Police abuses

[Crazed Rabbit]

/\ You'd think that would be common sense...

This cop hung his dog by a leash completely off the ground and proceeded to kick him because the dog wouldn't give up a chew toy:


The officer said he 'loved' that dog. Imagine what he'd do to some stranger who wouldn't give him what he wanted.

He was fired for this abuse, but thanks to the police union a judge ordered that he be rehired.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Man gets attacked by violent cops in Miami, apparently looking for someone in a large Halloween crowd to vent their rage on. The attack get's videotaped and put on youtube, and the department starts an investigation.

The victim was charged with several crimes, but they were dropped after the publicity.

Except for one - the charge of "resisting arrest without violence". Apparently, to cover your head with your hands as you lay defenseless on the ground while several police officers pound on you is resisting arrest.

Maybe the prosecutor just wanted to send a message about getting back at those who embarrass the department.

CR

[The Stranger]

You should read more.

That's a rather baseless charge founded on an incomplete story. We don't even know what the mother was charged/convicted of.

Don't tell me that you see a brown woman and assume there is racism involved. That's pretty racist itself.

does it matter? and if so why does it matter? lets assume she was arrested for being illegal? and the assume she was arrested for stealing, and in the last case murder. why would she have to be treated different in any of these circumstances?

[Crazed Rabbit]

There's so much stuff but updating this thread is majorly depressing.

First, a high schooler thrown in jail for seven months for recording an officer in an altercation with some other kid - he was in jail awaiting trial with $155,000 bail. He was offered a plea bargain for 32 months in jail in exchange for pleading guilty (lower than the first offer of seven years). He only gets out for Christmas because a nice Google engineer sprang for the bail bondsmen fee (10% of bail).

But the LAPD wasn't sated. On 1/26/11 they raided the kid's home with a full SWAT team to gather 'evidence' about the May 2010 recording - by taking all computers, cell phones, cameras, papers -including communications with attorneys police cannot look at.

In short, the LAPD is using gestapo tactics to put fear into those who legally defy them. They are a criminal organization.

In New Jersey some cops threaten to assault a man and throw him in jail for legally filming them in public.

The police commander from Chicago who tortured suspects and put innocent people into jail got 4.5 years - and his pension - after being convicted of perjury. The statue of limitations had expired for the torture charges because the mayor, other police, and all other authorities simply ignored that it was going on.

Cop arrests/sexually assaults a woman for talking back to him on the DC Metro:


Cops do a SWAT raid on a suspected drug user - at night, breaking into his house - (article) and end up killing him. They find him holding a golf club, and (video) shoot him down without mercy. WARNING: This video shows the man being killed.

CR

[Louis VI the Fat]

There's so much stuff but updating this thread is majorly depressing.

First, a high schooler thrown in jail for seven months for recording an officer in an altercation with some other kid - he was in jail awaiting trial with $155,000 bail. He was offered a plea bargain for 32 months in jail in exchange for pleading guilty (lower than the first offer of seven years). He only gets out for Christmas because a nice Google engineer sprang for the bail bondsmen fee (10% of bail).

But the LAPD wasn't sated. On 1/26/11 they raided the kid's home with a full SWAT team to gather 'evidence' about the May 2010 recording - by taking all computers, cell phones, cameras, papers -including communications with attorneys police cannot look at.

In short, the LAPD is using gestapo tactics to put fear into those who legally defy them. They are a criminal organization.

This is much worse than the mere sexual assaults and murders by cops, which apparantly are standard fare.

A police force that abuses it powers, its monopoly on violence, to protects its own - that's a state within a state. Authoritarianism replacing the rule of law. They are waging revolutions over exactly this sort of thing in Tunesia and Egypt right now.

[Greyblades]

Lethal force used for a raid on only one druggy? What?! This sounds like the sort of thing south park would make to make fun of smaller situations.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Greyblades: that's standard practice in the US. The war on drug users is very literal in the US. These raids occur thousands of times per state per year. Some counties use the SWAT team to serve every single warrant. They break down doors, throw flashbang grenades, come in full body armor and machine guns in the middle of the night, and generally shoot any dogs they see on sight. There are no public records available on how many raids occurred, or what warrants they were serving. People are dying so cops can play dress up and pretend they're soldiers. Except the US army doesn't act so trigger happy.

Here's a limited map of innocent people killed by such raids:


CR

[Greyblades]

But shouldn't they at least give them tazers or tear gas instead of freaking machine guns until there is confirmation of deadly weapons?

[ajaxfetish]

But shouldn't they at least give them tazers or tear gas instead of freaking machine guns until there is confirmation of deadly weapons?

I'm sure there are plenty of options for sanity. Some police departments just seem determined not to take them. Ultimately, greater police accountability (instead of policies or laws against filming police, etc.) and an end to the 'war on drugs' would probably provide the most improvement.

Ajax

[PershsNhpios]

That is absolutely disgusting.

I am definitely advocant of the right to bear and use arms as a civilian, and I do, but we in Australia thought it was a hell of a lot more relaxed over there than that evidence shows.

It seems the floodgates for your S.W.A.T. recruitment were opened wide and not only has that rapidly decreased quality in personnel but also created a monster of corruption...

Good luck, and take a page out of Egypt's book.

[Husar]

You know what our police did when I reported the guy who robbed me? One officer stood next to him and talked to him.
That's it, no tazing, no violently throwing him to the ground, yelling loud and handcuffing him or any of that macho stuff.
And I'm still proud of our police, they solve our criminal problems without the macho attitude.

They put a lot of emphasis on talking skills here, I took a small test to determine whether a police career would suit me and a lot of the questions were about whether I would think I could defuse a certain situation verbally. Not by yelling at people with mah authoritay, then tazing them and handcuffing them while pressing their face onto the floor.

America's police desperately needs some reforms, this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, I think it mostly doesn't happen here because there is a somewhat different police culture here and the courts and the law don't back the police up all the time when they do nasty things. As ajax said, the law against videotaping police and probably a few others need to be revoked and the courts should side with the law, not the police.
The guy with the bat wasn't even close to the officer and stopped when he saw who was coming in. Still seems stupid to take a bat when someone yells "police!" though.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Note: Carrying a pocket knife in Seattle is punishable by on-the-spot execution:


And even though the SPD ruled the shooting unjustified, the officer will not face any legal charges.

CR

[Major Robert Dump]

IIRC, the guy was also hearing impaired and could not hear the cop yelling at him....and he was shot as he turned around to face the cop from 10 feet away.

[Crazed Rabbit]

As a general rule, police departments protect guilty cops and punish those who try to expose the guilty.

In this case a cop who maneuvered in a way to possibly kill a motorcyclist for speeding obstructed justice by not taking witness statements incriminating them.

The police chief who eventually found out about it and recommended the cops be fired was suspended - and one of the would be killers promoted to acting chief by the city council.

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/117445218.html

Criminal organizations.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

A Las Vegas cop fresh from training in North Korea:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/exclusive-p...Comments=y&c=y


EDIT: Awards for cops who kill innocents:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/04/...r-of-the-year/

http://www.lvrj.com/news/national-po...119926284.html

Widespread NYPD corruption:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...08-504083.html

Brutish cop in Seattle:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/120521724.html

CR

[Louis VI the Fat]

Might as well dump this here, to lighten up the thread a bit:

French riot police have threatened to strike over a ban on drinking alcohol with their meals while on duty.

Up until now officers have always been allowed beer or wine during crowd-control operations.
Such events include soccer games or demonstrations.

However the French interior ministry now wants that to stop.
The national secretary of the French police union has accused the ministry of trying to turn officers into “priests”.

Didier Mangione has also defended the right of his members to a “small quarter-litre of red to accompany meals on the ground”.
According to French law alcohol is banned while employees are at work with the exception of ‘wine, beer, apple cider and pear cider’.
But it is thought that images of riot police drinking beer on the sidelines of a student demonstration in 2010 provoked anger from officials.
http://www.newstalk.ie/2011/news/fre...er-their-wine/

Does this mean no more drunk riot police beating up stoned protesters? What has become of the spirit of 1968?

[Crazed Rabbit]

A teen wears saggy pants after school, police taser, beat him, and break his arm:

Derby student says cops used Taser, broke his arm because of sagging pants
BY FRED MANN
The Wichita Eagle

DERBY — A Derby High School sophomore said today that he was hit by a Taser and had his arm broken by two school resource officers for refusing to pull up his pants.
The Derby Police Department said it will investigate the incident. The officers work for the department.
The teen and the Police Department offered differing accounts of what happened.
Jonathan Villarreal, 17, said he was walking with friends to the bus after school on Wednesday when one of the officers ordered him to pull up his pants. He told them he could wear them how he wanted because school was out, he said.
Villarreal said he had pulled his jeans low on his hips, as is fashionable among some young men, after leaving the school.
He said one of the officers, a man who was larger than him, pulled him to the ground by the neck and told him to stop resisting arrest. Villarreal denied he was resisting.
Both officers kneed him in the back and neck while he was on the ground, he said.
Because they were physical with him, he struggled to get up, but was pushed back down, he said.
At one point as he tried to get up, Villarreal said he felt his arm break when he was pushed back down.
After Villarreal tried three times to get up, one officer fired a Taser at his chest, he said. Although he was wearing a heavy coat, he still felt an electrical shock, he said.
Villarreal said the officers handcuffed him in spite of his complaints about pain in his arm, and kept him handcuffed until paramedics arrived and ordered the cuffs removed.
During the altercation, he said, an officer struck him in the eye, which was swollen shut.
Villarreal was taken by ambulance to a hospital, treated and released.
Derby Police Chief Robert Lee said Villarreal used profanities when the officers asked him to pull up his pants.
Lee also said the officers tried to escort Villarreal back inside the school to the office, but he refused to go.
At one point during the struggle, Lee said, Villarreal stood up and took "an aggressive stance," which led to the Taser attempt.


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/04/28/182...#ixzz1LLlD5CDH

Gotta love the "aggressive stance" BS. You don't even have to raise your fists to give th cop reason to taze you; your footing can be used as an excuse for using a potentially deadly weapon.

CR

[Don Corleone]

Just curious if you're ever worried about one of these police groups coming after you personally CR, for publishing their dark deeds?

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Hmmmm, so maybe if people won't act like such morons, maybe the police won't have to be rough with them?


And besides, would you rather not have police around? Would you prefer to get murdered or raped or have a loved one murdered/raped,mugged,etc.... freefly and go unpunished (the criminal) because some of you are to weak to see police doing their jobs?

[ajaxfetish]

And besides, would you rather not have police around?

The only options are tyrannical police and no police?

Ajax

[drone]

The only options are tyrannical police and no police?

Ajax

I think what he is saying is that he supports authority figures abusing their power for the good of the overall community.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Just curious if you're ever worried about one of these police groups coming after you personally CR, for publishing their dark deeds?

Heh, no. I doubt very much any police group/department knows of this site. There are many bigger sites that list police abuses and have a national audience.

Though one of those bloggers did have the cops come to visit - fortunately only after he moved out of state.

I'm only concerned about the cops getting the wrong address on a raid on a suspected pot smoker and busting my door down. Not much that I can do about that, though.

If I had a blog and listed specific incidents about local police, that'd be different. And call for openVPN and other privacy tools.

Hmmmm, so maybe if people won't act like such morons, maybe the police won't have to be rough with them?

Listen very carefully, because I want you to understand this;

It is not a crime to 'be a moron'. When the police illegally assault someone for a legal action, that means the police are acting without being constrained by laws. And that means they can attack anyone, anywhere, for doing anything.

Would you prefer your loved one gets beaten or murdered by the police - only to be charged with multiple crimes if they survive?

And besides, would you rather not have police around? Would you prefer to get murdered or raped or have a loved one murdered/raped,mugged,etc.... freefly and go unpunished (the criminal) because some of you are to weak to see police doing their jobs?

It's a waste, but listen very, very carefully; you present a completely false choice. That means society does not have to choose between violent police and no police. There is a very reasonable middle ground; police that don't break the law.

No one here is "to weak to see police doing their jobs?". The problem, and again, try to listen very carefully - is that police are not doing their jobs. They are acting like violent thugs with badges.

If the only way you can rationalize the police brutality is to use pathetic logical fallacies, then you're entire argument is hopeless, null and void.

CR

[Louis VI the Fat]

The difference between a military junta, between creepy men with moustaches and leather boots and sunglasses deciding your rights, and a first world democracy, are a few men like Rabbit who take up the civic responsibility to protect the liberty of their society.

[Crazed Rabbit]

A marine serves two tours of duty in Iraq, only to be gunned down by cops invading his home with his wife and children.

The cops refuse to say what the warrant was for, and are insisting they did not do a no-knock warrant and that the marine was pointing a gun at them when they entered (but somehow this soldier didn't fire any bullets before police shot 71 times in 7 seconds).

They are more than likely lying on both counts.

They found nothing illegal in the house. At least, they haven't said what they found, but if they had found anything, they'd be trumpeting it, as though a bit of weed were excuse to kill an American soldier.

An American hero killed by thugs with badges.

CR

[Fragony]

Muhahahaha Amsterdam Amsterdam what did they do to you, used to be such a fun city. Singing a song on the Dam is that allowed? Police says NEIN and arrests her lololol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoRuMvBTYT8

[Major Robert Dump]

Hmmmm, so maybe if people won't act like such morons, maybe the police won't have to be rough with them?


And besides, would you rather not have police around? Would you prefer to get murdered or raped or have a loved one murdered/raped,mugged,etc.... freefly and go unpunished (the criminal) because some of you are to weak to see police doing their jobs?

As someone who has had loved ones murdered and raped, this argument is irrelevant. Police can do their jobs just fine without resorting to unrealistic treatment standards in regards to police. The police work that catches murderers and rapists is not the same police "work" that kicks the living SNOT out of someone who rubbed the cop the wrong way.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Deputies in San Bernadino county, CA, taser a man until he dies for running a stop sign:

Family members of Allen Kephart say the Crest Park man never did drugs, had no mental illnesses and the worst things on his record are traffic tickets.
But after a sheriff's deputy tried to pull him over in the Blue Jay area on Tuesday afternoon, his first real run-in with law enforcement became his last.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says Kephart, 43, became combative and uncooperative with a sheriff's deputy outside a Valero gas station in Rimforest when he stopped his car after about a mile.

Deputies used Taser guns to try to subdue him. After Kephart was taken into custody, he lost consciousness and died at a hospital, authorities said.

Sheriff's officials did not provide details on what he allegedly did to be considered combative because, they said, interviews were still being conducted.

"All of that information needs to be documented before we start speaking publicly about specific detail like that," sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said Wednesday.

But relatives say the way deputies treated Kephart was unjustified.

"They're not dealing with a criminal, a druggie, a gang banger. They were dealing with someone that was in the community for 43 years, that never ever had been arrested or had any problem with law enforcement," said his father, Alfred Kephart, 68.

Allen Kephart, a 1985 graduate of Rim of the World High School, worked as a substitute teacher's aide in the High Desert and as an audio and visual producer for his church and for television and radio. He also ran his own DJ business in the San Bernardino Mountains, calling himself the "Original Blue Jay DJ."

His father, a 20-year member of the San Bernardino County sheriff's Rangers volunteer unit, said deputies didn't treat Kephart like someone who just ran a stop sign - reportedly the initial reason a deputy tried to stop him.

"You don't go do a traffic stop and come out with your gun drawn. That's a felony stop," he said.

Sheriff's officials say that when someone evades a deputy, a routine traffic stop becomes high risk.

"The bottom line is the deputy does not know what they're dealing with," Bachman said. "There could be a variety of reasons the driver didn't stop. They can range from being unlicensed or an armed and dangerous wanted person."

And of course, since it is not statistically impossible that the man who ran a stop sign is a murderer, the cops have to treat him as such - and nothing else - because their "right to go home safe" - ie. escalate to deadly force at the drop of a hat trumps the constitution, human decency, common sense, and the lives of innocent people.

In Dallas the police try to keep lost money - $2k - handed in by a teen who was living in a one bedroom apartment with her parents and siblings - in violation of state law requiring the money be returned if unclaimed after 3 months.

Fortunately the bad press led to them backtracking on that, at least for now.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

The bodies just keep piling up, and the police just keep lying.

In Tucson on May 5th a SWAT team killed an American marine, shooting him in the early morning - 60 times in a few seconds. The police were all outside the house, shooting in. The Marine had grabbed his rifle because his wife saw the swat team and thought it was a home invasion.

The police claimed he shot at them - but they lied. The safety of his rifle was on. The police kept the paramedics away for an hour.

Even now the police haven't found anything illegal. Not even an ounce of weed.

But wait, they found a picture of "Jesus Malverde", so the police are trying to paint the Marine as being involved in the drug trade.

A Tucson, Ariz., SWAT team defends shooting an Iraq War veteran 60 times during a drug raid, although it declines to say whether it found any drugs in the house and has had to retract its claim that the veteran shot first.

And the Pima County sheriff scolded the media for "questioning the legality" of the shooting.

Jose Guerena, 26, died the morning of May 5. He was asleep in his Tucson home after working a night shift at the Asarco copper mine when his wife, Vanessa, saw the armed SWAT team outside her youngest son's bedroom window.

"She saw a man pointing at her with a gun," said Reyna Ortiz, 29, a relative who is caring for Vanessa and her children. Ortiz said Vanessa Guerena yelled, "Don't shoot! I have a baby!"

Vanessa Guerena thought the gunman might be part of a home invasion -- especially because two members of her sister-in-law's family, Cynthia and Manny Orozco, were killed last year in their Tucson home, her lawyer, Chris Scileppi, said. She shouted for her husband in the next room, and he woke up and told his wife to hide in the closet with the child, Joel, 4.


7-Year-Old Killed in Detroit Police Raid Watch Video

Lawyer Details Deadly Police Raid Watch Video

Did a Cop's Punches Go Too Far? Watch Video
Guerena grabbed his assault rifle and was pointing it at the SWAT team, which was trying to serve a narcotics search warrant as part of a multi-house drug crackdown, when the team broke down the door. At first the Pima County Sheriff's Office said that Guerena fired first, but on Wednesday officials backtracked and said he had not. "The safety was on and he could not fire," according to the sheriff's statement.

Tucson SWAT Team Shot Iraq War Vet 60 Times

SWAT team members fired 71 times and hit Guerena 60 times, police said.

In a frantic 911 call, Vanessa Guerena begged for medical help for her husband. "He's on the floor!" she said, crying, to the 911 operator. "Can you please hurry up?"

Asked if law enforcement was inside or outside the house, she told the operator, according to a transcript of the call, that they were inside. "They were ... going to shoot me. And I put my kid in front of me."

A report by ABC News affiliate KGUN found that more than an hour had passed before the SWAT team let the paramedics work on Guerena. By then he was dead.

A spokesman for Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said he could not discuss whether any drugs had been found at the home or make any other comment. "We're waiting for the investigation to be complete," he said.

In a statement, the sheriff's office criticized the media, saying that while questions will inevitably be raised, "It is unacceptable and irresponsible to couch those questions with implications of secrecy and a coverup, not to mention questioning the legality of actions that could not have been taken without the approval of an impartial judge."

Mike Storie, a lawyer for the SWAT team, said at a press conference Thursday that weapons and body armor were found in the home as well as a photo of Jesus Malverde, who Storie called a "patron saint drug runner," according to KGUN.

Storie defended the long delay in allowing paramedics to enter the home, saying of the SWAT team, "They still don't know how many shooters are inside, how many guns are inside and they still have to assume that they will be ambushed if they walk in this house."

But Scileppi, Vanessa Guerena's lawyer, said officers were "circling their wagons."

"They found nothing in the house that was illegal," he said. Framing the delay in providing medical attention as a tactical decision is "nonsense," Scileppi said. "There was an ambulance there in two minutes and they were never allowed in."

He pointed out that when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson, law enforcement let paramedics have access to victims in a far more volatile situation.

"The pieces don't fit. I think it was poor planning, overreaction and now they're trying to CYA," Scileppi said.

Guerena served two tours of duty in Iraq until he left the Marines in 2006.

Did a Cop's Punches Go Too Far? Watch Video
"Every time he was under my command, he definitely pulled his weight," said Leo Verdugo, his master sergeant in Iraq, who helped arrange for Guerena to be buried in his Marine dress blue uniform. "I have a hard time grasping how something so tragic could happen."

He speculated that perhaps it was a case of mistaken identity. "At the wrong place at the wrong time in his own home," he said.

Vanessa Guerena is "devastated and distraught" and seeking justice for her husband and two sons, said her lawyer. "The main thing she wants is her husband's name cleared and his honor restored."

The oldest boy, Jose, turns 6 on Tuesday. "He went to school, came back and never saw his daddy again," said Ortiz. As for Joel, "He's asking, 'Why did the police kill my daddy?'

"We were so worried when he was over there fighting terrorism, but he gets shot in his own home," Ortiz said. "The government killed one of their own."

Valiant men go over to fight for our country on the other side of the world, and the reward a few of them get is to be killed by cowards given automatic weapons and a license to kill.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

In Detroit, a year ago, the 'highly trained' SWAT team killed a seven year old, shooting her as she slept.

The police version is that the first SWAT member through collided with the girl's grandmother, and that this 'highly trained' cop then accidentally shot their gun.

The footage says different - of course. The cops threw a flashbang grenade through the window, totally oblivious to where it may land.

The "investigation" is still ongoing, as they want to wait a good long time for the righteous anger to die down before declaring everything went according to procedure and that no one will be punished.

In Philadelphia cops confront, swear, and point their guns at a man who was legally carrying a gun, because the cops were power-tripping and ignorant of the law (no punishment for them, of course). After those keystone kops called their bosses looking for an excuse to lock him up, they were finally told he wasn't doing anything wrong, so they released him.

But he recorded the audio of the incident, and put it on youtube. (LANGUAGE WARNING)

And that made the police angry, so the DA charged him with two crimes - reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://www.theagitator.com/2011/05/1...d-be-arrested/
The Fiorino case is a perfect example of that double standard. But the Fiorino case is even more pernicious. Because he’d had previous episodes with cops who were ignorant of local gun laws, Fiorino was carrying an audio recorder with him in Philadelphia. He recorded his confrontation with the Philly cops, and that audio exposed them for the ignorant, thuggish threats to the public that they are. (Note: I regularly caution against holding individual cops responsible for enforcing bad policy. I don’t use words like “ignorant” and “thuggish” lightly. These cops were both.) The recording Fiorino made of his encounter was also perfectly legal.

So what are we to then make of Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams’ decision to arrest and charge Fiorino after Fiorino posted the recordings on the Internet?

Here’s what I make of it: It’s criminal. Fiorino embarrassed Philadelphia cops, and Williams is punishing him for it. Williams and the police spokesman are claiming Fiorino deliberately provoked the cops. No, he didn’t. He didn’t wave the gun at anyone. He didn’t invite police scrutiny. The cops confronted him upon seeing a weapon he was legally carrying in a perfectly legal manner. And they were wrong. Make no mistake. This is blatant intimidation.

But while their behavior in this story was repugnant, at least the cops had the plausible explanation of ignorance for the initial confrontation, then fear for their safety when an armed man they incorrectly thought was violating the law pushed back (though neither is an excuse, and neither should exclude them from discipline). What Williams has done since is much worse. It is premeditated. Much more than the cops, Williams should know the law. Moreover, even if he didn’t know the law at the time, he has since had plenty of time to research it. By now, Williams does know the law. (If he doesn’t, he is incompetent.) And he knows that even if Fiorino did deliberately provoke the cops to test their knowledge of Philadelphia’s gun laws, that also is not a crime.

Yet he’s charging Fiorino anyway, with “reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct”—the vague sorts of charges cops and prosecutors often fall back on when they can’t show any actual crime. A spokesperson for Williams said Fiorino was “”belligerent and hostile” to police who were investigating a possible crime. Read the transcript of the audio in the linked article above and tell me who is “belligerent and hostile.” Read it knowing who was breaking the law, who was following it, and while remaining cognizant of which party was threatening to put a bullet in the head of the other.

Note that nothing Fiorino did was on its own illegal. Willliams is attempting a striking, blatantly dishonest bit of legal chicanery. His theory goes like this: If you undertake a series of actions that are perfectly legal and well within your rights, but that cause government agents to react in irrational ways that jeopardize public safety, you are guilty of endangering the public.

This can’t stand. It’s a blatant abuse of office. Williams is using the state’s awesome power to arrest and incarcerate to intimidate a man who exposed and embarrassed law enforcement officials who, because of their own ignorance, nearly killed him. Exposing that sort of government incompetence cannot be illegal. And it isn’t illegal.

The message Williams is sending is this: Yes, you might technically have the right to carry a gun in Philadelphia. But if you exercise that right, you should be prepared for the possibility that police officers will illegally stop you, detain you, threaten to kill you, and arrest you. And I’m not going to do a damn thing about it. And yes, you may technically also have First Amendment rights in Philadelphia, but if you dare exercise them to let the larger public know what happened to you for exercising your right to carry a gun, I will try to put you in prison.

The state is retaliating for a man legally carrying a gun, legally recording audio, and legally posting that audio online, because it embarrassed the police, and thus this man must suffer.

In California, some police brutality at the wrong address;

When Menlo Park police officers busted into an East Palo Alto home and pointed a firearm at a two-year old girl in November, they had the wrong house, say the two homeowners, who are filing a $500,000 claim against both cities.

The cops did have a search warrant for a home on Garden Street on Nov. 2, 2010, but it wasn't for the home of Carlos Nava and Melissa Verduzco, whose door cops broke down at 6:45 a.m. that day, reported the Palo Alto Daily News.

The East Palo Alto City Council rejected the claim on an unanimous vote. The Menlo Park City Council has yet to consider the case.

According to the claims, "A sergeant Cowans slammed (Nava's) face to the ground and kneed him in the back of the head. Later, this officer punched (Nava) about the body," the newspaper reported.

Other officers entered Verduzco's room and "pointed laser-sighted firearms" at Verduzco and her 2-year-old daughter, the claims state.

It's unclear which house cops intended to hit and what they were searching for. Menlo Park cops did not comment on the story, according to the newspaper.

Because of the alleged botched raid, Nava suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, stutters occasionally and has back and neck problems, the claims state. All three have suffered nightmares and "general fear and violation of their civil rights," according to the claims.

East Palo Alto City Attorney Valeria Armento said that the case is a Menlo Park matter, not an East Palo Alto matter. All of the raiding was done by East Palo Alto cops.

Cops around the nation; awful brave at shooting friendly dogs.

In Durham Ohio, a SWAT team going into a house - the leader of which trips going up the stairs to the porch, as he's pointing a submachine gun - are entering a house they have no warrant for, having already arrested the suspect outside. There's a dog at the top of the stairs, just sitting there. The cop shoots her without a second thought, as you or I might swat at a fly. This with a machinegun in a residential neighborhood.

A story about cops acting so badly they actually get fired - only to be rehired thanks to strong police union regulations.

Look at these stories and think about what must be going on in the mind of a cop who acts like this.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Two years ago, in Columbia, Missouri police served a search warrant on a guy with no prior felonies for selling marijuana.

Naturally, they came in the middle of the night, throwing five grenades, shooting every dog they saw, and dressed in military gear, with machineguns.

This is modern American law enforcement; breaking down doors in the middle of the night for pot. Didn't even the Nazi secret police knock on the door at night?



CR