One Reason People Don’t Trust Law Enforcement
BY Herschel Smith
Oh, I can think of a lot more reasons than one. Frankly, I wonder if LEOs know this sort of thing is reason for disdain, scorn and contempt?
Oh, I can think of a lot more reasons than one. Frankly, I wonder if LEOs know this sort of thing is reason for disdain, scorn and contempt?
Highest ranking troopers of West Virginia State Police implicated in a wide range of unethical and illegal activities. Included are allegations against Internal Affairs. One can only imagine that systemic illegalities and corruption must be everywhere throughout all levels of the department.
Screenshots of a whistle-blower letter are here.
In the past couple of days, WCHS has been reporting about an anonymous whistleblower letter from someone within the West Virginia State Police, revealing numerous specific allegations of misconduct, mostly by senior staff at the agency. I [ The Civil Rights Lawyer ] just obtained a copy of that letter and it’s unbelievable.
Warning! This video, although using proper terminology, mentions explicit sex acts.
There’s no reason to doubt that illegal activities of these types and others are happening in many different police departments across America.
H/T Bill Buppert
New surveillance video obtained by Local 10 News shows Hollywood police officers dragging a 69-year-old condominium owner into an elevator after shooting him last year.
David Cottes later died from his wounds and exactly what happened remains a mystery to family members.
On Feb. 26, 2022, Cottes asked neighbors to call Hollywood police, because he thought someone was breaking into his condominium at around 8 a.m.
Cottes was a longtime resident of 3505 South Ocean Drive.
“He said someone was in his apartment, in his condo, he comes out with his gun licensed to carry and everything,” Christina Cottes, David’s daughter, said.
After police arrived to the 14th floor, they shot Cottes, the condo’s board president, in the chest.
[ … ]
Cottes said her family needs answers.
“Why they would they treat him in such a way or drag him into an elevator, they already have him handcuffed behind his back,” she said. “He’s wounded.”
Cottes’ family says it took more than 30 minutes to get him help and they want to know why.
“He’s asking for police to help,” Christina Cottes said. “When police come to help, my dad is dead.”
They said they weren’t allowed to visit David in the hospital before he died weeks later, so he took what happened to the grave.
“It’s been a year waiting for forensic and ballistics (evidence) because they want to see who shot first,” private investigator Victor Elbeze said.
There’s video at the link. He obviously has a sucking chest wound in the video. Quick medical help might have saved him, but it’s a safe bet the cops didn’t want him to be saved.
There’s more. He lived for three weeks after this shooting. The police prevented his family from seeing him. You heard that right. The cops wouldn’t allow the family of an innocent man they shot to pass away with his family around him (or hear his story).
As I’ve said before and will continue to say, you’re never in more danger than when the cops are around. If you love your own life and the lives of your loved ones, don’t call the cops. Solve your problems yourself. Getting the cops involved only ensures that some innocent person will be shot.
In other news, state troopers in Texas just got 1,080 HP Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat so they can run criminals down. No one has to wonder how dangerous it is for cops to participate in road races on the highways of Texas.
I know a bit more about this incident than what’s contained in the video (and cannot share at the moment), although the video itself should be disturbing enough to watch. Basically, this is an execution for no good reason whatsoever.
As I’ve said before and will continue to say, “You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.” And by the way, if you love someone, don’t ever send the police to their home to conduct a “wellness check.” If they were well before the police arrive, they won’t be afterwards.
Florida sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot by his roommate, a fellow deputy, over the weekend, in what the sheriff described as a “tragic and totally avoidable death.” Austin Walsh, 23, was killed Saturday in Palm Bay by his roommate Andrew Lawson, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said Sunday in a video statement on Facebook.
The roommates, who were taking a break from playing video games with friends, were talking when Lawson “jokingly” pointed a handgun he though was unloaded at Walsh and pulled the trigger, Ivey said. A single round was fired and fatally struck Walsh, the sheriff said.
Lawson called 911 saying he accidentally shot his roommate, Ivey said. When officers arrived, they found Lawson “fully distraught and devastated.”
Lawson was taken into custody on a no-bond warrant on a manslaughter charge by agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and transported Sunday to the Brevard County jail, Ivey said.
“Austin and Andrew were the best of friends and Andrew was completely devastated over what happened. Even with that, there is no excuse for this tragic and totally avoidable death,” Ivey said.
The rules of gun safety are there for a reason. The fact that they hadn’t had them ingrained and tattooed on their soul shows the complete inadequacy of their training, or perhaps the complete inadequacy of their selection policy for police candidates, or perhaps both.
As TCJ has observed before, you’re never in more danger than when the cops are around. Leave their presence as soon as legal and possible.
Watch this video until the last to understand what the fourth circuit thinks about the rights of the people. The judge is making up rights for cops out of whole cloth. There is no such thing in the constitution.
What an old fart. A school child is capable of more sound reasoning than he displayed.
And by the way, that cop showed too much familiarity with the person he stopped and not nearly enough respect for him as a free man. I don’t like his attitude or demeanor. The man’s name is not “Cuz.” He has a name, and you should call him that, along with “Sir.”
Using the power of the state to punish your enemies isn’t a tactic limited to the beltway. It happens all the time in small town America.
One commenter suggests this: “I know what happened here, the person who made the complaint had been feeding that deer and getting trail cam pictures of it. That person just happens to be a friend of that DNR officer. This was a jealously case, the person who was feeding the deer was pissed someone else shot his trophy buck and was using the power of the DNR to get the antlers for himself. I’m from WV, hope he sues the crap out of the DNR for public defamation.”
And law enforcement couldn’t be silent about it. They just had to go and defame his character in front of the world, with no evidence that he did anything they said he did.
This really is an ugly look for local law enforcement, and also for DNR. Jealousy is always and everywhere a sin, it and can control a man’s heart.
The only thing this guy did wrong is talk to the police. Never, ever talk to the police. Let your attorney do your talking for you.
The idea that agencies are empowered to effectively create their own laws and go out and enforce them with armed federal agents should be alarming.
A report issued last year by the watchdog group Open The Books, “The Militarization of The U.S. Executive Agencies,” found that more than 200,000 federal bureaucrats now have been granted the authority to carry guns and make arrests — more than the 186,000 Americans serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. “One hundred three executive agencies outside of the Department of Defense spent $2.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019 (inflation adjusted),” notes the report. “Nearly $1 billion ($944.9 million) was spent between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 alone.”
The watchdog reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has 1,300 guns including one shotgun, five submachine guns, and 189 automatic firearms. NASA has its own fully outfitted SWAT team, with all the attendant weaponry, including armored vehicles, submachine guns, and breeching shotguns. The Environmental Protection Agency has purchased drones, GPS trackers, radar equipment, and night vision goggles, and stockpiled firearms.
A 2018 Government Accountability Office report noted that the IRS had 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in inventory at the end of 2017 — before the enforcement funding boost this year. The IRS did not respond to requests for information, though the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division does put out an annual report detailing basic information such as how many warrants the agency is executing in a given year.
Somebody should tell The Federalist that the anti-federalists were right.
Via WoG
The follow-on remarks over Twitter show that this cop apparently thought this guy was someone who ran from him on a previous occasion, and that was an error.
There is no possible world where this isn’t attempted murder. But the problem is that this isn’t a bad cop. This is a normal, everyday, average cop.
Via Wisco.
Chewing a burger without a burger chewing license? Death penalty. pic.twitter.com/LD7DHnJumA
— Libertarian Party of Delaware (@LPofDelaware) October 6, 2022
Video at The Free Thought Project:
Columbus, OH — Last week, TFTP reported on disturbing body camera footage out of Columbus, Ohio, released as part of a push for transparency in the city. The footage showed police enter the apartment of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis who was undressed, in bed, and was attempting to raise his hands when he received a fatal, taxpayer-funded 9mm round to the chest.
The video went underreported in the media for several days and now, new video has been released showing the complete and callous disregard for life by officer Ricky Anderson as he casually executed Lewis in his own bed.
Despite the warrant for his arrest, Lewis was innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, he was denied that right.
For some reason, Columbus police thought it was a good idea to serve an arrest warrant at 2:30 a.m. at Lewis’ apartment. Footage shows multiple officers outside Lewis’ door knocking for several minutes before one of the man’s roommates opens the door. Moments later, officers would open the door to Lewis’ bedroom and execute him.
[…]
“Put your hands behind your back, now!” an officer screams at the dying man.
Lewis, unable to comply as he bleeds out in his bed, is then told to “stop resisting,” as his executioners force his body into handcuffs.
Nobody will be held to account.