Archive for the 'Police' Category

The video has the complete story.  Notice the same elements I point to every time I link one of these sorry tales.  Lack of muzzle discipline (if you or I pointed rifles at someone we would be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon), lack of discernment, assumption that everyone is a criminal, destruction of private property, lose of confidence in the police, and refusal of the police to apologize or explain.

In fact, notice at the very end of the video.  The Houston Police Department obviously lied to the press, claiming that police never entered the home.  As I’ve said before in the context of the reflexive shooting of family dogs in SWAT raids (parroting one of my commenters), “if you need to speak with the occupant of the home, make an appointment.”  I don’t give a damn about your evidence-gathering.

News from Florida:

Now for the event post-mortem.  Someone lied on the report.  Huggins’ finger was not outside the trigger guard at the time of the negligent discharge.  Guns don’t just go off.  Someone has to pull the trigger.  I suspect that he stumbled and had a sympathetic muscle reflex, causing him to squeeze the trigger.  A person can be trained to overcome this sympathetic reaction (like my son during his pre-deployment workup as a SAW gunner), but this officer is a goofball, and few if any civilian police will ever be trained to such a level.

As for the knife, they only imagined that they “had to wrestle Mease to take away a 9-inch knife he had on his side.”  They didn’t really have to do that.  They just made that up.  They could have decided to carry only their side arm, shake his hand, and ask how he was doing.  Instead they decided to act like members of the local gang.

Finally, as I note every time I write about these events (and they happen on a daily basis in America), notice the lack of muzzle discipline.  As one commenter of mine put so well, “If you need to speak with the occupant, make an appointment.”  They have no right to invade domiciles and point weapons at people.  In this instance the police were played for idiots, and they decided to act the part.

News from Melbourne, Florida.

… the Melbourne Police Department has been forced to file its own missing property report after an M-16 rifle went missing.

The rifle was given to the department under a federal program, but now it’s nowhere to be found. Police said they realized the M-16 was gone during their annual inventory check in February.

“I know people will wonder, how do you misplace an M-16?” said Sgt. Sheridan Shelley. “Well, our inventory system, since this incident, is being reviewed and changed.”

That could mean more than annual inventory checks of equipment at the department, officials said.

Melbourne police are also taking a closer look at who is allowed into secure areas.

The missing M-16 was last seen in a SWAT locker.

“The unfortunate thing is narrowing down an exact time or location when this firearm may have gone missing,” said Sheridan. “It’s very difficult.”

Yep.  People will wonder how a SWAT team “loses” or “misplaces” an M-16.  You betcha.  Us common civilians who aren’t allowed to own fully automatic weapons wouldn’t misplace ours if we had one.  In fact, I’ve never misplaced any weapon at all, ever.

Perhaps this situation is analogous to the one in Utah where a Sheriff’s deputy “forgot” that he took their fully automatic M-16 home and put it in his gun safe.

That’s it.  It’s “misplaced,” or “missing,” or someone “forgot.”

News From Indiana (via David Codrea):

In an interview with Fox 59, a Morgan County, Indiana Police Sergeant admits that the increasing militarization of domestic police departments is partly to deal with returning veterans who are now seen as a homegrown terror threat.

[ … ]

Downing’s admission that the armored vehicles are partly about combating the threat posed by returning veterans correlates with similar rhetoric at the federal level.

An April 2009 DHS intelligence assessment listed returning vets as likely domestic terrorists. Just a month later, the New York Times reported on how Boy Scout Explorers were being trained by the DHS to kill “disgruntled Iraq war veterans” in terrorist drills.

The FBI has also repeatedly characterized returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as a major domestic terrorist threat.

Good grief!  First of all, returning veterans aren’t the problem – militarized police are.  Second, if returning veterans did decide to take matters into their own hands, if this idiot thinks that a bunch of fat ass, unqualified, keystone cop goofballs like Amerikan police would be able to handle combat veterans, he is living in fantasy world – a world of his own making because he wasn’t man enough to go to the sand box and do it himself.

Loud mouth coward.

Michigan Live:

The fatal shooting of a fellow trooper was “at the forefront” of Michigan State Police Trooper Timothy Wagner’s mind last month when he pulled his handgun and pointed it at an 18-year-old woman during a traffic stop near Sturgis.

That’s according to a written statement Wagner provided to Detective 1^st Lt. Chuck Christensen after Christensen informed Wagner he was under investigation for allegations of excessive force. The statement is included in a nine-page report by Christensen obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

Wagner was westbound on U.S. 12 at about 5:35 p.m. April 15 when he spotted the woman’s eastbound red Pontiac, which he clocked on radar going 77 mph in a 55 mph zone, according to the report.

In-car video from Wagner’s cruiser shows him doing a U-turn to catch up with the Pontiac. The driver pulls over to the shoulder about 45 seconds after Wagner made the U-turn and about 35 seconds after he activated his lights and siren.

Wagner exits his cruiser with his handgun drawn and approaches the Pontiac.

“With the recent incident involving the murder of Tpr. Paul Butterfield while approaching a vehicle at the forefront of my mind I elected to ‘clear’ the vehicle for my safety as I feel the vehicle could have suddenly pulled to the side in an effort to lure me into a vulnerable position where I could easily be shot,” Wagner later told Christensen in his statement.

Video from Wagner’s dash-mounted camera shows him handcuffing the woman then taking her to his cruiser, where the conversation between the two is recorded. The woman apologizes to Wagner, telling him she was trying to get home because she had gotten a call from her father informing her that the family’s home had been broken into.

St. Joseph County dispatchers confirm the report of the break-in to Wagner as the woman sits in his patrol car.

Wagner tells the woman, “I chased you for two miles with my lights and sirens at almost 80 mph. Do you see a problem with that?”

“Yes, I do,” she responded. “I honestly didn’t see you.”

At the end of the audio captured from inside the car, Wagner asks the woman, “How’d you like having a gun pointed ….” The rest of his statement is inaudible.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough, who was asked by Michigan State Police to review the incident, focused on that statement in calling for Wagner, a 19-veteran of MSP, to be fired.

McDonough considered whether to authorize charges of felonious assault and conduct unbecoming a public official against Wagner, but ultimately decided his handling of the traffic stop did not warrant criminal charges. In a statement issued Wednesday, however, the prosecutor wrote that he was “appalled and disgusted” by Wagner’s conduct.

Loss of LEO life may have been on his mind, but perhaps loss of civilian life at the hands of LEOs may have been on the mind of the poor woman he stopped.  Actually, I’m being coy.  She clearly didn’t know anything about what was going on around her, and the LEO admits that very thing in the questioning, while he also makes excuses for his behavior.

Welcome to Amerika, where slowing down, stopping and apologizing is interpreted as flee and elude.  And remember that for just about any reason at all, a LEO may unholster his weapon and point it at you, and you will be arrested and charged with felonious assault if you do something like that.

Like sharks feeding on chum, there has been another wrongful police raid.

The Atlantic:

I’ve long proposed a simple rule: police officers who shoot unarmed innocents should have their guns taken away. They can work desk jobs or monitor meters. But if nothing else, they shouldn’t ever be in a position to put lives in danger again.

Applying that rule in Miami would have dramatic consequences.

The local CBS affiliate has investigated a police shooting that happened there last December. The results are jaw-dropping. A man who committed armed robbery and shot a police officer hours earlier was spotted in his automobile, along with a passenger who played no role in his crime. Police officers gave chase.

CBS reports what happened next:

The suspect’s blue Volvo crashed into the backyard of a townhouse.

It was later determined that neither the suspect nor the passenger was armed. Police officers nevertheless fired two barrages of bullets into the vehicle. Witnesses say that after the first volley of approximately 50 bullets, the two men were still alive. 

Anthony Vandiver, who lives in a building adjacent to the lot, saw the incident. “They were saying put your hands up, and the guys were still moving after they shot maybe 50, 60 times,” he said. “And the guy tried to put his hands up. And as soon as he put his hands up, it erupted again. And that was it for them. That guy tried his best to give up. I swear to God on everything I love, my kids, my momma, everything, I seen it all.”

Roughly two minutes passed between volleys.

After the second volley both men were dead. Said another witness: “The policemen that had on the black and white vests were out there laughing like it was so funny.”

How about a different standard than the one proposed by the writer?  How about all 23 officers stand accused of murder (with a jury composed entirely of people from the neighborhood from which the victims came), and if found guilty of first degree murder receive the death penalty.  If found guilty of second degree murder get life without the possibility of parole and live among the general prison population for the rest of their miserable existence?

Sounds reasonable to me.  Would you propose a different standard?  Why?

It’s a well worn category here, and that itself is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Amerika.  Here is the first report we discussed just recently.

HENRICO, Va. (WTVR) –Ruth Hunter, a 75-year-old woman, said she was tied up while State Police invaded her Henrico apartment.

She said officers told her during the raid what they were looking for, and court documents also show the information. She said she had nothing to do with the investigation.

Virginia State Police said a drug investigation is what prompted a Henrico County magistrate to issue a warrant for an apartment in the 5600 block of Crenshaw road.

The woman claims that officers ultimately arrested a man who lives two doors down from her.

“I thought someone was breaking in to rob or kill me,” Hunter said.

Seconds after her front door flies open Hunter said she heard a voice yell “Police!”

“…Took my hands with a tie-thing and said ‘You’re under arrest’ and started asking questions,” she recalled. “The more I told them I didn’t know these people, the more he continued.”

Hunter said that police left her apartment and went two doors down, while she was left handcuffed with a zip tie.

The fiancé of the man arrested says she was there at the time, and asked CBS 6 to hide her identity

“Just so happened they came to the apartment and they got it mixed up,’ she said.

The team left her zip tied because as you know, seventy five year old women are such an ever-present danger to law enforcement.  She could have thrown down with the best of them while they were busy doing other things, like going to the right house rather than grandmother’s place.

Next up, police in Miami-Dade badly beat a young man with Down Syndrome for packing a Colostomy bag.

Gilberto Powell says the police were following him in their cruiser as he was walking home. The police report says the officers decided to stop Gilberto after they noticed a “bulge” in Gilberto’s pants. After an officer tried to conduct a patdown, the report claims Gilberto attempted to flee.

Gilberto denies trying to run away and says he did everything the officer asked him to do. What happened next resulted in the photograph above.

After Powell was finally handcuffed and questioned, the officers realized he was “mentally challenged, was not capable of understanding our commands, and that the bulge in his waistband was a colostomy bag,” the report said.

By that time, Gilberto had been hit, knocked to the ground and the bag had reportedly been ripped from his body. The father says by the time he and Gilberto’s mother ran outside to their son, the cops had removed Gilberto’s pants and had him out there in his boxer shorts.

The mother asked the officer, “Didn’t you know he was a Down Syndrome kid?” to which the cop responded, “I’m not a doctor, I didn’t know.”

The family’s attorney Philip Gold said that it should’ve been immediately obvious that Gilberto has special needs.

If you just look at Gilberto, he 5-foot-3, 130 pounds with Down Syndrome, it’s 100 percent obvious he has Down Syndrome,” he said. It’s impossible to believe [the police’s story] if you hear one word out of Gilberto’s mouth.”

Because even though Florida’s stop and identify statute applies only to prowling and loitering, 5 foot tall boys with Down syndrome and colostomy bags are such a danger to society.

Next up, news from Framingham.

A Boston television station reported Thursday night,  Framingham Police and members of the Massachusetts State Police raided the wrong apartment Thursday morning, when conducting a drug raid.

The police meant to raid 78A at 6 a.m. Thursday morning but instead raided 78B, which was occupied by a mom and her five children, ranging in age from 4 to 18.

Oh, what’s the difference, 78A and 78B?  The alpha-numeric characters are, after all, so similar.  I’m sure that officers pointed rifles at women and children just in case, you know, so they could be assured of going home safely at the end of their shift.  But don’t forget that we have history with the Framingham Police Department when innocent Mr. Eurie Stamps was shot to death by their SWAT team.

Finally, no door is safe with a SWAT team on the prowl.

Midland-A Midland family says they don’t feel safe in their own home after the Midland Police Department’s SWAT team kicked in their front door during last Friday’s tragic standoff.

The family is asking that the city fix the damages that were made to their door, but it could take several weeks before the city takes any action.

For the past four nights, Cesar Reyna and his girlfriend have not been able to sleep in peace knowing that at anytime someone could walk right through their front door.

“I worry for the safety of my son, anything can happen whenever,” said Reyna. “Anybody can just walk into my house, it’s just uncomfortable.”

When Reyna got home from work last Friday night, his front door was wide open and police officers covered his front lawn.

“I came out and talked to them [police officers] and they said they had kicked it in, but they wouldn’t tell me why,” said Reyna.

According to Sarah Higgins,  the Public Information Officer for Midland, the SWAT team knocked on the door several times before kicking it in. She said the team had to evacuate the home being that it was right across the street from were the standoff took place.

Reyna and his family were told to call the City’s Safety and Risk Management department to file a claim for the damages that were made to their door, but when they did make the call they were told their case wouldn’t be reviewed until May 13.

These folks weren’t just on some correct or incorrect raid party list.  They lived across the street from the raid party.  They had the misfortune of living in the wrong place, and the SWAT team decided to bust in their door, and are now guilty of breaking and entering, trespassing, violation of due process rights, violation of rights against illegal search and seizure, destruction of property, vandalism, and so on the list could go.  But hey, they got to go home safely at the end of their shift.

The saddest part about all of this is that no judge in America, local, state or federal, so much as gives a damn about any of this.  They all play for the same team.  And in anticipation of comments concerning the root cause of this sorry state of affairs, it isn’t either police or judges (or politicians, for that matter).  It’s not either-or.  It’s both-and.  All participating parties are culpable for the moral obscenity and the grotesque, twisted monster that has become our system of justice.  Let the fan boys from PoliceOne.com chew on these things for a while.

WTVR.com:

HENRICO, Va. (WTVR) –Ruth Hunter, a 75-year-old woman, said she was tied up while State Police invaded her Henrico apartment.

She said officers told her during the raid what they were looking for, and court documents also show the information. She said she had nothing to do with the investigation.

Virginia State Police said a drug investigation is what prompted a Henrico County magistrate to issue a warrant for an apartment in the 5600 block of Crenshaw road.

The woman claims that officers ultimately arrested a man who lives two doors down from her.

“I thought someone was breaking in to rob or kill me,” Hunter said.

Seconds after her front door flies open Hunter said she heard a voice yell “Police!”

“…Took my hands with a tie-thing and said ‘You’re under arrest’ and started asking questions,” she recalled. “The more I told them I didn’t know these people, the more he continued.”

Hunter said that police left her apartment and went two doors down, while she was left handcuffed with a zip tie.

The fiancé of the man arrested says she was there at the time, and asked CBS 6 to hide her identity

“Just so happened they came to the apartment and they got it mixed up,’ she said.

State Police cite an ongoing drug investigation as why they can’t comment any further.

Ms. Hunter doesn’t say, but I suspect the LEOs pointed rifles at her head.  They can’t comment any further because they screwed up, and we wouldn’t want the public to get wind of things like this, would we now?  They may start to question why we have to do raids like this in the first place.

At 75 years old, it’s seriously in doubt that she posed any threat to anyone, much less the police, and the fact that she was zip tied is obscene.  Hey, but at least the LEOs got to go home safely at the end of their shift, and that’s what’s really important, right?

TechDirt:

This insight into how police think the public should interact with them is certainly enlightening. (via this tweet and Amy Alkon’s Advice Goddess blog)

The backstory is this: a woman was walking down the street when a motorcycle cop approached her, asked her if she lived in the area and if she would talk to him. She says his approach made her feel uncomfortable, so she refused and continued on her way.

“I thought that maybe he was flirting,” she said. “I just thought it was odd, I thought it was odd. I wasn’t really sure but I felt uncomfortable because there wasn’t anyone around.”

She says she was worried he might not even a real cop, so she refused to stop and began jogging away from him.

“He just crept along beside me on his motorcycle and he started saying, ‘Hey ma’am! I want to talk to you. Hey stop, ma’am! I want to talk to you.’ Then my anxiety rose even higher,” she said.

This was followed shortly thereafter by the cop dismounting, chasing her down, tackling her and placing her under arrest. The police chief claims this arrest was for “walking on the wrong side of the road,” (as well as “evading arrest” and “resisting arrest”) despite the fact that the woman wasn’t ultimately charged with anything.

Even if the preceding events could possibly be dismissed as hearsay, or something tainted by false impressions and emotions, there’s the police chief’s responses to questions about this interaction.

Whitehouse Police Chief Craig Shelton says this:

Shelton says by law you’re not required to stop and talk to an officer if there’s not a lawful reason for them to be stopping you.

But then he says this:

“Normally if a police officer pulls up, in my opinion, it’s awful odd for somebody just to take off and not want to speak to the police officer,” Shelton said.

Let’s rehearse this one more time for the uninitiated among us, even if the police chief is lying and knows it.

Do … not … ever … talk … to … the … police.  Ever.  Got it?  Good.