The number of felony suspects fatally shot by police last year — 461— was the most in two decades, according to a new FBI report.

The justifiable homicide count, contained in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report, has become increasingly scrutinized in recent months as questions continue to be raised about the use of lethal force by law enforcement.

It’s the third straight year we’ve seen an increase. If you’ve been reading The Watch regularly, you’ll know that we hit that figure in the same year that killings of police officers reached a 50-year low. Last year also saw a drop in violent crime. There are about eight to nine killings by cops for every killing of a cop. (The FBI reported 48 felonious deaths of police officers in 2012, the last year for which data were available.)

The article also mentions another problem we’ve discussed here: It’s difficult to say just how much the figure is rising because police departments are historically bad at actually reporting this data.

University of Nebraska criminologist Samuel Walker said the incomplete nature of the data renders the recent spike in such deaths even more difficult to explain.

Bottom line: We should want cops killing people less often. Instead, they seem to be killing people more, even as the threat to cops is diminishing, and society itself is getting safer. And it’s simply unacceptable that we get precise data about cops killed on the job, but only sloppy, incomplete data about who, when and how many cops kill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/11/13/killings-by-cops-apparently-going-up-killings-of-cops-going-down/

This…

“But perhaps the larger and scarier problem with Stingrays is that they now give local police all of the information that any particular cell tower has, without having to bother with a subpoena to cellphone companies. It’s this dragnet aspect of Stingrays—that police can simply drive to neighborhoods and log calls, numbers, and locations—that has a terrifying effect on privacy. It’s easy to imagine the parade of horribles that could result from this type of continued used of Stingrays without warrants by local police: targeting and tracking of certain protesters, or a more general dragnet collection of phone numbers in high crime areas, or even use by one local police officer who has a grudge. Both of these issues are problems that judge-issued warrants—which require a level of specificity and basis for the particular search that a reasonable human being must accept—were designed to solve.”

Should never,ever be permitted to be used by any “law enforcement” agency in the USA. Think the local cops are not abusing this technology? Piss off a cop in public-then they go and fire up the stingray in your neighborhood-and boom-they now have a record of every call you’ve made,every text you’ve sent-and then they are free to fabricate some grand conspiracy involving you-which you will have to somehow prove to be false-from your jail cell-because to team .gov inc. you are guilty until proven innocent.

Over at Slate, Kate Klonick has a primer on the police use of Stingrays, an issue we’ve been following here at The Watch.

A Stingray mimics a cellphone tower and forces all nearby mobile phones or devices to connect to it. Every phone that connects to the Stingray reports its number, GPS location, and the numbers of all outgoing calls and texts. That’s every location and outgoing call and text log of every phone within a certain radius—up to several kilometers—of the Stingray, and that’s all without a warrant . . .

. . . polling shows that only 27 percent of people think that this technology is focused on them, and even if not, half of Americans surveyed say that there might be a margin of federal surveillance they’re willing to endure in the name of homeland security or fighting terrorism.

Phil Williams of Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, WTVF-TV, one of the best TV investigative journalists in the country, has been doing particularly stellar work over the last several years on civil asset forfeiture in central Tennessee. He has continued that work with a series of reports this week.

A traffic stop along Interstate 40 is raising new questions about your constitutional rights. Among the questions: what happens to your right to say “no” to a search when police are looking for cash?

The traffic stop occurred west of Nashville, along a stretch of interstate in Dickson County that’s become well-known for a controversial practice known as “policing for profit.” . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/11/12/policing-for-profit-in-tennessee/

This shit continues because not enough people who have been subjected to it go to the media with their stories.

The police use these tactics as a funding source,seizing cash from people who are never charged with a crime.

Most people don’t fight the seizures in court because -duh-the gestapo took all their money,they do not have the cash to hire a good attorney,miss multiple days of work due to repeated court appearances where nothing gets done,other than the .gov inc. police and prosecutors offering to make a “deal” and return half of the cash that was seized…remember-the person still has not been charged with any crime,the gestapo just took their money -usually because a “drug sniffing” dog “alerted” on their car. It’s a well known fact that these drug dogs are trained to “alert” on demand,and that rarely are any drugs found during these side of the highway gestapo searches.

The police and .gov inc. just use these seizures as a source of funding for their local SWAT teams,drug task farces…uhhh…forces,and donut supplies.

They are taking legally earned cash from citizens who have committed no crime-and the judges and court system-part of .gov inc. just ignores the violation of citizens rights that these seizures are.

Remember-these officers have complete control over you,your family-your property-and your money-they can take anything they want to from you-at any time-without ever charging you with a crime…

Think about that for a minute…let that sink in.

How would you feel if you were on your way to buy a new car,truck,piece of equipment for your shop or business-and the gestapo decides that YOU “fit the profile” of a “drug courier”-and all the cash you planned on buying that item with is just taken from you by the gestapo.

They just take your shit-and even though you are not charged with any crime-you have to hire an attorney,go to court,miss work,travel to whatever city or podunk town the gestapo took your money in-and there’s still no guarantee that you will get your money back.

This kind of shit is simply not supposed to happen in a free country-ever.

Taking peoples money and property without charging them with a crime is what third world dictators have their gestapo do-it is not supposed to happen here.

Too few people are aware of this taking place,those who do hear about it just assume that the gestapo is taking drug money-they’re not-they are taking money that people worked for-legally earned-then forcing them to go to court to even begin to think about having their cash returned to them.

The gestapo threatens to let the local news media know that your car was searched because the drug sniffing dog supposedly found drugs in your car-leaving out the fact that no drugs were ever found.

Just having their names associated with drugs can destroy some people’s businesses instantly. It is sickening that “law enforcement” in this country is even involved in shit like this-what happened to the oath these “law enforcement” officers took?

Why are judges allowing this to continue to take place?

This technique being used by the gestapo violates so many civil rights it’s absurd.

Yet it continues to happen ever day,on every interstate highway,in small towns off the interstates-where entire police departments are funded by the combination of speed traps,and seizing cash from those unlucky enough to have traveled to their shithole of a town.

Those who founded this country started the revolution over much less…

The criminal justice system in the United States today bears little relationship to what the Founding Fathers contemplated, what the movies and television portray, or what the average American believes.

To the Founding Fathers, the critical element in the system was the jury trial, which served not only as a truth-seeking mechanism and a means of achieving fairness, but also as a shield against tyranny. As Thomas Jefferson famously said, “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

The drama inherent in these guarantees is regularly portrayed in movies and television programs as an open battle played out in public before a judge and jury. But this is all a mirage. In actuality, our criminal justice system is almost exclusively a system of plea bargaining, negotiated behind closed doors and with no judicial oversight. The outcome is very largely determined by the prosecutor alone.

In 2013, while 8 percent of all federal criminal charges were dismissed (either because of a mistake in fact or law or because the defendant had decided to cooperate), more than 97 percent of the remainder were resolved through plea bargains, and fewer than 3 percent went to trial. The plea bargains largely determined the sentences imposed.

While corresponding statistics for the fifty states combined are not available, it is a rare state where plea bargains do not similarly account for the resolution of at least 95 percent of the felony cases that are not dismissed; and again, the plea bargains usually determine the sentences, sometimes as a matter of law and otherwise as a matter of practice. Furthermore, in both the state and federal systems, the power to determine the terms of the plea bargain is, as a practical matter, lodged largely in the prosecutor, with the defense counsel having little say and the judge even less.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/why-innocent-people-plead-guilty/

h/t Wirecutter

“BRADFORD COUNTY, PA — A motorist was viciously beaten, tasered, and maced repeatedly, then charged with 24 separate crimes and maliciously prosecuted for every one of them. He was beaten four (4) times over the course of 11-hours, and not once had he acted maliciously. The incident stemmed from his driving while on an unusually high dosage of legally-prescribed bipolar medication and a subsequent fender bender. Dash-cam footage revealed the extraordinary exaggerations made about the case — 2 years after it took place.”

“Once his car was immobilized, the senior trooper on scene, Corporal Roger Stipcak, stood on top of Mr. Leone’s hood and ordered him out of his car while aiming a taser at him. Mr. Leone COULD NOT comply with the trooper’s order because a state police car was intentionally blocking Leone’s driver-side door.

Mr. Leone was then tasered through his open sunroof and forcibly dragged to the ground through the passenger-side door and beaten by fellow troopers. The senior trooper who was standing on the hood of Leone’s car was then seen jumping directly onto Leone’s back from the hood of the car.

“You’ve got a long f***ing night ahead,” the officer menaced. “Do ya hear me?? Do ya f***ing hear me?!”

This was but the first threat of many Mr. Leone was going to receive over the next 11 hours. It was also the mildest. At no time was Leone videoed resisting or attempting to strike the officers.

After his first beating he was handcuffed and questioned. At that point Leone was arrested and placed in the back of a patrol car. Without advising Mr. Leone of his constitutional rights he was questioned a second time and responded with respectful answers of “yes sir,” and “no sir.”

During the questioning, the trooper accused Leone of intentionally spitting in the trooper’s face and used that alleged behavior as a reason to beat Mr. Leone — who was still handcuffed. The trooper then hog-tied the victim.

“Who do you think you’re messing with?” one officer challenged. “We’re the Pennsylvania State Police… it’s not just some chumps.”

After analyzing the audio portion of the dash-cam it appears that the trooper fabricated the spitting incident in order to justify the beating, even though spitting does not allow an officer to beat a prisoner”

Watch as author Larry Hohol provides a play-by-play of the traffic stop:

An ambulance had initially been called to transport Mr. Leone, who had suffered multiple injuries. Instead, the trooper who had broken his hand while punching Leone received medical attention, and Mr. Leone — who was handcuffed and hog-tied — was transported to the hospital in the back of a patrol car.

All district attorneys have two basic requirements — not options — when fulfilling their Oaths of Office. One is to prosecute the guilty, and the other is to protect the innocent. In this case DA Daniel Barrett did neither. At the very least the dash-cam video contradicted sworn statements made by troopers and in many instances proved Mr. Leone’s innocence. Instead of dropping the charges, the Bradford County District Attorney knowingly prosecuted a man that he knew was innocent of everything except his failure to stop (Leone is guilty of this for sure).”

“We as Americans are willing to go to foreign lands and spill our own blood in the defense of freedom (both ours as well as someone else’s), yet here at home our freedoms are being directly attacked on a daily basis by the very agencies that are in place to assure us things like this never happen. Not only are injustices happening, they are happening on a large scale. I directly blame the chain of command as much as I blame the individual offending officers. In most instances not only does the chain of command attempt to cover-up and justify misconduct, but they actively chastise any officer who might step forward in an attempt to right a wrong. In addition, I blame the Judicial Conduct board as they directly oversee the courts, and I blame the Bar Association as most of the players here (except for the police) are attorneys including the elected officials that should be intervening.”

The big question that we should all be asking ourselves is, “How do we fix all of this”?

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/robert-leone/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-ferguson-no-fly-zone-aimed-media-193552378.html

So-the local gestapo just has to ask-and the FAA enacts a no fly zone-hell no.

This is beyond bullshit,this is the gestapo and .gov inc. suppressing the news.

The reason would be that the local cops,sheriffs and state police wanted zero media access to the “civil disobedience” taking place in Ferguson.

By keeping the media away,team .gov inc. can make up whatever bullshit they want to-then those lies become the “official version” of events.

You think this shit won’t happen again?

It will-it will happen again,and again,and again-and keep happening until people start standing up for their rights.

We have a Constitution that contains a Bill of Rights-these are rights are NOT granted by the government,these rights are pre-existing-granted by our creator-the government is not our creator.

The government can neither grant us rights,nor take rights away from us.

Unless WE ALLOW team .gov inc. to do so.

Allowing team .gov inc. to get away with this kind of shit is why we are losing our rights little by little,it’s why team .gov inc. continues to grow,infringes on more and more of our rights-because we allow them to do this.

This is just the latest in a long,long progression of events in which team .gov inc. has violated our rights,and censored the media in order to hide the bullshit that they do.

No one protests about the media being denied access to team .gov inc.’s methods of controlling “civil disobedience”.

Those who’s rights are violated do not complain about team .gov inc.’s brutal tactics-that is why they keep getting away with more and more-no one complains-it’s not reported by the media-because the media has no clue what took place,so they report team .gov inc.’s version of events.

This is what was done in the old USSR,this is what should never,ever be permitted to take place in the USA.

People should be marching on DC with pitchforks and torches over this kind of gov’t abuse.

The founders would have been shooting by now…