POLICING BY CONSENT

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msfreeh
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Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

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Is It Time to Retire FBI Crime Statistics?

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

http://www.allgov.com/news/unusual-news ... ews=857470" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A coalition of law enforcement organizations is calling on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to ditch its longtime system for tracking crime statistics, which has been shown to be incomplete.

The FBI needs to modernize nationwide crime reporting and related data, says the coalition that includes the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, National Sheriffs' Association, and Major County Sheriffs' Association.

The groups argue the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), established in 1929, should replace its Summary Reporting System (SRS) with the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) within the next five years. A gradual transition from SRS to NIBRS has already been in progress, but the coalition is urging the agency to set its sights on a complete changeover within that time frame.

Currently, more than 6,500 law enforcement agencies, representing 34 states, regularly report to NIBRS.

“It is recognized that the current FBI UCR Program does not collect data that adequately reflects modern crime and related activities nor does it share crime reporting and related

msfreeh
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Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

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viewforum.php?f=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Antonio Cromartie’s wife accuses NJ cops of racial profiling
The wife of Jets CB Antonio Cromartie accuses New Jersey police of racial profiling.
September 24 2015


The wife of Jets CB Antonio Cromartie accuses New Jersey police of racial profiling.

The wife of Jets star cornerback Antonio Cromartie said Friday she was racially profiled by a police officer during a traffic stop in New Jersey.

Terricka Cromartie took to Instagram Friday morning to complain about the incident with the Madison, N.J. officer, posting one video of the exchange and a second, showing her speaking to the camera about the incident.

In the video with the officer, Cromartie seems to question why she has to roll her window down, producing an uneven back and forth.

Officer: "For safety reasons."

Cromartie: "For safety, but I'm not authorized to do that, either."

Officer: "You don't have to, which I explained to you."

Cromartie: "So now I have to tell you why I'm in Madison?"

Officer: "You don't have to."

Cromartie: "But why are you asking me why I'm in Madison?"

Officer: "Just curious."

Cromartie: "Well, you don't have to be curious about why I'm in Madison."

Officer: "OK. All right, just hang tight, ma'am, for me. And I'll be right back, all right?"

Cromartie, a former music video dancer and model, says she repeatedly asked the officer why she had been pulled over, but never got an answer.

The videos have since been removed.

“When you get pulled over for driving Black in Madison,” Cromartie wrote inthe caption of one of the posts. “FYI I was pulled over for no reason, just to ask me to roll my windows, and why am I in Madison. Like how you don’t know I live here.”

Driving while Black... I’m thankful to be able to even make this message so many weren’t as luck. But how do you

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

PUBLICSOURCE The Pennsylvania State Police had only one line-of-duty shooting ruled ‘improper’ in eight years.
When Pa. State Police shoot, it’s almost always ruled ‘justified’

Published: September 27, 2015

Since 2008, Pennsylvania State Police troopers intentionally fired their guns in the line of duty at least 120 times.

Only one of those shootings was deemed “improper” by internal investigators, according to records obtained by PublicSource. That’s less than 1 percent of the shootings.

The near-perfect record covers a period when at least 18 citizens were killed by troopers who felt a threat to themselves or others and fired their service weapons.

Yet the agency, which insists its investigations are free from bias, declined to provide PublicSource with details on that single maligned shooting from 2010, saying it was a personnel matter. Nor could the state police provide updated statistics on the number of citizens killed by troopers.

PublicSource filed three open-records requests over six months and still ended up with scant detail about the outcomes of use-of-force investigations. The internal reports provided the numbers on investigation results, but no details on the shootings themselves.

The lack of transparency from the Pennsylvania State Police comes at a time when shootings in local police departments have been under intense scrutiny because of the rolling tide of police shootings nationwide. Communities in Ferguson, Missouri, Cleveland and Philadelphia have been outraged over the use of deadly force by officers and asked why shootings are nearly always justified.

http://m.citizensvoice.com/news/when-pa ... -1.1949402" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The pristine record of the Pennsylvania State Police could well be a mark of strong training, rather than a record of poor judgment. But that is impossible to examine because there is so little information about the investigations.

“You want to know, is the (police) organization really that good or is this process flawed?” said David Harris, professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh.

Police owe the public the “greatest degree of transparency that they can muster,” including the release of policies on how and when force can be used, he said.

Killing in Fayette

Shawn Knight was shot dead by troopers in Fayette County in 2013.

His death is either an example of troopers reasonably defending themselves, or a tale of an innocent man shot dead in his home moments after being roused from sleep.

A June lawsuit from Knight’s widow, Kim, claims two troopers responded to a domestic disturbance call in North Union and, upon arrival, were told that the argument between Knight, 50, and his daughter ended and that they were no longer needed.

But, according to the lawsuit, the troopers pushed over Kim Knight, entered the home and exited after spotting two handguns on the table, which they’d been told were present.

Shawn Knight, according to the lawsuit, was startled awake and picked up the guns after the troopers left, but did not realize they were law enforcement or raise the weapons. After opening his front door, Knight was struck by three bullets, with others in close proximity

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

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http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/201 ... /73049034/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Family: Desert Hot Springs pushed former cop to suicide


September 29 2015

An undated photo of former Desert Hot Springs police officer Andrea Heath, who claimed her colleagues retaliated against her for cooperating with an FBI investigation into their wrongdoing.

Desert Hot Springs and several of its employees pushed a former police officer to commit suicide, her family is alleging in a federal lawsuit.

Andrea Heath shot herself in the head two years ago amid another lawsuit against the city, in which she claimed her fellow officers harassed and intimidated her for reporting their use of excessive force to federal investigators.

Her son and the father of Heath’s daughter are still continuing that case in her absence. But they sued the city and many former officers again Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming for the first time that colleagues and supervisors’ actions caused Heath to commit suicide in 2013 in her Cathedral City apartment.

“They didn’t pull the trigger, but they drove her to it,” said Jerry Steering, who represents Heath’s family. “They know what they did. It’s time for them to pay for it.”

Most of the defendants in the case no longer work for the city.

Heath’s family is seeking for more than $30 million in damages. The earlier lawsuit, also filed in federal court, is awaiting a conference between attorneys.

Laura Kalty, who represents the city and other defendants - including former police chiefs and a former city manager - in the earlier case, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Heath started her job with the department in 1996. The city demoted her to trainee status more than a decade later, finally putting her on disability retirement in 2011.

Photo courtesy Jerry Steering

An undated photo of former Desert Hot Springs police officer Andrea Heath, who claimed her colleagues retaliated against her for cooperating with an FBI investigation into their wrongdoing.

The city has argued Heath performed poorly and didn’t respond to training.

But Steering said her involuntary retirement came after years of harassment that stemmed from Heath’s cooperation with an FBI investigation.

Heath spoke to federal investigators — who were already probing the department — in 2007. She told them she saw many Desert Hot Springs officers “falsely arrest, beat, tase, pepper-spray and otherwise torture” detainees and arrestees, according to court documents.

After Heath spoke to the FBI, other officers refused to back her up on dangerous calls, referred to her as a “rat” and tampered with her office computer, the lawsuits claim.

A grand jury later indicted two of Heath’s colleagues for civil rights violations. One pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and served community service. The other, Sgt. Anthony Sclafani, drew a four-year prison sentence in 2012 for using excessive force against suspects. He’s one o

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

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http://www.cato.org/blog/intimidation-g ... n-chaffetz" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



October 1, 2015 1:21PM
The Intimidation Game: The Secret Service vs. Jason Chaffetz


Most of the controversy over government surveillance programs in the last few years has focused on fears of what the NSA or FBI might do with the personal data they’ve collected on Americans guilty of no crime. But what if you’ve applied for a federal job? Surely that information would not be misused or improperly accessed, particularly since it is protected by the Privacy Act?

That’s probably what now-Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) thought when he applied for a job with the Secret Service in 2003. But as the chairman of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chaffetz earned the hatred of many in the Secret Service for his investigations into the agency’s many recent blunders and scandals. Thanks to a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General investigation into the leak of Chaffetz’ 2003 Secret Service application, we now have an idea of how extensive the leak of his personal information was throughout the agency. As the IG noted:

We were unable to determine with certainty how many of those individuals in turn disclosed this information to others who did not have a need to know, who
may have then told others. However, the disclosure was widespread, and recipients of the information likely numbered in the hundreds. Those agents
we interviewed acknowledged freely sharing it with others in the Secret Service, often contemporaneously with accessing the information. One agent reported
that by the end of the second day, he was sent on a protection assignment in New York City for the visit of the President of Afghanistan, and many of the
approximately 70 agents at the protection briefing were talking about the issue.

With one exception, the IG also found that senior civil servants in the Secret Service did nothing to stop the propogation of Chaffetz’ personal data:

We identified 18 supervisors at the GS-15 or Senior Executive Service level who appeared to have known or should have known, prior to the publication of the fact, that Chairman Chaffetz’ MCI record was being accessed. Yet, with a single exception, we found no evidence that any of these senior Secret Service managers attempted to inform the Director or higher levels of the supervisory chain, or to stop or remediate the activity. Furthermore, we found no evidence that a manager at any level issued written guidance for employees to discontinue accessing MCI for anything but official use.

Chaffetz’ file was accessed at 29 different Secret Service facilities. None of the federal employees who did so had a legitimate reason to look at Chaffetz’ file. Assistant Director for Training Ed Lowry emailed a colleague stating “Some information he might find embarrassing needs to get out. Just to be fair.” While the IG investigators could not link Lowry to the leak of the Chaffetz file to the media, someone within the Secret Service clearly did so.

The leak of Chairman Chaffetz’ employment application was a clear attempt to intimidate or punish him for doing his job: overseeing the conduct of a federal agency under his committee’s jurisdiction. This incident comes just a year after revelations about the hacking by CIA employees of computers used by Senate Intelligence Committee staff investigating the CIA’s torture program. To date, there have been no prosecutions in either case or any attempts by Congress to use the impeachment mechanism to remove implicated federal officials. The lack of accountability in these episodes only invites further assaults on Congress’ status as an independent, co-equal branch of government.
Topics:
Government and Politics, Law and Civil Liberties
Tags:
Chaffetz, Congress, Secs




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msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/l ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brown signs legislation to protect minorities from racial profiling and excessive force
LAPD body camera
Under new legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, police agencies whose officers wear body cameras will have to follow rules on storing and using the video so it is not mishandled.

In the wake of national public anger over killings by police in New York, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere, landmark California legislation to protect minorities from racial profiling and excessive force won Gov. Jerry Brown's signature Saturday.

At the same time, the governor issued a blunt warning against the proliferation of laws criminalizing behavior as he rejected a trio of proposals intended to bar the misuse of unmanned drones.

In a forceful veto message, Brown said lawmakers were unnecessarily complicating California's criminal code, which he said had grown to more than 5,000 provisions "covering every conceivable form of human misbehavior."

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

can you name the retired FBI agent working for Motorola?



Nah, didn,'t think so....









WASHINGTON — Responding to a vendor protest, the Government Accountability Office has concluded the FBI should for a second time scrap its planned acquisition of a new nationwide two-way radio system because its proposal amounts to a single-source award to industry giant Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Lawyers for the GAO, which serves as the referee for federal contracting disputes, concluded that two bureau radio solicitations estimated to be worth $335 million conflict with federal procurement rules and require equipment that only Motorola can produce.

They urged the FBI to cancel its solicitations, “consider alternatives” and reimburse Motorola’s largest rival, Virginia-based Harris Corp., for the costs of its protest.

The decision, dated Friday, is another embarrassment for the bureau as it wrestles with how to replace its existing, 30-year-old Motorola system containing proprietary features designed to interact only with the company’s own products. The development puts the FBI, which could be called upon to investigate antitrust issues in the same market, in the awkward position of appearing biased toward the firm that has for decades dominated the U.S. two-way radio industry.

A bureau spokesman declined immediate comment on its next course.

Motorola critics blame the company’s past use of proprietary equipment for slowing progress toward the post-Sept. 11, 2001, goal of ensuring that first responders across the country carry radios meeting uniform design standards so they can interact regardless of their manufacturer.

Troubles over the FBI’s contract started when, in 2014, the bureau disclosed plans to award Motorola a sole-source contract worth up to $500 million and insisted any new system must interface with legacy Motorola equipment. The proposal not only called for a new radio system for the bureau’s 56 field offices and the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va., but it also allotted as much as $170 million for other federal law enforcement agencies to upgrade their networks with new Motorola equipment.

After Harris and three other Motorola rivals formally protested, the bureau scuttled the solicitation. Its technology officials then spent months crafting two supposedly competitive solicitations and last May, they invited bids for radio equipment and infrastructure for a new FBI system.

But Harris protested again, contending the bureau’s plan to issue “indefinite quantity” contracts under which awards would be made to the winning bidder

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/10/05/645 ... rylink=cpy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Motorola bias protest upheld; FBI urged to redo bid solicitation again

WASHINGTON — Responding to a vendor protest, the Government Accountability Office has concluded the FBI should for a second time scrap ...

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/28/fbi.tests.cheating/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Justice Department reviewing reports of FBI test cheating

The Justice Department is investigating reports that FBI agents cheated on a test
The exam was on surveillance guidelines

Hundreds of agents took the test, which was an open-book exam



Washington (CNN) -- The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General has launched an investigation into whether large numbers of FBI agents may have improperly taken a test on guidelines for agents, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

During a congressional hearing Wednesday, Mueller was asked about reports hundreds of agents may have cheated on the exams, which focused on guidelines that limit surveillance, and he responded he did not know the precise number and is not certain the inspector general knows that number.

Mueller said the inspector general has told him about certain FBI offices where testing problems were "widespread, and it may be attributable to a lack of understanding and confusion about procedures."

Mueller said all agents and some other FBI personnel received more than 16 hours of training on the guidelines and then took exams. "There was a test given a year ago. It was an open-book test," Mueller said. The FBI director added the testing rules said agents "should not get help from another person."

Reports about test-taking problems include instances where agents finished the exams much more quickly than would be expected, and instances in which agents might have taken the test together, law enforcement officials said.

Mueller said he would wait to hear from the inspector general and then he expected to follow any recommendations for changes. He said he thinks the training is proving effective and has led to an 80 percent reduction in paperwork errors. "I do believe that our workforce absolutely understands what can be investigated, how it must be investigated," Mueller said.

The president of the FBI Agents Association, Konrad Motyka, wrote a letter to the Justice Department's inspector general several months ago saying agents were confused about the rules for taking the test. CNN called Motyka but was told he is unavailable to comment.

One law enforcement official objected to the use of the term cheating to describe the problems with the test. "Maybe there was a miscommunication, but it was an open-book training test," the official said.

An early indication that some agents might be breaking the test-taking rules came to light in late 2009 with reports of problems in the Washington field office. The FBI assistant director in charge of that office, Joseph Persichini, retired while a review of test-taking in the office was underway.

The guidelines, known as the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, were instituted in late 2008. They allow agents to conduct surveillance for national security purposes even without evidence of a crime.

Interest groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have raised concerns the FBI could g

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

Prosecutor, police union still at odds in boy’s death


http://t.union-bulletin.com/news/2015/o ... oys-death/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?


Monday, October 12, 2015



COLUMBUS, Ohio ( The Cleveland police union and the local prosecutor remain at odds even after the release of expert reports that found a white officer was justified in fatally shooting a 12-year-old black boy last year.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty accuses the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association of failing to cooperate with the investigation into the death of Tamir Rice. The union counters that McGinty is just grandstanding.

It is the latest clash between a prosecutor and union who fought over the prosecution of another officer in a racially charged case in a city under federal scrutiny for how its police force interacts with the public.

“The union operates by a double standard,” McGinty said. “It rightly asks the general public to have the courage to cooperate with police in serious criminal investigations, yet when the conduct of officers is being investigated, refuses to help.”

Union President Steve Loomis said McGinty is ignoring the rights that officers have to not give statements during such investigations.

“What he expects us to do, because we’re police officers, is just ignore the Constitution,” Loomis said Sunday. He added: “We have rights like every

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/ne ... ed-in-2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/ne ... ed-in-2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


FBI agent involved in 2013 shooting transferred to different division

.

The FBI said Wednesday that an agent who fatally shot a man in New Orleans East more than two years ago remains employed by the bureau but has been transferred to a different division.

Agent John Sablatura requested to be transferred “for reasons unrelated to” the July 2013 fatal shooting of Allen Desdunes, said Craig Betbeze, a spokesman for the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office. “He remains an FBI employee in good standing,” Betbeze said.

While he has not faced criminal charges, Sablatura has been sued for wrongful death in Desdunes’ shooting. Desdunes’ family claims the agent fatally shot Desdunes at close range without provocation during a drug investigation.

The FBI has declined to comment on the shooting. A federal magistrate ordered the name of the agent to be made public earlier this week.

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.abqjournal.com/661096/news/e ... riers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Ex-Springer police chief pleads guilty to helping deputy steal from officers posing as drug couriers

Friday, October 16th, 2015 at 5:32pm

SANTA FE – The former police chief of the northern New Mexico town of Springer has pleaded guilty to helping a then-deputy steal $7,500 from men the deputy believed were drug couriers — but who turned out to be undercover state and federal agents investigating the Colfax County deputy’s cooperation with drug transports in return for cash.

Ex-Springer chief Leon Herrera, in his plea agreement Thursday, acknowledged that he pretended to be a federal Drug Enforcem

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... -thousands" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people

Exclusive: Guardian lawsuit exposes fullest scale yet of detentions at off-the-books interrogation warehouse, while attorneys describe find-your-client chase across Chicago as ‘something from a Bond movie’
As one attorney whose client was taken to Homan Square said: ‘Operating a massive, warehouse between two crime-filled areas in Chicago ... the demographics that surround it speak for themselves.’ Video by Philipp Batta and Mae Ryan

see link for full story



Monday 19 October 2015 08.30 EDT
Last modified on Monday 19 October 2015 09.48 EDT



Police “disappeared” more than 7,000 people at an off-the-books interrogation warehouse in Chicago, nearly twice as many detentions as previously disclosed, the Guardian can now reveal.
Homan Square: an interactive portrait of detainees at Chicago's police facility
Read more

From August 2004 to June 2015, nearly 6,000 of those held at the facility were black, which represents more than twice the proportion of the city’s population. But only 68 of those held were allowed access to attorneys or a public notice of their whereabouts, internal police records show.

The new disclosures, the result of an ongoing Guardian transparency lawsuit and investigation, provide the most detailed, full-scale portrait yet of the truth about Homan Square, a secretive facility that Chicago police have described as little more than a low-level narcotics crime outpost where the mayor has said police “follow all the rules”.
Advertisement

The police portrayals contrast sharply with those of Homan Square detainees and their lawyers, who insist that “if this could happen to someone, it could happen to anyone”. A 30-year-old man named Jose, for example, was one of the few detainees with an attorney present when he surrendered to police. He said officers at the warehouse questioned him even after his lawyer specifically told them he would not speak.

“The Fillmore and Homan boys,” Jose said, referring to police and the facility’s cross streets, “don’t play by the rules.”

According to an analysis of data disclosed to the Guardian in late September, police allowed lawyers access to Homan Square for only 0.94% of the 7,185 arrests logged over nearly 11 years. That percentage aligns with Chicago police’s broader practice of providing minimal access to attorneys during the crucial early interrogation stage, when an arrestee’s constitutional rights against self-incrimination are most vulnerable.

But Homan Square is unlike Chicago police precinct houses, according to lawyers who described a “find-your-client game” and experts who reviewed data from the latest tranche of arrestee records obtained by the Guardian.

That place was and is scary. There's nothing about it that resembles a police station
Attorney David Gaeger

“Not much shakes me in this business – baby murder, sex assault, I’ve done it all,” said David Gaeger, an attorney whose client was taken to Homan Square in 2011 after being arrested for marijuana. “That place was and is scary. It’s a scary place. There’s nothing about it that resembles a police station. It comes from a Bond movie or something.”
Advertisement

The narcotics, vice and anti-gang units operating out of Homan Square, on Chicago’s west side, take arrestees to the nondescript warehouse from all over the city: police data obtained by the Guardian and mapped against the city grid show that 53% of disclosed arrestees come from more than 2.5 miles away from the warehouse. No contemporaneous public record of someone’s presence at Homan Square is known to exist.

Nor are any booking records generated at Homan Square, as confirmed by a sworn deposition of a police researcher in late September, further preventing relatives or attorneys from finding someone taken there.

“The reality is, no one knows where that person is at Homan Square,” said Craig Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who studies policing. “They’re disappeared at that point.”

A Chicago police spokesman did not respond to a list of questions for this article, including why the department had doubled its initial arrest disclosures without an explanation for the lag. “If lawyers have a client detained at Homan Square, just like any other facility, they are allowed to speak to and visit them,” the police claimed in a February statement.
Numbers are ‘hard to believe’

Twenty-two people have told the Guardian that Chicago police kept them at Homan Square for hours and even days. They describe pressure from officers to become informants, and all but two – both white – have said the police denied them phone calls to alert relatives or attorneys of their whereabouts.

Their accounts point to violations of police directives, which say police must “complete the booking process” regardless of their interest in interrogating a suspect and must also “allow the arrestee to make a reasonable number of telephone calls to an attorney, family member or friend”, usually within “the first hour” of detention.

The most recent disclosure of Homan Square data provides the scale behind those accounts: the demographic trends within the 7,185 disclosed arrests at the warehouse are now far more vast than what the Guardian reported in August after launching the transparency lawsuit – but are consistently disproportionate in terms of race and constitutional access to legal counsel.

82.2% of people detained at Homan Square were black, compared with 32.9% of the Chicago population.
11.8% of detainees in the Homan Square logs were Hispanic, compared with 28.9% of the population.
5.5% of the detainees were white, compared with 31.7% of the population.
Of the 68 people who Chicago police claim ha

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.defendingdissent.org/now/new ... rrests-up/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Police Body Cams: Complaints Down, Arrests Up

Suraj Sazawal , October 23, 2015, In : News

The widespread call for police officers to wear body cameras to improve fraught relations between the public and police is understandable. Proponents view body-worn cameras (BWCs) as an expedient solution amid a climate of distrust, allowing interactions with law enforcement to be filmed and available later for review if abuse of force is alleged. But the large-scale use of this technology raises a host of questions, including the impact on privacy rights and police-community relations. And it needs to be asked: Will BWCs improve police accountability?

Here comes the data. Several recent studies examined the effects body cameras have on police behavior shedding some much needed light on this emerging trend. In cities as diverse as Phoenix, Orlando, Denver and San Diego, researchers found that while the number of complaints against officers often dropped when cameras are rolling, other findings suggest that BWCs are easily subverted and could create unanticipated problems for those on the other end of the camera lens.

During a six month pilot study in Denver, for example, only one in five incidents involving police officers using force or non-lethal weapons like stun guns and pepper spray were captured on film. Only “21 of 80 uses of force (26%) were recorded” by BWCs, the report said. The reasons for this are many: officers say they didn’t have time to activate their camera before a situation escalated, equipment errors, the officers involved in the incident weren’t participating in the study, and officers disabling cameras after they assumed trouble had passed. Similar results turned up in Phoenix’s study: depending on the month, only “13.2 to 42.2 percent of incidents were recorded.”

The Phoenix study also reveals a troubling glimpse into a future where policing and filming become synonymous. While complaints against officers wearing body cameras dropped by 23% during the study period (versus an 11% increase in complaints for officers not wearing them), there was a major spike in arrests made by these officers- up nearly 43%. This increase is nearly triple the rate of officers not wearing cameras.

How should we interpret this finding? Some suggest that police officers wearing cameras feel compelled to follow through with the arrest to justify the interaction (like a traffic stop) in the first place, regardless of the circumstances. While footage of police abuse goes viral and drives much of the conversation around BWCs, there is a lot less scrutiny on the more mundane reality of how people- police officers, suspects, and witnesses- behave when being recorded. The Orlando study found that one in four officers believed wearing a BWC “impacted their behavior in the field.” Will officers show less discretion if they know that their actions will be reviewed by superiors back at the precinct?

It wouldn’t be the first time a policing tactic resulted in unintended and undesirable consequences. The stop-and-frisk program used by officers in New York City was introduced as a measure to improve safety in high-crime

msfreeh
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Re: POLICING BY CONSENT

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oc ... ns-protest" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oc ... ns-protest" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


NYPD union boss urges Tarantino film boycott over director's comments

Following remarks made by the film-maker at an anti-police brutality rally in New York on Saturday, the city’s largest police union has called for a boycott
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino marched in New York on Saturday on behalf of the families of victims of alleged police brutality. Photograph: Pacific Press/Zuma Press / eyevine



Monday 26 October 2015 15.40 EDT
Last modified on Monday 26 October 2015 16.02 EDT


Quentin Tarantino lost some fans over the weekend in New York – the city’s police.

The film-maker, whose eighth film The Hateful Eight open this December, has become the target of a boycott on the part of New York’s largest police union, after he was spotted taking part in a march against police brutality called Rise Up October on Saturday.

The Oscar-winning director flew in from California for the rally, which was attended by around 300 protesters.

— Simon Moya-Smith (@SimonMoyaSmith)
October 24, 2015

Quentin Tarantino marched with us today in #NYC in protest of police brutality & negligence. #RiseUpOctober pic.twitter.com/J0F1TQwUa0

According to the Guardian’s growing database, The Counted, more than 930 people have been killed by police in the US so far this year, of whom 436 were white, 226 black and 143 Latino.
Quentin Tarantino admits he 'never saw' Selma and intended 'no slam'
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“This is not being dealt with in any way at all. That’s why we are out here,” Tarantino told AFP on Saturday. “If it was being dealt with, then these murdering cops would be in jail or at least be facing charges.”

In response, Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent

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http://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/o ... -1.2417075" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Oklahoma City school resource officer charged after punching student over hall pass: cops

Thursday, October 29, 2015, 7:41 PM



MSgt. Thomas Jaha punched a 16-year-old student in the face at US Grant High School after the teen didn't show a hall pass, according to police reports. Oklahoma City Police Department
MSgt. Thomas Jaha punched a 16-year-old student in the face at US Grant High School after the teen didn't show a hall pass, according to police reports.

An Oklahoma City school resource officer is charged with assault on Wednesday after allegedly punching a student in the face over a hall pass.

MSgt. Thomas Jaha had a violent encounter with a 16-year-old student at the U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City after the teen refused to show his hall pass.

JAMES BLAKE SAYS POLICE REFORMS STILL NEEDED

In the Oct. 9 surveillance footage shown, the officer confronts the teen at a water fountain in a hallway. As the student walks away, the school resource officer started chasing him, leading up to the confrontation.

The teen took "an aggressive stance"

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http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/polic ... -epidemic/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Police unions Sustain Police Violence Epidemic

Since when did we decide that police officers should be above the law?

by William Boardman / November 1st, 2015

Two of the biggest police unions in the country are now on record in opposition to free speech. They are on record against constitutionally protected free speech that opposes the epidemic of police violence across America (more than 900 killed by police so far in 2015).

The current round of police union intimidation tactics started October 24, after filmmaker Quentin Tarantino spoke briefly to the “Rise Up October” protest, a “Call for a Major National Manifestation Against Police Terror.” The crowd of thousands marched peacefully up Sixth Avenue for two miles and included some 100 families impacted by police violence and killing. Police unions have reacted with violent rhetoric to Tarantino’s brief “speech,” which offered a non-specific truism (here in its entirety):

Hey, everybody. I got something to say, but actually I would like to give my time to the families that want to talk. I want to give my time to the families. However, I just do also want to say: What am I doing here? I’m doing here because I am a human being with a conscience. And when I see murder, I cannot stand by, and I have to call the murdered the murdered, and I have to call the murderers the murderers. Now I’m going to give my time to the families. [emphasis added]

The event centered on victims of police violence. There is no doubt that police have killed unarmed, innocent people. There is no doubt that a few cops have been convicted of murder. The reality of police violence is beyond dispute and longstanding. It goes with the territory, and responsible police leaders everywhere know perfectly well that part of their job is not only to keep their officers safe, but also, and arguably more important, to keep the public safe from their officers. The question is why they do so little about police violence.

In the aftermath of the Rise Up October rally, there were a reported 11 arrests, two of which on video show gangs of police roughing up single, unresisting men. Even though the demonstration was peaceful and had a lawful parade permit, police turned out in force. No police officers were reported hurt, except for their feelings.

Police union goes ad hominem with attack on First Amendment

The day after the rally, Patrick Lynch, president of the New York police union (Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association) went on the offensive, as he often does. He ignore the vast substance of the Rise Up October group and chose instead to make an ad hominem personal attack on Hollywood director Tarantino and his right to free speech. Lynch’s press release in its entirety:

It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too. The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big screen fantasies — they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem. New Yorkers need to send a message to this purveyor of degeneracy that he has no business coming to our city to peddle his slanderous ‘Cop Fiction.’ It’s time for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s films.

Actually the police officers that Tarantino calls “murderers” are in fact murderers, which is why Tarantino called them murderers – because, although they are but a small percentage of the total police cohort, they have murdered people, mostly without significant consequence to themselves. On October 30, Lynch sent another press release featuring Tarantino’s father saying, “Cops are not murderers, they are heroes,” which is the police union party line. In reality, it should go without saying, most cops are neither murderers nor heroes. Like the first press release, this one also ignored the complaints of police brutality, but it omitted the proposed boycott, too.

Whistling much the same tune, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, the New York Post, covered the protest with open hostility. The paper made the editorial choice to run a picture of a demonstrator giving a cop the finger. And its story suggested that years of police violence were somehow beyond objection because a police officer was recently killed in the line of duty, even though there was no connection between the recent murder and the years of police abuse:

Just four days after the on-duty murder of a hero NYPD street cop, a rally in Washington Square Park against ‘police terror’ devolved Saturday into a raucous, law-enforcement gripe-fest.

Los Angeles police claim victimhood, too, and backs boycott

Craig Lally, president of the LA police union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, jumped on the boycott Tarantino bandwagon on October 27 in a somewhat more nuanced press release [in its entirety]:

We fully support constructive dialogue about how police interact with citizens. But there is no place for inflammatory rhetoric that makes police officers even bigger targets than we already are. Film director Quentin Tarantino took irresponsibility to a new and completely unacceptable level this past weekend by referring to police as murderers during an anti-police march in New York. He made this statement just four days after a New York police officer was gunned down in the line of duty. New York police and union leaders immediately called out Tarantino for his unconscionable comments, with union head Patrick Lynch advocating a boycott of his films. We fully support this boycott of Quentin Tarantino films. Hateful rhetoric dehumanizes police and encourages attacks on us. And questioning everything we do threatens public safety by discouraging officers from putting themselves in positions where their legitimate actions could be falsely portrayed as thuggery.

While this statement begins with support for “constructive dialogue about how police interact with citizens,” that very formulation betrays an imagined dichotomy between “police” and “citizens.” Police need to think of themselves as our fellow citizens. Worse, Lally immediately moves into his own unconstructive dialogue, mischaracterizing what Tarantino said, launching another ad hominem attack on Tarantino, and completely evading the substance of the Rise Up October protest.

Worst of all, Lally reinforces the police-as-victim trope, which is a form of psychological denial. It’s not “inflammatory rhetoric that makes police officers even bigger targets,” its inflammatory behavior by police officers. Given the spate of police horrors since 1999, when NY police shot unarmed Amadou Diallo 41 times, it’s fair to wonder why police departments everywhere aren’t showing a whole lot more humility. Instead, the NY chief of police has given one of the four killers his gun back (after all four were found not guilty by a jury).

Amadou Diallo’s mother, Katiatoo Diallo, was a speaker in the Rise Up October protest. What she said was in stark and humane contrast to the whining victimhood of the police unions:

We are not bitter. I told the world then, the day when they stood up and told me that the four cops who shot my son had done nothing wrong, that it was the fault of my son, I said to you, I say to you now, I said it then: We need change. Amadou has died. It’s too late for him. But we have to prevent this from happening again. When you have tragedies like that, you need to learn what went wrong and correct it….

Law enforcement community should know that we are not against them. We even feel for those who were shot just recently in Harlem. We are not against them. We are anti-police brutality. We are not anti-cop, because we know some of them are doing good job. But we need to root out those who are brutalizing our children for no reason.

What should a police union be doing, anyway?

The core issue with police unions, teacher unions, and all other public employee unions is how to manage the inherent tension between the good of union members and the good of the public that pays their salaries. Police unions, because their members are empowered to use lethal force, should be especially sensitive to the public perception of what is in the public good. That is almost never going to include killing innocent, unarmed civilians.

In December 2014, NY police un

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Detroit-area officer in 'RoboCop' case confirms racially charged text messages

Partner of officer charged with beating African American man replied affirmatively to text using racial epithet and encouraging violence, trial reveals
Floyd Dent takes part in a protest against police brutality outside the Inkster police department.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... t-messages" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Friday 6 November 2015 12.11 EST
Last modified on Friday 6 November 2015 13.40 EST



A Detroit-area police officer who attempted to handcuff an unarmed man while his partner beat him sent racially charged text messages following the incident, it emerged this week.

Pressed during a trial over the incident Thursday, auxiliary police officer John Zieleniewski confirmed his response to a text exchange in March in which he was asked: “At least give me the satisfaction of knowing you’re out there beating up niggers right now.”

Zieleniewski responded: “lol, just got done with one.”

The text messages came out in the trial of William Melendez, known as “RoboCop”, who faces three felony charges and up to 10 years in prison for beating Floyd Dent during a traffic stop.

Melendez, a former police officer in the town of Inkster, repeatedly punched Dent in the head and placed him in a chokehold during the arrest on 28 January – a move captured on video that was later released to the media and sparked a criminal investigation.

Inkster has a population that is 73% black and a police force that is estimated to be 80-90% white.

Dent testified on Thursday that a former officer in the town of Inkster, William Melendez, approached his vehicle with his firearm drawn and said: “Get out the car or I’ll blow your motherfucking head off.” The 58-year-old said he didn’t resist officers who attempted to arrest him, despite earlier testimony that contradicted his remarks.

“I didn’t resist in any way,” Dent said on the witness stand in Wayne County circuit court Thursday.
The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive
The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project
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Dent said Melendez choked him so tight he struggled to breathe.

“After he choked me for so long, I gave up,” Dent, a quiet 58-year old with a round jaw and dolorous eyes, said.

The Wayne County circuit court judge overseeing the case, Vonda Evans, agreed to allow into evidence a s

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2 ... /75213044/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents near Ruby Ridge in 1992.

Do federal agents need a license to kill in order to protect us? Unfortunately, federal judges are giving law enforcement agents blanket immunity when they shoot Americans while the agents are on the job. It would be difficult to imagine a greater violation of equal rights under the law or a bigger mockery of due process.

After Larry Jackson, Jr., of Austin, Texas, was killed by a policeman in 2013, a local prosecutor indicted the policeman on manslaughter charges. Jackson’s family claimed that he had been executed by the policeman but a federal judge granted immunity from prosecution because the policeman “was acting in his capacity as a federal officer.” The ruling in the Austin case could extend federal immunity from prosecution for shootings to “hundreds, if not thousands, of state and local police officers who participate in federal task forces,” the Washington Post noted.

Federal officers have been involved in 33 killings so far this year. The Justice Department almost never prosecutes federal agents for shootings in the line of duty, and the feds have invoked the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution to block state and local prosecutions of federal agents in recent decades. The ruling in the Austin case “raises the question of when, if ever, a federal law enforcement officer can be charged with a crime for killing someone in the line of duty,” the Post noted.

The best-known case of immunity for federal officers involves Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who in 1992 gunned down 42-year-old Vicki Weaver as she stood in a cabin doorway in Ruby Ridge, Idaho holding her 10 month-old-baby. Horiuchi previously shot her husband, Randy Weaver, who was outside the cabin and under indictment on a federal firearms charge. A confidential Justice Department report condemned Horiuchi for taking a shot with a high-powered rifle through a cabin door when he believed someone was standing behind it. But other Justice Department and FBI officials warned that permitting Horiuchi to be prosecuted would have “an enormously chilling effect on federal operations, especially law enforcement.” A local prosecutor indicted Horiuchi on manslaughter charges anyhow.

But federal judge Edward Lodge ruled in 1998 that Horiuchi could not be tried for killing Vicki Weaver because he was a federal agent on duty, and thus effectively exempt from any jurisdiction of state courts. Lodge focused on Horiuchi's "subjective beliefs": as long as Horiuchi supposedly did not believe he was violating anyone's rights or acting wrongfully, then he could not be guilty. The judge even blamed Vicki Weaver for her own death. Lodge decreed that "it would be objectively reasonable for Mr. Horiuchi to believe that one would not expect a mother to place herself and her baby behind an open door outside the cabin after a shot had been fired and her husband had called out that he had been hit." Thus, if an FBI agent unjustifiably shoots one family member, the government apparently receives a presumptive right to shoot any other family member who fails to hide.


POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

The U.S. Marshals Service has been involved in 18 killings this year — more than any other law enforcement agency in the nation. But U.S. marshals enjoy de facto immunity for any use of force in the line of duty. Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade told the Washington Post that “he could not recall a case that led to criminal charges.”

Prior to Horiuchi killing Vicki Weaver, 14-year-old Sammy Weaver and a family friend encountered a team of three undercover U.S. marshals who had taken up a "defensive position" not far from the Weaver's residence; one of the marshals fatally shot Sammy. According to the friend, Sammy was leaving the scene when he was shot.

Even though the marshals’ statements and testimony on the conflict were riddled with contradictions, the Marshals Service gave its highest valor award to the marshal who killed the young boy and the other undercover marshals who provoked a firefight (in which one marshal was killed).



Judges tend to presume that killings by federal agents are immune from prosecution even though agencies are notorious for covering up the confrontations. As the Post noted, “details about shootings involving federal officers tend to be particularly closely held.” It took the Post almost two months to simply learn the name of a man killed during a recent FBI pornography raid in Chester, Penn.

It is absurd to presume that police are guilty any time they shoot a private citizen during a confrontation. But it is equally absurd to presume that all law enforcement agents are sacrosanct and all their killings justified. America is at risk of becoming a two-tiered society: those whom

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Cops Working With Anti-Muslim Activists

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... vists.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



11.11.151:00 AM ET

Imagine a white supremacist being paid with taxpayer dollars to teach police officers about Black Lives Matter. Or a person with a long history of demonizing the LGBT community being hired by your local police department to warn officers about the “homosexual agenda.”

The response to either of these scenarios would be an explosion of outrage. And rightfully so. However, a scenario very similar is repeatedly happening across our country with law enforcement agencies teaming up with two anti-Muslim activists, John Guandolo and Walid Shoebat, to teach them about Muslims.

Typically these anti-Muslim indoctrinations happen with police departments in red states (shocking, I know.) But surprisingly the Ocean County Police Academy in Southern New Jersey sponsored a lecture given by Shoebat just this past weekend. Shoebat’s seminar was intended for police officers in the South Jersey area and was titled “Know your enemy.” (One guess who the enemy is.)

So who is Shoebat? Well that’s a great question. The problem is that no one—except Shoebat—truly knows. As CNN reported, Shoebat’s claimed life story is simply not true. Shoebat boasts that he’s a former radicalized Muslim who joined the PLO in the 1970s, carried out a terrorist attack, and was imprisoned by the Israeli military. But then Shoebat saw the error of his ways

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On-duty Secret Service officer thinks he’s sexting a teen, but it’s the cops
He sexted from break room before he had "to go relieve someone else to go on break."

by David Kravets - Nov 13, 2015 1:21pm EST


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015 ... ite-house/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Letter from the US: Black Lives Matter facing growing smear campaign
Monday, November 16, 2015
By Barry Sheppard, San Francisco


Film director Quentin Tarantino at #BlackLivesMatter protest in New York City on October 24.

Ever since the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement emerged on the streets to protest repeated police killings of African Americans, there has been a backlash, spearheaded by the police mutual benefit societies mislabelled labour unions.

The movement exploded across the country in the aftermath of the police killing of unarmed 18-year-old Black man Michael Brown in Ferguson last year, and has grown in strength in response to fresh examples of often lethal racist police violence.

The rallying cry of the anti-BLM backlash has been that protests of police murders of Black people leads to people killing police and a general rise in crime.

This has been expressed directly, such as in New York City early this year after a huge march of 30,000 people demanded justice over the police murder of Black man Eric Garner. Garner was strangled to death last year by a group of cops. The was scene caught on video, yet the “justice” system let Garner's killers off scot-free.

After this huge outpouring of support for justice for Garner, a deranged Black man killed two cops. He had nothing to do with the demonstration or BLM, but the police “union” held the demonstrators responsible.

Now the charge against BLM has been championed in mainstream politics, including among the Republican presidential candidates.

One such candidate is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. On the widely watched news show Face the Nation on October 25, Christie said: “The problem is this. There's lawlessness in this country. The President encourages this lawlessness. He encourages it.”

Christie was referring to mild comments President Barack Obama made to the effect that BLM has raised important questions.

When asked how Obama “encourages lawlessness”, Christie said: “Oh, by his own rhetoric. He does not support the police. He doesn't back up the police. He justifies Black Lives Matter ...”

The interviewer interrupted: “But Black Lives Matter shouldn't be justified at all?”

To which Christie said, “Listen, I don't believe that that movement should be justified when they're calling for the murder of police officers, no.”

Christie repeated his assertions during a televised debate among the Republican candidates, watched by millions. None of the other candidates repudiated Christie. The reason is that all of them are appealing to the Republican base among hardened racists.

Christie quoted comments by FBI director James Comey, who charged that the protests against police murders has fuelled a rise in violent crime because police feel under scrutiny. Comey said in a speech at the Chicago Law School that, “a chill wind has blown through American law enforcement over the last year”.

That the head of the FBI, appointed by Obama, could make such comments has emboldened the racist backlash. This is regardless of the lack of statistics or cogent arguments to back up his ridiculous and racist claims.

Now another member of Obama's administration, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Agency Chuck Rosenberg, has publicly supported Comey and the police “unions”. The New York Times said on November 5 that a “rift has widened within the Obama administration” over the issue.

The underlying message of this campaign plays into a very deep prejudice among many whites, not only open racists, that conflates Blacks, especially Black males, with crime. This justifies police murders in the minds of many whites.

Another episode in this campaign emerged after a march of thousands against police brutality in New York City on October 24. One speaker at the largely Black march was famous film director Quentin Tarantino.

In his brief remarks, Tarantino said: “If you believe there's murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I'm here to say I'm on the side of the murdered.”

The cops went berserk. The police mutual benefit societies across the country accused Tarantino of fomenting murder against police. They called for a boycott of Tarantino's new film, The Hateful Eight, to be released next month. They said they would provide no traffic directions or other normal police functions near theatres that show the movie.

Jamie Foxx, the Black star of another Tarantino film, Django Unchained, about slave resistance to slave owner brutality, came to Tarantino's defence at the Hollywood Film Awards on October 31.

Presenting an award for The Hateful Eight, Foxx addressed Tarantino, saying: “Keep telling the truth, keep speaking the truth and don't worry about none of the haters.”

It is possible that the police campaign will backfire, and increase attendance at the movie. I know I will go — which I probably would not have done before the police campaign.

The shooting of a police officer in a rural town in Illinois on September 1 was seized upon by right-wing radio as proof that BLM protests were inciting murders of police. But in a surprising turn of events, the truth demonstrated something entirely different.

The local police department discovered that the officer involved had been stealing from the police — and was on the verge of being caught. He contemplated hiring a hit man to kill the town auditor, who, he thought, was closing in on him.

Rather than face the music, the officer staged an elaborate suicide to make it look like assailants — assumed to be Black — had shot him after a traffic stop.

Local police announced the truth on November 5 — in the midst of the Tarantino affair. This was one case where the local police did their job well, to the chagrin of those blaming BLM.

Meanwhile, on October 10, officials in Cleveland released the findings of two “independent” investigations into the police murder of a 12-year-old Black boy, Tamir Rice, in November last year.

The murder was caught on video by a witness. The video showed a police car pulling up next to the boy, who was playing with a toy gun in a park. Officer Timothy Loehman got out of the car and shot the boy dead two seconds later.

The video showed the cop made no attempt to investigate the toy gun. He made no attempt to ask the boy what he was doing — there was no time. The video was

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The release also stated that Miles stole approximately 16 pounds of marijuana from an evidence room, and later sold it to a known drug dealer for $4,000.



Tallassee's ex-assistant police chief pleads guilty to multiple charges


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Conrad was originally charged with more than 100 counts of sexual assault, but after Miles’ coercive tactics came to light, the case unraveled and local authorities had to relaunch the investigation.

Miles faces up to 10 years in prison for the deprivation of rights charge, up to five years for each of the obstruction of justice charges and up to five years for the possession charge. A sentencing date has not been set.

He will remain out on an undisclosed bond until sentencing.

State charges are still pending against Miles. He was charged in Elmore County Circuit Court with theft, after an Alabama Bureau of Investigation probe showed he allegedly stole a 9-mm. Beretta handgun from the Tallassee Police Department evidence locker when he was serving as assistant chief, courthouse records show.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


-Boston Police officer gets one year probation for lying to the FBI


Boston.com Staff | 11.20.15 | 12:02 PM

A former Boston Police officer was sentenced to one year of probation and a fine of $1,000 on Thursday for making a false statement to the FBI about loaning money to a drug dealer, the US Attorney’s office said.

David Michael Fitzgerald, 49, had been an officer since 1996 and was the treasurer of the B

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Cops took more stuff from people than burglars did last year



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... ge%2Fstory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


November 23 at 6:00 AM

Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing: In 2014, for the first time ever, law enforcement officers took more property from American citizens than burglars did. Martin Armstrong pointed this out at his blog, Armstrong Economics, last week.

Cops can take cash and property from people without convicting or even charging them with a crime -- yes, really! -- through the highly controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. Last year, according to the Institute for Justice, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion.

Armstrong claims that "the police are now taking more assets than the criminals," but this isn't exactly right: the

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