For your “I can’t believe this stuff happens in America” files:

Calling their conduct “constitutionally abhorrent,” a federal judge recently chided government prosecutors for working in secret to keep millions of dollars in cash and assets seized from a Las Vegas gambler and his family in a decadelong bookmaking investigation.

In his 31-page opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach cast light on the little-known court process that allowed the government to file civil forfeiture actions against Glen Cobb, his 82-year-old parents and his stepdaughter under “super seal” with no notice to anyone — not even the family it targeted.

Government documents filed under super seal, a procedure overseen by the federal clerk’s office, are stored in the court’s vault and not loaded into the electronic case management system. The documents remain secret from the public and opposing parties.

Ferenbach said prosecutors sought a level of secrecy normally reserved for cases that threaten public safety or national security.

“This is unacceptable,” Ferenbach wrote in court papers only recently made public. “Relying on various sealed and super-sealed filings, the government asks the court to rule against private citizens, allow the deprivation of their property and deny them a process to redress possible violations of their constitutional rights through a secret government action that provides no notice or opportunity to be heard.

“Saying that this would offend the Constitution is an understatement. It is constitutionally abhorrent.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/21/federal-judge-prosecutors-attempt-to-secretly-seize-13-million-was-constitutionally-abhorrent/

From Radley Balko…

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police use a secretive surveillance system that collects information from cellphones and wireless devices to locate crime suspects but also gathers data from innocent people.

For eight years, the Observer has learned, CMPD has owned portable equipment that mimics a cell tower and allows officers investigating serious crimes to learn the serial numbers, location and other information about nearby phones and laptop computers and tablets that connect to a cellular network.

The surveillance equipment, known by names such as StingRay, Hailstorm, AmberJack or TriggerFish, has been used by the military and federal agencies since the 1990s to hunt down terrorists.

Borsch added, “For first responders, it’s a forced choice: either place yourself at risk to stop the killer or allow innocents to continue being at risk of being murdered while you play it safe.”

http://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/6398674-Why-tactical-loitering-doesnt-cut-it-anymore/

At least they admit that the only care about officer safety and going home at the end of their shift-it’s not like that’s some huge revelation-we already knew that.

Then there’s this gem…

“The ‘risk-averse’ cop who won’t step up to the plate regardless of the danger of doing nothing needs to do something else for a living,” said Farnam. “The ever-fearful are fond of saying ‘Don’t be a hero.’

Yeah,it’s an old case,yeah it’s from the shithole of Detroit.

The reason it’s in the news again is that the cop who shot the 7 year old during a no knock SWAT raid was acquitted of murder and any wrongdoing in not one-but TWO trials.

Twice,a jury refused to convict this guy-he killed a sleeping 7 year old girl because he had his finger on the trigger during the entry into the home-a home that was not even the home the “suspect” lived in.

The guy they were after lived in the other half of the duplex. SWAT decided to raid both sides of the duplex-even though they only had a warrant for one side.

The two distinctly separate sides of the duplex are clearly marked by signs hanging from the front porch.

Someone needs to be held accountable for this bullshit. Police raids in the middle of the night are things that happen in third world countries-they have no place in America.

The cop is guilty as hell-and he violates multiple rules of gun safety-keep your fuckin finger OFF the trigger until you are ready to shoot-be sure of your target,and what is behind your target-do not shoot unless you can clearly see what you are shooting at. OK,the last one’s more of a hunter’s safety thing-but it applies-how the fuck do you shoot a 7 year old girl who is sleeping on a couch during a no knock raid? A raid in which the object is an adult male?

Officer safety & co.  do not care about anything other than their own safety-too bad if kids get killed because these dickheads don’t practice basic firearms safety,suck at weapons handling-officer Weeks tried claiming he “lost control” of his weapon.

There’s video in the article linked to that shows the clusterfuck that this raid was.

Plus the cops handcuffed the girls father,and forced him to lay on the floor,in shards of broken glass, and…his daughter’s blood-Assholes-complete,total assholes…

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/aiyana-stanley-jones-raid/

Video appears to show Texas cop summoning small, tail-wagging dog, then killing it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/17/video-appears-to-show-texas-cop-summoning-small-tail-wagging-dog-then-killing-it/

Watch the video for yourself-and you’ll see why this cop is the douchenozzle of the week.

“When I went to St. Louis County, Mo., last month to report on the municipal courts system there, I left pretty overwhelmed by what I saw. (You can read my report here.) I’ve done a lot of reporting on the criminal justice system over the last 10 years or so, and the beat itself can sometimes be pretty bleak. But I don’t ever recall encountering the kind of fatalism, frustration, and despair that I saw on display in those courtrooms.”

“Occupancy permits are just one of the myriad ways in which these municipalities can sap funds from poor people. Basically, if you live in St. Louis County, you’re required to get one for your residents. It doesn’t matter if you rent or own. The police can then periodically make compliance checks (although generally they conduct these checks after they’ve been called to a residence for another reason, like a noise complaint or domestic dispute). If there are more people in your place than your permit allows, they can fine you and each person in your home. Attorneys I spoke to say the regulation can end up being a way to enforce antiquated local laws against unmarried cohabitation, and judging by comments you sometimes hear in courtrooms or from local officials, a way for police and prosecutors to essentially fine people for having premarital sex. You can probably guess which communities are most likely to be subjected to these occupancy inspections.”

“When a local government’s very existence depends on its citizens breaking the law — when fines from ordinance violations are written into city budgets for the upcoming year as a primary or even the main expected source of revenue — the relationship between the government and the governed is not one of public officials serving their constituents, but of preying off of them. When the primary mission of a police department isn’t to protect citizens but to extract money from them, and when the cops themselves don’t look like, live near or have much in common with the people from whom they’re extracting that money, you get cops who start to see the people they’re supposed to be serving not as citizens with rights, but as potential sources of revenue, as lawbreakers to be caught. The residents of these towns then see cops not as public servants drawn from their own community to enforce the laws and keep the peace, but as outsiders brought in to harass them, whose salaries are drawn from that harassment. The same goes for the judges and prosecutors, who also rarely live in the towns that employ them.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/16/why-we-need-to-fix-st-louis/

How would you like the police and courts doing this shit in YOUR city?????????????????????????????

In September 2008, William “Dub” Lawrence watched helplessly as a Davis County, Utah, SWAT team shot and killed his son-in-law after the man had a mental breakdown. To Lawrence, the police team acted rashly. He thought they needlessly escalated the situation, were too quick to opt for force, and were too quick to move on to lethal force. It’s hard to fathom what it must be like to see a family member gunned down, but for Lawrence, the incident was particularly crushing because back in the 1970s, he was elected sheriff of Davis County. And he started the SWAT team that he later witnessed killing his son-in-law.

Today, Lawrence is part of a police reform movement in Utah that has posted some surprising legislative victories. Most notably, Utah is now the only state in the country with a SWAT transparency bill — police agencies with SWAT teams must report how often they use the units, for what purpose, what tactics were used, what was found, and other information about these raids. (Maryland passed a similar law in 2011, but the legislature allowed it to expire this year.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/13/ex-sheriff-speaks-out-on-police-shootings-training-militarization/

By John R. Lott Jr

“It’s disheartening to see the FBI used to promote a political agenda, but that’s what we got with the bureau’s release last month of a study claiming to show a sharp rise in mass shootings, a la Newtown, Conn.

The FBI counted 160 “mass” or “active” shootings in public places from 2000 to 2013. Worse, it said these attacks rose from just one in 2000 to 17 in 2013. Media outlets worldwide gave the “news” extensive coverage.

Too bad the study is remarkably shoddy — slicing the evidence to distort the results. In fact, mass public shootings have only risen ever so slightly over the last four decades.

While the FBI study discusses “mass shootings or killings,” its graphs were filled with cases that had nothing to do with mass killings. Of the 160 cases it counted, 32 involved a gun being fired without anyone being killed. Another 35 cases involved a single murder.

It’s hard to see how the FBI can count these incidents, which make up 42 percent of its 160 cases, as “mass killings.” They plainly don’t fit the FBI’s old definition, which required four or more murders, nor even its new one of at least three murders.”

http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/the-fbis-bogus-report-on-mass-shootings/

“A routine traffic stop in Iowa turns into a police officer trying to trick the driver into admitting he has pot. His reasoning? The driver must have pot because he’s into frisbee golf.”

The fourth amendment…

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

“The video, now on YouTube, shows King was quite happy being filmed during the stop. Which meant he was quite happy being heard uttering sentences such as: “OK. I need you to answer me a question. Why is it that everybody that plays Frisbee golf smokes weed.”

The driver, Scott Beckwith, had a frisbee golf set on the back seat. Does that automatically identify him as a pot smoker?”

“WHO-TV reports that Ankeny, Ia., Police Chief Gary Mukulec apologized for the incident. He said: “The officer engages the driver in a line of questioning that is foolish and not representative of the Ankeny Police Dept.’s training or interactions with the public.”

King’s behavior is reportedly now being treated as a personnel matter. The fact that he knew he was being filmed, yet still pursued the line of questioning, suggests that he truly thought he’d succeed in his attempts to search the car.

How many police officers might have used the same types of argument to make illegal searches?

Some might find a certain sadness in the fact that Beckwith told King clearly and calmly: “I don’t trust police officers.”

http://www.cnet.com/news/this-is-why-people-use-phones-to-film-police/#ftag=YHF65cbda0