Archive for the 'Shitty Cops' Category

More Exposure, Please

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Glad to see this story is getting more exposure:

A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

“This has been a difficult week and a half for us,” Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. “We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff’s deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing.”

The raid last week was led by the Prince George’s County Police Department, with the sheriff’s special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo’s home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

It is probably too much to hope that this will change anything. At the very least, some bad cops will get fired or demoted.

Posted in Shitty Cops, The War on Your Neighbor, aka the War on Drugs | Comments Off

The New Professionalism

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Via the comments, Baltimore’s finest:

Story here.

Real tough guy. Too bad the kids didn’t taser him to get him under control. I mean, when someone is out of control, that is what you do, amirite?

Posted in Shitty Cops | Comments Off

Great Moments in the “New Professionalism”

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

Via Crooks and Liars, more appalling police abuses for the law and order tase at will crowd to excuse:

It will be fun reading all of the excuses- “But she gave them her sister’s ID!” and “They have to keep people naked in jail so they cant hurt themselves!” and “They were just following procedures- you don’t know how tough it is to be a cop!”

Things are out of control when people can do things like this and think they are doing “the right thing.” Check their faces- an odd sort of professionalism, going through the motions pinning this defenseless woman to the ground and essentially raping her, and no one stops to think it is inappropriate for men to be in the room (not to mention against clear procedures). No one asks “why are we doing this?” No one asks “Why is this woman here” (she was the one who called for help- I bet she will not make that mistake again). No one asks why she needed to sit for hours naked, humiliated, hysterical, and alone in a cell for anyone to walk by and gawk at her in a completely vulnerable state. No one thought to give her a blanket or talk to her as she was covering herself in toilet paper to keep warm.

What is wrong with our system? What is wrong with the police that it is not a radical belief for me to think “I should probably cross the street, there is a cop walking down this side.”

Things have got to change. The police have a bad rep, and every day, they go out and earn that bad rep.

Posted in Outrage, Shitty Cops | Comments Off

“Don’t suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it.”

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Yep, that’s an actual police academy class slogan.

Posted in Shitty Cops | Comments Off

Paging Radley Balko- More New Professionalism

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

ATTN: Agitator

Of all the tasing stories, this one takes the cake:

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

“I ain’t never been so scared,” says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn’t real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

“I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can’t hear! I can’t hear!”

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That’s when they shot him with a Taser.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee of the Wichita Police Department says, “This one occurred on the worst of calls, that being a shooting. The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important.”

Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams. Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited.

We will pause briefly so you can all make jokes about the ‘loaded weapon’ beneath the towel.

Now, in all seriousness, something has gone very wrong when your “limited choices” as a police officer are:

A.) Shoot the startled naked deaf homeowner shouting “I can’t hear!”

B.) Taser the startled naked deaf homeowner shouting “I can’t hear!”

Granted, I am not a police officer, and I have a growing contempt for police based on what I read in the news and my own personal experiences, so I concede that I am not an expert. But even with my lack of expertise, I recognize that in that situation, THERE HAS TO BE A THIRD FUCKING OPTION.

Jeebus.

Posted in Outrage, Shitty Cops | Comments Off