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Such is the case with the recent arrest of Randy Credico, a Democratic primary candidate in the New York State Governor’s race who is challenging corrupt New York Governor Cuomo.

Credico was arrested on August 13, 2014 while on his way to a campaign interview.

Credico, while waiting at the Dyckman Street subway stop in New York City, witnessed two plain clothes men aggressively stopping and harassing a man in the tunnel. At first unaware of the fact that the two men were police, Credico whipped out his cellphone camera and began filming.

When the two men, who were actually plainclothes transit police, discovered that they were being filmed, they arrested Credico.

Despite the fact that the New York Police Department’s own Police Department Patrol Guide states that “taking photographs, videotapes or tape recordings” is not cause for arrest or detention so long as the activity does not jeopardize the safety of officers or others, Credico is being held in the Bronx at the Transit Police office at 145 Street and St Nicholas Avenue (1-212-281-5303).

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Currently, the police are refusing to give Credico an appearance ticket (that is, release him with an order to show up in court on a specified date), claiming that he has an outstanding warrant for disorderly conduct from 2012, according to a press release from Credico’s campaign. Credico’s associates deny this and claim that, as a candidate for Governor, he is highly visible and is in the news every day. He has also made several court appearances related to the campaign. If there really was an outstanding warrant, he would have been arrested long before this, he claims.

Credico was kept in jail overnight and is to be arraigned on August 14.

While one’s social status should never be grounds for the decision by police to arrest or not, the fact that a New York State gubernatorial candidate is not safe from the brutality and treacherous violation of rights by the NYPD, one of the most corrupt and vile police departments in the country, is a testament to the fact that the police fully see themselves as above the law. While it is not likely that gun-grabbing Mayor de Blasio will ever be in danger of arrest by the NYPD, the New York Police Department has been waging war on the people of New York City for years, with its efforts recently intensifying.

Murders, shootings, general brutality, stop and frisk, and other forms of Constitutional Rights violations and harassment are the stock and trade of the NYPD.

Unfortunately, the NYPD is not seen as a shame to police forces across the country, it is seen as a model.

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"This morning, I heard someone on the radio say “this is 2014, not 1950-something”….meaning that this OIS was indicative of institutional racism and oppression. Nope, a single police shooting of a black man does NOT, I repeat, does NOT hearken back to the days of Jim Crow……."

PtownVAMike, Officer.com forums

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"And no one will point out the obvious —- that if he was that kind of person he wouldn’t have gotten into a position to be shot by the police."

chapwolfe, officer.com forums

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"And we all know inner city kids that are not worth trying to help. They are lost, polluted by the “lifestyle”, the Fat Al and Jacksons of the world."

so fla cop, officer.com forums

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"They told us in the academy: “The media can go anywhere the public can go… so make your outer perimeter really big”."

tanksoldier, officer.com forums

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"The next time a cop gets jammed up for shooting someone, he should claim that he was going for warning shots and that he was just trying to scare ‘em."

Chomp, officer.com forums

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"The other officers weren’t available at the time of her resistance. She did resist the officer. If you do that, you will be dealt with force until you are fully subdued, especially right by a highway where people’s lives are in danger. She should be glad she wasn’t shot."

JButler, Ars Technica forums

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With the way she resisted the officer, yes, it was justified."
JButler, Ars Technica forums

..in relation to the woman being beaten down by a cop.

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Yes, someone edited the video to make it look more controversal. This video is missing the early part where the police tries to stop/grab her from walking on the highway shoulder and she kind of hits the officer with her bag or arm. Shame on Ars for not showing the full version. Journalism at its worst."

JButler, Ars Technica forums

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I yell “PIKACHU” before I tase someone."
Rudy8116, 06-04-2014 08:22 PM

A cop’s signature block on the officer.com forums

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Parents did that to their child not the officers."
jcioccke 05-30-2014 12:57 PM

In the officer.com forums, regarding an incident where a cop flashbanged a toddler’s crib, leaving the toddler with a sucking chest wound.

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I asked to see the search warrant and someone said "we'll show it to you when you open the gate, open the gate now or we will tear it down." Not wanting my property damaged, I opened the gate and half a dozen police officers stormed into my property, some with guns drawn. The officers had AR-15 rifles and bulletproof vests. They lied to me because as soon as I let them in they refused to show me the search warrant, saying "we don't have to show it to you you aren't the property owner." 27328 short street is my legal residence listed on my driver's license and as a tenant, resident and occupant i am legally entitled to see any search warrant executed on my residence.

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These officers never did identify themselves and at this point in time I still don't know who they were. Refusing to identify is a violation of the Patton Village police manual as well as a violation of common law. Same with failing to announce themselves as police officers and refusing to produce a warrant upon request. They came into my home in the middle of the night and threatened me with guns drawn, frightening my family including my fiance, my 1 1/2 year old toddler and 15 year old stepson, illegally detaining me, and for what? Arrest warrant? Dangerous fugitives? Narcotics? Weapons? Explosives? No. none of the above but AN ALLEGED CITY ORDINANCE VIOLATION INSPECTION! Which they didn't even perform because IT WAS TOO DARK TO DO IT! The actions by the Patton Village police force on this evening were improper, illegal, and uncalled for.

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Police shot and killed a 20-year-old Monday who was wanted for probation violation, but the man’s brother said he was wearing headphones and could not hear officers’ orders.

Officers were called about 7 p.m. to a 7-Eleven store in Salt Lake City after witnesses reported a man waving a gun around.

Dillon Taylor was walking out of the convenience store with his brother and cousin when officers arrived, and police said Taylor matched a description of the suspect.


Three officers said they ordered Taylor to reveal his hands, but they said he ignored their commands and was “visibly upset.”

Taylor was then shot by police and was pronounced dead at the scene.

His brother said Taylor was wearing headphones and did not hear the officers until they surrounded him.

“He couldn’t hear them, so he just kept walking,” said Jerrail Taylor. “(Then) they had guns pointed at his face. That’s when he turned off the music. I saw them point guns at my brother’s face, and I knew what was going to happen.”

One officer told Dillon Taylor to get on the ground, but another told him to place his hands on top of his head.

“He got confused, he went to pull up his pants to get on the ground, and they shot him,” Jerrail Taylor said.

Police have not said whether Taylor was armed at the time, but his brother insists he didn’t have a gun.

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A mentally ill woman was shot and killed by a Phoenix police sergeant at an apartment complex in the city after she threatened officers with a claw hammer, police officials said on Friday.

Michelle Cusseaux, 50, was killed on Thursday by a single gunshot at the threshold of her apartment as officers were attempting to serve an emergency court order to take her to a mental health facility, Phoenix police spokesman Sergeant Tommy Thompson said.

Officers came face-to-face with a hammer-wielding Cusseaux when she opened the front door just as officers were able to get through a security door, Thompson said. He said she then raised the hammer and went at the officers.

Cusseaux was shot by a Phoenix police sergeant at close range and was pronounced dead later at a local hospital, he said.

The sergeant, whose name was not immediately released, was put on administrative leave as part of department policy. He is a 19-year Phoenix police veteran.

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"It's a very dangerous ruling," Zilversmit said. "If you say anything to the police, that can be used against you. Now, if you don't say anything before you are warned of your rights, that too can be used against you."

The state Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling said Tom needed to explicitly assert his right to remain silent — before he was read his Miranda rights — for the silence to be inadmissible in court.

Tom has been freed on $300,000 bail pending his appeal.

Tom was arrested after his Mercedes sedan plowed into a car driven by Lorraine Wong, who was turning left onto a busy street.

Prosecutors argue that Tom's car was speeding at 67 mph in a 35 mph zone when the collision occurred. He was placed in the back of a police cruiser but was not officially arrested and advised of his rights until later in the day.

Prosecutors said Tom's failure to ask about the Wong family while detained showed his guilt.

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The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anyway—with getting his blood on their uniforms. How the Ferguson PD ran the town where Michael Brown was gunned down.
Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.

The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the predawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.

“I said, ‘I told you guys it wasn’t me,’” Davis later testified.

He recalled the booking officer saying, “We have a problem.”

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But the booking officer was not ready just to let Davis go, and proceeded to escort him to a one-man cell that already had a man in it asleep on the lone bunk. Davis says that he asked the officer if he could at least have one of the sleeping mats that were stacked nearby.

”He said I wasn’t getting one,” Davis said.

Davis balked at being a second man in a one-man cell.

“Because it’s 3 in the morning,” he later testified. “Who going to sleep on a cement floor?”

The booking officer summoned a number of fellow cops. One opened the cell door while another suddenly charged, propelling Davis inside and slamming him against the back wall.

“I told the police officers there that I didn’t do nothing, ‘Why is you guys doing this to me?’” Davis testified. “They said, ‘OK, just lay on the ground and put your hands behind your back.’”

Davis said he complied and that a female officer straddled and then handcuffed him. Two other officers crowded into the cell.

“They started hitting me,” he testified. “I was getting hit and I just covered up.”

The other two stepped out and the female officer allegedly lifted Davis’ head as the cop who had initially pushed him into the cell reappeared.

“He ran in and kicked me in the head,” Davis recalled. “I almost passed out at that point… Paramedics came… They said it was too much blood, I had to go to the hospital.”

A patrol car took the bleeding Davis to a nearby emergency room. He refused treatment, demanding somebody first take his picture.

“I wanted a witness and proof of what they done to me,” Davis said.

He was driven back to the jail, where he was held for several days before he posted $1,500 bond on four counts of “property damage.” Police Officer John Beaird had signed complaints swearing on pain of perjury that Davis had bled on his uniform and those of three fellow officers.

The remarkable turned inexplicable when Beaird was deposed in a civil case that Davis subsequently brought seeking redress and recompense.

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FERGUSON, Missouri (CNN) The Ferguson police officer who shot Michael Brown didn't stop him because he was suspected in a convenience-store robbery, but because he was "walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic," the city's police chief said Friday.

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"On 5-18-14 I received a call from my 22 year old autistic son. So I immediately got in my truck and went to where my son was being ticketed. As I drove up on the right hand side of the road adjacent to my son's car, I did not leave my vehicle, I kept it running. The officer turned around and asked "can I help you?" I said "I'm his father." The officer yelled at me to leave the premises. I stated "I'm his father, and just wanted to tell you he's autistic." He turned around and said, "Leave or you'll be arrested!" He started walking towards me and said "you're under arrest." I said, "for what?", I kept saying over and over all I wanted to do was tell you he's autistic. He just replied, "you're under arrest." But I was sure I hadn't broken any laws. This was when I said, "no I'm not under arrest, I haven't done anything." I was still sitting in my truck with the door closed when another officer drove up. The other officer opened my passenger door and proceeded to climb in and push me out. As I came out, I was standing in front of the officer, and he grabbed me and tried to throw me on the ground. When I didn't fall down he tased me (and I have heart trouble). I went down on my knees, then both officers jumped on me and slammed me into the pavement. They handcuffed me laying on the ground and put the taser to my lower spine and tased me four more times. I was put in the police car and taken to jail, where I posted bond." - Florida Cop Watch FB page

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According to reports, police were alerted to the area after an unidentified male suspect hit his sister with a boat paddle following a lengthy dispute.

Upon arriving at the scene, police say the man refused to speak, causing a SWAT team to be deployed outside the home.

With tensions considerably hightened, SWAT officers spent several hours demanding the man surrender.

SWAT officers responded to the man’s silence with a raid on the residence, resulting in his arrest.

Reportedly, the suspect was eventually taken to the King County Jail for questioning.

After news of the incident became public, several critics of the increased militarization of law enforcement took to social media to voice their concern.

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A mortified Queens couple says NYPD cops ransacked their home — and left the wife’s sex toys dumped in their 5-year-old daughter’s bedroom — during a 2012 investigation.

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In allegedly wreaking havoc on the Hollis home, the officers also crushed electronic tablets, stepped on toy train sets, poured out cereal, broke a “muffin maker,” dumped cinnamon spice on the kitchen counter, pulverized a night-light and left out frozen steaks and fish to rot, the suit says.

The cops allegedly swiped $680 in cash — all while snipping cable wires and stomping an Xbox.

The damage occurred after James, a barber, shot their 14-year-old son that May while moving three unregistered firearms from a closet to a garage, according to the suit.

The distraught dad was ready to talk to investigators — but his wife, who was with their wounded son at Long Island Jewish Hospital, told him by phone not to say anything, the suit states.
Annoyed officers informed the husband that he had chosen poorly, the court papers say.
“So you’re lawyered up?” they asked him, according to the suit. “All bets are off. We’re tossing your house and arresting your wife.”

James Goldring was eventually charged with endangering the welfare of a child and served 30 days of community service, according to court papers. Gina Goldring pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

The couple said in their suit that the cops’ harassment of them didn’t even stop after the ransacking of their home.

They busted James’ barber-shop customers for loitering and cited him for not sweeping up hair and having uncovered garbage cans, the suit states. With customers scared off, Goldring said he was forced to close in June.

Goldring declined to comment on Friday. His lawyer, Alan Levine, didn’t return a phone call. They are seeking unspecified damages. The city Law Department said it hadn’t been served with the papers.

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A North Port Police K-9 officer who kissed a 16-year-old girl faces unpaid suspension and probation for the act but will not be criminally charged, Police Chief Kevin Vespia said.

In April, the teenager and her father reported to the North Port Police Department that she was kissed by Officer Shawn Rice against her will. According to the department's investigation reports, the teenager alleged Rice kissed her on the lips four separate times in January.

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Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a police officer, sparking protests around the nation, was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found.

One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury, according to Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, who flew to Missouri on Sunday at the family’s request to conduct the separate autopsy. It was likely the last of bullets to hit him, he said.

Mr. Brown, 18, was also shot four times in the right arm, he said, adding that all the bullets were fired into his front.

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The two medical experts conducted the four-hour examination Sunday at the Austin A. Layne Mortuary in St. Louis. Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer for Mr. Brown’s family who paid their travel expenses, hired them.

“The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community,” Mr. Crump said. “We want to make sure people understand what this case is about: This case is about a police officer executing a young unarmed man in broad daylight.”

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...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Michael Bell shake hands after the former passed a bill into law mandating that investigations of police officers be turned over to an outside party.

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It took six years to get our wrongful death lawsuit settled, and my family received $1.75 million. But I wasn’t satisfied by a long shot. I used my entire portion of that money and much more of my own to continue a campaign for more police accountability. I wanted to change things for everyone else, so no one else would ever have to go through what I did. We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified. There was one shooting we found, in 2005, that was ruled justified by the department and an inquest, but additional evidence provided by citizens caused the DA to charge the officer. The city of Milwaukee settled with a confidentiality agreement and the facts of that sealed. The officer involved committed suicide.

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I’m not anti-cop. And I am finding that many police want change as well: The good officers in the state of Wisconsin supported our bill from the inside, and it was endorsed by five police unions. But I also think the days of Andy Griffith and the Mayberry peacekeeper are over. As we can see in the streets of Ferguson, today’s police are also much more heavily equipped, armed and armored—more militarized. They are moving to more paramilitary-type operations as well, and all those shifts call for more transparency and more rules of restraint. And yet they are even less accountable in some ways than the U.S. military in which I served. Our citizens need protection from undue force, here in our own country, and now.

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NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) -
An officer who was involved in a Monday shooting that left a man hospitalized turned off her body camera just before the incident.

New Orleans police said Officer Lisa Lewis got into a fight with a man during a traffic stop on Mimosa Court in Algiers. During the altercation, she shot 26-year-old Armand Bennet in the forehead.

Bennet's attorney, Nandi Campbell, said her client never resisted, and she claims the officer fired a second shot at her client as he ran away.

The officer's attorney countered that Lewis had turned her body camera off because her shift was about to end and she was on her way back to the Fourth District station when she initiated the traffic stop that led to the shooting.

"What good is the camera if officers are able to take them off and just put them on the side?" Campbell asked. "There's supposed to be some sort of checks and balances, so if we have an officer who has no problems shooting at a man two times. Why should I be surprised that she took the camera off? I'm not surprised at all."

It's unclear yet if there's any other video from the scene.

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Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate Chris Holbrook is filming this. The Park Police Officer interaction. At the end of this video he tells me he does not want to be videotaped (which I am allowed to film per SCOTUS), he lurches towards me, grabs me, wrenches my wrist and the phone out of it, takes my phone, and violently cuffs

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The incident and citation were reviewed by Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto, who determined the officer “erred and misapplied the ordinance.” Chief Ohotto dismissed the citation and directly contacted Holbrook to apologize on behalf of the Minneapolis Park Police Department.

“The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Park Police Department understands and upholds First Amendment and freedom of speech in the parks,” Park Board spokeswoman Dawn Sommers said in a statement.

“This is exactly why I'm running for governor as a Libertarian,” Holbrook said in a statement. “Police shouldn't be harassing citizens while they're engaged in protected political activity.”

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Police chiefs have been forced to confirm for the first time the identities of two undercover police officers who fathered children with campaigners from groups they had been sent to infiltrate.

A high court judge had ordered the Metropolitan police to make the disclosures after the force lost a legal battle. The Met had fought to keep secret the identities of the two undercover officers, Bob Lambert and Jim Boyling, since a group of women launched a lawsuit three years ago.

The women are suing the Met saying they have suffered intense emotional trauma and pain after learning they had been deceived into forming long-term relationships with undercover police officers.

Harriet Wistrich, a lawyer representing the women, said the disclosures were a "partial victory" for the women: "The police have been pulled, kicking and screaming, to this first extremely significant development in the litigation brought by the women in their long battle for justice and accountability."

Lambert had sexual relationships with four women while he infiltrated animal rights and environmental groups between 1984 and 1988. He fathered a son with one campaigner but abandoned both of them when the child was an infant.

He had a 18-month relationship with another woman, Belinda Harvey, while pretending to be a left-wing campaigner called Bob Robinson.

Boyling had sexual relationships with at least three women while posing as an environmental activist, under the false name of Jim Sutton, between 1995 and 2000. He later married one of them and had two children with her before they divorced in 2008.

Both were members of Scotland Yard's controversial undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad, that infiltrated hundreds of political groups between 1968 and 2008. Last month, the Met was criticised after it was revealed that the unit had collected information on 18 grieving families who were campaigning against police.

The women's lawsuit continues as the Met is rejecting their claims that the force was legally responsible for the trauma experienced by them.

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I have to disagree about body cameras. Just hear me out. Imagine the police have to come to your house for something like a domestic, or a noise complaint. You allow them inside to cooperate with the investigation. The officer turns on his body camera. Now everything inside your home is being recorded. Your wife, kids, dog. That big TV. Family photos. that huge mess you haven't cleaned up in your kitchen. The bedroom and potentially embarrassing and private things. That medication you left on your counter. Everything that is in view of the camera. As cop I hate going inside of peoples homes. Its uncomfortable. I try to avoid it unless its necessary or required. Your home is your castle. I don't want to infringe on that comfort. But sometimes I have to. Now back to the camera. Everything I recorded at your house could potentially become public record depending on the outcome of that call and the subsequent case that follows. Do you really want all of that released to the public? Who decides what gets edited and what doesn't? How long is the data kept for? Where and when is data stored and downloaded? There are too many questions. People have a the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. Especially inside of their homes. People are concerned with this becoming a police state but in the same breath want the police recording everything they do. That means I'm recording everything the general public does too and I don't think anyone should be comfortable with that on a scale that large.

You cant ask for less intrusion of your daily lives from the government and simultaneously want more surveillance.

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The former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red light camera (RLC) vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with the City of Chicago.
On Wednesday, in addition to former CEO Karen Finley, government prosecutors also indicted John Bills, former managing deputy commissioner at the Department of Transportation, and Bills’ friend Martin O’Malley, who was hired as a contractor by Redflex.

According to the indictment, O’Malley himself was paid $2 million for his services as a contractor, effectively making him one of the company’s highest paid workers. Much of that money was then funneled to Bills, who used it for personal gain. Via Redflex employees, Bills also acquired a Mercedes and a condominium in Arizona. In December 2013, Ars reported on red light cameras nationwide, and in particular, Redflex's four cameras in the central California town of Modesto.

A May 2014 affidavit written by an FBI special agent suggests that Bills likely used some of this money to purchase and store a boat, buy a car, pay for an addition to his Michigan cabin, pay for his girlfriend’s mortgage, pay his own mortgage, pay his kids’ schools, and hire a divorce attorney over the course of several years.

A 2013 Redflex document states that two employees “paid for vacation-related expenses” for Bills “for at least 17 different trips from 2003 through 2010,” which included “hotels, flights, rental cars, golf games and meals” and a computer, for a total value of around $20,000. Karen Finley was vice president of operations at Redflex from 2001 until late 2005, and then was promoted to CEO from 2006 until February 2013.

The three named defendants face 23 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery, and other charges. They could each be sentenced to decades in prison if convicted: each fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the other counts have lesser penalties.

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Orange, TX Police Officer Robert Arnold (who has a history of violence) shot and killed unarmed James Whitehead.

Arnold is black. Arnold was not in his uniform and did not have a badge. Whitehead got into a verbal altercation about a bad part for his vehicle. James Whitehead did not ever get violent or attack Arnold or anyone else. Whitehead was wrong to get into a verbal altercation but at most he would have gotten a ticket and a fine. Whitehead decided to stop arguing and just leave and that is when Arnold shot the unarmed man dead right on the spot. Arnold was fired for the incident and for his other violent past incidents. Even Arnold's fellow police officers wanted Arnold to be charged with murder. Arnold was never charged and got away with murder. Arnold has enlisted race baiter Lawyer Cade Bernsen (the white Al Sharpton) to sue the city claiming he was fired because he was black and not because he shot an unarmed white man.

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A district judge today dismissed all charges against three Nazareth men accused of plastering the borough with tiny "Fire Trachta" stickers targeting the police chief.

Jeremy Peters, 22, Trevor Gehret, 30, and Daniel Logothetis, 23, all of Nazareth, in June were charged for allegedly creating more than 250 stickers calling for police Chief Thomas Trachta's termination. They were also accused of placing them in such areas of the borough as street signs, fountains, newspaper dispensers, parking meters, mailboxes and benches.

The activity had cost the borough more than $500 to clean up.

All three were charged with criminal mischief, harassment, scattering rubbish and disorderly conduct. The judge threw out the criminal mischief charges against the three men and found them not guilty of harassment, scattering rubbish and disorderly conduct.

Nazareth police officer Daniel Troxell, prosecuting the case, failed to prove the disorderly conduct was a public inconvenience, that the trio acted in a criminal manner or the intent was hazardous or physically offensive in nature, according to District Judge Jacqueline Taschner, who presided over the 3 1/2-hour preliminary hearing.

"When you get into protected speech, it's a very, very fine line," Taschner said. "This is public speech and even if their intent was to cause Chief Trachta annoyance or alarm, the constitutional considerations outweigh them."

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Legislation introduced to the Californian Senate earlier this year mandating ‘kill switches’ on all smart phones has been passed and sent to the Governor’s desk for approval.

Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign bill CA SB 962 in the coming weeks, meaning that it will be against the law for any supplier or carrier in the State to sell a mobile phone that is not fitted with the technology.

Manufacturers will have until July 1, 2015 to ensure that all their phones are equipped with the means to “render the essential features of the smartphone inoperable when not in the possession of the authorized user.”

The legislation, introduced in February, passed on a vote of 53-20.

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Danielle Wolf was not having a good night at the Kroger grocery store in North Augusta, S.C., where she moved with her family just three weeks ago.

She says her husband kept squishing the bread in their cart by putting frozen pizzas on top of it, and Wolf expressed her displeasure at the situation.

That's when her night got really bad. A fellow shopper approached her and accused her of using the F-word in front of her kids.

"I'm like, 'When did I say this to my kids?'" Wolf tells WJBF. "I said that to my husband, that he was smashing the bread."

But somehow the police were called, and Wolf ended up getting arrested in the incident late Sunday.

According to Wolf, the shopper who originally complained didn't actually want Wolf arrested: "I didn't harm nobody. I didn't hurt nobody. The lady said she was having a bad day. So, because you're having a bad day you're going to ruin somebody's life."

But the shopper denies having a bad day, and says Wolf used profanity repeatedly — and even cursed at her after she approached the family to complain.

Wolf faces disorderly conduct charges, and is due in court next month, KGO reports.

According to Salon, which looked up the city ordinance, disorderly conduct is defined as "riotous conduct of any kind," "cry[ing] out in a noisy, scandalous, or abusive manner" in a public place, or "utter[ing], while in a state of anger, in the presence of another, any bawdy, lewd, or obscene words or epithets."

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Police in Ferguson, Missouri, arrested seven people last night as they were enforcing a midnight curfew imposed on residents. However, none of the seven arrested were engaged in any violent activity. They were minding their own business inside their own vehicles when police approached and pulled them out of their cars.

The area, where police shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, was subjected to an escalation in police control as Governor Jay Nixon issued a state of emergency and ordered a curfew from 12 pm to 5 am. Nixon claimed this would help stop the looting of businesses.

The New York Times, as well as other media organizations reported that police arrested protesters who “defied” the curfew and that this happened in the context of smoke bombs and tear gas that was fired to disperse a small of group of people refused to end their demonstration late last night. But these seven people were not out protesting when they were arrested.

Joshua Hampton, who resides in Berkeley nearby Ferguson and was at his aunt’s home “not even a quarter of a mile from the QuikTrip,” where many of the protests have been unfolding, spoke to Firedoglake about how police in military fatigues pulled his girlfriend, her sister and him out of his car at about 2 am.

His aunt did not want him to smoke inside the house. He figured given the situation in Ferguson it might be better to be inside his car parked on his aunt’s driveway. His girlfriend, her sister and him sat in the car smoking until suddenly there were light behind his car and a “bunch of guys with guns.”

“Get out the fucking car! Get out the fucking car!” they shouted.

“It was kind of like I was scared to open [my door],” Hampton recalled. There was “maybe five or six cops.” They had a “big SWAT truck.”

“I went ahead, and I had my hands up and I put them on the window and he opened up the door and he told his friend to cover his back. Took the gun and pressed my chest with the gun,” Hampton added. Then, his sister and girlfriend got out of the car.

Another car parked in front of his aunt’s house, with people inside who he did not know, was targeted by police. Hampton recalled police grabbed a girl by her hair and “slammed her on the back of her car.”

Five people total were arrested. He was later moved to another truck with two others who had been arrested. Hampton said that, of the seven, five were blacks, one was white and one Hispanic.

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Ferguson is not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's poor are held back, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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The Department of Justice study shows that in the U.S. between 2003 and 2009, among arrest-related deaths there’s very little difference among blacks, whites, or Latinos. However, the study doesn’t tell us how many were unarmed.

This fist-shaking of everyone’s racial agenda distracts America from the larger issue that the targets of police overreaction are based less on skin color and more on an even worse Ebola-level affliction: being poor.

[...]

Fifty million [poor] voters is a powerful block if they ever organized in an effort to pursue their common economic goals. So, it’s crucial that those in the wealthiest Point One Percent keep the poor fractured by distracting them with emotional issues like immigration, abortion and gun control so they never stop to wonder how they got so screwed over for so long.

One way to keep these 50 million fractured is through disinformation. PunditFact’s recent scorecard on network news concluded that at Fox and Fox News Channel, 60 percent of claims are false. At NBC and MSNBC, 46 percent of claims were deemed false. That’s the “news,” folks! That's only 30% more bullshit per serving size!

[...]

How can viewers make reasonable choices in a democracy if their sources of information are corrupted? They can’t, which is exactly how the Point One Percent controls the fate of the Ninety-Nine Point Nine Percent.

[...]

The real reason we flock to see Donald Sutherland’s porcelain portrayal in Hunger Games of a cold, ruthless president of the U.S. dedicated to preserving the rich while grinding his heel into the necks of the poor is that it rings true in a society in which the Point One Percent gets richer while our middle class is collapsing.

That’s not hyperbole; statistics prove this to be true. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center report, just half of U.S. households are middle-income, a drop of 11 percent since the 1970s; median middle-class income has dropped by 5 percent in the last ten years, total wealth is down 28 percent. Fewer people (just 23 percent) think they will have enough money to retire. Most damning of all: fewer Americans than ever believe in the American Dream mantra that hard work will get them ahead.

Rather than uniting to face the real foe—do-nothing politicians, legislators, and others in power—we fall into the trap of turning against each other, expending our energy battling our allies instead of our enemies.

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Ferguson is not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's poor are held back, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Parties acknowledge and agree that the media and members of the public have a right to record public events without abridgement unless it obstructs the activity or threatens the safety of others, or physically interferes with the ability of law enforcement officers to perform their duties.

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Overnight, several journalists reported being detained, threatened or otherwise prevented from covering the unfolding story. The arrest late Sunday night of three reporters — Robert Klemko of Sports Illustrated, Chicago-based Financial Times reporter Neil Munshi and Rob Crilly, a foreign correspondent for the Telegraph (and no stranger to war zones) — reportedly came as the journalists attempted to gather more information while police faced off with protesters.

They were ordered arrested by Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who has been serving as a critical bridge between the Ferguson community and law enforcement.

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Twenty months in jail is nowhere near sufficient punishment for an Iowa cop who brutally beat a motorist, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on Thursday. Des Moines Police Officer Mersed Dautovic had been convicted assaulting Octavius Bonds with a baton during a September 12, 2008 traffic stop.

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"The district court acted within its discretion when it decided to vary downward based on Dautovic's history and characteristics and on its policy disagreement with the guidelines, but these considerations do not justify the imposition of a twenty-month sentence in this case," Judge Roger Leland Wollman wrote for the three-judge appellate panel. "Dautovic's offense conduct involved aggravating circumstances, including the use of a dangerous weapon, the physical restraint of Bonds during the course of the beating, and the infliction of serious injury. Moreover, acting under the color of law, Dautovic tried to conceal his wrongdoing by falsifying a police report and lying under oath. When the totality of the circumstances is considered, a variance from the guidelines range of 135 to 168 months' imprisonment to a twenty-month sentence is unreasonably lenient"

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Police told him that journalists were gathering on the other end of the street, in the large shopping mall, for security reasons.

"We felt there were no threats, everything is completely peaceful, and we said that we would stay on and take the photos we wanted," Graw wrote.

Then a young police officer says: "Okay, but only if you keep moving. The moment you stay standing, you'll be arrested. That's the last warning."

Graw took the pictures walking around in small circles in an attempt to assuage the officer, but was then cuffed in zip ties anyway. The officer gave his name as Donald Duck.

The journalists were processed, relieved of their personal belongings and transported to a jail in St. Louis. Requests for water were ignored. Requests for a phone call were always answered with "later".

After three hours, the journalists were released without explanation.

This was Graw's first arrest.

"This was a very new experience. I've been in several conflict zones: I was in the civil war regions in Georgia, the Gaza strip, illegally visited the Kaliningrad region when travel to the Soviet Union was still strictly prohibited for westerners, I've been in Iraq, Vietnam and in China, I've met Cuba dissidents. But to be arrested and yelled at and be rudely treated by police? For that I had to travel to Ferguson and St. Louis in the United States of America."

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