Gangsters in Blue

Officer #5032, (I’ll call him by his number since he acts like a robot) an afternoon shift supervisor of the Golden Beach Police Department, tells the man recording, “we can video tape you but you don’t have the right to video tape us without our consent or record us. Do you understand that?” He goes on to say that it’s a felony and that, “I could escalate this but I won’t.”

What a wonderful world this officer must live in. Not only does his boss – the government – force you to pay his salary but it even protects him from being filmed while working for your dollars. When the camera man brought up the (silly) first amendment Officer #5032 said, “You really don’t wanna argue that.” Of course you don’t want to argue that silly thing you took an oath to uphold. Why would you, right?

I decided to call this officer before the video became public to see if I could get a comment, I was successful at connecting with Officer #5032. At one point he stated he doesn’t mind being recorded yet the state laws says there needs to be consent. He also tired to get out of his comments, after taking a break to call a supervisor (IMO), by reminding me that Florida is a two party consent state. I appreciated his attempt but I’m not in a state that requires two party consent. Even if it did until I’m allowed to opt out of paying their salaries, they won’t get the option on whether or not I film them.

If you disagree with Officer #5032 (Robert R.) call him, 305.932.0756 or the chief – Rudy Herbello – 305.935.0940 (rherbello@goldenbeach.us)

Other Golden Beach contacts:

Join the forum discussion on this post

Golden Beach (FL) Police Officer #5032 Threatens Man for Recording is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Hello fellow followers of CopBlock!  I’d like to apologize for the delay in communication first and foremost.  Following the chaotic trend in current events, my life has been a tug-of-war in all directions as of late, but I didn’t want my introduction to be a reflection of such.  Besides my disclaimer on my absence, I’d like to overview the topics of special consideration which I will delve into further as I embark on this new journey with fellow readers and compatriots here at CopBlock.

Life is a strange web of internodes and while avoiding the cliché hippy saying “we are all one, man…”, I will attempt my best at drawing up the relevance between the tangential nodes which my posts will surely implicate.  Previously, my profession was briefly in behavioral neuroscience.  My college path started in the political science field however, but it left my idealistic mind slightly jaded in the wake of the Iraq invasion.  My activist side has reemerged as I look upwards again, out of the micro topics of psycho-biology, and into the more macro realms of human interactions.  I have a deep appreciation for writing and the creative process from which I draws inspiration.  I feel similarly to how hip-hop artist Del The Funkee Homosapien lyrically describes music, in his song titled “Madness”, as existing;

“ But music is there without you or me, we just manipulate. For better or worse so let it situate.”

I feel the writing process is akin to this verse in the way that both creative activities draw upon abstractions embedded in the ether, are then channeled through a human medium, then materialized onto substrate as a concrete testament to withstand the test of time.  I hope to grasp a shred of truth from this absurdity called life and to be able to hear the echoes resounding as they ricochet recursively through the halls of your minds.  I think everything is already determined in life, so I just walk the path and just seek to learn the lessons provided by careful introspection and deliberation.  Activism is an art-form in its own right, and although I often find myself frustrated with current events, I more often than not find myself right back into the turbulent mix of being an outspoken member of society.

This stance is one built upon a foundation of love and compassion for humanity, while attempting to keep rational skepticism close at hand.  I’d argue that I’m a revolutionary at heart, but also see the value of “living to fight for another day,” even if it means losing a battle to have the opportunity to win the war.  The spectre I cast is one which radiates through the prism of writing, to be magnified by societies third eye which yearns for illumination.  I merely bring a new relative perspective to the table.  Truth is what you determine for yourself and those whom bring you happiness.  I can only wish that my posts encourage lively constructive discussions to ensue.

In this post, I feel it important to provide a preamble to readers, so that the connections between seemingly distant nodes can more easily emerge to form a cohesive picture.  My first decade of life called the third world “home.”  Upon relocation, poverty was starkly contrasted against my new American home.  Perplexed about being ridiculed for not “sporting” Nike’s like most of my classmates, I had a lot of resentment at the time for my new American life, but, as with most people who are matured by life experiences, quickly realized misguided people exist on all continents of this planet as do true friends who see through appearances.  Through this lens, my posts will often promote the interests of the underdogs of the world.

College placed me at the crossroads between vastly different interstates leading into the murky future beyond the ever sliding present.  I experimented frequently while always keeping the wise words of a past hippy professor in mind,

“Life is a path, you can sometimes go off that path, but always remember there is a path…”

In spirit with what I have learned thus far on my life journey, I will often draw upon lessons learned on the topics of substances and the ethics of regulations concerning such.  I will discuss my observations living inside a prison nation sheltering a quarter of the worlds prisoners and the crusade called the “drug war” along with the war against a military technique called “terrorism.”  I’ll anchor these subjects within the larger umbrella of economic theory and updates on human abuses committed by those elected to protect the populace.

So for all you prototypes “never even considered for mass production” as Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, I welcome you to embark upon this strange journey with me, towards the weird event horizon of human singularity, and beyond, by checking back with me from time to time…

Warm Welcome From ShadowLegion is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

According to NBCMIAMI.com

A Pembroke Pines man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Davie and three of its police officers, accusing them of police brutality during a 2009 arrest deemed unlawful by the state.

An attorney for Matthew Lawson, 20, filed the $1 million suit on Tuesday, accusing officers Curtis Schock, Steve Ricker and Paul Vardakis of shocking Lawson with a Taser, sending a K-9 to attack and bite him, and punching and kicking his body, causing him to lose a tooth.

Lawson was initally charged with battery on an officer and resisting arrest with violence after the officers questioned him while he walked down the street and he did not stop.

But the Broward State Attorney’s office dismissed the charges, ruling that a person “cannot resist with violence an unlawful arrest” and there was “no reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity on the part of the defendant to justify a stop and detention of the defendant.”

FULL STORY HERE

A person cannot resist with violence an unlawful arrest is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

Cops cutting corners to make arrests, a cop caught providing protection for a load of cocaine, and a police force fired for its misbehavior make this week’s rogues’ gallery. Let’s get to it:

In Houston, a Houston police sergeant was arrested July 27 on charges he took a bribe to provide protection for a vehicle carrying several kilograms of cocaine. Sgt. Leslie Atkins, 46, faces federal charges of aiding and abetting the possession with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and with accepting a $2,000 bribe to provide protection for a vehicle transporting seven kilograms of cocaine. He was arrested after a June 22 indictment was unsealed. The 19-year veteran has been suspended without pay. He faces a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence on the cocaine charge and could get life, and he faces up to 20 years for the bribery count. He is out on $50,000 bail.

In Oak Hill, Florida, the city council voted Monday to dissolve the police force over a number of issues, including the case of marijuana plants found on the property of 86-year-old Mayor Mary Lee Cook. Cook said publicly she believes the plants were placed there by someone within the department. Police Chief Diane Young and her six sworn officers were asked to turn in their guns and badges, and Volusia County is temporarily taking up some of the law enforcement slack until the city enters into a formal contract for services with the county.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Tulsa man has sued the city and a Tulsa police officer alleging that he falsified a search warrant that led to his conviction and life sentence in prison. DeMarco Williams, 36, filed the lawsuit July 28 in federal court in Tulsa and becomes the fifth person to sue the city and current or former police officers accused of falsifying search warrants and other corrupt practices in a festering scandal that keeps on giving. Williams accuses indicted Officer John Henderson of falsifying the search warrant and thus depriving him of his civil rights. He also accuses the city of Tulsa of negligence for failing to keep its cops in line. Henderson and fellow Officer Bill Yelton were indicted a year ago on a slew of criminal counts and went on trial Monday. Henderson is charged with 58 counts: 22 related to perjury, 20 related to civil rights violations, 12 related to drugs, two witness tampering counts, one firearms count and one attempted bribery count. Some duplicate charges are expected to be reduced during the trial. Yelton is charged with eight counts: four related to civil rights violations, two related to witness tampering, one related to suborning perjury and one count of attempted retaliation against a witness, which was added in September 2010. Yelton is not involved in Williams’ case. Williams spent six years in jail and prison after being charged and convicted. He was released last year as the Tulsa corruption scandal broke wide open.

In New Orleans, a New Orleans police officer resigned last Friday as he was being investigated for allegedly lying about a January drug arrest in the Algiers section of the city. Officer Samuel Birks, a four-year NOPD veteran, was charged in state court late last month with filing false public records and malfeasance in office. Birks and his patrol partner, Joshua Hunt, are accused of falsely arresting Alvin Bean, planting a rock of cocaine on him, and lying about the incident. Hunt resigned in June. The charges against Bean were dropped after his defense attorney was able to convince prosecutors that the officers’ stories didn’t add up. The district attorney’s office then dropped the charges against Bean and filed them against Birks and Hunt. They have both pleaded not guilty.

This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

by Wendy McElroy
July 13, 2011

Few activities are as dangerous as watching a cop too closely, as John Kurtz knows well. Kurtz is the founder of the Orlando, Florida, branch of CopWatch, a network of activists in the United States and Canada who patrol the streets on foot or in a vehicle to monitor and document police activity in order to spotlight misconduct and brutality.

Kurtz’s recent arrest for “obstructing justice” and conviction for “resisting arrest without violence” spotlight a growing trend in law enforcement. Police are arresting peaceful people virtually at will based on vaguely worded laws that are an invitation to rampant abuse. Such laws have become a standard police intimidation tactic.

Consider “obstruction of justice.” The typical definition as it relates to police officers is “the interference with an officer who is discharging his duty.” Depending on the state, obstruction can include providing a false name, the interception of police radio communication to avoid detection, eluding a police officer, and refusing to assist an officer or to comply with a command.

In reality, obstruction charges have been laid for arguing with a policeman or asking him questions, gesturing in almost any manner, invoking the Constitution, refusing to produce I.D., and recording a police officer even when it is legal to do so.

The penalties vary widely not merely from state to state but also on the type of obstruction being charged. Non-violent obstruction is usually a misdemeanor punished by a fine but some acts are deemed felonies, punishable with jail time. As the case of John Kurtz illustrates, however, both the bringing of charges and the ultimate punishment often depend not on the actual “offense” but upon the desire to pound authority into the non-subservient. Disrespecting authority is fast becoming the worst “crime” in society.

John Kurtz - Currently Jailed for Resisting Arrest (a Bogus charge).

The case of John Kurtz

On January 1, 2011, Kurtz was in downtown Orlando when he observed police officer Adam Gruler arresting a man on a domestic-violence charge. The arrest involved “the use of tasers, a violent take-down and the pepper spraying of a man already subdued and in handcuffs.” Kurtz announced himself, stood to one side, and began recording the incident. Florida law allows in-person recordings in public places where there is no expectation of privacy; it further allows the recording of police officers as long as it does not obstruct the enforcement of law. Nevertheless, Gruler demanded Kurtz cease recording. When Kurtz informed Gruler that he “knew his rights,” the officer threw Kurtz to the ground and arrested him as well.

Kurtz was charged with three offenses: obstruction of a law-enforcement officer; battery on a law-enforcement officer; and resisting arrest without violence. The latter charge can refer to any nonviolent “resistance” to arrest, from running the other way to asking, “What am I charged with?” Resisting arrest without violence is another increasingly popular intimidation tactic used by many police departments. Of the Orange County, Florida, police department that conducted the Kurtz arrest, local news channel WFTV reported as early as 2006,

Defense attorney David Bigney says he rarely sees a case now where resisting isn’t a charge. “All these people want is to know why, what’s going on here, but the officer decides I’m just going to arrest you,” said Bigney. And often it’s the only charge. In more than 25-percent of the 4000-plus cases Eyewitness News tracked, resisting was the only charge. That begs the question: if there’s no arrest for something else how could they be resisting arrest?

Kurtz had an advantage, however; he taped the entire incident. But, somehow, during his subsequent processing at the police station, Kurtz’s camera went missing and never showed up either in evidence or in his returned belongings. Fortunately, a Big Brother street camera captured the incident; it discredited the police account and agreed with several witnesses who claimed Gruler committed the only violence that occurred. The camera evidence was most fortunate because Kurtz faced a 6-year prison sentence for the three charges and, in the absence of hard evidence, the court tends to believe police officers. Gruler’s initial report on the arrest stated that Kurtz was too close as he and another officer restrained the first man (obstruction) and that Kurtz pushed him (assault). With the street camera evidence, however, Gruler’s initial account of the event changed significantly. But, as a press release noted, the street camera “effectively disproves all three versions of arresting officer Adam Gruler’s story as to where, when and how the supposed battery took place.”

Thus, on June 30, a jury found Kurtz not guilty of battery on a law-enforcement officer but guilty of resisting arrest without violence. (The obstruction charge had been dropped.) The judge imposed the stiffest penalty possible upon the unrepentant Kurtz: 30 days in jail (less 7 days served), a one-year probation, and a 12-month restraining order to stay at least 100 feet from police officers engaged in duty. Typically, resisting arrest without violence receives a slap on the wrist; a sentence such as Kurtz’s is almost unheard of. Moreover, Kurtz commented, “In the multiple plea deals I was offered, jail time was never mentioned, in fact my last plea offer didn’t even include probation and this is when I was charged with a felony, as well as resisting arrest without violence.”
Punished for his activism

The stiff sentence had been foreshadowed by the judge’s attitude in court, which Kurtz — an activist for jury nullification — described as “statist bull-crap.” For example, the judge refused to allow disciplinary reports or other evidence of Gruler’s extensive history of police misconduct and brutality. In 2006, the Orlando Sentinel reported, “Adam Gruler is a hunter. That’s one of the nicknames given inside the Orlando Police Department to the young, aggressive cops…. Their job: create a “no-tolerance zone” for crime of all kinds…. He also has become one of the department’s top Taser users….” Gruler has had dozens of complaints lodged against him for behavior similar to that captured in a YouTube of 2007 unlawful arrest by Gruler of another man who had been legally recorded him.

The stiff sentence may have also been prompted by Kurtz’s high-profile acts of local civil disobedience. For example, he is one of the videographers of the recent arrest of members of Food Not Bombs, an organization devoted to sharing food with the homeless. An Orlando ordinance forbids the feeding of homeless people within 2 miles of City Hall. Kurtz and others of Food Not Bombs maintain that the ordinance is an unconstitutional restraint of First Amendment rights. On June 6, the Huffington Post reported, “Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park.” They have been charged with trespass and “intent to feed.” Kurtz — who was featured at the recent libertarian gathering PorcFest — was instrumental in creating the viral YouTubes of Food Not Bombs arrests, which have embarrassed the police by showing them arresting peaceful “people who are simply trying to help their fellow man.” The title of one YouTube video showing an arrest for feeding the hungry asked police officers, “Do You Really Support What Your Co-Workers Are Doing Here?”

Currently, Kurtz is raising funds to appeal his conviction. The main reason he cites for the appeal is the 100-foot restriction on approaching police officers, which means “effectively ending my participation in Orlando Copwatch.” He is attempting to involve the American Civil Liberties Union on constitutional grounds. A CopWatch press release explains,

Kurtz sights [sic] that the prosecution during closing arguments and judge during sentencing, say that when Kurtz approached the scene with his camera and told the officers “calm down, I am filming you” that act by itself was interfering, obstructing or opposing a police officer, and thus, the form of resisting arrest without violence. Kurtz insists that this form of free speech is absolutely protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution…. This is specifically upheld by the US Supreme Court in case Houston vs. Hill, 1987, and Florida Supreme Court Case, Florida vs. Saunders, 1976, as well as other case law. These rulings have never been overturned.

Private property no defense

Time after time, when punitive arrests or punishments for obstruction or resisting arrest have been appealed, the appellant has won. And, yet, the police continue as though there were no higher authority than themselves. As a lawyer specialized in obstructing justice has stated,

This broadly written law can be the subject of abuse by law enforcement. Even though the courts have made it clear that mere verbal criticism is not enough, police and municipal prosecutors still charge citizens with this offense for minor verbal acts. In cases of police brutality, this charge will often be filed in the hope that a citizen will take a quick plea, eliminating any ability to get compensation later.

In short, police routinely charge people with obstruction or resisting not merely to intimidate but also to give themselves negotiating leverage.

The future of CopWatch may well be a challenging one because it does not matter if the recording is legally performed in a public place; the police are likely to arrest you. It doesn’t ever matter if you are recording the police from your own property. On July 7, the InfoWars site reported,

In a video making a stir on You Tube, an Arkansas man looks on in horror as officers handcuff an innocuous looking woman, and then conduct a TSA-style search of her breasts and other body parts before releasing her. The cameraman filming police across the street from his garage yells “Nazis,” continuing to warn the officers that they were violating the 4th Amendment.

Their response? According to the Infowars site, three police officers enter his property and demand his papers. “They then begin to discuss what they’re going to charge him with: ‘disorderly conduct.’ No, let’s charge him with ‘obstruction of justice.’ The officers then decide to go with ‘racial slur.’ They then grab the camera away from the man and clap on the cuffs. The camera is then turned off.”

Whether you in a public street or on your own property, whether you are peaceful or not, the mere questioning of a police officer can get you arrested. They can charge you with “disorderly conduct” for standing alone in your own driveway. They can charge you with “resisting arrest” if you ask what the charges are. If you gesture, they can interpret that as the beginning of an attack and charge you with “battery on an officer.” If you refuse to assist them in sexually frisking a neighbor, they can charge you with “obstruction of justice.”

Police discretion means a police state.

Wendy McElroy is the author of The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival (Prometheus Books, 1998). She actively manages two websites: http://www.ifeminists.com and http://www.wendymcelroy.com. For additional articles on current events by Ms. McElroy, please visit the Commentary section of our website.

“Put Down Your Rights and No One Gets Hurt” by Wendy McElroy is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

A Florida 2010 Officer of the Year goes down, so do a Georgia police officer and a Georgia jail guard. Let’s get to it

In Boynton Beach, Florida, last year’s Officer of the Year was indicted Tuesday on serious federal methamphetamine charges. Officer David Britto, 28, is charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of meth. He was caught up in an ongoing investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, led by the DEA. Last year, the Palm Beach County Association of Chiefs of Police and the Boynton Beach Police Department named him Officer of the Year, noting that he was an instructor at the department’s Teen Police Academy and a volunteer at the Florida Community Alliance. No word yet on bail or his current employment status.

In Savannah, Georgia, a former Savannah-Chatham Metro police officer was arrested June 27 on a raft of drug-related charges. Floyd Sawyer, 44, went down after federal authorities got information last year that a Savannah police officer working off-duty security at a local night club was extorting drugs from dealers in the club and selling them for his own benefit. The feds set up a sting with an informant posing as a dealer. The fake dealer entered the club with a cell phone, a bottle of fake Oxycontin pills, and other items. The fake dealer was soon detained by Sawyer and another officer and taken to a secluded area of the club, where they took his drugs and phone, then threw him out of the club. Sawyer is charged with drug trafficking conspiracy, extortion, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, and lying to federal agents. Sawyer is out on $25,000 bail. He was fired after the sting went down last year.

In Brunswick, Georgia, a former Glynn County Detention Center officer was sentenced Tuesday to five years probation after he was caught smuggling Oxycodone and Armodafinil, both prescription opioids, into the jail. Robert Woodcock, 36, pleaded guilty last week to possession of prescription drugs with the intent to distribute, crossing county prison lines with narcotics, and violating his oath of office. He was arrested in May when sheriff’s deputies found the drugs on him and in his car when he entered the jail.

This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

Jim Johnson (Keene, NH) and John Kurtz (Orlando, FL) may have never met but they have a lot in common, especially at the moment, as they’re both currently in a cage for standing up for their (and your) rights.

Jim Johnson is a peacefully man, one that has helped us repair and maintain MARV time and time again, who’s caged for refusing to pay a trespassing fine and for failing to fill out financial information. Yep, in ‘america’ your taxes will be used to build 40 million dollar prisons, that house 7 violent offenders out of 167 inmates – according to the Superintendent of Cheshire Co Jail, but when you go to take a walk around it they forcefully throw you inside. That’s why we made this video to encourage others to help support Jim through his painful stay at the house of corrections.

John Kurtz is another peaceful man who’s an advocate for transparency and accountability by using a camera to document government officials, especially cops – he founded OrlandoCopwatch.com. And that’s what John was doing one night, video tapping cops who were being rough with someone. After beating a felony charge at trial John was still found guilty of ‘resisting arrest.’ Yep, in ‘america’ you can be found NOT guilty of the original charge, yet do time (30 days is John’s sentence) for resisting an arrest that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. That’s also why we made this video to encourage others to support John through this troubling time of injustice.

You can send both these brave activists letters via Mail-to-Jail.com - a great website for jailed activist – please consider donating to this site if you use their service.

Jim and John: Currently Jailed for Your Rights is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

According to the Sun-Sentinal

The collision was set before dawn: An on-duty Miami Beach police officer and a 27-year-old woman leave the Clevelander hotel bar, hop onto his ATV and speed toward the ocean. Meanwhile, Luis Almonte and a 28-year-old woman are on the beach.

By the time the ATV rocketed across the sand, it was too late for the pair to escape: The vehicle hurtled into Almonte and Kitzie Nicantor, their bodies lay crumpled on the ground.

Police said Monday they were still investigating why veteran officer Derick Kuilan, 30, was rushing down the popular beach in the wee hours of Sunday with his lights out — a woman in tow — when he was supposed to be working.

One witness who spoke with police said he could see the vehicle speed across the sand — its lights out — before hearing a loud thud.

“I could see it emerge from the darkness,” said Jonnathan Adames, 29, a Boston resident who visited Miami to celebrate Almonte’s 29th birthday, which was Monday. “It went screeching by and I hard a crash, bang.”

Adames said he bolted toward the couple on the beach, where he found their bodies curled motionless in the sand and the police officer beckoning him to help with the injured. “The cop’s screaming at me, ‘Papi, papi, get some help.’ ”

Adames said he met with other police officers at the scene and told them what he saw. He said he questioned the police about why the officer on the ATV left the beach on foot, and he said they told him the officer was trying to get better communication reception.

Full Article

Cop driving ATV on the beach drives over couple is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

It never ends, does it? Another week, another set of crooked cops. At least this week, the jail and prison guards managed to stay out of the news. Let’s get to it:

In New York City, an NYPD narcotics detective was arrested on June 9 on charges he lied about witnessing drug transactions that resulted in the arrest of one man for selling crack and three others who were his customers. Detective Francisco Payano’s fictive report began to fall apart last year when a defense attorney brought forward surveillance video footage of the location in question that showed no drug dealing going on at the time in question and that Payano wasn’t even present. The case against the alleged dealer has been dropped, but one customer already pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The cases against the other two have been sealed. Payano faces 64 counts of perjury and other charges. He has been released pending trial.

In Nashville, a Metropolitan Nashville police officer was indicted Friday on federal bribery and drug trafficking charges. Officer Richard Wilson, 31, went down in a sting after accepting $24,500 to transport what he thought was cocaine for who he thought were drug traffickers. He is charged with soliciting a bribe, attempted cocaine distribution, and money laundering.

In Philadelphia, two former Philadelphia police officers were sentenced June 15 to 10 to 20 years in prison each after being caught in an undercover sting helping drug dealers rob a man they thought was a drug courier. Christopher Luciano, 23, and Sean Alivera, 31, were arrested last October and pleaded guilty in April to charges of robbery, conspiracy, kidnapping, official oppression and possession of a drug with intent to deliver.

In Jacksonville, Florida, a former Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for agreeing to transport cocaine from Daytona to Jacksonville in return for payment. Former officer Carl Kohn went down after he starting plotting a deal with a “cooperating individual” to transport five kilos of cocaine in return for $2,500. He pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine.

In Mesquite, Texas, the former head of the Mesquite Police narcotics unit was sentenced Monday to 15 months in federal prison for stealing cash during an undercover drug operation. John David McAllister, 42, went down after authorities received a tip that an officer was stealing drug money and FBI agents set up an undercover sting in March. FBI agents left $100,000 in cash in 52 bundles in a car they directed McAllister to search. They videotaped him removing one of the bundles and stuffing it in his pants before returning to the Mesquite Police Department. Still under surveillance, McAllister then drove to a nearby shopping mall and bought a $480 watch. FBI agents matched the cash used in that transaction to photocopies of the cash they used in the sting. McAllister was charged with theft of government property.

This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

One of the best police accountability activists and founder of OrlandoCopWatch.com, John Kurtz, has been jailed for 30 days. This stems from an incident where John was merely trying to hold police officers accountable one evening (see video below).

Below is an update from OrlandoCopWatch.com and it’s call for support of John.

The Jury is out after 2 long days of trial; the second day running all the way to 10PM on Thursday June 30th. John Kurtz has been convicted of resisting arrest without violence. John’s sentence, 30 days in a concrete cage, 7 days already served and 1 year probation.

The evidence … the cops word … several cops on the stand all with different stories .. each having changed their tune several times throughout the whole process. The kicker .. Adam Gruler, the arresting officer even testified that John did not resist arrest.

No video of the trial, the man in the robe (Apte) kept threatening anyone who came close to touching their cell phones, breathing wrong or nodding their head etc..

Please stay tuned on how to send mail to John Kurtz and how to help fund his commissary account.

Please feel free to call the Judge, Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Jail. Let them know that caging peaceful people will not be tolerated by the general public.

Circuit Judge Alan S. Apte
Address: 425 N Orange Ave, Courtroom 18A, Orlando, FL 32801
Office: 407-836-0535
Judicial Assistant: Hale
Hale’s Email Address:ctjajh2@ocnjcc.org

Chief Judge Belvin Perry
Address: 425 N Orange Ave, Courtroom 19D, Orlando, FL 32801
Office: 407-836-2008
Judicial Assistant: Gay

Orlando Police Department Headquarters
Address: 100 South Hughey Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32801-2501
Non-Emergency Complaint Desk: 321-235-5300
Information Desk: 407-246-2470
Community Relations: 407-246-2461

Orange County Corrections Jail Facilities Address: P.O. Box 4970, Orlando, FL 32802 Phone: 407-836-3400

I’ll be doing what I can and I hope others see the wrong being done to John as well. Please join in with the thousands of others calling these public officials, let them know your displeasure behind John’s caging (at your expense). Also, having been caged for peaceful actions myself, please consider sending John some mail. It helps those behind bars stay positive while going through such a shitty (sorry, no other word for it) experience.

John Kurtz Jailed for 30 Days – Needs Your Help is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"