"(Religion) With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
Here's another textbook example of that "new professionalism" that,
if I have anything to say about it, will haunt Justice Scalia until the
day he dies. Cops in Tennessee arrest a guy wanted on a domestic
violence charge. He gets out of the car with his hands raised, is
attacked by a police dog and then the cops plant drugs on the guy. And
they do it with a hand signal seen on video.
As the attorney in the piece says, if you've got a hand signal
worked out for when to plant drugs on a suspect, this is something you
do on a daily basis. Of course, we already knew this. Remember the
Kathryn Johnston case in Atlanta, where police officers who turned
state's evidence admitted that the entire vice squad carried drugs in
their squad cars to plant on people. Video below the fold.
More evidence for the ubiquitous stupidity and arrogance that is our police force
Just one in the list of a million why police deserve no respect and most importantly no trust. Never ever trust the police. As I've said before if this type of arrogance and stupidity really is just a few bad apples then the cops would do something about it rather than just lie and cover up.
An accident that was their fault, by the way, because they hit her
from behind. Four police officers from Hollywood, Florida are caught on
camera inventing evidence and plotting to falsify police reports to
frame an innocent woman that they ran into with a police car. New
professionalism, indeed. Video below the fold.
I'm shocked - shocked! - that the police union would defend the cop
who arrested Henry Louis Gates in his home on charges that lasted all
of four hours before being dropped. Hell, he could have shot Gates in
the head and pissed on his dead body and they'd defend him. That's what
cops do. And this cracks me up:
The Cambridge and area police unions voiced their support
Friday for Sgt. James Crowley and called for an apology from President
Obama for saying officers "acted stupidly" for arresting black Harvard
scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home.
"His remarks were obviously misdirected but made it worse yet by
suggesting somehow this case should remind us of a history of racial
abuse by law enforcement," Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge
Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference.
Yeah, let's work up a little feigned outrage over the
mere suggestion that there might be a history of racism in the police
department -- in freaking Boston of all places. What's next,
will they suggest that there's a legacy of racism in Arkansas too? Why,
that's outrageous! How dare you suggest such a thing! What planet are
these people living on, for crying out loud?
Look, this whole issue is quite simple. Is it possible that Prof.
Gates was being a jerk during the arrest? That he presumed racism and
had a chip on his shoulder when the police got there and berated them
for badgering him? Sure it is. I wasn't there and neither were you so
we have to admit this is a possibility. But here's the thing: It
doesn't matter.
There is nothing he could have said to the police officer that would
warrant him being arrested for disorderly conduct. Absolutely nothing.
If he had made a threat, he would have been arrested for that. But he
wasn't. He was arrested for disorderly conduct, which is the infamous
catch-all charge for someone who is behaving toward a police officer in
a manner that would be perfectly legal if aimed at anyone else.
I don't care if Gates called the guy a cocksucker, called his mother
a whore or berated him as a racist from the moment he arrived until the
moment he left, none of that is criminal. It would be perfectly
legal to say to anyone else and it is perfectly legal to say to a
police officer. And the police know it, that's why the charges were
dropped within a few hours.
This was a classic case of a power-hungry cop taking the "you can't
talk to me like that" attitude and flexing their authority where it
doesn't belong. Well police, it's time to grow up and stop playing
pretend. No one else has the right not to be offended or insulted and
neither do you. The fact that you have a gun and a badge does not mean
that your hurt feelings are more important than anyone else's.
Obama's remarks sparked outrage among many police officers
who say the criticism could make it harder for police to work with
people of color and set back the progress of race relations that helped
Obama become the nation's first black president.
Right. Because the problem isn't the asshole behavior of the police,
it's someone daring to point out that behavior that causes the problem.
A
14-year-old Tucumcari girl is recovering at an Albuquerque hospital
after being shot in the head with a Taser dart by Tucucmari Police
Chief Roger Hatcher.
Now, her parents say they want the police department to review its policies for using the Taser.
The girl was hit in the head Thursday by one of two darts fired simultaneously as she was fleeing, Hatcher said.
The other dart lodged in her hip.
Hatcher said be believed he had no other option.
“There’s a lot of issues,” Hatcher said. “She committed a delinquent
act. She was running from police across traffic without looking.”
Hatcher said he chased her, ordered her to stop and “then did what I had to do.”
Another example of someone who should be not only fired but banned from ever owning a firearm or being in any kind of position of responsibility. Not even a McCook.
A Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing his gun at a McDonald's restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill.
Aurora police confirmed the CBS4 investigation saying the incident
occurred May 21 at the McDonald's at 18181 East Hampden Avenue.
A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said they plan to
present the case -- now classified as a felony menacing incident -- to
the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office Thursday for possible
filing of criminal charges.Sources familiar with the case, and the fast food worker's account of
what happened, say two off-duty Denver police officers placed an order
from their car in the early morning hours of May 21. But once at the
drive through window, the employee said the men became agitated and
angry at how long their food was taking. The men thought they were
being ignored, according to contacts familiar with the worker's
account. The male clerk then said one of the officer's flashed his
police badge and pointed a pistol through the drive through window in a
threatening manner, before driving off without paying.
I could think of much more descriptive language but this is just one more in the list of millions of reasons police have and deserve no respect. There are just too many "bad apples". If "good" cops really cared they would clean this sort of ongoing shit up rather than just cover it up.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol finally releases video of trooper attack on paramedic
It took a while for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to release a video showing one of its troopers choking a paramedic
who was taking an elderly patient to the hospital, and now that it's
available on YouTube, you can understand why they tried to suppress it.
I'm in awe of the dignified and articulate ambulance supervisor
who bravely stands up to the sickeningly hotheaded trooper who is
furious that anyone would dare to "jump out and talk to a State Trooper
like that."
Patricia Phillips, Oklahoma Crime Examiner, has been covering the story:
An ambulance, with Maurice White acting as supervisor
and paramedic, is taking an elderly woman, who had collapsed, to the
hospital for treatment. Her worried family follows.
Trooper Daniel Martin, who was responding to a stolen car report,
came up behind the ambulance on a two-lane country road. In Oklahoma,
those shoulders are notoriously tricky for even a car to pull off onto.
But there's another factor involved.
As the dash cam clearly shows, a car is on the right-hand
shoulder, partially obstructing the highway. Just as the highway patrol
pulls up behind the ambulance, the medical unit must swing out to avoid
colliding with the parked car.
Let me repeat that, because it's important: if the ambulance's
driver, Paul Franks, had immediately pulled over when the racing
trooper came up behind him, he would have created an accident. It is
impossible to safely pull over while slamming into another vehicle.
After the ambulance gets past the parked vehicle, Franks slows
and safely pulls over for the trooper. As Martin zooms by--at a speed
that I would call excessive for just a stolen car report--he uses the
radio to reprimand the ambulance for not pulling over.
Later in the tape, it's shown that the sheriff's department is
already on scene at the stolen car incident. Martin is released from
any need to be at the scene.
Then he whips around, guns his car, and goes out hunting the
ambulance. When he catches up with the ambulance, what happens next is
a textbook case for bad judgment and abuse of power.
J.D. Tuccille of Civil Liberties Examiner
says: "Consider this a test case. If you don't see a paramedic's
life-saving responsibilities as at least as pressing as the
law-enforcement duties of a police officer, there probably is no limit
to the authority you're willing to grant any government employee with a
badge."
Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen is revealed to have an enlightened
attitude about marijuana in this exchange with drug war dinosaur Robert
Mueller. The tired-looking FBI director seems to be reciting his false
arguments like a pull-string puppet. (Via The Agitator)
Here's yet another example of police brutality against a schizophrenic man in Passaic, New Jersey.
Surveillance tape from Lawrence's Grill and Bar in Passaic
on May 29 shows a police car pull up to Ronnie Holloway, who is
standing still on the curb outside the restaurant. After a few moments
Holloway zips up his sweatshirt -- because the female officer in the
car instructed him to do so, Holloway said.
At that point, the other officer in the vehicle, Joseph R. Rios
III, exits the car, grabs Holloway and slams him onto the hood of the
police car. He then pummels Holloway with his fist and baton.
Here's a report from the local TV station that shows
the surveillance tape. It shows the man standing on the street corner,
a police car pulls up and they start talking to him. He zips up his
sweatshirt, as he says they instructed him to do, and the cops get out
of the car and one of them just starts beating him. There is nothing
even remotely threatening in anything the man does, he's just standing
there talking to them.
The man says he didn't say anything to them to justify the beating,
but that misses the point. It doesn't matter what he might have said to
them. Even if he was telling them that their mothers were whores and
they can go fuck themselves, that could not possibly justifying beating
him down with a baton.
And yes, the cop who did this is still on active duty. Worse yet,
the victim has been charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct
and a ridiculous crime called "wandering for the purpose of obtaining
controlled dangerous substances." The cop should not only be fired, he
should be prosecuted. That's what would happen to him if he didn't have
the badge on
Reason 1 billionth and... why it's hard to have any sympathy when cops are murdered
And as I've said before they need to clean themselves up if they have any chance at any respect. I certainly respect all cops "authority", but rarely, if ever any aspect of them consider themselves to part of the human race that I ever want to have any contact with. A large or significant and vocal percentage need to be cleaned up/out. However, it seems just like Texas and politics in general sometimes most politicians, the bigger the asshole, dickhead, ignorant arrogant fuck you are the better your chances for getting ahead. It's not just a few "bad apples" on the beat, it's the top on down. Just as it was not "just a few bad apples" at Abu Graib.
btw, I agree with Ed, there's nothing wrong with getting drunk and blowing off steam about a very bad situation; a person has to be able to process that kind of shit and deal with it some way. Liking it, making fun of victims and like tasing people is a bit different. These "types" of people should not be in their line of work.
A very interesting ending to the video would have been to see how the guy got home. Did he drive?
Category: Posted on: April 24, 2009 9:16 AM, by Ed Brayton
Another gem that Balko found,
an obviously drunk cop named James Cousins in a bar mocking a homicide
victim and his mother when she arrived at the crime scene. That in and
of itself is not such a big deal; as Balko notes, cops have a stressful
job and if they blow off a little steam with gallows humor, I can
forgive that.
The more disturbing part is when he brags about tasering and beating up a suspect in a different case. And the most
disturbing part is what happened when someone posted this video on
Youtube. The internal affairs department started investigating the
incident and took Cousins with them to confront the person who posted the video. And the chief of police sees nothing wrong with that:
In
the early stages of the Erie police internal investigation of a YouTube
video, the internal-affairs inspector had an assistant in the probe:
the patrolman whose behavior on the video was under scrutiny.
Erie Police Chief Steve Franklin said he saw no problem with the
arrangement, and said he would have handled the investigation the same
way.
Apparently the police chief is a first class moron. To make things worse, the police then threatened the man
who posted the video (actually, they threatened the brother of the man
who posted it, mistakenly thinking he had done it) with being arrested
on wiretapping charges, a clearly trumped up charge. In fact, police
had contacted the DA about filing such charges and was evidently told
they didn't apply.
The man who was questioned Tuesday said DeDionisio told him
police had consulted with the Erie County District Attorney's Office
about pursuing a federal wiretapping case against the source of the
video. District Attorney Brad Foulk, who has decried Cousins' behavior
on the video, said he never advised police on the case and would never
agree to such a probe.
"That is absolutely preposterous. I would never consider charging
this person with a wiretap violation," Foulk said Thursday. "The
thought of charging the person who took the video for a wiretap
violation is the furthest thing from my mind."
Foulk on Thursday stood by the comments he made Wednesday, in which
he called the behavior on the video unacceptable. He said the focus of
the police internal-affairs probe should be on Cousins' behavior and
the Erie Bureau of Police's standards for officer conduct. He said the
video was also made in a public place -- a bar.
Yet another example of a police department going after those who
document their vile actions rather than on the officers who actually
committed those actions. And the reaction of the police chief is
predictably absurd:
Franklin defended the internal investigation on Thursday.
He said the probe has focused on Cousins' conduct from the start,
though Franklin said he is concerned about how the video portrays Erie
police.
"It was always about the officer's behavior," Franklin said. "We
see an officer apparently in a bar off-duty who appears to be
intoxicated and making a lot of embellishments about what he did ...
obviously we need to look at those things."
He said the police attempted to remove the video from YouTube
because Cousins didn't know he was being recorded and because the video
embarrassed the Bureau of Police.
"He didn't know he was being audiotaped. He's obviously in a
compromised situation. He's off-duty in a bar drinking, he doesn't
expect to be a star of a video," Franklin said.
"People look at this and say, 'Geez, is this what the Erie cops are like?' That's our concern."
Really? You're concerned that having cops caught on video bragging
about beating people up and making fun of murder victims makes your
department look like assholes? Here's an idea, a surefire way to handle
those concerns: Stop being assholes.
Just anonther in a long list of reasons cops get little sympathy when one is murdered
I'm assuming based on the somewhat less than perfect logic that cops are people, most people are good, that the majority of cops are good and that the good cops that are out there really need to take an aggressive stand against those just looking for a reason to be able to be the the stereotypical bad sadistic cop. This is not just the beat cops but is obviously management and law enforcement in general.
Category: Posted on: April 19, 2009 9:23 AM, by Ed Brayton
The ACLU is suing
the city of Riverside County, California, for their practice of raiding
businesses under the guise of a regulatory inspection. That way they
get around needing a warrant, you see. And it appears that they've
specifically been targeting black-owned establishments.
A civil rights group has accused authorities in Riverside
County of unfairly targeting black-owned barbershops with raids in
which officers burst into businesses with guns and bulletproof vests
and questioned clients without warrants.
The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges the Moreno Valley
Police Department, the Sheriff's Department and a state inspection
board conducted searches under the false pretext that they were part of
a health inspection.
It doesn't even look like the raids resulted in any arrests:
"There was no evidence of criminal activity at these
locations and no reason that these once-thriving businesses were
singled out other than racial profiling," said Peter Bibring, a staff
attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California,
which filed the lawsuit. "These raids were a blatant violation of these
business owners' civil rights."
The lawsuit cites raids from last April in which Moreno Valley
police, city code officers and inspectors from the California Board of
Barbering and Cosmetology raided five barbershops that were owned and
patronized by blacks.
At Fades Unlimited, officers ran criminal warrant checks on barbers
and customers, the lawsuit claims. The ACLU said a barber who objected
was handcuffed and detained in a police car for 10 minutes.
It was not immediately clear if any arrests or citations resulted from the raids.
This is becoming more and more common as a way of getting around the 4th amendment. And it needs to be stopped.
