The LEO thread

[Vrede too]

It wasn't coincidental, he had an appointment, as the cop could have verified or did verify and wrote the ticket, anyhow..

I know he had an appointment. I mean it was coincidence the cop happened to see him just before he got there. The cop had numerous choices. He chose to be a hard-ass jerk, apparently.

Ah, sorry.

If we want to be really cynical we can suppose that the cop hangs out on the approaches to glass and body shops.

Detroit Man Wrongly Convicted of Murders When He Was 15 Freed After Serving 9 Years

... Sanford was serving a 37-to-90-year sentence for a quadruple homicide he was convicted of in 2008, his attorneys said. Sanford was 14 years old when he pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree homicide at the advice of a now-suspended attorney.

Heidi A. Naasko, a pro bono attorney for Sanford, told ABC News today that a hit man, Vincent Smothers, confessed to 12 murders two weeks after Sanford was sentenced in 2008.

The hit man was convicted of eight of the murders he confessed to, "but the remaining four he was not charged with because those were the murders that Davontae had confessed to," Naasko explained. "A year ago, the Michigan State Police did a reinvestigation of the case. It was very thorough. It took a year to do."

The reinvestigation into the murders, called the Runyon Street homicides, revealed major gaps in Sanford's confession, given when he was only 14.

A turning point arrived when investigators realized that it was former Detective James Tolbert of the Detroit Police Department who drew a diagram of the crime scene, not Sanford, as the original investigators alleged.

"Tolbert had in earlier testimony said that Davontae had drawn the diagram of the house where the murder took place, but during the police investigation, he changed his story and said, 'No, I drew the house.'" Naasko said. "It was a direct contradiction to his testimony on the record."

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office confirmed that account, noting, "former Deputy Chief James Tolbert contradicts his sworn testimony that Davontae Sanford drew the entire diagram of the crime scene, including the location of the victims' bodies, while being questioned by the police. This called into question Tolbert’s credibility in the case." ...

If he had been a little bit older and the believers in an honest and infallible government had their way he would have been executed, maybe not even a little bit older.

[O Really]

If we want to be really cynical we can suppose that the cop hangs out on the approaches to glass and body shops.

Good thought. I don't know it's even cynical. Probably exactly right.

[JTA]

One thing that angers me is civil asset forfeiture.

[rstrong]

One thing that angers me is civil asset forfeiture.

Funny you should mention that.

Apparently people are catching on to the fact that they can be robbed at badgepoint, especially when out-of-state plates or a rental car indicate that you might have cash on you. And so they're not carrying as much cash.

Police have remedied the situation.

[T]he Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards.

It's called an ERAD, or Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine, and state police began using 16 of them last month.

Here's how it works. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money.

Remember kids, all it takes is suspicion. And they've already established that suspicion can be raised by being talkative, being quiet, breath or air fresheners, energy drink cans, tinted windows, designer clothes and more. And of course there's the go-to impossible to disprove justification "I smelled drugs."

[Vrede too]

... "I spelled drugs."

Are you high right now?

[rstrong]

... "I spelled drugs."

Are you high right now?

Fixed.

Nope. Just having some REALLY good chocolate ice cream.

[Vrede too]

Then, there are distracted cops that project:

Motorcyclist Records Road Rage Encounter With Police Officer

Good on the Denver PD for essentially calling the cop a liar.

[Vrede too]

The Supreme Court Just Ruled In Favor Of The Police State, And Sonia Sotomayor Is Not Having It
She lashed out at “lawless police conduct” that disproportionately targets black and brown Americans.

5-3. The liberal women, of course, stood in opposition to Big Brother.

[Seth Milner]

[O Really]

From time to time, somebody has brought up US prisons, and particularly the rise of privately run contract prisons. Here's a good vid series on those. This is the first one, follow internal links in Mother Jones for the rest, along with other content. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... -video-one

[rstrong]

Until very recently iPhones could only record video at 1080p. I had a 1080p dashcam, and just to read a licence place, I had to get VERY close to the car in front of me. A bit closer than I would normally get even stopped at a stop light.

The new iPhone 6s (picked one up on Thursday ) can record 4K video. Only at 30 frames per second, but that's good enough for surveillance cameras.

And yes, the folks who sell surveillance cameras are pushing 4K cameras and recorders now. We got a new recorder a year ago, complete with web, iOS and Android remote viewing options. But the cameras are still the old standard definition analog ones from before. Companies aren't going to be quick to replace not only all their recorders, but all their cameras and cabling.

[Seth Milner]

My 1080p dashcam records a pretty sharp video if you zoom it in at the 2x setting. Reviewing on the cam itself isn't too thrilling,
but watching it on a HD TV is awesome. I've seen some of the smartphone and GoPro 4k videos; they are something else; and the sound recordings are phenomenal!

[rstrong]

My 1080p dashcam records a pretty sharp video if you zoom it in at the 2x setting.

Well, sure. But when you zoom in, you cover a much smaller area. That's the trade-off you have to make with any security camera system: Cover the whole parking lot at low resolution, or just part of it at high resolution.

I've seen some of the smartphone and GoPro 4k videos; they are something else; and the sound recordings are phenomenal!

Yup. And the security camera companies would love to sell you 4K cameras.

You could use GoPros at less cost, but as far as I know they only store video to an internal SD card. No ability to transmit live to something with more storage. So you won't get footage of somebody walking up and stealing your security camera.

[Seth Milner]

Changing the subject. Check out my post on the "Techie Area" Windows 10 thread; someone sent me some unbelievable information.

[Vrede too]

Baton Rouge Police Investigate Fatal Shooting of Black Man at Convenience Store

[Vrede too]

Baton Rouge police shooting of Alton Sterling ‘disturbing to say the least,’ governor says

Ut-oh, BRPD, when even the white Louisiana Gov. immediately says, “disturbing to say the least,” has "very serious concerns," and asks the U.S. Department of Justice to lead the investigation, there's a good chance that you screwed up. Not that reality ever intrudes upon racists and/or semi-fascist cop lovers.

[Seth Milner]

Not that reality ever intrudes upon semi-fascist cop haters.

I'm not condoning this shooting by any means, nor the use of force as seen in many cases in the last year; but for the life of me, I can not figure why, when challenged by a cop, the suspect turns combative and winds up getting his ass kicked or he gets killed.
So many killings in the last year . . .

[O Really]

There are a lot of people who say, with good reason, "look, the cops aren't to be trusted. If he says do something, just do it..." But that idea doesn't set well with some, and young men - of all races - aren't that receptive to being told to be docile. And then there's the matter of why we as a society let police consider themselves to be little dictators. Why aren't they trained to handle a little mouthing and resistance from a drunk guy without shooting him?

[Seth Milner]

There are a lot of people who say, with good reason, "look, the cops aren't to be trusted. If he says do something, just do it..." But that idea doesn't set well with some, and young men - of all races - aren't that receptive to being told to be docile. And then there's the matter of why we as a society let police consider themselves to be little dictators. Why aren't they trained to handle a little mouthing and resistance from a drunk guy without shooting him?

It's not only drunks that are mouthy. Mouthiness is a trait that's no longer a discipline issue at home.

[O Really]

It's not only drunks that are mouthy. Mouthiness is a trait that's no longer a discipline issue at home.

Wha-tever. Cops should be trained to deal with it without shooting the guy. I've been to a lot of places back in the day where cops have had to deal with rowdy people - some drunk, some just foul. New Orleans in numerous Mardi Gras and JazzFests come to mind, for example. Guy's loud, obnoxious, causing too much trouble, the cops would haul him off, sometimes with the aid of a baton to the shin, but generally as "gently" as possible. Cops knew their jobs were not to unnecessarily beat up on the people, but to keep some line of order. And this is in Louisiana - home of Angola prison, long-time racist most corrupt cops in the country, yet they managed not to shoot a guy just for being non-compliant. Is it too much to ask of cops in more civilized places?