Abuse of Power Thread (Cops, Governments, Etc.)

[Thundercrack85]

Well if ever once any doubters(me) want to see what a man with his arms clearly up looks like getting shot by the cops. There it is.
While doing exactly as he's told, collaborates by getting his license cop already opened fire on him. Then he continues to shoot a few more times as he's already stumbling and with his hands clearly up!
Full vid graphic...

Spoiler

[YT]RBUUO_VFYMs#t=50[/YT]

I imagine a similar shoot first jumpy "have to empty the clip" mentality in the Michael Brown scenario.

If that wasn't ridiculous enough, that cop was shooting wildly in the middle of a freaking gas station.

You know you suck at your job when a police department in South Carolina fires you.

He should be looking at 25 years to life. But he'll probably get 25 hours of community service.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

UPDATE: Rapist Teacher Originally Sentenced to 31 Days Gets 10 Years in Prison

Stacey Rambold, a man sentenced to 31 days in jail after raping his 14-year-old student, was resentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday, in accordance with an April ruling by Montana's Supreme Court, which declared the judge's earlier sentence illegal.

Montana judge Todd Baugh drew widespread criticism and outrage last year when he sentenced a man to just 31 days in jail for raping his 14-year-old student, saying the victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as her then 49-year-old rapist.

Under Montana state law, the rape of a victim under 16 carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, a statute clearly violated by Baugh's bizarre, victim-blaming judgment. "I think that people have in mind that this was some violent, forcible, horrible rape," Baugh told reporters last August, "It was horrible enough as it is just given her age, but it wasn't this forcible beat-up rape."

Rambold's victim was unable to see her rapist brought to justice, having committed suicide before the trial.

For his part, Baugh was censured this July by the Montana Supreme Court, which determined he had "eroded public confidence in the judiciary and created an appearance of impropriety," suspending the judge for 31 days.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/natio...rapist-resentencing-judge-20140926-story.html

Some of you may remember I had a thread about this insane judge and the POS who raped this girl. Glad to see saner minds have prevailed and this waste of human space is going to do some hard time for this. I can't believe this moronic judge only got a month suspension, that idiot needs to be forced to resign

 

[Hobgoblin]

Chicago Cop Accused of Over 50 Complaints Since 2001

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ans-complaints-met-20140924-story.html#page=1

As he ate with his infant son and a friend at a South Side diner, Chas Byars says he was disturbed to see a lone plainclothes Chicago police officer suddenly grab another customer by the back of his shirt collar and drag him out of his booth.

Byars said he spoke up, telling the officer he didn't have to do that.

"Shut up, *****, or you can go to jail too," Byars remembered then-Lt. Glenn Evans telling him almost three years ago.

Byars said he protested that he had done nothing wrong but that Evans quickly handcuffed him to the other customer. As Byars asked his friend to take his 4-month-old son to a relative's home, Evans announced that the boy would be going to the station as well and grabbed the baby carrier, jerking the infant out of his unstrapped seat and knocking his head onto the table, Byars said.

For the next 13 hours, Byars said, he was locked up, uncertain how badly his son had been hurt.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Is there any other profession where you can get 50 complaints and comfortably keep your position?

 

[Hobgoblin]

Is there any other profession where you can get 50 complaints and comfortably keep your position?

Politician and CEO. You know, the people with the power.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

DOJ Asks Ferguson Cops to Stop Wearing "I Am Darren Wilson" Bracelets

Fashion-conscious Feguson cops will have to do without the season's hottest piece, according to a letter to the city from the U.S. Department of Justice—which, among other things, asks officers to stop wearing "I Am Darren Wilson" bracelets while on-duty.

The Livestrong-style bracelets expressing solidarity with Michael Brown's killer came to the media's attention last week, after a photo was posted on the Instagram account MediaBlackOutUSA, and Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson confirmed that cops were wearing them shortly thereafter. From Reuters:

The letter said the bracelets had "upset and agitated" people and "reinforce the very 'us versus them' mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists."

The DOJ said it had been assured by officials with the county and state police, which have been brought in to help in Ferguson, that their officers would not wear them. Ferguson police could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.

A separate letter states that DOJ has observed Ferguson police officers not wearing name badges, Reuters reports, and asks that they begin regularly wearing them. According to the letter, going without a name plate "conveys a message to community members that, through anonymity, officers may seek to act with impunity."

Last week, in an apology to Brown's family, protesters, and the area's black community, Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson said the city has "much work to do" in remedying the mistakes it has made and winning back its citizens' trust. If it took a federal government intervention to get cops to stop publicly celebrating Brown's killer, "much work" isn't the half of it.

http://fox2now.com/2014/09/26/ferguson-officers-not-allowed-to-wear-i-am-darren-wilson-bracelets/

I almost put this in the stupid thread but since it had to do with the Ferguson incident I put it here. These cops are complete idiots

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Cop Indicted in Killing of Black Man Parked in His Own Driveway

Last week, Levar Jones, an unarmed black man, was shot by a South Carolina police officer during a routine traffic stop. Fortunately, Jones survived the encounter. In February, however, Ernest Satterwhite, another unarmed black man who encountered a similarly trigger-happy S.C. cop, wasn't so lucky— the cop shot and killed him after a low-speed chase ended in Satterwhite's own driveway.

For whatever reason—perhaps because no video of that shooting has been released, or perhaps because the case has remained shrouded in mystery—Satterwhite's case didn't attract the national attention that Jones' did.

But now some details are coming to light. This week, Justin Craven, the 25-year-old North Augusta public safety officer who shot the former mechanic, was indicted. The Associated Press reports that a prosecutor sought to charge Craven with voluntary manslaughter, a felony that carries up to 30 years in prison, but ultimately, he was charged with misconduct in office, a misdemeanor.

Prosecutors wouldn't say why they went after the manslaughter charge, and the indictment doesn't shed light beyond Craven's alleged use of excessive force and failure "to follow and use proper procedures." The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division denied the AP's freedom-of-information requests for any evidence against Craven.

Satterwhite, who was 68 and a great-grandfather, had a history of nonviolent traffic violations—the AP notes a habit of "ignoring police officers who tried to pull him over." He apparently ignored one such attempt at a traffic stop the night he was killed. Craven believed Satterwhite may have been drinking and driving:

The few details released raised concerns among law enforcement experts. In the likely 10 to 15 minutes he trailed Satterwhite, Craven should have had time to learn he was headed home and had no violent incidents on his criminal record, said University of South Carolina criminology professor Geoffrey Alpert.

Police records show Satterwhite had been arrested more than a dozen times for traffic violations, most of them for driving under suspension or under the influence. Most of the charges led to convictions. He also was charged at least three times for failing to stop as officers tried to pull him over. But his record shows no evidence he ever physically fought with an officer.

Edgefield County deputies who joined in the chase reported that Craven ran up to Satterwhite's parked car and fired several shots into the driver's side door, telling the other officers that Satterwhite tried to grab his gun. The other officers couldn't get Satterwhite's door open, so they broke the passenger side window, unlocked that door and dragged him out.

A lawsuit filed by Satterwhite's family, however, alleges that Satterwhite did not reach for Craven's weapon. Carter Elliott, the family's attorney, seeks to have dashcam footage of the shooting released. South Carolina police have shot 35 people and killed 16 so far this year.

http://www.enquirerherald.com/2014/...n-shooting-shrouded.html?sp=/99/117/365/&rh=1

Yet another reason all cops should be outfitted with cameras. At least they are trying to punish this guy albeit with a slap on the wrist.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Woman Jailed for One Month After Cops Confused Her SpaghettiOs for Meth

Think twice the next time you want to gorge on SpaghettiOs in the privacy of your own car. Georgia resident Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, just got out of jail after spending over a month there because cops confused some leftover SpaghettiOs on her car spoon (we all have them) for meth.

The Gainesville Times reports that Huff was arrested on July 2 and charged with possession of methamphetamine, but she maintained the entire time that the residue on her spoon came from a snack, not drugs. She attempted to go through drug court, but was jailed on August 2 after missing a bond payment. She was finally released from jail last Thursday after a crime lab analysis determined, once and for all, that the "meth" was just some dried spaghetti sauce.

Hall County assistant public defender Chris van Rossem told the Times, "From what I understand, she was a passenger in a car and had a spoon on her, near her, and I guess the officer, for whatever reason, thought there was some residue. She's maintained all along that there's no way in hell that's any sort of drug residue or anything like that."

According to the Hall County justice system, Huff had never faced drug charges before this incident.

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/104678/

Bang up job from those police officers

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ferguson Is Gouging Journalists on Freedom of Information Requests

According to an Associated Press report, Ferguson, Mo., officials are apparently using exorbitant fees to discourage news organizations from requesting documents through the state's freedom-of-information Sunshine Law.

In theory, the law, like the federal Freedom of Information Act, allows reporters and other citizens to access things like police reports, memoranda, and intra-government emails, which would otherwise remain behind closed doors. If such information is deemed relevant to public interest—like, say, if it pertains to the summer's biggest national news story—the state permits that it be given away for free. That's evidently not happening in Ferguson:

In one case, it billed The Associated Press $135 an hour — for nearly a day's work — merely to retrieve a handful of email accounts since the shooting. That fee compares with an entry-level, hourly salary of $13.90 in the city clerk's office, and it didn't include costs to review the emails or release them. The AP has not paid for the search.

In another particularly egregious instance, the city asked for "nearly $2,000" to pay a consulting firm for help with finding requested emails on its own servers. BuzzFeed and the Washington Post told the AP they also encountered higher-than-expected fees.

As freedom-of-information activist Rick Blum notes in the AP report, gouging on fees "is a popular tactic" for getting nagging reporters to give up and go away. It's almost like Ferguson wants to keep this stuff a secret.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ea80...rguson-demands-high-fees-turn-over-city-files

I'm not surprised by this at all

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Rikers Guards Who Hogtied, Beat Mentally Ill Man May Actually Be Fired

The guards at Rikers Island are notoriously violent toward inmates—especially mentally ill ones—and it's relatively rare that even documented beatings result in punishment for those responsible. That's why it's a surprising, encouraging development that a judge recommended the termination of six employees this week.

The New York Times reports that in 2012, Robert Hinton, a Rikers inmate on cellblock for people with mental illnesses, was hogtied—cuffed behind his back, with his legs shackled—then carried face-down, by his limbs, into a cell. Minutes later, he had a broken nose, fractured vertebra, swollen-shut eyes, and blood pouring from his mouth.

Yesterday, administrative law judge Tynia Richard published an opinion recommending that the six corrections officers involved be fired. From the Times:

Tynia Richard, an administrative law judge, wrote that the six officers had lied about what had happened; that Mr. Hinton had been handcuffed during the entire episode, and that because such "brazen misconduct" must be put to an end, she was recommending the most severe sanction available: termination of employment for all six.

"Hopefully, it will help break the vise grip that silence and collusion played in this incident," she wrote.

The city's corrections department has historically turned a blind eye to stuff like this, but after a federal report and a July Times article on abuse of mentally ill prisoners, attitudes may be slowly changing. Last month saw the resignation of Florence L. Finkle, who directed investigations at the department—a move that was likely related to those investigations.

Budnarine Behari, a captain involved in the Hinton incident, also turns up in the July Times report. That time, he and a few other guards allegedly cuffed two people to stretchers, wheeled them to an area with no cameras, and beat them until the walls were bloody.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/n...d-officers-who-beat-inmate.html?smid=re-share

The fact that this is a regular occurrence and is covered up routinely is very disturbing

 

[Teelie]

New docs show how Reagan-era executive order unbounded NSA

Here's a small snippet of the entire story. The NSA was given immense control during the Reagan era which shows just how indifferent political stances matter when it comes to the government invading privacy and doing whatever it wants in the name of security.

A set of newly declassified documents shows definitively and explicitly that the United States intelligence community relies heavily on what is effectively unchecked presidential authority to conduct surveillance operations, as manifested through the Reagan-era Executive Order (EO) 12333.

And at a more basic level, the new documents illustrate that the government is adept at creating obscure legalistic definitions of plain language words, like "collection of information," which help obfuscate the public’s understanding of the scope and scale of such a dragnet.

The documents were first published on Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after the group filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.

Ars Technica

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Yet another reason Reagan sucks

 

[Thundercrack85]

This thread is pretty damn depressing.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This thread is pretty damn depressing.

Well if you get too down there is always the Good Things thread to cheer you up!

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=478951&page=10

 

[terry78]

Well if you get too down there is always the Good Things thread to cheer you up!

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=478951&page=10

I like how small it is.

 

[Showtime]

I like how small it is.

Telling.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well I can only post so many articles a day. And we all know the negative stuff is what gets people talking. I always encourage anyone to share any articles they come across in any of my threads.

 

[Showtime]

Well I can only post so many articles a day. And we all know the negative stuff is what gets people talking. I always encourage anyone to share any articles they come across in any of my threads.

I like what you're doing. Keep doing it.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Thanks Showtime. I just like sharing things that get people talking. Always nice to know people are enjoying the stuff that gets shared.

 

[Teelie]

If the news would report more positive things then that thread would be bigger than all of the negative threads combined.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Attorney General: Device Backdoors Should Be Left Open for the Police

The Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. spoke out yesterday about backdoors in consumer technology, claiming that they should be left open by technology firms so that law enforcement officials are never locked out during important investigations.

Speaking about new forms of encryption that could theoretically prevent police officers and other government officials from accessing personal data, he claimed that they could harm investigations of kidnappers and sexual predators, and in turn put children at increased risk. He explained:

"It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy. When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so."

The statement follows handwringing by law enforcement officials across the U.S. over Apple's new iOS 8 encryption policy, which was swiftly adopted by Google too. Following a similar outburst by the Director of the FBI, Holder now becomes the most senior government official to publicly criticize technology companies for making the job of law enforcement difficult by using heightened encryption.

While closing backdoors seems to bewilder those in law enforcement, there are a great many that are keen supporters of what Apple, Google and others are doing. In the wake of stories about government surveillance, which we've recently learned is much more widespread than previously thought, keeping the door closed doesn't, perhaps, seem too bad an idea for most of us.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...s-to-leave-device-backdoors-open-for-police/#

Of course he is going to try and make it sound like it will affect the children. I hope more companies follow the same path

 

[Teelie]

Of course the government should have access to your personal data. It's for the children and no blackhat hacker will ever think to look for or exploit any backdoors left for the good up-standing law enforcement officers and government agents who have never once abused their ability to snoop.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Oh so they want to make it impossible to have secret and private digital information.

I guess the government figured since NSA was exposed they can openly dismantle the right to privacy in every way possible. Screw being covert.

If I told people 25 years ago the things the government would be doing in the name of security they'd call me a paranoid lunatic who reads too much George Orwell.

 

[Teelie]

25 years ago and the government was already giving the NSA unprecedent leeway accessing private information.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Secret Service Agent Leaked Obama Info to Romney Campaign

The Secret Service might need a new name. According to the policy website InsideSources, an unnamed Secret Service agent shared several campaign itineraries, detailing the movements and whereabouts of President Obama, with campaign staff of Republican nominee Mitt Romney in late 2012.

In one particular incident at a bar in late October 2012, the Secret Service agent, who had a number of drinks during the meeting, unprompted and in an apparent attempt to impress one of the staffers, began providing details of President Obama’s schedule. The information included times and locations of the President’s events in the final days of the election. The President’s campaign would not release these details of the President’s schedule publicly until several days later.

The author of the report, Shawn McCoy, is a former Romney campaign staffer, and says that the leaked itinerary “was not widely circulated within the [Romney] campaign” and “did not impact the campaign’s strategy.” He also points out that the agent was married when he “made advances towards a Romney campaign staff member.”

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned yesterday after Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig revealed a number of security lapses at the agency.

http://www.insidesources.com/is-exclusive-secret-service-agent-leaked-presidents-campaign-stops/

Is it just me or does it seem like the secret service does not like Obama?