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

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This is shocking news Teelie! Who ever would have guessed a person w/ a violent past would ever turn to violence yet again?

 

[Teelie]

“Dad, I’m shot”: Man with phone camera shot by police on his own property

And now we get the trigger-happy, shoot before verifying cops. They had the man who was firing the gun but that wasn't enough to suspect maybe another guy on that street was also holding a gun ready to shoot people at that very moment.

Though I can't resist pointing out to those people who believe everyone should be armed with a gun to stop gun violence, this is the kind of situation that will occur when instead of a phone, there is an actual gun in someone else's hand and the cops see it. They will shoot you. Every. Single. Time.

An innocent bystander who was holding a cell phone on his own property was shot last week, with officers saying they perceived an "imminent threat" because they mistook his phone for a gun, according to several news reports.

Danny Sanchez of Rancho Cordova, California, the unarmed man who was shot by police, reportedly underwent surgery Friday to remove bullet fragments from his leg. The officers who shot at him are reportedly on paid leave while the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department investigates the shooting.

The incident happened Thursday when Sanchez's next-door neighbor, Ben Ledford, was allegedly "firing up to 100 machine gun rounds at a home across the street, killing a dog inside the house," CBS Sacramento reported. Ledford surrendered to police, but officers fired at Sanchez after they saw him stand at the edge of his open garage and extend his hand out with an object—which turned out to be his cell phone, local NBC affiliate KCRA reported.

“He was yelling, 'Dad I’m shot, I’m shot,' so I grabbed him inside and closed the garage door," said the man's father, John Sanchez, according to KCRA. "I put a tourniquet around his leg and a clean towel." Danny Sanchez was apparently either taking pictures or video of police.

Police "told him they were sorry that he got shot and everything, that they made a mistake," John Sanchez told CBS Sacramento. There were bullet holes in Sanchez's garage and car.

Officers thought there "was an imminent threat to themselves and another person across the street," and "discharged their weapons based on what they perceived at the time," Sgt. Jason Ramos told KCRA. Sanchez's home was searched and he was "detained briefly" for questioning, but he is not facing charges, the report said.

"Needless to say, it took us some time to find out who had what role in this incident," Ramos told CBS Sacramento.

On Thursday, Ramos described Sanchez's actions to Fox 40 in more suspicious terms, saying that "officers observed a man inside a garage holding what they believed to be a gun. He refused to put it down and they shot at him as he retreated back into the house."

After it became known that Sanchez was holding a phone and not a gun, Ramos told KCRA, "I think it's reasonable to think that the officers perceived an immediate threat either to themselves or continued threat to that individual [across the street]."

Ars Technica

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The whole "Everyone should be packing" argument has never made sense, the vast majority of gun owners will never been anywhere near the level of training required for an intense situation as our military and police are. And when things are popping off the police do not have time to determine if you are a good guy with a gun, they will however shoot your ass if they say you around them with a weapon

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Alabama Politician Claims God Told Him to Outlaw Saggy Pants

Rising inequality. Irreversible climate change. A possible third Grown Ups movie. These are just a few of the challenges facing America in the 21st Century. Luckily, our country is protected by our almighty creator who (when he isn’t smiting eponymous fast food chains) is apparently telling our legislators to address pressing issues like publicly exposed boxer shorts.

Or so says Frank Goodman, a councilman in Dadeville, Alabama who recently proposed a city ordinance banning saggy pants.

“I prayed and asked God to show me what I should do, and the way I should go about it,” Goodman told The Daily Beast in an interview published Monday:

“What would God do? Did God go around doing this?”

The councilman added: “He would [not] show me this saggy pant—it’s one of the things He did not do. It is not in His orders to do that to gain eternal life.”

At a council meeting this month, Goodman explained how drooping denim is “disrespectful,” a bad example to children, and bars the wearer from gainful employment. He told his colleagues what he told a Daily Beast reporter: “I prayed about this. I know that God would not go around with pants down.”​

According to The Alexander City Outlook, Goodman’s fellow council members showed support for his proposal, although at least one thought it didn’t go far enough.

“My concern is it should be for everybody,” councilwoman Stephanie Kelley reportedly said. “I think for the girls, with these shorts up so high looking like under garments and dresses so short, I don’t want us to be showing favoritism.”

The city’s attorney told the paper he hopes to have draft of the ordinance ready by the time next time the council meets.

http://gawker.com/alabama-politician-claims-god-told-him-to-outlaw-saggy-1730655646

You sir, can go f*** yourself. I'll give everyone 2 guesses as to which political party this man is a member of. Here is a hint, this party likes to spout off about personal freedom and getting rid of big government in peoples lives

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Students Wonder When Creepy-As Hell App That Watches Them During Exams Plans on Deleting Their Data

Universities have become so paranoid about cheating on exams that they’ve started buying software that scans test-taking students’ faces, follows what they’re doing on the web, and records audio. Now the students who find themselves trapped in this dismal panopticon are wondering what the software company is doing with their data.

Rutgers, the state university of beloved east coast superfund site New Jersey, made a deal roughly eight months ago with a company called Verificient Technologies, makers of an exam-time spyware package called ProctorTrack. Until a month ago, the university had no written contract with Verificient, New Brunswick Today reports. When the school and the corporation finally did get some paperwork on the books late last month, covering little things like student privacy, it promised Verificient would delete all student data 90 days after each course’s final exam, and students would get an email letting them know their audio, video, and web activity had been virtually shredded. (That’s up from the 30-60 day time frame Rutgers and Verificient advertised when the software came to campus in February.)

A number of students told New Brunswick Today they still haven’t received deletion notices for the spring semester, the first in which they were being aggressively spied on, and they’re wondering what the company is doing with their data.

A fair question. An April New York Times piece about the software’s bumpy rollout at Rutgers notes that Verificient’s CEO worked on airport security face-scanning for everyone’s most-trusted government agency, the TSA.

The similarities are noticeable, the Times reports: both the proctoring software and the TSA protocols flag any movement or facial expression that doesn’t conform to a narrow band of normal behavior. At the airport, it’s excessive yawning or looking down. For ProctorTrack, there’s a long list of requirements: always face the camera and stay within the webcam frame, be well-lit, and don’t take bathroom breaks.

Oh, and make sure to have your knuckles and your photo ID ready for scanning.

The Times also points to Verificient’s less-than-inspiring privacy policy, which “states that it may unilaterally amend its policies at any time and that it may disclose users’ personal information to third-party service providers or in the event of a company merger, sale or bankruptcy.”

Why was Rutgers so eager to throw students into this system that was patented just a month before they rolled it out? The NYT implies it’s because of the increasingly competitive market for online degrees, where being able to promise students aren’t gaming the system means you can charge higher tuition—even if you have to spy on students without so much as a written contract to do it.

“Officials at Rutgers and Verificient have not responded to inquiries about whether or not the company is in compliance” with the data-deletion policy, writes New Brunswick Today.

http://gawker.com/students-wonder-when-creepy-as-hell-app-that-watches-th-1730619274

Total BS right there

 

[Teelie]

It looks like spying and gathering personal information isn't only for the government and greedy advertising companies anymore.

 

[Lencho01]

Kamilah Brock Spent 8 Days in a New York Mental Health Facility Because She Owned a BMW

 

[Teelie]

Iranian Women's Soccer Captain Will Miss Asian Cup After Husband Takes Passport

Abuse of power of a different sort. This is a double dose of abuse coming from the Iranian government and her husband who has every legal right (in Iran) to do this.

In late-breaking "abridgment of basic human rights" news, Iranian women's soccer captain Niloufar Ardalan will not be present at the Asian Cup, as her husband has decided to invoke his legal, husbandly right to withhold her passport.

Per the Associated Press' Jon Gambrell, Ardalan's husband, sports journalist Mahdi Toutounchi, has taken the 30-year-old midfielder's passport to ensure she will be home for their son's first day of school, according to reports from Iranian news website Fararu.com.

Seems legit.

And the great (read: terrible) thing is that there is no real legal recourse for Ardalan. Toutounchi didn't just put her documents on a high shelf out of reach. He's acting within the given legal parameters of Iranian law, which posits that a man can deny his wife the ability to travel beyond the country's borders if he chooses.

As Gambrell reports, Iranians and supporters on social media have rallied around Ardalan, decrying the law and asking the government to intervene on the midfielder's behalf.

As for Ardalan, she's tried to downplay the rift the incident is causing at home between her and Toutounchi, but she says the Iranian government needs to make changes to the existing laws. After all, she just wants the opportunity to represent her country.

"I am only a national soldier who fights to raise flag of our country," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I wish a law would be approved that allows female soldiers to fight for raising the flag."

As we say in the States, just let the boys girls play.

Bleacher Report

 

[Teelie]

GM CEO: 'People died in our cars'

And we're back home with GM tacitly admitting to criminal activity and getting away with it, despite corporations being "people." True I suppose. They are a rich person afterall.

Amazingly though it is completely legal to sell a death trap car.

General Motors will pay $900 million to settle criminal charges related to its flawed ignition switch that has been tied to at least 124 deaths.

Problems with the ignition switch could shut off the car while it was being driven, disabling the airbag, power steering and power brakes -- and putting drivers and passengers at risk.

GM had already admitted that its employees were aware of the problem nearly a decade before it started to recall millions of the cars early last year. That delay is the basis behind the criminal charges.

"People were hurt and people died in our cars," GM CEO Mary Barra told employees Thursday afternoon. "That's why we're here today."

The settlement was disclosed Thursday by the Justice Department. No individual GM executives were charged in the case -- a fact that was called "grossly inadequate" by the mother of a crash victim.

"While nothing can bring my daughter back, we need a system where auto executives are accountable to the public and not just corporate profits," said Laura Christian, whose 16-year-old daughter Amber Marie Rose was killed in 2005.

But U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the law makes it difficult to prosecute individuals or to impose greater penalties on a company.

Technically, it isn't illegal to sell a car that has a defect that can kill people, he explained. That's why instead he charged the company for failing to report the information it had about the defect. Applying those laws to individuals would be difficult.

"We apply the laws as we find them, not the laws as we wish there might be," Bharara said.

He said he's met with family members of those killed -- an experience that he called searing -- and understands why they're their disappointed that no individual has been held accountable.

He also said the investigation is continuing and won't rule out charges against individuals at some point in the future.

Bharara also said that once the problem was disclosed, the cooperation by GM executives has been "fairly extraordinary."

"Good behavior after the fact does not absolve GM or any company," he said. But it should be acknowledged and encouraged by authorities, he said.

"It's the reason we're here after 18 months rather than four years," he said.

The Justice Department agreed to defer prosecution in the case, essentially placing the company on probation for the next three years. The criminal case will then be dropped if GM continues to cooperate with federal authorities during that time.

Under the settlement GM agreed to hire an independent monitor of its recall process to insure the company continues to comply with federal safety reporting regulations. The monitor will operate a toll free phone service for people to call in complaints anonymously.

GM (GM) also said it has struck a deal to settle a civil class action suit involving nearly 1,400 cases of death or serious injuries. The case includes recalls beyond the ignition switch problem.

GM did not disclose the amount it has agreed to pay in that civil case, but it said it said it would take an additional $575 million charge against earnings to account for the payments in both the civil and criminal cases. The company has taken previous charges in anticipation of these costs.

"The parties to these agreements have resolved difficult claims without the burden, expense, and uncertainty of litigation," said GM General Counsel Craig Glidden.

The automaker has previously set up a compensation fund to pay the families of those killed, as well as those injured, in accidents. GM is slated to pay more than $600 million to victims and their families.

General Motors has also changed how it handles recalls. The result: a massive surge of more than 30 million recalls and an estimated $4.1 billion cost to repair cars and trucks, not including the cost of this fine.

GM has already agreed to pay the maximum possible fine of $35 million to settle civil charges with federal safety regulators.

The criminal settlement is just the latest announced by the Justice Department against corporations.

Last year Toyota (TM) agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle a case related to its failure to recall cars despite reports of unintended acceleration. In 2013 JPMorgan Chase (JPM) agreed to a record $13 billion fine to settle criminal charges related to the sale of mortgage backed securities ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.

CNN Money

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

NYC Spends Millions Jailing the Same Homeless and Mentally Ill People Over and Over

For New York City’s most frequently jailed people, the cycle probably goes something like this: You’re homeless, or mentally ill, or addicted to drugs. Maybe all three. Those three factors are so tightly wound together that it’s difficult to tell the causes from the effects. You get picked up for sleeping on the street, and police find a crack rock in your pocket, so you go to jail. A little while later, you get out, and a little while after that, you get picked up again. Back to jail it is.

The American Journal of Public Health published a study of the 800 most frequently incarcerated people between 2008 and 2013 in the New York City jail system, and found that few of them are what you’d call hardened criminals. Eighty-eight percent of the detentions had a misdemeanor as the top charge, the Wall Street Journal reports, and small-time drug possession and petit larceny together made up over half of those misdemeanors. If appeals to humanity don’t sway you, consider the finances: The city has spent $129 million on those 800 detainees alone, according to the report.

The population’s demographics paint an equally bleak picture. Ninety-seven percent of those 800 people are “significant” drug abusers; over half are homeless; 37 percent were prescribed anti-psychotic meds in jail; 91 percent are black or hispanic.

The experience in jail for those 37 percent who are mentally ill is probably hellish. Last year, the New York Times published a report detailing the brutal beatings that are doled out to mentally ill Rikers detainees, including one in which a man was handcuffed to a gurney, taken to an area with no security cameras, and beaten by correction officers until the walls were stained with his blood.

“Obviously, if you look at these numbers, it calls for a change in policy,” the judge who presides over the Brooklyn’s Mental Health Court told the Journal. But what changes should be made? Remanding addicts and mentally ill small-time offenders to treatment instead of tossing them into a cell is one easy answer. Ending the NYPD’s toxic “broken windows” tactic of aggressively arresting people for low-level crimes—the policy that lands many of the poorest and most vulnerable New Yorkers in jail in the first place—is another. Too bad that second one isn’t going to happen until Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bratton are gone.

http://gawker.com/nyc-spends-millions-jailing-the-same-homeless-and-menta-1731664595

Bunch of BS if you ask me

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Four California Cops Slam Crying Black Teen to Ground for Jaywalking

On Tuesday, a Facebook user in Stockton, California uploaded a disturbing viral video showing a large group of police officers violently forcing a 16-year-old student to the ground. The teen’s alleged offense? Jaywalking.

“The kid got stopped for ‘jaywalking’ when he barely stepped out of the bus he was 2 feet away from the sidewalk,” wrote bystander Edgar Avendaño, who recorded the footage:

The cop was telling him to take a sit but the teen kept walking to his bus but the cop kept grabbing his arm & the kid took off the cop’s hand off his arm so the cop took out his baton & that’s when I started recording because everything happened too quick. He didn’t have to hit the kid with the baton & no need to call about 20 cops. And as you can see his body cam is on the floor. Smh​

“For safety reasons, the officer told the young man to get on the sidewalk,” a police spokesperson later told Vice News. “After the teenager refused to comply and used obscene language, the officer went over and a there was a scuffle.”

“I feel traumatized,” said the student, Emilio Mayfield, who tells KOVR he was on his way to school at the time of the arrest. “I was beaten and slammed on the floor.”

According to the station, Mayfield and his family have since met with the president of Stockton’s chapter of the NAACP.

http://gawker.com/video-four-california-cops-slam-crying-black-teen-to-g-1731552714

Vid at the link

 

[Mike_D202]

Four California Cops Slam Crying Black Teen to Ground for Jaywalking

http://gawker.com/video-four-california-cops-slam-crying-black-teen-to-g-1731552714

Vid at the link

Can you do a LITTLE bit of research before spreading your propaganda? Thanks.

 

[Teelie]

Oh, someone made a claim the cops were innocent with no evidence they were even there but we'll take their word for it.

 

[Mike_D202]

Oh, someone made a claim the cops were innocent with no evidence they were even there but we'll take their word for it.

As opposed to flipping on your cell phone camera mid-arrest? Yeah, open minds here.

 

[Teelie]

At least someone opening their phone and recording mid-arrest was actually verifiably proven to be there and not someone potentially making up contradictory facts after the incident.

 

[Octoberist]

I have to admit that it's more of a case to case situation, because every town, every citizen, every cop will handle things differently.

You'l have good cops and bad cops, good people and misguided people.

Here in this situation..it's excessive but I do wonder about the kid's behavior. Some people are conditioned to not trust cops and will be combative. and that works the same way with cops with the way they treat people.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Can you do a LITTLE bit of research before spreading your propaganda? Thanks.

Do my research? As in scroll Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and look for people who claim to have seen the whole thing as opposed to a guy who actually has footage of the event? Get the f*** out of here. That's probably the dumbest thing you have ever posted in this thread and that is saying something with the way you defend the cops regardless of evidence

 

[Marvolo]

Can you do a LITTLE bit of research before spreading your propaganda? Thanks.

So you are willing to take the word of some random person on Facebook who "heard" what happened from a source we can't verify instead of an actual video.

Cause that makes what sort of sense?

Even if the kid did push the cop, it shouldn't require four grown male cops to subdue a teenager. So the cops are still in the wrong. They over reacted.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

North Carolina Teen Prosecuted for Having Naked Images of Himself on His Phone

A teenaged couple in North Carolina have been prosecuted for having nude photos of themselves and each other on their cell phones, the Guardian reports. The boy took a plea deal to avoid jail time and being registered as a sex offender.

Cormega Copening of Fayetteville, North Carolina was 16 when the photos were discovered amidst a broader investigation into sexual images being shared without the subjects’ consent at his high school. Copening was not involved in that case, but was prosecuted anyway as an adult, under federal child pornography laws, for sexually exploiting a minor—himself. He is now 17.

Copening was charged with five sexual exploitation of a minor charges, the Fayetteville Observer reported: four for making and possessing two sexually explicit images of himself and the fifth for possessing a naked image of his girlfriend, Brianna Denson, 16. Copening was also suspended as quarterback of the Jack Britt High School football team while the case was ongoing.

According to the Observer, sex between Copening and Denson—who was charged two felony sex crimes against herself and took a plea deal in July—would not have been illegal, as the age of consent in North Carolina is 16. For teens less than four years apart in age, the age of consent is even lower.

“It’s dysfunctional to be charged with possession of your own image,” University of Wisconsin professor of criminal justice and co-founder of cyberbullying.org Justin Patchin told the Guardian.

Earlier this month, Copening also copped a plea, WRAL reported, admitting to two counts of disseminating harmful material to minors. Copening and Denson received the same deal: a year’s probation, during which time they are banned from carrying cell phones.

http://gawker.com/north-carolina-teen-prosecuted-as-an-adult-for-consensu-1731924384

The hell is going on in the world?

 

[BatmanVSuperman]

North Carolina Teen Prosecuted for Having Naked Images of Himself on His Phone

http://gawker.com/north-carolina-teen-prosecuted-as-an-adult-for-consensu-1731924384

The hell is going on in the world?

Heh, you are a bit late on this one DJ!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

City Says Murdered Woman Should Have Known the "Risks" of Public Housing

In court papers filed on Thursday, city lawyers claim the family of a college student murdered in 2013 at an East Harlem housing project don’t deserve a settlement from the city because she should have known the “risks” of being there, the New York Post reports.

Olivia Brown’s mother, Crystal, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city last year, claiming a lack of security allowed a woman, Michele “Mohawk” Graham, 36, into the Lincoln Houses before she shot and killed Olivia, 23, after an argument. Graham is a former resident of the housing development, the Post reports, but according to police was homeless at the time of the shooting.

Seeking a dismissal of the suit, lawyers for the New York City Housing Authority argued that the shooting was “spontaneous” and “unavoidable.”

“All the risks, hazards and dangers were open, obvious and apparent to [Brown] and said risks, hazards and dangers were openly and voluntarily assumed by [Brown],” NYCHA’s lawyers wrote, claiming that the agency could not have prevented Brown’s death. “Such damages and injuries are attributable, in whole or in part, to the culpable conduct of the plaintiff’s decedent and/or third parties.”

In an interview with the Post on Friday, Brown’s mother Crystal, 51, expressed her outrage: “I can’t believe they’re saying she’s responsible for her murder,” she said. “Everybody has a right to be safe in their home. Why wasn’t my daughter safe? Because we’re poor and live in public housing?”

Two police towers and a number of cameras have since been installed. “Why didn’t they have the security in place to protect her when there’s been a history of violence here for 25 years?” Brown asked.

Her lawyer, Kyle Watters, also criticized the city’s argument: “If the language in the . . . city’s papers is taken as case specific, I do not agree that anyone should be deemed to have assumed the risk of being shot, merely by walking in the public area of a New York City Housing project.”

Olivia’s death came in the middle of the 2013 mayoral election. Three days earlier, the top Democratic candidates—including eventual Mayor Bill de Blasio—had spent a night at the Lincoln Houses as a campaign stunt.

http://gawker.com/city-says-murdered-woman-should-have-known-the-risks-1731865493

So I guess since I live near the hood I should just assume I will be shot and killed one day as well?

 

[Mike_D202]

City Says Murdered Woman Should Have Known the "Risks" of Public Housing

http://gawker.com/city-says-murdered-woman-should-have-known-the-risks-1731865493

So I guess since I live near the hood I should just assume I will be shot and killed one day as well?

Well, the more safer neighborhoods are more expensive. That's not exaggeration. I lived in an apartment complex that was boku expensive, it has security cameras and code locks. You go across town and there are apartments that still need updated plumbing.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well, the more safer neighborhoods are more expensive. That's not exaggeration. I lived in an apartment complex that was boku expensive, it has security cameras and code locks. You go across town and there are apartments that still need updated plumbing.

I completely agree that some places are safer than others, that's just life. But nobody should have to assume there is going to be a high likelihood that they will be killed just for living in low-income housing. That's ridiculous and an abject failure on the police who are supposed to be serving that community

 

[PemLam]

I completely agree that some places are safer than others, that's just life. But nobody should have to assume there is going to be a high likelihood that they will be killed just for living in low-income housing. That's ridiculous and an abject failure on the police who are supposed to be serving that community

How the hell is this a failure of the police? What are they supposed to do, post 24 hour on-site surveillance on that one complex? Search every person entering the facility? The building didn't have cameras, that's a failure of the owners of the building, not the police.

Then again, if there was 24 hour surveillance of the complex by police, you'd probably ***** and moan about invasions of privacy. You constantly say you're not "anti-cop", you just want better training, equal enforcement, etc., etc. Yet here you blame the police, and short of parking at the front door and frisking everyone coming in, there was nothing they could do.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

How the hell is this a failure of the police? What are they supposed to do, post 24 hour on-site surveillance on that one complex? Search every person entering the facility? The building didn't have cameras, that's a failure of the owners of the building, not the police.

Then again, if there was 24 hour surveillance of the complex by police, you'd probably ***** and moan about invasions of privacy. You constantly say you're not "anti-cop", you just want better training, equal enforcement, etc., etc. Yet here you blame the police, and short of parking at the front door and frisking everyone coming in, there was nothing they could do.

Cool your jets there hombre, it the police would do actually useful policing tactics instead of things like their Broken Windows policy and Stop and Frisk then maybe things like this wouldn't happen. That is why it is a failure on the police's front