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an Antonio police said an officer was inspecting a home which he believed to be vacant doing a patrol-by when he witnessed people inside the home. Police said the officer attempted to enter the premises and someone fired a shot at the officer.

SAPD said the officer fired back, grazing a man inside, whom he believed to be a burglar.

Sergeant Jesse Salame, a spokesperson for SAPD, said the SAPD Officer-Involved Shooting Team processed the scene and questioned witnesses.

Sergeant Salame said it does not appear the subjects inside the house will face any charges, and In accordance with SAPD protocol, the officer involved in the shooting will be placed on temporary administrative duty.

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If the last few months are any indication, the only "war on cops" being waged is the one they're staging against themselves.

In the law few months we've seen officer after officer caught staging being the victims of crimes only to find out they themselves were the perpetrator.

Just earlier this month Sgt. David Houser triggered a manhunt after claiming he was shot at by an "Hispanic male" in a silver SUV, the officer later admitted he shot himself.

Then there was the hero officer Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz who was "gunned down in the line of duty" as part of a "war on cops," the search for his killer also triggered a manhunt, it later turned out he staged his own suicide as he was about to be caught for embezzling from a youth program.

Next there was Sgt. William Dwyer who claimed he was "ambushed by a white man in a maroon pick up truck" who shot up his cruiser. After another extensive manhunt, it turned out the officer shot up his own cruiser and the mysterious "white man" didn't exist.

All these stories fanned the hysterical flames there's a "War on Cops," yet all turned out to be total frauds.

Now we have this story out of Commerce City, Colorado where officer Kevin Lord (pictured) who said he was shot during a traffic stop by a "white man" in his "40's or 50's" is being charged with a felony for making the whole story up.

The district attorney says there was no "white man" -- what a shocker -- the officer "engineered a hoax" and appears to have been shot in his bullet proof vest with his own gun.

Gee willikers, I just can't believe it!

When are the state propagandists who pushed this bullsh*t "war on cops" narrative going to come out and apologize and admit they were wrong?

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Julian Betton, the Myrtle Beach man left paralyzed after drug agents shot him during a raid at his apartment in April, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the officers who wounded him, the agent who led the raid and the three officials who manage the narcotics unit.

Betton, 31, asserts in court papers that video captured by his home’s surveillance cameras shows heavily armed agents in bulletproof vests and street clothes storming into his apartment April 16 without knocking on his door or announcing their presence.

Betton maintains the video directly contradicts the account of the officers, who told state investigators they knocked on Betton’s door and announced themselves before entering.

Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, who oversees the drug unit and is named in the complaint, said the video does not show a complete depiction of what happened because it does not have audio, reiterating that the officers said they knocked and announced before entering. He said he would make the prosecutor handling the criminal case aware of the video.

A copy of the video obtained by The Sun News shows the officers directing one of Betton’s neighbors to get on the ground outside the apartment. One officer then opens a screen door before another rams Betton’s front door. The video does not show an officer knocking. The video has no audio, so it’s unclear what, if anything, was said.

When the officers entered Betton’s home, he was walking out of the bathroom, according to the lawsuit. He saw strange figures in his apartment. One officer wore a mask covering part of his face. Some were wearing backwards baseball caps. Betton said in court papers that he had a gun in his waistband, but he denies ever pulling it on anyone. Officers said he did. Three officers shot him nine times.

Afterwards, witnesses said they saw the agents laughing and high-fiving, according to the lawsuit.

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With the unannounced raid, Betton’s lawsuit states, the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Betton maintains he was legally entitled to defend himself, though he insists he never tried to.

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The lawsuit is not the first time the officers’ accounts have been disputed. Initially, authorities said Betton shot at the police, forcing them to return fire. They later admitted that wasn’t true. Betton never shot at the officers.

On Monday — seven months after the raid — drug agents filed three charges of pointing and presenting a firearm against Betton. Each charge represents one of the officers who shot Betton.

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Betton is paralyzed from the waist down. He wasn’t charged with any crime until June 29, when police filed three charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. During the raid, agents seized 222 grams (about 8 ounces) of marijuana from Betton’s home, according to public records.

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David Michael Romanoski, 48, of Morgantown was shot and killed earlier this month by police after they broke into his house in search of two robbery suspects.

Romanoski was not the suspect and was innocent.

Ten deputies arrived at the home, where Isaac Barker and Justin Knisell were believed to be living and instead found Romanoski. When deputies, some of whom were in plain clothes, entered the room where Romanoski was, one of them fired 7 rounds into him. He was then transported to the hospital where he died.

Immediately after killing this innocent man, police quickly attempted to justify the shooting by claiming to have found a handgun – as if owning a handgun is deserving of a death sentence.

The Monongalia County Sheriff’s department was given body cameras earlier in the year, which could’ve shown the confrontation which led to the murder of Romanoski. However, the deputies chose to stop using them.

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A San Antonio man taking photos of his wife’s soon-to-be medical practice was attacked by a plainclothes cop who roared up in a pickup and hopped out, ordering him to get down, striking him in the face with what appeared to be a handheld radio before he could even comply.

Two uniformed SWAT team members quickly joined in, striking Roger Carlos in the head about 50 times with fists and elbows before handcuffing him. satisfied that they had their man.

Except the real man were looking was someone else whom they had chased for miles down a freeway at 80 mph before he pulled into a parking lot, ditched his car and ran.

When the dimwit cops pulled off the freeway and spotted Roger taking photos outside his building in broad daylight, they pounced on him, figuring a fleeing fugitive felon would stop and take photos of a random building during his getaway.

It was only when a fourth cop pulled up and informed the three cops that they had already arrested their man down the street; a 27-year-old named Josue Rodriguez who was charged with illegal gun and drug possession, accused of driving around with a sawed-off shotgun and 20 grams of methamphetamine.

So police went into immediate coverup mode, declaring that not only did Carlos fit Rodriguez’s description, which is questionable by the photos below, he resisted arrest – even if it was a blatantly unlawful arrest.

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Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have sued Virginia police and other government officials after a request to carry out a “welfare check” on a 58-year-old man resulted in a two-hour, SWAT team-style raid on the man’s truck, a wrongful arrest, and a 72-hour mental health hold.

According to the complaint, police acknowledged that they had no legal basis nor probable cause for detaining Virginia resident Benjamin Burruss, who was preparing to depart on a camping/hunting trip to Montana, given that he had not threatened to harm anyone and was not mentally ill.

Nevertheless, a heavily armed police tactical team confronted Burruss, surrounded his truck, deployed a “stinger” device behind the rear tires, launched a flash grenade, smashed the side window in order to drag him from the truck, handcuffed and searched him, and transported him to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and mental health hold.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, against the County of Albemarle and five Albemarle County Police officers charges government officials with violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as state law.

“This is just one more example of how a relatively benign situation (a routine welfare check) gets escalated into something far more violent and dangerous through the use of militarized police, armed to the teeth and trained to react combatively,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “The unnecessary use of force by police officers in response to a situation that should have—and could have—been handled non-confrontationally did not, in this instance, result in a loss of life, but that is small consolation to those who have learned to tread cautiously in their interactions with police.”

According to the complaint, on Nov. 21, 2013, Albemarle County police officers were contacted by Benjamin Burruss’s employer and asked to conduct a “welfare check” on Burruss, who was reportedly “stressed” over work and marital difficulties. Police confronted Burruss, who was wearing camouflage pants and a bright orange hunting cap, as he was leaving the Comfort Inn and preparing to leave for a hunting trip to Montana.


Read more at Confused Cops SWAT Raid Innocent Man, Deploy Flashbangs, Assault and Kidnap Him for No Reason | The Free Thought Project

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Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have sued Virginia police and other government officials after a request to carry out a “welfare check” on a 58-year-old man resulted in a two-hour, SWAT team-style raid on the man’s truck, a wrongful arrest, and a 72-hour mental health hold.

According to the complaint, police acknowledged that they had no legal basis nor probable cause for detaining Virginia resident Benjamin Burruss, who was preparing to depart on a camping/hunting trip to Montana, given that he had not threatened to harm anyone and was not mentally ill.

Nevertheless, a heavily armed police tactical team confronted Burruss, surrounded his truck, deployed a “stinger” device behind the rear tires, launched a flash grenade, smashed the side window in order to drag him from the truck, handcuffed and searched him, and transported him to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and mental health hold.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, against the County of Albemarle and five Albemarle County Police officers charges government officials with violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as state law.

“This is just one more example of how a relatively benign situation (a routine welfare check) gets escalated into something far more violent and dangerous through the use of militarized police, armed to the teeth and trained to react combatively,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “The unnecessary use of force by police officers in response to a situation that should have—and could have—been handled non-confrontationally did not, in this instance, result in a loss of life, but that is small consolation to those who have learned to tread cautiously in their interactions with police.”

According to the complaint, on Nov. 21, 2013, Albemarle County police officers were contacted by Benjamin Burruss’s employer and asked to conduct a “welfare check” on Burruss, who was reportedly “stressed” over work and marital difficulties. Police confronted Burruss, who was wearing camouflage pants and a bright orange hunting cap, as he was leaving the Comfort Inn and preparing to leave for a hunting trip to Montana.


Read more at Confused Cops SWAT Raid Innocent Man, Deploy Flashbangs, Assault and Kidnap Him for No Reason | The Free Thought Project

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A suburban Houston school district police officer who pulled over a female motorist and then asked to lick her feet has been sentenced to one year in jail.

Patrick Quinn, a 27-year-old former Cypress-Fairbanks school district police officer, pleaded guilty to official oppression. He was sentenced on Wednesday in Houston.

According to court documents, Quinn stopped the woman in August 2014 and found marijuana paraphernalia but told her he had a foot fetish and would release her if she let him lick her feet or give him her underwear. Investigators say he then changed his mind and let her go.

“The reality is many victims of this kind of conduct don’t come forward, but because of the courage of the victims who spoke up, Mr. Quinn will never again be able to use a badge to prey on the people he should have been protecting,” said Assistant District Attorney Allison Buess told KPRC.

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Criminal charges have been dropped against a suburban New York college student arrested while taking a taking a video of two friends being arrested.

Attorney Kenneth Mollins says resisting arrest, obstruction and a drug possession charge were dropped Friday in a Long Island courtroom.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office confirmed charges were dropped “in the interest of justice.”

Thomas Demint was arrested in May 2014.

Charges were filed after he recorded officers slamming a woman to the ground when she allegedly attempted to interfere in her sons’ arrest.

Mollins says he intends to sue for false arrest.

Civil liberties experts say Demint’s arrest is part of a growing trend of citizen videographers getting arrested after trying to record police behavior.

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A deputy with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office was arrested Thursday after investigators discovered he was smuggling drugs into one of the sheriff's correctional facilities.

Deputy Tyler Bonnet was arrested and charged with malfeasance in office, distribution of schedule I narcotics and taking of contraband to and from a penal institution, according to an arrest affidavit.

Bonnet has been placed on administrative leave without pay pending the completion of the investigation. He was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center on a $25,000 bond.

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A 55-year-old retired deputy police chief from Upstate New York fatally shot his former girlfriend early Saturday before turning the gun on himself, police said.

New York State Police responded to a 911 call around 8:30 a.m. for shots fired in the town of Goshen in Orange County. They found Marie Giannone, 55, of Goshen dead from being shot multiple times in the driver's seat of her car.

Her former boyfriend, Patrick Sorrentino, of Marlboro killed Giannone before turning the gun on himself, police said. The retired deputy police chief with the City of Newburgh Police Department died of single self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found nearby.

The two had dated for about 18 months and broke up in August, police said. Authorities said in a news release that Sorrentino had become withdrawn and angry after the couple split up.

Newburgh police chief Daniel Cameron called the incident a "senseless act."

Cameron said Sorrentino began working for City of Newburgh Police on April 3, 1983, the Kingston Freeman reported. He was placed on leave in March 2002 due to a physical injury, and remained on injury leave until he was officially retired in March 2007.

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

Ex-Springer chief Leon Herrera, in his plea agreement Thursday, acknowledged that he pretended to be a federal Drug Enforcement Administration officer to help deputy Vidal Sandoval persuade the faux drug couriers to hand over money from their car.

“At that time, I knew that my false statements and misrepresentations… served the purpose of assisting Sandoval in stealing the money in the vehicle,” Herrera states in his plea document filed in Albuquerque federal court. Herrera pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal officer and was released. He faces up to three years in prison.

Sandoval, who ran for Colfax County sheriff last year, was arrested in March and charged with attempt to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and theft of government money. He has entered a not guilty plea.

Federal agents and the New Mexico State Police began investigating Sandoval after a bizarre sequence of events. On June 25, 2014, a New Mexico State Police officer made a routine traffic stop on Interstate 40 near Grants. Two men in the car told police they had been carrying marijuana they claimed had been purchased legally in Colorado when they’d been pulled over by another officer about 4½ hours earlier, on Interstate 25 near Raton.

That first officer, the men said, confiscated their marijuana and seized more than $10,000 from them without giving them a receipt or issuing a citation. But he did give the drug carriers “$600 back in order to pay for their travel expenses on their way back to Arizona,” says an FBI statement filed in court.

The Grants traffic stop started an eight-month investigation that culminated in the arrest of Sandoval, about 46 years old, a veteran deputy who ran for Colfax County sheriff last year. He’s accused of demanding a cut of the drug trade that uses I-25 north from Mexico to move the product in exchange for safe passage or a police escort to Colorado.

During the investigation, undercover agents pretending to be drug couriers were pulled over by Sandoval three times, federal documents say, and he offered to provided safe passage through Colfax County in return for money.

In the first of these encounters, in which Herrera played a role, two undercover agent drove around Cimarron where Sandoval was known to patrol. The agents’ vehicle, court documents say, contained a hidden rear compartment “under carpeting and outfitted with several air fresheners, which are commonly used to mask the smell of narcotics, and a digital scale of the type often used to weigh narcotics.”

The agents had $8,000 cash when Sandoval stopped the agents for speeding. Sandoval searched the car and found the hidden compartment. One of the agents was placed in the back seat of Sandoval’s patrol car while Sandoval made a phone call. During the call, Sandoval asked whomever he was talking to to pretend that he was a DEA agent.

Sandoval handed the phone to the undercover agent who, via the phone’s caller ID function, identified the person on the call as Herrera, the former Springer police chief. The undercover officer was told by the “DEA agent” that cash found by Sandoval would be seized.

Sandoval told the agents pretending to be drug couriers that “he wanted to be part of the criminal narcotics activity” and that he would let them “pass through the area undisturbed with money and/or drugs in the future if they provided him with a portion of the profits,” an affidavit by the investigators says. Sandoval returned $500 to the undercover officers and kept $7,500, and the agents left.

Herrera now admits that he was the “DEA agent” called by Sandoval. Herrera also says that Sandoval told Herrera that he intended to keep the money for personal use and offered Herrera $1,000. “I know now that the motorists were actually undercover law enforcement investigators and that Sandoval stole approximately $7,500 cash from them that actually belonged to the federal government,” Herrera states.

As of May, Herrera also faces an embezzlement charge in state court. He’s accused of taking three Glock pistols and leather jackets from the Springer Police Department and has pleaded not guilty.

Springer Mayor Fernando Garcia said the embezzlement case was investigated by the State Police at his request. He said Herrera left the Springer police in the summer of 2014, after several years with the department. Garcia also said that while Herrera was called chief, he was officially an interim chief before Garcia “bumped him back to sergeant.”

“I just hope justice is served and people here can rest with peace that we’ve done the honorable things by this community,” said the mayor.

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A Connecticut state police trooper who stole cash and jewelry from a dying motorcycle accident victim and then resigned has lost his state pension.

State Attorney General George Jepsen announced Thursday a Hartford Superior Court judge recently approved the revocation of Aaron Huntsman's pension. Huntsman had been eligible to begin receiving $1,530 a month in 2024.

A 2008 law allows the state to revoke the pensions of state or municipal officials convicted of crimes related to their jobs.

Huntsman stole $3,700 and a gold crucifix from John Scalesse as he lay dying after crashing his motorcycle on the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield in 2012. He was sentenced to a year in prison.

Huntsman is from Fairfield. He has apologized and said he isn't the same man he was at the time of the accident.

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Prosecutors in the Los Angeles suburb responsible for a huge share of the nation’s wiretaps almost certainly violated federal law when they authorized widespread eavesdropping that police used to make more than 300 arrests and seize millions of dollars in cash and drugs throughout the USA.

The violations could undermine the legality of as many as 738 wiretaps approved in Riverside County, Calif., since the middle of 2013, an investigation by USA TODAY and The Desert Sun, based on interviews and court records, has found. Prosecutors reported that those taps, often conducted by federal drug investigators, intercepted phone calls and text messages by more than 52,000 people.

Federal law bars the government from seeking court approval for a wiretap unless a top prosecutor has personally authorized the request. Congress added that restriction in the 1960s, when the FBI had secretly monitored civil rights leaders, to ensure that such intrusive surveillance would not be conducted lightly.

In Riverside County — a Los Angeles suburb whose court and prosecutors approved almost one of every five U.S. wiretaps last year — the district attorney turned the job of reviewing the applications over to lower-level lawyers, interviews and court records show. That practice almost certainly violated the federal wiretapping law and could jeopardize prosecutors’ ability to use the surveillance in court.

“A district attorney is playing with gunpowder if he ignores the potential implications of letting somebody else handle the entire process. That’s potentially catastrophic,” said Clifford Fishman, a Catholic University of America law professor who studies wiretapping.

That also creates a legal problem for Riverside’s massive wiretapping operation, which had come under scrutiny from Justice Department lawyers. Last week, USA TODAY and The Desert Sun reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had secretly helped turn the county into the nation’s wiretap capital, even though federal prosecutors repeatedly warned that the surveillance orders violated a separate part of the wiretapping law and would not withstand a legal challenge.

Federal drug agents used information from Riverside wiretaps to make arrests as far away as Kentucky and Virginia, sometimes concealing the surveillance from judges and defense lawyers.

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A Texas driver says he wound up in handcuffs after he told a police officer during a routine traffic stop that he was legally carrying a concealed weapon.

Alonzo Gonzalez told KPRC-TV this week that he was pulled over by a police officer in Rosenberg, Tex. for failing to signal a turn. He said he ended up getting arrested for traffic violations after the officer asked if he had his handgun with him and he replied, “I sure do.”

“Just because I have a handgun on me which, you know, I have a license to carry, it shouldn't be a big deal, but that's what made it the turning point,” Gonzalez told the station.

KPRC reported the police dash cam video captured the August 2014 traffic stop. The video was just turned over to Gonzalez.

The station reported that after the officer's initial conversation with Gonzalez, he called for backup.

On the video the officer can be seen returning to Gonzalez's truck with the backup who has his gun drawn.

“Mr. Gonzalez, get your hands up on the wheel, both of them,” the officer then says on the video. “Appreciate it. Here’s what I want you do. I want you to step out of the truck for me. When you do so I want you to keep your hands on the back of your head, Okay?"

Seconds later, Gonzalez is seen getting out of the truck. He is handcuffed and told that he is being arrested "for traffic violations.”

"If I didn't have my firearm on me, I would have had a citation and they would have let me go," Gonzalez said.

Rosenberg Police Lt. William Henry told the station Thursday that the department does not target people with handgun licenses.

“We don’t target gun owners in general,” he said. “Any responsible gun owner…we’re not out targeting people like that. As far as what the officer perceived, the officer perceived a threat.”

The station reported that an internal investigation concluded the officer who pulled Gonzalez over followed all proper procedures.

It also reported that the officer had resigned and was no longer on the force.

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On Friday, May 9, 2014, just after 5:30am in Killeen, Texas, Marvin Louis Guy was the target of a no knock raid.

The officers were looking for drugs, yet none were found in the home. There was some questionable paraphernalia, but nothing indicative of drug dealing- or anything damning enough for a reasonable person to feel the need to take an officers life.

Unfortunately the danger of no-knock raids is real. just ask the parents of baby Bou or the family of Detective Dinwiddie.

Detective Dinwiddie was one of the SWAT officers who broke into Guy’s house on May 9th, based on a seemingly bogus informant tip off about drugs being dealt from the home.

Likely alarmed by the men climbing through his windows at 5:30 in the morning, Guy and his wife sought to protect themselves and their property and fired on the intruders- in self defense.

Dinwiddie, along with three other officers were shot while attempting to breach the windows to the home, according to the department’s press release.

...

Since the shooting occurred during the break in, a reasonable person would assume they had not yet identified themselves as police officers. How on earth is this not self defense?

Prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty against Guy. He is charged with capital murder in Dinwiddie’s death, as well as three counts of attempted capital murder for firing on the other officers during the shootout, injuring one other officer. Body armor protected others who were hit.

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Let’s flash back to December, in Texas, for a moment.

On December 19, also just before 6am, Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders, led a team in a no-knock marijuana raid on Henry Goedrich Magee’s mobile home in Somerville.

Also startled by these intruders, Magee opened fire, fearing for the safety of himself and his then pregnant girlfriend.

Sowders was unfortunately killed among the chaos.

In February, just a few months before the fateful raid in Killeen, all charges against Magee were dropped when a Texas grand jury refused to indict, based on them believing he feared for his safety and that this was a reasonable act of self defense.

With such similar circumstances and such intensely opposite repercussions one cant help but try to find the differences.

Most obvious? Guy is black and Magee is white. Also, take note of the difference in photos used in the press.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448292549

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448292549

Self defense is a right for all, and no knock raids not only pose a danger to dogs, children, and communities in general- but officers as well. Maybe its time to
re-think that strategy.

We need to end the war on drugs and put an end to this violence.

Estimates show that the total number of SWAT deployments across the country has increased from a few hundred per year in the 1970s, to a few thousand per year in the 80s, and in 2010, the Washington Times reported estimates being as high as 50,000 per year.

Many of these are for nonviolent misdemeanor drug offenses, not big time drug kingpins. Should we really be risking lives of citizens and officers, over what someone chooses to put into their own body?

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A drunken Massachusetts police officer choked and put a gun to the head of a woman in his house. Earlier on the same day the officer was cited for drinking alcohol while driving.

Now, four months later, Dalton police officer James Scace has been charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault and battery, strangulation and witness intimidation.

Stemming from a criminal investigation of a July incident, a criminal complaint against Scace was filed on Nov. 18th. Scace reportedly received a civil motor vehicle infraction for consuming alcohol while driving in July.

A few hours later on the same day, Scace in a drunken rage began choking a unidentified woman that was a guest in his house. Scace also began destroying property, including the woman’s cell phone.

The woman attempted to run, but Scace caught up with her throwing her to the ground and kicking her in the ribs; he also began to strangle her more.

In fact, court documents state that he has had, “a pattern of assaultive behavior” because there was another incident in which he prevented a woman from using her phone to call for help, although there are no details from the first incident.

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A woman posted a video to Facebook showing officers at Saturday's game between Ole Miss and LSU acting forcefully with her husband; one of the officers can be seen hitting him.

The woman, Holly Barnes, explained in her post how the officers arrested her husband, Chris Barnes, after they hit him. They did not give him medical attention, but when he later went to the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with a concussion, fractures to his orbital wall and maxillary sinus and contusions to the tissues of his eyes, she said.

Holly Barnes said the incident occurred because the officers believed her husband was responsible for something someone else did.

The officers were not with the University of Mississippi Police Department but rather officers from other jurisdictions who serve as security during football games, Ole Miss Police said in a Facebook post. The department is investigating the incident.

Chris Barnes was released from police custody when he posted bail four hours after the incident. It was then that he went to the hospital for his injuries.

Chris Barnes is an Army National Guard veteran, Holly Barnes said in her post.

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A newly sworn in police chief in Farrel, Pennsylvania said that he planned to make a public apology on Monday after he was caught using the N-word during a book drive fundraiser.

WICU reported that the email was discovered just days after Thomas Burke was sworn by the City of Farrell as the new police chief last Monday.

He is scheduled to begin the job in January.

“Good morning,” the email begins. “Please click and review. Even $1.00 will be greatly appreciated. Them [Town of] Sharon n****s gotta learn how to read.

”Burke reportedly sent the letter to about a dozen friends and colleagues while working in the security department at a local steel mill.

City of Farrell Councilwoman Stephanie Sheffield said that Burke showed up at her home with a written apology after the letter became public.

“I immediately said dismissal,” Sheffield told WICU.

“He came and knocked on my door this morning with an apology letter, and how he is very familiar with our community and our area with some of the issues that we have going on here.

Sheffield said that Burke explained “that he does use the N-word very often because that’s just the way that it is here our area.”

“He should not stand in that position if he’s going to use the N-word,” she insisted.

Farrell Mayor Olive McKeithan, who is black, stood up for Burke’s character.

“Until you get to know a man’s character, you can’t judge him by one off-the-cuff remark, or else we would have to judge all white people as equally guilty,” McKeithanremarked to WKBN. “I have spoken with Mr. Burke and consider the matter as closed.

”Farrell City Manager Michael Ceci said that Burke would give a public apology at 3:30 p.m. on Monday in the rotunda of the city’s municipal building.

According to Ceci, Burke was not expected to take any questions during his remarks.

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A white Chicago police officer who a squad car dashcam video showed fatally shooting an African-American teenager 16 times last year will be indicted on murder charges on Tuesday, according to multiple news reports.Officer Jason Van Dyke, 37, will face first-degree murder charges for the Oct. 20, 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, according to theChicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, who cite anonymous sources. The Tribune says Van Dyke will appear for a bond hearing around midday.The charges against Van Dyke come as Chicago braces for the court-ordered release this week of the dashcam video....

For months, Emanuel resisted releasing the the video, citing ongoing federal and state probes into the shooting death of McDonald.The city was sued for violating state open record law by independent journalist Brandon Smith, and Judge Franklin Valderrama on Thursday issued the Wednesday deadline.

...Attorneys for McDonald's family and Van Dyke have viewed the footage and described the content as graphic and unsettling. Police had said they were pursuing McDonald after receiving a 911 call from someone who said that a knife-wielding man had threatened him and appeared to be trying to break into cars.A police union official also said shortly after the incident that McDonald, who had PCP in his system at the time of his death, was acting erratically and that Van Dyke felt his life was in jeopardy.

While Van Dyke repeatedly fired at McDonald, five other police officers at the scene did not fire their weapons. Michael Robbins, an attorney for the McDonald family, said that the video shows the teen was walking away from the officer when gunned down.Chicago's city council in April approved a $5 million settlement be paid to the McDonald family. Van Dyke has been stripped of his police powers and placed on desk duty since the incident more than a year ago.

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Thomas, a homeless man who suffered from schizophrenia, was beaten into a coma by a thugscrum of six police officers on the evening of July 5, 2011. Video recordings of the assault captured the anguished screams of the helpless, unarmed, 160-pound man as he was slugged, kicked, tasered, and clubbed as the attackers bellowed, “Stop resisting!” With his last words Kelly pleaded for his father Ron Thomas, a retired sheriff’s deputy. Left brain-dead by the gang beating, Kelly was removed from life support a few days later.

The lead assailants, Manuel Ramos and Jay Cincinelli, were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder by an Orange County jury in January 2014. Several defense witnesses, including Fullerton Corporal Stephen Rubio, described the lethal behavior of the officers as compatible with the department’s use-of-force policy.
“These peace officers did their jobs — they did what they were trained to do,” insisted John Barnett, the police union lawyer who represented Ramos during the trial.

Michael D. Schwartz, who represented Cincinelli, likewise insisted that the pitiless assault on Thomas was carried out in strict fidelity to the “training” the officers had received.

“The officer has the right to pursue the suspect until the suspect is controlled – that’s how my client was trained,” Schwartz told the jury. From his perspective, this explained and fully justified Cincinelli’s use of his Taser as a club, with which – in the assailant’s own words – he “smashed [the victim’s] face to hell.”

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“See these fists?” Ramos gloatingly said as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. “They’re getting ready to f**k you up.” Ramos lit into Thomas, eventually enlisting the help of five of his comrades as the bewildered and brutalized man, profusely apologizing for offending his uniformed overseers, struggled desperately to remain alive.

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Addressing the defense argument that Thomas had precipitated the beating by putting up resistance, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas acknowledged in a remarkable closing presentation to the jury that Thomas had the legal right to defend himself against a criminal assault by the police.

“There is no legal authority for a police officer to use force to punish someone,” Rackauckas told the jury. “There’s no authority to use force for `street justice.’ A police officer cannot get mad at somebody and start punching him around, or use any kind of force on him at all.”

When a police officer uses “unreasonable or excessive force, he is not lawfully performing his duties,” the prosecutor continued. Section 2670 in California’s Criminal Jury Instructions explains that defendants accused of resisting arrest cannot be convicted if the arrest was unlawful, and that “a person may lawfully use reasonable force to defend himself or herself.”

The threshold question is whether the victim “reasonably believes he is in imminent danger of unreasonable or excessive force by a police officer.” Of course, the mere presence of a police officer is probably enough to satisfy that condition, at least for well-informed people.

“A lot of people don’t understand this idea – but the police know,” Rackauckas continued. “They know if they are not lawfully performing their duty … [and] are using excessive force, that a person has the right to self-defense – that a person has the right to resist. You have a right to resist an unlawful arrest.” (Emphasis added.)

There was no ambiguity regarding the identity of the killers, and the law was on the side of the victim. But Karch’s “expert” assessment, combined with numerous appeals to authority, provided the conservative Orange County jury with an excuse to acquit the officers. By doing so they validated the privilege of police to kill without cause or consequences – except to the taxpayers who are compelled to pay for such “services,” and then indemnify the resulting victims.

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A U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona has been arrested and charged after state troopers found 110 pounds of cocaine in his rental car that he planned to transport to Chicago, authorities said Monday.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court shows Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers stopped agent Juan Pimentel, 47, on Nov. 18 near Marana, just north of Tucson.

The complaint says Pimentel was driving a rental car and identified himself as a Border Patrol agent when he was pulled over.

He consented to a search that resulted in the seizure of about 50 bundles of cocaine weighing 2 pounds each, the complaint states. The bundles were in four black suitcases.

The document says Pimentel initially told a state trooper the drugs weren't his, but later said he was going to be paid $50,000 to transport them to Chicago.

Pimentel has been charged with possession with intent to distribute. He remains detained in Arizona.

His attorney, Eric Manch, said Pimentel hasn't filed a plea because he has not been formally indicted. Manch noted his client is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske announced the arrest during a news conference in Phoenix while talking about corruption within the agency.

"Let me tell you that when he is convicted or pleads guilty to that charge that the badge that he had as a United States Border Patrol agent will be destroyed - it will never be worn again by another Border Patrol agent," Kerlikowske said.

"So we have all of these significant and important issues that we're dealing with, plus making sure that we have the integrity and the trust and the credibility of the people we serve by addressing as aggressively as possible the issues of corruption."

Art Del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol union in the Tucson Sector, which comprises most of the Arizona, said agents normally take their oaths very seriously and are dedicated to protecting the border.

"The corruption always rears its ugly head, but it's not a direct view of the way all other agents are," he said. "Agents don't want to work with corrupt agents."

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township police officer who accused a fellow officer of inappropriate behavior - including lying to a judge and targeting minorities - is fighting for his job after what his attorney says has been a series of retaliatory action by the department over the past four years.

Officer Kyle Pirog, a 16-year veteran, was initially demoted after going to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office with his concerns when his superiors failed to act. He has been suspended indefinitely without pay, pending his termination following an Internal Affairs investigation that his attorney says was initiated as further retaliation.

Pirog has filed a civil suit in Morris County alleging the township police department violated the Conscientious Employee Protection Act in its retaliatory actions against him. He's seeking unspecified damages.

"Police and police departments are entrusted to protect the well-being and safety of the public and most of them do it admirably," said Claudia A. Reis, Pirog's Morristown-based attorney.

"But every once in a while you have someone who steps out of that role and targets people. When that happens, you need people to step forward and out of the blue code of silence to report those instances. To then target those very people for retaliation undermines what police and police departments are entrusted to do."

The suit was filed in Morris County because the judge his former co-worker allegedly lied to serves in Somerset County Superior Court.

Bedminster Township Police Department officials said in a preliminary notice of disciplinary action that they are seeking to terminate Pirog because he committed five violations of department's rules and regulations, including remaining stationary in various township parks and businesses for long periods of time without performing any police functions, falsifying his daily blotter and running radar for long periods of time without making any motor vehicle stops.

Attorney Arthur Phibault, who is representing the township, didn't return a call seeking comment.

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An unarmed man was shot by a South Florida police officer and said there is no way the officer should have ever fired upon him.

The man, who was taken into custody on a drug charge, was on one of the busiest roadways in South Florida when he was stopped. He said he was fully cooperating with both officers when one decided to shoot him for no reason.

Michael Gavins was pulled over by two officers in South Miami, didn't have a weapon, but ended up being shot in the chest.

"You can check me. You can check the car, you can do whatever you want. Please don't shoot me. He paused maybe 30 seconds and the next thing I hear, 'Boom,'" Gavins explained.

Gavins showed NBC 6 the wound he suffered after being shot by a South Miami officer a week ago. He was pulled over for an alleged traffic violation at a gas station on U.S. 1, near the University of Miami.

He was ultimately charged with possessing marijuana with an intent to distribute and resisting arrest without violence.

Gavins and Coral Gables Attorney Paul Layne exclusively told NBC 6 that Officer Aryo Rezaie was way out of line when he fired his weapon.

"I just thank God that it wasn't worse than it is. It could have been worse. I'm just glad to be here, be alive, you know," Gavins said. "I could be gone right now."

"It's just outrageous conduct by law enforcement. We have another instance of an unarmed black male being fired upon by law enforcement for no good reason. Mr Gavins' civil rights has been violated and my job here at Silva & Silva is to make sure that the light is shined on the story," Layne said.

The police report said after Gavins was out of his vehicle: "Officer Rezaie then observed Gavins reaching into the front of his waistband... Gave Gavins a verbal command to take his hands out but with negative results."

"Gavins began to act in a nervous manner... refused once again and began to walk towards Officer Rezaie," the report said.

"If the overt action is putting my hands up, telling him I am not a threat, then I don't know," Gavins said.

The officer was placed on a three-day administrative leave, but South Miami Police told NBC 6 he is now back on the street.

Gavins hasn't been convicted of a crime before. The officer hasn't faced any disciplinary actions in his three years on the force.

One lawyer told NBC 6 he witnessed all of this and that Gavins was cooperating and he was very surprised he was shot.

The Miami-Dade Police Department is investigating.

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Daniel Holtzclaw is a former Oklahoma City police officer now standing trial on 36 counts, including rape, sexual battery and stalking. Twelve women and one 17-year-old girl have come forward, saying Holtzclaw assaulted them while on patrol. Most of the victims were black, poor and embroiled in the criminal justice system for things like prostitution and drug use—a precarious state Holtzclaw allegedly used to threaten and coerce them.As the 17-year-old put it in her testimony, “What am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.”The alleged crimes are disturbing; so, too, the evident lack of media interest. Outside of Oklahoma, the case has so far garnered little mainstream attention. A Nexis search indicates neither the New York Times nor Washington Posthave printed any original reporting; nor has broadcast network news addressed a story that brings together emergent questions of police violence and rape culture.An Associated Press investigation showed around 1,000 police officers fired over a six-year period for so-called sex crimes, including rape—certainly an undercount of abusive cops, given that it only includes those who actually lost their badges. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects data on police, doesn’t track officer arrests, and states aren’t required to collect or share that information.Holtzclaw evidently selected his victims because he believed no one would care about them. Media shouldn’t prove him right.

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Responding to a fight that broke out in a Brooklyn Ecuadorian restaurant Saturday, New York City police officers proceeded to arrest an employee not involved in the fight after he told them not to kick a handcuffed patron.

That suggestion prompted NYPD officers to turn their aggression on him, slamming him to the ground and punching him several times before striking his head with a blackjack.

Then after they had taken him and two other men to jail, the cops returned to the restaurant and proceeded to delete surveillance video that captured the incident.

But the footage was recovered with the help of a local activist group called El Grito Del Sunset Park. The recovered video includes the fight as well as the returning cops.

The employee who was arrested is Kevin Cuzco, 18, who is the owner’s son; the woman who called police in the first place.

Now Olga Cuzco regrets ever calling them, a lesson learned daily by people throughout the United States.

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SECURITY camera footage of a brutal police arrest which ended in a Perth engineer being charged for assault has helped clear the man’s name.

The footage shows the moment engineer Brandt Croswell was grabbed by a police officer and pushed to the ground, his head picked up and slammed on the pavement.

Mr Croswell had made a rude hand gesture at the officer prior to the October 2012 arrest outside The Moon and Sixpence venue in Perth.

On Tuesday, Mr Croswell was cleared of the assault charge after three years in a retrial.

The CCTV footage was key evidence.

It also shows Mr Croswell’s girlfriend filming the incident on her mobile phone.

Nine News reported the magistrate ruled Mr Croswell did headbutt the officer but he had been provoked and he was scared and defenceless.http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/tr...erthnow.com.au

The woman said her phone was then confiscated and the footage deleted.

“It’s just great the truth has finally come out,” Mr Croswell said.

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Police responded to the shooting Monday at 10:45 p.m. on the 1400 block of Morgan Avenue North, which is located one block north of the 4th Precinct.

Police say the investigation revealed the second man who was arrested, a 32-year-old Hispanic male, was not at the scene of the shooting at the time.

Witnesses said the gunmen were white supremacists who were hanging around the rally before others asked them to leave. The witnesses said the men came back a short time later and fired six shots at protesters. Five victims suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, police said a 23-year-old man, who is white, was arrested in Bloomington. Two more suspects were arrested around 2:30 p.m: a 26-year-old white male and a 21-year-old white male who voluntarily turned themselves in.

Their identities will be released upon charging.

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All major routes coming in and out of Bel Air, Maryland were blocked by police this Tuesday, who set up checkpoints and searched cars with drug dogs. Thousands of cars were searched in the operation, which was not reported by any local news media and was not announced by the police department.

Many people had suspected that police were out in strong force ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, searching for drunk drivers. However, witnesses reported that the police were actually in search of drugs, specifically heroin, and they even had massive construction signs posted that said “Heroin checkpoint ahead, Drug K9 In Use.”

Readers of The Free Thought Project reported close to a dozen different checkpoints in Harford County, each of them at major intersections during heavy traffic hours. Sadly, there was very little public outcry about the checkpoints, and many people were actually praising the police because of the fact that heroin is legitimately a problem in the area.

However, checkpoints like this are a blatant violation of everyone’s rights, even people who think that they have “nothing to hide,” and it won’t even achieve its stated goal of keeping drugs out of town. Our readers told us that they witnessed several arrests, although it is unclear whether or not these arrests were related to heroin. It is likely that police were making any arrests and writing any tickets that they could while they had the checkpoint set up, even if it was for something like marijuana possession or driving with expired tags.

Heroin addiction is a serious problem, but as counter-intuitive as it sounds, the best way to prevent heroin overdoses is to actually legalize it. Certain areas of the world, like Portugal, where all drugs have been made legal there are far fewer overdoses than there are in prohibition countries. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that drug overdoses are extremely rare in Portugal, and they have some of the lowest rates of addiction in the world.

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...The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down the police practice of executing random drug searches at highway checkpoints, calling the practice a violation of Americans’ right to privacy.

With the court’s most conservative members dissenting, the justices ruled against the city of Indianapolis, voting 6-3 that the police use of roadblocks and random stops to cut the flow of illegal drugs through the city was unconstitutional...

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The video obtained by the KOMO Investigators shows officers, including David Bauer, punching a suspect under arrest 17 times in the head and face after an officer appears to kick the man in the stomach.

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The Seattle city attorney's office said that charges against two of the family members were dismissed, while another charge was dropped after a "dispositional continuance" was completed.

The family settled the case, but Bauer faced no discipline under previous SPD leadership and the use of force was never referred to the Office of Professional Accountability.

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Yesterday, the Harford County Drug Taskforce, along with multiple law enforcement partners, conducted a multi-jurisdictional saturation effort throughout communities in Harford County. This special detail is part of law enforcement’s ongoing heroin reduction efforts and focused on conducting vehicle and pedestrian interdiction on major roadways throughout Harford County, as well as in designated Safe Street neighborhoods.

The geography of Harford County provides several alternative routes often utilized by drug traffickers and others involved in criminal activity to avoid police interdiction efforts on I-95. Using a strong law enforcement presence, saturation, and interdiction efforts can result in arrests for narcotics violations, in addition to, arrests for other crimes to include burglaries, thefts, and traffic related offenses. The initiative was designed to meet the following goals: make the streets of Harford County safer for pedestrians and drivers; detect and arrest illegal drug users and sellers, and those drivers who are under the influence; promote public awareness of the dangers of heroin and drugged driving; most importantly, demonstrate to the citizens of Harford County that its law enforcement agencies care about the heroin epidemic affecting them and are united in their commitment to eradicating it.

Law enforcement utilized a combination of variable messages promoting heroin “check points” set up on major roadways throughout the county, combined with proactive vehicle and pedestrian interdiction in designated locations and “Hot Spot” neighborhoods known for heroin use and sales. Variable message signs were used throughout the detail to raise awareness that law enforcement was saturating the area. Focusing on areas known for drug trafficking and drugged driving, these “check points” were conducted on Route 152, Route 1, Route 24, and Route 40. As opposed to the traditional DUI Checkpoints most are familiar with, in these “checkpoint” areas, vehicles continued on the roadway without being required to slow down or stop. Those vehicles that were pulled over were done so after they were observed committing some type of motor vehicle violation. As we had the opportunity to come in contact with motorists, two pamphlets were available; the first provided heroin awareness information, the second provided information for those struggling with drug addiction.

In total, there were approximately 73 law enforcement officers who participated, representing: The Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police, Maryland Transportation Authority Police, Havre De Grace Police Department, Aberdeen Police Department, Bel Air Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

This detail resulted in ten arrests and the seizure of $7,000 cash, one switchblade knife, illegal drugs to include more than 20 pounds of marijuana, opiates and prescription pills, and related drug paraphernalia. Additionally, 32 traffic citations, 148 warnings, and 18 repair orders were issued during the operation.

Sheriff Gahler remarked, “This morning the number of heroin-related overdoses Harford County law enforcement have responded to stands at 156 nonfatal overdoses and 24 overdoses which have proven to be fatal. We must work tirelessly to eradicate this dangerous drug from our community. High visibility law enforcement details, such as the one from yesterday, send a clear message to the drug dealers in our community – you are not welcome here. Still, much needs to be done, but we will not rest until the job is complete.”

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A former Sacramento police officer convicted of raping a 75-year-old stroke victim in her senior living apartment has been sentenced to life in prison, court records show.

Prosecutors said Gary Dale Baker, 52, entered the woman's apartment at least three times from 2010 to 2012, raping her twice as she suffered from a stroke-related inability to speak.

He was convicted in July of nine charges relating to the case, including rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery and burglary. On Tuesday, Baker was sentenced to 62 years to life, meaning that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a spokeswoman for Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.

The woman, now 77, was recovering from a stroke in a senior living complex in South Sacramento when the attacks began, prosecutors said.

She struggled to communicate to her family what had happened, and initially, even though DNA evidence confirmed the rape, investigators were not able to link it to any known suspects, prosecutors said.

But in late 2012, after Baker attempted a third assault, a Sacramento police detective suggested that the woman's family install a motion-activated camera.

When Baker came back again, police officers reviewing the footage immediately recognized him. Baker, who was then an active officer on the Sacramento police force, was arrested and fired from the department.

“You tarnished the badge for police officers everywhere," Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ernest Sawtelle said as he sentenced Baker, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on Wednesday. "For your crimes, you will be sentenced to life in prison.”

Sawtelle called Baker's crimes "unspeakable," the newspaper said.

Sacramento County jail records show that Baker remained in custody on Wednesday, with no listed release date. A request by his attorneys for a new trial was denied on Tuesday, records show.

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A sick, stray dog picked up in Clayton County, Ga., was discovered to be a retired police dog.

According to a Fundrazr.com post by Partners for Pets, Master Blaster’s original handler became sick several years ago and the dog had to be re-homed.

Master Blaster, 6, was then found as a stray and picked up by Clayton County Animal Control. He was adopted and then returned because he was sick.

He has pneumonia and needed immediate hospitalization. His bill for the first 24 hours is estimated to be $1,000, and he will likely need additional care.

“He’s very weak, and heaving with his coughing fits with thick green mucus running out of his nose,” the fundraising post stated of the 6-year-old dog. “He didn’t deserve this type of maltreatment.”

The post did not disclose what police department the dog had previously served.

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