The LEO thread

[Mr.B]

... Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Largo, Fla., went unnoticed for weeks ...

They mistakenly put the K-9 carpet down instead of the lobby carpet.....

[rstrong]

Why is it surrounded by vaginas?

(I know, I know. Obsessed. But try to unsee it.)

[Mr.B]

Why is it surrounded by vaginas?

(I know, I know. Obsessed. But try to unsee it.)

You've got Vrede figured out...finally?

[rstrong]

Techdirt: Eric Holder Cuts Off Police Asset Seizure 'Shopping Sprees'

There's still more to be done to fix bad asset seizure and forfeiture laws, but this is a really big step forward.

Right on.

[rstrong]

From yesterday's News of the Weird:

Un-Government: About 240 of the 351 police departments in Massachusetts claim their SWAT and other specialty operations are not "government" services, but rather not-for-profit corporate activities and are thus entitled to avoid certain government obligations. Even though their officers have the power to carry weapons, arrest people and break down doors during raids, these "law enforcement councils" refuse to comply with government open-records laws for civilian monitoring of SWAT activities. The latest refusal, by the 58 police agencies of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, was filed in state Superior Court in December. [Daily News of Newburyport, 12-13-2014; Washington Post, 6-26-2014]

And the Seattle police make yet another appearance:

DIY Policing in Seattle: A Seattle Times columnist suffered a "smash-and-grab" break-in of his car in October, but was brushed off by the Seattle Police Department and told simply to go file an insurance claim. However, he and his energetic 14-year-old daughter located the perpetrators themselves by GPS and called for police help, only to be chastised by the dispatcher, warning that they could get hurt. Only when a local crime-fighting TV show adopted the case, along with the suburban Sammamish, Washington, police department, was the gang of thieves finally pursued and apprehended (resulting in charges for "hundreds" of smash-and-grab thefts). (Bonus: One alleged perpetrator was quoted as saying the thefts were undertaken "because we knew the police wouldn't do anything.") [Seattle Times, 10-31-2014, 11-7-2014]

[Boatrocker]

Don't Let the Police Steal from Innocent People

The FAIR Act is bipartisan legislation that was just introduced in both houses of Congress to end the perverse incentives that federal laws give police to take innocent people’s property and run. Tell your members of Congress to support the FAIR Act and roll back the drug war by ending civil asset forfeiture.

[neoplacebo]

Ummm, rstrong is preemptively admitting something similar to what you foolishly deny about your obsession with gay sex, Mr.B. Pay attention.

Full disclosure: I can't "unsee it." Guess that makes me obsessed, too.

I wonder about the wizard that's a lousy juggler.

The wizard is a drug smuggler who has just floated his product out so that boat can pick it up and deliver it on time. I wonder myself about those four KKK guys up in that tree on the other bank. Looks suspicious to me.

[bannination]

http://i.imgur.com/UBYRgab.gifv


Dem brave cops protecting us from those phone wielding bandits!

[neoplacebo]

Coming back from Ingle's today I saw a Hendersonville city cop speeding like crazy on highway 25 toward town; no flashing lights on or any indication he was doing anything other than driving fast and loose. I decided not to fall in behind and pace him as I was approaching my turnoff. I'll get him next time.

[Mr.B]

"Coming back from Ingle's today I saw a Hendersonville city cop speeding like crazy on highway 25 toward town; no flashing lights on or any indication he was doing anything other than driving fast and loose. I decided not to fall in behind and pace him as I was approaching my turnoff. I'll get him next time."

Krispy Kreme had just turned on the "HOT NOW" sign.

[rstrong]

I agree; there's just nothing like the safety and if needed the brandishing of a .44 but some folks just should not be armed. I read a story today about a 20 something year old mother who was shot and killed by her 2 year old who grabbed her gun from her purse and shot her dead in Wal Mart. Another opps situation, as the authorities plan to not file any charges.......against anyone.

This just happened again in Albuquerque.

The (three-year-old) child does not face criminal charges, Drobik said.

The woman told police she purchased the gun the day before the incident, Drobik said. The man is not legally allowed to have a firearm because he has previously been convicted of a felony crime.

The family, including a two-year-old girl and the children's grandmother, had been living in an America's Best Value Inn for about a week with their two pit bulls when the incident occurred.

[rstrong]

From this week's News of the Weird:

-- Kentucky, one of America's financially worse-off states, annually spends $2 million of taxpayer money on salaries and expenses for 41 "jailers" who have no jails to manage. Research by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in January noted that Kentucky's constitution requires "elected" jailers, notwithstanding that 41 counties have shut down their jails and house detainees elsewhere via contracts with sheriffs. (Though the jailers may be called upon to transport prisoners from time to time, the 41 counties are mostly small ones with few detainees.) Several jailers have full-time "side" jobs, and one jail-less jailer employs five deputies while another has 11 part-timers. [Courier-Journal (Louisville), 1-2-2015]

[Mr.B]

Goes to show that rednecks ain't quite as dumb as people think.....those jailers figured out how to beat the system.

[JTA]

Goes to show that rednecks ain't quite as dumb as people think.....those jailers figured out how to beat the system.

Rednecks usually also have good fishing skills, and anyone with good fishing skills is usually alright in my book.

[Mr.B]

Cops get coke pranked

[O Really]

Man freed after sentence tossed in Illinois teen's death

If the bloodthirsty, foolish believers in the infallibility of government had their way he would have been executed.

(standard disclaimer - if I made the rules, I wouldn't have capital punishment)...but past that, one doesn't have to believe in the "infallibility of government" to support state killing of convicts. Sometimes people will be convicted wrongly. Sometimes guilty people will get off. Sometimes a guy with a lifetime of safe driving will get killed; sometimes a falling-down drunk can drive 70mph and still get home safely.

[Boatrocker]

Thank you.

Some bloodthirsty, foolish supporters of state killing don't care that government is not infallible.

In principle, I have no problem with the death penalty; we have plenty of folks who don't need to be here. It's the process that I most disapprove of. The public doesn't care that:
-The state/DA is often too interested in closing cases as opposed to justice, on top of running for office. All DAs harbor that desire.
-The cops are seldom interested in justice, either, for the similar reason that arrests are paramount.
-Misbehavior, incompetence and fraud on all sides.

[Boatrocker]

Perhaps I should've said, "theoretically."

[billy.pilgrim]

what an idiot

he called the cops after his girlfriend was stabbed in their own home by an intruder

what's wrong, doesn't he watch the news


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/shot-t ... ar-AA9j75o

[O Really]

Unless you think any of that can be and will be rectified, I'd say you have a problem with the death penalty in principle.

It and death while unjustly imprisoned are the only results that society can't even make an attempt to fix.

I agree that "we have plenty of folks who don't need to be here" and could theoretically see myself "helping" some of them leave, but I don't see how we are benefited by government being an executioner. Government should strive to enhance society, no other aim is its legitimate function.

There's a guy down here who tossed his 5-year old daughter off the bridge into Tampa Bay. I'd say taking him out back and dropping him like a three-legged horse would be a good example of government striving to enhance society. Now he's ruled "incompetent" to stand trial. Even more reason to drop him. No question as to whether he did it. Nobody is going to come up with DNA 20 years hence showing it was somebody else who tossed the kid. Get rid of him permanently.

OTOH, if you're not going to do that, it's better to be up front with a lock up for life without parole than to sentence him to some phoney-baloney "death penalty" that may happen after you've paid millions on his behalf for 20 years.