Why Am I Not Surprised?

http://bit.ly/IFkTsV

Video documentation by local activists and independent media shows that police officers and county deputies from across Minnesota have been picking up young people near Peavey Plaza for a training program to recognize drug-impaired drivers. Multiple participants say officers gave them illicit drugs and provided other incentives to take the drugs. The Occupy movement, present at Peavey Plaza since April 7th, appears to be targeted as impaired people are dropped off at the Plaza, and others say they've been rewarded for offering to snitch on the movement.

Local independent media activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality began investigating police conduct around the Plaza after witnessing police dropping off impaired people at the plaza and hearing rumors that they were offering people drugs.  We videotaped police conduct and interviewed participants, learning some very disturbing information about the DRE program.
Officers stated on record the DRE program, run by the Minnesota State Patrol, has no Institutional Review Board or independent oversight. They agreed no ambulances or EMTs were on site at the Richfield MnDOT facility near the airport where most subjects were taken. Multiple times, participants left Peavey Plaza sober, returned intoxicated, and said they'd been given free drugs by law enforcement. We documented on more than one occasion, someone being told they were sober by one officer, and then picked up by a different officer, and returning intoxicated.

 http://bit.ly/IFkTsV

A few weeks ago I was with a few companions from Occupy Wall Street in Union Square when an old friend — I’ll call her Eileen — passed through, her hand in a cast.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“Oh, this?” she held it up. “I was in Liberty Park on the 17th [the Six Month Anniversary of the Occupation]. When the cops were pushing us out the park, one of them yanked at my breast.”
“Again?” someone said.

We had all been hearing stories like this. In fact, there had been continual reports of police officers groping women during the nightly evictions from Union Square itself over the previous two weeks.
“Yeah so I screamed at the guy, I said, ‘you grabbed my boob! what are you, some kind of fucking pervert?’ So they took me behind the lines and broke my wrists.”

Long Time Coming.

Five former New Orleans police officers have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.

The presiding judge lashed out at prosecutors for two hours on Wednesday on their handling of the case in which police shot six people at a bridge on September 4, 2005, killing two, less than a week after Katrina made landfall.

To make the shootings appear justified, officers conspired to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports. The case became the centerpiece of the US Justice Department's push to clean up the troubled New Orleans Police Department.

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of federal firearms charges that carried mandatory minimum prison sentences of at least 35 years. Retired officer Arthur Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shootings, was convicted of helping orchestrate the cover-up.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/04/201244232716640162.html

Better late than never I suppose.

Bad Dog! Worse Cop.

Police officers may be liable on claims that they let a police dog attack an unresisting suspecting for five to seven minutes, a federal judge ruled.

Snip

Another day, another report about sadistic cops.

Cops Still Face Claims of Beating Kids at Parade

Courthouse News Service

(CN) - Police officers may be liable for using their batons to hit children who stepped into the street during a parade to hug marching family members, the D.C. Circuit ruled.

Roger Rudder, Rosena Rudder, Noverlene Goss, and two juveniles say they suffered injuries from their interaction with police at the 2008 Caribbean Carnival Parade in Washington, D.C. While watching the festivities, the group allegedly spotted family members in the parade march. But when they stepped into the street for a hug, Officer William Chatman allegedly told them to return to the sidewalk.

Though the group tried to comply, Chatman then shoved Rosena Rudder and Officer Shannon Williams used her baton on the two children, ages 5 and 15, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to claiming that Williams struck two children without provocation, "the complaint also alleges Officer Williams beat plaintiff Goss with her baton after Ms. Goss called out to the officer in response to Officer Williams' use of force against the child," the Jan. 17 decision states. "A person who responds verbally to a police officer assaulting a child hardly invites violence against herself."

Snip

Well thanks judge, thanks for pointing out the blindingly obvious.
...
Chatman may have also violated the plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights, the court found.
...

No! Really? Who would of guessed?
...
"Unlike pushing an arrestee against a wall and pulling his arm behind his back, beating a suspect to the ground with a baton exceeds in violence anything 'we would expect in the course of a routine arrest,'" Ginsberg wrote, citing precedent.

...

Well Judge Ginsberg, I'm so glad you pointed that out because I might have not figured that out without your brilliant assist.

Drug-sniffing dogs in traffic stops often wrong

Chicago Tribune

January 06, 2011|By Dan Hinkel and Joe Mahr, Tribune reporters

Drug-sniffing dogs can give police probable cause to root through cars by the roadside, but state data show the dogs have been wrong more often than they have been right about whether vehicles contain drugs or paraphernalia.

The dogs are trained to dig or sit when they smell drugs, which triggers automobile searches. But a Tribune analysis of three years of data for suburban departments found that only 44 percent of those alerts by the dogs led to the discovery of drugs or paraphernalia.

For Hispanic drivers, the success rate was just 27 percent.

Snip

pandagon.net 

" I'm saying that drug dogs should be permanently banned. Even if they worked, they're basically a cheap attempt by law enforcement to skirt constitutional protections, but since they don't even work, they're nothing but a magic trick used to distract from what's really going on: cops conducting illegal searches based on their own prejudices."

Snip

Confirmation bias in  the form of the "Clever Hans" phenomena, plus more than little racial bigotry equals an all out assault on the Forth Amendment.  This is you government on drugs.

Oklahoma police tase an 86-year-old bedridden grandmother - Boing Boing

Oklahoma police tase an 86-year-old bedridden grandmother - Boing Boing

When Lonnie Tinsley's 86-year-old bedridden grandmother refused to take her medicine, he called emergency services in El Reno, Oklahoma and requested a medical technician. Instead, a dozen armed officers arrived at the scene.

According to officer Duran’s official report, Mrs Vernon had taken an 'aggressive posture' in her hospital bed. In order to ensure 'officer safety', one of his men 'stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation'.

Another of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, 'striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain', and unconsciousness. Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed.

When I was young, times were hard
When I got older it was worse
First words I ever heard:
"Nobody move, nobody get hurt"
It's the long arm, it's the strong arm
It's the long arm of the law
It's the long arm, it's the strong arm
It's the long arm of the law
After the war in Paraguay
Back in 1999
I was laying low in Lima
Working both sides of the borderline
It's the long arm, it's the strong arm
It's the long arm of the law
You can run, but you can't hide...
Well, I have to live like a fugitive
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Someone's coming after me
And I'm running, running, yeah
Now, don't protest your innocence
Only the dead get off scot free
And when the judge says, "Whodunit?"
You'll be crying, "Not me! Not me!"

When A Time Out is Not Engough

Fort Smith police say although their Taser gun policy calls for not using the weapon on someone younger than 14 years old, officers can use it on a minor if they're being physically violent.

Monday, 40/29 News talked with the father of a 10-year-old Ozark girl who had a Taser gun used on her by an officer who was trying to place her under arrest.

Ozark's Police Chief Jim Noggle said an officer was called to home because the girl was being unruly. Noggle said the girl's mother gave the officer permission to fire the Taser at her daughter.

Noggle said the officer did so after the girl kicked him in his groin. Noggle said the officer properly used his discretion when he fired his Taser at the girl.

Dude, you do understand the concept of "Haunted House," Right?

ESSEX, Md. - An off-duty Baltimore city police officer delivered the fright of a lifetime to a haunted house employee, pulling a gun on the chain-saw-wielding man at the end of his act, authorities said Monday.

Sgt. Eric Janik, 37, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment for pointing his service handgun at the worker, who was dressed as Leatherface, the killer from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Baltimore County police said.

The employee, Mike Morrison, followed Janik and several other people up a staircase Sunday night at the end of the haunted house tour in a bid to get "one last scream" out of them, police said.

Story continues below ↓

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When the group exited into a parking lot, Janik pulled his gun and pointed it at Morrison from less than 10 feet away, according to police and Morrison, who said he dropped the chain saw, put his hands up and backed away. The saw had no chain.

Only then did Janik identify himself as a police officer, said Morrison, who retreated into the building.

To Serve, Protect and Occasionaly Run Over

Uphold the Law, Right.

Charges Dropped Against Woman Framed by Cops

By Todd Wright

NBCMIAMI.

Updated 4:26 p.m. PT, Thurs., July 30, 2009

Alexandra Torrensvilas was the target of cops who pinned a DUI on her for an accident they caused. Now she has been cleared of charges after the Broward State Attorney's Office officially dropped the four DUI citations on Wednesday.

But the saga is far from over as now prosecutors turn their attention to the four Hollywood police officers who made up an intricate story to cover for a February traffic accident involving a cop car. The scheme was caught on one of the officers dashboard cameras.

The disturbing video shows Alexandra Torrensvilas, 23, handcuffed in the back of the squad car as the officers get their stories straight on what they are going to say happened.

Um. OK, That's Rather Embarrassing Don't You Think?

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Capitol police officer is out of a job after telling investigators he hired a prostitute who then stole his gun.Joseph Kelly, 56, turned in his badge Monday.Ed Myslewicz, the press secretary of general services, which oversees the Capitol police, told News 8 that the department does not plan to make any changes to its code of conduct because of the incident.Harrisburg police plan to charge Kelly with soliciting a prostitute.Cara Liddick, of Carlisle, was arrested Sunday on theft charges, but those charges were later dropped when the gun was recovered.

Mouthy Grandmother Gets Tased

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Cursing and belligerent, the great-grandmother refused to sign her speeding ticket, got out of her truck and dared a deputy to shock her with a Taser.

So he did.

Video released by a Travis County Constable's Office shows 72-year-old Kathryn Winkfein hitting the ground and moaning while the shocks jolted through her body after the May 11 confrontation with Travis County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Bieze.

Winkfein was stopped for driving 60 mph in a 45-mph zone just west of Austin. A dashboard camera in the deputy's car shows the 4-foot-11 Winkfein refusing to sign her speeding ticket, getting out of her white pickup truck and cursing at the deputy constable.

Bieze then pushes her to get her away from traffic.

"You're gonna shove a 72-year-old woman," Winkfein says angrily, standing inches from the deputy.

"If you don't step back, you're going to get Tased," Bieze says.

"Go ahead, Tase me," Winkfein says. "I dare you."

The video shows Bieze using the Taser and Winkfein hitting the ground and moaning in pain.

"Put your hands behind your back or you're going to be Tased again," Bieze yells, and then hits her with another jolt.

Winkfein was eventually charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and fines up to $4,000.

Tell Me Again How The Police Are Such Wonderful People

Arrested in silence: Police use Taser, pepper spray on deaf man
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By ROBERT McCLENDON and MARK R. KENT
Staff Reporters

Mobile police used pepper spray and a Taser on a deaf and mentally disabled man Friday after they were unable to get him to come out of a bathroom at a Dollar General store, authorities said.

After forcibly removing Antonio Love from the bathroom of the Azalea Road store, officers attempted to book the 37-year-old, on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer, but the magistrate on duty at the jail refused to accept any of those charges.

Love's family members said they had no idea where he was during the time that police had him in custody.

Brodrick Love said the officers dropped his brother off in the parking lot of their apartment building without saying what happened or why his brother had been missing for six hours.

Love's family members have filed a formal complaint against the officers.

Christopher Levy, a Police Department spokesman, said the officers didn't find out that Love had a hearing impairment until after they got him out of the bathroom and found a card in his wallet indicating he was deaf.

Taser Sets Man Alight

Taser-hit man burst into flames

A man in Western Australia was engulfed in flames when police officers fired a Taser stun gun at him.

Police say they used the Taser on Ronald Mitchell, 36, when he ran at them carrying a container of petrol and a cigarette lighter.

They said that Mr Mitchell, who lives in a remote Aboriginal community, had been sniffing petrol. They suggested the cigarette lighter started the fire.

Mr Mitchell is in a critical condition in hospital with third degree burns.

Bare hands

Western Australia Police say they went to the community of Warburton, about 1,500 km (950 miles) north-east of Perth, in response to a complaint.

They say they used the Taser on Mr Mitchell when he came out of the house and ran at them.

He burst into flames. One officer pushed him to the ground and smothered the fire with his bare hands, police said.

Mr Mitchell's sister told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing petrol.

"He must have put petrol on his face, then the policeman shot him with the Taser, that's when the flames happened," she said.

Source BBC News

Snip

OK lets do a quick review, electrical spark plus flamibale liquid equals a very bad idea.

14 Year Old Epileptic Tasered

Girl recovering after dart surgically removed from her head

July 3, 2009 - 4:01 PM

By Chelle Delaney: Freedom New Mexico

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.”

Her mother, Stacy Akin, said her daughter underwent surgery Friday morning at University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque.

“One of the darts entered her skull,” said Akin, interviewed by telephone.

After a CAT scan, a hospital resident told her the dart was “in her brain a little bit, but not much,” Akin said.

She was in pediatric intensive care following the surgery, Akin said. “She seems OK, but she she’s in a lot of pain. Her head is hurting her real bad.”

Police were trying help Akin because she and her daughter had been fighting, Akin said.

Akin said while she could understand the use of a Taser on an adult, it shouldn’t be used on a child.

“She’s only 14, why?” Aikin asked.

Akin also said her daughter has epilepsy.

The girl’s father, Donny Martinez of Amarillo, said his daughter takes medication for the condition.

“I’d like to find out what happened,” Martinez said, adding, “Someone, independently should look at it” to see if excessive force was used.

Snip

http://www.pntonline.com/news/tucumcari-17846-year-chief.html

Is just me or is police officer behaving as bad or worse than the offending teen?

Next Time Make Sure You're Payed Up On Your PBA Dues!

CARRABELLE, Fla. (AP) - A Florida corrections officer has been fired after zapping children with 50,000 volts of electricity during a "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" tour.

Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil has ordered an investigation of the April 24 incident at the Franklin Correctional Institution.

Sgt. Walter Schmidt says the parents gave him permission to shock the children with a handheld stun device. Such devices are typically used to subdue unruly or uncooperative inmates and must be in direct contact with the person to deliver the shock.

Schmidt was fired. Warden Duffie Harrison said Schmidt zapped "at least two kids."

The children's names and ages were not released.

Baptist Pastor Gets Beat Down By Thugs In Blue

Check out other UTubes from this Pastor. His Fourth Amendment absolutism probably did not make many friends with DHS employees. Thanks to Republican appointees to the Supreme Court DHS and other law enforcement are allowed to rummage into your car without much provocation and definitely without a warrant. Even though the good reverend does not come close to fitting the profile of a drug or people smuggler the cops have carte blache to harass him and toss his car basically on a whim. Instead of meekly conceding to the cops absurd if technically legal request to inspect his car the Precher became a royal pain in the posterior. The Cops of course totally over reacted acting like the pissy authoritarians they are. They finally snapped out of camera shot (or at least out of the Reverends camera shot) and put a beat down on the minister.

At the very least the DHS and Arizona law enforcement reacted in a very unprofessional manner to a civilian who was yanking their chain. At worst this was felony assault and battery under the color of law and a blatant civil rights violation. Both DHS and Arizona need to retrain their officers on use of force guidelines. Both need to dragged in to a civil tort court at the very least.

The War On Chistmas Continues, Conflict in Chattanooga.

Chattanooga Police Det. Kenneth Freeman will not face charges in an incident in which he shoved a 71-year-old greeter at the Wal-Mart in Collegedale to the floor after he tried to stop him while doing a receipts check.
Collegedale Police declined to bring charges, then the employee, Bill Walker, filled out a complaint himself. Collegedale Judge Kevin Wilson has reviewed the complaint and did not issue an assault charge.
In the incident on Christmas Eve, Mr. Walker said an alarm went off when Det. Freeman and another city police officer, Edwin McPherson, were leaving the store
He said he reached to try to stop Det. Freeman and he was pushed against a soft drink machine and to the floor. He said the officer then hovered over him as he lay on the floor.
A police report says a customer then told Det. Freeman, "You can't push down an old man" and began struggling with him. It says Det. Freeman then shoved that man, Gholom Ghassedi, through a glass door. Officers found Mr. Ghassedi with blood on his neck, but he declined medical treatment.
Sgt. McPherson broke up the fight between Det. Freeman and Mr. Ghassedi.
Rick Watkins of Wal-Mart said an alarm was sounded when the 48-year-old Freeman walked by, causing Mr. Walker to try to stop him. Sgt. McPherson had already stopped for a receipt check.
An officer from the Chattanooga Police Department's Internal Affairs division arrived at the scene to look into the incident.
Cpl. Larry Robbins Jr. of the Collegedale Police said he decided not to bring assault charges against Det. Freeman, saying the incident was a misdemeanor not committed in the presence of an officer, there were no injuries requiring medical attention, the suspect is not a flight risk, and "there were no other crimes committed along with the possible simple assault."He said the investigation would be ongoing, but he said he "was unable to determine at the scene that there was any intent to commit an assault."
Collegedale Officer Paul Crosby said when he arrived at the scene he found a large group of people gathered outside the door of the store. He said some "were obviously angry and were pointing fingers and yelling."
He said one man was "livid" and was pointing his finger at Det. Freeman while saying, "You are a police officer? Shame on you."
Det. Freeman was involved in a scuffle with attorney Lloyd Levitt at the Courts Building in May 2007.

Snip

Is it too much to ask that law enforcement officers be held accountable for their actions like the rest of us mere mortals?

The War On Chistmas Continues

Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) – Syracuse police say a man who refused to turn down his music early Christmas morning had to be tasered twice after struggling with police.

Police say they were called to the North Geddes Street apartment of Michael Prince, 23, at 2 a.m. on Christmas because he was playing his music too loud. Police asked him to turn it down, but the officers were sent back to the apartment for another loud music complaint about a half hour later.

The officers asked Prince to head out to the patrol car to the officer could write Prince a ticket; when Prince approached the car, police say he tried to run away.

Police say two officers struggled with Prince, and a third officer soon joined in; Prince managed to fight his way free and tried to run once again.

Police say officers then grabbed Prince and threw him to the ground, striking him several times as he continued to fight with police. Police used the taser on him twice in order to handcuff him.

Prince has been charged with resisting arrest and violating the city’s sound ordinance.

Law Man Drums Up a Little Extra Business

State trooper fired after drunken high-speed chase
Man, 22, arrested on charges of kidnapping man at fast-food drive-through in Towson

By Gus G. Sentementes | gus.sentementes@baltsun.com
4:51 PM EST, December 22, 2008

A trooper was fired today by the Maryland State Police after he was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man in his marked cruiser at a fast-food drive-through, then leading Baltimore County police on a drunken high-speed chase.

The incident unfolded about 2:30 a.m. Saturday at a Taco Bell restaurant at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue in Towson. Witnesses told county police officers that a trooper in plainclothes activated his siren and began yelling at people in the drive-through to "get the [expletive] out of the way," according to police charging documents.

The trooper, Bruce Anthony Wrzosek, 22, of the 2500 block of Taylor Ave., assaulted several people in a car and then forced one of them, a 20-year-old man, into his cruiser without handcuffs, according to charging documents.

Just as Wrzosek was getting into his cruiser, a county officer arrived and asked him to park his vehicle, but Wrzosek sped away, charging documents say.

After a brief high-speed chase during which, according to charging documents, the trooper used his lights and sirens to speed through at least one red light, he stopped the vehicle and was arrested by Baltimore County police after failing a field sobriety test. His blood alcohol content was measured at 0.20 -- more than double the state's legal limit of 0.08 for driving under the influence, according to charging documents.