Gangsters in Blue

Submitted by the Owner of “Your Second Chance Bail Bonds”

I am the owner of “Your Second Chance Bail Bonds.” I was involved in a recent case in Baltimore City, MD (Case# 813014033, formerly case# 6B02202178). This stemmed from an incident wherein officers from the Northern District, Robert Messner and Joseph Debronzo confiscated my carry concealed weapon permit and handgun on accusations that I was not a bail agent. I provided them my permit which noted on the back that I was in fact a bail agent. They detained me because they did not believe me. I also offered to provide my business’s federal identification number among other things, but they choose to arrest me regardless.

The officers also pointed out that the firearm I had in my possession was not registered to me. In Maryland, I do not believe it is illegal to possess a firearm that is not registered to the carrier, as long as the firearm is legally in the possession of the carrier. The firearm that I had in my possession was actually my girlfriend’s. We lived together at the time at my current address. We had the same exact firearms, and the only way to tell the difference between the two is by the serial number. We kept them in lock boxes at the time.

Ultimately, I was not found guilty. I believe the way these officers dealt with the situation was very unjust. I believe I was stereotyped because they made various comments about my age – specifically pointing out how young I was, as if I wasn’t capable of running such a business. It was extremely irresponsible of them to arrest me on very little evidence of what they believed was illegal. They did not attempt to investigate at all or to give me a fair chance of proving I was a bail agent.

In addition, they lied in their reports regarding this incident. When they wrote the paperwork explaining their interaction with me, they set forth various false and negative things about my character. As a result, the commissioner gave me a bail higher than the amount recommended by the state’s attorney. If these are the types of officers the police departments are producing, I am in fear of my life being in their hands. I am in fear that my child will face the same prejudiced actions that I was faced with for simply abiding by the law. I don’t understand how police can arrest someone with a concealed permit to carry just because they don’t happen to believe the carrier’s representations that they are carrying lawfully.

The Maryland State Police doesn’t hand out ccw’s without a strenuous background check provided by the FBI. On March 18th, 2013, I called the internal affairs to get an update about the hold on my property. Upon doing so, I talked to Sgt.Chung of the Internal Affairs and he told me that officer Joseph Debronzo was still holding my property, because my permit was still  under review. After a month of getting the run around Sgt. Chung has yet to resolve the matter.

It is extraordinarily unfair that a citizen may have charges pressed against them if they lie to an officer but it’s alright for an officer to lie to citizens and falsely arrest them without any type of consequences. It’s also unfair that they are holding my girlfriend’s firearm. She has also called the Baltimore city police department and got the same run around. The officers actually give bad attitudes as if we are wrong. The least that can happen is that they rightfully return her property. It’s amazing how easy and fast it is for an officer to violate your rights and take your property, but you have to wait months at a time to get your things back, let alone justice.

Arrested While in Lawful Possession of Firearm is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

By: Eric Pierson

Recently I drove from work to my home to find multiple officers sitting half a block from my home in different directions at approximately 2:45 am. I had broke no laws to warrant being pulled over. I tried to record the conversation with the officer that talked to me, but the audio wasn’t clear. At first, he said he pulled me over because he recognized me. All the windows on my vehicle are tinted, no possible way the officer could make me out in the dark. After I questioned that he said he recognized my white stalking cap from when he drove by my work and I was outside smoking. I explained to him that the stalking cap was in the truck all night and I was wearing a black ball cap all night.

Then he tried to tell me that he had a report from last week that I drove a black truck to work. This was the first time I had ever even drove the truck. Though I have no way of proving this, my work is an after hours club on the weekend and opens Wednesdays for 18 & up college parties. It is regularly harassed by the local police and they have openly said they want it shut down. I am the manager of this establishment and an obvious target.

They asked me many times to come out of the club for an alcohol test that I have never failed. This time being pulled over I demanded a legit reason for being pulled over and got none. I was told they were parked there waiting for me to come home though. I said the whole situation was ridiculous and they refused to do any alcohol tests. Instead, they charged me with DUI, on the bases that I had bloodshot eyes. Since then, all that accomplished was an increase in police traffic on a non-busy street around my start and end times. Their only other reason was that the officer said I smelled like alcohol. I showed him where a patron of the after hours club spilled his drink down the outside of my leg and agreed that I could smell of alcohol, but my breathe certainly does not.

Any thoughts or help on a way to beat this and get the harassment to stop?

This post was sent to CopBlock.org via our ‘submit a post’ tab, please consider sharing your encounters, ideas and tactics to hold police accountable by clicking here.

Eric, sadly when the police target you there is no other way to protect yourself than to record it, IMO, because if it comes down to your word against theirs, you’ll lost every time. I’d suggest keeping a camera in your car, getting some sort of live streaming app on your smart phone and submitting those video/audio recordings to CopBlock.org. This way those who feel the same way as you do about your harassment can par take in call floods, as well as sharing your content, to help you win in the court of public opinion. Or, even if they don’t back off, you’ll have peace of mind knowing you didn’t let their actions go unnoticed. 

Which is my second suggestion, not only for you but those who submit post in the future, be sure to get as much information about the officer as possible. Using the above story as an example, the reader has no idea what department this was, which officer or any information at all. Be as detailed as possible. If some of this information was there I’d consider calling the department to inquire about your treatment, but I can’t do what I don’t know.

What suggestions do you have for Eric? 

[Text in italics was written by Ademo]

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Entrapment at its best?? is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Submitted by Devan Lauzon, via CopBlock’s ‘Submit A Post‘

It has actually come to point where you can’t walk down the sidewalk without fear of the police stalking and harassing you. Here in socialism-land, Ontario specifically,all our bars close at 2AM every night. I live about 2 blocks from a local bar and was walking home one night. I had only had a few drinks and wasn’t really feeling to0 drunk, after all the night was still early.

On my walk home I was playing some tunes on my iPod when out of nowhere, a cop car started slowly following me. They did not stop, or ask me anything, they just followed me. When I turned around and stopped to see what was going on, they mentioned that they saw me leave the bar (I left a little early), and they did not want me to get hurt. I told them I could walk home myself, and that should have been the end of that. They kept trailing me, slowly. In hindsight, I should have just detoured around a side street, but instead I stopped again.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I ask, “otherwise I’ll be ignoring this.”

This time, the cops said nothing until I put my headphones back in and kept walking, at which point they tried to get my information. I told them where I lived and that if they wanted to see my home I was fine with that. “But,” I said, “If you’re checking to see if I’m TOO drunk, then move along because you’re making me nervous.” Unfortunately for me, this cop had a fucking complex, and decided to get out of the car and try to hold me down to get my information.

Being 20 years old, naive, and generally disrespectful towards a brute authoritarian presence, I did what any sensible free citizen would do: I fought back. I didn’t use punches, but I tried getting away from the officer. At this point, without even telling me why he’s detaining me, or reading me my rights, this dickhead starts punching me in the stomach, throws me to the ground and gives me two punches to the face. He and his partner, who was just watching the whole time, then kidnapped me into the back of their car, where they took me across town to the jail overnight. On the ride over though, I did give them a good mouthful about the NDAA, Obama’s record, the Fed, and the non-aggression principle. Like most cops, I think they were actively trying to ignore a citizen.

The worst was when we got to the station, because at that point I was held down by four officers who went through my pockets, even though I explicitly told them not to, then they ripped off my pants (seriously), and tossed me in a cell where three of them held me down, kneeing me in the chest while they ripped my shirt.

After keeping me there for 6 hours, they dropped me off on the front steps of the police station, and said, “Find your own way home.” They also gave me a 65 dollar “intoxicated in public” ticket. I WAS WALKING HOME, PEACEFULLY, DOWN THE SIDEWALK! Do you think there’s any accountability? I went back to the police station asking for the officers badge number and most officers told me they were closed and couldn’t help me.

This corruption and un-accountability is absurd, as is having a system that allows for this!

I ended up fighting the ticket in court, where you can choose to have the arresting officer present. The officer showed up to court, and then skipped out before the trial starts. The ticket was wiped by default because they had ZERO proof, but that cop never had to face up to anything. He just skipped out on court, a public official for heavens sake! I don’t think I’ll ever look at cops the same again, yet they think we should all respect them. Being an asshole doesn’t earn you respect.

Submitted by Devan Lauzon

Corruption in Canada is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This article was written and submitted by Catherine Bleish

On Thursday March 8th at 2PM I attended John Bush and Matt Medina’s pretrial hearing for their arrest last winter for filming an officer.  That video is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzL-admemJA

The hearing was reset, nothing special there, but what happened next was beyond strange.

As I’m seated on a bench in the hall outside the courtroom, the man who kidnapped John and Matt, Officer Jason Mistric (badge number #4856) sets down 4 pages of printouts containing facebook conversations about John and Matt’s arrest. Here are the docs he left: http://www.scribd.com/doc/84606517/max-rock-cop-jason-mistrick-creepy-stalker-arrest-john-bush

When I chased him down in the hallway and asked him about his action he says its “trash” then tries to have us kicked out of the public hallway.  Here is video of the end of that confrontation: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100180277474293

Next we spoke with the chief of police about the incident.  He kissed our baby and smiled as he made a copy of the facebook printouts assuring us he’d call John.  Here is that interaction : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100180286840523

When I looked closer at the printouts I realized the account he was logged into when he took the screenshots was an account I had conversed with a few weeks back.  In fact the account, “Max Rock”, was an account many of us thought was a cop because it was only commenting on recent Austin arrest videos and asking obvious questions, so of course, I had chatted him up trying to get info.  The conversation was WEIRD and ended with him saying he has many gigs of “screenshots”.  Here is that conversation: http://www.scribd.com/doc/84607087/Creepy-Stalker-Cop-Pretending-to-Be-Max-Rock-on-Facebook

He also chatted up Heather Fazio, I’ll add her conversation once she gives me permission.  I’m not sure what to make of it.  Is he stalking me?  Is he threatening our family?  Was he acting as a rogue officer or was this part of his work?  Creepy.  To the max.

Here is my recap right after the event: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100180311281543

Catherine Bleish, concerned mother and liberty activist

We will be updating this page as more information comes in.  There are also YouTube videos on the way. 

Austin Bully Cop Jason Mistric Attempts to Intimidate Mom and Baby at Father’s Court Hearing is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Last March, a woman in Albany, New York filed a lawsuit against the city police department after being subjected to a humiliating public search in which an officer inserted two fingers into her vagina. The police had no probable cause for the search, and they found no drugs on the woman. After her case went public, others came forward with similar stories. The case also exposed big problems with the city’s Civilian Review Board. Contrary to city law, the city’s police apparently believe cooperating with the board’s investigations is optional, and have intimidated people–including the woman above–who file complaints from taking those complaints to the board.

It now also appears that the city’s sheriff’s department has engaged in a routine of racial profiling, harassment, and illegal searches going back 20 years at Albany’s main bus terminal. The department is facing a lawsuit from a man named Tunde Clement, who it should probably be noted does have a long history of drug offenses. But in this particular case, Clement was clean. Sheriff’s deputies confronted Clement as he was departing a bus, took him to the men’s bathroom, and searched him. When they found no drugs, they arrested him for “resisting arrest,” a charge that was later thrown out, given that you can’t arrest someone for “resisting arrest” if they haven’t committed a crime that should have resulted in arrest in the first place.

The police then strip-searched Clement, and made him squat in front of them. The claimed to have seen white powder on his anus So they took him to a hospital. Without his consent, they then administered drugs to sedate him, induced him to vomit, put a camera up his rectum, and took x-rays of him. Such drastic measures against the consent of a patient usually require officials to show some sort of imminent emergency. There was no such emergency with Clement. And still, no drugs. The hospital later sent Clement a bill for $6,800, and diagnosed him as having “hemorrhoids.”

The Sheriff’s Department’s Drug Interdiction Unit was already under scrutiny. It’s also facing a lawsuit from another officer whose thumb was shot off during a botched drug raid. An internal affairs investigation found that the drug unit was mismanaged and poorly supervised, and recommended discipline against the unit and its leader, Inspector John Burke.

No such action was ever taken.