Archive for the 'Police' Category

Via Radley Balko, news from NM.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An overnight SWAT standoff with a suspect ended with a house fire in southeast Albuquerque. Police have confirmed that a 14-year-old boy was found dead inside the home after the fire was put out.

Police said the suspect, Qiaunt Kelley, was wanted on a federal felony warrant for robbery. Police said they tracked the suspect to the home on the 8100 block of San Joaquin Avenue SE at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, but the suspect and the teenage boy hid in the home.

Several hours later, at around 3 a.m., police saw smoke emerging from the windows. Firefighters were eventually able to put the fire out, but officials said the front half of the house was engulfed in flames.

The suspect reportedly exited the home as Albuquerque Fire Rescue was extinguishing the fire. He was taken into custody and then transported to a local hospital for burn injuries.

The 14-year-old boy, however, was found dead by fire crews and police officers. No official cause of death has been determined at this time.

Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina said in addition to the felony arrest warrant, the suspect was a person of interest in several violent crimes in Albuquerque.

[ … ]

KOB 4 spoke with a woman whose sister and her family lived there. She said the people involved in the SWAT standoff weren’t related to her family and did not live there, but were acquaintances of her nephew who stopped by to pick up a bike. Now, she’s questioning how police and the SWAT team handled the situation.

The family is also blaming police for starting the fire, claiming flash bang grenades ignited it.

Police confirmed that multiple “munitions” were used at the scene – they’re used in SWAT situations to get suspects to surrender. They are working with AFR to determine if one caused the fire.

Good old fashioned police work – staking out, investigation, interviews, questioning suspects, arrest warrants signed by competent judges – is out the window.

Just call SWAT and throw grenades.  It’s how business is done these days.

I think he does a very good job of saying the very things I’ve been saying over these pages.  He does a good job with two of the precedents.  He leaves out a third.  I’ve always linked three important ones.

Castle Rock v. Gonzalez

Warren v. District of Columbia

DeShaney v. Winnebago County

But people still believe the reelection sloganeering of “To Protect and Serve” for some irrational reason I cannot explain.

You are your own first responder. No court is ever going to say otherwise. Arm yourselves for your defense and that of your family.

Via TTAG.

The BORTAC Gigachad who breached the school, neutralized the shooter, and had a bullet grazed his scalp in the process. pic.twitter.com/9TDBfWBCZn

— Average Gewehr 98 Enjoyer (@WHS72_14) May 26, 2022

Courtesy of reddit/Firearms, here is what happened to him as he braved the fire.  He’s a legend and hero to the guys at reddit/Firearms.

Now to be certain, we’ve pointed out before that the police are under no legal obligation to protect and serve.  See the following.

Castle Rock v. Gonzalez

Warren v. District of Columbia

DeShaney v. Winnebago County

Still, it’s good to see there are real men left in America.

News from Ohio.

PIQUA — Three Piqua police officers were hospitalized and later treated and released after a gun unintentionally fired inside the police station Tuesday afternoon.

The incident involved officers who had returned to the police station after a day of shooting range training. The officers involved were in the process of cleaning their weapons after the range training when a pistol unintentionally discharged, sending a single bullet into a concrete floor, Piqua police Deputy Chief Martin Grove said in a statement to News Center 7.

Funny, that.  If someone other than a cop has a negligent discharge, using the defense in court that the pistol “unintentionally discharged” wouldn’t work.

You know that this phrasing is being fed to the reporters for rote repeating.  And you also know that most reporters are too stupid to know better.

And again it happens.

Philadelphia police say an armed home intruder impersonating a police officer was shot and killed by a Mayfair resident Sunday night.

Authorities say the shooting happened on the 7200 block of Battersby Street just after 10 p.m.

Officers from the 15th District responded to the scene and found a man outside a doorway with gunshot wounds to the head, chest and arm, according to officials.

Police say he was taken to Jefferson Torresdale hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:19 p.m.

According to Chief Inspector Scott Small, the deceased victim, who had a fake police badge around his neck, and another man approached an apartment where a 25-year-old was coming out.

Small says the two men said they were police officers and forced their way inside the apartment.

Officials say the suspects threatened to shoot and kill the 25-year-old as they were attempting to zip tie his hands.

When the resident realized the two men were not police officers, he pulled out his own gun and shot one of the suspects, killing him, authorities say.

We’ve documented posing as police here, here, here, here, here and here.

This is why SWAT raids must end and we cannot simply lay down our arms when someone busts in the door and announces that he is police.

And get away with it.

SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) – A woman has been fighting the China Grove Police Department for almost four years to retrieve property she says was unfairly taken from her family.

Brandy Napier lives in Seguin, but she and her husband have family they visit in China Grove.

That’s where her husband Franklin was pulled over by a China Grove officer in August 2018 for reportedly running stop signs.

Brandy says he had just left the gun range and had three guns in the car.

The officer confiscated them, but made no arrest.

No formal report was ever given to the Napier’s, just a burglary inventory sheet typically used to document items stolen in robberies.

“She stated that she didn’t have the proper documentation to give him, so that’s why she put it on that and she let him go,” says Brandy.

Brandy showed us receipts for two of the guns listed in her name and Franklin’s along with the serial numbers listed.

The third gun she says was bought at an auction.

She’s made several attempts to retrieve those guns since, making trips to the City of China Grove office.

Every time she says she’s been told the case is pending in the District Attorney’s office and that the guns couldn’t be returned without documentation from their office.

Brandy made a last ditch effort to retrieve the guns last month.

“He said, ‘I don’t have the documentation from the District Attorney’.”

KABB/WOAI made calls a few weeks ago requesting a formal police report from Franklin’s traffic stop in 2018.

KABB/WOAI also stopped by the department Monday to ask for the report and why the guns hadn’t been returned.

We were told we had to go through the DA’s office to retrieve any information about the case.

The DA’s office sent us a letter, stating that media requests had to be processed by the Attorney General’s office.

But the Napier’s lawyer says he’s checked: it doesn’t look like a case exists with Franklin’s name at the DA’s office and at this point, it’s too late to create a case.

“If they haven’t filed a criminal case against the person by now, the statute of limitations has run,” says attorney Patrick Hancock. “A lot more than two years has gone by, so I don’t think the DA can file anything against him and I don’t believe there’s a case sitting in the DA’s office by China Grove on this matter.”

Nearly four years later, no arrest or charges have been filed, a red flag for this attorney.

“If they can’t produce the guns that were taken, the personal property of the individual that was taken and they can’t produce a public police report to even verify that a China Grove officer stopped them and took an individual’s property, then they need to be investigated by the Texas Rangers,” says Hancock.

Sounds about right.  No arrest, no charges, no involvement by prosecutors, no guns returned.

Because shiny badges and DAs and judges in your corner.

Dean Weingarten summarizes the ruling.

• The mere possession of a firearm by a homeowner is not sufficient to justify the use of deadly force by officers.
• There is a right to come to the door with a firearm.
• Officers must identify themselves as officers to gain qualified immunity.
• Mere verbal announcement, without visual confirmation, is not sufficient to gain qualified immunity.
• Sufficient precedent exists for officers to be aware of their duty in these situations.

It’s a weak ruling in my opinion, since the officer should have been charged with murder.  But at least this should trickle down into behavior – or at least one would hope so.

It’s yet another case of a cop shooting a homeowner INSIDE HIS OWN HOME when the officer was standing OUTSIDE THE HOME.

The cop is a murderer.

News.

Texas police are asking for the public’s help after they say a group of robbers pretending to be Houston police officers broke into a sleeping man’s apartment, armed with rifles and handguns.

At around 12:30 a.m. on March 18, several people broke down a Houston resident’s door, home security camera footage shared by police showed.

The intruders, armed with rifles and guns, yelled “HPD” as they entered the home, the video showed.

The resident of the apartment was sleeping at the time and told police he heard someone attempting to kick down his door.

He grabbed his handgun and told police he “did not think that they were the police” and fired his gun several times, according to a news release from the Houston Police Department’s Robbery Division. The resident believed the suspects, who he said were men, were there to rob him.

Clad in black masks and dark clothing, the attempted robbers fired their guns, causing shots to go through the walls and into other apartments, police said in the release.

Police said the men then fled the area.

The video doesn’t show very convincing posing to me.  However, consider the fact that you’re asleep, and the noise at the door indicates that LEOs want in.  Judgment before 30 minutes after waking up is impaired.  Studies have shown that you need 30 minutes before you can make good critical judgments.

I’ve documented this three other times in three other locations: California, Norfolk, Virginia, and in Houston, TX.

It’s also happened in Oahu, Hawaii and New York.

I’ve also pointed out before that police should understand that while they are recklessly invading homes, they aren’t just putting our lives at risk.  They’re putting their own lives at risk too.

They must understand that criminals have caught on to the game.  Announce that you’re police, yell obscenities, scream for people to get on the floor, and instinctively some people will do that.

But understand that we can’t do that.  We … cannot … do … that.  We don’t know who you are and we have our own lives to protect.

So by employing this tactic, police all across America have made the situation much more dangerous for the ordinary homeowner.  That moment of hesitation waiting to be sure of who is at the door could spell the end of some homeowner’s life.  That moment of quick reaction if it is cops could spell the end of some cop’s life, thus ensuring an awful trial for the homeowner in which s/he knows that the judge and jury will almost certainly side with the cop (because that’s what they do).

You can blame police for this conundrum.  And it’s far past time to end no-knock home invasions by cops as if they are playing soldier-boy.  If that restricts evidence gathering to more time consuming means for police (like good old fashioned detective work), then so be it.

I don’t care about convenience for cops.  I don’t even care about their war on drugs.  It’s not my war.

Absolutely absurd.  And listen carefully to the cop’s testimony.

What is it?  Does the haircut make them stupid?  Do they hire the dumbest guys around for the job?  Does it have to do with being beaten up on the schoolyard playground?  Is it just a “controller” complex at work?

Don’t answer.  I think I know the answers.

Even after constitutional carry is passed by Alabama, the would-be rulers are still bitter, wanting to make their own laws.

“I have heard all of this.”  Meh.  Couldn’t care less, so drop it.

What an arrogant prick.  He’s better at lawmaking, just because.  Shut up, he explained.  He wears a shiny badge.

His county should kick him to the curb.  He’s begging people to get permits because he believes in state permitting, and for leverage, he’s pointing out one more time that if you want reciprocity, you must get my permit.

So come begging to me.  Now.