Please post all of the completely insane COPWATCH stories here

[charrington]

Unless a last-minute job-saving deal can be struck, almost half the police force is set to be cut today in America's second most violent city.

They're amongst cuts of up to one quarter of all the workers employed by Camden city authorities in New Jersey.

In response, the Guardian Angels group started up street patrols last weekend.

The Angels' founder and conservative talkshow host Curtis Sliwa told BBC Radio 5 live's


MORE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12217048

[charrington]

Twenty months after he suffered catastrophic brain damage, the wife and family of a 31-year-old man severely injured during a run-in with police in downtown Seattle will have their day in court.

Christopher Harris was walking in Belltown on May 10, 2009, when he found himself caught in the middle of a foot pursuit.

Two King County deputy sheriffs told him to stop and he ran. When he slowed outside the Cinerama cinema, a deputy knocked him into a wall.

He hasn't been the same since.

Unable to walk, talk or care for himself, his wife and family claim Harris was the victim of excessive force in the early morning incident, which was captured on a theater surveillance camera. Months after the incident, they filed a lawsuit on Harris' behalf against; a jury trial in the matter is expected to begin Tuesday.

According to the civil filing, King County Deputies Matthew Paul and Joseph Eshom were patrolling on foot as transit police for Metro Transit in the Belltown neighborhood the morning of the incident.

The deputies heard a Seattle police report of a disturbance at a nearby convenience store and headed towards it. They then continued down an alley, believing those involved in the convenience store incident had gone that way.

Reaching the end of the alley, the deputies confronted Harris, a passerby who had nothing to do with the events that had brought them to the area.

Harris ran and the deputies, clad in black fatigues, gave chase. He stopped in front of the Cinerama movie theater and, according to his attorneys, was ready to surrender.

"Mr. Harris stopped running, put his hands out in front of him and said, 'I don't have anything, I didn't steal anything,'" attorney Simeon Osborn told the court.

In surveillance video taken at the scene, Paul is shown lowering his shoulder and slamming into Harris. The force of the impact sent Harris head first into a wall, which left him unconscious and suffering from permanent brain damage.

Writing the court, Osborn claimed the deputies then flipped Harris...
MORE VIDEOS
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/433594_belltown17.html

[Letsbereal]

Life In America's Most Dangerous City About To Become "Living Hell" As Layoffs Of One Quarter Of Government Labor Force Begin
18 January 2011, by Tyler Durden (Zero Hedge)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/life-americas-most-dangerous-city-about-become-living-hell-layoffs-one-quarter-government-la

[charrington]

The New York Times reports on the Illinois eavesdropping law, which allows for a felony charge and up to 15 years of prison for people who record police officers on the job.

In addition to artist Christopher Drew—whom I've written about before and who goes to trial in April—the article finds another person currently being charged under the law. Tiawanda Moore, 20, goes to trial next month. She too could face 15 years in prison, in her case for using her Blackberry to record her conversation with internal affairs officers at Chicago PD about an alleged sexual assault by a police officer. Moore recorded her interview after feeling her initial attempt to report the incident wasn't taken seriously.

    On Aug. 18, Ms. Moore and her boyfriend went to Police Headquarters to file a complaint with Internal Affairs about the officer who had talked to her alone. Ms. Moore said the officer had fondled her and left his personal telephone number, which she handed over to the investigators.

    Ms. Moore said the investigators tried to talk her out of filing a complaint, saying the officer had a good record and that they could “guarantee” that he would not bother her again.

    “They keep giving her the run-around, basically trying to discourage her from making a report,” Mr. Johnson said. “Finally, she decides to record them on her cellphone to show how they’re not helping her.”

    The investigators discovered that she was recording them and she was arrested and charged with two counts of eavesdropping, Mr. Johnson said. But he added that the law contains a crucial exception. If citizens have “reasonable suspicion” that a crime is about to be committed against them, they may obtain evidence by recording it.

    “I contend that the Internal Affairs investigators were committing the crime of official misconduct in preventing her from filing a complaint,” Mr. Johnson said. “She’s young. She had no idea what she was getting into when she went in there to make a simple complaint. It’s just a shame when the people watching the cops aren’t up to it.”

    Days later, accompanied by Mr. Johnson, Ms. Moore returned to Internal Affairs and was able to file a full complaint. There is a continuing investigation of Ms. Moore’s charges against the officer, a Police Department spokesman said.

So five months later, they're still investigating a possible sexual assault by a police officer. But they had no problem immediately arresting, charging, and jailing the woman who tried to report it. That would seem to send a pretty clear message about how seriously the city takes police misconduct.

There was another story in the news this week involving Chicago police. Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was...
MORE
http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/23/another-illinois-resident-char

[charrington]

UPDATE: FireDogLake has posted an account of Hamsher and House's detention at Quantico Sunday afternoon. Michael Whitney confirmed that Hamsher and House's cars were towed, and that the two were "detained for two hours up until Manning’s visitation time period was set to expire at 3:00."

ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW

Activist reporters who tried to deliver a petition protesting Bradley Manning's treatment by the US military were blocked from seeing Manning and held against their will at Quantico on Sunday, while their cars were towed on seemingly flimsy pretenses, the reporters say.

FireDogLake blogger Jane Hamsher told her Twitter followers that she was detained at the gate to the US Marine base at Quantico when she showed up to deliver a petition signed by 42,000 people, demanding that the US military take Bradley Manning -- the alleged source of the State Department cables released by WikiLeaks -- out of solitary confinement.

"Now been here at Quantico gate for 30 min.," Hamsher tweeted early Sunday afternoon. "Will not let us leave base, holding us."
David House, a computer programmer who works with FireDogLake and is one of very few people authorized to see Manning, reported similar issues as he arrived at Quantico on Sunday to ask Manning about conditions in the prison.

"Detained for 40 minutes now upon entering base," he tweeted. "Advised that cannot leave."

House then reported that he would not be allowed to see Manning, that his car was searched and impounded, and that a military police officer reportedly told him the orders to do so "came from on high."

"I am on approved visitation list; have been visiting since September," House tweeted.

Hamsher said she was ticketed and her car was towed because she offered only electronic proof of car insurance, not a paper form.

"Can't leave base, can't go to brig, can't get my driver's license, [military officer] threatening to arrest us. Haven't done a thing," Hamsher tweeted.

Hamsher and House's detention was not resolved as of the time of publication.

The military's newly antagonistic attitude towards Manning supporters may have...
MORE
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/activists-manning-held-quantico/

[KI4BNC]

Hey look,this is my shocked face:

       


Police mis-conduct is out of control.
"Protect and serve".
protect each other and serve their own interests.
atrocity is the only word that comes to mind.

[charrington]

A year ago this month, Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old music student at Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School, was walking to his grandmother's home in the city's Homewood neighborhood when three undercover police officers in an unmarked white car decided he looked "suspicious." Officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte, and David Sisak, all white, would later say in police reports that Miles, who is black, seemed to be "sneaking around" and had a bulky object protruding from his coat that appeared to be a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew—which, curiously, was never taken into evidence.

Upon seeing the men heading toward him, Miles quite understandably ran. But after a few steps, he slipped and fell. The police officers say they identified themselves upon exiting their car. Miles says they said only, "Where's the money? Where's the gun? Where's the drugs?"—questions that could signal a robbery. Even if the three men had identified themselves as police officers, it isn't hard to see why Miles would run. Three white men jumped from an unmarked car and began running toward him. At night. Given what happened to Miles next, he would have been justified in fleeing even if he had known the three men were cops.

The three officers severely beat the unarmed viola player, who is five feet, five inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. They hit him with multiple punches to the face and a knee to the head. They also tore off a large clump of his hair. The end result was the picture you see here.

Once he was out of the hospital, Miles, an honors student with no prior criminal record, was arrested and charged with loitering, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest. The police claimed that earlier in the evening they had spoken with Monica Wooding, who lives in the neighborhood, and were responding to her complaint that Miles was loitering on her property without her permission. But Wooding later testified that she made no such complaint. In fact, she testified that she has known Miles, a friend of her son, for years.

Citing Wooding's testimony and the possibility of false statements in the police reports, Pennsylvania District Court Judge Oscar Petite Jr. dismissed the charges against Miles last March. Miles has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Ewing, Saldutte, Sisak, and the city of Pittsburgh. The three officers were initially taken off undercover duties, then suspended with pay pending an investigation. The city halted its investigation when the FBI announced it would also look into the case (although the city was not required to do so). The federal investigation is still open, but it does not seem to be making much progress. Last August, federal investigators reportedly told Miles' family that charges against the officers were unlikely, because it was their word against a teenager's. In theory, the investigation could drag on for five years, after which the statute of limitations for federal civil rights charges would bar prosecution.

Under its charter, Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board is not...
MORE
http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/24/a-beating-in-pittsburgh

[charrington]

Christopher Drew is a 60-year-old artist and teacher who wears a gray ponytail and lives on the North Side. Tiawanda Moore, 20, a former stripper, lives on the South Side and dreams of going back to school and starting a new life.

About the only thing these strangers have in common is the prospect that by spring, they could each be sent to prison for up to 15 years.

“That’s one step below attempted murder,” Mr. Drew said of their potential sentences.

The crime they are accused of is eavesdropping.

The authorities say that Mr. Drew and Ms. Moore audio-recorded their separate nonviolent encounters with Chicago police officers without the officers’ permission, a Class 1 felony in Illinois, which, along with Massachusetts and Oregon, has one of the country’s toughest, if rarely prosecuted, eavesdropping laws.

“Before they arrested me for it,” Ms. Moore said, “I didn’t even know there was a law about eavesdropping. I wasn’t trying to sue anybody. I just wanted somebody to know what had happened to me.”

Ms. Moore, whose trial is scheduled for Feb. 7 in Cook County Criminal Court, is accused of using her Blackberry to record two Internal Affairs investigators who spoke to her inside Police Headquarters while she filed a sexual harassment complaint last August against another police officer. Mr. Drew was charged with using a digital recorder to capture his Dec. 2, 2009, arrest for selling art without a permit on North State Street in the Loop. Mr. Drew said his trial date was April 4.

Both cases illustrate the increasingly busy and confusing intersection of technology and the law, public space and private.

“Our society is going through a technological transformation,” said Adam Schwartz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which last August challenged the Illinois Eavesdropping Act in federal court. “We are at a time where tens of millions of Americans carry around a telephone or other device in their pocket that has an audio-video capacity. Ten years ago, Americans weren’t walking around with all these devices.”

He said that when “something fishy seems to be going on, the perfectly natural and healthy and good thing is for them to pull that device out and make a recording.”

The Illinois Eavesdropping Act has been on the books for years. It makes it a criminal offense to audio-record either private or public conversations without the consent of all parties, Mr. Schwartz said. Audio-recording a civilian without consent is a Class 4 felony, punishable by up to three years in prison for a first-time offense. A second offense is a Class 3 felony with a possible prison term of five years.

Although law-enforcement officials can legally record civilians in...
MORE
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/us/23cnceavesdropping.html?_r=1

[joeblack]

they will chase you down in the car if you take a picture of them. i had it happen to myself just over a taking a picture.

[charrington]

Authorities are worried a recent wave of police officer shootings may not be a coincidence.

In just 24 hours, at least 11 cops were shot around the country.

The most recent incident at a fugitive's house in St. Petersburg, Fla., left two officers dead and a U.S. marshal wounded Monday. Hours earlier, an Oregon officer was critically wounded after being shot multiple times during a traffic stop.

Monday's violence followed a bloody Sunday that left an officer in Indianapolis critically wounded during a traffic stop shooting, four officers in Indianapolis wounded after a gunman opened fire in a precinct and two more officers in Washington wounded in a shootout in a Walmart parking lot.

"It's not a fluke," Richard Roberts, a spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, told MSNBC.com. "There's a perception among officers in the field that there’s a war on cops going on."

Florida officers Tom Baitinger and Jeffrey Yaslowitz were killed Monday when agents tried to arrest 39-year-old Hydra Lacy Jr. on an aggravated battery charge. Police believe Lacy opened fire on the agents, also injuring an U.S. marshal.

Lacy, who was found dead at home following an hour-long standoff, had a long and violent criminal record including a sexual battery conviction.

In Oregon, a gunman is still on the loose after shooting officer Steven Dodds, 45, during a traffic stop Monday. Police say the gunman, driving a 1984 Dodge truck, led police on a chase after the shooting and fired several shots at officers but missed, before being stopped by spike strips and escaping on foot into a wooded area. He is described as armed and extremely dangerous.

Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski says he believes 60-year-old Thomas Hardy is the man who shot officer David Moore twice in the face and in his chest and leg during a traffic stop Sunday, critically wounding Moore.

The Indiana Department of Correction says Hardy had a criminal history dating back to at least 1984, when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a burglary conviction. He was released on parole in 1990, but has been in and out of prison since then on various charges, including seven sentences for theft, one for cocaine possession and one for misdemeanor battery.

Detectives in Port Orchard, Wash., are investigating why a man ran from deputies and then opened fire in a Walmart parking lot Sunday, sparking a shootout that left him and the woman he apparently was with dead and two officers wounded.

The Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies were answering a call about a suspicious person at the store. When they located the man and tried talking to him he ran, then opened fire as the officers followed.

Both men were hit and unable to return gunfire, but a female officer arriving
MORE
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/24/authorities-fear-cops-targeted-officers-shot-hours/?test=latestnews

[charrington]

What was the end result?

[charrington]

DONNA - A Donna police officer seen in surveillance video pepper spraying a teen is now in jail.

He is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday morning on official oppression, assault and violating the rights of a person in custody.

A surveillance camera caught what happened in the cell a week ago. CHANNEL 5 NEWS was the first to broadcast the video during our 6 p.m. newscast on Monday. Authorities reportedly arrested the officer a short time later and took him to the Hidalgo County Jail.

"I was locked up not doing nothing," says 17-year-old Jonathan Morales.

Morales was arrested after a fight at school and ended up in the Donna Jail.

"That video is proof. That's my proof right now," he says.

The attack has him hurting.

"That video shows everything. From the beginning to the end. What the cop does to me," he says.

Chief Ram de Leon tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS the officer who pepper sprayed the teen is off the job.

"The city has requested a joint investigation from the Texas Rangers and the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department," he says.

Chief De Leon says this an isolated incident.

"This particular case involves an isolated officer, one officer. I have 32 employees that are all honest, dependable, and trustworthy and I'm proud to call them officers," he says.

Chief De Leon says an officer watches what happens in the jail 24 hours a day seven days a week.

He says this is the first time something like this...
MORE
http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Donna-Officer-Arrested-for-Pepper-Spraying-Teen/7JbZZyXExE-4AFrSN6cjgg.cspx

[charrington]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville man and his attorney said surveillance video shows an officer punching the man in the face while he was handcuffed in December 2009.

Chester Hall, who made the claim against Jacksonville police Officer Ronald Jackson, said Jackson is "a very bad cop" who should be removed from the force.

Jackson, who was suspended once last year and is under investigation over a previous incident, became the source of concern last week when he stormed out of the police training academy.

Hall said Jackson should be off the force because, as is seen on surveillance video released Monday by Hall's attorney, when Hall was arrested just more than a year ago, he said Jackson slugged him in the chin while his hands were cuffed behind his back, nearly knocking Hall into a moving police van.

"At that time, he hit me, knocked me backwards," Hall said. "I did stay up."

Hall said a lot led up to him being punched. He was arrested on a DUI charge, which was changed to reckless driving. He said both he and Jackson exchanged words in the patrol car and continued to have words after he was hit.

Once inside the jail and after being booked, Hall said surveillance video shows Jackson kept egging him on, and when the handcuffs were off, Hall went after Jackson and police swarmed him. Hall said he was wrong to go after Jackson, and his attorney said Jackson was wrong to hit Hall while handcuffed...
MORE
http://www.news4jax.com/news/26597892/detail.html

[charrington]

A spate of shooting attacks on law enforcement officers has authorities concerned about a war on cops.

In just 24 hours, at least 11 officers were shot. The shootings included Sunday attacks at traffic stops in Indiana and Oregon, a Detroit police station shooting that wounded four officers, and a shootout at a Port Orchard, Wash., Wal-Mart that injured two deputies. On Monday morning, two officers were shot dead and a U.S. Marshal was wounded by a gunman in St. Petersburg, Fla.

On Thursday, two Miami-Dade, Fla., detectives were killed by a murder suspect they were trying to arrest.

"It's not a fluke," said Richard Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations. "There's a perception among officers in the field that there’s a war on cops going on."

With the Florida deaths, the nation is on track in 2011 to match the 162 police officers killed in the line of duty in 2010, said Steve Groeninger, spokesman for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks police casualties. In January this year there have been 14 deaths, the same number as in January 2010, the fund posted on its web site.

The 2010 toll ended a two-year drop in fatalities and spiked 43 percent over the 117 killed in 2009, Groeninger said.
Story: Suspect dead after 2 cops killed, marshal wounded in Fla. home

Law enforcement advocates worry that cuts in police budgets could exacerbate the danger.

"We don't have any data, but there seems to be a type of criminal out there looking to thwart authority," he said.

He cited the example of Jared Loughner, accused of killing six and wounding 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on Jan. 8 in Tucson, Ariz. "People with this mentality feel the need to eliminate those in position of authority," he said.

Roberts said the recent shootings are reminders that officers must constantly stay on alert.

"The bad guys are not afraid of cops," Roberts said. "They’re rarely rational. You get that combination, when you ID yourself as a cop, it does not scare them away; it makes it more dangerous for you." ...
MORE
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41235743/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

[charrington]

While awarding Barron Bowling $830,000 last September for the beating he suffered at the hands of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Kansas City, Kansas, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson went out of her way to acknowledge another victim in the disgraceful affair: Kansas City police detective Max Seifert.

In January 2003, Bowling was on his way to fill a prescription when Timothy McCue, an on-duty DEA agent, tried to pass him illegally on the right side of a wide one-lane street. Bowling accelerated to prevent McCue from passing, and the two cars collided. After the collision, McCue and another agent got out of their car. McCue drew his gun, threw Bowling to the ground, and beat him to the point of inflicting brain damage. McCue later justified the violence by saying Bowling “resisted arrest” when he lifted his head from the pavement. According to witnesses, McCue threatened to kill Bowling, whom he called “white trash” and a “system-dodging inbred hillbilly.”

McCue, the DEA, and officers of the Kansas City Police Department then conspired to cover up the beating. Bowling was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and assaulting McCue with his car during the collision. He was later acquitted on those charges but convicted of possessing drug paraphernalia—a marijuana pipe police found in his car. Witness statements incriminating McCue for both the accident and the beating were lost or destroyed, as were photos of the damage McCue inflicted on Bowling’s face.

Only one of the officers at the accident scene that day had any integrity. That would be Seifert, a cop with an exemplary record. Seifert took the witness statements that implicated McCue. He documented Bowling’s injuries and testified for Bowling in his lawsuit. He actively fought the cover-up.

As Judge Robinson pointed out, Seifert was forced into early retirement because of his actions. He lost part of his pension and his retirement health insurance. He was “shunned, subjected to gossip and defamation by his police colleagues, and treated as a pariah,” Robinson said. “The way Seifert was treated was shameful.”

So what happened to the cops involved in the cover-up? Ronald Miller, then Kansas City’s police chief, is now the police chief in Topeka. Steven Culp, then Kansas City’s deputy police chief, is now, incredibly, executive director of the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training. Officer Robert Lane went on to become a councilman for the town of Edwardsville, where he was later convicted of participating in a ticket-fixing scheme. And McCue is still with the DEA.

It may be true that abusive cops are few and far between, as police organizations typically claim. The problem is that other cops rarely hold them accountable. Perhaps that’s because they know they will be treated the way Max Seifert was. For all the concern about the “Stop Snitchin’ ” message within the hip-hop community, police have engaged in a far more impactful and pernicious Stop Snitchin’ campaign of their own. It’s called the Blue Wall of Silence.

Consider New York City police officer Adrian Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft was concerned about quotas for stops and arrests imposed by his commanding officers. Worse, some officers had been instructed to downgrade offenses, or even talk victims out of pressing charges, to make the city’s crime statistics look better. NYPD officials publicly denied there was any quota system or data fudging, but that didn’t jibe with what Schoolcraft was hearing in the station house. So he surreptitiously recorded commanding officers giving the instructions. According to The Village Voice, he brought his complaints to “a duty captain, a district surgeon, an NYPD psychologist, three Internal Affairs officers, and five department crime statistics auditors.” None of them took action against the officers imposing the quotas.

But the department did take action against Schoolcraft. Last October a SWAT team appeared at Schoolcraft’s Queens apartment, threw him to the floor, handcuffed him, and had him forcibly admitted to the psychiatric ward at Jamaica Hospital. NYPD officials lied to hospital staff about Schoolcraft’s condition, causing him to be held for six days against his will. Officially, the visit to Schoolcraft’s apartment was prompted by an unapproved sick day. But that does not explain the show of force or the removal of documents related to the quotas from Schoolcraft’s home.

In October The Village Voice reported another troubling incident, in which 10 rookie New York cops viciously beat a cabbie outside an Upper East Side bar in 2008. None of the cops were charged, although a few faced administrative discipline. Their captain...
MORE
http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/25/why-cops-arent-whistleblowers

[KI4BNC]

mmmmmmmm...very interesting.It seems as though when you go to the link and read the rest of the article there is a box to see the vid.When you click on the vid it says it is not there?
The article said the vid was released.but is not there.I used to live in jacksonville.I been arrested there too.Those cops are pricks for the most part.Even the corrections people.

[charrington]

Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo's lawsuit against Prince Georges County, Maryland over a 2008 SWAT raid in which his two dogs were shot dead and he was held at gunpoint is over. Calvo told the Washington Post Monday that a settlement had been reached, but declined to comment on the settlement amount or other details, which are still being worked out.


Calvo did say that the settlement will bring reforms in the way the county conducts drug raids. How and when SWAT teams are deployed and the humane treatment of pets are among the areas where reforms will occur, he said.

"We're achieving the reforms we were seeking," Calvo said.

A civil trial in the lawsuit was set to begin Monday. The county had no comment as of Monday afternoon.

Calvo's home was raided in July 2008 by Prince Georges Sheriff's SWAT officers who were assisting county police narcotics investigators. Police had been tipped that a package being shipped to Calvo's address contained marijuana. They intercepted the package, delivered it to Calvo's porch, then broke down the door after Calvo, returning from walking his dogs, picked up the package and took it inside.

SWAT officers shot and killed Calvo's two dogs and kept the mayor handcuffed and kneeling on the...
MORE
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/jan/24/settlement_reached_maryland_mayo

[charrington]

Jamieson Prince of the Bronx is suing the NYPD for $1 million after he was arrested for "stealing" his own car in November. Cops allegedly cuffed Prince as he was getting ready to drive his daughters to school in his 2007 GMC Yukon, and would not listen to him when he said he had papers proving ownership. Here's how the mixup went down.

Prince's son had borrowed his SUV in July. There was an accident, he fled the scene and cops seized the Yukon when he was arrested. But when Prince went to the precinct to retrieve the car, they found it had been stolen from the police. "They had absolutely no idea what happened to it," said Prince. Miraculously, four months later Prince said he found the Yukon parked near the stationhouse, got in and drove off. But police accused him criminal possession of stolen property, and said they...
MORE
http://gothamist.com/2011/01/25/man_arrested_for_driving_his_own_ca.php

[charrington]

Prepare for a rash of innocent civilians being murdered - The police have issued a press release warning they will get even.

[charrington]

TACOMA — A $10 million settlement has been reached between King County and the family of Christopher Sean Harris, the Edmonds man who suffered a catastrophic brain injury in May 2009 when he was shoved into a wall by a sheriff's deputy.

The settlement — the largest individual award in the county's history — comes as a civil trial was under way in Tacoma on a personal-injury lawsuit filed against King County by Harris' wife, accusing Deputy Matthew Paul of acting negligently and using excessive force. Paul was scheduled to testify on Tuesday.

In May 2009, Harris was wrongly identified by a witness as a suspect in an assault outside a Belltown convenience store. The witness pointed Harris out to Paul and another deputy, who were working as King County Metro Transit officers. They yelled at Harris from across the street, but he ran, according to the Sheriff's Office. They chased him for several blocks.

As Harris slowed to a stop, Paul slammed him into the concrete wall outside the Cinerama theater.

A surveillance camera outside the theater captured footage of the incident, and Harris can be seen raising his hands before he is hit by Paul.

According to testimony during the civil trial, Paul and fellow Deputy Joseph Eshom were wearing black tactical uniforms, not traditional deputy uniforms, at the time of the incident.

An internal Sheriff's Office investigation into the incident determined that Paul delivered a "hard shove" that fell within legal bounds.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges against the deputy, calling the confrontation "a very tragic incident."

Harris is bedridden, unable to talk and will require around-the-clock care for the rest of his life, according to Sim Osborn, the attorney for Harris' wife, Sarah, who is his primary caregiver.

"Aside from all Sarah has to worry about with Chris, this case has caused her and her family a great deal of stress," Osborn said in a news release. "We are glad that the county has taken responsibility for the actions of its deputy, and given Sarah the knowledge that paying for Chris' medical expenses is no longer part of her burden."

Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Cobb, who represented King County in the civil case, shook hands with Sarah Harris after the settlement was announced Tuesday morning in Pierce County Superior Court. The lawsuit was filed in Pierce County to avoid a potential conflict.

Afterward, Cobb expressed disappointment that jurors did...
MORE
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014031804_settlement26m.html

[joeblack]

What was the end result?

two cop car chase us up the road and another cop car was heading towards us and they stopped us  and separated me and the person i was with, i stayed in the car and she was takin outside of their car away from me, asked for id, asked names, looked at the picture i took, and finally sent us on our way. the picture was of about three or four cops standing around their cars talking out in public. i liked taking pictures of cop cars at the time.

[ssmlr3]

wow.  sounds like what happened to me in with colorado state patrol.  now they are stalling on a job verification of me.  I have been told that i need to stop whinning, i am a bitter ex-cop.  this shit goes on and people just blow it off as a ex-bitter cop.  wake up people.  all police are not bad but they are afraid of their jobs and livelyhood.  this makes them no better though.  they allow it to happen and look the other way.  some brotherhood when they ridicule you to make themselves better and feel better.  god help us
good article C

[ssmlr3]

god bless the families of the fallen police officers.  this is just sick and actually will do nothing.  the officers are pawns in all of this.  if they do speak out like myself they are financially ruined and blacked ball from getting jobs. they are also victims of our society.  yes some cops are trash but not all.  i have lost friends and it hurts, just like it does when citizens loose someone.  our society needs to stop fighting among ourselves.  cops need to wake up and realize they will be next after the rest of us are detained and trained to obey.  this is a sad day and the start of something very bad. lets hope not but the powers that be have worked society up and now here we go. 

rest in peace gentleman or ladies

[ssmlr3]

i am afraid of this type of stuff for what i have done and know about the colorado state patrol.  hell the have investigated me for just calling governors office and trying to talk to someone.  no threats,no cursing no nothing just asking to make an appointment but the lady at governors office kept telling me the colorado governor has no authority over colorado dept of public safty or state patrol. 

what is the saying 'dead men tell no lies"  scary but in this day in age i dont put it by our goverment to do this stuff.  trust me i know and have proof.  proof is spread around so as not to be seized by our police state

keep it up C

[ssmlr3]

heck you file criminal complete about the colorado state patrol and its internal affairs section and the dept of public safety lets state patrol internal affairs investigate themselves.  gee is that not like letting the bank robber investigate the bank robbery???

[charrington]

i am afraid of this type of stuff for what i have done and know about the colorado state patrol.  hell the have investigated me for just calling governors office and trying to talk to someone.  no threats,no cursing no nothing just asking to make an appointment but the lady at governors office kept telling me the colorado governor has no authority over colorado dept of public safty or state patrol. 

what is the saying 'dead men tell no lies"  scary but in this day in age i dont put it by our goverment to do this stuff.  trust me i know and have proof.  proof is spread around so as not to be seized by our police state

keep it up C

Police state doesn't even cover it anymore .. were so far past that it's sickening...

[charrington]

Targeting: The OH State Senate, The OH State House, Rob Nichols (Communications, Gov. Kasich), see more...The OH State Senate, The OH State House, Rob Nichols (Communications, Gov. Kasich), and Gov. John Kasich (OH)
Started by: C. Lord

"An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge Patricia Cosgrove on Tuesday and will begin serving her sentence immediately. The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with Williams Bolar's father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father’s address was in nearby Copley Township. Additionally, Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition. - Dr. Boyce Watkins                   

As punishment for doing everything in her power to keep her children safe, Ms. Williams-Bolar, a single mother with no previous criminal record, has been made a felon by Ohio judge Patricia Cosgrove. In addition to jail time, a large fine and probation, Ms. Williams-Bolar's felony conviction has also robbed her of her future.

"'Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today. The court's taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.'' - Judge Patricia Cosgrove

Although Ms. Williams-Bolar had nearly completed her education to become a teacher, under Ohio law felons are not permitted to teach. She has been robbed of the opportunity to elevate...
MORE
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/gov_kasich_pardon_ms_kelley_williams-bolars_unfair_sentencing_for_fraud_and_theft

[charrington]

An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge Patricia Cosgrove on Tuesday and will begin serving her sentence immediately.

The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with Williams Bolar's father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father’s address was in nearby Copley Township.

Additionally, Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition.

When I read about this case, a few thoughts went through my mind. First, it’s clear that the court is trying to make Kelley Williams-Bolar into an example. Even the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, said that her sentence was appropriate ''so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.''

Secondly, it’s interesting how courts find it convenient to make someone into an example when they happen to be poor and black. I’d love to see how they prosecute wealthy white women who commit the same offense. Oh, I forgot: Most wealthy white women don’t have to send their kids to the schools located near the projects.

Third, I’m not sure why the court is treating this law-abiding mom like a thug who ran into a building with a shotgun and robbed the district of $30,000. Instead, they could simply subtract the amount it costs for her kids to go to the second school from the amount that would be spent for them to attend the first one. I’m sure the difference would still be substantial, since American educational apartheid dictates that schools in poorer neighborhoods are of significantly less quality than other schools. The racial divisions within American schools are nothing less than a blatant and consistent human rights violation and should certainly be treated as such.

A final interesting blow by Judge Cosgrove that reflects the experience of marginalized African Americans in the criminal justice system relates to Williams-Bolar’s quest to obtain a teaching degree. The single mother was in school studying to become a teacher so that she could create a better life for her girls. But that won’t happen for her family now, given that the judge has all but shut the door on her chance to fulfill her dream:

''Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,'' the judge said. ''The court's taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.''

This case is a textbook example of everything that remains racially wrong with America’s educational, economic and criminal justice systems. Let’s start from the top: Had Ms. Williams-Bolar been white, she likely would never have been prosecuted for this crime in the first place (I’d love for them to show me a white woman in that area who’s gone to jail for the same crime). She also is statistically not as likely to be living in a housing project with the need to break an unjust law in order to create a better life for her daughters. Being black is also correlated with the fact that Williams-Bolar likely didn’t have the resources to hire the kinds of attorneys who could get her out of this mess (since the average black family’s wealth is roughly 1/10 that of white families). Finally, economic inequality is impactful here because that’s the reason that Williams-Bolar’s school district likely has fewer resources than the school she chose for her kids. In other words, black people have been historically robbed of our economic opportunities, leading to a two-tiered reality that we are then imprisoned for attempting to alleviate. That, my friends, is American Racism 101.

This case is also an example of how racial-inequality created during slavery and Jim Crow continues to cripple our nation to this day. There is no logical reason on earth why this mother of two should be dehumanized by going to jail and be left permanently marginalized from future economic and educational opportunities. Even if you believe in the laws that keep poor kids trapped in underperforming schools, the idea that this woman should be sent to jail for demanding educational access is simply ridiculous.
MORE
http://drboycespeaks.blogspot.com/2011/01/mother-jailed-for-sending-kids-to-wrong.html

[happyJoy]

wow.  sounds like what happened to me in with colorado state patrol.  now they are stalling on a job verification of me.  I have been told that i need to stop whinning, i am a bitter ex-cop.  this shit goes on and people just blow it off as a ex-bitter cop.  wake up people.  all police are not bad but they are afraid of their jobs and livelyhood.  this makes them no better though.  they allow it to happen and look the other way.  some brotherhood when they ridicule you to make themselves better and feel better.  god help us
good article C

Thanks for your post. We need a system that promotes good cops.
I am pessimistic that we would get that without a proper(real) union for police.

[charrington]

The family of Jeremy Marks awoke on Jan. 26 at 7:00 am to the sound of nearly 30 Los Angeles Police Department cops bursting into their house in full tactical gear, guns drawn. They searched the house, taking all computers, cell phones, cameras and trashing Jeremy’s bedroom, his parent’s bedroom and the living room.

Police vehicles filled the streets of the predominantly African American neighborhood in Lakeview Terrace. Neighbors were prevented from going into or out of their homes. A next door neighbor had guns pointed at him for trying to retrieve his children from Jeremy’s front porch, where they went every morning to be taken to school by Rochelle Pittman, Jeremy’s mother.

Pittman asked to see a search warrant. She knew that, by law, police must show a valid search warrant before entering a home. But there was none. For nearly 45 minutes, neither the police nor the District Attorney’s officers showed her anything. She continued to demand it until a warrant was produced well after the raid had begun.

And when Pittman asked, many of the invading cops refused to provide their names or badge numbers—a requirement under California law.

As the search ended three hours later, the house interior was unrecognizable. In addition to electronic equipment, Jeremy’s notes, papers and legal documents were seized—many of these documents are privileged attorney-client communications.

Every item used to communicate with the outside world about Jeremy’s case was taken from every member of Jeremy’s family, including his parents’ and siblings’ personal possessions.

The raid took place as Jeremy’s mother was attempting to gather herself and bring her kids and the neighbor’s kids to school. The neighbor’s children were at the front door when police came up with shields and shotguns ready.

Pittman recounted to Liberation at the scene that she shouted, “Let me get my granddaughter! Let me get my granddaughter!” as the police barged into the house. Pittman also demanded to wake up her son, Jeremy.

It was less than one year ago that Aiyana Stanley Jones, a seven-year-old girl, was murdered by Detroit police in a similar raid. Pittman knew better than to trust the police with her children and grandchildren. She did not want the cops to startle her son or give them any opportunity to harm him.

The truth behind the racist raid

The pretext for the raid, ordered by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley’s office, was an attempt to gather evidence surrounding the May 10, 2010 incident near a Verdugo Hills High School bus stop.

That afternoon in May, Los Angeles United School District Police officer, Erin Robles, beat up a 15-year-old African American student, allegedly for smoking a cigarette. Jeremy, 18, quietly videotaped the incident. But because he was on probation at the time, the police arrested him on charges of “attempted lynching.”

The L.A. District Attorney’s office claims Jeremy yelled something during the incident, which they claim amounted to trying to “incite a riot during an attempt to free a suspect from police custody.” This charge is baseless, as bystander videos of the incident show.

For taping the incident, Jeremy was thrown into jail near Santa Clarita and kept there until December 2010. During that time, his mother’s tenacity began to win support for his case.

Now, nine months after the incident, it is hard to understand why D.A. Cooley would need to order a Gestapo-style raid simply to gather evidence. He could have uncovered evidence through simple discovery before trial or by issuing subpoenas. But he did not.

In fact, the same day of Jeremy’s house raid, a community source told Liberation that the home of another Verdugo Hills High School student was raided. This student has no criminal charges pending. He was targeted because he posted videos of the original incident on Youtube. These videos show that Jeremy did nothing illegal.

Why the sudden need to shut down an entire community with an army of heavily armed cops—just to collect some cell phones, computers and video that has been publicly available on the Internet for nine months?

The raids were clearly an act of intimidation and terror with the purpose of instilling fear in those targeted. Jeremy’s pre-trial hearings will begin in February. Cooley and the cops seek to get leverage so that the case will end before going to trial. They want to intimidate Jeremy and potential witnesses...
MORE
http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/jeremy-marks-home-raided.html

[charrington]

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - Two Memphis police officers were recently suspended after a wild police party that went out of control and resulted in a rape complaint against an officer.

The party, which was held last August to celebrate a female officer's birthday, went on until 5:00 a.m., and resulted in a criminal investigation against a male police officer.

"(There was) a lot going on at what looks like sort of a loose party to say the least," Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin said.
 
A party guest, who is not on the police force, alleged that Memphis police officer James Patterson raped her in a locked bedroom during the party.

An internal affairs investigation revealed the alleged victim had consumed seven glasses of wine, six shots of vodka, and two shots of whiskey that night.  The guest didn't tell Patterson "no" or "stop" during the act, but later told the officer hosting the party she'd been raped. 

The following day, she identified Patterson in a police photo lineup when she filed a criminal complaint.  But during a criminal investigation, Patterson told investigators the encounter was consensual, and his accuser was the aggressor....
MORE
http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=13898522

[charrington]

Detroit — A graphic surveillance video from inside a Detroit police precinct shows a wounded commander exchanging point-blank shots with a gunman on Sunday, returning fire despite being hit in the hand and side.

The 68-second video shows Lamar Moore, 38, entering the 6th Precinct and pulling a pistol-handled shotgun on officers who were working behind a horseshoe-shaped counter.

Moore's first blast took out Sgt. Ray Saati, standing next to Cmdr. Brian Davis. Both fell behind a desk as Davis, grabbing Saati's gun, stood and fired back.

Moore then jumped the counter and confronted Davis, and the two — less than 3 feet apart — fired upon each other.

Davis was blown backwards by the shot and Moore, the video shows, staggered around a couple of desks. But before he could shoot Davis again, the commander jumped out of the way, throwing a garbage can to distract Moore.

Soon afterward, other officers closed in on Moore and fired the shots that killed him.

The gunfight was played out in grainy, black-and-white video that was at times hard to follow. But it was clear that Davis and his officers reacted quickly and with professionalism.

"There were tremendous acts of heroism," Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.

Three other officers, Sgt. James Kirkland, Sgt. Mike Ingels and Officer Theodore Jackson were returning fire and were not on camera, police said. Jackson was off duty and had come in to take care of some paperwork. "He wasn't home watching football," Assistant Chief Chester Logan said.

The Sunday incident in northwest Detroit garnered national attention and is forcing officials to make changes to ensure precincts and district offices are more secure.

All four of the officers wounded during the exchange have been released from the hospital.

Moore, of Detroit, was under investigation for allegedly holding a 13-year-old runaway as a sex slave, but police have been reluctant to speculate about a motive.

"We can't speculate," Godbee has said. "There is nothing in this that makes sense."

Three of the supervisors have been released from Sinai-Grace Hospital and a fourth remains there but is recovering, police said Thursday.

The video from the precinct surveillance system depicted "the acts of heroism of our heroes on the police department reacting in a split second," and Moore had "intentions that are evil," Godbee said...
MORE
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110128/METRO01/101280402/1410/METRO01

[agentbluescreen]

Am I mistaken, or might this particular item not really belong in this thread?

Obviously it does serve to sadly further alienate police from their community. ? 

[charrington]

ST. LOUIS • Identified in court only as "D.S.," an attractive woman with a petite frame told a federal judge Friday that her chest gets tight every time she sees a police officer. She said her nightmares feature the Uplands Park police station and seeing apparent semen stains on chairs there.

"For that department to still be in operation is a spit in the face," D.S. said. She was making a victim's impact statement before the sentencing of Leon F. Pullen, 32, a former police officer in that community who has admitted sexually assaulting her and others.

Pullen, of Foley, was then sentenced to 25 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. It was at the top of the sentencing range set in his plea agreement.

He admitted sexually assaulting and robbing four female paid escorts in 2009. Only D.S.'s assault was at the police station. The others were at a hotel and two gas stations.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel said Pullen's actions threatened to shatter the public's view of police.

People "trust law enforcement to make sure they're safe," Sippel said. "For law enforcement to turn on them and take from them that sense of safety ... it's hard to comprehend."

The judge delayed for 30 days a ruling on restitution. Pullen's attorney, Eric Butts, has objected to what the victims claim they are owed for medical and psychological trauma. Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Marcus said D.S. alone had more than $20,000 in related expenses.

Prosecutors said Pullen scoured online advertisements to find the escorts and posed as a customer to lure them to meetings. The escorts said that when Pullen revealed himself as an officer, he stole their money and either groped them against their will or forced them to have sex under threat of arrest.

D.S., a mother of four, has said Pullen coerced her into going to the station in July 2009 and forced oral sex upon her while she sat on a bullet-resistant vest, ignoring her yells in protest. In her statement, she said Pullen felt he "was bigger than life ... unstoppable." She said the experience left her with two questions: "How and why? Why did the city let it go on?"

A second victim said in court that Pullen wanted to plan "Uplands Park parties" charging $80 apiece. "This was the deal," she said, without elaborating further.

The Police Department placed Pullen on unpaid leave after his arrest by the FBI in September 2009.

Pullen pleaded guilty in July to nine felony charges, including conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights, witness tampering and lying to the FBI. Ten other charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.

A volunteer police officer in Uplands Park, Justin Biancardi, pleaded guilty...
MORE
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_20f41977-7903-5184-9a5a-3ac630f4d37f.html

[charrington]

Jeremy Marks, 18, was arrested and bizarrely charged with “attempted lynching” last May after an altercation another youth had with a campus police officer in Los Angeles. Marks was among several students who watched Officer Erin Robles get into a physical confrontation with another students in front of a bus stop. L.A. Weekly, which first reported on Marks’ case, says according to video and other witnesses, Marks doesn’t appear to have participated in the altercation in any way, other than to observe and record it.

When the story broke last month, several commenters stated that Marks was charged for recording the scuffle on his cell phone, though from what I’ve read, the “attempting lynching” charge actually stems from allegations Marks yelled “Kick her ass!” during the fight. “Attempted lynching” is a charge police levy at people accused of trying to incite a riot to help a suspect escape police custody (it’s a strange name for that charge, given the actual definition of lynching). But even that appears to be a case of mistaken identity.

Marks was initially facing seven years in prison. He’s facing more serious charges than anyone else involved, and that includes the kid who got into the fight with Robles in the first place (he’s a minor). The L.A. County DA’s office offered a plea which would have required him to serve 32 months in jail. He refused.

Marks was held in jail for seven months until Google engineer Neil Fraser read about his Marks’ on the Internet and sprang for his bail to have Marks home in time for Christmas.

It now appears Marks’ home was raided this week, and in a particularly aggressive manner. The only report of the raid I can find right now is from a website called Liberation, which I’ve never heard of, but bills itself as the “newspaper of the party for socialism and liberation.” So read the report with that in mind.

    The family of Jeremy Marks awoke on Jan. 26 at 7:00 am to the sound of nearly 30 Los Angeles Police Department cops bursting into their house in full tactical gear, guns drawn. They searched the house, taking all computers, cell phones, cameras and trashing Jeremy’s bedroom, his parent’s bedroom and the living room.

    Police vehicles filled the streets of the predominantly African American neighborhood in Lakeview Terrace. Neighbors were prevented from going into or out of their homes. A next door neighbor had guns pointed at him for trying to retrieve his children from Jeremy’s front porch, where they went every morning to be taken to school by Rochelle Pittman, Jeremy’s mother.

    Pittman asked to see a search warrant. She knew that, by law, police must show a valid search warrant before entering a home. But there was none. For nearly 45 minutes, neither the police nor the District Attorney’s officers showed her anything. She continued to demand it until a warrant was produced well after the raid had begun.

    And when Pittman asked, many of the invading cops refused to provide their names or badge numbers—a requirement under California law.

    As the search ended three hours later, the house interior was unrecognizable...
MORE
http://www.theagitator.com/2011/01/28/l-a-teen-charged-with-attempted-lynching-now-raided-by-police/

[No2NWO]

Seems to be happening at epidemic proportions....  disgusting.

HPD officer accused of rape is freed on bail
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Jan. 29, 2011, 9:38PM

A Houston police officer charged with sexually assaulting a woman while on duty was released on bail Saturday.

Abraham Joseph was released the day after state District Judge Denise Collins lowered his bail from $500,000 to $150,000.

Joseph, 27, has been indicted on charges of aggravated sexual assault. Joseph is accused of handcuffing a cantina waitress outside a bar on Jan. 2, driving her to a secluded area and raping her on the trunk of his police car, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the woman.

Authorities say Joseph is implicated in five additional sexual assault cases.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7404468.html

[ssmlr3]

i will be honest i do not like unions. however i would still have a job if colorado did allow police to have unions.  the police protective association that state patrol does have is corrupt. yest i have proof to back this statement.  i called the director of it who use to be the chief of state patrol.  i  advised him i had proof of illegal activity,lying etc with proof.  i told him i wanted the other troopers to know what their organization does to them if they do what i did which is speak out.  i little birdy advised me that the director had called the captain and told him about my complaint regarding this captain.  i called the director back and asked if he looked into my statements.  he asked why so he could do the dirty work for me.  i told him no just curious.  this director then tells me yes he did call this captain who i complained about for committing a felon of aggravated perjury with proof of it, and the director tells me he called and warned him.  i questioned the director why he would call the same captain who has a complainted about him for a felony.  the director continues to tell me he did it so the captain would know he needed to have his shit together.  sound like a call to help this captain and give him information that was confidential since this police protective association is to protect its members from the state patrol. 

i repeat.  if a cop knows of wrong doings by his agency and does nothing to help or solve a problem he has become the problem.  they are no better and thus a trash and pieces of shit in my book.  i worked my ass off and can show my stats.  funny according to my former supervisors they told me i could write more tickets if i did not arrest those with fake social security cards as a felony.  i was wasting my time.  how about that trooper are told if a person is suspected of being here illegally like having no record through ncic or ccici that they should just write the DUI ticket and let them go.  funny policy says to contact the state patrol immigration unit ooops

[charrington]

When Mark Douglas Ledford came home on Nov. 29, 2007, to find a strange green Honda Accord parked near his house with the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition, he suspected trouble.

Who had left the car there, and why? What if something strange was going on? Shouldn't the police investigate?

Soon after, those questions got answered. But instead of helping uncover a crime, Ledford and then-girlfriend Asia Ward found themselves arrested and accused of one.

On Wednesday, according to his attorney, Ledford is scheduled to be tried on charges of auto burglary after having become another statistic in an Austin Police Department undercover program. Ward's trial date has not been set.

Ledford, 39, has a job at a real estate firm and no criminal record. He plays in local rock bands and has a tattoo across his chest that reads "To Whom Much is Given, Much is Required."

Ward is a 21-year-old woman with a punk-rock fashion sense and a fixation with classic zombie movies. She also has no criminal record.

So how did she and Ledford find themselves in this fix? According to them, their attorney and police, here's what happened:

'Get on the ground!'

The Honda was parked near the corner of Joe Sayers Avenue and Houston Street in the Brentwood neighborhood in North Austin. Ledford said he knocked on his neighbors' doors trying to find the owner, but no one knew anything about the car.

He figured it had been stolen and left there, so he called the police. According to police records, two officers arrived at 5:27 p.m. but were gone within seven minutes.

"I told them, 'Isn't it strange that someone parked their car there with the windows down and the keys in it?' " Ledford said. "Their answer was, 'It's parked legally. What's the problem?' It seemed suspicious to me, but the police were telling me they don't care."

However, the officers held back a crucial detail: The police had actually left the car there themselves.

The Honda was a so-called bait vehicle, stocked with an alarm, surveillance equipment and a tracking system. Austin police began their bait vehicle program in 1997 and say they have up to nine cars deployed at any one time on city streets. They simply wait for thieves to take the bait, and the GPS tracking units make them easy to find. Because the whole thing is captured on videotape, the evidence can help secure a conviction.

The undercover program produced 70 warrants or arrests in 2008 and 13 this year, according to Sgt. Oliver Tate with the Police Department's auto theft interdiction unit. In the past, Detective John Spillers has been quoted as saying the program has caught suspects as young as 13.

The police did not specify what the arrests were for, how many resulted in convictions or why the number of arrests has declined in 2009. Nor did they provide figures on how much the program costs. However, in 2007 the City Council received an $85,287 one-year grant from the state for bait car equipment.

As the parked Honda remained in front of Ledford's house, he said he and Ward began to imagine various crime scenarios.

"It looked like it was a woman's car," Ward said. "There was a bikini top or something in the back. The key chain had tacky things hanging off it. There was broken glass in the back seat, as if the window had been broken. And, strangely, there was also a pair of men's work boots and some rope. Maybe I've read too many serial killer books, but I thought it was a stripper's car and that maybe she had been murdered and the car had been dumped — maybe with her body in the trunk."

On a Saturday night — three days after the car had been left at the house — Ledford and Ward came home after going out for ice cream and a movie, and decided it was up to them to try to figure out whose car it was.

First, Ledford put on gloves. "I'm thinking, 'This is a crime scene,' and didn't want to leave fingerprints," he said. "I'm thinking, 'I've reported the car to the police, and they did nothing. It's time to get to the bottom of this.' "

They opened the car door and began a search, all of which was captured on the vehicle's video camera mounted in the dashboard. In the video, a copy of which was obtained by the American-Statesman, Ledford uses his cell phone as a flashlight to inspect the car's interior, reporting what he finds to Ward. He takes the keys out of the ignition and tries to open the trunk, which, unknown to him, is full of surveillance equipment.

The lock is jammed, which Ledford said made him even more suspicious, so he gets a screwdriver and tries to open the trunk again, without success. Minutes later, the couple are standing outside the car talking when a flashing light appears and a police officer says, "Get on the ground!"

Ledford and Ward were handcuffed; they waived their right to a lawyer. They told their story to the police investigator at the scene, Spillers. The police eventually let them go. The couple went inside, ate their ice cream and watched a movie. They thought that was the end of it, they said.

Except it wasn't. Sixteen days later, on Ward's birthday, the police came to the house with an affidavit and arrested them on a charge of burglary of a vehicle, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and up to a $4,000 fine. The affidavit, written by Spillers, notes that Ledford was wearing gloves to avoid leaving prints, and both he and his girlfriend "admitted to Mark getting a screwdriver and trying to get in the trunk."

The affidavit does not mention Ledford's previous call to police or that the car was parked near his house. It concludes that Spillers "believes this action constitutes more than mere curiosity or trying to locate the owner's information."

Neither Spillers nor the prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Vicki Ashley, would comment on the case.

Ledford and Ward say they were offered deferred prosecution, which would waive any penalties as long as they sign a confession and don't commit a crime for a year. But they refuse to confess to an offense they say they didn't commit.

"If they want to charge us with trespassing, then fine, I'm guilty," Ward said. "But we did not burglarize a vehicle."

Not entrapment?

Bait cars are used in police departments across the country, and Austin police say the tactic is not generally considered entrapment because police don't actively encourage people to steal the car — they
MORE
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/2009/07/26/0726baitcar.html

[charrington]

Dismissed ---

“Bait car” case charges dismissed


Travis County prosecutors have dismissed the misdemeanor burglary of a vehicle cases against a man and woman who said they were unfairly accused of crimes for entering an Austin Police Department “bait car” in 2007.

The case against Mark Douglas Ledford had been set for trial next week. Ledford’s then-girlfriend, Asia Ward, was also charged. But Ledford’s lawyer, David Crawford, said both cases were resolved in late August, a few weeks after they were covered in an Austin American-Statesman story.

The burglary charge against Ward, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail, was dismissed outright, and Ledford’s burglary charge was reduced to criminal mischief, a Class C misdemeanor punishable only by a fine, Crawford said.

Ledford then entered into a deferred disposition agreement with the Travis County attorney’s office, which led to the dismissal of his case after he stayed out of trouble for 30 days.

Crawford said he is now working on expunging any indication of the arrests from public records.

Ledford found a green Honda Accord, keys in the ignition and windows down, parked near his home in North Austin’s Brentwood neighborhood on Nov. 29, 2007. He called police, who did nothing and declined to tell him that they placed the car, which was outfitted with surveillance equipment, on the street in an effort to lure car thieves.

Three days later, Ledford, who was accompanied by Ward, entered the vehicle and tried to pry open the trunk. Police showed up and 16 days later and arrested the couple...
MORE
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2009/10/14/bait_car_case_charges_dismisse.html[/b]

[charrington]

Between January 20 and January 25, 13 police officers were shot in the U.S., five of them fatally. Two officers in St. Petersburg, Florida, were killed while trying to arrest a suspect accused of aggravated battery. Two more were killed in Miami while trying to arrest a suspected murderer. An officer in Oregon was seriously wounded and another in Indiana was killed after they were shot during routine traffic stops. The Indiana assailant had a long and violent criminal record. The suspect in Oregon is still at large. In another incident, four officers were injured in Detroit when a man about to be charged in a murder investigation walked into a police station and opened fire.

Some police advocates have drawn unsupported conclusions from this rash of attacks, claiming that they are tied to rising anti-police sentiment, anti-government protest, or a lack of adequate gun control laws. Media outlets also have been quick to draw connections between these unrelated shootings. While these incidents are tragic, the ensuing alarmism threatens to stifle much-needed debate about police tactics, police misconduct, and police accountability.

Jon Shane, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NPR the January shootings "follow some bit of a larger trend in the United States," which he described as an "overriding sense of entitlement and 'don't tread on me.'" Craig W. Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, told UPI, "It's a very troubling trend where officers are being put at greater risk than ever before." The same article summarized the opinions of other police leaders who think the shootings "reflected a broader lack of respect for authority."

Richard Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, told MSNBC, "It's not a fluke….There's a perception among officers in the field that there's a war on cops going on." Police critic William Grigg notes that Smith County, Texas, Sheriff J.B. Smith told the NBC station in Tyler, "I think it's a hundred times more likely today that an officer will be assaulted compared to twenty, thirty years ago. It has become one of the most hazardous jobs in the United States, undoubtedly—in the top five."

During his interview with Shane, NPR host Michael Martin linked the shootings to the availability of guns. Salon's Amy Steinberg concluded "there is a disturbing trend and an increasingly pressing need to revisit the conversation on gun control."

Dig into most of these articles, however, and you will find there is no real evidence of an increase in anti-police violence, let alone one that can be traced to anti-police rhetoric, gun sales, disrespect for authority, or "don't tread on me" sentiment. (CNN is one of the few media outlets that have covered the purported anti-police trend with appropriate skepticism.) Amid all the quotes from concerned law enforcement officials in MSNBC's "War on Cops" article, for example, is a casual mention that police fatality statistics for this month are about the same as they were in January 2010. Right after suggesting to NPR that the recent attacks were related to anti-government rhetoric, Shane acknowledged there has been little research into the underlying causes of police shootings.

In truth, on-the-job police fatalities have dropped nearly 50 percent...
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http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/31/the-anti-cop-trend-that-isnt