Cops Burning Houses Down

Has it now become procedure to burn down the house if a suspect is in the midst of a shoot out with  police?    Has the Chris Dorner case empowered departments all over the nation to just burn suspects to death when it becomes to difficult to catch them alive?  It's sure starting to look that way...

According to Seattle Times:

A two-day police standoff at a home in the Washington coastal town of Hoquiam ended just before dawn Thursday when a man who had holed up there after allegedly wounding an officer got into a shootout with authorities and the house erupted in flames.

The man came out of the house at about 6 a.m. and went down in an exchange of gunfire with officers, Hoquiam Police Sgt. Brian Dayton told KOMO. Moments later the house was on fire.

There has been no word on the condition of the suspect or the cause of the blaze, which destroyed the home. Video showed the house engulfed in flames as firefighters arrived, and authorities pulling back a robot that had been used in the standoff.

I just find it so hard to believe the cops anymore.  Sure, no one has no idea how this fire started...

Check out the story as it unfolded:

Information Liberation

I thought that with all of the diverse news sources I tend to regular that most if not all major police atrocities would cross my radar at one point or another.  That was until I stumbled across Information Liberation and realized that low level police corruption is much more rampant than I could have ever imagined.  

The site runs so many stories concerning negative police behavior that I can't keep up and would never imagine just re-posting them all here.  So with that said, I figure sharing three of their most recent updates concerning your friendly neighborhood police officer would be a good way to start.  Check out the rest at Information Liberation.

Police hold a town hostage to search for a man with an umbrella, which was mistaken for a gun.  Moral of the story according to them is that it's better to report a case and waste tax payer money to put an entire town on edge, than to, let's say, open you're freaking eyes!  Who is the person that calls the police reporting an umbrella as a gun?!  Some paranoid, mass media consuming, see something say something advocate that eats up what the government tells them, "Don't trust your neighbor!"

Next up the police beat a man over a parking dispute then proceed to chase his brother to where he lives for filming the incident.  They go on to ran sack his house, knock his wheel chair bound aunt to the ground, beat him up, and arrest him.  

Lastly the police chase down a duo on a dirt bike and when they don't stop immediately the cops ram in to them with their cruiser killing the driver.  

Justice well served.  Going on a manhunt for a man with an umbrella, knocking an elderly woman to the ground to arrest someone for filming the police, and killing a guy for riding his dirt bike down the road illegally.  

Kimani Gray

While this story is almost two weeks old now, I thought it was well worth mentioning.  I had seen it when it first appeared and thought that maybe this case would be something to let unfold a bit before talking about it.  However what I am going to do is leave it short and simple.

Kimani Gray was a 16 year old boy who was shot to death by the NYPD.  The cops claim he had a gun, everyone else claims the contrary.  From what I gather, the cops are probably lying.  What makes me think that?  They're cops!  They're trained to lie.  Catch up on the story by watching the videos below and reading the subsequent articles.

The Nation

The New York Times

5 Years in Prison for Releasing Balloons?!

(You're all under arrest!)

While large corporations and the uber rich spend their days dumping toxic waste in to rivers and building homes that use more electricity than entire neighborhoods, us regular people can be arrested and jailed for the simple environmental crime of releasing balloons in to the air.  According to Information Liberation:

When Anthony Brasfield released a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky over Dania Beach, Fla., for his sweetheart, all he wanted was to create the perfect atmosphere of romance. What he created instead was a court date.

According to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Brasfield's act of love was witnessed by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper. What he saw was not an act of love but a felony.

The 40-year-old Brasfield was with his girlfriend, Shaquina Baxter, in the parking lot of a Motel 6 on Dania Beach Boulevard when he released the 12 shiny, red and silver mylar balloons into the sky and watched them float away in the Sunday morning breeze.

They go on to say:

... The trooper saw nothing more than probable cause for a crime against the environment. Apparently, lawmakers in the Sunshine State think it's appropriate to treat what should have been, at most, simple littering (to which courts would have issued a fine, maybe?), into a major crime against Mother Nature. As if Florida jails weren't full enough.

And:

As you might imagine, the law is rarely used. According to the Sun-Sentinel, just 21 arrests were made under the environmental statute between 2008 and 2012.

What is amazing, however, is the severity of the crime - it is a third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison. Just as one example, in other parts of the country, people who intentionally or actively work to harm the environment get about the same jail time.

I know I say this alot, but I'll put money on the fact that if this was some white guy releasing balloons from his back yard this arrest would not have been made.  Because it was a black guy at a motel, no mercy!  Throw the book at him!  Wait a second, don't throw it while outdoors though, that would be considered a felony littering charge.

Dekalb County Police Officer Plants Drugs

For such a small boon dock county that no one has ever heard of, Dekalb County sure finds itself in the news for police abuses a bit too often.  Obviously this blog is named after the deplorable officers of Dekalb County Georgia and now today nearly a year after launching the blog I get another story out of these despicable excuses for cops.

This time an officer is caught on camera plantng drugs near a suspect who had already been searched twice.  Since they could not find anything on him of course they were forced to frame him.  This is America, a black man who is suspected of a crime, that can not be pinned on him, needs to be arrested one way or another for the general publics safety.

According to Information Liberation:

A man who claims a police officer planted drugs on him will have the charges dismissed one day before his case was set to go to trial.

Thank goodness the charges are being dropped, but of course this is already after he had been manhandled and treated like scum for a crime he did not commit.

The video shows Eleby vehemently protesting what he sees the officer do and the officer then puts him in a chokehold while other officers look on.

And root for him I am sure.  Because the police are the biggest, baddest gang in America.  When one of their members starts beating on an innocent civilian it's time to circle round and cheer him on.  What, he planted those drugs on the ground?  That makes no difference, because every cop on the scene is also corrupt and every cop at the station, also corrupt.  Every cop in America, more or less corrupt, and if they aren't they are afraid to say anything about those who are.

Coke Head Cops Don't Lose Jobs

According to Boston Herald:

Six Boston cops fired after testing positive for cocaine have been ordered reinstated — with back pay — after a state board struck down hair tests as 
unreliable in a bombshell ruling that could have a far-reaching impact on how city workers are drug-tested.

I'm relatively sure these same drug tests, or similar, are still used to re-incarcerate felons on parole or simple drug users on probation pretty much every day.  So my only concern here is that if these police officers are allowed to use cocaine and still keep their jobs will "convicted" criminals be given the same redemption?

To add insult to injury the excuses some of the officers made were outright ludicrous.  The article goes on to say:

Some of them made excuses for their failed tests, including Bridgeforth, who told the commission he may have had false positive tests because he brushed white powder off the seat of his cruiser, which he “assumed was confectionery powder from doughnuts.” He also said he lived in a townhouse that shared a heating vent with neighbors who were crack smokers, records state.

Bridgeman, meanwhile, told commissioners he believed his positive test was because he had a “habit of putting drugs ... from suspects in his pocket where he also kept cookies to eat.”

Police Perjury

(Picture not from actual raid, but one of the first that 

popped up when I searched Salt Lake City Swat)

The Salt Lake City police detective responsible for a SWAT team ramming the door of a wrong house last year and pointing guns at the elderly woman inside also misled the judge who issued the search warrant, according to documents released by the city.

The narcotics detective, Cooper Landvatter, received a 20-hour suspension for violating search-and-seizure policies, committing conduct unbecoming an officer, and violating what the Salt Lake City Police Department refers to as its "Core Values."

When a regular citizen misleads a judge is it called perjury and they are not violating "Core Values", they are violating the "Law".  When a police officer misleads a judge all it fine and dandy, it's expected, because their job is to convict people of crimes.  A corporations job is to make money for their stock holders, a car sales mans job is to push vehicles of the lot, and a police officers job, once again, is to convict people of crimes.  And just like a used car dealer or a CEO they will make that conviction at whatever cost it takes.  The truth be damned.

"The city has continually described [the raid] as a mistake," Clark said. "It’s not a mistake when an officer swears out a false warrant."

Landvatter also told investigators he felt pressure from his supervisors to obtain and serve a search warrant once a month. He referred to the requirement as a "quota." The review board report called that "a very poor policy," but said it did not contribute significantly to the incorrect raid.

The full story can be read at The Salt Lake Tribune.

Three Cases that are up for Debate

Make of these cases what you will.  Each of them can be argued in the defense of the officer or the victim, but either way one man almost lost his leg, another was shot in the back and the last was tasered to death.  You gotta love that main stream media gives the taser story a whole 30 seconds.  Investigative journalism, in depth coverage, actual concern for the welfare of others?  Nope, this is the news, we're too busy talking about celebrity gossip and political agendas to cover anything that might make you think critically or question the system.