Archive for the 'Police' Category

Detroit.

Video shows a man pull out a gun and start firing right before Detroit police officers appear to flee.

The department has launched an investigation into what was captured on the police dashcam. The officers could face consequences from the incident that happened on June 30 if wrongdoing is found.

The gunman hung out of the back of a car and fired shots at a man, striking him. Video appears to show officers speeding away instead of jumping into action.

“Troubling, not consistent to training,” Interim police Chief James White said.

White said the officers did return to help the man who was shot. He said the department is investigating if the officers called the shooting in.

“Shocking is an understatement. I think we all have the understanding the police are to run towards danger as we are running away from it,” Local 4 Legal Analyst Neil Rockind said.

And where did you get that false understanding?  Who taught that to you?  You’re a legal analyst – you’re supposed to know better.

Y’all recall the coverage of Mr. Walker who was stopped by the crude, vulgar, loud-mouthed jerk cop because he was carrying an AR-15 to Coyote hunt in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia?  I wasn’t aware of the fact that the first decision at the Fourth Circuit was a panel.  The Attorney representing him, John Bryan, has filed a petition for rehearing in the case.

If the Panel Opinion remains, Black is meaningless, because there will always be “more” available to any police officer. Even if an individual has violated no law, they will be subject to detainment based on any speculative crime which generally could be committed by any anonymous person. A man walking in the direction of any woman might be a rapist, given that he would appear to have the physical ability to carry out a rape. Any driver of a car heading in the direction of any other human being might be a potential murderer, because they appear to have the physical ability to run-over people, should they so choose. The analogies could go on and on because, like the Michael Walker case, these scenarios are all generalized, rather than based on individualized reasonable suspicion.

Deputy Donahoe did, and claims to have done numerous other times, exactly that which Black forbade: to assume that being a felon in possession of a firearm was the default status; that, without more, he could detain and ID anyone he saw with a firearm. He admitted that he had no information that Walker may have been a prohibited person. (J.A. 162:5-8). Donahoe admitted under oath that had no indications that Mr. Walker was a threat to anyone, nor appeared to have any ill intentions (J.A. 167:1-4). Donahoe told Mr. Walker at the beginning of the stop, “At this point, I have the absolute right to see whether you’re legal to carry that gun or not.” (See J.A. 209 – Video of Incident).

I like the cut of his jib.  Either the Fourth Circuit mans up and does the right thing, or else their decision in the Black case is meaningless (we’ve covered this case too having to do with Mr. Black and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department).

I discussed this case with a Charlotte cop I know at length – I’ll reiterate what we discussed at some point again in the future.  Needless to say, I was disappointed at the cop’s lack of concern over what the Fourth Circuit had decided, and equally disappointed in the rights he felt he had to detain people.

Let’s get this off to an educated start.  Here’s a miscalculation for you.  I’ve seen engineers do it before despite being taught better in engineering courses.

Let’s say you’re trying to get the cross sectional area of a tube in stress with an inner and outer radius.  You cannot use this formula: pi() * (r2 – r1)^2, or pi() * (d2 – d1)^2 / 4.  Because that’s not the same thing as pi() * (r2^2 – r1^2).  That’s a miscalculation, and it’s the sort that can kill people (or over-design and cost money).  I corrected the engineer I saw doing this.

The title of this article is LAPD bomb squad ‘miscalculated” weight of homemade fireworks when ‘controlled detonation’ went horribly wrong destroying armored truck and leaving 17 people injured.

Los Angeles police have admitted their bomb squad ‘miscalculated’ the weight of fireworks before a planned controlled explosion which went wrong last month, destroying the team’s armored truck and leaving 17 people injured.

[ … ]

The vehicle has an iron chamber which is designed to contain 25 pounds of explosives, and officers estimated they were putting in 16.5 pounds in to it, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Monday.

But investigators later weighed the remains of the explosives and calculated that there must have been about 42 pounds of fireworks loaded into the device.

The resultant catastrophic failure of the armored chamber sent a plume of fire into the air, injured 17 people and shattered the windows of nearby buildings.

Chief Moore gave the update the investigation on Monday morning at the LAPD Headquarters and said an ‘apparent miscalculation’ and ‘human error’ led police to overload the containment truck.

“Apparent miscalculation.”  He uses those words.  I do not think he understands what it means, and it makes me wonder if these folks have ever calculated anything in their lives.

If they tried, could they drive the intelligence quotient of LEOs any lower than it is right now?

And why couldn’t they have driven the truck into the middle of a field rather than do this on a city street?

Tip: WiscoDave.

Via David Codrea, this ridiculous case.

The fact determination at issue in this case is one that necessarily must be determined by the Court based on its real world experience and common sense applied to the evidence. Officer Hiser cannot say whether the windows of his or Gray’s vehicles were rolled down and Gray points out persuasively.

The Court agrees with Gray that it is incredible that Officer Hiser—who self-admittedly does not have a heightened olfactory system—could smell the scent of two resealable sandwich sized plastic baggies of unburnt marijuana coming from a moving vehicle when patrolling in his cruiser. This occurrence is not only contrary to any common experiences, but is “implausible” and seemingly “contrary to the laws of nature.” … While the Seventh Circuit has held that “the scent of burning marijuana alone, if detected,” can justify a Terry stop, …, decades of appellate cases discussing an officer smelling raw marijuana entailed physical characteristics—like proximity to, and amount of, marijuana. …

I was going to remark that law enforcement apparently seeks the lowest common denominator as new hires.  The lower the IQ, the better the candidate.

However, sadly, the author points out the following.  “What Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt may not have realized, being a federal judge and hence breathing the rarified air of clean courthouses rather than being forced to smell the unpleasant odor of sweaty bodies and filthy floors, is that claims such as the one she found totally full of malarkey are routine in state courts, where most pot cases go and most suppression motions are denied.”

So the problem runs deep into the judiciary as well.  Does anyone with two brain cells left trust the American system of justice?  As for that matter, does anyone really trust a “jury of their peers” to come to the right conclusion?

Castle Rock v. Gonzalez

Warren v. District of Columbia

DeShaney v. Winnebago County

Enough said.  Read the cases.  No court in the land will decide a case assuming cops are there for personal protection, and the idiot commentator should be fired.

CNN.

 The man hailed as a hero for preventing further bloodshed after a gunman fatally shot a police officer in Arvada, Colorado, on Monday was himself fatally shot by police, Arvada police said in a statement Friday afternoon.

News from Missouri.

Missouri Gov. Michael Parson (R) signed a bill last week to prohibit in-state enforcement of certain federal gun controls. On Friday, the O’Fallon police chief responded to the new legislation by resigning from his post.

Philip Dupuis, who has been the police chief since October 2020, said the “poor wording” of the Second Amendment Preservation Act could have “unintended consequences,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The bill allows individual officers to be fined for up to $50,000 for enforcing federal gun laws — legislation which Dupuis said leaves officers vulnerable during “good faith, justified seizures of firearms,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Good riddance to the tyrant.  He should never have been in the police to begin with, having lied about his oath.

Forbes.

It was a police raid John Oliver called “almost cartoonishly idiotic.” Looking to apprehend a violent drug dealer at his home in McDonough, Georgia, more than two dozen officers executed a no-knock warrant in February 2018. Smashing the door open with a battering ram, before tossing a flash grenade inside, officers stormed in with guns drawn, and quickly subdued the home’s lone resident, forcing him down on the ground.

But it wasn’t their man—police raided the wrong house. Instead, officers had just handcuffed Onree Norris, then a 78-year-old grandfather with heart trouble. At the time, Norris was simply watching TV in his bedroom when he heard a “thunderous sound:” Members from the Henry County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team had just knocked down all three doors to his house. When Norris moved into his hallway, he was greeted by multiple officers “wearing military style gear pointing assault rifles at him,” who threw him to the floor.

[ … ]

Lambasting the raid as a “blatant constitutional violation,” Norris initially sued multiple officers as well as Capt. David Cody, who led the Henry SRT and exercised “overall tactical control” for the no-knock raid. But the other officers were soon shielded by qualified immunity, leaving the captain as the sole defendant.

As Norris alleged in a complaint, Capt. Cody “did not check to make sure Henry SRT members were going to the correct address or otherwise perform adequate precautionary measures to ensure the search warrant was properly executed.” Although the captain did review the search warrant, he admitted he didn’t read it “all the way through,” and that he usually doesn’t review the property’s description prior to a raid.

Qualified immunity.  That means the police can do literally anything without being held accountable.

Those involved in this are stupid and violent men, a danger to society.  And I couldn’t care less about their “war on drugs.”  It means absolutely nothing to me, carries absolutely no importance whatsoever.

As I’ve said many times before, you’re never in more danger than when the police are around.

the most enraging part about this whole thing is she perfectly followed instructions the state police themselves put out. https://t.co/rC6rQNDqBt pic.twitter.com/r9ajnOURvd

— MJ (@morganisawizard) June 9, 2021

Rodney Dunn is a violent and stupid man.  But the courts protect men like him because the police aren’t there to protect you.  They are performing government stability operations on behalf of the rulers.

As I’ve said before.  You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.

Index Journal.

How will local law enforcement go about enforcing a law that allows CWP holders to openly carry handguns?

McCormick Police Chief Bo Willis said he has received numerous phone calls from people asking about the open carry law. While he hasn’t had any problems with people openly carrying before the law’s enactment date, he said last week he’s still waiting on guidance from SLED on how to enforce the law.

The Index Journal hasn’t gotten answers from SLED because SLED doesn’t yet understand.  I’ve tried to explain it.

That’s what LEOs in Texas thought as well – we’ll just walk up and demand to see permits when a call comes in.

That’s not the way this worked out in Texas, and it’s not the way it will work out in South Carolina.  You see, in order to conduct a stop, LEOs need to ensure that it’s a valid “Terry Stop.”  In other words, you have to suspect that a crime has been or is being committed, or else the stop isn’t legal.

It’s not good enough to say that the individual is openly carrying a weapon.  To be sure, if someone is openly carrying and commits a crime leading to detention or arrest, and you ascertain that the individual has no permit, then you can charge him with a crime under the new law.  But then, you could have charged him with a crime under the concealed handgun law as well.  Nothing has changed.

You need to pretend that you can’t see the weapon, because that’s the way the carefully worded law is written.  This is what’s going to happen the first few times such a stop is conducted by LEOs for open carriers.

LEO: “Sir, I need to see your permit.”

Person A: “Sure, but you’re being videoed and this video will end up in court, and I need to ask you two questions.  First of all, am I being detained, and if so, do you suspect me of a crime?  In other words, is this a so-called “Terry Stop?”  Second question.  Does S.C. have a “stop and identify statute?”

The LEO is in a very hard place.  If the LEO says that person A is suspected of a crime, the proper response is, “What crime?”  To which he can give no valid response.  If the LEO says that person A is not suspected of a crime, question #2 becomes salient, and I assure you, S.C. has no stop and identify statute.

In other words, it is not legal for a LEO to conduct this stop for openly carrying.  Finally, you should read the bill again.  The open carry bill approved into law by the governor does not expand S.C. to include any sort of stop and identify stipulation, either under this statute or any other.  You can read it again for yourself.

Here is a much better idea.  Train your 911 operators to respond to callers with this information: “Ma’am, open carry is now legal in S.C.  Are you calling to report any other criminal activities?  Is this person brandishing the weapon or threatening anyone?  If not, we need to hang up.”

If you don’t follow this counsel, the two questions I posed above will be heard in court very soon.

SLED doesn’t know how they’re going to enforce the new law because South Carolina has no stop and identify statute, and neither should it.

You cannot (and should not be able to) stop someone who is doing nothing illegal.  The law as signed stipulates that a permit is required to be able to legally openly carry in S.C.  But there is no provision in existing statutory framework or in the recently signed open carry bill that makes provision for stopping people who are openly carrying to demand identification and permit.

But despite my best efforts, I cannot seem to interest anyone in the coming problems.  It’s not a problem to me, especially since I believe the S.C. legislature should have passed constitutional carry.  No permit should be required.

But it will soon be a problem with law enforcement if they think they are going to stop every open carrier they see to demand identification.

And by the way, try to reach any South Carolina law enforcement via email, whether Sheriff’s Association, city law enforcement, county law enforcement, or SLED.  It cannot be done.  They do not make their email addresses known to the public.