Archive for the 'Police' Category

News from Texas:

A lead investigator lied in an affidavit justifying a drug raid on a Houston home in which two residents were killed and four undercover officers were shot and wounded during a gun battle, the city’s police chief said Friday.

In the search warrant that was used to justify entering the home, officers with the Houston Police Department’s narcotics unit had alleged that a confidential informant had bought heroin at the house the day before the Jan. 28 raid. The informant had also allegedly seen a handgun in the home.

But according to an affidavit filed as part of the ongoing investigation into the raid and made public Friday, the informant told investigators he or she had not bought any drugs at the home and had not been involved in any work leading up to the raid.

The heroin allegedly bought at the home had been obtained elsewhere, according to the affidavit.

The informant had allegedly been working with the lead investigator in the case, who was identified in the affidavit as Officer Gerald Goines. He prepared the search warrant and has been with the police department for more than 30 years, according to investigators.

Goines was one of the four officers who were shot in the gunfight that killed 59-year-old Dennis Tuttle and 58-year-old Rhogena Nicholas, who both lived in the home. A fifth officer injured his knee during the shooting.

Investigators also spoke with several other informants who had previously worked with Goines and all said they had not bought drugs at the home, according to the affidavit.

Well, don’t you feel stupid now, Art?  After we all told you the whole sordid affair was your own damn fault and that you were responsible for the deaths incurred?  Don’t you feel stupid that you turned this into a chance to be a political shill for gun control again?

And as for Goines, don’t you feel sorry and ashamed that your actions led to the death of others?

No, you don’t feel stupid, Art.  Because that’s just the kind of person you are.  And no, you don’t feel ashamed, Goines, because you have no scruples.

The Houston PD and Art Acevedo deserve each other.  What a sorry lot.

News from Florida:

A false threat made to Jefferson Davis Middle School prompted Jacksonville police to swarm the campus Thursday afternoon, according to a Duval County Public Schools spokeswoman. During the police response, an officer’s gun accidentally discharged outside the school, authorities said.

About 3:50 p.m., according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, 911 dispatch received two calls reporting there had been a shooting at the school. Officers arrived in full force to investigate and then determined the information was false. The incident report shows the calls came from within the school.

Just after 4 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said, a police officer had an unintentional discharge from his agency-issued weapon and the bullet struck the sidewalk, causing minor surface damage. The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an administrative investigation into the unintentional discharge.

Gosh I just hate it when that happens to me.  Hmm … I recall the last time I did that.  Somebody conducted an internal affairs investigation and made me go home with pay for a week, counseled me when I came back, and then we all laughed and laughed about it.

No harm, no foul.

Reason:

This week a North Carolina mom told the Raleigh City Council that police “terrorized” her parents and her 6-year-old special-needs son.

A Selective Enforcement Unit (SEU) team—Raleigh’s version of SWAT—had a warrant to search Michael and Wanda Clark’s home last November. Michael’s nephew, Brian Clark, was a suspect in a recent armed robbery. Police found a box Brian had left at the scene of the crime with his uncle’s name and address on it, Indy Week reports. So they paid a visit to the Clark home, where Michael and Wanda’s daughter LaDonna had dropped off her son, who has autism and cerebral palsy, before going to work.

Brian Clark did not live at his uncle’s house and was not there at the time. Nonetheless, police forced Michael, Wanda, and their grandson to walk out of the house and sit on the ground. “On a 35-degree and rainy night, my son with autism was forced out of the home with military-style rifles aimed at him and made to sit on the cold, wet ground for over an hour by RPD SWAT,” LaDonna told the city council Tuesday.

“You can sit down there, or I will handcuff you,” an officer told her father, according to a complaint Michael Clark later filed with the department.

“Having guns pointed at a six-year-old was extremely frightening and completely unnecessary,” Wanda Clark wrote in a complaint of her own. “Even now, I still have nightmares about those guns being pointed at me and my grandson.”

“Not only was I not allowed to see the footage of my son being terrorized,” LaDonna told the city council, but the police wouldn’t give her an internal affairs complaint number unless she specifically stated which department policies had been broken and agreed to an in-person interview. At this point, the police already had three written complaints describing the incident.

That’s because you’re not special and they are because they are cops.

Why didn’t they just walk up the sidewalk and knock on the door?

I think the entire unit, including cops who didn’t participate in the raid, should be forced to strip naked and parade through the streets of Raleigh from one side of the town to the other, with the entire city watching, wearing signs that say, “I am a toad.”

Right before they are all fired and hauled into court for breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon, and carrying firearms to the terror of the public.

News from Colorado:

A Denver police officer will be suspended for 10 days without pay for almost shooting a man in the head by accident.

The Denver Post reports Asher Rose will begin his suspension later this month for the Dec. 15, 2017 incident.

The officer joined the department in January 2017 and did not have any previous disciplinary issues.

Investigators say Rose and another officer were responding to a report of a drunk man trying to stop traffic in south Denver. The man ran away and hid under a truck.

According to Rose’s disciplinary letter, the officer accidentally fired his gun as he was turning on his weapon-mounted light.

For the 3648th time, do … not … do … that.  It’s dumb and it violates the rules of gun safety.  If you need illumination, find another way to get it, like carrying a tactical light.

Prior: Gun-Mounted Flashlights Linked To Accidental Shootings

Via Gryphon, Zero Hedge:

We are sick and tired of having dirtbags try to take our lives when all we are trying to do is protect this community and protect our families…

Well just know, we all got your number now.

We are going to be keeping track of all of ya’ll, and we’re going to make sure we hold you accountable. Every time you stir the pot on our police officers. We’ve had enough, folks.

We’re out there doing our jobs every day, putting our lives on the line for our families. Enough is enough. Now please, keep these officers in your prayers.

No narcotics were found.  There were no criminals there.  The raid was based on a prank or mistaken tip, or an intentional lie.

We’ve rehearsed this before, but let’s do it again for good measure.  A man’s home is his castle.  This is called Castle Doctrine, and it is well known, coming from English common law, which is at its root based on the Holy Scriptures.

A man has a right to defend against home invasion.  No one can know if a home invasion is being conducted by cops or someone pretending to be cops (see also this).  It is irresponsible and most likely deadly to lay down, disarm and obey orders when someone comes banging on your door in preparation for a home invasion.  Someone doing that can’t be trusted, regardless of who it is.

This man was defending his home, nothing more, nothing less.  The Houston police know that, they just don’t like guns in the hands of anyone other than cops.

Furthermore, there are other ways to conduct police investigations.  I do not support or believe in the so-called “war on drugs,” or a war on anything in America.  I think I’m in good company.  The founders opposed a standing army or requirements to quarter troops.  But in spite of this opposition, the notion that without SWAT raids the police will lose evidence is a lie and a red herring.

They can stake out homes, enter them when no one is there, arrest perpetrators in driveways in the daylight, deploy investigations instead of would-be soldier-boys who have never served overseas.  By the way, my son despises the concept of men dressing in tactical garb and busting in doors who lack the courage and have never flown across the pond to do it for real.  Do it in Fallujah like my son did and then maybe I’ll have some respect for you.

In this particular case, the cops weren’t protecting anyone from anything, nothing was accomplished except murder, and the cops have given more reason for people not to trust them for anything under the sun.  It was an abject failure from start to finish.  But then, I’ve outlined hundreds of such failures before, so this is nothing new.

But the Houston Police Officer’s Union response above was given by President Joe Gimaldi, and in his response we learn the most useful information in the whole failure.  “Well just know, we all got your number now.  We are going to be keeping track of all of ya’ll, and we’re going to make sure we hold you accountable. Every time you stir the pot on our police officers.”

Other than being stolid and stilted prose suitable for only an elementary school student, these are threats.  The attitude is thuggish and gang-like.  It’s full of hate and vengeance and threats of retaliation, just like the Crips, Bloods or MS13.  “Stirring the pot” can’t be interpreted any other way than speaking one’s mind.  So in other words, we can conclude that Mr. Gilmaldi only supports the first amendment with the stipulation that cops aren’t criticized.

So much for his oath.  He and Art Acevedo deserve each other.

WOWKTV.com:

MARTIN COUNTY, KY (WOWK) – A Kentucky Sheriff has had enough after he says budget cuts have ravaged his department, telling citizens “Folks, lock your doors, load your guns and get you a barking, biting dog. If the Sheriff’s Office can’t protect you, who will?”

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk wrote on Facebook addressing citizens of the county on Sunday.

According to the Sheriff, with the recent cuts to the department, he will have to move his only other deputy to dayshift, leaving no protection on nights.

The sheriff said quote “I’m sure the thieves and drug dealers will have a ball.”

He is inviting citizens to attend a court meeting on Monday around 1 p.m.

He’s just trying to scare people.  There are plenty of rural counties that don’t have coverage in remote parts of the county at all hours, day and night.  Nor should they have to – it isn’t their job to protect you, nor can they accomplish such a thing.  They know that, the Sheriff just wants to increase the size of his department.

But his advice is good regardless of why he gave it: “Folks, lock your doors, load your guns and get you a barking, biting dog.”

You should have done that a long time ago.

Greenville News:

When a man barged into Isiah Kinloch’s apartment and broke a bottle over his head, the North Charleston resident called 911. After cops arrived on that day in 2015, they searched the injured man’s home and found an ounce of marijuana.

So they took $1,800 in cash from his apartment and kept it.

______

When Eamon Cools-Lartigue was driving on Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County, deputies stopped him for speeding. The Atlanta businessman wasn’t criminally charged in the April 2016 incident. Deputies discovered $29,000 in his car, though, and decided to take it.

______

When Brandy Cooke dropped her friend off at a Myrtle Beach sports bar as a favor, drug enforcement agents swarmed her in the parking lot and found $4,670 in the car.

Her friend was wanted in a drug distribution case, but Cooke wasn’t involved. She had no drugs and was never charged in the 2014 bust. Agents seized her money anyway.

She worked as a waitress and carried cash because she didn’t have a checking account. She spent more than a year trying to get her money back.

[ … ]

Police are systematically seizing cash and property — many times from people who aren’t guilty of a crime — netting millions of dollars each year. South Carolina law enforcement profits from this policing tactic: the bulk of the money ends up in its possession …

Officers gather in places like Spartanburg County for contests with trophies to see who can make the largest or most seizures during highway blitzes. They earn hats, mementos and free dinners, and agencies that participate take home a cut of the forfeiture proceeds.

That money adds up. Over three years, law enforcement agencies seized more than $17 million, our investigation shows.

Did you know that?  They have parties where they get to brag about how much they took from citizens.  How does that strike you?

Civil asset forfeiture.  Or in common parlance by ordinary folk, theft.  Immoral, unbiblical theft.  The Scriptures nowhere gives the state the right to confiscate wealth like that, and I defy anyone to prove that it does.  But don’t look to the pastors of churches to point to LEOs who do this and call them out on it as thieves during services.  The pastors are morally bankrupt.

Houston Chronicle:

The day after four Houston police officers were shot while serving a search warrant in southeast Houston, Chief Art Acevedo once again called on lawmakers to find ways to reduce gun violence.

“I would express my personal frustration at lawmakers that know we have a public health epidemic in this country we call gun violence,” Acevedo said at a news conference Tuesday morning related to the shooting. “It doesn’t just impact law enforcement. It crushes communities, tears apart families, cuts lives short, every single day.”

Veteran narcotics officers broke down the door of a suspected drug den, armed with a warrant and hoping to arrest heroin dealers operating out of the Pecan Park home. They were met by a hail of gunfire, instead, as one of the suspects inside unleashed a barrage of bullets that wounded four officers, two critically.

Free Thought Project has the scoop.  So let’s stipulate for a moment that there was nefarious activity going on in the home (the evidence doesn’t seem to point that way, it’s more likely a bad tip).  Why wouldn’t any sensible person assume that a home invasion was being conducted for the purposes of handing them flowers and wine?  Why wouldn’t any sensible person shoot the invaders?

Isn’t that something?  Art Acevedo conducts a wrong-home raid, get’s his people shot, and then goes in front of the cameras to pimp gun control.

What a putz.

Law & Crime (and also this from WiscoDave):

Florida man Matthew Crull is free from jail, and he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. He spent 41 days in a Martin County jail, but was released. Crull and 10 other people have been let go from jail because now-former Martin County Deputy Steven O’Leary was accused of falsely testing material as narcotics, leading to their arrests.

Crull told WPTV that he has been in jail before, but for nothing like this.

[ … ]

“I had 92 grams of laundry detergent in my door and that’s what I was falsely charged for trafficking of heroin,” he told CBS 12. He had to miss Christmas with his girlfriend and parents because of his time behind bars.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder announced in a press conference January 15 that he fired O’Leary. He said that prosecutors first approached deputies about problems with three of the official’s arrests. O’Learly had made 80 drug arrests in his 11 months on probation as a Martin County deputy. The sheriff said that they were reviewing the cases. He told reporters that O’Leary was interviewed, made no incriminating statements, and lawyered up.

Is that what cops do when they fear their own kind – lawyer up?

So where does this poor man go to get those 41 days of his life back?

Yahoo:

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to jump back into the national debate over gun rights after nearly a decade on the sidelines.

The justices agreed to consider a petition backed by gun owners’ groups asking them to strike down New York City’s strict rules for carrying legally owned guns outside the home.

[ … ]

City officials argued that more liberal transporting policies in effect until 2001 were abused. While the policies were intended to allow gun owners to take unloaded guns only to target ranges outside the city, some guns were found loaded, or far from ranges, or on airplanes.

“Unlike golf clubs and musical instruments, firearms present public safety risks that the city has a legitimate interest in protecting against,” their brief to the court said. “Limiting their possession and use in public minimizes the risk of gun violence.”

Slate:

There are good answers to these questions. Right-to-carry laws, like those in Texas, appear to contribute to violent crime and increase homicide rates. Individuals carrying a weapon are more likely to escalate incidents of road rage and domestic conflicts into fatal shootings. Cities and states have a strong interest in curbing individuals’ ability to bring deadly weapons into the streets.

The bolded sections indicate the naïve belief in myths and fairy tales.  The myth is that prohibition effects law-abiding citizens in people who would otherwise be criminals.  The entirety of history runs counter to this myth, but myths and fairy tales die hard.

But the perpetrators (cops) don’t believe the myths.  They just don’t want to give up their “only one” rights.  The real believers are folks like the author at Slate, who must be mistaking the law abiding – who rarely will use firearms due to the knowledge that most prosecutors put another notch in the belt for every law abiding gun owner they can prosecute – for the real danger, i.e, cops.

Cops, who shoot Chihuahuas, invade the wrong home, pull guns on people for no good reason, kill each other in the line of duty, shoot the wrong person, routinely lose their guns, discharge firearms at moving vehicles in a busy intersection, engage in more wrong home raids, aim poorly, shoot unwisely and kill the wrong person, shoot people who are not the intended targets, fight with lawful gun carriers, cause negligent discharges, engage in more wrong home raids, engage in rolling gun battles where they discharge 600 rounds in crowded streets, shoot innocent people, burn toddlers in SWAT raids, lose their guns in dance floor moves, shoot innocent children, engage in more wrong home SWAT raids, have more negligent discharges, shoot heroes who stop shootings, shoot more heroes who stop shootings, shoot kidnapping victims, engage in more wrong home SWAT raids, use their guns like hammers, shoot more innocent people, shoot an innocent man during a SWAT raid, lose machine guns, shoot themselves, pull guns on the wrong people, engage in more negligent discharges, shoot photographers, shoot each other, violate the rules of gun safety, shoot innocent victims, unholster guns in road rage incidents, shoot dogs, kill more innocent people, shoot each other, point guns at each other, shoot more innocent people, engage in more rolling gun battles, have more negligent discharges, throw grenades at babies, shoot people with dementia, shoot their own children, shoot into day care facilities, shoot each other, engage in more wrong home raids, pull guns on seven year olds, shoot more dogs, engage in more wrong home SWAT raids, point guns at each other, violate the rules of gun safety and shoot each other, shoot more dogs, engage in more negligent discharges, shoot more dogs, point guns at each other, engage on more negligent discharges, shoot each other, engage in more negligent discharges, engage in more negligent discharges, kill more dogs, engage in more negligent discharges, engage in more negligent discharges, shoot each other, engage in more negligent discharges, kill more dogs, kill more dogs, engage in more wrong home SWAT raids, kill more dogs, point guns at politicians, fire guns in court, kill more dogs, engage in moe wrong home SWAT raids, engage in more negligent discharges, lose more machine guns, engage in more wrong home raids, engage in more wrong home raids, lose more machine guns, kill disabled war veterans in their own home, shoot each other, shoot more dogs, and I could go on for hours more.

So I don’t want to hear another damn word about gun safety.  Can you grok that?

And by the way just to reiterate what I’ve said so many times before, my rights come from the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, not the constitution.  The constitution is a covenant between men, nothing more.