Following the March 17th, 2011 publishing of my book, “Exodus of Angels – The Murder of Harry Force” which is highly critical of local law enforcement, the District Attorney and local Judges, I became a non-person in Telluride, Colorado.
On September 23rd, 2011 I was jumped from behind, beaten and kicked unconscious in broad daylight by the local (who is well connected to the Denver Capitol ) County Democratic Chairperson. No arrests were made. I was never interviewed about the crime and nothing was done until I threatened legal action against the Town of Telluride. My attacker was then charged with a minor misdemenor bench warrant charge by the very D.A. I criticized in my book. BUT WAIT…It gets even more unbelievable.
I then had my cell phone taken by a incorrect warrant by local police telling me, “this might help you, there may be video of the assault on it”. I got my Android phone back three weeks later with all data erased. I was served a Contempt of Court Citation for violating a 2006 PRO for walking too close to my attacker (although no charges were filed against me) which resulted in the assault and am appearing in front of the very Judge I also criticized in my book. I am denied a jury trial and as the Judge barked at me in court, “I WILL DECIDE IF YOU NEED TO SERVE SIX MONTHS IN JAIL, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!
Amerika the corrupt.
- Albert Coney Heirich
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I can think of only two reasons that a police officer would feel it was necessary to use violence against a child. Either they are bullies who enjoy preying on those that are weaker than them, or they are incompetent cowards. I am not sure which of these reasons were at play when a Lakewood Colorado police officer pepper sprayed an eight year old boy, but neither should be acceptable to the public.
The police were called (instead of his mother) when eight year old Aidan Elliot began a violent temper tantrum in his Lakewood elementary school. Aidan had knocked over some chairs and a T.V. cart before pulling a piece of wooden trim from the wall and threatening his teachers with it. When the police arrived they ordered him to put the trim down and then pepper sprayed him in the face, not once, but twice. There were no other children in the classroom and the teachers had already secured themselves in an adjourning office, but this grown police officer who supporters will no doubt tell you is so brave that he “puts his life on the line” every day, felt so threatened by this 82 lb child that he could not “disarm” him without spraying an irritating chemical into his eyes and face.
As if the story itself is not nauseating enough, Aidan’s statement on the Today show, that he “kind of deserved it”, literally makes me want to throw up. What if it was his mother who had pepper sprayed him instead of a bully in blue? Would people still be as supportive? Would they still nod in agreement when an eight year old victim of abuse said he “deserved it”, or would they be outraged by a mother’s use of pepper spray on a young child? Would a police spokesman call the mother’s use of pepper spray on a child a “great choice” or does he reserve that kind of praise only for abuse perpetrated by uniformed thugs?
Unfortunately, Aidan is not the first child to be abused at the hand of the police. Bloomington, Illinois police officer, Scott Oglesby, choked a seven year old boy who was having a seizure while at school. The young boy’s seizures cause him to scream and act like a child having a temper tantrum. Oglesby who was at the school after being called for an unrelated incident, “darted” into the room, told the boy that he was giving him a headache and then lifted him off the floor by his throat. He then carried the boy to the Principle’s office and threw him into a chair. After Oglesby returned to the classroom where the assault occurred, he asked the staff “You got any more?” Not surprising, the State’s Attorney decided not to press any charges against Oglesby and at this time he remains employed as a police officer.
Shortly after lunch time, Griffing felt that he could not physically attend the rest of his classes for the day.
He left the nurses office and was walking toward an exit door when he states an officer yelled “You got to get back in the school!”
After asking several questions, the officer wrote Griffing a truancy ticket. When he received the ticket, he turned and continued to walk through the exit doors.
According to the lawsuit, the officer yelled at Griffing and grabbed one of his arms and Officer McGrew grabbed the other. The suit states the officers twisted his arms and pushed him to the ground.
Griffing alleges he fell on his left arm and yelled to the officers that his arm was broken. The officers allegedly ignored Griffing and twisted his arms behind his back, causing a compound fracture with the bone protruding through the skin.
The high school student underwent surgery and physical therapy for the injury.
The embedding of police officers in all government schools is just another symptom of the police state. What better way to desensitize the masses to the polices’ bad behavior than have them routinely yield to the demands of an armed agent of the government on a daily basis. What does it say about government schools that they are so desperate to keep inmates students from escaping leaving that a “resource officers” reaction to someone who dares to walk out the door is violence?
As we have seen and read over and over in videos and news articles, the go-to reaction of many of today’s police officers is violence. It seems as it is the only tool they have in their arsenal regardless of the circumstances. Parents need to remember this when in moments of desperation they seek the help of what at some time in the past may have been a “peace officer”, but today is nothing more than an armed thug. Unfortunately for her son, Stacey Brown learned this lesson the hard way. Calhoun County Alabama Sheriff, Larry Amerson, was caught on surveillance camera choking Ms. Brown’s 14 year old son. Ms. Brown had enrolled him into the county’s “scared straight” program after he got into some trouble at school. According to the lawsuit filed by the boys mother “the sheriff assaulted and choked her handcuffed son in the county jail, after a deputy had threatened to ‘slit your throat, cut your balls off, shove them down your throat, and stomp you until you bleed.’”
All of these children and young people deserve their perpetrators to be held personally responsible for their crimes, but more importantly they deserve adults in their lives that will stop calling upon armed agents of the government to deal with their misbehavior.
The fact is that most fatal shootings of police officers occur while responding to calls, such as burglary or domestic violence calls and during traffic stops. Unless the police plan on responding to calls for help by driving their minitanks through the front door, an armored vehicle will do nothing to prevent these deaths. But, this fact has not stopped police departments across the country from purchasing armored vehicles.
The Lenco Bearcat is often the armored vehicle of choice for police departments. They cost almost a quarter of a million dollars. The sheriff in Garfield County, Colorado, Lou Vallejo, justified his recent purchase of a Lenco Bearcat by stating that “there is NO price tag you can put on the life of a police officer who is out there protecting you.” Well that is easy for you to say Sheriff Vallejo, since it is not your money being spent on this fancy toy. If you really believe that there is no price tag you can put on the life of a police officer then why don’t you pony up from your own personal funds?
Between 2000 and 2009, 29 police officers were killed during a “tactical situation” such as a barricaded suspect, hostage situation, or high risk entry. It is possible that some of these officer’s deaths may have been prevented by an armored vehicle, but it is just as likely that not performing a “high risk entry” in the first place would save more lives, and not just officers lives, but the lives of innocent bystanders. If Sheriff Vellejo was really interested in protecting lives he would spend less time defending his 250,000 dollar chunk of metal and more time insisting that his colleagues refrain from introducing violence into an otherwise non-violent situation. But, when other people are carrying the cost, bureaucrats such as Sheriff Vellejo have little to no incentive to use resources or personal in the most cost effective manner. Violence is expensive but who cares when someone else not only pays for it, but has no choice but to pay for it.
Of course, cost is not the only concern people should have regarding armored police vehicles. In 2010 there were 700 SWAT team “high risk entries” that involved serving a search warrant for drugs in just one state. As the police become more militarized we inevitability see more and more inappropriate use of SWAT raids. Emboldened with a new armored toy, the police will surely want to find reasons to take it out of the garage. We can expect more violence, not less.
The sheriff of yesterday.
The Sheriff of today.
In just the last couple decades we have gone from Sheriff Andy to heavily armed police officers in full tactical gear. Now with a Lenco Bearcat rolling down the street, the police will look no different than if an army was rolling through town. Do you feel safer?
The fact is that most fatal shootings of police officers occur while responding to calls, such as burglary or domestic violence calls and during traffic stops.
Here’s a bizarre one. An officer in Milwaukee was arrested on domestic violence charges. The officer, Mark T. Lelinski, is accused of threatening to a murder a woman and, in a separate incident, urinating on their sleeping baby.
Meanwhile, former Minneapolis officer Timothy Carson plead guilty to five counts of armed robbery. According to Carson’s lawyers, [...]
Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty busy lately and haven’t had as much time to dedicate to Cop Block as I’d like. To save time, I’ve been considering no longer posting under our Quick Hits feature and instead posting roundups (like this one) of interesting police-related links I find to the main page every few days.
Over at [...]
Last Sunday Adam and Pete were arrested by the Denver Police Department based on false information provided to them by Invesco Field’s Alcohol Control employee(s). As the video showcases, the demeanor of the police was aggressive.
While Cop Block has been active, we've covered several stories in which police have attacked and/or killed dogs, but the number of puppycide stories in the news that we've heard about in just in the last month is shocking.
Unity and Fragmentation. Ranil Dissanayake, Aid Thoughts (2010-07-08). I was in Cape Town last week for the World Cup, and watched the Ghana – Uruguay quarterfinal in the FIFA Fan Fest there, together with several thousand supports from South Africa and abroad. For those who have missed it, Ghana lost in controversial circumstances, and the trend of blatant...(Linked Friday 2010-07-09.)
Ideas That Stick With You. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-07-10). Under the feudal system, rights to one’s person were alienable (swearing fealty to a lord was irrevocable) while rights to land often weren’t (a feudal lord couldn’t sell his estate, as it belonged in perpetuity to his heirs) – the exact reverse of the rights system that most libertarians advocate....(Linked Saturday 2010-07-10.)
{takebacktheland.org} ONE DC Liberates Land in Nation's Capital. Max Rameau, takebacktheland (2010-07-10). VIEW FULL STORY PICTURES AND NEWS CLIPS ON TAKEBACKTHELAND.ORG http://www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=162Metro DC police plan to evict community from Tent City on Monday July 12 Community organization ONE DC "liberated" a vacant lot in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC on the afternoon of Saturday, July 10, 2010. The contentious Parcel 42,...(Linked Saturday 2010-07-10.)
We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it WEIRD enough? gregdowney, Neuroanthropology (2010-07-10). The most recent edition of Behavioral and Brain Sciences carries a remarkable review article by Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan, ‘The weirdest people in the world?’ The article outlines two central propositions; first, that most behavioural science theory is built upon research that examines intensely a narrow...(Linked Saturday 2010-07-10.)
the politics of apology. bfp, flip flopping joy (2010-07-09). i read this post by macha at VL, and just about threw up. i’m just sick, sick, watching those videos. (long story short, a woman was attacked by men for talking shit about men she slept with). the videos show the attacks on this woman—one is of men slapping her,...(Linked Sunday 2010-07-11.)
