Archive for the 'Police' Category

News from Florida:

A Davie police officer is facing extortion charges after he threatened to share nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend, who was also a police officer, if she didn’t resign, police said.

Davie police Officer James Krey is on administrative leave. He was arrested by Coral Springs police while on duty.

“We arrested him (Tuesday) night at the Davie Police Department,” Coral Springs police Sgt. Joe McHugh told Local 10 News. “He was called in off the road, at which time he was offered to give us a statement. He refused to give us a statement, so he was taken into custody and charged with two counts of extortion.”

Police said Krey, a 12-year veteran of the Davie Police Department, sent the rookie police officer threatening text messages, telling her that she had better quit her job and move out of town or he would make those nude pictures public.

“The defendant made a threat that he would hold back at nothing to get even,” Judge Karl Evans said. “He also made a statement, ‘You’re going to have to leave Broward County, sweetheart. Anywhere you go I have people.’ Those statements do concern the court.”

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I threatened to send naked pictures of someone around.  There was hell to pay.

San Antonio:

A San Antonio police officer accused of engaging in a standoff after pulling a gun on his wife in 2013 has been fired, according to the San Antonio Police Department.

Daniel Lopez, 45, was removed from SAPD’s ranks in February, the department confirmed Monday.

Lopez was initially charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of deadly conduct for his role in a July 4, 2013, incident in which he was accused of holding his wife at gunpoint at his home in the 100 block of Whitecliff Drive while two children were inside.

SWAT negotiators were called to the scene and streets in the area were blocked off for a short time. Lopez eventually gave himself up peacefully, then-SAPD Chief William McManus said at the time.

Lopez was placed on paid administrative leave for about 9 months after the incident. In April 2014, he was placed on unpaid temporary suspension, where he remained until being fired in February.

On Feb. 2, Lopez accepted a plea deal for a Class C misdemeanor instead of second-degree felony aggravated assault, which could have carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

He was ordered to pay a $200 fine and serve one day of deferred adjudication probation, according to prosecutor Jim Wheat, chief of the district attorney’s special crimes unit.

Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I went berserk and took a .45 1911, cocked it and put it to my wife’s head.  The SWAT team wasn’t so nice to me.  I think he may have had some friends with the PD, especially with only one day of deferred adjudication probation.

Fox News:

SALT LAKE CITY –  Two Utah peace officers have been suspended without pay over a risque video shoot featuring bikini-clad women firing high-powered weapons.

The Utah Department of Public Safety imposed the discipline in December on Rob Wilkinson, a Utah Highway Patrol sergeant, and Justin Hansen, a State Bureau of Investigation agent. The department released its discipline records last week after receiving a request to obtain them by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Wilkinson, who received a three-day suspension, and Hansen, who received a one-day suspension, were at the Big Shot Ranch near Grantsville in June when British bikini models posed for photos and were videotaped firing guns for a calendar called “Hot Shots.”

The two men were seen wearing camouflage uniforms identifying them as police in a promotional video posted on YouTube in October.

Neither Wilkinson nor Hansen sought their superiors’ permission to participate, and superiors learned of the activity only when they saw video clips played by the news media in Utah, according to the records.

The men were disciplined for conduct that brings discredit to an officer or agency, and for wearing their uniform during a promotion for a product — both rules violations, the records show.

I hate it when that happens to me.

“Peace officers” indeed.  Dressed all in tacticool gear.  I don’t think “peace” was the “piece” they were interested in.

Speaking of tacticool, recall when I saw Mr. tacticool at a church in Mauldin, S.C.?  Well, I was at the Firehouse sub shop on Mauldin Road on Saturday running errands, and saw his buddy all duded up in tactical gear, drop holster, body armor, and so on.  I asked my wife what she thought of when she saw him?  Did she see a “peace officer” or someone else?

She said, “I see someone trying to keep themselves safe.  I said, “exactly.”

News from the great Northeast:

A Rensselaer County transport officer’s pistol accidentally fired Tuesday morning inside city police headquarters when inmates were moving to and from City Court, the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office said.

“He was attempting to put his weapon in the holster when it discharged,” Sheriff Jack Mahar said.

The incident occurred at 11:25 a.m. Tuesday in an area near the police station sally port where transport officers store their weapons in lockers when they bring prisoners in to appear in Troy City Court on the second floor. The officers are not permitted to bring their weapons into the courtroom.

The bullet was fired into the floor, shattering pieces of the concrete floor, Mahar said.

An Albany County jail inmate said he was struck in the arm. Mahar said the inmate was treated at the scene by Troy firefighters and taken to Samaritan Hospital for additional examination.

The inmate, Daniel McCann, suffered an abrasion and was returned to Albany County jail where he was examined by the jail medical staff , Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said.

The transport officer, who was not identified, was relieved from transportation duty and assigned to work inside the Rensselaer County Jail until the investigation is completed.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  But I sure am glad that in the many times I’ve shot someone accidentally while holstering my firearm, I wasn’t sent to prison either.

News from Tennessee:

SMYRNA – An accidental police gunshot into lobby carpet at Town Hall startled officials attending a Town Council workshop Thursday night.

No one was injured after the weapon of Lt. Earl Barnes, the SWAT team commander, discharged after he tied his shoes in a chair in a lobby area. Doors were open next to the meeting room while his boss, Police Chief Kevin Arnold, was explaining upcoming training for his records office to elected officials.

“When it first happened, I thought it was one of these light bulbs (in the ceiling) that burst,” Arnold said during an interview Friday in the same meeting room.

After hearing the gunshot, the chief moved quickly from his seat in the meeting room that was closest to the door, reached for his holster and even thought it was possible an intruder had sneaked through the back door of Town Hall and shot Barnes.

“My main concern was not only him but ‘do we have a situation developing here,'” said the chief, who was relieved to see the lieutenant who usually provides security detail for Town Council meetings was unharmed. “Police officers are trained to go to the threat. It was very brief. He said, ‘I had an accidental discharge.'”

The kind of “accidental discharge” he had was preventable (well, I guess they all are).  Seriously though, they did have quite the “situation developing here.”  The chief pulled the trigger of his weapon in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But it gets even worse and weirder.

Lt. Barnes asked if he could go home after the incident, and the chief agreed.

“He was very embarrassed,” said Arnold, who estimated that Barnes has served with Smyrna Police for more than 25 years. “He’s an outstanding officer, but unfortunately, he made a mistake.”

The chief said Barnes will face discipline to be determined after Arnold discusses the gun discharge with Human Resources staff and Town Manager Harry Gill.

“It will usually be several days of suspension without pay,” Arnold said. “We are very lucky Lt. Barnes wasn’t injured. We’re very lucky that no citizens were injured, and no members of staff and no members of council were injured.”

Barnes made two mistakes, the chief said. One included Barnes failing to snap his holster to ensure the weapon would remain in place after he had used his pistol as part of a felony traffic stop to arrest a man accused of armed robbery of a gas station/convenience store at 33 N. Lowry.

“What we think happened is he didn’t snap it down enough in place,” Arnold said.

The other mistake came after Barnes sat down to tie his shoes and then reached for his gun when the pistol fell out of his holster.

Yea, I’ll bet he wanted to go home.  Listen to me very carefully so that you don’t act like the man in the article.  If your gun is falling and you have a round chambered, do not ever try to catch it.  Ever.  Ever.  I’ll leave it to the readers to explain why in the context of grip safeties, trigger brush guards, etc.

“We train our officers several times a year in using these weapons,” said Arnold, adding that his officers are expected to be armed and ready to shoot. “Unfortunately, we’re in the line of work where we have to carry weapons.”

Arnold said Barnes did what would be human nature to reach for something that was falling and forgetting the training to let the gun drop to the ground.

“Unfortunately, he made the mistake, and we are held accountable for our actions,” the chief said. “I have accidentally dropped mine at home. I cringed. It didn’t go off.”

A 25-year officer with Smyrna who has been chief for eight years, Arnold said his department has had four or five incidents involving officer guns firing by mistake. Only one of those in 1998 involved an injury to Officer Muhammad Ali (formerly known as Robert Ladell Haynes).

“He almost died,” Arnold said.

My God.  It looks like this department needs to be rid of their weapons before someone gets hurt even worse.  At least the (nearly lethal) negligent discharge didn’t happen to an artist formerly known as Prince.  Then I might think they were making this whole thing up.  It almost looks like that anyway.

Following up reports of secret detention sites by the Chicago Police Department, The Guardian wanted access to this site along with a local politician, and was met by this man.

This man circled around a reporter and photographer for the Guardian twice while waiting for a local politician. Photograph: Chandler West for the Guardian

You cowardly thug!  Law enforcement officers, or better yet, constables or peace officers, should be transparent, their actions, intentions and procedures in the open light of inspection by the community that pays their salaries.  Their actions should be subject to God’s universal laws thus ensuring protections against totalitarianism and abuse.

Wearing tactical gear and face masks while protecting a secret site hidden away from the men and women you serve runs directly contrary to the oath you swore and your sacred duty before God and man.  Take off that mask, you pussy, and announce your name and identity like I do as I write this very rebuke of you and your superiors.

The Guardian:

The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site.

The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. Interviews with local attorneys and one protester who spent the better part of a day shackled in Homan Square describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights.

Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include:

• Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases.
• Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.
• Shackling for prolonged periods.
• Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.
• Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15.

At least one man was found unresponsive in a Homan Square “interview room” and later pronounced dead.

Brian Jacob Church, a protester known as one of the “Nato Three”, was held and questioned at Homan Square in 2012 following a police raid. Officers restrained Church for the better part of a day, denying him access to an attorney, before sending him to a nearby police station to be booked and charged.

“Homan Square is definitely an unusual place,” Church told the Guardian on Friday. “It brings to mind the interrogation facilities they use in the Middle East. The CIA calls them black sites. It’s a domestic black site. When you go in, no one knows what’s happened to you.”

[ … ]

“It’s sort of an open secret among attorneys that regularly make police station visits, this place – if you can’t find a client in the system, odds are they’re there,” said Chicago lawyer Julia Bartmes.

Chicago civil-rights attorney Flint Taylor said Homan Square represented a routinization of a notorious practice in local police work that violates the fifth and sixth amendments of the constitution.

“This Homan Square revelation seems to me to be an institutionalization of the practice that dates back more than 40 years,” Taylor said, “of violating a suspect or witness’ rights to a lawyer and not to be physically or otherwise coerced into giving a statement.”

[ … ]

When a Guardian reporter arrived at the warehouse on Friday, a man at the gatehouse outside refused any entrance and would not answer questions. “This is a secure facility. You’re not even supposed to be standing here,” said the man, who refused to give his name.

One of the hallmark signs of evil, totalitarian societies is secrecy.  Note that the Chicago police didn’t deny the place existed.  On the contrary, they insisted that the place be kept secret from the balance of society so that they could continue with their illegal activities.  Light scatters the darkness, and they desire the darkness rather than the light.  They aren’t scared of being found out, they don’t fear the courts, prosecutors, the justice department, lawyers or anyone else.  They have become a law unto themselves.  They do what is right in their own eyes and dare anyone to try to stop them.

And note that it is a so-called “open secret” among attorneys that this place exists, this place where basic God-given rights are violated.  This isn’t a trivial thing, so don’t look past this to the horror of such a place on American soil just yet.  These attorneys are officers of the court.  They are bound to obey the law and ensure that others do as well, and are obligated to report illegalities.  They know the place and practices exist, and yet they do nothing about it.

The existence of this facility is an affront to God’s law, and thus constitutes cosmic treason against the most high.  Of the protection of God’s law for the individual and the family, R. J. Rushdoony says in his commentary on Deuteronomy 24:10-11:

This law sets down a premise which has had a major impact on Christendom. When, in colonial America, Judge James Otis decreed that “a man’s home is his castle,” he had reference to this law. Intrusion into a man’s house is a violation of his freedom. God’s law protects a man from the malice and interference of powerful men. To protect men’s houses and properties is to uphold God’s order, because God has established the legitimate boundaries of the family’s jurisdiction and freedom.

And this malice and interference of powerful men, this protection of men’s property that doesn’t occur any more in our society, has been illustrated for us in the recent case on which I commented concerning the immorality of asset forfeiture laws.  Even today we learned of more asset forfeiture of guns as a norm in society.

As for the role of presumably free men in all of this, our responsibilities are growing and loom very large.

Madison and Jefferson gave a critical template of how states and local governments should respond when outside threats are used as the pretext by the federal government to curtail the liberty of law-abiding citizens. Both men took up their pens to oppose the Alien and Sedition Acts which violated the First Amendment’s right to free speech and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. In response to these unconstitutional edicts, Jefferson and Madison separately drafted resolutions for the individual states to take up in their legislatures to oppose the abusive acts. Jefferson’s work became the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, and Madison’s the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.

In the Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson stated “that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”

Madison was equally direct. In the Virginia Resolutions, he declared that “the powers of the federal government” are “limited by the plain sense and intention” of the Constitution “and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”

In maintaining that the states were “duty bound, to interpose,” Madison was standing on a long legal tradition dating back to the Magna Charta when England’s nobles demanded that King John honor the rights of Englishmen or be deposed.

In this case, the offending authorities are the local ones, but anyone who believes that the federal government would step in to ensure rights against illegal search and seizure is foolish.

Every law enforcement officer who knows about this illegal and immoral site and doesn’t shed light on its existence and practices may as well be a perpetrator of said practices.  There are no guiltless parties, from the LEOs to the attorneys who keep this “open secret” to judges and city managers who allow it to happen.  They will all be held accountable.

The U.S. has become a banana republic.  It isn’t on the horizon somewhere, we don’t have actions we need to take to ensure that it doesn’t happen.  It has already happened.  It is past tense.  Since this is cosmic crime against God’s law, it would be cosmic justice if this facility burned to the ground, every one of the LEOs who participated in these activities held to account, and every attorney and judge who knew of this facility disbarred and sent to prison.

Detroit Free Press:

Thomas Williams was alone that November morning in 2013 when police raided his rural St. Joseph County home, wearing black masks, camouflage and holding guns at their sides. They broke down his front door with a battering ram.

“We think you’re dealing marijuana,” they told Williams, a 72-year-old, retired carpenter and cancer patient who is disabled and carries a medical marijuana card.

When he protested, they handcuffed him and left him on the living room floor as they ransacked his home, emptying drawers, rummaging through closets and surveying his grow room, where he was nourishing his 12 personal marijuana plants as allowed by law. Some had recently begun to die, so he had cloned them and had new seedlings, although they were not yet planted. That, police insisted, put him over the limit.

They did not charge Williams with a crime, though.

Instead, they took his Dodge Journey, $11,000 in cash from his home, his television, his cell phone, his shotgun and are attempting to take his Colon Township home. And they plan to keep the proceeds, auctioning off the property and putting the cash in police coffers.

More than a year later, he is still fighting to get his belongings back and to hang on to his house.

“I want to ask them, ‘Why? Why me?’ I gave them no reason to do this to me,” said Williams, who says he also suffers from glaucoma, a damaged disc in his back, and COPD, a lung disorder. “I’m out here minding my own business, and just wanted to be left alone.”

The seizure was allowed under Michigan’s Civil Asset Forfeiture laws, which allow police to take property from citizens if they suspect a crime was committed, even when there is not enough evidence to charge them. Homeowners like Williams have to prove they did not purchase their property with proceeds from criminal activity and then sue to get the property back.

Why you?  You happened to be available when the police needed to raise some revenue.  It’s that simple.  I’m so sorry for this poor man (and let me say here that I couldn’t care less that he had some hemp growing in his house, any more than I care if a man makes some untaxed corn liquor in his back yard), but these laws made by the legislature are evil.

I don’t care what this man did.  There isn’t any reason at all that the state should legally be able to confiscate possessions.  In the worst case (let’s say that a man goes to prison for murder), his possessions could be treated as if he passed away and his will invoked (his children would then inherit his possessions, or whomever was named in his will).  The advantage of this is that if he doesn’t have a will, he can be queried by the court to ascertain who he wants to inherit his belongings.

Readers may have better ideas.  Anything is better than the state taking possession of property, and I see no basis in English common law or the Holy Scriptures for such laws.

NBC10.com:

A Pennsylvania state police corporal was arrested Tuesday on reckless endangerment charges in a firearms training accident that claimed the life of a state trooper.

Cpl. Richard Schroeter, 43, was conducting a training session Sept. 30 and pulled the trigger on his firearm while discussing the weapon’s mechanism, prosecutors said. The gun discharged, killing 26-year-old Trooper David Kedra.

Ned Weatherby: