Two New Jersey police officers remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition on Saturday, a day after they were injured in a wrong-way crash in New York City that killed another officer and a friend.

Investigators have applied for a warrant to test the driver's blood-alcohol level following the crash early Friday on the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island. But a New York Police Department spokesman said Saturday he did not know if the warrant had been approved or executed.

Authorities said the four men were headed home from a strip club when their car drove the wrong way down the highway and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. The officers were off-duty at the time.

Pedro Abad, 27, who was driving the car, and Patrik Kudlac, 23, were hospitalized on Staten Island. Both men are officers with the Linden police department.

Another Linden officer, 28-year-old Frank Viggiano, and the officers' friend, 28-year-old Joe Rodriguez, were killed in the crash. The truck driver suffered injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

Hours before the crash, Abad had posted a photo on his Instagram page of three shot glasses filled with what he identified as "Jack Daniels Fire on the house." But authorities said it was "too premature" to speculate on what caused the accident.

The FBI on Friday offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a rookie Los Angeles police officer thought to have fled to Texas after allegedly killing a man in a fight.

Henry Solis, a 27-year-old probationary officer, is accused of shooting Salome Rodriguez Jr. multiple times on March 13 near several nightclubs in downtown Pomona, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles. Solis was off duty at the time.

In a fugitive warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court earlier this week, an FBI agent wrote that Solis told family members after the murder that he would never be seen again and then contacted his father, who drove him from Southern California to Texas.

A North Carolina student stood up for his First Amendment right to record after witnessing a school resource officer tasering a student during an altercation Thursday.

The incident took place at West Iredell High School in Statesville. Student Sterling Karrenstein witnessed the resource officer used a taser to subdue a student who punched him in the face during an altercation.

While documenting the incident with his mobile phone, multiple school staff attempted to have Sterling stop documenting the incident and went as far to demand the phone and began grabbing and pulling him in an effort to stop him.

The teachers are identified as Mr. Paterson, Ms Campbell, Mr. Whitson, and Mr. Oates, after having a conversation with Mr. Palmer, Principal of WIHS, Sterling was told that his rights were greatly diminished once he walked upon school property.

This is far from accurate
School policy has no mention of restrictions to speech nor other protected activities as you can read in the Code of Conduct WIHS.

On Feb. 12, Kelly, 64, of The Plains, was convicted on first-degree felony racketeering, 12 counts of theft in office, three counts of theft, one count of perjury, and one count of failure to maintain a cashbook.

The theft charges related to his selling county property to McKee's Scrapyard and pocketing the proceeds, taking cash from campaign donations, and illegally purchasing meals for himself with Furtherance of Justice (FOJ) funds.

Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove merged various counts and sentenced Kelly to one year in prison for the theft charges related to the McKee's sales and FOJ meals, a second consecutive year for charges related to the theft of campaign donations, two more consecutive years for perjury, and three more consecutive years for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, also known as racketeering.

Combined, Kelly was sentenced to seven years in prison. Cosgrove said the sentence not only reflected punishment for Kelly but also a deterrent to others.

"The court finds you have shown not one shred of remorse for your conduct between 2008 and 2013," Cosgrove told Kelly, who was seen nodding.

Cosgrove did not, during the proceeding, mention any possibility for early release, and under Ohio Revised Code, because Kelly's felony crimes took place while he was employed as a public official, he will not be eligible for it.

Cosgrove took her sharpest aim at Kelly as she sentenced him for the perjury charge, noting that throughout the case she found him in contempt of court on three separate occasions. That included an occasion that led to his perjury charge and conviction, when Judge Cosgrove asked Kelly under oath if he had provided all the documents related to confidential informants in his possession, he said yes, and investigators later found additional documents on his home computer.

"In the court's opinion, you continue to deny, deny, deny and lie and lie and lie," Cosgrove told Kelly.

It was a tough day for Sharnick Compton and her family as they had to put down their 9–year–old pit bull, Opie, early Saturday morning. He'd been shot outside Compton's home by a Lincoln Police officer.

"I heard pow, pow, pow and I was like, 'Opie,' and I just ran across ran around the back and he was yelping and he had a bullet hole," Compton remembered. "And I took him off the chain and just started yelling, 'Why did you shoot my dog?'"

Police had been called to the home near N. 30th and T Streets multiple times early Saturday morning on a disturbance involving Compton's 17–year–old son.

Police said an officer was searching the east side of the home when Opie barked and charged at him. They said he fired two shots-- none of them hit Opie. Authorities said the dog continued to charge. They said the officer fired again, this time hitting him in the front leg.

The pit bull was placed in the care of Animal Control. The family was told his leg needed to be amputated. It wasn't certain if he'd make it out of surgery. They later made the decision to put Opie down.

"He just closed his eyes, he was gone, his heart beat stopped," Compton's daughter, Shy 'Niq Culver, remembered.

Compton said Opie had been on his 10-foot leash. She said he never barked at the officer.

...

The name of the officer involved in the shooting is not being released. Authorities said he acted appropriately because he felt like he was going to be attacked. An investigation is being conducted.

A prominent defense lawyer confirmed he was unable to recover from city police a collective $21,300 on behalf of two clients whose criminal cases were decided in their favor.

Attorney Vincent A. Bongiorni said he filed motions to compel return of property on behalf of two clients - one of whom was down about $20,000 - and a second seeking a return of $1,323 seized by police after he was acquitted of drug charges.

Bongiorni on Friday filed a motion to force the return of the lesser amount of cash on behalf of a client found not guilty on Feb. 5 in Hampden Superior Court of possession with intent to distribute drugs.

"The Defendant has made repeated requests upon the Springfield Police Department for the return of his currency and has been told they have been unable to locate it; the Defendant has now been deprived of his property for almost two years," Bongiorni's motion reads.

The filing comes a week after Police Commissioner John Barbieri conceded in a response to a public records request from The Republican/MassLive.com that the city had conducted an audit of the police evidence room and discovered cash was missing.

Peace Officer is a documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.

On an autumn night last year a 16-year-old high school student, Thai Gurule, was crossing a street in Portland, Oregon, accompanied by his older brother and a few friends. No one was breaking the law, being disruptive, or acting suspiciously. Yet the black teenager would soon be stopped by police officers without probable cause, illegally detained, shoved off his feet onto the ground, punched multiple times in the torso, kneed in the stomach, grabbed by the hair, and tased.

He would later be charged with assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest, and attempted strangulation, per the narrative of the cops who wrote the police report.

Here's how the police saw it, or at least how they claimed to see it after the fact: They approached a group that fit the description of people reported to be creating a disturbance. A 16-year-old started walking away from their attempts to question him. He also talked back. They grabbed him and wanted to cuff him, but he struggled, threw punches, and put one of them in a headlock. So he got tased.

...

But thanks in part to bystanders who captured video of this teen's encounter with police, Judge Diana Stuart acquitted him last week. After being illegally stopped, her ruling acknowledged, the youth did tense his arms, struggle to stay on his feet, and flail around with his limbs. But he did so to protect himself from "senseless and aggressive" violence that "a reasonable person would have felt was excessive force," she found, adding that police misrepresented parts of the encounter in their report, which she did not find credible after reviewing the video evidence.

Newly introduced legislation in the Ohio House would prohibit the manufacture, sale, or public display of toy guns designed to look like the real thing.

Under House Bill 119, authored by Democratic state Rep. Bill Patmon of Cleveland, the ban would apply to any BB gun or gun replica that a "reasonable person" would confuse with a real firearm.

Those who make, sell, or publicly brandish imitation guns could face up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Patmon said such a ban is needed because of the deaths of Tamir Rice, John Crawford III, and others who were shot by police while holding imitation firearms.

A package of police oversight bills introduced in the Colorado Legislature includes a measure that would impose up to $15,000 in civil penalties if a law enforcement officer seizes or destroys a citizen's recording or interferes with someone trying to film them.

"Primarily, it came up as a result of the number of news reports we've been seeing about police officers telling people, 'Give me your camera,' or taking the data away, and that is unacceptable conduct," said Rep. Joe Salazar, a Democrat from Thornton and co-sponsor of the bill.

Salazar said House Bill 15-1290 has support from both Democrats and Republicans, and is not intended to penalize police.

Dash cam video of a police interaction that I had from October 0f 2013. I did get arrested (for protecting the rights these idiots took an oath to uphold). The whole ordeal was about two hours, BUT, I was awarded damages and at my request, the town's entire police department had to undergo special training on "Terry Stops" (proper search and seizure essentially). This is not to mention that I got to school these rogue "police officers".

Also, just to mention, this was settled without going to any courts and without the town or police department/employees admitting any guilt... of course!!!

The volume begins at about the one minute mark and is garbled for the first few seconds. It's activated when the public servant employs the (false)emergency lights. If by chance you see or hear anything in the video that sounds like editing, it was not done by me. I posted this in it's entirety, as it was given to me. That would be aside from any typed narration of course.

"Sorry the battery died .I eventually left after the officers body cam id'd me.Vievu is the company that makes the MPPD body cams.In addition Viuve offers software that will Make a copy in the field – Export a video copy while in the field for immediate archiving.basically any contact that one has with MPPD or any other agency using the Seattle based company's product ,they could find out who u are.Im not okay with that are u? http://www.vievu.com/vievu-products/software/#veripatrol-mobile"

how ******* scary is this ****? Not for us, but for our grandkids and great grandkids. It's only going to get worse and worse. They're going to know where you are at all times. Tracking software will be around like traffic lights are. Question the gov't online, they already know who you are, they'll track your *** down and who knows then. Maybe SCOTUS rules in favor of arresting for dangerous speech when questioning gov't. What the ****. But at least we won't have to go thru this all, so **** it, back to the Kardashians, my nintendo, and the game.

Almost three years after being illegally removed from a Georgia city council meeting, Nydia Tisdale settled her federal lawsuit for $200,000 and an audio-visual recording policy that guarantees the right to record city council meetings.

On April 17, 2012 just hours after a new Georgia Sunshine Law allowing video recording at open-and-public meetings took affect, Tisdale attempted to record a Cumming City Council meeting for her website AboutForsyth.com. Started in 2011, the site serves as a space to keep citizens informed on the happenings of local government.

Tisdale had filmed previous city council meetings at a separate county administrative building. However, during her first attempt to record inside Cumming City Hall, Mayor H. Ford Gravitt had Tisdale forcibly removed from the meeting as she protested her rights as a citizen to record the meeting as you can see in the video below.

Georgia Sunshine Law [O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1.] Open and Public Meetings Act reads, “The public at all times shall be afforded access to meetings declared open to the public. Visual and sound recording during open meetings shall be permitted.”

Throughout the exchange, Tisdale made numerous references to the law and even called for City Attorney Dana Miles to validate her claims. Miles remained silent and Gravitt, even after hearing Tisdale’s threat to file suit, was unfazed as two police officers dragged her from the meeting.

Tisdale made a second effort to record the meeting on a smaller camera but was once again removed. She then took matters in to her own hands by filing an Open Meetings Act complaint with Attorney General Sam Olens the same night.

Through its Open Government Mediation Program, Olens tried to get the city to voluntarily pay a fine for violating Open Meetings Law three times in a single meeting.

After months of unsuccessful negotiations, a lawsuit was filed: Attorney General Sam Olens v. Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, et al. No. 12-CV-1205 in Forsyth County Superior Court on June 5, 2012.

A second lawsuit was filed soon after: Nydia Tisdale v. Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, et al. No. 2:12-CV-00145-RWS in Unites States District Court, Northern District of Georgia on June 12, 2012.