Bill Swan was on his tractor when he noticed a utility crew attempting to dig on his property and approached them to tell them to vacate his property. The workers then called police, according to KCTV 5.

When officers arrived they yanked Swan off the tractor and took him to the ground leaving him bloodied and with broken ribs.

Officers of course claim that Swan was a threat to them, and that he attempted to back his tractor into a police cruiser and then tried to leave the scene. They claim they gave him verbal and hand signals to stop but he refused and attempted to run the officers over.

“Police got there and told him to get off his tractor, he was on his own property, and said, ‘I don’t have to get off my tractor,’” said Bill’s grandson, Tim Swan, according to Fox 4.

According to Mrs. Swan, her husband suffers from hearing loss and most likely couldn’t hear the commands to exit the tractor.

“Sometimes I have to get right in his face and talk to him,” Libby Swan said.

One of the officers was able to get on the tractor and shut it off. Police claim that Swan then became violent and swung at officers and attempted to get the officers firearm out of its holster.

The claim that Swan went for an officers gun should ring alarm bells, as this is often a claim officers make after beating someone in an attempt justify their use of force.

Swan was then taken to the police station where he was booked for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a police officer.

Libby Swan has a very difficult time believing that her husband provoked the incident as described by law enforcement and no longer feels that she can trust her local police.

Police, Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies, county firefighters and California Highway Patrol officers were called about 12:30 p.m. after a deputy who was serving as campus security called for backup after having food thrown at him while trying to stop a fight, authorities said.

A helicopter also was sent to the school.

"As you were walking to class, you saw cops in bulletproof vests. So that was kind of shocking," said student Zach Burg, 17.

A video on the website of the Santa Maria Times appeared to show a deputy striking a girl during a struggle with a group of girls. A photo showed a deputy, his back smeared with cheese sauce, kneeling over a boy on the ground.

A sheriff's statement said that after the girl had resisted the deputy, her friends surrounded him and pushed and hit him.

"In the process of defending himself, he shoved the females away and one of the suspects was knocked to the ground," the statement said.

Four boys and two girls were arrested and booked on suspicion of various charges including resisting arrest and assault on a school employee, the statement said.

he Polk County School District suspended a principal Tuesday and changed rules for lockdown drills following a controversial drill held at Jewett Middle Academy Magnet on Thursday.

The incident drew national attention and public criticism after weapon-carrying officers checked darkened, locked-down classrooms, frightening students and parents who hadn't been told it was only a drill.

"I very much regret that this occurred," Superintendent of Schools Kathryn LeRoy said Tuesday evening during a School Board meeting.

A Winter Haven Police Department spokeswoman said last week that one officer involved in the drill had a loaded handgun out while checking a classroom and the another officer had an unloaded AR-15 rifle with no magazine, and both were pointed toward the ground.

Some students told parents that officers pointed guns at them.

LeRoy said Jewett Principal Jacquelyn Moore was suspended Tuesday pending an internal investigation.

A Missouri homeschooling family is suing a sheriff and another officer who forcibly entered their home without a warrant, Tasered the father, pepper-sprayed the mother and put their children in the custody of social service workers.

A court already has ruled that the actions of Sheriff Darren White and Capt. David Glidden of Nodaway County, Missouri, violated the U.S. Constitution, resulting in the dismissal of charges of child endangerment and resisting arrest against the couple, Jason and Laura Hagan, of New Hampton.

Prattville High student claims he was wrongfully detained and sprayed with mace by a Phenix City police officer during the final minutes of Prattville's playoff football win last Friday over Central-Phenix City.

Cameron Rader, a 17-year-old senior at PHS, said the officer claimed that Rader had pushed him. Rader said when he denied touching the officer, the man shoved him backward into a walkway.

"I had my back to this officer talking to a girl who was standing behind me," Rader said. "The cop yells at me — 'Hey son' — and tells me, 'Push me one more time.' I told him I didn't push him, and he like freaked out."

A video of the incident, filmed by another student standing behind Rader in the stands, was sent to Rader — and shared among several Prattville students — and provided to the Montgomery Advertiser by Rader's attorney.

That video picks up just as Rader is being shoved back through the crowd. Rader can be seen briefly trying to get out of the officer's grasp — he says he pushed the officer to get him away from his throat and to defend himself.

After a brief pause in which the two are separated, the officer comes back at Rader, shoves him back through a crowd of students to a railing, and as the teen is standing with his hands by his sides, the officer sprays something into his face.

"I was telling him to get his hands off me, to stop touching me, and then I asked what I did," Rader said. "You can see that on the video. I have my hands by my side. I'm being compliant and he keeps pushing me. That's when he maces me. I couldn't breathe. It was in my throat and nose and the fumes were burning my eyes. And it hurt for a long time."

The oncoming vehicle was an unmarked provincial police car driven by a 29-year-old on-duty SQ officer. He was travelling at 122 kilometres per hour — more than twice the speed limit. He was not responding to an emergency.

Firefighters had to use the jaws of life to extract the boy. He died from his injuries five days later in hospital.

mmissioners agreed to pay $75,000 Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by a teenage girl stopped by a Fort Lauderdale officer she feared was a "crazy psycho" who would rape and kill her.


The girl, described in the lawsuit as a 15-year-old, straight-A Fort Lauderdale High student at the time of the May 2010 incident, was stopped by Officer Leo Arena near her Coral Ridge home as she was walking home. The suit filed in federal court last year claimed excessive use of force, false imprisonment and battery.

Police Chief Frank Adderley said Tuesday that no disciplinary action was taken against Arena because the victim and her father did not file a complaint with police. The Sun Sentinel is not publishing the girl's name because of her age at the time of the incident.

Hazard Police Charged Whitesburg Police Chief Tyrone Fields with a DUI after responding to a 911 call around 1:00a.m. Sunday. They say he was passed out and unresponsive in the front seat of his car at the Hazard Taco Bell drive-thru.

Because of Fields' condition officers took him to the hospital, instead of jail.

A former City Council analyst socked the legislative body and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito with a whistleblower lawsuit Wednesday alleging his free-speech rights were violated because he was fired over accusing Police Commissioner Bill Bratton of fudging numbers about how often cops use excessive force.

Monday, Kane County Coroner Rob Russell released his findings, which concluded Joshua Paul died Aug. 18 of a lacerated portal vein in his liver, which was complicated by cirrhosis due to chronic alcoholism.

...

The Daily Herald attempted to obtain the arrest report from Carpentersville police and video of Paul's arrest as well. The village refused to release the information, but Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office ruled a month ago that the documents were public records and should be released. The village has continued to defy the ruling, in violation of state law, Madigan's office said.

Carpentersville spokesman Dave Bayless said the village intended to turn over the records once the state police investigation concluded, but backtracked Wednesday.

"The village is eager to provide the information and continues to stand by its commitment to do so," Bayless wrote when asked about the documents and video. "However, it has been asked by Kane County (state's attorney's office) to hold off on providing the info until it deems this done."

A spokesman for Kane County State's Attorney Joseph McMahon said the office does not comment on "pending inquiries."

A public records request to the state police for the same arrest reports and video was also denied. An appeal to Madigan's Public Access Counselor is pending, despite the earlier ruling that the documents and video should be released.

Civil asset forfeiture is a controversial practice in which government authorities can seize private property if they suspect it was used in a crime.

In that vein, Las Cruces has a city ordinance that allows officials to seize vehicles from those who repeatedly violate DWI laws or related restrictions. But the city's ordinance, modeled after one in Albuquerque and established in 2006, is viewed by many as more narrow than those in other cities where homes have been seized.

In discussing the Las Cruces ordinance in Santa Fe, Connelly said it usually nets the city older cars of little cash value. That's why, Connelly explained in an anecdote to a crowd of law enforcement personnel and attorneys, police were excited when they had a chance to seize a newer luxury car during a stakeout from a man appearing to be drunk.

We always try to get, every once in a while, like maybe a good car," Connelly said at the conference, online videos show. " ... This guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new. Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like 'Ahhhh.' And he gets out and he's just reeking of alcohol. And it's like, 'Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait.'"

He also talked about more expansive programs elsewhere, saying city attorneys "could be czars."

Civil asset forfeiture opponents say Connelly's anecdote prove that such laws are inherently corruptive.

Connelly's words "capture the essence of what is wrong with the civil forfeiture process," said Brad Cates, a longtime attorney now living in Las Cruces.

...

He recently wrote an editorial in the Washington Post, explaining his position in detail and referring mostly to federal and state laws that allow authorities to confiscate cash from motorists.

"Carefully crafted city statutes are less troubling," Cates said in a phone interview Wednesday. "However, the same fundamental issues are raised."

Cates said asset forfeiture initiates a convoluted process that's "not in tune with our criminal justice system." He also said that when police use forfeiture money to fund their own departments, it creates an appearance of impropriety.

Garza said in a recent newsletter to City Council that the program has seized 2,135 vehicles and provided $1.2 million for programs aimed at reducing DWI.

The ordinance ensures "the cost is covered by those who created these safety concerns," Garza's newsletter said.

It's no joke. A tax assessor in Davison Township, Genessee County, Michigan ( suburban Flint) said she needed to go inside homes to do her job. She was emboldened by the Michigan Tax Commission which is encouraging such inspections but the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation says the practice violates the Constitution's Fourth Amendment on search and seizure.

“It don’t matter to me. What’s gonna happen?” says officer Williams to assert his ‘above the law’ power.
Ferriday, LA — A couple of ‘good-ole-boys’ were driving down Highway 425 in Ferriday, Louisiana when they saw trash being thrown out of the passenger’s side window of a police cruiser.

The two concerned citizens decided to follow the patrol car driven by officer Lee Williams of the Ferriday Police Department, and let him know that they did not approve of this littering.

When they confronted Williams, he became immediately confrontational, defensive, and arrogant.

“It don’t matter to me. What’s gonna happen?” says officer Williams to assert his ‘above the law’ power, basically telling the duo that he can litter and it doesn’t matter.

The Santa Rosa Police Department has been temporarily closed while authorities execute a search warrant inside.

The Texas Rangers and the Cameron County District Attorney's Office both raided the police department around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Investigators are remaining tight-lipped at this time but confirmed they are executing an "evidenciary search warrant" inside.

He was a 42-year-old police officer with a clean record, yet he led a young girl down a terrible path after befriending her.

Cleveland police officer Charles Locke is the man who slapped handcuffs on serial killer Anthony Sowell in 2009. Now his notoriety comes after admitting in court he had sex with a 15-year-old girl and videotaped it.
"In one of these videos, he's actually wearing his uniform," assistant county prosecutor Chris Schroeder told the judge at sentencing.

The videos Locke took were far too graphic to play in court, let alone play in a courtroom where her family sat. His sentencing was emotional, showing through the victim's father's address to him.

"That's my 15-year-old daughter, bro. For real, man. That's my family, man."

Locke spent a lot of time with the girl, some of it at a rec center, other times in his car or police cruiser, which triggered the girl's mother to question him months ago.

"Is there anything other than you mentoring my daughter going on here? Because you knew you would lose your job if it was."

A counselor read from the victim's writings:

"I trusted him a lot. My mood now changes too much. I'm depressed. I'm sad, mad, and sometimes happy."

The internal affairs officer who investigated the case also spoke in court.

"Our badge has been disgraced. Our brothers and sisters in blue have been disgraced," said Sgt. Carl Hartman.

Locke protested.

"This is not who I am. This is not me at all," he said.

Locke claimed he was overworked, in a fog, and didn't understand what he was doing.

At one point, the victim's grandmother reached her limits, shouting "enough," as Locke called the relationship with the teen "an emotional thing."

Locke was sentenced to 19 1/2 years. He had been on unpaid suspension since his arrest in July.

Now his days of wearing a badge are over for good.

Here, the detectives had far exceeded the scope of their right to generally inquire about the information received from the anonymous tip at the time they smelled the marijuana. When the detectives initially reached the house, they knocked on the front door for a “couple [of] minutes” but received no human response. They only proceeded to the back of the house because they heard barking dogs, and believed that an occupant might not have heard the knocks. However, the detectives could not determine from which direction the dogs were barking. There was no evidence of any vehicles on the property, persons present, lights illuminated in the residence, or furniture in the house, and the detectives believed that no one resided there. Accordingly, the sound of barking dogs, alone, was not sufficient to support the detectives’ decision to enter the curtilage of defendant’s property by walking into the back yard of the home and the area on the driveway within ten feet of the garage. See Florida v. Jardines, __ U.S. __, __, 185 L. Ed. 2d 495 (2013) (noting that a law enforcement officer without a search warrant may merely “approach the home by the front path, knock promptly, wait briefly to be received, and then (absent invitation to linger longer) leave”).

As a result, when the detectives smelled the odor of marijuana, their purported general inquiry about the information received from the anonymous tip was in fact a trespassory invasion of defendant’s curtilage, and they had no legal right to be in that location. Accordingly, the subsequent search of the residence based, in part, on the odor of marijuana was unlawful. Thus, the trial court did not err by granting defendant’s motion to suppress.