Archive for the 'Police' Category

Ammoland.

“As seen in the body-worn camera video released by Minneapolis Police, Mr. Locke appears to be sleeping on the couch during the execution of a no-knock warrant, “ stated Bryan Strawser, Chair, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “He is awoken with a confusing array of commands coming from multiple officers who are pointing lights and firearms at him.”

“Mr. Locke did what many of us might do in the same confusing circumstances, he reached for a legal means of self-defense while he sought to understand what was happening, “ added Rob Doar, Senior VP, Governmental Affairs.

“The tragic circumstances of Mr. Locke’s death were completely avoidable, “ stated Doar. “It’s yet another example where a no-knock warrant has resulted in the death of an innocent person. In this case, as in others, the public should expect and receive full transparency and accountability from law enforcement agencies that serve and protect our local communities.”

“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive, “ added Strawser. “Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure.”

The deceased wasn’t a suspect in any crime.  Now he is dead.

No, I don’t want full transparency.  No, there will never be full accountability for all of the thousands killed in police raids in America.

What I want is for this wicked practice to be outlawed.  The men who perpetrate it aren’t heroes of the community.  They are paid thugs doing the bidding of a police state.

There is some utopianism here, some tip of the hat to “we the government are here to help and make things better by fighting a war on drugs.”

I … DON’T … CARE … ABOUT … YOUR … WAR … ON … DRUGS.  Nor do I support it.  I don’t want you to conduct a war on anything.

There is also some tip of the hat to tax collection going on here.  The FedGov gets taxes from the legal (and also addictive) narcotics sold by doctors/pharmacies.  They just don’t get it when something natural is crafted by makers of liquor.

WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — A Wilkes County man pleaded guilty on Friday in Charlotte for distilling moonshine, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Clifton Ray Anderson Jr., 47, is from a farm community of Boomer and is the fifth person to plead guilty for a white-lightning distribution ring out of the county.

Anderson Jr. pled guilty to possession of an unregistered still and conspiracy to defraud the United States of excise taxes on distilled liquor.

Of his role in the ring, Anderson Jr. said “I’m the distiller. I’m the one who made it.” He said he was trying to help out the poor people in the community. He said many people struggle and don’t even receive food stamps in their county.

Anderson said he is a cattle farmer seven days a week and didn’t need the money, but did it as a service to others.

Prosecutors said Anderson leased a barn for $500 a month to produce more than 9,000 gallons of untaxed liquor from April 2018 to September 2020. He leased the barn from Gary Matthew Ray, 53, who has already pled guilty in the case.

Ray, along with Wilkesboro resident Roger Nance, 76, and Hamptonville resident Huie Kenneth Nicholson, 75, drove the moonshine to Virginia. They delivered it to James Patterson, 71, of Dinwiddie, Virginia to sell and distribute.

The ring cost the government over $100,000 in federal and state taxes. The conspiracy and illegal-still possession charges each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Did you catch the part in bold?  That’s sort of like the street thief saying you cost him money by buttoning your pocket when you walked down the street.

And it doesn’t slip past me that the liquor tax began when George Washington found a way to pay the back wages of the soldiers after the war of independence.  Congress failed him by not coming up with the money promised to the soldiers, and he found a way.  But this set the worst precedent imaginable.

Drop by reddit/Firearms for a brief moment and gaze upon the stupidity of the unholstering his weapon and pointing it at the guy’s head.

I don’t know what the perp was doing, he was probably up to no good.  But the cop risked a ND that killed the perp where he laid.

The lowest of low IQs.

We covered it here, based on the awesome reporting done by AL.com.

Oh no.  No, no, no, no, no.

It should not be that easy.  This shouldn’t just go away.  The Police Chief should be charged with crimes.

Additionally, the original article mentions the following names: (1) Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, and (2) Judge Jim Wooten.

They didn’t just know it was going on, the helped to perpetrate the crimes.  They too should be up on charges, as should the entire city council, who also had to know this was going on.

He gets shoved into the cop.  Cops charge him with battery of a police officer.

Honestly.  Thank God for cameras these days.

The more I learn about cops in WV, the less I like that state.

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.