Gangsters in Blue

A story that demonstrates double-standards claimed by those with badges submitted by “Accountability.” As s/he noted, “There is are laws…one for police and one for you.” That view will change only when each of us sees that man-made legislation does not equal law. Note how, when an individual officer does wrong and is called-out for it, his colleagues do damage control to protect the image of their violent institution by stating that he “acted independently.” -Pete

Amazing to see Minnesota Police goons on video tape dealing free dope after picking up Minnesota Occupy protesters and driving them to an airport, doping the protestors and then asking them questions and trying to get the protestors to rat on other protestors.

Supposedly done for evaluations for police to be able to pick up people under the influence.

You just have to see the 35 minute video yourself. One dope dealing officer stupidly tells the person who is videotaping him to shut of the camera because he has a wife and kids and does not want any problems.

From the video description:

Video documentation by local activists and independent media shows that police officers and county deputies from across Minnesota have been picking up young people near Peavey Plaza for a training program to recognize drug-impaired drivers. Multiple participants say officers gave them illicit drugs and provided other incentives to take the drugs. The Occupy movement, present at Peavey Plaza since April 7th, appears to be targeted as impaired people are dropped off at the Plaza, and others say they’ve been rewarded for offering to snitch on the movement.

Around the 5-min mark an individual identified as a Filmore County Sheriff deputy has a conversation:

“In this category we’re just doing eval’s. We don’t want people’s names, we don’t want to get anybody in trouble. We’re here to admit you to eval for us. . . If you smoke weed or something like that, we don’t care. We really don’t. . . What we want then is take you for about 45-minutes of testing. Cause we gotta go down to the airport. . . then, after 45-minutes of testing, we bring you right back, drop you right back off. So, that’s what we’re doing. And like I said, we’re, like, I’m not even from here. I’m from Fillmore County. So I’m way south of Rochester.”

This story was picked-up by The Guardian, which noted in part:

Public safety officials in Minnesota have launched a criminal investigation following multiple claims that law enforcement officers got Occupy protesters high on drugs in a program examining the effects of street marijuana.

A state trooper has been placed on leave in connection with the allegations and the program has been suspended. One participant in the program said police got him “high as fuck”.

The story was broken by independent journalists based in Minnesota who began recording officers picking up and returning protesters to a local park where the demonstrators have been camped out. Individuals repeatedly claimed that the police would provide them with marijuana, watch them smoke it, then observe their behavior.

Dan Feidt, an independent journalist with the Occupy movement, says he began noticing the activity two weeks ago. Feidt joined with other independent media outlets – including Rogue Media, Communities United Against Police Brutality, and Twin Cities IndyMedia – in documenting what was going on at the park.

The 35-minute video compiled by the group shows law enforcement officers from nearly a half dozen departments transporting people to and from the park. Numerous anonymous individuals interviewed in the video claim that officers had a practice of picking up people off the street who were under the influence of illegal substances, transporting them to a building at a local airport, then observing their behavior and administering evaluations as part of study.

Minnesota is among 48 states – as well as the District of Columbia and Canada – that participate in a so-called Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program, aimed at helping officers learn how to spot impairment and troublesome drivers. The program began in Minnesota in 1991 and requires officers to perform evaluations on volunteers, generally recruited from the community, who are high.

The program does not permit officers to provide drugs to subjects, but that’s exactly what Feidt’s video suggests they did.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota State Patrol claims that there was “no evidence” to support the allegations made in the video but on Wednesday the Minnesota department of public safety issued a press release announcing that it had launched a criminal investigation into claims that a Hutchinson police officer provided marijuana to subject in the drug program. The allegation was made by an officer from another law enforcement agency. The DPS also announced that it was suspending the program.

Feidt says the program is consistent with police behavior he’s observed at Occupy camps around the country and told The Guardian:

What we saw happen in many, many different cities was they would take people that had chemical dependency issues, they would take people that had mental illness issues and that kind of thing and they would basically drop them off at the Occupy site

He hopes the video will call attention to the war on drugs. “For me, the cruel and dehumanizing nature of the war on drugs has been a major issue for a long time,” Feidt said. “There’s public debate about this program that never really happened, so I’m really hoping that we can have a constructive debate and finally wind down this incredibly destructive system.”

Minnesota Cops Smoke-up Occupy Protesters, Then Lie is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Guest post from Hazel with Onlineclasses.org:

If you want to learn more about the history of your city, explore the history of corruption within the city’s police department. Police corruption, which can include kickbacks, shakedowns, and protection of or even direct participation in illegal activities, has been around since the creation of the country’s first police force. Initially, the police were not asked to “serve and protect,” but to mediate between criminal and political kingpins as they fought each other for power. Some may say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. But perhaps understanding the history of city and police corruption can help to provide the vision and leadership for a better future. Here are nine police departments with well-documented corrupt pasts.

1. New York Police Department

   Since its establishment in 1844, corruption has been a fact of police life in New York City. From the very beginning, New York’s underpaid and overworked police officers were expected to serve the needs of the city’s political leaders while collecting money from gang leaders, gamblers, and pimps for the privilege of operating relatively unmolested. Back in 1895, officer Alexander S. Williams, took advantage of his appointment as captain of the city’s 21st Precinct, which included the Tenderloin and Gas House districts, to collect money from criminals, including the madams of several brothels, and make a fortune as a result. Williams, who earned his nickname “Clubber,” once said, “There is more law in the end of a policeman’s nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court.” After investigation by two committees, Williams resigned, went into the insurance business, and died a multimillionaire. Who says crime doesn’t pay?

2. New Orleans Police Department

   New Orleans Mayor Landrieu released a hopeful, conciliatory statement in the wake of the sentencing of five New Orleans police officers to several years in prison for their roles in shooting unarmed citizens in the chaotic days that followed Hurricane Katrina. “We now have an opportunity to turn the page and to heal,” Landrieu said. “It is my commitment to the people of New Orleans to rebuild and reform the NOPD.” The first police force in the then-French New Orleans was established in 1803, only to be disbanded due to countless complaints from civilians. Given the history of the NOPD, Landrieu definitely has his work cut out for him.

3. Chicago Police Department

   By the end of the 19th century, the city of Chicago enjoyed the dubious reputation of being a haven for “dangerous classes;” a city that was more like an out-of-control frontier town “with an absence of moral virtue.” The Chicago Police department went without large-scale reform until 1960 when eight police officers from the city’s North Side or Summerdale district were charged with running a large-scale burglary ring. Known as the Summerdale Scandal, the case generated unprecedented media attention, and prompted the creation of a much-needed police superintendent role to oversee and enforce rules and regulations within the department.

4. Los Angeles Police Department

   The 1951 Bloody Christmas Scandal, a real-life scandal that appears in author James Ellroy’s book L.A. Confidential and its film version, involved as many as 50, mostly drunk, police officers who took time out from a Christmas party to beat six prisoners for more than 90 minutes. Since more than 100 people either witnessed or knew of the beatings, the incident became public, and prompted the city’s Mexican community to come forward with more charges of police brutality against citizens. In 1952, a grand jury succeeded in convicting only five of the officers involved, and none of them received a sentence amounting to more than a year in prison. And then there was the Rampart scandal and the Rodney King beating.

5. Miami Police Department

   Miami in the ’80s experienced an “epidemic” of police corruption due in part to the enormous amount of cocaine being smuggled into South Florida from Latin America. A cheap, deadly derivative of the drug known as “crack” would infiltrate other cities throughout the U.S., and transform many once relatively peaceful working class neighborhoods into war zones. Police corruption in Miami reached its height in 1986 when, as a result of an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than a dozen officers from the police department faced charges that ranged from drug dealing to murder.

6. Sheriff’s Department, Dallas County, Alabama

   Students of Civil Rights history know that Selma, Ala. was the location of a brutal assault on a group of peaceful marchers led by John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the Selma Police Department led by Sheriff Jim Clark, as well as state troopers, and recently deputized members of the community. Law enforcement officers used nightsticks, horses, and tear gas to indiscriminately attack the peaceful demonstrators. Televised images of the attack inspired even more support for the Civil Rights movement. Sheriff Clark later lost his bid for reelection, went on to sell mobile homes for a while, and in 1978, was busted for conspiracy to import marijuana.

7. Ahome Municipal Police Force

   Ahome is a municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaola. Just last November, Ahome’s entire Police Department, 32 officers and commanders, were arrested by state police for the department’s connection to two powerful drug cartels. Amazingly, the director of the state police who carried out the arrest, “Chuytoño” Aguilar Iniguez, was at one time one of Mexico’s Attorney General’s most wanted men for his connections to kingpins within the Sinaloa drug cartel. After having fled to Cuba in 2004 while undergoing investigation for corruption, Iniguez was granted a sort of immunity in 2009 by a federal court, and returned to Mexico to profit from, er, whoops, we mean “fight” crime.

8. Philadelphia Police Department

   You know you’ve got a corrupt police department when it comes under the scrutiny of Human Rights Watch. HRW has stated that, “the Philadelphia police department (in terms of) corruption and brutality … has one of the worst reputations of big city police departments in the United States.” In the early 1990s, a group of PPD officers, some known throughout the city as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, conducted a series of unreported raids on crack houses where officers would steal from suspects. The arrest of Mumia Abu-Jamal for the murder of a police officer, and the public outcry at his being sentenced to death (this sentence was recently overturned), brought national attention to the PPD’s reputation for brutality and corruption.

9. Baltimore Police Department

   In March 2012, a Baltimore police officer was sentenced for his part in what is known as the Towing Scandal, a criminal ring that included more than 50 other members of the Baltimore Police Department. Vehicles were towed from accident scenes by a towing and repair company owned by two police officers. Other officers were paid to participate in the scam, which generated hundreds to thousands of dollars for those involved. Accident victims were even encouraged by officers not to talk to their insurance companies.

9 Police Departments With Corrupt Pasts 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

By DAVY VARA

Why is it that people always refer to the New York City Police Department as the best police department in the country?

The N.Y.P.D. is actually one of the most corrupt police forces in the U.S. The department has a long history of committing some of the most heinous crimes
against innocent citizens. Take, for instance, the 1999 execution of Amadou Diallo, a 23 year old Guinean immigrant who was shot at 41 times by N.Y.P.D. cops Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Diallo, who was unarmed and simply had his wallet in his hand, was hit 19 times. Just over one year later, a jury acquitted all of the cops.

Also, Abner Louima, a 30 year old Haitian immigrant, who suffered severe internal damage when N.Y.P.D. officer Justin Volpe sodomized him with a broomstick in Brooklyn’s 70th precint. Afterwards, Volpe proudly displayed the excrement and blood stained broomstick to his fellow officers as he bragged that he had just “broke a man”. Volpe then threatened to kill Louima and his family members if Louima told anyone. Justin Volpe was later convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Sean Bell, executed by N.Y.P.D. undercover cops on the morning of his wedding day, in Queens. Bell had just left a club with friends when he was confronted by a plain clothes N.Y.P.D. cop who didn’t identify himself. When Bell sped off, the cop fired 50 rounds at Bell’s vehicle, killing Bell and severely injuring his friends. And, even though neither Bell or any of his friends had a gun, the N.Y.P.D. smeared Bell’s character after the incident, and his friends were under investigation instead of the cops!

During last year’s annual West Indian American Day Parade, N.Y.P.D. officers used facebook to post extremely disturbing comments, violating the department’s policy barring officers from making “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” about race or ethnicity. The facebook group, which totalled 1,200 members, posted comments from N.Y.P.D. officers such as Dan Rodney who stated “I say have the parade one more year, and when they all gather, drop a bomb and wipe them all out.”

Other comments from N.Y.P.D. officers included calling people “animals’ and “savages”. The comments on facebook, included references to West Indian and
African-American neighborhoods, and were so offensive that some N.Y.P.D. officers themselves posted warnings to other officers advising them to be careful that Internal Affairs “rats” don’t take notice of the comments. However, many didn’t seem to care, and went on posting comments such as “Let them kill each other”.

In a recent New York Times editorial piece, a strong point is made of the need for a “strong, independent agency to investigate serious complaints about New York City’s police force.” After several corruption cases involving the N.Y.P.D., including seven narcotics officers convicted of planting drugs on people, three officers convicted of robbing a perfume warehouse, eight current N.Y.P.D. officers charged with smuggling guns into the state, and a federal lawsuit accusing the N.Y.P.D. of engaging in racially biased “stop and frisk” incidents, there is serious doubt that the department can do an effective job addressing misconduct and corruption without outside help.

The N.Y.P.D.’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which is responsible for investigating complaints of police misconduct, failed to uncover any of these problems. In fact, they were brought to light by a local district attorney, the F.B.I. and, in one case, a New Jersey police department.

Recently, N.Y.P.D. officers, gathered outside State Supreme Court in the Bronx, for the unsealing of indictments against 16 of their fellow officers, who were arraigned on charges of corruption, after a three-year investigation into the N.Y.P.D.’s fixing of traffic and parking tickets, which in all cost the City of New York, close to $ 2 Million dollars. Officer Jose Ramos, a member of the N.Y.P.D.’s 40th precint, and whose suspicious behavior led to the ticket fixing investigation in the first place, was accused of two dozen crimes, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, transporting what he thought was heroin for drug dealers and revealing the identity of a confidential informant. Ramos is facing up to 50 years in prison.

The officers yelled “Down with the D.A.” and “N.Y.P.D. Commisioner Ray Kelly, is a hypocrite.” Inside, more than 100 off-duty N.Y.P.D. officers lined the courthouse hallways and stood outside the courtroom. The officers prevented members of the news media from filming their colleagues by blocking cameras, grabbing lenses and shoving television camera crews into walls.

The outpouring of angry officers and their behavior was in violation of N.Y.P.D. policy which states “Conduct which brings discredit to the department or conduct in violation of law is unacceptable and will result in disciplinary measures.” Perhaps the best of example of the N.Y.P.D.’s disgusting, unprofessional conduct, despite always being lauded as the best police department in the country, is how at one point, the crowd of at least 350 officers outside the courthouse began chanting “E.B.T.” at people lined up at a benefits center across the street, referring to electronic benefit transfer, the way welfare recipients receive their food stamps and/or cash benefits. A court official who came outside to attempt to calm down the crowd of officers, was insulted with profanities by the N.Y.P.D. cops. The indicted N.Y.P.D. officers came out of the courthouse pumping their fists, as the crowd of their fellow officers burst into cheers. Once the rowdy crowd of N.Y.P.D. cops had cleared, the street was littered with refuse.

Eugene J. O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice makes a very powerful and telling point, in referring to the N.Y.P.D. when he said “The Police Department is a very angry work force, and that is something that should concern people, because it translates into hostile interactions with people.”

I don’t know about you, but I find it disgusting and downright deplorable whenever I hear the N.Y.P.D. being referred to as “The best police force in the country”. Are you kidding me?

Davy V.

———————-

Editors note – check out this video created after the actions of some NYPD employees at the 2011 West Indian Day Parade:

NYPD: Badges of Dishonor, Corruption and Murder! is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Guest Post by Katie McCall

I must apologize… this story is a little old. But the victims are still suffering and it needs to be told.

Meet the Hendersons: Father, Jeffrey, is a big, intimidating individual but tenderly in love with his children. Mother, Erica, is a very nurturing mother. Together they have six children and lived together without incident in their Pasadena, California home.

Are they typical parents? No. They keep a kosher diet, they homeschool
and breastfeed and homebirth. They follow orthodox Jewish law. But is being “different” a reason to have your rights trampled?

In May 2010, the police were called by a disgruntled neighbor who reported having “heard” Jeffrey slap their oldest child. The police responded by demanding entry. Jeffrey and Erica
refused their requests and instead had the children come to the front window next to their door to show that they had not been harmed. Here you can see Jeffrey and Erica refusing entrance prior to deciding to parade their children’s well being in the window:

The Henderson’s refuse entrance to the police in Pasadena

Apparently, visually seeing the children was not enough for the Pasadena police. Without a warrant they barged into their residence as the family sang Jewish songs of worship. They beat Jeffrey to the point he needed to be hospitalized, removed the children and gave them to DCFS and locked both Jeffrey and Erica in a cage.

Surprise, surprise! The courts eventually found that the accusation that prompted the violence was unfounded and dropped all charges including an obstruction charge for not opening the door to their home.

But the damage control was already insurmountable. Erica spent two months in county jail where she suffered the pains of breast infection and was denied treatment. She was restricted from breastfeeding her two youngest children who had been placed in foster care as a seven month old, and two year old. She was not given access to a breast pump. Jeffrey was held for three months. Both Jeffrey and Erica lost their home and Jeffrey lost his job for being a no show while in jail. When they got out they found themselves penniless and homeless. They shared their story shortly after their release in this interview.

As if that isn’t ugly enough, here’s where it gets really ugly. Because DCFS decided that even though the Henderson’s were not prosecuted and were NOT convicted of any wrong doing by the court, they were somehow entitled to keep their children anyway. According to DCFS, the Henderson’s were abusive because they refused to open the door for police and therefor put their children at risk of being injured by the battering ram the police department used to gain (unlawful) entry to their home. Consider the absurdity that is the state – police are not punished for their violent, unjustified actions; instead, their victims are.

DCFS required them to show up for several visits per week when ordered which were, of course, scheduled in the middle of the work day. These visits needed to be complied with or DCFS would note their disinterest and lack of involvement in resuming custody of their children. And then there were all of the department mandated classes they were ordered to attend. All of this kept them from employment and finding a home. And then the most logical step of all… DCFS also required them to provide “proper” shelter for their
six children, which in their eyes was a lot more lush than they had originally provided their children. Yet still they are attempting to meet every requirement. Even going above and beyond the department’s requests… bending over backwards and jumping through fiery hoops while the department sits and watched, entertained.

So, here we are. It’s now almost one year later. Where are the Hendersons? Well, the children still live in foster care and adoption is being fought for by the couple who have been caring for the youngest child. Most of their children are being held separately, not being fed the kosher diet their family raised them with, not attending the religious observances that are so close to their heart. Basically, the Hendersons are still desperately trying to reunite, despite a million miles of bureaucratic red tape.

Jeffrey has filed a habeas corpus and has made it public for anyone to see and use in their own defenses. He is resisting the assertion that the United States government has rights over his family. Interestingly, the Henderson’s youngest – a seven month old boy — had not yet had his birth registered when he was kidnapped by federal agents. He has no birth certificate and no social security
card. How can the United States government have any kind of say so in his welfare? How do they even know whose baby they took?

Those who believe badges grant extra rights apparently don’t just work in the police force.

In California, the Police are in the Business of Kidnapping Children 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

Guest post by Damon

This is a video of the most reasonable man I know being booked in for “disorderly conduct”. This man has applied for a press pass which was later revoked by the corporate media representatives  in charge of distributing all press passes. He has attempted to use footage from Wisconsin Eye, a government-funded media service. They made him take down the footage because it is the property of said 501c(3) corporation.

He has filmed legislators committing voter fraud through the windows of the gallery. They took that as a sign that they needed to post black plastic over the windows. These are the lengths he has gone to in order to report on the blatant corruption of our State Government during the last session.  In direct contradiction of  State Statute 19.90, which states that we have the right to film our public officials, our legislature has deemed filming a violation of their own rules of conduct and are prosecuting, “Offenders” under disorderly conduct statutes. This day he wasn’t filming.

Being known for excising one’s rights is now enough to warrant detainment in Wisconsin.

This is not my video and I cannot claim credit for it.  I got it off my buddy’s youtube channel(arthurkr222).

Illegal Possession Of A Camera, Disorderly Conduct In The WI Assembly is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

By Guest Writer Jacob Crawfird

Miami’s Homeland Security is keeping tabs on Carlos Miller, why? Not because he is any terrorist threat or some subversive radical. Rather because he runs the website, “Photography Is Not A Crime!” which documents police attacks on copwatchers, journalists, and ordinary citizens who catch heat for filming police interactions. He’s been supportive of my police accountability work with copwatch and I’ve appreciated his coverage of police issues over the last few years.

—Jacob Crawford
ladderfilms@gmail.com

Carlos Miller Under Surveillance for His Website, “Photography is Not a Crime” is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

I’m not really sure why I never noticed CopBlock before.

I mean, honestly, I really should have gotten online and googled “police misconduct”
or at least “injustice.” But I guess I was just too busy thinking I was the only one and
attempting to put out flames with my own wet blankets.

It would have been helpful to know there were others out there… folks who under-
stood where I was coming from. It would have given me fuel to fire the determination
I would desperately need to fight and keep fighting. Even when I lost again and again
and again.

In August 2009, my world was knocked upside down by a police officer at my door
who told me he “didn’t need a warrant.” I apparently “didn’t know who” I was “dealing
with.” He was with Rampart LAPD after all. I mean, really. Who was I, a recently
divorced mother of two young children?

He gave me to the count of 10 to open my door or he threatened to kick it in. He
began his countdown as I cried, still asking him why he didn’t need a warrant.
Meanwhile, one of his brothers in blue slipped around to the back of my home and
slid through the gate. My understanding of my country was forever altered. As
Benjamin Franklin so aptly stated, “Where liberty is, there is my country.” At that
moment, I realized for the first time that my allegiance was not to this man, or to
the power he professed to represent.

But it was too late. He chained me like an animal (I had never before been in
handcuffs) and then asked my roommate if I had a history of mental illness because
I had the audacity to cry about it. Peaceful human beings should never be chained
or put in cages like I was.

I am so happy to find this forum for exposing and holding accountable mere men
who exert violence in the name of a badge. The LAPD cop at my door was not the last
time that I encountered these kinds of threats. He was the introduction to a parade
of individuals with overblown ideas of personal power. DCFS, family court, the
Medical Board of my state, the criminal justice system, the LA County Sheriff’s
Department, the county jail, the probation racket…

If you’re interested in the rest of my story, you can visit here or order the book. I
hope that others never have to endure what I have. I want to put my pencil where
my mouth is and BE INVOLVED. Apathy gets us nowhere. Together we can shine a
light on the injustice.

The Tyranny of the Cubicle is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights