Gangsters in Blue

New Kelly Thomas Murder Video

According to the article on The Huffington Post:

 The 33-minute video starts with Thomas being approached by Fullerton Police Department Officer Manuel Ramos, who engages him in conversation. By minute 15, Ramos has already donned latex gloves… “You see my fists?” Ramos asks Thomas. “They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”

It appears to me that this thug could have easily handcuffed Thomas while he was sitting on the curb. He chose to brutally murder him instead.

John Freeman, Copblock Contributer

This Is How You Beat A Man To Death is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

A Riverside, CA District Attorney has announced that police officer Enoch Clark has been charged with three felony counts of assault and one felony count of use of force causing great bodily injury for a routine traffic stop that resulted in permanent damage.

“On Feb. 21, 2012, Clark was on duty, working patrol in the city of Beaumont,” the district attorney said. “During his shift, Clark was involved in a possible driving under the influence investigation. While conducting that investigation, there was an altercation between the officer and a woman he was attempting to handcuff.

“Clark then pulled out a less-than-lethal device issued by his department called a JPX device. This device uses a ‘wafer’ of gun powder to propel a stream of pepper spray . . .  at a speed of more than 400 mph.”

“The minimum distance the device is to be utilized is about five feet with the optimum distance to be used being between six and 16 feet,” according to the
district attorney. “It was determined that Clark fired the JPX at the woman’s face from a distance of about 10 inches. Both of the victim’s eyes were severely injured and it is doubtful she will see again, according to medical reports.

The victim, Monique Hernandez is 30 year old. The incident occurred on February 21, in front of her own home. She apparently disputed with Clark during a routine sobriety check when he shot her.

Hernandez told the press that her deepest regret is that she will never again be able to see her 10-year-old daughter. “My daughter currently is not staying with me right now. She’s staying with my mom, because I can’t take care of her right now. I’ll probably imagine her looking like a 10-year-old all her life – that’s the worst part,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

“The force they used was excessive,” said Hernandez’ attorney. “She had no weapons. She posed no threat. Preliminarily, investigation shows both her eyes are affected. She’s totally blind in one eye.”

Clark has plead not guilty to all four felony counts. He returns to court on May 29th.

Police Officer Blinds a Mother with a JPX Device is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Extraction teams caused a lot of panic during this year’s May Day General Strike for the Occupy crowd. Oakland Police sent large groups of officers into crowds of demonstrators to make surgical arrests. As many presumed, this type of police action created more problems then it solved. One “surgical arrest” would lead to panic, causing officers to arrest more people.

At one point there were there was at least 5 arrests taking place simultaneously, initiated after Oakland Police tackled a woman on a bicycle.

Thank you to Jacob Crawford of Oakland Copwatch for the video.

clip.

Video: Oakland Police use Concussion Grenades & Extraction Teams on May Day 2012 is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Guest Post by Katie McCall

So often we hear stories about officers stepping out of line and aggressively asserting themselves without reason. But this story is different. This story is about a cop who tried to stop the violence.

Officer Regina Tasca has worked for the Bogota, New Jersey police departmentfor 11 years. She had an exemplary record. One day in April, 2011, she received a call to assist with the transport of a 22 year old male to the hospital because he was psychologically distraught. The call came in from his mother who was beside herself with worry for her adult son.

Officer Tasca arrived on scene and immediately began to put the man at ease. ”When the call came, I heard that a couple of officers from Ridgefield Park were coming to provide backup, which I thought was OK,” Tasca said. But when they arrived the young man grew nervous. “He noticed them and asked me, ‘Why are there other police offices here from another town?’ Then he said that he was leaving, and he moved maybe two or three steps when one of the Ridgefield officers jumped him.”

Sgt. Chris Thibault pounced on the non-aggressive man and tried to handcuff him. The second officer, Sgt. Joe Rella, “assisted” him by jumping on top and punching the unarmed man in the head. The man’s mother looked on and screamed helplessly for the cops to stop pummeling her son.

In the midst of the chaos, Officer Tasca, intervened. She did not assist her brothers in blue, but chose instead to pry the officers off of him and pull him to his feet.

Was she commended? Were the officers who tackled the passive male investigated? No, on both accounts.

Instead, Officer Tasca was asked to turn in her weapon and was suspended. This week, she faces a hearing where she will possibly be fired.

And the two officers who did the tackling? They were never even investigated.

Unfit for duty? Perhaps they are right. She’s unfit for duty as the only ethical officer amongst the gangsters of her police department. But she IS FIT for service to citizens as a police officer, protecting and serving the public.

Thank you Officer Tasca. You remind us of what public service can be.

Crossing the “Thin Blue Line” is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

On Friday I am commissioning my first ever official “overview” of government misconduct. The presentation will detail my case as to precisely how Keene Circuit Court-District Division Presiding Judge Edward Burke violated state law, the state Constitution, and judicial canons by telling a lie to have someone arrested. A lie that constituted False Reports to Law Enforcement, a crime under state law. A crime that if the exact facts and circumstances were brought before him in a criminal case where you did the same thing, he would find you guilty.

I am quite familiar with the crime as I have arrested people and prepared prosecution cases for it before. Judge Burke should have been arrested by now for what he did… but lucky for him, it appears that his friends in government are protecting him.

The presentation I will be burning to DVD and distributing to Governor John Lynch, the Executive Council, and every member of the New Hampshire General Court. Every mainstream media outlet in New Hampshire will also be receiving a copy.

Judicial Canon #2, the code of conduct for judges, reads as follows:

A JUDGE SHOULD AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL OF THE JUDGE’S ACTIVITIES

I presume that includes impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s interactions with members of the free press who are asking constitutionally protected questions.  Especially when our own Constitution says:

FREE SPEECH AND LIBERTY OF THE PRESS ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE SECURITY OF FREEDOM IN A STATE: THEY OUGHT, THEREFORE, TO BE INVIOLABLY PRESERVED.

(not taken away in a creative attempt to cover up a criminal offense against CopBlock.org founder Ademo Freeman which clearly resulted in his constitutional rights being violated)

Join the forum discussion on this post

Judge Edward Burke Misconduct Overview To Be Released On Friday is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Some people out there, even our regular readers, get squeamish when we liken police to gang members. I’ll stand by that analogy, which I elaborated upon in another article -

Mostly, this comparison is based on the fact that police, like gangs claim ultimate dominion over a particular territory. They stake out these particular territories, and demand “protection money” for reasons mostly out of the control of local residents. If their demands are not met, they resort to violence.

They swear an oath of  loyalty to each other, and will cover up for each other’s gruesome crimes at the expense of good sense and morality. Officers have purposely failed to take reports, covered up evidence, and even turned a blind eye to sexual battery and torture by their fellow gang-members (see here). Those who do not abide by the code of loyalty are ostracized or otherwise punished (see examples here and here). They even have a gang color – blue.

See the full article here. As long as government police exist in their current form, I will never retract my sentiment in this regard. However, for the sake of argument, let us assume police are ordinary human beings like the rest of us. Fair enough? (More than fair, in my opinion).

When was the last time the public got their panties in a bunch when 5 armed men in dark clothing were shot because they were mistaken for intruders after they busted into someone’s house?

Probably never.

How about if the homeowner at issue was suspected of growing marijuana plants, and the armed men, dressed in dark clothing were allegedly there to “protect” the public from a dangerous weed smoker? If you still think it was an evil tragedy the armed men were shot, then it’s because you’re still thinking about police. Think harder.

Imagine your friend Joe has been growing a little pot in his living room. Imagine a bunch of your neighbors, against all scientific evidence, believe that because Joe smokes weed occasionally, he is a dangerous individual. Instead of knocking on Joe’s door, talking to Joe about his “problem” or asking him politely to refrain from smoking, or engaging in about a million other peaceful and civil ways of addressing the issue, at least twelve of them decide to dress in all black, arm themselves, and kick down Joe’s door to “solve” this frightening problem of weed propagation. They declare to you they have a piece of paper that gives them such authority and will present it to Joe as proof they have a right to seize his little plant. They kick down Joe’s door at night. As a result, Joe mistakes them for burglars and opens fire, killing and injuring several of them, while also receiving injuries himself.

What would you think about these neighbors? You would think they are insane. You would think they are fucking stupid. You would wonder why it takes twelve (or more) grown, armed men to give your friend Joe a piece of fucking paper. You would think they are juvenile, violent, self-righteous assholes who mirror something out of Lord of the Flies, who think reckless use of violence and guns is some sort of game (you’d half expect to find Piggy with his smashed eyeglasses lying amid the bloodshed). If you are a bit of a judgmental prick, you might wonder why Joe keeps such offensive plants if the consequences can be so severe, but even so, if you are a reasonable person, you would not blame Joe for opening fire in terror upon seeing twelve or more armed men in his house after having his door broken down.

On the other hand, because the juvenile, violent, self-righteous assholes who don’t know how to mind their own damn business are police, the public is horrified, and the media is soliciting donations for the fallen and injured police officers gang members (see full story here). This is a travesty. The media literally is soliciting funds and sympathy for a bunch of aggro psychopaths whose careless indiscretions created the entire situation to begin with. Meanwhile, the victim of all this is being changed with crimes, and will likely suffer draconian legal penalties.

No one forced these officers to enforce bad laws. No one put a gun to the heads of these upstanding members of society and said they had to arm themselves, put on dark clothing, and kick down someone’s door to “serve a warrant” because the suspect had a certain plant in his living room. They did it anyway, and as a result, 6 of them were shot and 1 died.

This is not to say that any of them deserved to die, or that death is an appropriate punishment for burglary, but really – what is there to be so sorry about? If they were ordinary people, Americans would be flabbergasted at why these idiots believed rounding up a gang of armed people to solve a non-violent situation was necessary. Americans would rightly question the intelligence of those who claim drawing guns and breaking into houses at night in furtherance of eradicating a plant somehow makes society safer.

Anyone who feels truly terrible for these wounded/killed officers, without acknowledging the officers’ own stupidity, recklessness, and unwarranted aggression that brought on these consequences has unfortunately bought into the police state mentality – that police can do whatever they want because different – or perhaps no moral and legal standards apply to them.

Gang attacks homeowner, media solicits donations for fallen gang members, public laments gang member death. is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

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Santa VS the State is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Last week CNN published yet another article claiming that violence against police officers has “spiked”.  The mainstream media continues to publish these claims without doin any research to verify whether or not the claims are true.

CNN claims that the number of police officers killed in the line of duty during 2011 has increased by 14% over 2010.  That claim is simply untrue.  According to Officer Down Memorial Page, with 10 days left in 2011, there have been 158 officer fatalities.**  At this time last year there had been 156 officer fatalities.  The total number of officer deaths for 2010 was 161.  Despite claims to the contrary, 2011 is shaping up to be at least as safe of a year for officers as 2010.

One of the few things the CNN article got right was the fact that officer deaths due to automobile accidents decreased in 2011 when compared with 2010.  This drop in automobile accident deaths accounts for the decrease in total deaths.  The article then goes on to insinuate that because officer deaths due to gunfire will, for the first time in 14 years, outnumber deaths due to automobile accidents, violence against officers has spiked.  This again is simply untrue.  Gunfire deaths will outnumber automobile deaths this year, not because there were so many more gunfire deaths, but because there was a sharp decrease in automobile accident deaths.  The number of gunfire deaths so far this year stands at 62***.  The number of gunfire deaths for 2010 was 59.  Hardly the spike in violence towards officers the media would have you believe existed.  The most that can be said from the data is that the steady DOWNWARD trend that has occurred over the last 25 years seems to have leveled off the last few years, but two years of data can not tell us whether or not this stalled decline will continue. (Read more about the data for the last 25 years here.)

Steve Groeninger, senior communications director of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, asserts that the imaginary sharp increase in death toll can be attributed to budget cuts.  First, as shown above, there is no sharp increase in deaths, but let’s say that there was an increase.  Groeninger does not offer a single shred of evidence that it can be linked to budget cuts. Craig Floyd, chairman and CEO of the fund, makes the outrageous insinuation that violence against officers today can be compared to one of the deadliest decades for police officers, the 70′s. The average number of officers felonious killed each year during the 70′s was 126, more than double the average for the last decade.  There is simply no comparison to be made between those two decades, but Floyd would have you believe otherwise.  Both Groeninger’s and Floyd’s assertions are nothing more than gross propaganda aimed to drum up more support for the police and more public outcry about the budget cuts that they are facing.

But why does it matter whether violence against officers is increasing or decreasing. Isn’t all lost of life due to violence tragic?  Of course.  Death due to violence is a complete waste of human potential and is always tragic in my eyes, but the propaganda that is being fed to the public is also being fed to police officers themselves.  Combine this with the ever increasing militarization of your local police department, a very dangerous situation is being created for us mere mundanes.

It was recently reported that, thanks to a Defense Department program, known as program 1033, local law enforcement agencies were given almost 500 million dollars worth of military gear in 2011.  That is almost double what was given in 2010.  The militarization of  local police departments, a trend that started decades ago, appears to be accelerating.  Police departments are obtaining grenade launchers, helicopters, robots, drones, M-16s, and armored vehicles that the military no longer has use for.

Some police departments are even militarizing their waterways.  The Texas Department of Safety has announced that they now have a Navy, made up of a new armored, swift boat complete with six mounted high caliber machine guns.  The plan is to have a fleet of six of these boats.  There is no denying that the police have been thoroughly militarized.

Of course, the mere possession of this equipment is not necessarily cause for concern.  I frankly wouldn’t care if my neighbor had every single one of the above mentioned equipment. Every individual, including police officers, have a right to defend themselves with whatever equipment they deem necessary. The concern is that police departments all too often use this equipment,not in defense while attempting to bring in a violent criminal, but to go on the offense.  As police departments have become militarized, we have seen a dramatic increase in paramilitary SWAT raids for everything from low-level nonviolent drug offenses to investigating underage drinking.  Over the course of three decades we have seen the number of these paramilitary raids increase from about 2000 a year to more than 50,000 a year.  We no doubt will see even more as police departments look for reasons to use their new military toys.

We have already witnessed this mentality.  Radley Balko reported in September that a column in Tactical Response magazine encouraged SWAT commanders to “poach work” in order to stay active, even if it meant doing warrant service and drug raids. Balko notes that,

The author is actually suggesting SWAT commanders lobby to have their teams deployed in situations for which they normally wouldn’t be to ensure they’re in good practice. Put another way, he suggests they practice their door smashing, room-clearing, flash-grenade deploying, and other paramilitary tactics on less-than-violent people, so they’re in better form when a real threat arises. Never mind that there are going to be living, breathing, probably bleeding people on the receiving end of these “practice” raids.

The author seems to have no problem advocating the introduction of violence into an otherwise nonviolent situation.  You can imagine that police departments will no doubt want to “practice” with all their new toys as well.

Arthur Rizer, a Virginia lawyer who has been a civilian police officer and a military police officer pointed out to The Daily that police officers and the military are two very different things.

If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers?” he asked.

If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we want police officers to have that mentality? Of course not.

We already know that innocent people die at the hands of police officers because “officer safety” is apparently more important than the publics safety, but we don’t know how many.  While the Officer Down Memorial Page enjoys a grant from the Justice Department, no such grant exist to collect the number and the names of those needlessly killed by the police.  The Innocents’ Project, created by Clyde Voluntaryist, is attempting to do something about this lack of data by tracking those needlessly killed by the police, using the internet.  Of course, this method has its problem, but even with limited ability to track all cases, the numbers that have been collected are quite troubling. According to the Innocents’ Project, 34 people have been fatally shot in questionable circumstances, 8 people have died after being shocked with a taser, 6 people have lost their lives in accidental deaths due to SWAT raids, and 6 people have died while in or being taken into custody, including the beating death of Kelly Thomas.  How many more died but didn’t make headlines?  How many of these deaths were due to cops that were so hopped up on the “War on Cops” propaganda that they were too quick to make their way up the continuum of force?  How many more deaths will we see in the future as the propaganda proliferates and cops are even more thoroughly militarized?

That is why it matters whether violence against police officers is really increasing or not.  When we combine military tactics, military training, military equipment, and military mentality with the never-ending expansion of things deemed criminal, making it inevitable that more and more people will interact with police officers, then add a big dose of  the endless propaganda about “increased violence” towards cops, we are left with a situation where cops are going to be even more taser, baton and trigger happy than they already are.  It makes for more dangerous streets, not for cops, but for the public.

**The number of officer fatalities quoted by CNN (166) came from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, whose stated mission ” is to generate increased public support for the law enforcement profession”.   The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), whose stated mission is to simply “honor America’s fallen law enforcement”, has reported numbers that have been consistent over the years with the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted reports (LEOKA) while the numbers you will find published by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund have not, so for the purpose of this discussion I use the numbers provided by ODMP as they appear to be more reliable. Also, ODMP has a name and a description of each of the 158 officers that have been killed, while the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund does not have a name and a description for all 166 of officers that it claims to have been killed.

***The number of gunfire deaths that you will find on ODMP for 2011 is 59.  One of the officers that is included in this count was shot and paralyzed in 1986.  He did not die until this year and the claim is that his death, 26 years later, was due to complications from being shot and paralyzed.  While it may be legitimate to claim such a thing, I excluded his death from the total gunfire deaths because his being shot in 1986 does not reflect on the amount of violence police officers are facing in 2011.

Despite Claims to the Contrary, Officer Deaths Have Not Increased is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

So we know that assault and theft will often not end with a cop receiving a pink slip.  So what will?  Well if you are a cop for the North Miami Beach Police Department, attempting to cast a “magic” spell may very well get you fired.  From the Miami Herald:

Two North Miami Beach employees — one a police officer, the other a department office manager — are in hot water after trying to enlist some supernatural aid in the form of what they believed to be a Santeria practice.

Their alleged target: City Manager Lyndon Bonner, whose plan to slash the police budget prompted protests and union outrage this fall.

Their mystical material: handfuls of birdseed which, according to an internal affairs report, they hoped to scatter in and around Bonner’s fourth-floor office at City Hall.

But when they tried to recruit a janitor to sprinkle the seeds, she balked — and turned them in.

Officer Elizabeth Torres told investigators she meant the manager no harm: “I want to clarify, that it’s nothing malicious and nothing intended to hurt that person.”

She was told last week she faced termination over the August incident, which took place against the backdrop of a contentious budget season. Unionized city employees must go through an appeal process before they can be fired.

Office manager Yvonne Rodriguez, who is not a member of the union, was fired last week for her role in the plot.

While Santeria practitioners have argued that their practice constitutes a legitimate religion and bristle at depictions of the practice as black magic or witchcraft, they acknowledge that public displays of their traditions can spook non-believers. And both adherents and experts say that the Afro-Cuban religion, itself an amalgamation of Catholicism and African spiritual traditions, does not count malice — such as casting harmful spells — as one of its principles…

Torres, a 24-year department veteran, told investigators she was motivated in part because she couldn’t attend union protests over budget cuts due to her work and school schedule. She said she does not practice Santeria but said she was familiar with the religion through family members, according to an internal affairs report released Wednesday.

The report found the women violated city rules with conduct that is offensive toward a fellow employee, conduct unbecoming of a city employee and conduct that brings the department into disrepute or reflects discredit on the individual employee.

Officer Faces Unemployment for Casting a “Spell” is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

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After reading about the atrocities committed by police on this blog, one has happened in my backyard. And just like many of those examples, police, again, get away with murder. Literally.

It began (click here for more) early in the morning of November 6th, 2010 in Mount Joy Borough, PA.. Robert Neill, age 61, called police like a dutiful citizen to report being harassed by neighbors. Somehow he ended up dead.

The government report, which of course is only one side of the tale since the other can’t tell his, reports that he became “combative and aggressive,” and was enraged when they tried to calm him down. Instead of doing the appropriate thing and leaving, they of course try to “do something”.  That something lead to his death. He was shot by Tasers, at least twice, as well as being pepper sprayed. The official cause of death was from an abnormal heartbeat (maybe because his heart was shocked with electricity).

I can imagine the scene like this: Mr. Neill calls the cops to complain about noisy neighbors. The cops arrive, find nothing, and try to talk to him. Its the middle of night, he’s already angry about the harassment, and now they don’t get what he is talking about. Understandable that he may have been angry at the whole situation. He walks toward them upset about why they can’t understand his complaint.

A normal person in this situation would try to talk, and barring that,  just leave and get out of there. Instead, the cops attack him because they feel “threatened” (AWWWWWW). They get more cops to attack him. Now, does anybody in their right mind expect an angry person who is being tased and attacked to get less angry? Only the protected class of government agents would think this is a good idea. So, he ends up dead because of their actions.

If this happened to anybody but government agents, they would be thrown in jail and charged with manslaughter. But predictably, since they aren’t lowly citizens, they are cleared of all wrong doing by the state Attorney General. (click here for more) There is nothing else released about the incident; no officer names and no justification except “the cops did nothing wrong.”

That is unacceptable in a just society. The cops should be in jail for their actions. Instead, their superiors and cohorts cover for them and the state justice system lets them get away scott free for killing a man, for a reason nobody knows.

I’m disgusted, and I’m going to go protest in front of the police station. Even if there is no official justice, at least I will make this murder uncomfortable for those responsible.

Matthew Butch

Familiar Refrain: Police Cleared in Murder of Man is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights