Gangsters in Blue

Okay, it was another Bearcat, not a tank. But still snicker-worthy.

County officials and the maker of that drone confirmed on Friday that a recent police-only photo mission went terribly wrong.

As the sheriff’s SWAT team suited up with lots of firepower and their armored vehicle known as the “Bearcat,” a prototype drone from Vanguard Defense Industries took off for pictures of all the police action.   It was basically a photo opportunity, according to those in attendance.

About a thousand protesters showed up at the Virginia state capital over the weekend to protest pending anti-abortion legislation. Courtesy of Style Weekly, here’s how the Virginia State Police responded:

More photos here.

• New Orleans will forgive $500K in traffic tickets racked up by city employees because no one made it clear to them that they weren’t allowed to break the law.
• Today’s front page story in dog newspapers across the country.
• Defense attorney Mark Bennett is running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Awesome. We need more defense attorneys on appellate courts. Or, you know, to at least start with the first one.
• Twenty-seven reasons why Putin “won” the Russian election.
• When innocence isn’t enough.
• Indiana legislature overwhelmingly approves bill to overturn the state supreme court ruling barring residents from using force against police officers who illegally enter their their homes.

• Thank goodness we’re finally securing the border from the menace of high school valedictorians.
• Two more aggressive police raids over suspected pot offenders: Here and here.
• Orlando police make use of sweet gadgets seized as evidence from a robbery.
• One of the more amusing press releases related to tax policy that you’re likely to see.
• How one bureaucrat almost succeeded in banning car radios.
• How to build a speech jamming gun.
• This looks to be a very cool blog of archival New York Times photos.
• Woman ticketed for resting her injured leg on the seat of a non-operational subway train.
• More taxi protectionist nonsense.

Good reporting by Lucy Steigerwald on an outrageous 13-man SWAT raid, with flashbangs, on a home suspected of illegally growing medical marijuana. It’s of course legal to grow the stuff in Colorado if you have a patient card and stay under the state limit. The residents appear to have received the full brunt force of the SWAT team because they dared to exercise their constitutional rights.

Further details from KRDO reveal that when the police came to the home previously (at around 10 p.m. on Christmas 2011), Ball and Glandorf showed their medical marijuana cards, but refused to let officers in because they didn’t have a warrant. This, says Colorado Springs police spokesperson Barbara Miller, is kind of dubious:

“If you have nothing to hide, most people would open the door and say, ‘Yes, please come in and and let’s dispel any information you have because it’s false.”

Can we please send every cop who utters the “if you have nothing to hide . . . ” line to Fourth Amendment reeducation camp?

Miller, however, told Reason that she understood that the reaction to a so-called “knock and talk” on Christmas was understandable, and she might have done the same thing. And also that she “really appreciate[s] everybody’s constitution rights” and “everybody should use them.” However . . .

Whenever a police spokesperson talks about respecting constitutional rights, you can expect a however isn’t far behind.

 . . . Miller said officers smelled a very strong presence of marijuana in the home, and continued their investigation. Miller said police found out that someone living in the house had a prior felony weapons charge, and also noted that the electric bill was very high for the property.”That’s really important when you’re talking narcotics because that’s a tell-tale sign that they’re doing a grow there.”

Tell-tale. And in this case, false.

And after that, no arrests were made or charges were filed, because the patients were not growing more than Colorado state law permitted after all. Supposedly a handgun was found,  but Glandorf denies this.

Two dogs were apparently injured by the flashbangs. The police deny this. Because, as we all know, flashbangs are perfectly safe. I mean, except when they aren’t.

• Three very good posts from Jacob Sullum illustrating the absurdity of hate crimes laws: one, two, and three.
• Coming to California: A new law inspired by a dead person.
• The U.S. Secretary of Transportation enjoys driving around to find drivers talking on their cell phones, then honking his horn at them.
• Federal court bars Mississippi from putting children in solitary confinement.
• U.K. police raid the wrong house after stolen iPhone pings to the wrong address: “Nottingham Police refused to reimburse Kerr for the repairs to his door — because officers ‘reasonably believed’ an offender was in the house.”
• The state of Utah has stopped the family of Matthew Stewart from raising funds for his defense. They say the family must first get a permit.
• Two years after he was stopped and illegally searched, Raleigh man just wants an apology. He hasn’t received one.

• So this is fairly terrifying. But remember — debt doesn’t matter!
• More coverage of Keene vs. the Bearcat from the local college paper.
• Rutherford County, Tennessee hires anti-Islam group to “train” deputies at a seminar run in an vocally anti-Muslim church. What could possibly go wrong? More here.
• Toronto head of DUI enforcement (allegedly) comes to work drunk.
• Ignorance of the law is no defense. Unless you’re in law enforcement.

I have a piece up at Huffington Post about the residents of Keene, New Hampshire resisting the city council’s plan to use a DHS grant to purchase an armored personnel vehicle.

Side note: When I speak to journalism students, I always emphasize the importance of calling hostile sources. Most of the time, they aren’t going to call you back. But sometimes they do. And sometimes when they do, they’ll give you quotes that make your eyes pop out of your head. And now you have a much, much more interesting story.

The video above depicts a police raid on the home of someone suspected of pirating music. It’s one of a number of raids conducted by a special copyright enforcement “strike force” set up by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The music industry couldn’t be happier.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) presented the honorary gold record to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and each member of the SECURE Strike Force for their unprecedented numbers of arrests and seizing of pirated music.

“Usually you have to sell a lot of albums to get a Gold record, but this is a great recognition for recovering thousands of forged CDs,” says Shurtleff. “These pirated discs represent lost jobs for businesses and lost taxes for state coffers.” . . .

“Those are real results,” said RIAA Anti-Piracy Executive Vice-President Brad Buckles. “On behalf of the major U.S. music labels, we are pleased to present Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of the SECURE Strike Force with honorary Gold Records as a token of our appreciation for all the hard work they’ve done to meaningfully address piracy on the streets of Utah.”

In an effort to boost the state economy, the SECURE Strike Force was launched in June 2009 to stop major crimes of music piracy, and the illegal aliens involved. Suspects have been undocumented residents charged with forgery, racketeering and piracy, but agents have also seized drugs, fake government documentation, and several thousand pirated movies.

Previous posts on the use of paramilitary tactics to enforce copyright law here and here.

Free Staters in Keene, New Hampshire, are pushing back against the town’s proposed plan to buy a Bearcat armored personnel carrier.

Interestingly, LENCO, the company that makes the vehicle, pulled the promotional video below from its website in response to the Keene protests. DHS has given out hundreds of homeland security grants to local police departments across the country to purchase these vehicles.