Category: Police State

Will he resign?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

One can only hope, since he has no credibility and it would help defuse the tense situation in Ferguson:

Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) — Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown on August 9, is in the final stages of negotiations with city officials to resign, according to people close to the talks.
Wilson maintains he hasn’t done anything wrong, and the resignation talks have hinged on whether a grand jury returns an indictment against him in the death of Brown, people close to the talks said.

Wilson has told associates he would resign as a way to help ease pressure and protect his fellow officers. Wilson has expressed concern about resigning while the grand jury was hearing evidence for fear it would appear he was admitting fault.

Wilson could announce as soon as Friday his plans to resign, the same day a St. Louis County grand jury meets to deliberate and possibly decide on an indictment.

Imagine that

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Darren Wilson's fatal encounter with Michael Brown was brief, report says

I am so shocked:

A call for backup that a police officer claims to have made seconds before he killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, reportedly cannot be found in police recordings. The officer blames the problem on his radio.

Darren Wilson has told investigators he radioed “shots fired, send all cars” after a struggle at his SUV with Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, following the officer’s stop of Brown and a friend for jaywalking in Ferguson on 9 August, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Yet a set of recordings released to the newspaper by police did not include the call. Wilson is reported to have stated that “during the struggle his radio had been jarred and the channel changed”, meaning it was not broadcast to his fellow officers in the St Louis suburb.

“At least one channel on the Ferguson police radio is ‘receive-only,’ meaning that the call may not have been broadcast,” the newspaper said in its report on Friday evening. Wilson shot Brown repeatedly soon after allegedly making the request for assistance.

A series of witnesses told media in the days after the shooting that Brown had surrendered to the officer after fleeing and may have had his hands up. Wilson is said to have told investigators the 18-year-old had in fact turned and charged towards him.

The killing of Brown, who was African American, by a white officer led to nights of protests. Police clashed repeatedly with demonstrators, firing teargas and rubber bullets and making dozens of arrests. Ferguson is anxiously awaiting the decision of a grand jury on whether Wilson should face criminal charges for the shooting.

Civil forfeiture

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Why, it reminds me of that old TV show, Supermarket Sweep!

The seminars offered police officers some useful tips on seizing property from suspected criminals. Don’t bother with jewelry (too hard to dispose of) and computers (“everybody’s got one already”), the experts counseled. Do go after flat screen TVs, cash and cars. Especially nice cars.

In one seminar, captured on video in September, Harry S. Connelly Jr., the city attorney of Las Cruces, N.M., called them “little goodies.” And then Mr. Connelly described how officers in his jurisdiction could not wait to seize one man’s “exotic vehicle” outside a local bar.

“A guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new,” he explained. “Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like ‘Ahhhh.’ And he gets out and he’s just reeking of alcohol. And it’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait.’ ”

Mr. Connelly was talking about a practice known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows the government, without ever securing a conviction or even filing a criminal charge, to seize property suspected of having ties to crime. The practice, expanded during the war on drugs in the 1980s, has become a staple of law enforcement agencies because it helps finance their work. It is difficult to tell how much has been seized by state and local law enforcement, but under a Justice Department program, the value of assets seized has ballooned to $4.3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year from $407 million in 2001. Much of that money is shared with local police forces.

Correct me if I’m wrong

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

TD Bank - Bay Ridge

But isn’t this why we have a 4th Amendment? And didn’t we fight a revolution to stop crap like this?

ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000.

The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.

“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”

The federal government does.

Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up.

“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.”

On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.”

Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I. continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.’s mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past seizures.

Transit cop arrests NYC busker

~ susie ~ 6 Comments

God, transit cops are even worse than the regular ones. Why the hell did he feel it was incumbent on him to go after this guy?

Musicians have rallied around a fellow subway performer who was arrested for playing at a Brooklyn subway stop – after the cop recited the law saying he WAS allowed to be there.

Andrew Kalleen, 30, was ejected from the G subway platform at the Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue stop on Friday after calmly explaining to the officer that he was doing nothing illegal.

A video of the incident captured by straphangers waiting for a train shows a police officer approaching Kalleen and telling him he needed a permit to play there – which the musician disputes.

‘I’m not going to argue with you,’ the officer says calmly in response.

Kalleen, also speaking evenly, refuses to leave and tells the officer he has a right to be there performing, then directs him to the section in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s rules of conduct that says artistic performances and solicitations of donations are allowed.

The flustered officer reads the section aloud and discovers that the musician is indeed right – but still decides to eject him anyway.
Continue reading “Transit cop arrests NYC busker” →

Meet the Huey P. Newton Gun Club

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

hueyguns

Good. This must be driving those Dallas cops crazy:

They call themselves the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, named after the co-founder of the Black Panther Party For Self Defense. Like the defunct organization which called for reform of community policing, demanding that police come from the neighborhoods they serve, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club says they are marching “to promote self-defense and community policing” in response to the recent high profile stories about police shooting unarmed African Americans across the country.

To the protesters, “community policing” is more than just a word. Communities should be protected by members of the community, and held accountable. Ironically this was the original vision for community policing, articulated in 1812 by Sir Robert Peel. That’s right, it may surprise many to discover that our communities have only had police as we know them for a little over 200 years. Even then, it took a little while for Peel’s concept of police forces to make its way to the United States. Since then it has become a norm that many cannot imagine a time before.

In Texas, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club are following in the footsteps of Newton, who was a law major, striving to stay within the bounds of legality. Though the historical Black Panthers had a notable slip-up which led to then Governor Ronald Reagan signing the Mulford Act which prohibited carrying loaded guns in public space. The goal of the Panthers, as they explained it, was to assert the rights of the people to defend themselves against corrupt police, within the bounds of the law. The Huey P. Newton Gun Club says that’s exactly what they are doing today with their open carry protests.

Police have kept a close eye on the protesters, while also trying to keep their distance. One officer we talked to said “there’s really nothing we can do about it. Open carry protests are not against the law.”

Others refused to comment.

Impunity

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

I have always known that cops did things like this, but it does seem like it’s getting worse. Or is it just that it’s easier for us to get the word out?

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is investigating allegations that an NYPD cop wrongfully removed more than $1,000 from a man during a stop-and-frisk then pepper sprayed two people he did not arrest, the Daily News has learned.

The encounter was captured on a cell phone video, which has been turned over to prosecutors and the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau, said lawyer Robert Marinelli.

“One of the most disturbing things about the video is the other cops standing around watching and doing nothing to stop the wrongdoing,” Marinelli said Wednesday.

Marinelli represents siblings who were pepper sprayed — Lamard Joye who claims the cop took $1,300 from his pocket, which has still not been accounted, and his sister Lateefah Joye, a professional basketball player in Europe, who tried to get the cop’s badge number.

“I believe that this officer made an assumption that any money Mr. Joye possessed was obtained illegally and therefore he would not report the theft. This assumption was wrong, Mr. Joye is a hard-working taxpayer deserving respect,” said Marinelli.

The brief clip begins with the unidentified cop pushing Lamard Joye against the fence of a basketball court at the Surfside Gardens houses in Coney Island around 12:20 a.m. on Sept. 16.

‘

Missouri planning for riots

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

G-20 Protest Sept 24, 2009

What do they mean, “if”? Ha ha, just kidding! I meant, “when” they refuse to indict Darren Wilson:

(Reuters) – Missouri authorities are drawing up contingency plans and seeking intelligence from U.S. police departments on out-of-state agitators, fearing that fresh riots could erupt if a grand jury does not indict a white officer for killing a black teen.

The plans are being thrashed out in meetings being held two to three times a week, according to people who have attended them. The FBI said it was also involved in the discussions.

Details of the meetings and intelligence sharing by Missouri police agencies and their counterparts in other parts of the country have not been reported before.

The grand jury is expected to decide next month whether to bring criminal charges against police officer Darren Wilson, who shot dead Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Conspiracy theory

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

oswald

I really don’t think there’s any question that something’s screwy with the JFK assassination. Why are so many of the documents still classified? Anyway, here’s another purported piece of the puzzle:

A former Cuban exile anti-Castro militant told a conference audience Sept. 26 in a blockbuster revelation that he saw accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald with their mutual CIA handler six weeks before the killing and there would have been no anti-Castro movement in Cuba without the CIA funding.

Antonio Veciana, the acknowledged leader of the Alpha 66 assassination squad of Cuban exiles in the early 1960s, made the statements in a dignified but emotion-laden manner at this year’s major conference analyzing the Warren Commission report on murder of President John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas. Alpha 66 is alleged to have tried to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro on two occasions, but Veciana, a onetime certified public accountant for a wealthy Cuban in the years before the revolution, has never been been charged with an attempt.

David Atlee Phillips. Separately, the general counsel of the last major government investigation into the killing issued a statement saying the CIA had deceived him and the rest of the public during the late 1970s inquiry into the validity of the Warren report. Former House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) General Counsel G. Robert Blakey issued the statement during the conference Sept. 26-28 organized at the Bethesda Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, MD by the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC).

Veciana said he is convinced the CIA organized the president’s murder and that he saw Oswald meeting with a CIA official in Dallas because Veciana arrived at his meeting fifteen minutes too early. Veciana said he believes Oswald was a CIA operative whom the agency decided to blame for a killing it organized in a complex plot.

Via Karin Riley Porter Attorney at Law.