Archive for the 'Police' Category

We previously discuss Boss Hogg (head of the Alabama Sheriffs Association) who doesn’t believe in the second amendment, and clearly said so.

Now we come to find out that the Alabama cop problem isn’t just limited to Sheriffs.

Ramon Perez came to court last month ready to fight the tickets he’d been handed by Brookside police, including one for rolling through a stop sign and another for driving 48 mph in a 40 zone.

He swore he’d seen the cop from a distance and was careful as he braked.

“I saw him and we looked eye to eye,” the Chelsea business owner said. “There’s no way I was going to run that stop sign.”

When he got to court Dec. 2, he saw scores of people just like him lining up to stand before Judge Jim Wooten, complaining of penny-ante “crimes” and harassment by officers. He saw so many people trying to park in the grassy field outside the municipal building that police had to direct traffic.

He figured there was no point.

“I saw the same attitude in every officer and every person,” he said. “That’s why I hesitated to fight it. They were doing the same thing to every person that was there. They own the town.”

Perez, it appears, was right.

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income.

And the police chief has called for more.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 – none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

If the Alabama AG had any balls and wasn’t part of the corruption, he’d be all over this.  This is certainly reason enough to have cameras constantly rolling when you’re driving, and especially during interaction with cops.

It’s a shame when it has come to this.  City government is corrupt, and cops are their armed agents for collection.  But the cops know what they’re doing, and they’re culprits as well.  If it weren’t for the fact that they can so easily find evil men to enforce their policies, the city would be powerless.

Hey, how about pastors in Alabama taking on the evils of government in a sermon series?  Spineless cowards with no balls, you say?  Rather talk about pretty butterflies and love all around?

I didn’t make that up.  He said so.

Alabama Sheriffs Association (ASA) director Robert ‘Bobby’ Timmons is standing by his criticism of the Constitutional carry bills set to be debated in the Alabama legislature, even going so far as to say he would support amending the United States Constitution.

Timmons has claimed several times that the Second Amendment was not written to give citizens the right to carry a weapon in a concealed fashion, saying that the amendment was only written to allow citizens to have weapons to defend their homes.

Given his interpretation of the Second Amendment, 1819 News asked Timmons if ASA would support amending the Constitution to limit the Second Amendment to the possession of firearms only for the defense of a person’s home.

“Oh yeah,” Timmons said. “I’d be in favor of that. But, I mean, it would never get passed.”

According to Timmons, the ASA is working with Mom’s Demand Action – which bills itself as a “grassroots movement” that fights for more restrictive gun laws – to fight against Constitutional carry laws that have been introduced into the current session of the Alabama legislature. “Constitutional carry” is a term used to describe legislation that would allow citizens to legally carry handguns without having to purchase a permit from their local Sheriff’s office.

Three bills pre-filed in the Alabama House and Senate would legalize permitless or “Constitutional Carry” in the state. Rep. Andrew Sorell (R) pre-filed House Bill 44 (HB44), along with a coalition of 38 Republicans. The bill would eliminate the need for a person to obtain a concealed carry permit in order to carry a pistol. It would also repeal and revise certain restrictions on the carrying or possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle or on certain property or locations.

Rep. Shane Stringer (R) and Rep. Proncey Robertson (R) pre-filed House Bill 6 (HB6). Sen. Tim Melson filed an identical companion bill in the Senate (SB12). These two bills would also allow for “permitless carry” and would create a process for the return of seized pistols.

All three bills would leave the current concealed carry permitting system in place for Alabamans who want to obtain a license in order to carry concealed in states with CCDW reciprocity with Alabama.

So not only is the Sheriffs association being led by someone who doesn’t believe in the 2A, they are working with a gun control group to kill constitutional carry in Alabama.

It sounds to me like Alabamans have some trash to carry out.  This is on y’all.  You have work to do.  Get it done.  And find out who else in the respective Sheriffs departments supports this guy and his agenda.  Carry out that trash too.

OL.

An off-duty police officer in Coushatta, Louisiana, and three other men are accused of hunting deer illegally at night from a patrol car on Dec. 5. Wildlife agents issued poaching citations to all four individuals.

According to a press release from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, game wardens initially responded to the sound of gunshots on the east side of the Red River near Coushatta around 8 p.m. on Sunday. When the agents arrived in the area, they found a vehicle spotlighting deer in an open field on private property.

Upon nearing the vehicle, they realized that it was a patrol unit from the Coushatta Police Department. The agents approached the four men in the vehicle, and identified one of them as Javarrea Pouncy, 28, an officer with Coushatta P.D. who was off duty at the time. The other three individuals were identified as Cederick J. Thomas, 36, of Vivian; Anthony B. Caldwell, 31, of Coushatta; and Adam J. Caldwell, 30, of Natchitoches.

Anthony Caldwell, a convicted felon according to the release, was arrested for being in possession of a firearm and for hunting without a license. He was booked in the local jail later that night.

Adam Caldwell and Pouncy were also cited for hunting without a license. All four men were cited for hunting deer during illegal hours, and for hunting from a moving vehicle.

After searching the patrol car and questioning the four men, wildlife agents found them in possession of two antlered deer—one 8-point and one spike—along with three rifles. They determined that Anthony Caldwell harvested the eight-point while Thomas harvested the spike buck. Both deer and the rifles were seized.

In addition to these citations, the Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office has charged the four individuals with trespassing. The Sheriff’s Office will continue its investigation and may have more charges pending for Pouncy. The local police chief told Shreveport’s KSLA12 News that Pouncy has been put on leave, and that he will likely be suspended until the investigation is complete.

Okay.  Well, let’s see here.  Hunting without a license, hunting after dark, hunting from a moving vehicle, and spotlighting deer, all things I learned not to do when I got my hunting license (and knew it anyway).

Then to boot, he was around a felon in possession of a firearm.

Good grief.  But it will take an “investigation” to clear all of this up.

News from N.C.

A new federal lawsuit alleges that when a Mooresville police officer ordered Chris Craven to raise his arms and get on the ground, the father of three had only four seconds to live.

That’s all the time that ticked off before officers Christopher Novelli and Alex Arndt unleashed a barrage of gunfire from their high-powered rifles, striking the 38-year-old Craven about 20 times from close range, according to the complaint filed this month by his widow, Amy.

The officers’ action were not only excessive, the lawsuit alleges. They were illegal, too.

Amy Craven’s lawsuit names Novelli, Arndt and the Town of Mooresville as defendants. It accuses them of excessive force, violation of constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure, negligence and gross negligence, assault and battery, wrongful death, among other claims.

[ … ]

After ordering Craven to get on the ground, both officers stated that they saw him “reach into his waistband with his right hand and pull out a pistol,” Gregson said.

The lawsuit offers a radically different account.

It claims Craven was experiencing a mental health crisis when his eldest daughter called 911 that night, reporting that her father was carrying a gun and threatening to kill himself.

At least six Mooresville police officers surrounded the home. They found Craven seated on his front steps. According to the lawsuit, when police started shouting at him, Craven rose to his feet and began walking toward a camper parked in his driveway.

When the officers ordered Craven to put his hands in the air, he complied, according to the lawsuit. When they ordered him to get on the ground, he began to lower his hands.

Novelli was the first to shoot. Arndt joined in. Several of the rifle shots went through the walls of the home, where Craven’s wife and children had taken cover, striking a fire extinguisher and causing it to explode.

It’s the fault of the person who called the cops.

You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.  We talk incessantly about knowing your backstop around these parts, even linking and spending time watching penetration tests to see what gun and ammunition are safest to shoot in self defense inside homes made of siding.

If you’re a cop, no worries.  Shoot first and worry about the results later.

Seen at WoG, this report from Missouri.

A Missouri lawmaker is planning to introduce a new bill that he claims will strengthen the state’s “stand your ground” law.

Sen. Eric Burlison (R-Battlefied) pre-filed the legislation Wednesday. It would grant a person criminal immunity for using deadly force in self-defense unless the force is used against a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.

Now why would it be necessary to add the part I’ve bolded?

Because they can’t allow anything to escape the blanket indemnification they grant to all LEOs in every circumstance.

And what about a home invasion by SWAT in the wrong home where they bust in and point guns at your children, with you not knowing anything about who they are?

How about that one, Burlison?

Reason.

A SWAT team destroyed an innocent woman’s house after a fugitive barricaded himself inside. Last week a federal court ruled that she can sue the government for damages.

In July 2020, Wesley Little—who Vicki Baker had terminated as her handyman about a year and a half prior—arrived at Baker’s home in McKinney, Texas. Baker’s daughter answered. Recognizing him from news reports that he was wanted for the abduction of a 15-year-old girl, she left the premises and called the police.

SWAT agents soon arrived. They set off explosives to open the garage entryway, detonated tear gas grenades inside the building, ran over Baker’s fence with an armored vehicle, and ripped off her front door, despite being given a garage door opener, a code to the back gate, and a key to the home. The house was unlivable when they were through.

She sued. So the city asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

“In its pursuit of the fugitive and pursuant to its police powers, Baker alleges the City caused significant economic damage—over $50,000—to her home. Then, the City refused to compensate her for the damage,” writes Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. “Baker has alleged damage to her private property—and the City’s refusal to compensate for such damage—that plausibly amounts to a Fifth Amendment violation.”

The fact that this needed to be spelled out is a commentary on how difficult it has become to get meaningful accountability from the government.

The ability to do this sort of thing without accountability turns cops into nothing more than home invaders, hoodlums, gangsters and vandals.  Those who do this are deserving of no respect at all.  I would have been just fine if the cops perpetrating this had been shot.

They had no right to do this to anyone’s home.

Asset Forfeiture even under criminal conditions is immoral and should be illegal.  This case is all the more galling because no illegality occurred.  The ability to seize assets turns cops into highway robbers, and deserving of absolutely no respect at all.

I published Idiot ATF Agents thinking that it was the full story.  How stupid of me.

Well, well, well.  The truth comes out, and the irony bites.

CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. — Camden County Sheriff Tony Helms says the ATF raid on a local gun store in Osage Beach on Tuesday caught him by surprise.

“It makes me mad I was not notified,” Helms said. “ATF agents were in my office the day before, to discuss a separate issue and they did not tell me a thing,” Helms said. “They called me at 1 p.m., on Tuesday, and apologized for not telling me, saying they were not comfortable having too many people know about the raid before it happened. They were hitting several gun shops as part of an annual thing.”

“Before SAPA, (the Second Amendment Preservation Act, passed in June 2021) they would have notified me if they were going to be in my county,” Helms added.

Oh.  I see.  You know where this is headed, don’t you?

According to the gun shop owner Jim Skelton, approximately fifteen agents entered the Skelton Tactical gun shop on Tuesday, seven deep, in full riot gear, bearing automatic weapons. The agents seized all of the firearms from both the gun shop and from his brother Ike Skelton’s store next door. “They said it had to do with the way I was selling firearms,” Jim Skelton said. The ATF also demanded Ike stop filming the raid on his cell phone. The ATF took Jim’s license to sell firearms. “I will appeal and fight this with everything I have,” Jim said.

“The feds regulate guns coming from the factory, to the shops, to the persons who buy them,” Helms said.

“I am all for second amendment rights,” Sheriff Helms said. “I pushed for SAPA. We were the first county to endorse SAPA. I own 20 guns and I teach a conceal and carry class. I am all for responsible law-abiding gun owners. I don’t want the feds coming and taking our guns.”

[ … ]

“Besides the cut in partnership, the county is now limited to access to ATF resources and technology,” Helms said. “Before, if a gun was used in a crime in Camden County, we could ask ATF to run a check, to see if the same gun was also used in another crime, anywhere in the country.”

It’s that horrible 2A preservation act that caused the ridiculous ATF raid for selling a muzzle loader to someone without a Form 4473 (even though one isn’t required).

Moreover (whimper, sigh, cry), we don’t get access to ATF resources, and we don’t talk anymore, not really, not like it used to be.  I don’t want anyone to take our guns, but I do miss my buddies so much!

You see, the ATF is playing hard ball, and the Sheriff is a little girl.  They’ve (the ATF) got the perfect patsy.

Someone who initially supported the 2A preservation act, but who now sees the error of his ways and wants it to be repealed, or so we must conclude.

Rather, if he had any balls, he’d have the ATF agents followed and harassed by his own deputies, and eventually run out of town or otherwise make it so uncomfortable to infringe on the 2A in his county that the ATF has been defanged.

Or, he could find a way to perform his own raid of ATF offices and throw them in the hoosegow for a few cooling off days.

These are just starting points.  There is a whole host of things he could do.

But he buckled and cried like a little girl that he wasn’t notified by the ATF because of that awful 2A preservation act when he could have stopped the raid (or maybe he could have, he doesn’t say, just that he wanted to be notified).

Exactly how being notified of the raid before it happened would have done anything useful, he doesn’t say.  He just wants to be buddies with he ATF again because he misses them.

It all falls into place, and it all makes sense now.

The ATF must really dislike the 2A preservation act if they’re going this far out of the way to insult local law enforcement.  If I was local law enforcement, I’d make sure they knew how I felt about their presence in my county.

But then I’m not the Camden County Sheriff, and I don’t whimper when people don’t want to be my friends.

Cowards.  They have no functional email that accepts URLs or I would send this commentary to them.

BCE weighs in (via WRSA).

As it is right now, as RA said further in the email: “Why would anybody go with the goons from Just-Us going forward? I mean why would you cooperate with Just-Us in any way knowing you will be tortured and abused?<snip>  “The current government has shown they will take you, they will torture you, and withhold medical treatment.

He goes further and asserts with some authority that it was the three letter agencies who were doing the rendition.  I’m certain it was too.

Furthermore, I’m certain that they got no actionable intel from it all.  If they had wanted actionable intel rather than making enemies, they would have fed them well, treated them with courtesy, and made friends with them.

BCE further discusses the fact that January 6 wasn’t an insurrection.  Good grief no.

January 6 was a made-for-TV circus act orchestrated by agent provocateurs.  But I sort of disagree that the protestors are in prison because the FedGov fears them.  I think they’re in prison for the FedGov to make an example of them.

No one chooses to stop what’s happening – not powerless senators, not the courts, not law enforcement, not the DoJ, not anyone.

They don’t choose to stop it because the three letter agencies run the country.  And while I’ve said before that we went into Iraq in order to test weapon systems and learn COIN (counterinsurgency), I think that’s wrong.

The U.S. has always known how to do this.  We went into Iraq for other reasons, you can fill in the blank (the military industrial complex, to hone our skills, etc.).

Don’t be surprised or astonished at what you’re seeing now in the D.C. prison, exclaiming that it violates this and that and the other, the right to a speedy trial, the right to counsel, the right to face your accuser, cruel and inhumane conditions, and so on and so forth.

They don’t care.  When you look at everything around you symbolic of the system – local law enforcement, state law enforcement, the federal protection police, the DHS, the CIA, the FBI, the fusion centers, the NSA, think of it this way.

This is all COIN and stability operations.  We did it in Iraq because we learned to do it in America.  American law enforcement isn’t practicing the concept of the local constable or peace officer.  They haven’t for a long, long time.

This is classic COIN and stability operations, all for the purpose of keeping those in power who are currently in power.

That’s why the protestors are in the D.C. prison.

Report from Florida.

TAMPA (WFLA) – A young Bradenton mother says she was in fear when she looked at her Ring App and saw armed men at her door.

Kada Staples says the men had their weapons pointed at her door and when she said hello, they ordered her to come out and said “we know he’s in there”.

The armed men were U.S. Marshals. Staples believes they were looking for a murder suspect, but they had the wrong apartment. At the time she opened her door and still didn’t understand what was going on.

“I cracked the door open and they pushed the door open and pushed me and my baby out of the way. They are holding us at gunpoint, screaming, there is a gun about a foot away from her face, ” said Staples as she held her three-month-old baby.

She said the U.S. Marshals kept saying,” We know Jamar is in there.”

“With that, they run in my apartment. There’s probably 6 or 7 of them out there with guns. 3 or 4 of them run into my apartment and are running around. They are still yelling at me that I’m lying,” said Staples.

She says she had been napping with her infant and was the only one inside when the Marshals soon realized their mistake.

“Then one of the guys in the hallway is like, wait, this is apartment and then said my apartment number and then kind of repeated it again and then they ran out and said, that’s the wrong apartment,” said Staples.

She says the Marshals left, but never even apologized for their actions or their mistake.

“No sorry, no nothing, they tell me, you’re good and another one said you’re fine,” said Staples.

She says when she called the U.S. Marshals Service to ask why officers had entered her apartment, she asked if they could provide a mental health counselor to help her deal with the anxiety brought on by the event.

She says a man on the phone told her to take melatonin and “get over it.”

In the end it would have been better if a U.S. Marshal had been shot and the homeowner exonerated of any wrongdoing.  It’s the only thing that will convince law enforcement that they simply can’t do this sort of thing.  That way, lives will be saved and everyone will be safer.