(This story is somewhat long but I imagine it’s worth hearing and retelling. TL;DR at the bottom for your consideration)

Long time lurker and fan of the reddit community, this is one of my first posts. Don't know who else to turn to. Fox, NRA, and a handful of blogs and other pages haven't gotten back to me

I was recently back in NY visiting family for the holidays when I encountered the most horrific display of incompetence and borderline corruption from the NYPD that I have ever heard of. I grew up in Brooklyn and spent the majority of my life there until recently moving to Denver, CO this past July. While back for the holidays I was picking up some things that I had been meaning to bring out to Denver with me including two airsoft rifles that I had stored in Brooklyn after purchasing them in Pennsylvania. I brought them in a locked case to LaGuardia and went to check in at the counter. While legally I didn't actually have to declare them since they are not real firearms, I chose to notify the Delta employees of the contents of my bag and asked if I could check them as firearms so that TSA didn't pull me off my flight saying that there was something suspicious in my luggage. None of the Delta employees had ever checked a firearm before and didn't know what they were doing so they called over a Port Authority police officer to inspect my luggage. The Port Authority officer told me that it is illegal to possess airsoft guns in NYC and that I was being written a citation and the guns were being confiscated. I briefly tried to explain that what I was doing was actually not in violation of any laws because they had been in my possession for less than 24 hours, were being transported in a discreet and locked container, and were exiting the city (which could not be more obvious because I was standing at the Delta check in counter). The officer proceeded to unlawfully write me a citation and while doing so, told me I had a warrant out for my arrest from an unanswered summons over 2 years ago. This is where things start to get ridiculous.

The summons was for having a knife in "plain view" while actually I had a 1.5" folding pocket knife clipped on the inside of my pocket. The officer saw the clip alone and searched me (which I couldn't argue due to stop-and-frisk), took the knife, and wrote me a summons. When I went to the courthouse to answer for it over two years ago, I was told that they had no record of the charge and that it had either been dismissed already or the officer never filed the report. I assumed the latter and that he had just stolen my knife and had no way of knowing any better. In the years following I have passed multiple background checks for my jobs in the firearms industry, background checks for my rifle/shotgun permit in NYC, background checks for firearm purchases, and background checks for rental and apartment applications as well as a handful of other things totaling about 30 background checks in both in NYC and CO. I was NEVER notified of any warrant and passed every check. I also never received any mail from the state at my address which had not changed for the entirety of the time I lived in NYC after getting that charge.

Once it was brought to light that I had this warrant, I was put into handcuffs in front of my mother and sister who were seeing me off to my flight and taken to the Port Authority police station near LaGuardia. The officers proceeded to mock me for my "illegal toys" and I was detained there for several hours. I was then transferred over to central booking in Queens where I spent the rest of the night with a cast of delightful characters and sleeping on the concrete floor. I was told that I would have an arraignment at 9am and was moved to a holding cell adjacent to the courtroom at 830 where I then waited until 330pm.

My state appointed counsel told me she was hopeful that both charges would be dismissed. I stepped into the arraignment and the judge told me that the knife in plain view charge had been dismissed and I was being charged with a non criminal misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace which doesn't make any sense to me because I was in no way "disturbing any peace" but they didn't even know how to prosecute my charge and just gave me that.

My counsel told me that I could fight the charge but she wasn't sure if she could win and I would need to have multiple court dates going forward. This simply wasn't an option for me because I can't afford any more plane tickets; I'm barely making rent and car payments each month as it is. On top of that, I resume school on the 14th of January. I had no choice but to agree to pay $270 in fines under duress so I could return to Colorado to work and get ready for school to start. As one final insult I was told that my property would not be returned to me and with that I had to get to the airport as I was already running late for my new flight.

I honestly don’t know what can be done at this point if anything. I’d like to have my property returned to me here in Colorado if there is any way that anyone can assist or advise me but more so I would just like to let people know of this ridiculous story and hope that going forward some of the more ridiculous laws from the Bloomberg administration will eventually be tossed out.

TL;DR while legally transporting toy guns and taking every precaution possible to stay safe and within the law I wound up getting incarcerated, spent the night in bookings, got fined $270, lost over $1500 in personal property, and obviously had to get a new flight home. I hate Michael Bloomberg and slightly resent the NYPD

A Torrance police officer who was fired in 1998 and filed a long-running series of legal actions in an attempt to win his job back has apparently exhausted his options.

The final legal tab for Torrance taxpayers was nearly $570,000, believed to be the largest amount ever spent by the city to defend itself against a former police officer.

A Toronto police officer recently testified in court that he has stripped “hundreds” of people completely naked as part of routine searches, despite police policy stating that must not be done.

Const. Sasa Sljivo’s shocking admission came during a trial for Lerondo Smith, charged with drug trafficking and breaching conditions.

To strip someone completely naked is against rules laid out by the Supreme Court in 2001. Any evidence discovered during a fully naked search can be deemed a breach of charter rights and tossed from court, thereby jeopardizing a case.

The checkpoint was among several being carried out in Pennsylvania by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

City Police Chief William M. Heim said the two federal agencies are trying to see what can be done about crashes and injuries, and the swabs were not to get DNA samples but to test for the presence of prescription drugs.

The checkpoint was supposed to be voluntary, but Nieves said he had to refuse several times over a five-minute period before the woman taking the survey let him go.

...

Heim said city police were hired for site security only, since the survey takers were paying money for answers and for the swabs.

But he said city police did not pull motorists over, nor ask any questions, and in fact were asked to stay away from the cars.

...

Council members also were upset, and said if local police are there, it appears they are operating the checkpoint.

Councilman Dennis M. Sterner was livid that government can't pick up local drug dealers without a two-year investigation, but can stop motorists at random.

The latest antics of the animal abusing psychopaths of the Philadelphia Gun Club (PGC) is the theft in broad daylight of signs belonging to Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). These thugs have the mayor, administrators and police in town of Bensalem, Pennsylvania so completely in their pockets, that they couldn't care less if their criminal behavior is filmed.

SHARK has demonstrated the corruption of Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo and the Bensalem Police Department for more than four years. Animal abusing cowards are allowed to cover their license plates, use their vehicles as weapons of intimidation, hit people on the Delaware River with shotgun blasts, and of course to commit outrageous violations of Pennsylvania humane law 5511, which prohibits the cruel treatment, neglect and abandonment of animals.

Mayor DiGirolamo and the police have refused to stop the criminal behavior of the rich psychopaths of the PGC. We at SHARK are hoping you might give the Bensalem Police a call and ask them why they are refusing to do their job and allowing the continued and escalating violations of civilian rights.

The phone number of the Bensalem Police Department is (215) 633-3700

A dog in Volusia County is recovering after being shot by police, its owner said.

Richard Stotlar said Lady, which he rescued more than a year ago, is now stitched up and in pain after being shot three times about midnight Friday on Elsie Avenue in Holly Hill.

“I was sitting in there, watching TV, and all of a sudden we hear three gunshots,” Stotlar said.

Stotlar said he ran outside and saw officers in his backyard with Lady surrounded. Officers said the dog made an aggressive move.

“She is a big baby. She is not a vicious animal,” Stotlar said.

He said it started when officers came banging on his door, trying to serve a search warrant on a prostitute who Stotlar said doesn't live there.

...

“They didn’t even investigate to see where this person lived. I Googled her on my phone, and she was arrested on Nov. 28, so she might still be in jail,” Stotlar said.

The lawsuit alleges 40-year-old Antonio Johnson, of Glasgow Village, was shocked multiple times with a stun gun and beaten until he lost consciousness when he was arrested in July on suspicion of drunken driving.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the suit was filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court. It also says that Johnson was left handcuffed on the floor of the Hazelwood city jail for several hours before an ambulance was called.

Boston police are clashing with the city's incoming mayor over a proposal to arm some officers with AR-15 rifles.

Mayor-elect Martin Walsh came out against the plan over the weekend. The Boston Police Department had been pushing for a limited number of officers to carry the high-powered rifles, in light of recent mass shootings as well as the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year.

But after the incoming mayor initially stayed mum on the idea, a spokeswoman for Walsh said he's not on board -- not yet, anyway.

"Mayor-elect Walsh is opposed to the AR-15 rifles," spokeswoman Kathryn Norton told FoxNews.com in an email. "Unless otherwise convinced by the Boston Police Department, he does not think they are necessary."

Four suspects have been arrested after a bizarre, early-morning home invasion in Lincoln Heights on Saturday that ended with a resident tying up two of the armed men.

The suspects, armed with a shotgun and three handguns, allegedly entered a house on the 2600 block of Alta Street in Lincoln Heights, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department. The resident, who was the only person home at the time, saw the suspects on a home surveillance system and called 911 about 2:40 a.m., she said.

As police and SWAT units arrived, one suspect was seen fleeing the scene, and was immediately apprehended by officers.

Two other suspects remained in the house, while the fourth ran and hid, Eisenman said.

The two men inside then allegedly told the resident to identify them to police as victims too, and convinced the resident to tie them up in the home, according to police.

The resident obliged, and fled the home, telling the police what had happened while the two suspects remained tied up inside.

Police did not immediately enter the residence, Eisenman said. After some time the suspects “got tired of waiting” and emerged.

They were arrested shortly thereafter, and the fourth suspect was found hiding in the backyard by a canine unit.

...Yet as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the sexual assault charges since Vagnini agreed to plead no contest to four felony charges and four misdemeanors. Vagnini will no longer have to register as a sex offender.

The serial abuser and his accomplices. The serial abuser and his accomplices.
In fact, all of the perpetrators were given plea deals and given light sentences.

Officer Jeffrey Dollhopf, 42, will face a $300 fine and and was ordered to 100 hours of community service for his involvement in the assaults. Since he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct as a party to the crime, most of his charges were wiped out. As part of his deal, he agreed to resign from the department. He spent one full year on paid leave from the department.

Officer Brian Kozelek, 34, was given a similar deal. After a full year of paid vacation, he now faces a $300 fine and a mere 20 hours community service. He also agreed to voluntarily resign his position at the department.

Officer Jacob Knight, 32, will actually face a small amount of jail time. He was sentenced to 20 days in the House of Correction, a $300 fine and 60 hours of community service after an extended amount of paid time off.

As for Officer Michael Vagnini, his record of molesting innocent people, illegal detainment, illegal searches, penetrating orifices for fun, framing people with false evidence and ruining their lives has come to a close. After terrorizing his community for years in a most disgusting and egregious way, he will face just over 2 years behind bars — 26 months.

...

...Yet as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the sexual assault charges since Vagnini agreed to plead no contest to four felony charges and four misdemeanors. Vagnini will no longer have to register as a sex offender.

The serial abuser and his accomplices. The serial abuser and his accomplices.
In fact, all of the perpetrators were given plea deals and given light sentences.

Officer Jeffrey Dollhopf, 42, will face a $300 fine and and was ordered to 100 hours of community service for his involvement in the assaults. Since he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct as a party to the crime, most of his charges were wiped out. As part of his deal, he agreed to resign from the department. He spent one full year on paid leave from the department.

Officer Brian Kozelek, 34, was given a similar deal. After a full year of paid vacation, he now faces a $300 fine and a mere 20 hours community service. He also agreed to voluntarily resign his position at the department.

Officer Jacob Knight, 32, will actually face a small amount of jail time. He was sentenced to 20 days in the House of Correction, a $300 fine and 60 hours of community service after an extended amount of paid time off.

As for Officer Michael Vagnini, his record of molesting innocent people, illegal detainment, illegal searches, penetrating orifices for fun, framing people with false evidence and ruining their lives has come to a close. After terrorizing his community for years in a most disgusting and egregious way, he will face just over 2 years behind bars — 26 months.

...

Police officer Adhyl Polanco grew up with the constant crime and shootings of Washington Heights and always dreamt of becoming one of the "good guys." After the "1 arrest / 20 summons / 5 stop and frisks" monthly policy was mandated by the NYPD in 2009, Polanco reached a turning point in his career that compelled him to choose between his career and his morals.

Michigan legislators have introduced a pair of bills that would reform the state’s asset forfeiture laws, which currently enable law enforcement agencies to seize property from innocent people easily and profitably. Michigan police departments and district attorneys have padded their budgets to the tune of $70 million in the last three years via forfeiture, according to Lee McGrath of the Institute for Justice,* a law firm that litigates asset forfeiture.

Most people in jail in the U.S. have not been convicted of any crime. That is unless poverty can be considered an automatic-lockup offense.

Tour a jail in any county in the nation and chances are six of every 10 inmates are people legally presumed innocent and still awaiting trial. The majority of those inmates are stuck behind bars not based on their presumed risk to the outside community or likelihood to appear in court, but solely because they were unable to afford their bail bond.

LOGAN — New Straitsville Police Chief Kevin Groves has pleaded innocent to seven felonies following his recent indictment by a grand jury in Hocking County.

One of his alleged victims is Hocking County Common Pleas Court Judge John Wallace, who recused himself from presiding over the case due to the conflict. A visiting judge will now be appointed.

Groves has been accused of tampering with records and providing false address information when registering vehicles on two separate occasions, as well as improperly accessing the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway four separate times. OLEG, as the system is commonly called by law enforcement, is used to track criminal history, evidence, missing children, gangs, protection orders and a myriad of other topics to solve and prevent crime. Groves is accused of improperly seeking the background information of four individuals, including Wallace.

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
An Elmwood Park police sergeant has been relieved of his police duties amid allegations he forged a $20,000 check from an elderly man with dementia, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Although no criminal charges have been filed, Sgt. John Wasilenko has been put on administrative leave, pending the investigation after being named in a citation to discover assets filed Dec. 20 by Cook County Public Guardian Robert F. Harris.

During the investigation, the 85-year-old victim admitted he gave about $2,000 in cash to Wasilenko, but couldn't remember when. He said Wasilenko "protected" him from "a lot of bad guys and politicians in Elmwood Park." He said he was giving Wasilenko money for a trip and was supposed to give him $6,000 over the next couple years, the citation said.