Fox News is reporting on a story coming out of Tuscon Arizona that the Pima County Sheriff’s DUI division will be stationing officers inside of 24 hour fast food restaurants to listen in on people ordering their food:
Sgt. Doug Hanna, a DUI unit supervisor, says if deputies notice someone with classic symptoms of impairment — slurred speech, red or watery eyes or beer breath — they will have a uniformed deputy stationed outside pull the driver over.
Hanna says money for the intermittent program is coming from a $128,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
While DUI laws themselves are crazy I have no problem with taking dangerous drivers on the road but this just feels dirty. The fact that these businesses are more than happy to assist in the spying upon of their customers is appalling. Following this posting we’ll be contacting the Sheriff’s Dept. in an attempt to get a list of the participating restaurants so discerning eaters can better choose their dining establishments.
Apparently this is one of the positives mentioned by Maricopa Police Sgt. Steven Judd in discussing a warrantless drug raid conducted on a Maricopa High School.
Police authorities conducted a lockdown and random drug sweep using drug-trained canine units from various law enforcement and correctional agencies at a high school south of the Valley Friday morning.
The lockdown lasted approximately one hour and fifteen minutes while police and canines searched the campus for drugs, none of which were found.
More from the article:
Judd says the event gave several police agencies and canine officers a chance to practice their skills in drug detection. He said it gave the dogs a chance to work in a real life atmosphere rather than the ’sterile’ conditions they train in.
So this is what schools are for now? Providing a “real life atmosphere” for police to train in? How exactly does that contribute towards the students educations. Great if they’re being trained to live in a prison like society. Between these raids and schools making kids thumb print to get their lunch I really wonder what kind of world these kids are being trained to live in.
The Daily Times Herald is reporting that the Carroll National Guard is planning a 4 day exercise April 2nd through April 5th 2009.
From the article:
The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.
Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.
Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer.
The primary phase will be done Saturday, April 4, when convoys will be deployed from Carroll to Arcadia. Pictures of the arms dealer will be shown in Arcadia, and soldiers will go door to door asking if residents have seen the suspect.
Soldiers will knock only at households that have agreed to participate in the drill, Kots noted.
I’m really curious to know how they’re going about getting permission. Are they asking everyone if they want to or telling them they’re coming and accepting objections? What kind of pressure are they coming?
“Once credible intelligence has been gathered,” said Kots, “portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents’ wishes.
In accordance with the residents’ wishes? Because the people or Arcadia actually voted on this and then directed the mayor to invite the national guard to come hang out.
“One of the techniques we use in today’s political environment is cordon and knock,” Kots explained. “We ask for the head of the household, get permission to search, then have them open doors and cupboards. The homeowner maintains control. We peer over their shoulder, and the soldier uses the homeowner’s body language and position to protect him.”
YAY!! You get to help the military search your house for illegal (any) guns. I hate being left out of all the fun.
During this phase of the operation, troops will interact with residents and media while implementing crowd-control measures and possibly treating and evacuating injured persons.
The unit will use a Blackhawk helicopter for overhead command and control, and to simulate medevacs.
The drill will culminate in the apprehension of the suspected arms dealer.
Because that’s what the military is for, chasing down suspected arms dealers in American cities.
In addition to surveillance, searching and apprehension, the exercise will also give the troops valuable experience in stability, support, patrol, traffic control, vehicle searches and other skills needed for deployment in an urban environment.
“This exercise will improve the real-life operational skills of the unit,” said Kots. “And it will hopefully improve the public’s understanding of military operations.”
Wow, you’d think the military is getting ready to spend a lot of time in American cities in the future, I wonder why?
The pre-drill work with residents is as important at the drill itself.
“It will be important for us to gain the trust and confidence of the residents of Arcadia,” said Kots. “We will need to identify individuals that are willing to assist us in training by allowing us to search their homes and vehicles and to participate in role-playing.”
Yes, going in pre-invasion and doing intel/recon is a great military tactic.
“We really want to get as much information out there as possible, because this operation could be pretty intrusive to the people of Arcadia.”
The LAist is reporting that the body of Thomas Francis Leamy. Thomas was reported missing a few days ago after he checked himself out of the VA hospital.
The body was found by a pedestrian traveling through the area adjacent to the Wilshire exit off the 305 freeway. The good Samaritan who reported finding the body subsequently “was arrested for refusing to identify himself and being on the freeway illegally.”
Well way to go CHP, getting all the cooperative and helpful yet private citizens off the street. Since when do free people have to identify themselves to law enforcement? Police routinely cover their badges, especially when suppressing free speech oops, I mean doing ‘crowd control’.
Well, I’ll tell you one thing for sure, you won’t catch me reporting ANYTHING to the police anytime soon.
Ok seriously, I think a little street justice is called for here. We can’t let pigs run around and kill people without some kind of retribution. It’s obvious our corrupt system has no intention of seeking justice so it’s time we seek it for ourselves.
I mean wow. Seriously? I’m at a loss of where to start on this quote from Rep Henry Waxman……
Why would you be nervous about people protecting their rights with weapons unless you were one of the people trying to take away those rights?
If people are arming themselves to defend they’re rights from the government (which they should be) shouldn’t Rep Waxman and his fellow Congressmen question how well they’re carrying out their sworn duty to uphold and defend the Constitution?
What about the militarized local and federal law enforcement? That makes me pretty nervous and I’m a law abiding citizen. Anyone who reads Reddit.com knows these guys accidentally kill, assault, taser, or otherwise harm people daily, not to mention all the people they frame and falsely arrest.
The Mayor of Cleveland has decided that even though he believes that cracking down on drug-dealers withguns will cause more violence in the streets, it will be worth it in the long run.
Mayor Frank Jackson doesn’t want to see more deadly car chases and shootouts between cops and suspects, but under his new police plan, he expects them.
Jackson told the police this week to be more aggressive in targeting gun-toting drug dealers. He has said repeatedly that he expects there to be violent, perhaps deadly, run-ins between police and criminals.
“This is not a game,” Jackson said Wednesday. “People are killing each other. We expect more confrontations.”
I’m going to cut the buffer out of this article and give you the really juicy stuff:
In a video, Beeland is seen backing away and avoiding Wright, then crumpling to the ground after being hit with the Taser.
Wright was not disciplined, and police Chief Mike Chitwood defended her actions. Beeland was refusing an officer’s orders, and using a Taser avoided use of other weapons, he said.
Backing away. Not running, not attacking, just backing away in fear of the police officer. And what “other weapons” do police use on people that haven’t done anything and wrong and are backing away?
Police verified Beeland, 35, was using her own credit card, but she was arrested on two misdemeanors, disorderly conduct and resisting a police officer without violence. She has since pleaded not guilty, and state prosecutors are reviewing whether to pursue the case.
And police should never check first to see if someone was doing something wrong before ordering them around and tasering them. And resisting with out force? Are you fucking kidding me? And what reason does this person have to comply with the police in the first place? She wasn’t doing anything wrong. And the prosecutor needs time to review this case? Shouldn’t they be filing assault charges against the officer?
Fox News interviewed Daytona Police Chief Mike Chitwood, who defended his officer’s actions, but said that the incident was being investigated. He also admitted the woman never threatened the police officer, but the “force continuum” allows for stunning if “their actions force the officer to use physical maneuvers to establish control.”
She never threatened the officer but he may have had to use “physical maneuvers” (whatever the fuck that means) so instead he just tased her.
Chitwood said that the woman wasn’t complying to demands from an officer and called it “passive physical resistance.”
Not complying with demands? Why should she? She was talking on her phone minding her own business. And what kind of Orwellian mind fuck is “passive physical resistance”?? Seriously?
There was one major problem with the Santa Clara County crime lab report that implicated a San Jose man of sexual assault:
It wasn’t true.
The document was a fake, created by a San Jose police detective. The crime lab analyst who purportedly prepared the document doesn’t exist. The number used to identify it was false.
Even so, detective Matthew Christian testified as though the phony report were authentic.
The case unraveled when the defense attorney sought the résumé of the lab analyst, only to learn there was no such person. Christian then remembered that he had concocted the report in an attempt to trick the defendant, Michael Kerkeles, 54, into admitting that he had forced a developmentally disabled neighbor into sexual acts. It was an acceptable tactic. But Christian said that by the time he was called to testify, more than a year later, he had forgotten the ruse.
The case, which attracted no public attention when it was dismissed last December, has raised concerns both about how the charges were handled and about how police and prosecutors responded when the fabrication and false testimony was discovered.
San Jose police Capt. Andy Galea said last week that after this incident, the department had banned detectives from using ruse crime lab reports when questioning suspects. He declined to say what discipline, if any, Christian received.
Prosecutors said they had referred the case to an internal committee that reviews cases involving allegations of potential criminal conduct by police officers. That committee, headed by Assistant District Attorney David Tomkins, concluded that the matter amounted to an honest mistake by the officer, Chief Assistant District Attorney Marc Buller said last week.
“We all make mistakes,” Buller said.
Are you fucking kidding me? Framing someone has become an honest mistake for a police detective? Did we skip Fascism and go straight to banana fucking republic or what?
