Category Archives: Police Misconduct

Wednesday Afternoon links

  • Two Texas cops indicted for illegally initiating a roadside body cavity search of two women stopped for littering.  The male officer who initiated the stop was charged with theft and the female officer who conducted the cavity search was charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression.
  • The FBI is pursuing real time Gmail spying power as top priority for 2013.  Because, if you have nothing to hide, why do you need privacy anyway?
  • Two years after being ordered to by the the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, the TSA is finally initiating the public comment period required before they can set up the full body scanners they’ve already been using since 2007.
  • Cost for a one-night stay in Paris for the Vice President?  $585,000.50   More than $100,000 more than his stay in London which only cost a measly $459,338.65  So, how many federal jobs could be saved from sequester if Biden were to do what VPs are supposed to do: nothing.

If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative.
If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate.
If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.

“Need” now means wanting someone else’s money.
“Greed” now means wanting to keep your own.
“Compassion” is when a politician arranges the transfer.

Tuesday Afternoon links

When a cop brings a drug dog to your front door, he is conducting a search, so he better have a warrant before he does it.  So says the Supreme Court in a judgement in the case of Florida v. Jardines handed down this morning.  The fact that it was a 5 to 4 decision illustrates how tenuous your few remaining rights actually are. For more background read This Dog Can Send You to Jail.

Bitcoin is going to open an ATM in Cyrpus.  Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that, unlike government operated central banks, increases supply only under rigid automated rules.

The Tennessee legislature is considering a bill that would abolish the power of police to seize property without ever charging the property owner with a crime, a practice universally referred to as theft if conducted by any other entity.

Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government. In Hale County, Alabama, 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.

A Tunisian preacher has called for a 19-year old girl who posted her topless pictures on Facebook to be “quarantined” and stoned to death before she starts “an epidemic.”  She also had the words, “My body belongs to me” written across her chest.

Only a cop could crash into a dirt bike with a squad car from behind (twice!) and then blame it on the biker, charging him with reckless endangerment.  I bet cops hate it when video, showing their blatant abuses, winds up on the internet.   The name of the biker is, of course, public, while the name of the cop is protected.

Sacramento cop pleads guilty to lying his ass off

According to News 10:

Former Sacramento police officer Brandon Mullock, 27, was charged with four felony charges – one count of perjury, three counts of filing false police reports, Sacramento County District Attorney Office spokesperson Shelly Orio said.

Here is where it gets a little funny:

Orio said during the investigation, the police department and the D.A.’s office found the Mullock lied about DUI suspects refusing to do field sobriety tests, staggering or slurring their speech, and suspects making incriminating statements about being drunk.

Notice how the DA spokesman acts like it was the DA that uncovered the fact that Mullock was cranking out bullshit?  Actually, based on story from 2010, it sounds more like it was defense attorneys Alan Donato and Mark Sollitt who brought this abuse of power to light.  District attorneys aren’t in the habit of making noticing behavior that could flush dozens of convictions 73 to be exact) down the toilet and if it weren’t for defense attorneys fighting back against this kind of crap, you can be damn sure that prosecutors would still be merrily wrecking people’s lives on the word of this asshole.  Why?  Because police departments rarely have  any mechanism for detecting abuse of powers by their officers and when they do find misbehavior, their first move is usually to go into damage control mode and protect the cop involved.  Prosecutors care about convictions, not justice.

In any case, it’s good to see a cop brought to justice when stuff like this happens.  Sentencing is scheduled for April 19th.

After 23 years in prison, murder conviction vacated

From Reuters:

David Ranta, 58, spent 23 years in prison until the conviction integrity unit of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office concluded after a year-long investigation that the case against him was fatally flawed.

The whole case reeks of sleazy self-serving police work wherein an innocent man was convicted in 1991 and the real killer went free.  Police coached a 13 year old witness who to pick out of a police line-up.   A jail house snitch testified against Ranta in exchange for a lighter sentence.   One of the investigating cops claimed to have elicited a confession, but provided no corroborating evidence.  The actual target of the robbery testified that Ranta was “100 percent not” the killer.

When the case started to fall apart, prosecutors aggressively maintained the validity of the conviction.  In 1996 a woman testified that her deceased husband confessed to the murder and, in fact, an anonymous tipster actually identified the same man shortly after the murder.

It’s not about catching the bad guys.  It’s about getting a conviction, sometimes at any cost.

The case is the latest in a string of wrongful convictions that have gained media attention in recent months, creating a headache for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who faces a rare primary challenge in September as he runs for a seventh four-year term.

On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Hynes’ office from retrying a man, William Lopez, whose 1989 murder conviction was overturned earlier this year after questions arose about witness accounts.

In 2010, a federal judge freed another man, Jabbar Collins, after he spent 16 years in prison for allegedly shooting his landlord. U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry concluded that Brooklyn prosecutors had relied on false testimony and threatened a witness and faulted Hynes’ office for continuing to deny any wrongdoing.

You can be sure that none of the cops or prosecutors responsible for these corrupt life-destroying convictions will ever face any consequences, which is precisely why these abuses of power are repeated constantly everywhere in the country.  Ranta’s lawyer plans to sue New York, but any judgement will be paid, not by the government employees who destroyed Ranta’s life, but by New York taxpayers.  The U.S. justice system takes care of its own.

Afternoon Links

  • Fifth Circuit rules that Benedictine monks can make and sell low cost caskets in Louisiana referring to the regulation as “nonsensical”.  Up to now, state law forbade anyone except state license funeral homes from selling caskets.  You know, to protect the people.  Such a law would instantly be recognized as sleazy political corruption by anywhere except in “the land of the free”.
  • No charges will be filed against a New Jersey man who posted a picture on Facebook of his son holding “what appeared to be a military-style rifle”.  From what I’ve heard through various news sources, it’s pretty obvious the cops, acting on an anonymous tip called into a child abuse hotline, used intimidation tactics to try and get permission to search the house and record the serial numbers of his weapons.  Well, you know, anything to protect the children…
  • Kill Anything that Moves is the name of a new book about Vietnam that I just added to my Amazon wish list.  The reason you have to read numerous books about war is no other governmental activity generates so much official and mainstream media bullshit.  We will never hear the story of what the U.S. really did in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Egypt, Mali, or Syria until everyone who played a role in it is dead.  By then  most of us will also be dead.
  • The “Rise of the naked female warriors“.  I wish two things.  First that they had a position I believed in and second that they weren’t always protesting in places so far from where I live.  They clearly favor using nudity and sex as a means to get attention.  But, they oppose women using nudity and sex to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.  The same story in U.S. media outlets would, of course, be edited to satisfy those who vociferously claim to be offended by nudity in order to make sure no one else can see it.
  • Obama declares that the oxymoron, Mideast Peace, is not an oxymoron just as every U.S. president since WWII has done.  Peace will remain perpetually unlikely as long as neither the Palestinian nor Israeli (or U.S.) governments would benefit from it.  Obama supports a two-state solution which is exactly one state beyond what the Israeli government is willing to agree to.

Want to know the latest tactics used by marcs to keep your lawyer in the dark?

Well, maybe you should have been at this course offered by the California Narcotics Officers’ Association:

narc-darkWith the growing use of informants, wiretaps and sealed search warrants, it is imperative that law enforcement can conduct investigations and prosecutions without having to disclose sensitive information to the defendant and his attorney.

Because if government, at all levels, has learned anything over the last decade or so, it’s the importance of secrecy.  After all, it’s not about justice.  It’s about getting convictions and pumping fresh warm bodies into the prison industrial complex.  It’s about law enforcement versus ordinary peasants and it’s about winning.

Henderson, NV cop not drunk, just incredibly stupid

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Henderson police officer, Justin Simo, has been suspended pending an investigation into a report that he drove a $50,000 unmarked SWAT vehicle that was obviously damaged and unsafe.  Another motorist noticed the smoking SUV and followed it as it eventually started spewing sparks.

“My first thought was a drunk driver or something. It was evident the tire was completely gone on the car. I said, ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ ” said the man, who asked that his name not be used.

Not knowing it was a SWAT vehicle, the motorist called 911.  By the time the SUV stopped, it was on fire.

“The dude came out (of the car) and said, ‘Can you believe this? My car’s on fire,’ ” the caller said. “I said, ‘Dude, you just drove a mile and a half on a blown tire.’ ”

At this point the motorist was trying to warn Simo to move away from the burning SUV while simultaneously conversing with the 911 dispatcher, saying “I’m sorry. I’m trying to talk to him. I think he’s drunk.”  Simo was suspended with pay after a story was published about the incident five days later.  The Review-Journal says it is uncertain if any sobriety test was conducted even though the Las Vegas police were aware of the 911 caller’s suspicions.

Las Vegas police, which investigated the fire, determined nothing criminal had taken place and did not take an incident report, spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said.

Henderson police declared there was no evidence that he’d been drinking.  Of course, if there was no test, there would be no evidence.

The contents of the vehicle, including tactical gear and a computer were lost.  Simo managed to rescue at least some of the firearms.

The motorist who called 911 was never questioned by police and didn’t know the SUV driver was a cop until he was contacted by a reporter.

“He told me there was ammo inside,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why don’t you get a little closer, you moron.’ ”

It didn’t matter to him whether Simo had been drinking, he said.

“For anyone to drive a mile with your tire blown out is kind of an idiot in itself.”

LAPD audacity knows no bounds

Last month, when LAPD was conducting a manhunt for ex-cop, Christopher Dorner, they let loose a barrage of bullets on a pickup truck similar to the one Dorner was driving.  Unfortunately, there were only two women in the truck delivering newspapers.  The two women survived the shooting, but their truck was riddled with over a hundred bullet holes.

LAPD offered to replace the truck, but the women rejected the offer when it turned out they would have to pay income tax on the truck (valued at $32,560) as if it were a gift.  And, to top it off, according to Glen Jonas, the attorney for the women, the LAPD and the Ford dealer wanted the women to pose with the new truck for a photo op.

Then there’s this little comment that will almost certainly make you blow coffee out your nose:

“It’s really sad for us because we want to help these women move on with their lives, and help them move forward with that, we just can’t get past the 1099 issue,” LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

Those poor cops.  It’s always all about them.

After the shooting, Jonas said he was shocked by the officers’ actions. He said neither the size of the women nor the blue Toyota Tundra truck they were in matched the description of Dorner’s Nissan Titan.

Eight officers were involved in the shooting. They were assigned to non-field assignments “until the (police) chief decides otherwise.”

Typical strategy for these kinds of events is for the cops to string out the “investigation” until the public outrage dissipates and then quietly clear the officers of any wrong-doing.

As I wrote a few days ago, not all the bullets went into the truck.  They apparently sprayed the entire neighborhood with lead.

Monday morning links

  • Former SFPD crime lab tech pleads guilty to misdemeanor.  She resigned in 2009 after being caught using cocaine that came in as crime scene evidence. She thought the cocaine would help her control her drinking problem.  The scandal led to the dismissal of hundreds of drug cases.
  • West Sacramento police officer Sergio Avarez for using his authority to rape women in his patrol car.  He was put on administrative leave back in September and an investigation ensued.  the police chief says they are reviewing their procedures to see how this could have happened.
  • The U.S. Air Force is no longer reporting data on drone attacks in Afghanistan.  Reporting this data was fine when no one was paying attention, but routinely killing innocent civilians in numerous other countries seems to be drawing unwanted attention to the U.S. war-based foreign policy.
  • When a Michigan elementary school third grader brought cupcakes topped with toy soldiers to school to celebrate his birthday, the school principal removed the little figurines saying it was inappropriate and inconsiderate considering recent school tragedies.
  • Police in Garland, Texas, illegally searched a property and car without permission or a warrant.  Unfortunately, for the cops, the search was caught on surveillance cameras before one of the cops was able to twist the camera around so it pointed at the wall.  The police department is self-investigating the case, so we can rest assured justice will be done.
  • Grace Wyler at Business Insider thinks “Paul’s filibuster — and the groundswell of support for it across the conservative spectrum — was a crowning moment, signaling their reintegration into the mainstream Republican Party,”    So that’s all it takes to bring libertarians back into big government, war mongering, bible thumping, big spending, republican party?  I think not.

Just minding our own business when 7 cops beat us up

This incident happened on February 10th.  Video (below) shows two black teens, 17 and 18 years old, standing on a street in the French Quarter in New Orleans when they were approached by a group of seven white plain clothes state police officers.  From the NOLA Defender:

One state police officer slings one of the men across the sidewalk. The rest then pile on each of the men. According to Fox 8, the incident took place in the 700 block of Conti St. after a parade on Sun., Feb. 10. The mother of 18-year-old Ferdinand Hunt, who is a New Orleans police officer, left her son to get something to eat. That’s when the cops approached him and 17-year-old Sidney Newman, Fox 8 reported. During the video the mother returns, and the police then leave the scene.

The cops say they just approached to ID the boys.  Here is the video from Fox 8:

FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports

At a N.O. City Council hearing on March 5th, LA State Police Superintendent Michael Edmondson emphasized his commitment to transparency saying “I believe the public has a right to know.”  But there were complaints that the NOPD makes it difficult to file complaints.  This is a common strategy among many police departments.  The police profession is not known for transparency.  It has established a reputation for being just the opposite.  The only kind of transparency that cops respect is publicly available video which is probably the only reason this story received any attention at all..

The LA State Police are conducting an internal investigation, but it’s already pretty clear that no one in their department feels these officers are in any real trouble.

The officers in question are still in active duty, and [LA State Police Superintendent] Edmondson emphasized that the group has “80 years of experience between them.” Many who took to the mike following Edmondson’s testimony were outraged that the officers were still in the field, noting that such an investigation usually warrants desk duty or suspension for officers involved.

Luckily, the FBI is also involved, not that the FBI is necessarily any more ethical, but at least they are independent.

The March 6th NOLA Defender article ends on an interesting note:

Elsewhere yesterday, two NOPD officers, Mike Field and Jamal Kendrick, were suspended for beating handcuffed captives in two 2012 separate incidents.