criminal element."

Police trainers said that their work has helped make the country safer by teaching police to be more vigilant in identifying drug smugglers and terrorists.

"9/11 caused a lot of officers to realize they should be out there looking for those kind of people," said David Frye, a part-time Nebraska county deputy sheriff who serves as chief instructor at Desert Snow and was operations director of Black Asphalt. "When money is taken from an organization, it hurts them more than when they lose the drugs."

Frye and Desert Snow's founder, a former California highway patrolman named Joe David, defended Black Asphalt, which David started in 2004. They said they have taken steps in recent years to ensure that the informal police network complies with state and federal laws. David declined to speak to The Post.

"The Black Asphalt is not flawless, however the intent behind it is," David and Frye wrote in a letter in 2012 sent to police and obtained by The Post. "The information being moved through the system has proven itself reliable on hundreds of occasions. Much more reliable than any criminal informant. The results have been staggering. It has proven itself an extremely valuable tool for law enforcement."

Hain, Desert Snow's marketing official, said "the operational and software platforms of the Desert Snow site and Black Asphalt site are completely separate." He said Black Asphalt is "a secure system for intelligence sharing" and does not store information.

"No personal identifying information from seizure reports have ever been collected or stored by the Black Asphalt," Hain said. "The Black Asphalt software is simply a pass-through system that allows the user to input data, which is then sent directly, via e-mail, to a select group of law enforcement (i.e. local investigators, ICE Bulk Cash Smuggling Center, DEA agents, etc.). Again, none of the personal information is held within the system, only the summary of the seizure. And then the seizure narratives are only maintained for 21 days before they get purged."

The Post obtained hundreds of Black Asphalt records from law enforcement sources with access to the system.

Among Black Asphalt's features is a section called BOLO, or "be on the lookout," where police who join the network can post tips and hunches. In April, Aurora, Colo., police Officer James Waselkow pulled over a white Ford pickup for tinted windows. Waselkow said he thought the driver, a Mexican national, was suspicious in part because he wore a University of Wyoming cap.

"He had no idea where he was going, what hotel he was staying in or who with," Waselkow wrote. The officer searched the vehicle with the driver's consent but found no contraband. But he was still suspicious, so he posted the driver's license plate on Black Asphalt. "Released so someone else can locate the contraband," he wrote. "Happy hunting!"

Waselkow's department did not respond to a request for an interview.

The Post's review of 400 court cases, which encompassed seizures in 17 states, provided insights into stops and seizures.

In case after case, highway interdictors appeared to follow a similar script. Police set up what amounted to rolling checkpoints on busy highways and pulled over motorists for minor violations, such as following too closely or improper signaling. They quickly issued warnings or tickets. They studied drivers for signs of nervousness, including pulsing carotid arteries, clenched jaws and perspiration. They also looked for supposed "indicators" of criminal activity, which can include such things as trash on the floor of a vehicle, abundant energy drinks or air fresheners hanging from rearview mirrors.

One recent stop shows how the process can work in the field.

In December 2012, Frye was working in his capacity as a part-time deputy in Seward County, Neb. He pulled over John Anderson of San Clemente, Calif., who was driving a BMW on Interstate 80 near Lincoln. Frye issued a warning ticket within 13 minutes for failing to signal promptly when changing lanes.

He told Anderson he was finished with the stop. But Frye later noted in court papers that he found several indicators of possible suspicious activity: an air freshener, a radar detector and inconsistencies in the driver's description of his travels.

The officer then asked whether the driver had any cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin or large amounts of cash and sought permission to search the BMW, according to a video of the stop. Anderson denied having drugs or large amounts of cash in his car. He declined to give permission for a search. Frye then radioed for a drug-sniffing dog, and the driver had to wait another 36 minutes for the dog to arrive.

"I'm just going to, basically, have you wait here," Frye told Anderson.

The dog arrived and the handler said it indicated the presence of drugs. But when they searched the car, none was found. They did find money: $25,180.

Frye handcuffed Anderson and told him he was placing him under arrest.

"In Nebraska, drug currency is illegal," Frye said. "Let me tell you something, I've seized millions out here. When I say that, I mean millions. . . . This is what I do."

Frye suggested to Anderson that he might not have been aware of the money in his vehicle and began pressing him to sign a waiver relinquishing the cash, mentioning it at least five times over the next hour, the video shows.

"You're going to be given an opportunity to disclaim the currency," Frye told Anderson. "To sign a form that says, 'That is not my money. I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it. I don't want to come back to court.' "

Frye said that unless the driver agreed to give up the money, a prosecutor would "want to charge" him with a crime, "so that means you'll go to jail."

An hour and six minutes into the stop, Frye read Anderson his Miranda rights.

Anderson, who told Frye he worked as a self-employed debt counselor, said the money was not illicit and he was carrying it to pay off a gambling debt. He would later say it was from investors and meant to buy silver bullion and coins. More than two hours after the stop had begun, he finally agreed to give up the cash and Frye let him go. Now Anderson has gone to court to get the money back, saying he signed the waiver and mentioned the gambling debt only because he felt intimidated by Frye.

A magistrate has ruled at a preliminary step in the case that Frye had reasonable suspicion to detain Anderson. Frye said he always follows the law and has never had a seizure overturned.

Legal scholars who viewed the video of the stop told The Post that such practices push constitutional limits. Officers often are taught not to tell the driver they have a right to leave at any time after a traffic stop is concluded. But extended stops in which the officer uses psychological pressure on the driver without charges or Miranda warnings can cross the line.

"Encouraging police to initiate searches for the purpose of seizing cash or other assets, rather than to seize evidence to be used in a prosecution, is a dangerous development," said Clifford Fishman, a law professor at Catholic University and former New York City prosecutor. "It is particularly troubling if police officers are trained to manipulate the suspect into forfeiting the assets or waiving the right to contest the search."

David A. Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, said Frye's stop crossed the line when he detained the driver while summoning a canine.

"You cannot elongate the stop to bring in the dogs," he said. "In doing that, you're detaining the person without probable cause. That ain't kosher."

Read Much More at: http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php?action=post;topic=15917.70;last_msg=221736


Video's Too.

By Chuck Baldwin
September 4, 2014
NewsWithViews.com

When I was a youngster, my dad told me, "Son, a policeman is your friend." Through his jail and prison ministry, Dad became a personal friend of our county sheriff (two of them, as a matter of fact)--as well as scores of deputies and city police officers. For all of my life, I have taken Dad's maxim to heart. In fact, for all of my teen years, law enforcement was my chosen profession. I wanted to go into law enforcement real bad. It took a divine call to Gospel ministry to change my plans.

Throughout my adult life, I have enjoyed the friendship of many peace officers. The county sheriff where I lived in Florida made me an honorary deputy sheriff. I still have the credentials to prove it. I count scores (and maybe hundreds) of law enforcement officers around the country as friends. In fact, there are scores of peace officers across the country that financially support my work. I have had kinfolk serve in various positions of law enforcement. Anyone who knows anything about me knows I have been a law and order guy all of my life.

I am as much of a red-blooded American patriot as one will find in this country. I believe in God, the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I believe in liberty, justice, and independence. I am a Christian and a pastor. Through my radio talk show and syndicated column, I have helped to elect many liberty-minded candidates to municipal, county, State, and federal offices. And, like Mike Huckabee who is a former pastor, I, too, ran for the office of President of the United States.

With the above said, it is extremely important that this letter be written, because so many honorable American traditions and customs are being radically and rapidly changed--including the philosophies, standard operating procedures, and rules of engagement of law enforcement. And the change is not for the better.

Let me just be blunt: ever since Ronald Reagan left office, both Republican and Democrat presidential administrations--along with both Republican and Democrat congresses--in Washington, D.C., are turning the United States of America into a giant Police State. And that means that our local and State police agencies are being transformed before our very eyes into the enforcement arm of this burgeoning Police State. And one of the biggest reasons for this growing threat to our liberties is that it seems that you--our local and State police officers and sheriff's deputies--do not understand that you are the ones that are being used to create this nefarious Police State.

I am talking about otherwise honest and honorable men and women. I am talking about the friendly policeman, sheriff's deputy, or State highway patrolman who lives across the street from us. I'm talking about the fellow Christian police officer we go to church with. It seems that the vast majority of you men and women in blue do not comprehend the way you are being used to create a Police State in our country. And until you awaken to this reality, nothing is going to be done to stop it.

The totalitarian regimes of history could not have succeeded in implementing their enslavements over the people without the submission and cooperation of the citizen-policemen within their countries. Nor can a Police State be constructed in America without your submission and cooperation. My concern is, the Police State is already being constructed in this country and most of you don't seem to even realize it--or don't want to realize it. In fact, some of you become angry with people like me when we try to warn the American people about it. This shows that you have already become acclimated and accepting of it.

Here is the problem: in today's America, virtually every police agency and sheriff's office is being dictated to, intimidated by, and bribed by the federal government. Much of the policies you operate under--and training you receive--comes straight out of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Justice Department. If you are a police officer in a State or city that does not recognize the right of the people to keep and bear arms, you are already the enforcement arm of Draconian, dictatorial government. You routinely put people in jail or prison for merely exercising the fundamental, God-given right to keep and BEAR arms. How can you live with yourself?

The concern that you, our friends and neighbors in law enforcement, are being turned into agents of oppression is very justified. The warning signs are ubiquitous.

I was told by a Marine Corps officer, who was there, that last year Marines at Twentynine Palms, California, were asked in a survey if they were ordered to turn their weapons on the American citizenry for the purpose of gun confiscation, would they comply with the order. Sixty-six percent of them said yes, they would. Two-thirds! When this same question was asked of Marines at Twentynine Palms back in the 90s, 26% of the Marines said yes. This is a very disturbing trend.

How many of you men and women of law enforcement would respond similarly? Again, in states such as California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut--and in cities such as New York and Chicago--this is already standard operating procedure. People are routinely arrested for merely possessing a firearm, with no harm being inflicted or even threatened. Plus, all it takes is for some kind of riot or "national emergency," and the rest of the Bill of Rights immediately go out the window.

Look at Boston after the marathon bombing. The city was turned instantly into a Nazi-style Police State. People's homes were invaded without warrant; people were manhandled; police dogs were turned loose on people without cause; guns by the hundreds were pointed at the people of Boston by police. No occupying military force in the world was any more efficient at locking down a large city as were the police agencies of the city of Boston and the State of Massachusetts.

Look what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Regardless of whether the shooting of the young man was justified or not (along with everyone else, I am waiting for a proper and thorough investigation to provide an honest answer), the way police reacted to, what was at first, lawful protests, was unconscionable. Policemen training their firearms on innocent American citizens, including journalists, and threatening to blow their brains out is NOT acceptable behavior in a free society. Police agencies using military vehicles and military attack aircraft against American citizens is NOT acceptable behavior in a free society. Police-state tactics only served to exacerbate and inflame the situation in Ferguson, not alleviate it.

I lived on the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Police officers went door-to-door confiscating the firearms of law-abiding, innocent citizens in the aftermath of that storm. This was done while lawless gangs were allowed to freely roam the streets of the city inflicting merciless atrocities on vulnerable residents. And the State of Louisiana is one of our more gun-friendly states.

Look at what happens more and more frequently at routine traffic stops. My mother-in-law (who is in her eighties) was recently pulled over for a routine traffic stop here in Montana. (She must have been pulled over for driving too SLOW.) Two officers came out of the police car, and one of them was actually pointing his pistol at her head. Her vehicle was not suspected of having been part of a felony. They ran her plates. They knew who she was. To point a gun at a harmless, innocent senior citizen--who is suspected of no violent crime--is the mark of a burgeoning Police State.

Policemen training their weapons on the public has become almost routine nowadays. Even many minor incidents will often result in SWAT teams being deployed. In fact, Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter Kraska documents research showing, "There has been more than a 1,400% increase in the total number of police paramilitary deployments, or callouts, between 1980 and 2000. Today, an estimated 45,000 SWAT-team deployments are conducted yearly among those departments surveyed; in the early 1980s there was an average of about 3,000."

See Kraska's report: Militarization And Policing--It's Relevance To 21st Century

Has violent crime increased 1,400 percent during that time? Not at all. In fact, for the last several years, violent crime has been decreasing to the point that currently it is at record lows. So, how can the need for SWAT teams increase by 1,400 percent? It is the result of Washington, D.C., deliberately militarizing our police agencies. Give them military equipment, weapons, training, etc., and they will start acting like soldiers not policemen.

It all begins with philosophy. The philosophy being drilled into police officers today is that of an "us versus them" mentality. In the eyes of a Police State, we are not citizens to be protected; we are enemy targets who are guilty until proven innocent. Plus, the phrase that we hear constantly repeated today by law enforcement personnel and spokesmen is "the safety of the officer."

Wait a minute! The sworn duty of a police officer is to obey the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), which is designed to protect the rights, liberties, and safely of the American people. The role of the police officer is to protect the safety of the public. Any man or woman who volunteers to put on a badge should be consciously willing to put his or her life on the line to protect the public. That's what their job is all about. And no one forces them to take this risk; they take it of their own volition. Of course you men and women of law enforcement want to go home at the end of your shift. But so do the people of your community.

Policemen are not the only ones who face hostility and threats of violence. I have had my life threatened too many times to count. I have been shot at. (I've talked with several retired police officers who have told me that they never had to pull their gun during their entire career, nor were they ever fired at.) I have had my family threatened. And none of us wear Kevlar vests and helmets and can call backup with the push of a button (calling 911 is not the same as a policeman calling for back up--not even close).

If the safety of the officer is the primary duty of policemen, they should just shoot suspects on sight and eliminate the threat before it exists. And that is pretty much what they do in totalitarian countries. But this is America where the rule of law and the rights of the individual reign supreme. In a free country, people are judged to be innocent until proven guilty. Plus, the only lawful reason a police officer has to fire his weapon at someone is for the same reason that the rest of us can do so: for self-defense against an imminent threat to their (our) lives.

Over 5,000 American citizens have been shot and killed by police since 09/11/01. Based on official statistical data, we are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than we are by a terrorist. Currently, somewhere between 500-1,000 Americans are killed each year by policemen. By comparison, during 2012, 120 officers were killed in the line of duty.

"Despite far fewer officers dying in the line of duty compared with American citizens, police departments are not only increasing their use of protective and highly volatile gear, but are increasingly setting aside a portion of their budget to invest in new technology such as drones, night vision goggles, remote robots, surveillance cameras, license plate readers and armored vehicles that amount to unarmed tanks."

See the report: U.S. Police Have Killed Over 5,000 Civilians Since 9/11

Sadly, police agencies and county attorney's offices have a dismal record of thoroughly investigating police shootings (or even police brutality charges). Mostly, the word of the officer is accepted almost without question. Plus, it is common knowledge that many officers carry "throw down" weapons to alleviate incrimination. Furthermore, police officers are seldom willing to testify against a fellow officer--even when they know the officer has committed a crime.

It is past time that independent, citizen review boards with full investigative capability and with authority to begin disciplinary measures are required for all police shootings. I further recommend that every citizen install surveillance cameras inside their vehicles. Any government that thinks it needs to closely monitor our every move should be closely monitored by us.

A recent example of excessive use of force and the police-state mentality was prominently displayed in Boynton Beach, Florida. After questioning why the officers were ordering them around and starting to video-record the officers during a traffic stop, the policemen became enraged, began physically assaulting the young men, and one officer pointed his pistol at them threatening to immediately shoot them. Granted, the young men acted rudely and disrespectfully. But since when in America is cockiness and rudeness a potential death sentence?

But the worst part of the story came afterward when the chief of police issued a statement defending the conduct of the officers. Chief Jeffrey Katz viewed the video tape (recorded by a passenger in the car) and said the following: "When I watch this video, I don't see a car full of young men who are behaving in a manner consistent with FEAR OF THE POLICE." (Emphasis added)

See the report here:

'I'll Put A Round In Your A** So Quick': Florida Police Chief Defends Cop Who Threatened To Shoot Young Black Man Because He Filmed His Partner Throwing Him On The Ground

Ladies and gentlemen, that is not the statement of an American peace officer; that is the statement of a Nazi Brown Shirt. This is what happens when Washington, D.C., turns our local and State law enforcement officers into quasi-military units from a national police force. The police chief and his officers were angry that the young men didn't FEAR the police enough.

So, that's it. We are supposed to FEAR the police? Really? Then, pray tell, who are the police supposed to fear? My father didn't teach me to fear the police. He taught me to respect the police. And he taught me that the police were my friends. He did not teach me that I had to fear for my rights and my very life every time I'm pulled over for a traffic stop. And that's not the way that Sheriff Cliff Arnold's deputies behaved while I was growing up.

The Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department are all but forcing local and State police agencies to accept military equipment, tanks, attack helicopters, machine guns, and more. Last year alone, the Pentagon gave half a billion dollars of military gear to local police agencies. They are supplying suggested training procedures, complete with lists of the people whom they (Washington, D.C.) considers "dangerous."

Most of the intelligence that police agencies receive comes from the DHS-Fusion centers. Reading these memos is like reading the propaganda being spewed out by the radical, ultra-left wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). And in truth, much of the information that the Fusion centers distribute are carbon copies of SPLC propaganda.

For example, when I first moved to Montana four years ago, a local police lieutenant sent a memo to the city's police officers warning them about me. The memo accused me of things like being part of potentially dangerous militia groups, etc. He took words from off of my website and said they showed that I was an "extremist." What words, you ask? Words like: Liberty Fellowship, Black Regiment Pastors, Patriot Businesses, etc. Where did the lieutenant get that idea? He didn't know me from Job's turkey. He got it through a DHS Fusion center memo.

I later had a lunch meeting with the police lieutenant in the presence of a retired police officer and tried to assure him as to my character and integrity. I even showed him my honorary sheriff's deputy credentials. He admitted that he had not even read the content of my website and was merely going by the titles, which leads me to believe he may not have even logged onto the website at all but was merely taking the Fusion center report as "gospel." And, no, as far as I know, he did not send out a retraction to his officers. Thankfully, I have had several policemen and sheriff's deputies tell me personally how disgusted they were at the lieutenant's unfounded character assassination against me and that they appreciate the work I am doing.

In fact, I have had countless police officers and sheriff's deputies around the country write and tell me about similar memos they have received from DHS. I have even had deputies drive up to me and show me the memos they had received on the computers in their squad cars with the same kind of propaganda.

My friends in law enforcement, can you not see what is happening? Can you not see that you are being brainwashed into a police-state mentality where constitutional rights are seldom considered, especially in emergencies? All the feds must do is create some sort of national or local emergency and, presto, you become instruments of a Police State. Do you not see the trend?

By an overwhelming majority, your fellow citizens are NOT your enemies. We are your neighbors, fellow church members, etc. Are you going to let the machinations of would-be tyrants in Washington, D.C., and even in your own State and community, turn the honorable profession of peace officer into an "us versus them" Gestapo-like Police State?

True story: here in Montana, a small town police officer, who is assigned to the traffic division, was asked to speak to a church group. Mostly, he gives out traffic citations for minor violations. As he began his remarks, he said, "I am a cop; I work every day among the dregs of society." Really? People who get parking tickets and speeding tickets are the "dregs" of society? That, my friends, is the mark of an unfolding police-state mentality. And, remember, this is from the heart and lips of a professing Christian.

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin821.htm

by Tina Nguyen | 9:24 am, September 24th, 2014

A New York City police officer is under investigation after a video, showing him manhandling and slamming a pregnant woman on the pavement onto her stomach, was released on Facebook.

Read the rest at:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/nypd-officer-filmed-slamming-pregnant-woman-on-pavement/

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by Tommy Christopher | 5:10 pm, June 29th, 2010

A catch-phrase is re-born?

An 86 year-old Oklahoma woman and her grandson have filed suit against El Reno police, who they say tazed the ailing granny simply because she asked them to leave. According to the complaint, Officer Thomas Duran ordered Lona Varner to be tazed, as grandson Lonnie Tinsley protested, "Don't taze my granny!"

The complaint gets weirder, as does the police version of the story.

Varner's complaint alleges that police stepped on her oxygen tube to cut off her air supply, then tazed her twice as they cuffed and stuffed her grandson.

Police were responding to this 911 call, in which Lonnie fears his grandmother may have taken something. Adding to the weirdness is the operator's Comedy Central-esque greeting of "El Reno 911...":

http://www.mediaite.com/online/this-exists-grandson-alleges-that-policed-tazed-his-grandmother-twice/

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by Tina Nguyen | 1:11 pm, July 5th, 2014

http://static01.mediaite.com/med/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-05-at-12.45.54-PM.png
A cellphone video emerged this weekend of a California cop appearing to brutally beat a woman for no discernible reason on the side of a highway.

CBS Los Angeles reports that the video, filmed on Tuesday evening, depicts a California Highway Patrol officer angrily crossing the La Brea Freeway, yanking a barefooted woman down, and punching her "more than 11 times in the face."

Read more at:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cop-filmed-viciously-beating-unarmed-woman-on-highway/

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by Luke O'Neil | 2:31 pm, April 23rd, 2014

Yesterday the internet had a bit of fun with the New York Police Department's hapless attempt at social media outreach by hijacking the #MyNYPD tag. On Monday came another reminder that it's not only big city police departments that know how to get their hands dirty with a video from an incident in Green Bay that shows a police officer brutally assaulting a bystander to an arrest who had been criticizing him.

The video, which was posted to Facebook on Monday, has since been shared over 40,000 times, and tens of thousands of other times on various YouTube posts. It shows Green Bay Police Officer Derek Wicklund attempting to arrest a man for allegedly carrying a drink outside of a bar, while Joshua Wenzel and a crowd of onlookers question the reasoning behind the arrests. As is often the case when inebriated college kids and overly-aggressive police officers collide, things do not go well from that point.

Wenzel, who appears to be screaming expletives at the officer but posing no physical threat, is pushed onto a car, body slammed to the ground, then punched in the face by Wicklund. "I'm turning that in, that was brutal," an onlooker yells. He is correct.

All of the officers in the video remain on duty, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports, although the department is conducting an investigation, they say. I wonder how that will go!


"We haven't had, per se, a formal complaint filed, but based on the information we received (Monday) we have decided to start our own investigation," Capt. Bill Galvin of the Green Bay Police Department said during a press conference Tuesday morning. "We're going to be looking at everything that took place before, during, and after that incident."

"Every complaint against an officer is investigated as fully as possible," Galvin said. "In an incident like this we didn't wait for someone to come forward and file a complaint, we felt something like this is something that should be looked at.

And so it will be looked at, all over the internet.

Elsewhere in police hurting people news, the Albuquerque Police's reign of terror continues, as they've killed yet another person, the third in five weeks. The woman in question pulled a gun on the officer, which is a bit more understandable as a cause for use of force than yelling bad words.

It is not illegal to swear at a police officer.

http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=222327;topic=15917.70

by Tommy Christopher | 6:13 pm, May 30th, 2013


Miami-Dade Police are taking heat over their use of force in the arrest of 14 year-old Tremaine McMillian, after the teen's mother produced cellphone video of police using a choke hold to subdue him. Police say that McMillian posed a threat because, among other things, he gave them "dehumanizing stares."

Also injured in the incident, according to McMillian, was Polo, the aforementioned Cutest Puppy Ever Involved In An Incidence Of Alleged Police Brutality. Don't believe me? Check out the local CBS station's report, and tell me Polo isn't the most adorable thing you'll ever see in a news report about alleged police brutality:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/presenting-the-cutest-puppy-ever-involved-in-an-incidence-of-alleged-police-brutality/

Law /commentary


Jordan Richardson  / @RobertJordanWV / October 27, 2014 /


The family of a Georgia teenager is suing the Waycross, Ga., Police Department for $12.5 million after a police officer allegedly pointed a gun to their son's head and handcuffed him on the ground—all for a seatbelt violation.

The incident occurred on Jan. 18 when high school senior Montre' Merritt was returning home and pulling into his driveway. Officer Cory Gay had been following Merritt for several blocks, but turned on his flashing lights when they neared Merritt's house.

Instead of conducting a normal stop, however, Gay approached the vehicle, pointed a gun to Merritt's head and forced him to lie on the ground. Despite Merritt's insistence that he had done nothing wrong, Gay called for backup and handcuffed the teenager—while his mother watched in horror.

When backup arrived, Gay released Merritt and cited him for a seatbelt violation. No explanation was given to Merritt or his mother about why such force was used.

Merritt recalled the emotional shock he experienced from the encounter:


Coming from me being a huge role model in my community, to see my mom witness that. That was one of the most painful things I could ever imagine for her. The pain that I still feel. The tears that I still cry. Everything is just real in reality. I have to wake up with this on my heart and on my mind every day, and it hurts.

As a result of this incident, Gay was suspended without pay for five days after the Waycross police chief determined the use of force was unjustified. Gay was subsequently required to attend use-of-force training.

But the Merritt family asserts the extra training is not enough.

Their lawsuit claims Gay falsely arrested Merritt, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him, assaulted him and deprived him of his civil rights. Additionally, the lawsuit claims the city of Waycross and the Waycross Police Department were negligent for not properly training Gay.

They also claim the incident was racially motivated.

"What we have to do is target those wrong police officers and those wrong police departments that will harbor and maintain practices that take the lives and take the rights of citizens," said Reginald Greene, the family's attorney.

The allegations about Gay's behavior, if true, raise some troubling questions. What possible purpose was served by ordering Merritt to lie on the ground while pointing a gun to his head? There is no indication Merritt was behaving in a threatening manner. The Waycross Police Department took the right steps by recognizing that this was over the top and disciplined the officer.

Stories like this bring to mind other instances of inappropriate police overreaction:
•In Piedmont, Okla., a local police officer issued a $2,500 citation to a mother whose 3-year-old was urinating in their own front yard. Instead of simply ignoring a toddler who was still being potty trained, the officer wrote the ticket anyway.
•In Summerville, S.C., the local police arrested a 16-year-old boy for jokingly stating in a creative writing assignment "I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur." As a result of the arrest, the teenager was suspended from school for the rest of week.
•In North Augusta, S.C. the police arrested and charged a young mother with disorderly conduct for using profanity while shopping for groceries—even though she had a First Amendment right to speak her mind.

In this case, whether Gay's decision to point a gun at Merritt was based upon racial prejudice or was simply the result of a lack of training, it is undisputed that a serious error took place, largely due to poor judgment by the officer.

Warren E. Burger, former chief justice of the United States, wisely once remarked, "The policeman on the beat or in the patrol car makes more decisions and exercises broader discretion affecting the daily lives of people every day and to a greater extent, in many respects, than a judge will ordinarily exercise in a week."

It is this authority which requires equal amounts of training and judgment for the public to truly have faith in their officials. Powerful discretion over the lives of average citizens should be exercised with wisdom. Not every situation calls for the use of force, and not every confrontation deserves to be escalated into a criminal arrest.

If police officers wish to uphold their oath to "protect and serve" then serious examination is required of the policies and procedures that lead to incidents like this.

Video at:
http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/27/police-officer-sued-pointing-gun-teens-head-seatbelt-violation/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokuK3IZKXonjHpfsX56O4kWqa%2BlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CT8BlI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

Perhaps the police think they are to protect and serve the government/tyrants.

You gotta wonder about the police or even some of the county Sheriff's - whose side are they on?
The peoples' side or the tyrants?

December 19, 2014 By Greg Campbell

Beyond the ideological divisions on the so-called "gun control debate," laws that try to curb lawful ownership of firearms have one central flaw that is utterly inescapable:

Only the law-abiding follow laws. Criminals, as the name would suggest, do not; what madman is content with committing mass murder with a firearm but is stopped only by the hefty penalties of purchasing a firearm or carrying a firearm when ineligible?

Now, Washington State authorities are scratching their heads. Having hurried-up and passed an anti-Second Amendment law, few, apparently, considered how to enforce the law and are putting on the issue of law enforcement.

I-594 was approved by Washington voters in November. The law prohibits private sales of firearms and welcomes government into the transaction.

The law is an 18-page quagmire of jumbled legalese and unenforceable garbage and the state Attorney General has thrown-up his hands in desperation and has now tasked local law enforcement to do their best in enforcing this law that confuses even legal authorities.

The state Attorney General's office has released a statement, saying,
"...Therefore, at this point we have no interpretations of the initiative to offer to the public beyond the text of the measure itself. Local law enforcement and local prosecutors typically enforce and prosecute firearms laws."
For those who do not speak baffled lawyer, allow me to translate:

"This law is an absolute mess and practically unenforceable; so, I now ask local law enforcement to, you know, just do the best you can and make up the law as you go along."

If the state's top law enforcer cannot figure out how to enforce the new provisions, surely the police cannot be expected to know, right?

How about the citizens? What should they do if they're being unfairly arrested for breaking a law that may or may not prohibit their actions? Contact the licensing bureau?

I wouldn't. The Department Of Licensing issued a statement clarifying that they know nothing:
"Please contact your local law enforcement agency if you have questions about firearms licensure requirements, clarification of definitions, violations of the law or need additional information regarding exemptions.... Again, the Firearms Program staff cannot provide legal advice or help the public or licensed firearm dealers interpret the firearms statutes found in RCW 9.41 or I-594"
Washington voters were fed a lot of misinformation about I-594; while Second Amendment advocates warned that this was a registration scheme, supporters maintained that this was purely a background check initiative and that family members would receive an exemption, but that only person-to-person transfers done outside of an immediate family were required to submit to a background check.

Progressivestoday.com, however, notes that that is not how the law is being interpreted:
You may notice a couple of concerning lines in that statement, such as "This program's role in the implementation of Initiative 594 is limited to record keeping requirements." If a background check is all this is, then why does a state agency keep records? The I 594 supporters continually said all along that this is not a registration scheme, so what are these records that are kept? Towards of the end of the statement, we also see "To report possession or ownership of a pistol acquired upon the death of the prior owner after December 4, 2014, contact the Firearms Program at 360.664.6616 or email at firearms@dol.wa.gov." Since transfers to immediate family members are exempt from having to go through the background check process, why does there need to be any reporting of inheritance of a firearm?

The Washington State Police want nothing to do with enforcement of the state law, either, as they didn't arrest anyone who participated in the "I Will Not Comply" rally that took place on December 13th, where 1,000-2,000 stood outside of the capitol building in Olympia, transferring and selling guns back and forth in an open defiance of I 594.

The Vancouver police department has a vague statement on their webpage that punts the ball back to the Department of Licensing, while Seattle PD has remained silent.

To demonstrate how easy it is for someone to break this new law, on the moment it went into effect, activists made a video of a firearms sale taking place on the street in downtown Vancouver, with nary a law enforcement officer in sight to do anything about it.

Lewis County prosecutor and sheriff have released statements saying they will not enforce it. So the question now becomes "If no one wants to enforce a law, is it still a law?"

To answer the above question, no; the Second Amendment protects our right to keep and bear arms and, just as importantly, it is the only amendment that clarifies in crystal-clear wording that this right shall not be infringed.

In this context we see that A) the Second Amendment supersedes this new law and that B) nobody is willing to interpret or enforce the law.

Therefore, the rule of law continues on its slide towards irrelevancy in America.

http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php?action=post2;start=70;board=2

An evidence photo shows a Chevy Malibu that Cleveland police officers riddled with bullets after a chase that ended in the deaths of an unarmed man and woman. Officer Michael Brelo, who investigators say fired 34 shots at the car and then climbed on the hood and fired 15 more through the windshield, is on trial on two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found. Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved.

n a rainy night five years ago, Officer Coleman "Duke" Brackney set off in pursuit of a suspected drunk driver, chasing his black Mazda Miata down rural Arkansas roads at speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour. When the sports car finally came to rest in a ditch, Brackney opened fire at the rear window and repeatedly struck the driver, 41-year-old James Ahern, in the back. The gunshots killed Ahern.

Prosecutors charged Brackney with felony manslaughter. But he eventually entered a plea to a lesser charge and could ultimately be left with no criminal record.

How the analysis was done: The 54 criminal prosecutions were identified by Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip M. Stinson and The Washington Post. Cases were culled from news reports, grand jury announcements and news releases from prosecutors. For individual cases, reporters obtained and reviewed thousands of pages of court records, police reports, grand jury indictments, witness testimony and video recordings. Dozens of prosecutors and defense attorneys in the cases were interviewed, along with legal experts, officers who were prosecuted and surviving relatives of the shooting victims.
Now, he serves as the police chief in a small community 20 miles from the scene of the shooting.

Brackney is among 54 officers charged over the past decade for fatally shooting someone while on duty, according to an analysis by The Washington Post and researchers at Bowling Green State University. This analysis, based on a wide range of public records and interviews with law enforcement, judicial and other legal experts, sought to identify for the first time every officer who faced charges­ for such shootings since 2005. These represent a small fraction of the thousands of fatal police shootings that have occurred across the country in that time.

In an overwhelming majority of the cases where an officer was charged, the person killed was unarmed. But it usually took more than that.

When prosecutors pressed charges, The Post analysis found, there were typically other factors that made the case exceptional, including: a victim shot in the back, a video recording of the incident, incriminating testimony from other officers or allegations of a coverup.

South Carolina shooting


Editor's note: This video contains graphic content. A police officer in North Charleston, S.C., has been charged with murder after shooting a man during a traffic stop. Authorities said the decision to charge officer Michael Slager was made after they viewed video footage of the incident that showed him shooting the other man in the back as he was fleeing the scene. (Obtained by The Washington Post)
Forty-three cases involved at least one of these four factors. Nineteen cases involved at least two.

In the most recent incident, officials in North Charleston, S.C., filed a murder charge Tuesday against a white police officer, Michael T. Slager, for gunning down an apparently unarmed black man. A video recording showed Slager repeatedly shooting the man in the back as he was running away.

"To charge an officer in a fatal shooting, it takes something so egregious, so over the top that it cannot be explained in any rational way," said Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green who studies arrests of police. "It also has to be a case that prosecutors are willing to hang their reputation on."

But even in these most extreme instances, the majority of the officers whose cases have been resolved have not been convicted, The Post analysis found.

And when they are convicted or plead guilty, they've tended to get little time behind bars, on average four years and sometimes only weeks. Jurors are very reluctant to punish police officers, tending to view them as guardians of order, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers.

The definition of "officers" used in the analysis extends beyond local police to all government law enforcement personnel who are armed, including sheriff's deputies and corrections officers. The analysis included some shootings that officers described as accidental.

There is no accurate tally of all the cases­ of police shootings across the country, even deadly ones. The FBI maintains a national database of fatal shootings by officers but does not require police departments to keep it updated.

'As soon as I fired the shot, I knew the threat was done'

Ten years after killing an unarmed man in downtown Detroit, Michigan State Trooper Jay Morningstar remembers the event that changed his life.

Over the past year, a series of controversial police killings of unarmed victims — including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Eric Garner on Staten Island — has raised questions over what it takes for officers to face criminal ­charges. Often, the public is divided over whether the police went too far. Only in rare cases­ do prosecutors and grand juries decide that the killing cannot be justified.

Such cases include a Michigan state trooper who shot and killed an unarmed homeless man in Detroit as he was shuffling toward him, the man's pants down past his knees. The incident was captured on video, and the officer, who said he thought the man had a gun, was charged with second-degree murder. A jury accepted the officer's account and found him not guilty. He remains on the job.


They also include a police officer in Darlington County, S.C., who was charged with murder after he chased an unarmed man wanted for stealing a gas grill and three U-Haul trailers into the woods, shooting him in the back four times. A jury, believing that he feared for his life, found him not guilty.

Two Atlanta plainclothes officers opened fire and killed a 92-year-old woman during a mistaken drug raid on her home. As they pried the bars off her front door, she fired a single warning shot with an old revolver. The police responded by smashing the door down and shooting at her 39 times. One of the officers tried to disguise their error by planting bags of marijuana in her basement. The two officers pleaded guilty and received unusually stiff sentences of six and 10 years in a federal prison.

A rap musician, Killer Mike, wrote a song to memorialize the death of this African American grandmother at the hands of white officers, comparing her killing to "the dream of King when the sniper took his life."

After the death of Michael Brown last summer, concerns about racism in policing have exploded in public debate, in particular whether white officers use excessive force when dealing with minorities and whether the criminal justice system protects the victims' rights.

Among the officers charged since 2005 for fatal shootings, more than three-quarters were white. Two-thirds of their victims were minorities, all but two of them black.

Nearly all other cases­ involved black officers who killed black victims. In one other instance, a Latino officer fatally shot a white person and in another an Asian officer killed a black person. There were a total of 49 victims.

Identifying the exact role of race in fatal shootings and prosecutions is difficult. Often, prosecutors pursued charges against a backdrop of protests accusing police of racism. Race was also a factor in court when federal prosecutors stepped in and filed charges­ against officers for allegedly violating the victims' civil rights. Six officers, all white, faced federal civil rights charges for killing blacks.

In interviews with more than 20 prosecutors across the country, they said that race did not factor into their decisions to bring charges against officers. The prosecutors said they pursued cases­ based on the legal merits.

Coleman 'Duke' Brackney
Charged with felony manslaughter in the death of James Ahern. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide. No conviction was imposed.
 
But defense lawyer Doug Friesen, who represented a white officer convicted in 2013 for fatally shooting an unarmed black man, said that "it would be naive" for prosecutors to say race isn't a consideration.

"Anytime you have politicians that have to make charging decisions, realistically that is part of their decision-making process," Friesen said. "They are asking themselves, 'Is there going to be rioting out in the streets?' "

Both Officer Coleman "Duke" Brackney and his victim James Ahern, shot dead in his Miata, were white.

Brackney, 32, recalled in an interview that he believed Ahern was about to back his car up and run over him. The engine was racing and the backup lights flashed, Brackney said.

A video, captured by a camera mounted on his cruiser's dashboard, indicated that the sports car was not moving when the officer opened fire. The existence of that video was the key reason why prosecutors decided to bring charges, they said.

"In my mind, it was the third time he tried to run me over," Brackney said in an interview with The Post. "His right hand came up in this sweeping motion, and I thought he was going for a gun. I don't know what a jury would have believed — and that's the problem. There was this risk, so entering a plea, I viewed it as a business decision."

After pleading to a reduced charge of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, Brackney served 30 days in jail as part of a plea agreement. The judge deferred the conviction, and if Brackney fulfills the terms of his probation, the case will be dismissed.

"No one wants to take a life, but at the end of the day, I realize that I'm the one who got to go home," he said, adding, "I wouldn't change what I did."

He was fired by the Bella Vista Police Department, where he worked at the time, but was given another chance by the city of Sulphur Springs, Ark. Two years ago, city officials hired him to run the police department, where he manages a force of four officers who spend much of their time patrolling quiet streets and arresting small-time drug dealers.

Most of the police officers were white, most of the victims were black
In three-quarters of the reviewed cases, the race of the charged officer was white. Of those, two-thirds shot and killed a black person. In none of the cases did a black officer fatally shoot a white person.

Explore the details of all 54 officers » http://washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings/

Most of the time, prosecutors don't press charges against police — even if there are strong suspicions that an officer has committed a crime. Prosecutors interviewed for this report say it takes compelling proof that at the time of the shooting the victim posed no threat either to the officer or to bystanders.

Much more to read at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/04/11/thousands-dead-few-prosecuted/?hpid=z2