Archive for the 'Police' Category

CNN:

Nearly a week after police shot and killed a Kansas man while responding to a prank call, the victim’s mother pleaded with authorities to allow her to see her deceased son.

Lisa Finch wrote in a letter to the Wichita, Kansas, mayor and police chief that she doesn’t know where they’re keeping his body and that she wants to give her son “a proper funeral service and burial.”

She questioned “why Wichita City leadership is compounding our grief and sorrow, by keeping my son from us?”

“Please let me see my son’s lifeless body,” she wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “I want to hold him and say goodbye. Please immediately return his body to us.”

Her son, Andrew Finch was killed by police last week in his home in a case of swatting. Swatting refers to when a person makes a false report to draw a major police response or SWAT teams to a certain location.

The cops won’t even release the body to the family.  What a bunch of bastards.  In other news, remember I said this?

There are a number of misdirects in this report.  Let’s address two of the most prominent and important.  First of all, the blame will be placed on the illegal practice of Swatting, or calling the police and reporting an active shooting or hostage situation.  The perpetrator will likely be found and dealt with, and the blame will be placed squarely on him.

[ … ]

It doesn’t matter if he was armed, any more than it matters whether he was a gamer or if he was Swatted by another gamer.  While Swatting is illegal, the perpetrator didn’t do the shooting.  Being armed while answering the door isn’t illegal or immoral.  Gaming isn’t illegal or immoral.

True to form, the gaming community is self examining.

A joke gone bad ended in tragedy last week, and it brings into the spotlight one of the worst aspects of gaming culture.

Last week, someone made a fake emergency call (known as swatting) to police in Wichita, Kansas, and the police shot an innocent man. On Friday, police in Los Angeles arrested 25-year-old Tyler Raj Barriss, who reportedly goes by the name SWAuTistic, for allegedly calling in the false report. Social media posts on the incident have continued this week. Let’s hope that this leads to increased awareness of these prank calls among law enforcement and realization that toxic behavior like swatting can have deadly consequences.

While it’s deplorable that someone would do this, it wouldn’t be a problem if cops wore uniforms, didn’t assume that the call was legitimate, and simply knocked on the door to chat with the occupants since, after all, it is their property.

The practice of swatting is a problem only because of the hero soldier-boy complex that infects the police forces around the nation.  Take their guns away from them and they won’t be able to shoot anyone.

US News:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police in Las Vegas say a man suffered a minor injury after the rifle of an officer on the Las Vegas Strip discharged following the New Year’s Eve festivities.

Officer Laura Meltzer says the officer was moving barricades around 1:19 a.m. Monday near the Monte Carlo casino-hotel when he had a “negligent discharge.”

Meltzer says the man was hit in the calf and refused medical treatment. She says two other people indicated they had been struck by something, but they had no visible injuries.

Meltzer says the situation is under investigation. She did not know whether the officer had been placed on leave, but said that is not typical in negligent discharge incidents.

Hmm … so let me see about this.  He was moving things around, he had a round chambered, his rifle wasn’t on safe, and something snagged his trigger.  How’d I do?

I guess all that “special training” didn’t help him after all.  But at least if he can’t trust anybody else, he can trust his buddies in blue to have his six.  No leave.  Continued pay.  All is forgotten except for some locker room banter.

TheAlaskan:

“So there you are, in your easy chair, watching an episode of law and order, and an army of cops come up your road and demand you come to the door. Last week, I would’ve gone to the door and asked, “what’s up, can I help you,” and possibly gotten slain.

This week, and from now on, I’m getting everyone with me (kids), on the floor or into the basement. I’m getting armed and I’m calling 911 and demanding to talk to the chief or better yet the ranking officer on the ground outside my home. I’m also calling my neighbors (in my case…few) to have them head my way to start rolling cell video with full acknowledgement by police who are present to muddy things up a bit.

It’s has become plain to me that our homes need to be hardened with shooting positions and safe egress points and perhaps, secret hiding spaces. Strategies need to be developed and practiced with family and like minded neighbors.

We are now living in and facing a lethal police state.”

Via WRSA, this video on the Wichita Police Department home invasion and murder.

Remember what I said?

It doesn’t matter if he was armed, any more than it matters whether he was a gamer or if he was Swatted by another gamer.  While Swatting is illegal, the perpetrator didn’t do the shooting.  Being armed while answering the door isn’t illegal or immoral.  Gaming isn’t illegal or immoral.

While the media will present all of these misdirects as will the Sheriff when he finally presents his case to the public (the gamer did something illegal, my deputy thought he was armed, blah, blah, blah), the reality of the situation is that the shooter is a murderer, and the team that helped him is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

If he had answered the door armed with a rifle pointed in the direction of the perpetrators (the cops), that would have been entirely within his moral and legal rights.

But don’t expect any jury or judge in America to do anything but exonerate cops, ever, under any circumstances.  Because cops.  Heroes of the community, they are.  Brave souls who keep us safe, they are.

Or murderers.  You make your mind up about it.  I already have, long ago.  You want a police state?  Because this is how you get a police state.  But I’m certain that an internal affairs investigation will conclude that he followed department procedure.

Hey.  Do I get to shoot cops for making “furtive movements?”

The Wichita Eagle:

Blue and red lights flashed outside of the McCormick Street house just after 6 p.m. on Thursday. Curious of what was going on – Andrew Finch, 28, opened the door.

“I heard my son scream, I got up and then I heard a shot,” his mother, Lisa Finch, said Friday morning.

Finch and other relatives invited reporters into their home Friday morning – more than 12 hours after Wichita police said an officer fatally shot a 28-year-old man, who was identified by family as Andrew “Andy” Finch.

“We want Andy’s side of the story to be told,” his mother said.

On Thursday, Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said a substation received a call that there was a hostage situation in a house in the 1000 block of West McCormick — and that someone had been shot in the head.

“That was the information we were working off of,” he said, explaining that officers went to the house ready for a hostage situation and they “got into position.”

“A male came to the front door,” Livingston said Thursday night. “As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon.”

Livingston didn’t say if the man had a weapon when he came to the door, or what caused the officer to shoot the man.

Finch said her son, a father of two young children, wasn’t armed.

There are a number of misdirects in this report.  Let’s address two of the most prominent and important.  First of all, the blame will be placed on the illegal practice of Swatting, or calling the police and reporting an active shooting or hostage situation.  The perpetrator will likely be found and dealt with, and the blame will be placed squarely on him.

The second misdirect for the readers is the question whether the innocent man was armed.  We’ve dealt with this in detail before.  First of all, the Castle doctrine is based on Biblical precept and it’s moral standing is rock solid.  Home invasions, whether by criminals bent on evil, or police criminalds bent on soldier-boy impersonations, are all immoral in the superlative.

Furthermore, we’ve seen that even if the police announce their presence, there is no compelling reason to believe that it is the police.  Criminals have become savvy to the ways of the police SWAT teams and make a pretense of the same kind of entry procedure.  Men announcing that they are the police may be the police, or they may not be and may intend on rape or murder.

It doesn’t matter if he was armed, any more than it matters whether he was a gamer or if he was Swatted by another gamer.  While Swatting is illegal, the perpetrator didn’t do the shooting.  Being armed while answering the door isn’t illegal or immoral.  Gaming isn’t illegal or immoral.

While the media will present all of these misdirects as will the Sheriff when he finally presents his case to the public (the gamer did something illegal, my deputy thought he was armed, blah, blah, blah), the reality of the situation is that the shooter is a murderer, and the team that helped him is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

The police in America have become the most dangerous hoodlums, thugs and murderers.  As I’ve said before, I feel more comfortable around gangsters who might threaten me than I do around goober cops who have no discipline or moral compunction about shooting innocent people.

News from Texas:

SCHERTZ, Texas – Teachers and schoolmates at Weiderstein Elementary School are heartbroken after the loss of 6-year old Kameron Prescott.

First-grade teacher Shanda Ince was with Kameron on Thursday morning just hours before the shooting claimed his life.

“Yesterday, we had our class party, our holiday celebration. His parents were there. We enjoyed food with one another,” Ince said.

Kameron was fatally shot by Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputies’ gunfire during the pursuit of felon Amanda Jones. Investigators said Jones broke into the mobile home where the child and other relatives were.

Authorities said Jones verbally threatened deputies and was holding something in her hands they believe was a weapon as she attempted to escape from the home. Deputies opened fire and a bullet entered the home, killing the first grader.

“All I can think about right now is what could I have done differently, had it not been a half day. I know there’s nothing no one could have done differently,” Ince said.

Nothing anyone could have done differently.  Then there is this other news from Texas.

HOUSTON – A Oak Forest family is counting its blessings after a mother scared an intruder out of their house at gunpoint.

The mother’s quick thinking saved her and her child from danger.

The family does not want to be identified, but wanted to share the story in hope that awareness can help in similar situations.

The mother was at home with the family’s 3-month-old daughter Thursday night. Her husband was out of town working, but was coming home Friday to celebrate the first Christmas with their daughter.

After tossing and turning in bed for a while, the mother was not able to fall asleep and went to the living room around 11:30 p.m.

About an hour later, she heard the home alarm beep and her back door open.

Her instinct kicked in.

“I froze for a second and then I realized I needed to spring into action, I mean, I had my baby in the house. I was alone. My husband was away on business, so I had to take care of things,” she said.

She grabbed a gun and went towards the back door, where she found a man standing in her kitchen.

She yelled at the man while pointing the gun at him, and her dog ran towards him, scaring him out of the back door.

She locked the door and called 911.

Three Houston Police Department units were on scene within minutes.

Neighbors in the area reported seeing a suspicious person on their video camera surveillance systems Thursday night and Friday morning.

We blurred the man’s face because he has not been charged with a crime that our sister station in Houston, KPRC, is aware of.

The mother credits her husband’s training for the way she handled the situation.

“I am just glad that I had that training and that knowledge of what to do in that moment with the gun,” she said.

Hmm … within minutes.  The police are good for response within minutes.  Note that she didn’t ever discharge the firearm, which is good because the person was running away.  She didn’t have all of that super secret Ninja warrior stress management special ops special forces law enforcement simulator experience and training.  But she made the right decisions nonetheless.

And it happens every day in America.  Every day.  People without all of that super secret Ninjar warrior … [blah blah] … training do what they’re supposed to do and live to tell about it.  And cops panic like ignorant goobers every day in America and shoot up people and places, all the while telling America that they need to cower and wait on those cops with the super secret Ninja warrior stress management [blah blah] training.

I grow so weary of the claptrap.

The Kansas City Star:

A Leawood couple who were mistakenly targeted in a 2012 police drug raid have lost their lawsuit against Johnson County.

A federal court jury late Tuesday afternoon found that Adlynn and Robert Harte were not entitled to any monetary damages as a result of the raid by deputies with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

They maintained in the lawsuit that some deputies lied to a judge to obtain a warrant for the search of the Hartes’ home.

In a written statement released by their attorneys after the verdict, the Hartes said they and their children were grateful that they had the opportunity to tell their story to a jury, and that they intend to appeal.

“Although they are understandably disappointed in the outcome, they know that standing up for their rights as citizens was important — not only for themselves and their family, but also to preserve the vitality of the Fourth Amendment for all citizens,” their attorneys said in their statement. “They will never forget the day of the raid, and they believe their speaking out has helped to bring about positive change in Kansas’ open records law and in police practices.”

An attorney for the sheriff’s office also released a written statement.

“On behalf of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the deputies we thank the jury for their service,” said Lawrence Ferree. “The Hartes had their day in court. The system worked. Hopefully the Hartes and the deputies can put this behind them and move forward.”

The Hartes were targeted for the search after a trip to a hydroponics gardening store drew the attention of law enforcement officers.

Deputies then took trash bags from outside the couple’s home that contained brewed loose tea. Deputies said that field testing of the tea registered positive for marijuana.

The information was used to establish probable cause for a judge to issue a search warrant.

But it was never submitted to a laboratory for more conclusive testing before the raid.

Officers armed with assault rifles conducted the raid on the couple’s home while their children, a seventh-grader and a kindergartner, were present.

The raid was timed to coincide with a planned press conference about the effort to fight marijuana trafficking.

But after a 2 1/2-hour search by deputies and a trained dog, all they found were the tomato plants the family was growing with the hydroponic equipment.

They filed suit in in 2013, but a federal judge dismissed the case in 2015.

The Hartes appealed and last July, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the suit on the issue of whether deputies lied about the test results in order to get the search warrant.

The Hartes contended that the deputies lied, making the warrant invalid and the search of their home unconstitutional.

Take careful note of the law enforcement response.  I couldn’t care less about tea leaves or Cannabis.  This was a man’s home, his castle.  Someone invaded it.  That someone, i.e., law enforcement, takes the position that the family had their day in court, and the right outcome was reached.  They are left unfettered to invade homes as they please, tearing up things, endangering lives, and violating the constitution.

They hate you.  Realize that.  Law enforcement hates you.  You are the peasants, they are the king’s men.  Also realize that this award of nothing was given by a jury.  The American people apparently want a police state.  The “sheeple” have decided they want “security” more than liberty.

They will end up having neither.

US News:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal trial that begins Monday will focus on whether police lied about the results of tests on discarded tea leaves found in a Kansas couple’s trash to get a search warrant ahead of a SWAT-style raid on their home in search of marijuana.

Robert and Adlynn Harte are seeking $5 million for economic losses, emotional pain, distress and humiliation and an additional $2 million in punitive damages in response to the 2012 raid on their Leawood home.

I won’t try to read the tea leaves in this case (sorry for the very bad joke).  But I do have a solution for this kind of thing.  Since the law enforcement officers, attorneys and judge who signed the warrant all participated in the unconstitutional actions against this family, they should all have all of their toenails pulled off, one by one.

Take video and send so that I can embed.

Mr. LEO responds to our article on the Grand Rapids Police Department:

LOL. Constant “oh those horrible police!!!” You people are completely clueless. Wanna guess what I took out of the back of the pants of a six-year old? A cocked .32 cal revolver his mama had shoved in there to hide it when she heard me coming around the corner. A COCKED REVOLVER – IN YOUR CHILDS PANTS! You people live in a world of ignorance and stupidity. It is very very sad.

Thanks for your visit.  It’s always a bit amusing when a LEO (or former LEO) visits this site.  The working assumption is normally that we’re a progressive anti-cop site (because you read a single article), or that we’re a conservative site full of readers who believe in state authority and want the cops to protect them but are having a difficult time swallowing the hard, necessary things a cop must do to actually protect the poor “sheeple” under his charge, sheep dog that he is.

But we know, as do you, that you aren’t charged to protect anyone, legally or judicially.  All or most of the readers on this site have multiple firearms, carry them, and are able and willing to present and deploy them if the need arises.  We don’t want or need your protection.  If something happens, we’ll call you to write the report.  But we won’t talk to you about it, because we know that the (unbiblical) US Code says that any exonerating evidence you learn from your conversation with us must be excluded from court as hearsay, and that only incriminating evidence is admissible.

As for the little wheel gun you took off the boy, hmm … let me ponder that for a moment.

Okay, I’ve pondered it, and here is my response.  I don’t care.  Not one whit.  Not even a little bit.

Either that lady had a right to it (God gives everyone the right and duty of self defense), or she didn’t (e.g., she stole the firearm in which case she and her boy should have become the slaves of the offended party until the debt was paid threefold).  I don’t know the details of the case as do you.

But most readers here believe in Herschel’s Dictum, and if we had met this lady somewhere and she intended us harm with the weapon (or without), we should have been ready to present and defend ourselves.  As should you.  You should assume that everyone is armed all of the time.  That assumption doesn’t turn me into a pathological time bomb.  Nor should it you.

Thanks again.  Your visit was at least mildly amusing.  Oh, and if you violated the constitutional rights of the person you talked about with the revolver, then you should have your toenails pulled off.

WKYC.com:

The description of the suspect at the time was a 40-year-old woman.

Officers determined that the suspect had fled the scene, and their investigation led them to another house on the Westside of Grand Rapids. As they set up a perimeter, two women and the 11-year-old walked out of the house. Police said the two women looked to be about 40.

Officers pointed their guns at all three individuals as they determined if any of them were the suspect. The guns were lowered and the girl was patted down and handcuffed while police determined if the knife from the stabbing had been passed off to her.

According to police, the girl was handcuffed for two minutes then the cuffs were removed and she was detained in the back of a police cruiser for 10 minutes with the other women.

After this, GRPD officers reached the conclusion that the two women and the girl were not the suspect involved in the stabbing. All three were then released.

Sergeant Cathy Williams of the GRPD said, “At no time was anyone thrown nor was any force used other than the detention with handcuffs.”

After this incident, a complaint was filed on behalf of the 11-year-old with the GRPD who then opened an internal investigation.

The Grand Rapids PD make it sound so reasonable and peaceful, don’t they?  Having coffee and crumpets with the ladies, were they not?

No, they were not.  They were pointing deadly weapons at them.  So what the GRPD wants you to accept is that it’s okay for cops to go on a rambling, disorganized, discombobulated, knuckleheaded search for someone, they know not whom, point weapons at innocent ladies, touch and search a little girl, handcuff her, and detain her unlawfully.  Because cops.  And that’s all you need to know.

And this could have been your wife or daughter.  Is that okay with you?