posted by The Sailor @ 6:17 PM Permalink
A 7 year old girl was killed by a Detroit cop at 12:40 am last Sunday. That's a fact. Some of what follows is spin and conjecture. Spin one:
[...] The shooting happened at 12:40 a.m., when the Special Response Team executed a no-knock search warrant on the duplex in the 4000 block of Lillibridge. Officers rushed in after throwing a stun grenade through the glass of a front window.
Family members said they were told by police the gun discharged when Mertilla Jones, 46, attempted to wrestle away the officer's weapon.
Knowing that wasn't going to work the cops walked it back:
Sunday, police spokesman John Roach said the weapon may have fired simply because Jones and the officer collided.
So we've gone to 'wrestled with' to merely 'collided'.
It didn't stop her grandmother from being hauled off to jail.
Mertilla Jones was held until Sunday afternoon, and it remained unclear if she will face charges. Police said she spent several hours hospitalized with what police described as medical issues.
Well of course she had 'medical issues' you shot her granddaughter in cold blood and then you arrested her!
It just gets worse:[Deputy Police Chief] Godbee said, calling Sunday "probably the worst day of my career." F**k you and your career, a 7 year old child died!
And there's more:
Godbee would not comment on reports that neighbors told officers that there were children in the house, and pointed out toys in the front yard.
Godbee didn't say if the suspect in Blake's slaying was arrested in the downstairs or upstairs apartment. Godbee said, "The suspect was within the scope of our search warrant." He added that the warrant allowed police to search both units.
As it turns out, the suspect did not live there, they killed a little girl and have already lied about it multiple times.
And it gets worse, maybe spin, but it was allegedly caught on tape that we haven't seen:
An attorney for the family of a 7-year-old girl who was killed by a police officer's bullet during a weekend raid at their home said Monday that he saw video of the raid that contradicts the police department's version of what happened.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said he watched three or four minutes of video that showed police fired into the home after lobbing a flash grenade through the window.
So maybe we can find out the truth, partially because the pro-cop reality TV show 48 Hours were following these cops for their shoot.
Did the fact that 48 Hours was shooting affect the Detroit shooting?
While national experts say flash-bang grenades are useful tools in high-risk situations, Detroit police told the Free Press the devices are rarely used.
"In my entire career, we've only used these in barricaded-gunmen situations as a diversionary tactic," one police officer said, adding he was involved in hundreds of high-risk arrests and raids.
I've only quoted small parts of the articles, under fair use copyright.
But here's my take from reading all of them: The cops were showboating in front of cameras. Instead of waiting waiting for the alleged murderer to exit the UPSTAIRS apartment, they decided to toss a flash/bang grenade thru the window of the downstairs apartment which landed on a 7 year old girl and her grandmother. It set the little girl on fire and her grandma thought this was a bad thing. ergo, little girl dies, granma is hauled to jail, a guy upstairs in a different apartment is arrested, who might be the shooter from a couple of days before.
The cops claim they had the right to no-knock, flashbang, invade both apartments. If that is true, then the judge who signed the warrants needs to be charged with conspiracy to murder, just like the cops (yes, it's plural, just like felony murder) need to have a fair trial, and then be sentenced to LWOP.
posted by The Sailor @ 7:19 PM Permalink
Former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates died last week.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but after living thru part of his corrupt, violent, regime of systematic abuse of police powers and Constitutional violations for which the citizens of LA paid financially over and over, where I was personally subjected to abuse from his thugs, and seeing his theories being institutionalized in abusive police practices across the country, all I really have to say is a paraphrase of another Hollywood icon:You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Daryl Gates is dead. Good.
I'm sure there will be many people who mourn his passing, maybe even his son.
A Maricopa County Sheriff's detention officer has been ordered to apologize to a public defender for taking a document from files on her desk during a sentencing in Superior Court.
Judge Gary Donahoe said Officer Adam Stoddard must issue his apology at a news conference on the north plaza of the Central Court Building on or before Nov. 30 or face jail for contempt of court.
Stoddard was pictured on courtroom video Oct. 19 taking a piece of paper from the courtroom desk of Public Defense Joanne Cuccia. [...] Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday [...] "Superior Court judges do not order my officers to hold press conferences," Arpaio said in a statement. "I decide who holds press conferences and when they are held regarding this Sheriff's Office."
I've excerpted this article not to cherry pick quotes but to fall in the guidelines of copyright protection. The whole article is much more damning.
The defense counsel, the prosecutor and ALL cops are officers of the court. To have a sheriff's deputy steal defense records, copy them and send them to the government's side is not only theft it's against federal law and a violation of the Constitution.
The cop is lucky he was only found in civil contempt. He should go down! (By 'down' I meant to the corner and apologize.) Personally, I think the Feds should prosecute him & Sheriff Joe et al for Federal crimes, (no way that the County Atty will prosecute the theft that was involved), because they think that cops run the gov't.
[...] Video footage shows Stoddard glancing at the documents during a sentencing hearing for Antonio Solis Lozano, 26. He's then shown removing the handwritten notes and having them copied.
INAL, but as I understand it there is no recourse when a judge sentences you for civil contempt. Criminal contempt, yes, civil, no.
Justice might be served if Arpaio & Lozano were sentenced to live in tents and made to wear pink panties.
Gosh, I bet they'd never flout the law again! Like Bull Connor never did.[/sarcasm]
Sheriff Joe has got to go. He's not just a criminal, he runs a criminal enterprise.
Mother of mercy, can this be the end of RICO?*
*Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $250,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.
When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond.
An Ozark police officer used a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl Thursday, an action the child's father has publicly spoken against.
Officer Dustin Bradshaw used a stun gun to subdue the girl, whose mother had called police in response to her daughter misbehaving at the woman's residence, according to an Ozark police report. [...] Bradshaw said the child's mother attempted to place the girl in the shower to get her ready for bed.
"I witnessed (the child) screaming, kicking and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her," Bradshaw stated. "Her mother told me to Tase her if I needed to."
Bradshaw said he and the mother carried the child to the shower, but the child refused to cooperate.
Bradshaw said after realizing there would not be a "peaceful resolution," he moved the child to the living room and told her he was going to place her under arrest, according to the report.
"She was jerking her arms away from me violently while I was trying to cuff her and thrashing about wildly," Bradshaw stated. "While she was violently kicking and verbally combative, (she) struck me with her legs and feet in the groin."
Bradshaw said because he had difficulty placing handcuffs on the girl, he administered a brief drive stun to the child's back with his stun gun, the report states.
"She immediately stopped resisting and was placed into handcuffs," Bradshaw stated. "She would not [ED: could not, FIFY cop] walk on her own and I had to carry her to my police car."
OMG, where to start? The Mom is a bad parent and should have custody taken away from her. No responsible person calls the cops on a 10 year old for having a tantrum. And especially not for encouraging a cop to taze their child.
The cop should go to jail for child abuse. This a$$hole managed to carry her into the shower and into a squad car (given, she was incapacitated by 50 thousand volts in the latter instance), yet he can't subdue a 10 year old girl without a potentially lethal weapon?
The police chief needs to be fired and never have another job in a supervisory position, and be sued personally. Who the hell sticks up for a cop that does this?
Addendum: Ozark police argued that had the officer grabbed the girl, he could have hurt her. "If you grab somebody, you can slip an arm out of joint," the police chief added. "They can slip from you and fall on the ground."
Yeah, like adults who are Tazed don't have spastic contractions of their muscles, dislocate their joints, and/or die. TASERs are less lethal than hand guns, not less than lethal.
What a brave and fierce thin blue line we have to protect us from ... 10 year old girls.
Let this be a lesson to you kids; the monster isn't under your bed, he's not in your closet, he's your Mom and Officer Friendly. And if you don't take your shower you'll be Tazed and sent to Juvie.
Did anyone else watch President Obama on Letterman…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:12 PM Permalink
…and come away with the belief that this President is one of the most well-spoken, erudite, sophisticated, intelligent, and just all 'round gentleman (within all the true connotations of that word)?
I just don't believe a person can fake that kind of personality, confidence without arrogance, refusal to engage in the futility of insulting republicans by name, love of family, and a kind and generous heart geared toward making this country all it can be.
No other president ever made such an appearance and, I believe, could never have exhibited such grace and humor for the lady with the heart-shaped potato.
Any republican watching that show must have been immediately ashamed to be so outclassed, and in a manner they are genetically unable to duplicate.
I am still aware of what seems to be Obama's minor mistakes (like thinking republicans are honorable men trying to do what's best for America), but his excellent and good heart will carry the day, despite those miscreants in the GOP.
As an American I was ashamed to watch America reduced to a third-world, fourth-rate 'democracy,' heading for a complete abdication of all honor and principles, and it lifted my heart and spirits out of the gutter into which I was forced along with all Americans by the shyster, gangland, kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out mentality ordered by the war criminals and torturers of the rich, old, southern white 'morality' of 'good god-fearing, religious men' who think nothing of forbidding a woman possibly life-saving care of some abortions while sending thousands of soldiers to their death for oil, revenge, and American hegemony, and that fervently believe in the death penalty to boot.
I will always respect President Obama's 'outing' of these jerks, whether that was his intent or not, and I wish him the best.
Talkin' 'bout my generation…and Americans like me that grew up during the heyday…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:00 AM Permalink
of rock and roll, listening to what I still believe to be the most socially relevant music of any era. Music that carried a message for the youth of America and sparked a generational social revolution among teens, young adults, and even those older guys who thought they were cool listening to rock and roll and suddenly discovered that they actually liked it, not just for the music and beats but for the lyrics that came to mean so much to so many.
Then the GOP came into power and the very group of society against which we rebelled acted swiftly to negate an individuals worth to society, whether they be rich or poor or somewhere in between, something which at my age, looking back, mystifies me as to how we lost our way and how or why we lost sight of what is truly important: the welfare of the whole takes precedent over the gathering of Midas-like wealth by the old monied million- and billionaires who would not stop to p*ss on you were you laying by the side of the road on fire, that would deny you medical care, food, and, if they could, the very oxygen you breath would be seized for their exclusive use.
And in large part the coming moral poverty and perversion by those wealthy enough to sway society in such ways as to not only encourage, but actually persuade, the poor, the elderly, the ill and infirm to vote against their own interests and for the pernicious agenda of a political party that would just as soon take them out to deep water and then scuttle the carrier ships to rid America of those whom the republicans despise simply for the fact of their existence is both cruel and inhuman.
All my life I have listened, grown, matured, and educated myself and everyone else around me that would listen to the lyrics and deeper meaning of those lyrics contained in so much rock and roll. Unfortunately I could influence only small circles of friends and family, but educate them I did and I'm proud to say that I did.
It's said that the tree of liberty needs refreshing from time to time with the blood of patriots. I disagree and fervently advocate teaching our children the values that made America great instead of asserting a need for regular and routine violence, whatever the GOP espouses and/or the fake reasons they create to commit war crimes of mass destruction and genocide by bombs instead of growing a better society here.
So, having expressed my penchant for the lessons we children of the 60s learned all by ourselves despite the hatred spewed by so many of our elders, I thought I would repeat here the words of a song called, appropriately, "Word Games" by Stephen Stills, one of the greatest artists of my lifetime and a song more socially relevant today than when first written. It's a little long, but I encourage all our readers to pour over every word, compare the meaning of those words to the political dribble and bigoted diatribes leveled against President Obama and realize that it is still possible, and not too late, to continue the change in America that started over forty years ago. For your enjoyment and edification:
Would you knock a man down if you don't like the cut of his clothes Could you put a man away if you don't want to hear what he knows Well it's happening right here people dying of fear by the droves And I know most of you Either don't believe it's true, Or else you don't know what to do Or maybe I'm singing about you, Who knows. It's incredibly sick, you can feel it, as across the land it flows Prejudice is slick when it's a word game, it festers and grows, Move along quick, it furthers one to have somewhere to go You can feel it as it's rumblin' Let emotions keep a tumblin' Then as cities start to crumblin' Mostly empty bellies grumblin' Here we go People see somebody different fear is the first reaction shown Then they think they've got him licked the barbaric hunt begins and they move in slow A human spirit is devoured the remains left to carrion crow I was told that life is change And yet history remains, Does it always stay the same Do we shrug it off and say Only God knows By and by, somebody usually goes down to the ghetto Try and help but they don't know why folks treat them cold And the rich keep getting richer and the rest of us just keep getting old. You see one must have a mission In order to be a good Christian If you don't you will be missing High Mass or the evening show And the well fed masters reap the harvests of the polluted seeds they've sown, Smug and self-righteous they bitch about people they owe, And you can't prove them wrong, they're so God damn sure they know I have seen these things with my very own eyes and defended my battered soul, It must be too tough to die, American propaganda, South African lies Will not force me to take up arms, that's my enemies' pride, Ands I won't fight by his rules that's foolishness besides, His ignorance is gonna do him in and nobody's gonna cry, Because his children they are growing up And plainly tired of putting up With bigots and their silver cups They're fed up, they might throw up On you
Peace, loving and helping one another, bettering our country by bettering ourselves, giving instead of taking, expressing kindness not hatred, building a lasting society rather than just another Roman Empire that will fade from history as yet another failure of man, sunk by the weight of hatred, bigotry, and the eternal war the GOP would prefer to be the norm.
Think about it, please. Our future and the future of our children hang in the balance.
Sailor: If you can find a good copy of this song to post with this I will be eternally grateful to you and will name a planet in another galaxy after you in your honor. I will further provide you with all the free tickets you need for passage to your planet. Bill
The Boston police officer who sent a mass e-mail in which he compared Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to a "banana-eating jungle monkey" has apologized, saying he's not a racist.
Hey, some of his best friends are "banana-eating jungle monkey[s]."
And just because he cried when he offered his non-apology apology i.e. "I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that these words have been received as such."
That's no reason to think he's a racist! After all, it's all the "banana-eating jungle monkey"[s] who are practicing reverse-racism that have caused this problem.
He cried because he might lose his job, health insurance and retirement. Dude, man up! You said what you think, own the words. That's what free speech is all about.
But free speech also means that citizens don't have to pay your bigoted, racist, stupid, stupid, (did I mention stupid), salary, or your retirement, or your health care.
Gosh, if Congress enacts health care reform you and your family will still have health care.
And then you can holler your bigoted screed from whatever street corner you want to.
And you and your family will still have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Old cops, new cops, police stops, contempt of cop rot…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:15 AM Permalink
…just bugs the hell out of me as a former Air Force Law Enforcement Specialist (the DOD job equivalent of a precinct police sergeant) who was either better trained or just learned my lessons better than this modern group of so-called professionals calling themselves cops today. I don't mean to use such a broad brush, but it seems lately that arrests for 'disturbing the peace' or 'resisting arrest' (especially when no underlying charge legitimizing the arrest is cited) or, more properly, 'contempt of cop' are becoming more prevalent than ever.
The arrest of the professor in his own home for refusing to stop yelling at the cop is a prime example. One thing I learned from my training was that I truly was out there on the street to 'protect and serve' the public, and as that was the case, you just didn't go arresting a citizen having a bad day that wanted to yell at you, curse you, gesticulate wildly, or talk in a foul manner. None of those things were grounds for arrest and people generally calmed down when they finally figured out they could not p*ss me off, no matter how much trash they talked to me. I was a professional, out doing a professional job, and had too much pride to go making up bogus crap on which to arrest someone.
That's because I was taught the power of the pen. IF it became necessary to arrest someone who had violated the law I simply made extensive notes on the subject's conduct and attitude, and I found that this could do far more damage to the individuals career than any number of arrests for obviously questionable charges.
Foul language after being arrested for DWI? Conduct unbecoming an officer/NCO. Major scene on the street? Conduct of a nature as to bring disrespect upon the military, both violations of the UCMJ, potential career enders, and almost certainly a letter of reprimand which could end future promotions or ability to reenlist.
I know I'm speaking of military things here, mostly, but the concept remains the same. It was inexcusable stupidity to arrest the professor in his home, and contrary to the assertions that once the prof stepped outside his door he was in 'public' and subject to the complete control of the officer is pure horse puckey, the man was still on his own private property, the cop still did not have a warrant or any reasonable suspicion that the man had committed a crime; his feewings were hurt because the allegedly bad man yelled at him. And without a complainant to support the accusation of 'disturbing the peace' the professor could have been out on his lawn with a brass band playing to welcome him home and no crime would have been committed.
And 'verbal assaults' are not a crime - they are expressions of free speech and something the officer is required to respect, not make an independent judgement as to the individual's rights to express him/herself as they please, on their property or not.
As a child I was always told I could trust the police. That statement is no longer true in my opinion. You never know when you might say or do something that will cause an ill-trained cop to arrest you, knowing that he will 99 out of a hundred times get away with it as the arrested person will be so relieved at having the 'charges' dropped that they won't pursue a complaint against bad cops, not knowing that the cop himself had committed a crime by making a bogus arrest 'under color of authority' (Penal Code section 142 in California).
I am so disgusted and dismayed by the epidemic of this 'god-complex' that makes some cops think they can get away with any abuses. Just like the four officers who were caught on their own patrol cars recording monitor conspiring to make up lies to justify the arrest and prosecution of a woman whom the cop had hit from the rear. an accident for which the cop was clearly at fault, but who would rather lie, make up charges, and enlist other officers in his conspiracy to avoid censure for wrecking his patrol car. DISGUSTING! And the four cops are on 'administrative duty' drawing full paychecks despite taped evidence of their crime. The Chief there should have had four badges and guns confiscated and if not firing the officers outright should have put them on suspension without pay until Internal Affairs confirmed they should all be fired, minimally, and prosecuted, optimally.
I guess I've ranted enough, and for those cops who might read this and allege that 'being a military cop just isn't the same as being a civilian cop' I can only say, YOU do the duties comparable to those to which I was assigned, like working Town Patrol in the Philippines where in Angeles City there were 3,500 licensed bars, hookers, robbers, pickpockets, hustlers, thieves, bar brawls, shootings, stabbings and rapes every damn day of the week, or being a cop in Vietnam, or modernly, Iraq or Afghanistan in a hot war zone, then come talk crap to me.
In the meantime there is obviously a serious need for both better cops and especially better trained cops unburdened by feelings of a 'god complex'.
These cops were out of control in 1968, previous to 1968, and 41 years later they are still out of control.
The only 2 places I have ever been solicited for a bribe were Mexican border guards and CPD. I paid both times. It's really hard to argue with a man with a gun in his hand.
So go ahead CPD, celebrate your torture, your beatings, your trashing of laws and the constitution.
And may you all be sentenced to LWOP with your worst nightmare as a cellmate.
The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.
Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted.
Gee, government agencies have actually exceeded the incredibly unconstitutional powers that were granted them without our knowledge ... and then they were granted them ex post facto!?
Pennsylvania's highest court on Thursday overturned hundreds of juvenile convictions issued by a corrupt judge who took millions of dollars in kickbacks from youth detention centers. [...] In one of the most egregious cases of judicial corruption ever seen, federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in privately owned lockups. [...] Prosecutors have described a scheme in which Conahan, the former president judge of Luzerne County, shut down the county-owned juvenile detention center in 2002 and signed an agreement with PA Child Care LLC to send youth offenders to its new facility outside Wilkes-Barre. [...] The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center asked the Supreme Court to intervene in Luzerne County last year, citing statistics that Ciavarella was opting for detention in far high numbers than would be expected. The justices rejected the request without comment in early January, then changed their mind after Conahan and Ciavarella were charged.
Yet another example of why inherent government functions shouldn't be privatized. Just like cops and the DEA shouldn't have a profit motive to bust people, (i.e. civil forfeiture laws), and mercenaries & private contractors (i.e. Blackwater & KBR) shouldn't have a role in a combat theater. It always leads to corruption worse than any gov't corruption.
And note the State Supreme Court ignored it completely, until the judge & co were charged with crimes. ************* Next up:
The Missouri Department of Public Safety has retracted a controversial profiling memo which linked libertarian activists, Christians, constitutionalists, supporters of Congressman Ron Paul and other traditionally conservative groups to underground militias.
It also specifically cautioned police to be on the lookout for bumper stickers advertising third party candidates, or people with copies of the United States Constitution.
Well, dog nose the US Constitution is a powerful weapon, and everyone who reads or carries a copy, especially the 4th amendment, should be looked upon with suspicion![/snark]
Not to make light of the growing problem with militias and hate groups who want to kill the president and overthrow the country, but shouldn't the cops be looking for violent groups and not peaceful folks? And one would think they should be looking at the Constitution themselves instead of looking for people holding it. It sounds like they think having a copy is probable cause. (hint to cops: It's easy to tell the violent ones; they have assault rifles and explosives. The peaceful ones vote and hold protests.) *************
Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing. [...] Those in favor of the drug tests say they are motivated out of a concern for their constituents' health and ability to put themselves on more solid financial footing once the economy rebounds. But proponents concede they also want to send a message: you don't get something for nothing.
"Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs," said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature [...] [Christine Nelson, a program manager with the National Conference of State Legislatures said] They also cost less than the $400 or so needed for tests that can catch a sufficient range of illegal drugs, and rule out false positive results with a follow-up test.
Jeebus, where do I start!? It's not 'something for nothing' these are programs that people have paid into for years, it's called FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act!
And this stupidity burns so bad "Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs", uh, yes they are! Jobs shipped overseas, economic meltdown, homes foreclosed due to regulatory malfeasance and removal. Can anyone else tell that that was a republican who said that!?
And if you want to save money, spending $400 per just the 12.5 million unemployed folks in this country is 5 TRILLION dollars! (Somebody check my math.)
And that doesn't include welfare or foodstamp recipients, nor the retesting for false positives!
Not to mention they're searching for drugs without probable cause and that different drugs stay in the system for various amounts of time. Is it really fair to conclude someone wasn't 'able, ready or willing to work' because they smoked a joint 2 weeks ago!?
I have a counter proposal: Test every elected or appointed politician randomly for drugs. Test them everyday they are legislating for alcohol. These folks are behind the wheel of our cities, states and country. They too get our tax dollars, and they can obviously do more harm to more citizens that any drunk driver. *************
A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com — charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted.
The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site. [...] The teen, whose name has not been released because of her age, was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. [...] Prosecutors in states including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have tried stop it by charging teens who send and receive the pictures.
In northeastern Pennsylvania, a prosecutor recently threatened to file child porn charges against three teenage girls who authorities say took racy cell-phone pictures that ended up on classmates' cell phones.
In the last case the girls sent OMG!!1! 'racy pictures!' (jeebus, get a grip! (No not there;-)
OMG, OMG, the sky is falling!!!1!
But seriously folks, can you actually charge a child for 'child porn' for sending or posting pictures of herself to an equally underage boyfriend? And how was this reported to the cops?
BTW, even the mothers of these last children, and the mother of Megan, of Megan's Law fame, object to this persecution.
Hmmm, anyone else think the prosecutors might be up for re-election?
The Douglasville Police Department said Monday its officers will undergo "sensitivity and cultural diversity training" after a Muslim woman who refused to remove her head scarf at a courthouse was jailed.
"We never want this to happen again. It's not our intent to embarrass anybody," Police Chief Joe Whisenant said at a news conference.
The judge who had the woman jailed briefly for contempt of court will also take part in the training, Whisenant said.
A Muslim woman arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint said Wednesday that she felt her human and civil rights were violated. A judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts. [...] Kelley Jackson, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said state law doesn't permit or prohibit head scarfs. [...] Valentine's husband, Omar Hall, said his wife was accompanying her nephew to a traffic citation hearing when officials stopped her at the metal detector and told her she would not be allowed in the courtroom with the head scarf, known as a hijab.
Hall said Valentine, an insurance underwriter, told the bailiff that she had been in courtrooms before with the scarf on and that removing it would be a religious violation. When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge.
Hmm, I guess you can wear a scarf in his courtroom!
Why the very first thing I did the day after the election was to go down to my local gun dealer, you know, one of those that will sell anything to anybody if you have the money and stand taller than that the clown next to the counter with height lines on it (you must be at least four feet tall to make a purchase).
I planned my shopping carefully, first settling for a .22 caliber rifle with a 10 power scope for the close in shooting; highly accurate and will knock down your target without going through five more house afterwards.
I picked up a .30 caliber Winchester rifle ("The rifle that has killed more deer than any other weapon" according to Winchester, so I am now well prepared for an invasion of deer) with a 10-12 power variable scope for my medium range work. For further medium range I grabbed an 870 Wingmaster shotgun and several boxes of 3" magnum rounds of number 4 buck for ammo. Lotsa people prefer double ought rounds, but they only fire eight .30 caliber lead pellets per shell as versus forty-four .22 caliber pellets in the number four round.
For intermediate work I favor a good 30.06 with a 10-20 power variable scope firing 165 grain hollow points. For further out I like a Weatherby .474 magnum rifle suitable for hunting elephants (although we haven't many elephants in my neighborhood) and, ultimately a Browning M107 50 caliber sniper rifle for the long distance stuff (in case you do see an elephant two counties over).
And, lastly, for the ultimate in home defense my gun dealer, for the low, low price of 1.1 million dollars, sold me a 155mm Howitzer cannon I've concealed in the backyard. The only drawback, or course, is that once fired at intruders in your home, your home is vaporized along with the intruders. And a little over half of the neighborhood.
Oh, well. You can't have everything, even if you are scared of the big bad boogeyman Democrats coming to seize your guns.
After all, with our country going bankrupt, businesses failing, trade and budget deficits our great-, great-, great-grandchildren will still be paying endlessly, obviously the first thing on President Elect Obama's mind will be coming to your door personally to confiscate all your weapons.
But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong. So shoot me.
WTF!? The prosecutor never heard of 'felony murder'!?
If someone dies during the commission of a felony, any death that occurs during that crime can be 'felony murder.' It can be from a heart attack, or any other cause.
So even tho this officer didn't pull the trigger he was involved in a cover up of the murder. He helped plant drugs, he lied to investigators, he lied to the FBI, and he was convicted of multiple felonies. That's felony murder.
IMHO, the dirty cops who conducted the raid, the judge who signed off on their specious no-knock warrant, the police department officials that encouraged these actions, should all be on trial for conspiracy, and felony murder.
I emailed an Atlanta reporter who covered this story and asked him why the cop wasn't charged for felony murder. Here is his reply:
Simply put: the politics in this case are rife.
What the DA does or doesn't do, what the U.S. Attorney does or doesn't do, are decision hugely influenced by the political climate in this city.
5-16-08 People in the police oversight community told her that no one in Atlanta — not residents, not city officials, not the media — would be sympathetic to delays in getting the city's Citizen Review Board up and running.
But it's been more than a year since the board was created in response to the Atlanta Police Department's illegal shooting of Kathryn Johnston, and even Shields admits that she expected to be investigating complaints about the city's law enforcement officers by now.
A judge ruled today that the Summit County Medical Examiner must change her autopsy findings to remove all references to the Taser stun gun as a contributing cause of death in the cases of three men who died during encounters with law enforcement officers. [...] Schneiderman's decision could have an effect on the criminal cases against five Summit County sheriff's deputies charged in the August 2006 death of 28-year-old jail inmate Mark D. McCullaugh Jr., because the ruling orders Kohler to change the manner of death from homicide to ''undetermined.''
Schneiderman, quoting passages from Kohler's autopsy report on McCullaugh, stated that his death ''shall be ruled undetermined and any reference to death by 'asphyxia due to the combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint,' as well as any reference to 'homicide' due to 'multiple restraint mechanisms with beating and anal penetration' shall be deleted from both the death certificate and the Report of Autopsy.''
Someone should check this judge's bank accounts for a recent infusion of $$.
TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.
"The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against Torture said.
"In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events,'' the committee of 10 experts said. [...] The UN committee made its comments in recommendations to Portugal, which has bought the newest Taser X26 stun gun for use by police.
Portugal "should consider giving up the use of the Taser X26,'' as its use can have a grave physical and mental impact on those targeted, which violates the UN's Convention against Torture, the experts said.
About two months went by after Jared Massey was tasered by a highway cop in Utah before he turned to YouTube. [...] Like other YouTube tasings, waves of outrage over excessive force followed — fire the cop, ban Tasers — and the police started an investigation a week and a half later. But the initial results were discouraging for the critics: The cop was cleared of wrongdoing; Mr. Massey paid the speeding ticket that he protested before being shocked twice. [...] The deal was announced a week after a Utah prosecutor ruled the Mr. Massey did not commit any crimes in the traffic stop, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. His civil case focused on the fact proven in the video — that the officer did not seek to arrest him before drawing and firing the Taser.
But wait, there's more!
The man who videotaped a St. George police officer's tirade against him last year, and put it online labeled "Cop Gone Wild," filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday over the incident. [...] The confrontation happened about 2 a.m. Sept. 7 in a commuter parking lot in south St. Louis County at Spokane and Reavis Barracks roads. Darrow, who runs his own painting business by day and attends community college at night, told a reporter last fall that he was there to meet a friend.
He also said that he installed a video camera in his Nissan Maxima after previous run-ins with police. [...] But [police Sgt. James Kuehnlein], who has since been fired, approached his car and began questioning him.
Darrow responded with queries of his own about the justification for the stop. He also asserted his Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. [...] Kuehnlein had Darrow step out of the car, pinned him against Darrow's car, then got in Darrow's face and shouted, "You wanna try me tonight? You think you've had a bad night? I will ruin your (expletive) night."
Darrow said no. Kuehnlein then suggests he could make up reasons to detain or arrest Darrow, the suit says. "Do you want to go to jail for some (expletive) reason I come up with?" [...] Darrow was released after about 18 minutes, the suit says, and never arrested. [...] Although Kuehnlein also claimed to be taping the encounter with his dash-mounted video camera, the tape has since been lost or destroyed.
Nothing pisses off a cop more than standing up for your rights, just make sure you get it on tape.
The Bush administration violated the public’s right to free speech by keeping protesters far removed from the 2005 inaugural parade, a judge ruled yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman found that the National Park Service violated its own regulations by giving the inauguration’s private organizers preferential treatment and extraordinary control over access to Pennsylvania Avenue. The Presidential Inaugural Committee roped off most of the parade route and allowed only those with tickets inside: largely a crowd of Bush administration donors, supporters and friends coming to celebrate the start of President Bush’s second term.
Protesters were limited to small, specific areas, leading to a lawsuit by antiwar activists.
“The inauguration is not a private event,” Friedman said in his ruling. “The National Park Service, on behalf of the PIC, cannot reserve all of Pennsylvania Avenue for itself, leaving only the Ellipse and the northern part of John Marshall Park to protesters.” [...] Friedman said the Park Service allowed the Presidential Inaugural Committee to apply almost a year ahead of anyone else for a permit, contrary to its usual regulations. It then granted the committee exclusive use of nearly all of the parade route from the Capitol to the White House and allowed the group to use the area for five months before Inauguration Day, instead of the typical three weeks.
See you can stand up for your rights, all it takes is lots of money and lots of time. Oh, and get it on tape.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
