Abuse of Power Thread (Cops, Governments, Etc.) - Part 1

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Here is an abuse of power of a different kind

http://forums.superherohype.com/showpost.php?p=32175511&postcount=107

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Teacher Allegedly Forces 4-Year-Old to Write With Right Hand, 'Cause the Left One Belongs to Satan

An Oklahoma four-year-old was reportedly saved from demonic possession last week after a sharp-eyed pre-K teacher noticed him writing with his left hand—the devil’s hand.

The anonymous hero teacher didn’t bother contacting the boy’s mother, Alisha Sands—also a left-hander and therefore under Satan’s power—just told the boy to write with his right hand from now on, and told that ol’ devil to let that child be!

But Sands and Satan cottoned onto what happened when they noticed young Zayde writing with his right (on so many levels!) hand at home, and challenged him about the change.

“I just asked ‘Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands?’ And he raises this one and says this one’s bad,” Sands told NewsChannel 4.

She wrote a note to the teacher with her demonic left hand, and got back an article explaining that lefties are “unlucky,” “evil,” and “sinister,” and the devil himself is left-handed.

Must be true, because it was in an article. It’s hard to argue with that, but Sands is going to try, because Satan is persistent and we must be ever-vigilant against him.

She went to the superintendent, who stood strong against the sinister forces of left-handedness.

“There was no suspension of any kind. There was basically nothing done to this teacher,” Sands says, “She told them she thought I needed literature on it.”

Now she’s taking her complaint to the Oklahoma Board of Education, which is probably run by activist judges who need Jesus or something.

Please pray for America’s left-handed youth.

http://gawker.com/teacher-allegedly-forces-4-year-old-to-write-with-right-1732307022

This is insane

 

[KevanG]

Oh Oklahoma, you live up to your insane stereotypes on a daily basis.

 

[Marvolo]

During medieval times and even earlier periods left handedness was considered unlucky and potentially evil.

Historically, the left side, and subsequently left-handedness, was considered negative in many cultures. The Latin word sinistra originally meant "left" but took on meanings of "evil" or "unlucky" by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in European derivatives of Latin, and in the English word "sinister".

Meanings gradually developed from use of these terms in the ancient languages. In many modern European languages, including English, the word for the direction "right" also means "correct" or "proper", and also stands for authority and justice.

I think that teacher may need to go back to school and learn that which hand a person writes with isnt decided by the Devil. God and the Devil arent waging a war over which hand we write with.

 

[KevanG]

People are dumb.

 

[Teelie]

Teachers were (and apparently still are) trying to make students write with the right hand as recently as the 1980's. Although I don't recall "because Satan" as a reason cited back then though.

 

[Marvolo]

Teachers were (and apparently still are) trying to make students write with the right hand as recently as the 1980's. Although I don't recall "because Satan" as a reason cited back then though.

My half sister (born in 1989) was encouraged by her mother to write with her right hand even tho she started writing with her left hand. She is right handed to this day and writes fine. Her mom didnt want her to have to deal with the trouble of being left handed.

And in a predominantly right handed world it can be a PIA at times and even dangerous. Statistically left handed people seem to be at more risk due to a lot of work places not being equipped for left handed people. And it can be a bit frustrating in school.

So I get why parents would rather their kid be right handed and if that is the reason for encouraging right handedness then fine. As long as the parent isnt punishing the kid for using their left hand Im ok with it. But encouraging or forcing a child to be right handed because of "Satan" is just dumb as hell.

 

[Teelie]

On the other hand oldrazz it is forcing a child to use the hand they might not be dominate with brings about its own set of problems. The only reason being left handed is statistically more dangerous is because there is no consideration for anyone left handed and so with everything oriented to the right hand.

The simple solution would be to make as many machines and functions as ambidexterous as possible but there is little incentive in that. Fortunately being left handed does force you to learn how to use both hands better, which gives you a one up on anyone who is predominately right handed and doesn't know how to work their left hand as well.

Obviously left hand discrimination is pretty low on the list but it's still discrimination and a reason why statistically speaking they are more likely to be injured or killed.

 

[Mike_D202]

*chops left hand off*

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A good majority of the Presidents here in the USA have been left handed

 

[Teelie]

And they say left-handedness is related to the Devil... Politicians are evil... hmm they might have something there.

 

[Teelie]

GCHQ tried to track Web visits of “every visible user on Internet”

If you thought the NSA was being over-the-top in their spying, the GCHQ had to one up it to try and spy on everyone.

As the saying goes, always assume someone is listening to whatever you say, especially on the internet. Turns out they really are listening to everything you say.

If you used the World Wide Web anytime after 2007, the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has probably spied on you. That's the revelation contained in documents published today by The Intercept, which detail a GCHQ operation called "Karma Police"—a program that tracked Web browsing habits of people around the globe in what the agency itself billed as the "world's biggest" Internet data-mining operation, intended to eventually track "every visible user on the Internet."

Karma Police—apparently named after the Radiohead song—started as a program to track individuals listening to Internet streaming audio "radio stations" as part of a research project into how radicals might "misuse" Internet radio to spread their messages. Listeners to streams that included Islamic religious content were targeted for more data collection in an effort to identify their Skype and social media accounts. The program gradually grew with its success. According to GCHQ documents, by 2009 the program had stored over 1.1 trillion "events"—Web browsing sessions—in its "Black Hole" database. By 2010, the system was gathering 30 billion records per day of Internet traffic metadata. According to another GCHQ document, that volume grew to 50 billion per day by 2012.

The Karma Police system and its Black Hole database log the IP addresses of individuals visiting Internet sites, as well as the cookies associated with their Web traffic. The users of specific sites can then be profiled by correlating recorded cookies from other sites, such as those used to deliver personalized ads (for instance, the Google "pref" cookie) or site login credentials.

In the documents, GCHQ analysts called cookies "presence events" and "target detection identifiers" and lauded their value in uncovering specific Internet users' identities. They can be used to analyze "pattern of life"—when a person is usually online and where they connect to the Internet from. Some of the sites targeted specifically for covert cookie collection include Facebook, Microsoft Live, Amazon, YouTube, Reddit, WordPress, Yahoo, Google, the YouPorn adult video site, and news sites such as Reuters, CNN, and the BBC.

Karma Police also gathered e-mail addresses and other identifiers passed in traffic, including those stored within the cookies of the Bebo social networking site. An assortment of additional tools tracked other elements of online behavior, pulling them into the data store—"Infinite Monkeys" tracked Web bulletin boards, and a tool called "Samuel Pepys" (after the 17th-century British Lord of the Admiralty who was famous for his diaries) analyzed the content of Internet sessions, including e-mails, webpages viewed, and instant messages. One example within the GCHQ documents published by the Intercept shows the tracking of someone with a Swedish IP address visiting the Cryptome website to look at a page about the GCHQ's spying.

All the data gathered by these surveillance techniques provided GCHQ and its "Five Eyes" partners with ammunition to carry out highly targeted attacks against individuals of interest. The data gathered by Karma Police was instrumental in "Operation Socialist," the hack of the Belgian telecom company Belgacom, providing the IP address of a target with a desired level of access.

Ars Technica

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

That's pretty much the philosophy I run with on the net. I keep it transparent like glass

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Maine Republican Demands Bill To Post Welfare Recipients' Addresses Online

The Mayor of Lewiston, Maine, has figured out the answer to society’s ills, and it comes in the form of public shaming.

Upset by the fact that Maine’s government maintains a website that lists the amount of money received by pensioners in the state, and angered by the existence of welfare recipients, or the “victimized, protected class,” Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald devised a plan.

The Tea Party-backed conservative, who is currently seeking re-election to a third term in his town of 36,000, announced a bill to create a website would list the names and addresses of welfare recipients publicly online.

Macdonald wrote in the Twin City Times:

“We will be submitting a bill to the next legislative session asking that a website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on assistance and the benefits being collected by every individual on the dole. After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent.”​

In a comment to the Bangor Daily News, Macdonald said that the listings were not meant to embarrass people, adding that welfare recipients already “flaunt it in public.”

Macdonald also said he would push for a bill that would bar the state from paying benefits to families for additional children born after a recipient has been receiving welfare payments and cap welfare payments after a certain time period.

Of Maine’s $2.7 billion budget, $100 million goes to state welfare benefits, Maine Democrats have already pointed out. And despite Macdonald’s most fervent hopes, they also note that such a law would be illegal, anyways.

It’s not the first time he’s faced backlash — in 2012, residents called for his resignation after his xenophobic remarks advising Somali immigrants to “accept our culture and you leave your culture at the door.”

But the Lewiston mayoral election is coming up in November, and a young progressive challenger has already broken the state record for mayoral campaign fundraising. If Lewiston’s lucky, Macdonald will never even get a chance to see his bill fail.

http://gawker.com/maine-republican-demands-bill-to-post-welfare-recipient-1732920497

What a tool

 

[Teelie]

Should we also get a list of who and how much all his campaign contributors donate to him as well? Afterall he is the man running the local government and the public has a right to know who is purchasing their mayor.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

So only 4 percent of the state budget goes toward welfare and they go after welfare recipients?

I guess the poor make easy scapegoats.

"Lazy poor people are the reason your taxes are so high"

Actually, no they're not.

 

[Teelie]

Piracy Isn’t Worth The Risk of Prison, Freed Cammer Says

A slightly different story this time. This is about how a cammer (someone who records movies in theaters) was arrested and given an outrageous jail sentence (almost 3 years) for what used to be a civil offense (you would typically pay a monetary fine).

3 years for uploading a movie to the internet and placed with people in jail for violent crimes like murder. All because the movie industry cannot modernize and excessively penalizes those who used to commit civil offenses.

Whether you agree with the MPAA or not how can it be acceptable to jail someone for this kind of offense for such a long time?

On May 23, 2013, five unmarked cars containing 10 police officers and representatives from the Federation Against Copyright Theft tracked down UK-based Philip Danks.

From Walsall in the West Midlands, then 24-year-old Danks had cammed Fast and Furious 6 at a local Showcase cinema before uploading it to the Internet. A year later the computer programmer was handed an unprecedented 33 months in prison.

Following a successful appeal to the Ministry of Justice, Danks is now on home detention after serving one year and 18 days of his sentence. Earlier this week he read a TF piece which covered FACT’s warning to potential cammers of the upcoming Bond film ‘Spectre’. We suggested that releasing the movie in the UK almost two weeks before the U.S. launch was a recipe for piracy. Danks agrees.

“The movie industry do staggered releases to build up suspense with a movie but I for one know this does not work. As you know movies are (usually) released in the company they are created in, hence James Bond and Fast 6 being released here in the UK first,” Danks told TF.

“However, this just creates an unnecessary window for pirates to grab the film before anyone else. It gives them the opportunity to obtain maximum results from being the first group or person to leak the movies online because people who cannot watch it at the cinema will be wanting a pirate copy to give them their movie fix.”

That escalated quickly

That urge to be first was what put Danks on the radars of FACT and then the police. After his arrest and subsequent conviction Danks was initially sent to HMP Hewell, a Category B prison in Worcestershire, later being transferred to the low-to-medium risk HMP Oakwood. But despite committing only white-collar crime, Danks was placed alongside those with a thirst for violence.

“I was locked up with all sorts of people, including murderers, bank robbers etc. I remember one guy who I worked with in the kitchens who had been sentenced to 18 years for killing someone. He got out and within six hours was arrested again for killing his victim’s friend,” Danks explains.

Easy prison life…..for a celebrity

Given comments made last week by Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde who said that he’d been asked to sign autographs in prison, it’s interesting that Danks enjoyed a similar reception.

“To be honest I was somewhat of a celebrity in prison, amongst both prisoners and staff alike. Not one person (including my offender manager) thought the punishment fit the crime,” he reveals.

Overall, however, Danks says that prison itself wasn’t that bad.

“Personally I believe locking people up will not work, prison is easier now than ever. I had (which everyone gets) a 22in Sharp TV with 135 channels, a phone in my cell, a kettle, and my own shower and bathroom facilities.

“In all honesty prison was comfortable, I was never scared or even worried about the people around me. So no, prison does not work. Prison isn’t a deterrent for the most heinous acts of crime, let alone ‘copyright theft’.”

Worth it then? Absolutely not…

Despite having an easy life in prison, Danks told TF that the whole punishment package amounts to something a lot more than just being denied freedom for a while. The personal costs outside the prison walls were considerable.

“Prison has affected my life dramatically. I lost my home due to not being able to keep up with rent, I lost my car, job, and everywhere I go I’m not recognized as someone who does good things, I’m just ‘that guy who’s been in prison’,” he explains.

“I applied for a job at a sports shop last week, where I have worked before and known the manager for 13 years. His response was ‘we do not employ ex-cons’. So it’s even difficult to gain employment.”

Family strain

Having no way to make real money, Danks said that his family were always under pressure to send cash for things like phone credit – and then found themselves worrying when he didn’t manage to call them.

“Life was more of a strain on my family then on me,” he notes. Tragically, his family became significantly smaller during his time in prison.

“Whilst I was in prison I sadly lost two of my uncles and my grandad, all of whom I never got to say goodbye to because I was refused leave to go to funerals. I am not a religious man but was forced to pray at the chapel because it was the only way to say goodbye.”

Just not worth it

Overall, it’s clear that Danks is still upset about what happened to him. He admits that he’s done wrong but blames FACT for an aggressive prosecution and a court system ill-equipped to deal with cases like his.

“Crown Courts are meant for criminals, those who hurt people or are a danger to the public, not for civil cases brought to a criminal trial because the government are in the back pocket of the movie industry. They have their priorities all wrong and favor corporations over consumers,” he says.

Not even Danks’ lawyer escapes criticism.

“My solicitor never actually defended me. He simply sat back and let the prosecution bludgeon me to the point of no return,” he explains.

Thinking of camming? Think again

“People really need to think twice. Going to prison is an extremely tough strain not on yourself, but on your family. You will lose respect from loved ones, friends and work colleagues. Prison never has a happy ending, it will always hang over you wherever you go.”

“Simply put, prison isn’t worth the kudos you get from being the first to leak a movie, stay away from it all and be happy with your family!”

TorrentFreak

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Inmates Name Violent "Captain America" Officer In Abuse Scandal

Amid the sordid details of this August New York Times story of a “campaign of retribution” against inmates after the escape of two prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility was an evocative description of one particular perpetrator:

Victor Aponte, who worked in the prison tailor shop where Mr. Matt also had a job, said a guard with an American flag tattoo, known at the prison as Captain America, tied a plastic bag around Mr. Aponte’s neck in an interrogation and tightened it until he passed out.​

Today, nearly two months later, the Times is reporting the identity of this flag-enthusiast guard. He is identified as Chad Stickney, reportedly a gang intelligence officer and one-time chief steward of a corrections officer union, who has a bit of a history of bad behavior. Specifically, he’s been sued three times for assault or harassment.

Let the Times tell it:

One of the lawsuits was terminated after the inmate who filed it died. Two others are still active, including a suit filed in September by Terry Daum, an inmate who claimed that Officer Stickney punched him several times in the head and grabbed his genitals during a search. The lawsuit also said “Stickney utilized his hand to aggressively rub plaintiff’s rectum like a credit card swipe and then attempted to jam his fingertips into plaintiff’s rectum.”​

Inmates reportedly felt compelled to aid the Times investigation due to the glacial pace and apparent lack of progress in the corrections agency’s own investigation. And while that investigation lags, instances of retribution continue: inmates who spoke to the Times for the August report told of being placed on 23-hour lockdown for fabricated infractions, or for no stated reason whatsoever.

Asked about reports of prisoner abuse at the hands of corrections officers, Governor Cuomo explained things thusly: “It is a very, very difficult job. They have to make sure they get a certain amount of respect in the job, otherwise they get hurt.”

http://gawker.com/inmates-name-violent-captain-america-officer-in-abuse-1734150651

I'm not surprised by this one bit. I was assaulted by a guard last time I was in jail for standing in my cell and looking out of the window

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

UPDATE: Tulsa Sheriff to Resign Over Shooting By Deputy Who Bought His Way Into Police

On Wednesday, six months after a volunteer reserve deputy, Bob Bates, shot and killed an unarmed man, Eric Harris, a grand jury indicted Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz on misconduct charges. The New York Times reports that Glanz will step down as sheriff.

Glanz has served as sheriff for more than 26 years; his friend Bates, an insurance broker, led his most recent re-election campaign. Bates (the circumstances of whose training as a reserve depity are murky at best) has plead not-guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter in Harris’ April shooting death.

According to the Tulsa World, the grand jury returned three indictments: two misdemeanors (refusal to perform official duty and willful violation of the law) and a third, sealed indictment—its charge unknown. The grand jury also recommended that Glanz be removed from office.

From the World:

The first count charges the sheriff with failing to turn over a report on the 2009 internal investigation into Bates despite lawful requests for it from media outlets. Glanz directed employees to “hold on to it,” the indictment alleges.

The second accuses Glanz of “regularly” using county vehicles for official business despite taking a $600 monthly stipend to use his personal vehicle.​

In addition to leading Glanz’s re-election campaign, the Associated Press reports, Bates donated thousands of dollars to the department in the form of cash, cars, and equipment.

Glanz’s attorney did not give a date for the sheriff’s official resignation, but said that Undersheriff Rick Weigel would take over his duties immediately.

http://gawker.com/tulsa-sheriff-to-resign-over-shooting-by-deputy-who-bou-1733946773

Glad he is gone

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Residents in Baltimore Housing Project Had to Trade Sexual Favors for Repairs

At least seven women living in a Baltimore housing project were forced to trade sexual favors in exchange for basic home repairs from maintenance workers, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the Baltimore Federal Court.

Courthouse News Service reports that the 34-page complaint detailed the sex acts allegedly demanded by Gilmor Homes maintenance supervisor Clinton Coleman and his employees before simple repairs for electrical problems, gas leaks, and pest infestations would be made.

“These Housing Authority employees routinely harass and abuse the vulnerable women in public housing,” the suit alleges. “These defendants are subjecting the tenants to life-threatening living conditions, including but not limited to: mold, lack of heat, rodent and insect infestations and risk of electrocution. These victims are too poor to move and relocate their families.”

The Baltimore Sun highlights several of the allegations:

One woman alleged disability discrimination. The 54-year-old woman needs a cane to walk, but said she can’t get the maintenance crew to install a ramp in her home or handholds in her bathroom.

The woman said that when she moved into the complex last year, a maintenance worker told her he wouldn’t make repairs to her unit unless he gave her “some booty.”

About six months ago, she said, the same worker came to her house after a male visitor left and told her, “I see your boyfriend just left, can I get a turn?”

“I rejected his advances and he left without doing any of the long-outstanding work in my home,” the woman wrote in an affidavit.

Another woman, a 33-year-old single mother, said she succumbed to Coleman’s pressure and performed oral sex and later intercourse. She said in an affidavit that Coleman exposed himself to her in his office. She said she gave in to his demands because she was “shocked, young, scared, fleeing an abusive relationship and worried about the health and safety of my daughter.”​

The suit claims that Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano was made aware of allegations but ignored them. Graziano has since called the allegations “extremely disturbing,” according to Tania Baker, a spokeswoman for Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC), who added that organization is conducting an internal investigation into the alleged crimes and “considers any employee actions that would subject its residents to sexual abuse or sexual harassment to be reprehensible.”

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, is seeking $10 million in damages.

http://gawker.com/lawsuit-residents-in-baltimore-housing-project-had-to-1733857671

Some people really disgust me

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Alabama, Which Requires ID to Vote, Stops Issuing New Licenses in Majority-Black Counties

Facing a state budget reduction, Alabama’s Law Enforcement Agency opted to cut driver-licensing services at 31 satellite offices, serving 28 counties. Twelve to fifteen of the affected counties are in Alabama’s “black belt,” and every Alabama county where black people make up 75% or more of registered voters. That’s troubling because, since last year, Alabama has required government ID to vote.

Two different AL.com came out against the closures as a disguised form of gerrymandering, citing their disproportionate effect on black voters and voters who supported Obama in 2012.

Here’s AL.com’s John Archibald with the ugly numbers:

Look at the 15 counties that voted for President Barack Obama in the last presidential election. The state just decided to close driver license offices in 53 percent of them.

Look at the five counties that voted most solidly Democratic? Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes and Bullock counties all had their driver license offices closed.

Look at the 10 that voted most solidly for Obama? Of those, eight – again all but Dallas and the state capital of Montgomery – had their offices closed.​

Closed.

And here’s Kyle Whitmire, arguing that the state has effectively disenfranchised black voters and set up a lawsuit in the making:

When the state passed Voter ID, Republican lawmakers argued that it was supposed to prevent voter fraud. Democrats said the law was written to disenfranchise black voters and suppress the voice of the poor.

Maybe, maybe not.

But put these two things together — Voter ID and 28 counties without a place where you can get a driver’s license — and Voter ID becomes what the Democrats always said it was.

A civil rights lawsuit isn’t a probability. It’s a certainty.​

It could get worse before it gets better, though: Alabama’s Secretary of Law Enforcement, Spencer Collier, said Monday that if funding isn’t increased, the state could be forced to close all but its 4 largest driver licensing offices.

http://gawker.com/alabama-which-requires-id-to-vote-closes-licensing-of-1734130486

Well, what a coincidence!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

True Stories of Violent Cops From a New Report on NYPD Use of Force

A man pushed to the ground by a police officer because he was locked out of his apartment. A cop who punched someone in the face for riding his bike on the sidewalk, and another who pulled his gun on a man for filming him. These are a few of the horror stories contained within a new report on NYPD use of force.

Today, the NYPD Inspector General’s office—an independent agency tasked with investigating and auditing the NYPD’s operations—released a report on the department’s use of force between 2010 and 2014. Its conclusions, based on a study of 179 instances, are at times sadly unsurprising (black people are grossly overrepresented as the victims of excessive force); and other times more novel (newer officers tended to use force more readily than more experienced cops). Broadly, it suggests that the department’s policies on using violence are vague and often unenforced—a revelation NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton preempted this morning by announcing that he plans to quickly implement some of the reforms for which the inspector general advocates.

More persuasive than the statistics is a series of five vignettes that document particularly egregious cases of police force. The report frames these as instances in which cops failed to deescalate tense situations before they became violent; just as often, however, the officers are the instigators of the violence themselves. Several of the perpetrators were not punished even after investigations ruled against them.

The stories, sourced from complaints to the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Review Board that were substantiated by evidence, are reproduced below.

The apartment lock-out

At approximately 2:40 a.m. in Manhattan, a 45‐year‐old male complainant walked out of his apartment to take out the trash and locked himself out of the building.

In the video footage of the encounter, the man can be seen speaking to two officers as he attempts to explain his predicament. The subject officer walks away toward the entrance of the apartment building as the complainant continues speaking with the second officer. The man is visibly frustrated by the situation and is waving his hands around as he speaks.

According to the CCRB investigative report, the subject officer stated that he smelled alcohol on the complainant’s breath and did not believe that he was a resident of the building. When the officers asked the man for identification, he replied that he did not have it. The man further stated that he had locked himself out of his apartment. The subject officer told the complainant that he could not enter the building and that he had to leave because he did not have identification. The subject officer told CCRB that he then asked the complainant to leave three times, and that each time the man responded that he lived in the building.

The video shows the complainant and the subject officer in a heated conversation when the subject officer begins yelling and pointing his finger in the man’s face. The subject officer then aggressively pushes the complainant to the ground. The subject officer walks over to the complainant while he is lying on the ground and continues to yell and point his finger at him.

The second officer failed to intervene when the subject officer initially lost his temper and stood several feet away with his hands in his pockets. The second officer remained passive and did nothing to intervene or take control of the situation, even once the complainant was on the ground and the subject officer continued to yell at him.

CCRB substantiated the force allegation against the subject officer and he ultimately received a Command Discipline.

The 15-year-old

At approximately 12:50 a.m. in Manhattan, a 15‐year‐old male complainant was walking on the sidewalk when he was approached by two officers.

In the audio recording of the encounter, the subject officer initially appears to be the only person speaking to the boy. Moments later, however, a second officer also engages the complainant. The boy protests having been stopped and mentions that the stop was his second in just two blocks.

According to the CCRB investigative report, the subject officer searched the complainant. When the boy objected that there was no cause for the stop, the subject officer asked him to stop using derogatory language and informed him that if he did not comply, he would be arrested.

The audio indicates that the complainant and the subject officer are engaged in a heated conversation during which the subject officer is taking exception to the boy protesting the rationale for the stop. Each time the complainant speaks, it appears to intensify the ensuing verbal responses of both officers. A scuffle ensues between the subject officer and the boy which results in the subject officer pushing him repeatedly.

CCRB substantiated the force allegation against the subject officer, but he ultimately received no discipline.

The bicycle punch-out

At approximately 9:00 p.m. in Queens, a 26‐year‐old male complainant was riding his bicycle on the sidewalk when he was approached by four officers.

In the video footage of the encounter, the subject officer initially appears to be the only person speaking to the complainant. The complainant is visibly angry, waving his hands about and moving around the sidewalk with the three other officers flanking him.

According to the CCRB investigative report, the subject officer had asked the man for identification. The complainant said he did not have it. The subject officer then asked him to provide his name, and when the man refused to do so, the subject officer informed him that he would be arrested if he did not comply.

The video shows the complainant and the subject officer in a heated conversation when the subject officer punches the man in the face four times. The subject officer then bends down and pulls out the complainant’s legs from beneath him, causing him to fall backwards onto the sidewalk. The subject officer then delivers another two punches to the man while he is on the ground.

Throughout the entire encounter, one of the four officers has been standing to the side observing the interaction. This officer does not intervene after the first, second, third, or fourth strike to the complainant’s face, and he does not even move. The officer stands passively, a few feet away, with his thumbs hooked in his belt. Only once the man is on the ground and has been struck a fifth and sixth time does that officer approach, place one hand on the subject officer’s back, and appear to intervene halfheartedly.

CCRB substantiated the force allegation against the subject officer. The other officers’ force allegations were exonerated by CCRB. At the time of the writing of this Report, no disciplinary decision has been reached in this case, despite the matter being in the NYPD disciplinary process for the past seven months.

The racist gunslinger

At approximately 11:00 p.m. in the Bronx, a male complainant was standing within a few feet of three officers and two other men, recording their interaction on his cell phone.

In the video footage of the encounter, the subject officer appears to be assisting two other officers in restraining two combative men in front of the entrance to a building.

According to the CCRB investigative report, the subject officer stopped the men because he suspected they were drinking alcohol in public. When the subject officer approached, he asked the men what they were doing and where they lived. The subject officer then asked them to provide identification, and when they refused to do so, the three officers began to place the men in handcuffs.

The video shows the complainant approaching the officers as they are attempting to place the two other men in handcuffs. The complainant is holding his cell phone with two hands in an attempt to record the interaction between the officers and the men. When the subject officer realizes that the complainant is standing nearby, the subject officer violently swings his right arm towards the complainant’s cell phone, then draws and points his firearm at the complainant and uses profanity and racial epithets while aggressively commanding the complainant to put away the phone.

CCRB substantiated the force allegation against the subject officer. No other force allegations were made against the other officers. Discipline was not imposed in this case because the statute of limitation expired before CCRB forwarded the case to NYPD for disciplinary disposition.

The off-duty cop

At approximately 10:30 p.m. in Queens, a male complainant was standing outside a shopping center with a second male complainant and another man when the first complainant interacted with an off‐duty officer who was entering the premises.

In the video footage of the encounter, the first complainant is seen standing outside the shopping center when the off‐duty subject officer approaches and appears to lightly shove his way through the path of the complainants and the other man. As the officer enters the shopping center, the first complainant can be seen standing outside making a hand gesture with his arms stretched out at his sides to reflect that he was upset by the subject officer’s shove. A clear exchange of words ensues between the first complainant and the subject officer. As the exchange continues, the subject officer can be seen turning around and walking back towards the door of the shopping center to confront the first complainant. While doing so, the subject officer lifts his shirt to reveal his shield and service weapon and unclips an object from the waistband of his shorts. When the subject officer approaches the first complainant, he pushes the first complainant with two hands, causing him to move several feet back. Additionally, the subject officer strikes the second complainant with the object in his right hand. The subject officer is then seen walking away from the men and re‐enters the shopping center.

According to the CCRB investigative report, the subject officer believed that the men standing in front of the shopping center appeared suspicious and were blocking the entrance. The subject officer denied pushing the first complainant and told CCRB that as he attempted to enter, the first complainant advanced in his direction. As a result, the subject officer stretched his arms out to keep him at a distance.

CCRB substantiated the two force allegations against the subject officer. At the time of the writing of this Report, no disciplinary decision has been reached in this case despite the matter being in the NYPD disciplinary process for the past 20 months.

http://gawker.com/true-stories-of-violent-cops-from-a-new-report-on-nypd-1734084525

And these are just a handful of reports from the police own records

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Secret Service Leaked Private Info To Embarrass Oversight Chairman

Here’s the scoop, via the Associate Press: dozens of grumpy Secret Service employees conspired to publicly embarrass the chairman of the House oversight committee in retaliation for his committee’s ongoing investigations into recent Secret Service ****-ups.

It’s been a pretty rotten, embarrassing 12 months for the Secret Service. A year ago tomorrow Director Julie Pierson resigned in disgrace after highly publicized and, frankly, terrifying lapses in which the service allowed a man with a knife inside the White House, and a man with a gun onto an elevator with President Obama. Times haven’t improved, much: the very next day it was reported that the service leaked President Obama’s campaign itineraries to the Romney campaign; later in the month a Secret Service dog was punched by a White House fence jumper; back in March a couple of drunk agents drove into a White House barrier, disrupting an active bomb investigation; and employees were suspended and arrested for sexual assault and breaking and entering, respectively.

Now this: a mere 18 minutes after the start of a March congressional hearing about the drunk driving incident, Secret Service employees managed to access an old 2003 application to the service filed by committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). The application was unsuccessful, for unspecified reasons, and it was circulated among Secret Service employees in an apparent plan to use the document to publicly embarrass Chaffetz. Secret Service Assistant Director Ed Lowery articulated this plan about as clearly as possible in an email to fellow Assistant Director Faron Paramore:

“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out. Just to be fair.”​

Days later, the unsuccessful application was reported by The Daily Beast, in an article entitled “Congressman Who Oversees Secret Service Was Rejected By Secret Service.” Not a lot of dots to connect, here. Low bed baby could probably crack this one.

The AP’s report indicates Homeland Security Secretary* Jeh Johnson personally apologized to Chaffetz earlier today, and the question now is whether the accessing and subsequent leaking of the application represent a criminal violation of the U.S. Privacy Act. It seems impossible that there won’t be another round of resignations from within the department’s leadership—at least under Pierson’s watch the screw-ups were good old-fashioned incompetence.

http://gawker.com/secret-service-leaked-private-info-to-embarrass-oversig-1733932388

The Secret Service has fallen so far, at least publicly. I highly doubt they didn't pull stunts like this prior to Obama but they just were better about covering their tracks

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

NYPD Sex Crimes Cop Investigating Rape Case Groped Victim

According to a report from the New York Daily News, a 25-year-old nursing student from Seattle is suing the NYPD after alleging earlier this year that two police officers—who had been assigned to investigate her rape case—got her drunk in a hotel room and sexually assaulted her.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday, alleges that the woman (Gawker has chosen to withhold her name) was sexually assaulted by a “social acquaintance” at an apartment in the city in January 2013. That June, having returned to her family in Seattle, she reported the assault to the NYPD by telephone and was notified—the complaint doesn’t specify whether she was told this on the initial call or later—that officers from the Special Victims Unit would travel to interview her.

On July 5, 2013, Detective Lukasz Skorzewski and his boss, Lt. Adam Lamboy, arrived in Seattle and met with the woman. The next day, Skorzewski requested a follow-up meeting; afterwards, he asked the woman to show him to the neighborhood where Lamboy was having lunch with a fellow NYPD officer, who the complaint alleges Lamboy was dating. Lamboy invited the woman to join them. When she hesitated, the complaint alleges, he reassured her: “We’ll protect you.”

This reportedly initiated a 10-hour-long “pub crawl,” during which time Skorzewski allegedly told the woman, “You’re my favorite victim!”

That night, the two officers allegedly convinced the woman to come back to their hotel with them. Lamboy, the supervising officer, left the woman in Skorzewski’s sole custody, telling him to “take care” of her. She slept in his bed while he slept on the couch. In the morning, Skorzewski, who is married, allegedly got into the bed and began attempting to kiss and grope the woman against her protestations. Eventually, the suit claims, he stopped, and she get out of bed, went into the shower, and cried.

Later, Skorzewski allegedly ordered the woman not to tell anyone what had happened. “It can’t leave this room,” he said, according to the complaint. Lamboy echoed this sentiment before the two officers left Seattle, allegedly telling the woman that her “credibility would be shot” if anyone found out what had transpired.

In November 2013, the plaintiff’s initial case was closed, without explanation. In December 2014, an Internal Affairs investigation “partially substantiated” the woman’s claims about the officers’ conduct. The Daily News first reported in January that Skorzewski and Lamboy had been transferred late last year:

Sources said Lamboy was bounced to the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in May. Skorzewski was knocked down from a detective to a patrol officer and moved to the 114th Precinct in Astoria, Queens, last week.

NYPD officials said Thursday that the Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating the allegations. A spokeswoman wouldn’t say why Lamboy, 44, and Skorzewski, 31, were still on the job.​

Now, the woman is suing the city over violations of her civil rights, seeking $3 million for the officers’ “gross breach and abuse of their official police authority.”

“She was a victim made to feel re-victimized by the very people she sought for help: the police,” her attorney, Christopher Galiardo, told the Daily News this week. “The experience left her feeling exploited, helpless and alone.”

“I didn’t want to ruin his life,” the woman said in January, after the officers were transferred and demoted. “I just wanted somebody to know that this happened.”

http://gawker.com/suit-nypd-cop-investigating-rape-case-groped-victim-1733928325

What a horrible person

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

How the Army Abuses FOIA to "Get Out in Front" of Reporters

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article detailing a U.S. Army scheme to “kill” an upcoming Times investigation into concussions sustained during mandatory boxing classes at military academies. Things didn’t quite pan out the way Army brass intended in that particular case, but the same strategy has successfully been used to manipulate the media in the past.

In a meeting at the Pentagon earlier this month, Army Surgeon General Patricia Horoho urged West Point superintendent Robert Caslen to delay releasing the results of a Freedom of Information Act request about the concussions to the Times, according to a summary of the meeting obtained by the paper. In the meantime, Horoho would distribute a favorable study conducted by the Army about the concussions to the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, in hopes that those papers would give the boxing class story a more positive spin before the Times got a chance to publish its story.

Neither paper published the study, but at least one outlet took the bait regarding a separate Army-related story earlier this year.

The meeting summary also quotes Horoho making reference to a February story in the Colorado Springs Gazette about workers at an Army hospital in Fort Carson verbally abusing and otherwise mistreating veterans with mental health problems. “We were able to do something similar with the 4th ID when The Colorado Springs Gazette attacked them with treatment of wounded warriors last year — killed any scrutiny from the media and killed their story,” Horoho is summarized as saying.

Before the Army released an internal investigation into the hospital in response to the Gazette’s FOIA request, Horoho invited a small group of competing reporters to the Pentagon, in an apparent effort to put a positive spin on the story before the Gazette could publish it story. “The event resulted in several stories that had her playing down the mistreatment of soldiers with mental health issues,” according to the Times.

One such story was published by the Army Times on February 10. Under the headline “Army surgeon general: WTU problems aren’t systemic,” reporter Kyle Jahner wrote of a Pentagon “round-table update” to reporters about allegations of abuse at Army rehabilitation centers known as WTUs, or Warrior Transition Units. At the meeting, Horoho told reporters that complaints at of harassment at WTUs were not indicative of a system-wide issue, and that many of complaints by soldiers had already been resolved.

From the Army Times:

Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army surgeon general, affirmed that while even one case of abuse isn’t tolerable, most of the complaints turned out not to be medical care-related and about 24 cases of harassment have been dealt with. And she said the reports documented issues that the Army already uncovered itself.

“They weren’t concerns that an outside source came to us and said do you realize you have these problems,” Horoho said at a round-table update on her command for members of the media at the Pentagon on Friday. “We have eight different avenues (for) our warriors and their family members to have their voices heard. When those concerns come up, each of them is looked at and then we take appropriate action.”​

Horoho also said at the roundtable meeting that the Army had gotten out in front of media reports about the alleged harassment, Jahner wrote. Jahner’s article interprets that claim as a reference to a two-part Dallas Morning News investigation from November 2014 about claims of harassment at three Texas WTUs. But Horoho wasn’t “getting out in front” of those stories—they’d been published three months before. However, she was decidedly ahead of the Gazette’s Fort Carson story, which was published five days after the Army Times piece.

The Freedom of Information Act—under which the federal government is legally bound to release certain types of documents and information in response to requests from journalists, researchers, and citizens—is not a trivial aspect of the reporting process, especially for those journalists who cover the Department of Defense. When David Barstow published his Pulitzer-winning 2008 look at the Pentagon’s orchestration of “military analysts” who went on TV to drum up support for the Iraq War, he did so after a FOIA investigation; Jason Leopold’s reporting on Guantanamo Bay, the CIA, and other DOD matters for Vice News is conducted almost exclusively via FOIA.

Horoho and Caslen both acknowledged that the meeting summary obtained by the Times was genuine, but claimed that they’d been misrepresented. “I am flat-out angry about this. Of all the topics, [concussions of soldiers] is very important to me,” Horoho said. If she really cares that much about keeping members of the Army healthy, she might stop interfering with reporters whose work might help them.

http://gawker.com/how-the-army-abuses-foia-to-get-out-in-front-of-repor-1733835868

I'm also familiar with the military abusing it's power on me so this does not shock me