Police Behaving Badly

[char]

A bad apple spoils the barrel.

[guroo270]

If you want a news feed of all this stuff just join the FB group Cop Block.

[Dantheman]

Prosecutor behaving badly: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...osecution.html

What a fucking piece of shit, but hey it's Texas

FIFY. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that guy is barely outside the mean on the Texan bell curve.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/18/us/dal...deo/index.html

To take just one example, in May 2013 a Bakersfield, CA woman saw six sheriff's deputies, a sergeant, and two California Highway Patrol officers beating a man, David Sal Silva, and recorded it on her phone, as did her daughter's boyfriend, according to news reports. The man, surrounded by officers, reportedly screamed and cried for help as he was beaten, and was later pronounced dead. Detectives then showed up at her daughter's house at 3:00 AM, and prevented the daughter and her boyfriend from leaving the house for 3 hours until he handed over his phone. Detectives also later confiscated the woman's phone. In neither case did they have a warrant. Nor did they allow them to simply email the relevant file to the police, the policy that would satisfy any evidentiary claims the police have to the video. Later, there were indications that the police may have destroyed video of the incident. In April 2014 the DA declined to file charges, saying that Silva's death was an accident. (Silva's family and the witnesses have filed suits.)

The "bad apple" frame would suggest that the officer or officers leading the response in this incident were individual rogues, and that their fellow officers understood that their response was a problem. Yet there were nine law enforcement officers present. And then separately a number of detectives showed up later to seize the witnesses' cameras, which suggests a high degree of internal coordination within the police department. And the department hasn't released the video (which its creators would do, had the police not seized their phones).

Moral of the story: If you film cops committing grossly illegal acts, upload the file to as many places as possible immediately.

[Mazderati]

Apparently some phone apps will connect directly to a server or remote storage site (like the former RapidShare or Megaupload) and download directly. Cops can snatch the phone but the video is still saved.

[Bromontana]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=290_1415427089

the Deputy slaps Fitch while saying “you want to f*cking resist?”. He then took the car keys and threw them to his partner, telling him to search the car.

When Adam Roberts, the passenger in the car who was surreptitiously filming the entire incident, told the deputy “that was intense”, Glans responded by saying, “you like that huh? I can get a lot more intense.”

Roberts asked if he was going to slap him around and the deputy had a few more choice words:

“I’ll rip your head off and sh*t down your neck”

The Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office suspended Glans the day they discovered the video. He resigned the next day, preserving his pension and retirement benefits.

notice the lack of bracelets and wearing a Marines shirt after being fired for an incident where he channeled a scene from Full Metal Jacket (while on duty policing). Not what you call the face of a humble or repentant 'good guy' caught in a 'bad moment.'



http://controversialtimes.com/issues...e-wrist-video/

[neufox47]

Just one bad apple. His partner that let this happen and the police force that defended him are all fine outstanding officers dedicated to protecting and serving the community.

[Mazderati]

That guy actually does have porcine features.

[powpig]

U.S. police are killing more than all first world police forces combined

February 25, 2015

Hide your kids. Hide your wife. The cops are killing everybody this year. It would seem that the police in the U.S. are commited to breaking a murder record 2015, as the total body count at the hands of police is up to 138. That’s 1 person every 8 hours! Moreover, every police officer killed this year was murdered by other cops.

As of February 16, only a month and a half into 2015, there has been at least 138 individuals killed by police in the United States since the first of the year.

The frighteningly high number averages out to three killed per day, or someone killed every eight hours. While there is no government-run database, Killed By Police has taken it upon themselves to keep track, and are doing a fantastic job thus far.

Just to put things into perspective, let’s take a look at the rates at which police in other countries kill their citizens.

Let’s look at our immediate neighbors to the north, Canada. The total number of citizens killed by law enforcement officers in the year 2014, was 14; that is 78 times less people than the US.

If we look at the United Kingdom, 1 person was killed by police in 2014 and 0 in 2013. English police reportedly fired guns a total of three times in all of 2013, with zero reported fatalities.

From 2010 through 2014, there were four fatal police shootings in England, which has a population of about 52 million. By contrast, Albuquerque, N.M., with a population 1 percent the size of England’s, had 26 fatal police shootings in that same time period.

China, whose population is 4 and 1/2 times the size of the United States, recorded 12 killings by law enforcement officers in 2014.
Let that sink in. Law enforcement in the US killed 92 times more people than a country with nearly 1.4 billion people.

It doesn’t stop there.

From 2013-2014, German police killed absolutely no one.

In the entire history of Iceland police, they have only killed 1 person ever. After exhausting all non-lethal methods to detain an armed man barricaded in his house who actually shot 2 police officers, police were forced to take the 59-year-old man’s life. The country of Iceland grieved for weeks after having to resort to violence.

Unofficially, it seems that American police kill more than all of the first world nations’ police departments combined!

That’s not the only mind-blowing perspective either. So far this year all cop killers have been other cops. This year the police seem to be far more likely to die as a result of police brutality than at the hand of a violent suspect.

Just last week an officer responding to a domestic disturbance at a North Texas residence, shot and killed off-duty sheriff’s deputy Larry Hostetter, 41, shortly after midnight.At the end of January, we also reported on a Yonkers police officer who shot a suicidal officer from another precinct, claiming he feared for his safety. We also reported on an undercover Albuquerque police officer who was shot by another officer during a drug bust over $60 worth of meth. The media called it a “tragic accident” while, in reality, it was another example of police shooting someone who poses no threat to them.

There was also John Ballard Gorman was shot and killed by a fellow officer during a training exercise in Tunica, MS last month. The officer who shot Gorman failed to switch out his weapon for a training weapon and fired a real round into his fellow officer, killing him.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, the pro-police site that tracks every officer death, not a single police officer has been killed by a suspect so far this year.

Line of Duty Deaths: 14
Automobile accident: 5
Heart attack: 4
Struck by vehicle: 2
Vehicle pursuit: 1
9/11 related illness: 1
Gunfire (Accidental): 1

In fact, being a police officer isn’t even close to being in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in this country. According to the 2013 report by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics on work-related fatal injuries, “Police and sheriff’s patrol deputies” ranked as the 41st most dangerous occupation.

Also, according to an FBI report, Americans are less violent than ever; its the police who have been increasingly violent.

With job related danger so low, there is no excuse for the police to be so trigger happy, acting like they are Batman and every citizen is a violent villain hell bent on their death.

As Liberation News pointed out, a vast majority of those killed by the police in 2015 have again been young African Americans and Latinos. The two youngest were both 17-years-old, Kristiana Coignard of Texas and Jessica Hernandez of Colorado. The oldest was 87-year-old Lewis Becker from rural upstate New York.

Officers who cannot bring 17-year-old girls or 87-year-old men into custody safely have absolutely no business “protecting and serving” anyone. A person who cannot control a situation with a 90 pound high school girl or an elderly gentleman, and “fear for their life” so severely that they need to pull a trigger, is not a hero, they’re a coward.

It is time for the United States to get over its love affair with idolizing the badge.

http://nevergetbusted.com/hot-news/u...rces-combined/

[Tuckerman]

[splat]

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/bod...g-kill-mother/

[Bromontana]

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=34058564&nid...&s_cid=queue-1

"He just asked me out of the blue if I had any meth on me or cocaine or crack in my vehicle,” Felders said in 2009. "I said, 'No.' Then he said, 'You don't mind if I search (your) vehicle?' I said, 'Yes, I do mind. I'm not giving you permission to search my vehicle.'"

Bairett called for help from Iron County sheriff's deputy Jeff Malcom, who arrived on scene with his K-9 officer. The dog searched the vehicle for about two hours, but no drugs were found.

Felders won $15,000 in damages against Bairett in Friday’s decision, which hinged on whether Felders’ 4th Amendment rights were violated by an improper search. But Malcom, also listed as a defendant, was not found liable. Madyin and Hansend were awarded nominal damages of $1 each.

[Mazderati]

I'll be damned.

[Bromontana]

The good guys strike again.

Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper has dismissed 160 cases relating to investigations conducted by Walker. She upheld another 58 cases in which Walker played a lesser role or there was other corroborating evidence, authorities said.

The six men are also the subjects of at least 81 federal lawsuits filed between November 2011 and August 2014, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

due to this

robbery, extortion, kidnapping and drug dealing during a six-year racketeering scheme

The former Philadelphia police officers were charged with committing a variety of crimes between February 2006 and November 2012, among them beatings, threatening to shoot suspects, busting into homes without warrants to steal drugs and money, and the distribution of narcotics.

The officers standing trial are Thomas Liciardello, 38; Brian Reynolds, 43; Michael Spicer, 46; Perry Betts, 46; Linwood Norman, 46; and John Speiser, 44.

"Make no mistake about it ‒ taking money while armed and while exercising your power as a Philadelphia police officer and keeping it for yourself and your co-conspirators is robbery, even if the money is illegal drug money," Assistant US Attorney Anthony Wzorek said during his opening statements on Monday.

He told jurors the former officers routinely broke into homes without search warrants and ransacked them to steal drugs, cash, a Rolex watch and other valuables.

[powpig]

SWAT Teams Can Now Enter Your Home Without A Warrant Thanks To This Stunning New Court Ruling

Written by: Daniel Jennings Current Events March 28, 2015

The only pretext a SWAT team needs to temporarily seize your property is to use it as an observation post in an emergency situation, a federal judge in Nevada has ruled.

Police even have the right to smash down your door with a battering ram without a warrant and shoot you with pepper balls in order to take over your property, US District Court Judge Andrew Gordon concluded in a case called Anthony Mitchell v. City of Henderson. Mitchell and his parents sued the city of Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, because of events on July 10, 2013.

The Mitchells’ attorneys argued the events violated their clients’ First, Third and Fourth Amendment rights. The Third Amendment makes it illegal for the government to seize private homes for use as quarters for soldiers and has rarely been the focus of a federal case. The attorneys contended that the Third Amendment applies to police as well as the military.

Does the Third Amendment Apply to SWAT teams?

Gordon dismissed the case.

“The relevant questions are thus whether municipal police should be considered soldiers, and whether the time they spent in the house could be considered quartering,” he wrote. “To both questions, the answer must be no.”

Judge Gordon’s description of events as described by Mitchell and his parents, Michael and Linda, makes for some very disturbing reading. None of the Mitchells was suspected of a crime. Instead, police simply wanted to take over their homes to use as observation posts to watch a neighbor who was barricaded inside his house and who was refusing to leave. Police were investigating a domestic complaint against the neighbor.

Without a Warrant

“The officers then knocked down Anthony’s door with a metal ram and entered his house, without a warrant or Anthony’s permission,” Judge Gordon wrote in his opinion. “They pointed their guns at Anthony and ordered him to the floor. The officers, including Officer Snyder, addressed Anthony as ‘a–hole’ and ordered him to crawl toward them and shut his phone off. Anthony stayed huddled on the floor with his hands over his face.”

Mitchell had refused to comply with the SWAT team’s request because he did not like the way the police were behaving.

“Doe Officers 1-10 pointed firearms at the Plaintiffs through their windows and at the homes of several neighbors,” Gordon wrote. “When Michael photographed Doe Officer 1 — a member of the NLVPD SWAT team — through a window of Michael’s home, that officer pointed his firearm at Michael.”

The officers are called Doe because they are not identified in the complaint. NLVPD refers to the North Las Vegas Police Department.

“Doe Officers 1-10 … then shot Anthony with ‘pepperball’ rounds at close range,” Gordon wrote. A pepperball is a non-lethal projectile made from chili pepper that some law enforcement agencies use. “The officers also shot Anthony’s dog Sam, who had been cowering in the corner of the room, with at least one ‘pepperball’ round. Sam panicked, howled in pain, and fled from the house. He ended up trapped in a fenced alcove in the backyard without food or water for nearly the entire day in 100-degree heat.”

Parents’ Home Seized, Too

After taking over Anthony Mitchell’s house, the SWAT team decided to occupy his parents’ home next door as well.

“Approximately 30 minutes later, Doe Officers 21-30 entered the Parents’ backyard, again without a warrant or permission,” Gordon wrote. “The officers knocked on the back door and demanded that Linda open the door. Linda complied, but told them that they could not enter without a warrant. The officers ignored her, entered through the back door, and began searching the home. Doe Officer 21 (a female) forcibly grabbed Linda, began to pull her out of the house, seized her purse and ‘began rummaging through it’ without consent.”

Does the Third Amendment Apply to SWAT teams

Anthony and Michael Mitchell were arrested on charges of obstructing an officer and held in jail for the night. The charges against them were later dropped.

“If the Mitchells’ story is true (the police obviously have their own version of events), it is clear that the officers engaged in illegal and deeply troubling abuses of power against innocent civilians – regardless of whether their actions violated the Third Amendment or not,” George Mason University Law Professor Illya Somin wrote in a Washington Post op-ed piece.

The case has important Constitutional implications because there are few court rulings on the Third Amendment and the protections it provides, Somin wrote. The Third Amendment is rarely invoked because of the protection against unreasonable search and seizure provided by the Fourth Amendment.

Somin believes the Mitchells had a solid legal case.

“When the Amendment was enacted in 1791, there were virtually no professional police of the sort we have today,” Somin wrote. “The distinction between military and law enforcement officials was far less clear than in the world of 2015. Moreover, many parts of the Bill of Rights were in part inspired by abuses committed by British troops attempting to enforce various unpopular laws enacted by Parliament.”

Another complicating factor, Somin wrote, is the militarization of police forces.

“If a state or local government decides to quarter a SWAT team in a private home, it is not clear whether that is meaningfully different from placing a National Guard unit there,” Somin wrote. “In sum, Judge Gordon may well be right that the officers involved in this case are not plausibly considered soldiers under the Third Amendment. But he is too quick to conclude that no “municipal police officer” could ever qualify as such.”

http://www.offthegridnews.com/curren...-court-ruling/

[AKPogue]

^That is fucked. When I was running around Iraq with the Marines, we didn't treat Iraqis that bad.

[sb]

Mega fkd up

[guroo270]

The NYPD doesn't know how to hide its IP addresses? Good luck expecting them to be able to investigate cybercrime.

I was driving around town yesterday when the girl I'm dating said, "LOOK! It's a sign that says, "Undercover operation in progress at this location." She works for the city and stated that some places have to have a sign up for public safety. No joke.

[Dantheman]

SWAT Teams Can Now Enter Your Home Without A Warrant Thanks To This Stunning New Court Ruling

Please for the love of god tell me that ruling has already been appealed and is on it's way to a higher court where a judge who isn't completely fucked in the head will reverse the decision. What in the fucking fuck!

[sb]

I was driving around town yesterday when the girl I'm dating said, "LOOK! It's a sign that says, "Undercover operation in progress at this location." She works for the city and stated that some places have to have a sign up for public safety. No joke.

Locally the LEO's are required to put in local papers advertisements of sobriety check points many days ahead of time. Lets local drunks off the hook and they catch mostly touristas.

[splat]

[Bromontana]

State murder in the South. Kudos to the Mayor for calling a spade a spade, "he will be charged with murder".

http://www.postandcourier.com/articl...PC16/150409468

[Cono Este]

I love how he plants the taser next to the body.

You can see how he hesitates, the says fuck it I'm not running anymore and starts firing.

The whole dept should be turned inside out.

[Captain Awesome]

Kudos to the Mayor for calling a spade a spade, "he will be charged with murder".

Uhhh....

[RootSkier]

Wow, the SC thing is unbelievable. I am going to have fucking nightmares. I hope that asshole enjoys prison.

SWAT Teams Can Now Enter Your Home Without A Warrant Thanks To This Stunning New Court Ruling

Gordon dismissed the case.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/curren...-court-ruling/

This is false. He dismissed the Third Amendment claim only, allowing the Fourth (and First) Amendment claims to proceed. And because the Fourth concerns warrants, the title of this article is just straight up wrong and stupid.

I am the last guy who will ever defend cops, but when stupid writers write stupid shit and other people just go along with it, it cheapens legitimate arguments.

[Bromontana]

Uhhh....

You caught me in a moment. Just happy to see a clear crime result in an appropriate criminal charge without delay.