Archive for the 'Police' Category

USA Today:

The owner of a dog shot and killed by police in 2012 will receive a $262,000 settlement from Commerce City in Colorado, according to a city spokeswoman.

On Nov. 24 2012, three Commerce City Police officers responded to reports of a “loose, vicious dog.” Police said Chloe, a 3-year-old dog, aggressively ran toward the officers. During the encounter, Officer Robert Price, shot and killed the dog.

The dog was first shocked with a stun gun and then shot multiple times. A neighbor took cellphone video of Chloe’s death, which was a key piece of evidence in the case.

The viral video showed Chloe cowering and trying to escape.

Price was found not guilty of animal cruelty charges in 2013.

The Animal Law Center says the $262,000 settlement is one of the largest of its kind.

Chloe’s owner, Gary Branson, was out of town when she was shot.

Okay, I have several comments after reading this, and after watching that horrible video in full.  First, dog owners should make arrangements for the dog at all times.  They are part of the family.  A loose dog when you’re out of town is unacceptable and irresponsible.

That said, the police are obviously guilty of animal cruelty and the one doing the shooting should have gone to prison just like Michael Vick.

The officer in the very first part of the video is an overblown, bloated fat ass, and doesn’t need to be on the police force anywhere.  The female officer is worthless, and doesn’t understand how to handle the dog.  As I’ve said before, “Voice commands are critical, and voice inflection, tonality and timbre (or tone color) make or break your communications with the animal.  Learn it.  Practice it.  Do it.  Take time with it, and if you live in a dense urban area where you cannot work with farm animals, travel on the weekends to a place where you can, or move permanently.  It’s that important.”

Within five minutes, I would have been petting Chloe and she would have been laying on her back with me scratching her belly.  The officers are hicks and goobers.  They know nothing.  They are worthless.

Just as bad as it pertains to future engagements, the final officer who shot Chloe – Robert Price – used his handgun with one hand, the other hand flailing wildly behind him.  No kidding.  Watch the video.  No, no, Robert.  Do it this way.

What the hell are they teaching these boys in Colorado?  Are they teaching them anything at all?  My God, I would hate to meet up with these morons, any one of them.  To me, they seem dangerous in their ignorance.  The dog was no danger.  The only danger was because of the idiot cops that day.  I hope all the cops in the Commerce City Police Department aren’t that stupid.

A final word about the settlement.  I hate it when the city suffers the financial harm for malicious acts of their cowardly police officers, but maybe with enough huge settlements of this sort, cities will begin to hire people who can think.

Robert Price should go to prison, and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun.  How do you feel about costing your city $262K, Robert?  Pretty bad?  You should.  How do you feel about killing Chloe, Robert?  Pretty bad?  You should.

The Des Moines Register:

A Des Moines police officer accidentally fired his gun inside an office at the Des Moines International Airport while he was practicing his “quick draw.”

Officer Brady Pratt, 23, was inside an office at the airport Wednesday around 4 p.m. when he drew his gun from his holster to practice “his quick draw skills,” according to a police report. Pratt, who joined the force in 2013, “unknowingly” had his finger on the trigger and fired a round from the gun, the report states.

Another officer, Taylor Olson, witnessed the incident.

The bullet hit a ceiling tile above one of the office doors. It traveled through the wall and out into a hallway, landing in the hallway’s ceiling tile.

No one was in the hallway at the time, and nobody was injured.

Pratt reported the accidental shot to his supervisor, who then notified a lieutenant.

“Discipline is always a possibility when (officers) are negligent. The level will be determined by the circumstances,” said Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the department. “There will be a very thorough review.”

Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I was doing that.  I was in a shopping mall, with thousands of people around.  I didn’t shoot anybody, and I hope they go as easy on the cop as they did on me.  The police came and we all laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

SandyDog, who comments:

Anybody with half a brain can out-think a dog, and rare indeed is the dog that’s so vicious that a treat and a few kind words won’t turn it into a friend. As most officers own dogs themselves, only a psychopath would want to shoot one and have it die in agony right in front of him.

Shooting the dog when it was already confined in a cage is the height of needless cruelty, and a clear sign of a twisted mind.

Raw Story:

Police Chief Andrew Spencer resigned this week after it was revealed that he shot and killed an innocent dog that was in a cage and meant no one any harm. To make matters even worse, he took the puppy to a firing range and killed it there because he did not want to deal with finding its home.

Spencer found the dog and managed to get it into a cage using a catcher pole. He then wrote in his report that he had planned to take the dog to a shelter where it would be “destroyed,” but then he got another call about a car accident so he decided to do it himself.

The report said that he had planned to go to “the cheapest vet to destroy the dog at the cost of the city.” However, the report continued “Due to the higher priority call and the imminent destruction of the dog, I decided it was best to destroy the dog and respond to the accident.”

After the fact, Spencer claimed that the dog was charging at people in the neighborhood. However, he said that he did not believe that the dog bit anyone, otherwise he would have had it taken to the vet and tested for rabies.

Also, at the time the dog was shot, it was in a cage and thus not a threat to anyone. If Spencer just had a little bit more patience and compassion, he would have found that the family of the lost puppy was looking all over the town for him. Owner Elizabeth Womack said that her puppy Chase was extremely peaceful and friendly animal.

Womack wrote on her Facebook page how she attempted to contact the police and was lied to on several occasions about the incident. Eventually, she was told by the police Chief that he shot and killed her dog, and that they would be free to identify him if they wanted to go dig him up.

WSBTV.com:

The Clayton County police officer who put an unloaded gun to a recruit’s head and pulled the trigger will be demoted.

Channel 2 Action News learned Office Michael Lowe turned in his sergeant’s badge.

“I think that was a very bad decision,” the department’s interim police chief told Channel 2’s Mark Winne in an exclusive interview.

Chief Mike Register said Lowe will get his department-issued gun back, but soon he will holster it not as a sergeant, but at the rank of officer.

“I can’t tolerate that. I can’t have an instructor that creates an unsafe environment,” Chief Mike Register said. “I personally apologized to each recruit that they were exposed to that.”

The incident in a police academy classroom also led to a loss of Lowe’s instructor status at the department and major rule changes.

In a transcript the sergeant involved says, “At the time I felt that I was doing it for the right reasons, however my execution was very poor.” He added, “I knew that three days later, when I was sitting home. I was going, ‘That was dumb. I should not have done that.’'”

Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I put a gun to someone’s head and pulled the trigger.  It was with one of my own kids.  The family didn’t like it much.  But at least the chief is better off with what happened than “the fam” was with me.  He said he cannot tolerate that, but apparently he can, just not with the guy being paid as much as he was.

Click2Houston.com:

ROSENBERG, Texas –Alonza Gonzalez was turning right near 59 and FM 762 several months ago but just recently received the dash camera video after he filed public records requests.

“Just because I have a handgun on me and a license to carry should not be a big deal, but that is what made it the turning point,” Gonzalez said.

In the video, you can hear Rosenberg Police Officer Schnacky say, “You got your drivers license with you and insurance?” Gonzalez said, “Yeah, what’s the reason you stopped me?”

The officer then said, “I’ll tell you in just a minute.”

Schnacky continued, “You have your handgun with you today? Where is it?” Gonzalez replied, “On me, on my right side.”

At that point, the officer called for backup, seemingly because the driver had a concealed handgun.

When the backup officer arrived, he was told Gonzalez was not being cooperative and then he pulled his gun out of the holster and walked up to the truck window.

Schnacky can be heard saying, “Mr. Gonzalez, get your hands up on the wheel, both of them. Appreciate it. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to step out of the truck for me; when you do so I want you to keep your hands on the back of your head, OK?”

Seconds later, Gonzalez was arrested: “You’re under arrest for your traffic violations.”

Video is at the link.  According to Fox News, “an internal investigation concluded the officer who pulled Gonzalez over followed all proper procedures.  It also reported that the officer had resigned and was no longer on the force.”

I think the police are lying.  I don’t think this followed procedure at all.  I don’t think it’s procedural to unholster weapons for people obeying the law.  If so, the police can produce said procedure and prove me wrong.  If I’m wrong, why is the officer no longer with the department?  And if I’m wrong and the police are being honest, why do they have a procedure that orders (or allows) them to unholster weapons against peaceable citizens when there is no threat?

silive.com:

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – An NYPD officer accidentally fired an AR-15 rifle inside the 121^st Precinct stationhouse after a weapons bust last week, the Advance has learned.

The officer was vouchering the weapon into evidence Tuesday night, a law enforcement source said, when it discharged, firing a shot into the ceiling of the Graniteville stationhouse.

The blast sent a spray of concrete into the officer’s face, resulting in a trip to the hospital for evaluation, the source said.

Any NYPD spokesman confirmed the incident took place but declined comment further, citing an Internal Affairs Bureau investigation.

The weapon came from a stash confiscated from the New Springville home of Anthony Romano, 34, the source said.

Or in other words, with a round chambered, he chose to pull the trigger with the rifle pointed in an unsafe direction.  Gosh I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I accidentally shot up a police precinct.  We all laughed and laughed and laughed.  I’m glad they were all cool and didn’t cause me a hassle about it.

WTKR.com:

Camden County, NC – A Virginia Beach Police lieutenant was accidentally shot by a VBPD captain on Wednesday evening during firearms training, according to the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.

The officers were conducting firearms training at Academi, located at 850 Pudding Ridge Road in Camden County.

At the conclusion of the training, Captain Michael Ronan was cleaning his weapon and it discharged, striking Lieutenant Johnny Gandy in the arm.

The victim was taken to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. He was treated and released and is recovering at home.

No criminal charges are expected. However, the Virginia Beach Police Department will complete an internal investigation and review training and safety protocols.

Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I shot somebody while cleaning my gun around other people, gun loaded and everything.  It sucked because they did a “safety protocol investigation” and all that crap.  No charges though.  I’m glad the dude I shot understood that shit happens.

News from Pennsylvania:

A small-town police officer on trial for fatally shooting an unarmed motorist in the back testified Wednesday in her murder trial that she believed the man had a gun and she feared for her safety as he lay on the ground.

Hummelstown Officer Lisa Mearkle told jurors she believed David Kassick was still a threat even after she shocked him repeatedly with a stun gun.

“I wish he was here right now. I wish he didn’t do this,” Mearkle said, sobbing. “I didn’t want to have to shoot him, but he made me.”

The encounter was captured on video by a camera attached to Mearkle’s stun gun. The footage, which was played to jurors, showed the 37-year-old officer shocking Kassick before shooting him twice in the back as he lay face down in the snow in February.

In the video, Kassick’s hands repeatedly disappeared underneath his body as Mearkle screamed at him to keep them where she could see them and then fired the fatal shots. The trial judge has ordered that the video not be released to the public until there is a verdict.

The encounter began when Mearkle attempted to pull over Kassick after noticing an expired inspection sticker on his sedan. She pursued him to Kassick’s sister’s home, where he had been living, and he ran to the backyard.

Mearkle caught up to him in the yard. She said she was convinced he had a gun in his jacket and was reaching for it.

“There was no other reason for him to reach in his freaking jacket,” Mearkle said. “What else was I supposed to think he’s reaching for?”

She described an intense scene in which dispatchers were talking to her by radio and Kassick’s brother was yelling at her to stop shocking the 59-year-old with the stun gun.

The two gunshots were a few seconds apart. Mearkle administered CPR as others arrived.

In tears, Mearkle said: “This is horrible for me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

It’s not clear why Kassick fled, but investigators recovered a syringe by his body and prosecutors have said alcohol and unspecified drugs were in his system.

Mearkle has been on unpaid suspension since her arrest and is currently out on bail. In addition to third-degree murder, she is charged with voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

She testified she hopes to return to police work.

“I’m a good police officer,” she told jurors. “This should not have happened to me.”

Does anyone who isn’t a law enforcement officer believe that this defense – “There was no other reason for him to reach in his freaking jacket” … “What else was I supposed to think he’s reaching for?” – would or should be successful for himself if he shot a man in the back?  And what goes for you goes for the police, so says the Supreme Court ruling in Tennessee Versus Garner.

Leaving aside my disagreement with the so-called war on drugs, let’s discuss for a moment acceptable outcomes of this exchange.  If would have been acceptable for her to have shot him if he had turned and assaulted her or threatened too, weapon or not.  It might have been acceptable for her to have shot him had he stopped, turned, and quickly reached into his pants or coat and pulled out a pencil or pen (I’d have to see the video).  It would have been acceptable for her to have hosed him down with OC spray.

It certainly would have been acceptable for her to have let him escape, thus avoiding taking his life.  After all, she knew at that point she had access to a relative, and police investigators just love to do their jobs and find people wanted by the police.  He would eventually have been apprehended.  In fact, not only would this outcome have been acceptable, it would have been the most peaceful and wisest course of action.

But it is not acceptable for a cop to shoot a man in the back who is running away.  And thus do we have yet another sad, disgusting installment of losing the mandate of heaven.  And cops wonder why people mistrust them?

NJ.com:

A veteran city police officer was reassigned from his regular duties following an off-duty incident in Woodbridge that ended with his arrest on assault and weapons-related charges, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Newark Police Department Detective Andre Evans, 41, was arrested and charged on Oct. 25 by Woodbridge police after he allegedly pointed his service weapon at a civilian during an early-morning verbal confrontation, confirmed township police spokesman Capt. Roy Hoppock.

Newark police authorities were alerted to Evans’ arrest following the incident, and he has since been reassigned from his duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation of the incident, said department spokesman Sgt. Ronald Glover.

A fourteen-year police veteran, Evans rose through the ranks to eventually join the department’s Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Division, according to his Linkedin profile.

Reached by phone Thursday, Evans declined to comment on the allegations and referred questions to his attorney James Nolan. Attempts to reach Nolan for comment were unsuccessful.

According to authorities, the incident began at approximately 1 a.m. outside a township steakhouse in the 100 block of Oakwood Avenue.

Evans and a 54-year-old North Carolina man were arguing inside the restaurant parking lot when Evans allegedly pointed a firearm at the man’s face, Hoppock said. The weapon appeared to be Evans’s service weapon, Hoppock confirmed.

Witness statements provided to police indicate that an employee of the restaurant was able to secure the gun until police arrived at the scene, Hoppock said. Neither Evans or the man, whose name was not released, sustained injuries during the incident, he added.

Following the incident, Evans was placed under arrest and later charged with one count each of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, Hoppock said.

A veteran city police officer was reassigned from his regular duties following an off-duty incident in Woodbridge that ended with his arrest on assault and weapons-related charges, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Newark Police Department Detective Andre Evans, 41, was arrested and charged on Oct. 25 by Woodbridge police after he allegedly pointed his service weapon at a civilian during an early-morning verbal confrontation, confirmed township police spokesman Capt. Roy Hoppock.

Newark police authorities were alerted to Evans’ arrest following the incident, and he has since been reassigned from his duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation of the incident, said department spokesman Sgt. Ronald Glover.

A fourteen-year police veteran, Evans rose through the ranks to eventually join the department’s Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Division, according to his Linkedin profile.

Reached by phone Thursday, Evans declined to comment on the allegations and referred questions to his attorney James Nolan. Attempts to reach Nolan for comment were unsuccessful.

According to authorities, the incident began at approximately 1 a.m. outside a township steakhouse in the 100 block of Oakwood Avenue.

Evans and a 54-year-old North Carolina man were arguing inside the restaurant parking lot when Evans allegedly pointed a firearm at the man’s face, Hoppock said. The weapon appeared to be Evans’s service weapon, Hoppock confirmed.

Witness statements provided to police indicate that an employee of the restaurant was able to secure the gun until police arrived at the scene, Hoppock said. Neither Evans or the man, whose name was not released, sustained injuries during the incident, he added.

Following the incident, Evans was placed under arrest and later charged with one count each of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, Hoppock said.

One commenter says:

If a person is 6’8″ ,  athletic and points his fist at a short fat guy ,  is that also assault  in NJ?  In most states  assault begins when the fist is thrown or the gun is fired.

No, no, no, no, and a thousand times no!  Assault isn’t limited to the act of hitting, shooting, kicking or otherwise harming.  That’s battery.  Assault can and does include within its purview creating the perception that any of those things will occur.

… an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.  An assault is carried out by a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm.

This has broad implications for carriers, but if I was a betting man, I’d favor odds that the LEO will return to the beat with his rank and firearm.