Archive for the 'Police' Category

News from California:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California’s corrections department has a problem with off-duty prison guards brandishing or carrying firearms while they are intoxicated, the department’s inspector general said Friday.

One correctional officer danced atop a bar while drunkenly flashing his gun several times at private citizens in the tavern.

Another drunken officer pointed a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun at a citizen’s chest during an argument.

They are two of seven incidents since June 2014 that show the department needs to automatically and immediately revoke concealed carry permits for officers caught consuming alcohol while possessing weapons, the inspector general said.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I flashed my guns around while drunk and standing atop a bar dancing.  I remember.  Well, sort of.  I woke up in jail that night.  I wonder if the prison guards did too?

News from the great North:

DETROIT, MI — A Detroit crime fighter is charged with committing a crime of his own.

Detroit Police Officer Christos Kyriakides, 62, is suspected of stealing a “Scarface movie collage” from the home of a resident where he and other officers were serving a search warrant about 8:20 p.m. Feb. 20.

“It is alleged that Officer Kyriakides participated in the execution of a search warrant and while at the location removed a framed Scarface movie collage from the scene and placed it in his scout car and later concealed it in his personal vehicle,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office said in a statement Friday.

Kyriakides is scheduled to be arraigned in Detroit’s 36th District Court at 10:30 a.m. on a charge of larceny from a building.

The charge of criminal misconduct conduct by a Detroit police officer comes about a month after multiple Detroit police officers were named in a lawsuit accusing them of conducting an illegal marijuana raid in Warren, and amid an ongoing FBI probe into wrongdoing by the disbanded Narcotics Unit.

A fellow officer turned Kyriakides in, Police Officer Adam Madera said after the accusation became public.

Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I barged into somebody’s home pointing guns.  I sure didn’t find anything as cool as a “Scarface movie collage.”

The good news is that there is at least one honest cop in Detroit.

Dallas News:

Grieving dog owners told House lawmakers Tuesday that animal training for police could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of beloved pets across the state.

“This training is mandatory for UPS and FedEx delivery men; why isn’t it for law enforcement?” said Cheri Scholz, who lives near Amarillo. Her 8-year-old blue heeler, Smokey, was fatally shot in 2012 by a police officer responding to a loose dog report.

Smokey had escaped from her yard. The officer attempted to get the dog into his car, but Smokey darted away, Scholz said. Neighbors who witnessed the event told Scholz the police officer then shot and killed the dog, she said.

The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee considered two bills Tuesday from North Texas representatives that would require police to receive training in encountering animals. The bills were left pending.

Controversial dog shootings have grabbed headlines recently. Since 2009, Texas officers have shot more than 400 dogs, according to the animal advocacy group 4 Keeping Our Pets Safe.

Law enforcement representatives told lawmakers the training — a course that teaches officers how to deal with aggressive dogs and read an animal’s body language, among other things — could prevent officers from being attacked and save families the grief of unnecessary shootings.

“Canine encounter training will help fill this void and provide officers with effective options and valuable knowledge to use when we come into contact with dogs while performing our regular duties,” said Amy Knoll, assistant chief for the Cleburne Police Department.

One of the bills, by Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, would require all officers to receive training in encounters with animals. Another, by Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, would focus solely on dogs and require new officers and officers seeking promotion to complete a four-hour training program within two years.

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement would establish and require the training. Departments would absorb the cost.

Committee chairman Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, indicated that he preferred legislation that includes training for a variety of animals.

Phillips and Rep. Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, also inquired about offering the course online in an effort to reduce costs, particularly for smaller police departments in far-flung parts of Texas.

“There are a lot of financial costs to training like that, where there’s travel and everything else, so that’s something we’re all going to have to think about,” Phillips said.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  Every time Heidi runs off or barks at me or anyone else I haul off and blow her brains out.  I’m on my seventeenth or eighteenth Heidi, now.  It’s getting old, so maybe I need the same training.

Prior:

Note To Cops And Survivalists: The World If Full Of Animals, Embrace It!

More On Animals, Cops, Logistics And Survival

Michigan Cops Raid Wrong House And Shoot Beloved 15-Year Old Dog

Ventura County Sheriff: Coward

News from Virginia:

VIRGINIA BEACH — New video obtained by 13News Now shows the painful moment a Virginia Beach Police K9 bit a young boy Tuesday.

The child was bitten during the apprehension of a bank robbery suspect in Virginia Beach.

Police were attempting to find 26-year-old Joshua Allen–a suspect in Monday’s Wells Fargo bank robbery–at American Best Value Inn on Northampton Blvd.

Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said Wednesday that the officer involved was seasoned and they took every precaution possible to prevent an accidental bite while searching the motel.

“The individual we were looking for, we had every reason to believe was armed and every reason to believe he would use violence,” Cervera said.

He explained that the boy ran from behind a corner without warning and the dog reacted.

[ … ]

“I turned to walk back to the hotel room, I reach the sidewalk, I see the K9 with one officer coming down the sidewalk. My son was already standing outside where he went through a pass way to get to the front of the hotel by the vending machine. He yelled ‘mom.’ I said: ‘Cameran – get back into the hotel room!’ and that’s when the dog grabbed him and bit him from behind.”

“As the K9 team was moving into position to assist in the arrest of the suspect an 11-year-old boy emerged from a corridor of the motel and ran into the K9 dog,” police said in a press release. “The K9 dog reacted by biting the child. First aid was immediately rendered to the child and officers remained with the child and his mother until rescue responded.”

Police say it appears the child was bitten once by the dog, but pictures provided by the family show more than a single wound to Cameran.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me, and given the number of kids running around in our neighborhood, Heidi, my 82 pound Doberman, rips open a lot of flesh since I have no control over her.

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.