Gangsters in Blue

Antonio Buehler was doing the right thing when he questioned officers being overly aggressive with a non combative female. Antonio even took photographs of the officers for documentation, which lead to officers arresting his – see original CopBlock.org post here.

Now it’s time for Antonio to go to court, and he’s lawyered up, see video below.

It will be interesting to see the “City’s” stance on this case. I’m guessing that they’ll drop the charges and wait for Antonio to sue them. Once he does it will take two years to settle (or win in court) and Antonio will give “the city” (or taxpayers) a black eye, or about $20,000. I’ll keep you posted as this case develops and hope Antonio will blog updates here in the future.

For now, if you’d like to help Antonio you can call one of these “officials.”

 DEMAND they fire criminal cops Oborski & Snider.
Mayor Leffingwell: 512-974-2250
Police Chief Acevedo: 512-974-5000
City Council Members:
Chris Riley: 512-974-2260
Mike Martinez: 512-974-2264
Kathie Tovo: 512-974-2255
Laura Morrison: 512-974-2258
Bill Spelman: 512-974-2256

Update Antonio Buehler 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

The recent video of a Manchester, New Hampshire student being violently arrested for what at most could be described as student misbehavior is just another example of the police abusing young people while they are in the care of the government’s school system.  You do not have to be very old to remember a time when it was rare for a school to have a full time police officer roaming the school campus.  Fueled by a media-generated perception that schools are a violent, dangerous place and by the resulting “zero tolerance” policies, this is no longer the case.

If a police officer’s role on school campuses was to provide security from internal or external violence, then their presence would not be so troubling, but instead of being limited to this function, officers are intervening in situations that are better handled by teachers and administrators.  In the past, misbehavior at school would result in a trip to the principal’s office, detention and maybe even a suspension for the most egregious behavior.  Today you are likely, at best, to receive a ticket and a stiff fine for disrupting class, using profanity, or being late for school.  At worst you may end up on the receiving end of a beating at the hands of an armed agent of the state.

A December 2010 report released by Texas Appleseed, a law organization with the mission of promoting justice for all Texans, details the increasing trend of issuing Class C Misdemeanor tickets to students as young as 6 years old.

“Criminalization” of student misbehavior extends to even the youngest students. In Texas, students as young as six have been ticketed at school in the past five years, and it is not uncommon for elementary-school students to be ticketed by school-based law enforcement…The increase in ticketing and arrest of students, in Texas and nationwide, has coincided with the growth in school-based policing. Campus policing is the largest and fastest growing area of law enforcement in Texas, according to its own professional association. With counselors stretched to handle class scheduling and test administration duties, school administrators and teachers are increasingly turning to campus police officers (also known as School Resource Officers or SROs) to handle student behavior problems.

In others words, teachers and school officials have abdicated their responsibility to discipline, or teach right conduct and instead have allowed armed agents of the state to enforce rules by punishment and extortion.  In the Dallas Independent School District alone, over 1,200 Class C Misdemeanor tickets were issued to elementary age children over the course of five years.  These tickets can cost a family as much as $550 dollars.  When Texas Appleseed released its report, Dallas ISD issued a statement saying that “Those who do receive tickets are hopefully learning that their actions have consequences.”    Having a student wash all of the desks in his class if he writes on his desk, is a consequence.  Keeping a student in from recess if he disrupts class is a consequence.  Making a student help the janitors clean the cafeteria for a week if he starts a food fight is a consequence.  Misdemeanor tickets are not consequences that help a child understand right conduct.  They do not teach a child why certain behaviors are wrong.  They are nothing but punishment and not even age appropriate punishment, at that.  Unless a 6-year-old has saved $550 in their piggy bank, my guess is that it is the parents that are forking over the money.

At the 2007 National Association of School Resources Conference, keynote speaker, John Giduck, told the audience,

“You’ve got to be a one-man fighting force…. You’ve got to have enough guns, and ammunition and body armor to stay alive…. You should be walking around in schools every day in complete tactical equipment, with semi-automatic weapons…. You can no longer afford to think of yourselves as peace officers…. You must think of yourself [sic] as soldiers in a war because we’re going to ask you to act like soldiers.”

It is no doubt that this type of mentality that has led to many reports of officers using violence on students.  I have reported before about an eight year old being pepper sprayed, a seven year old being choked while having a seizure, a teenager having his arm broken while attempting to leave school because he felt ill, and of course, the recent video of a Manchester NH student being slammed into a table.  In all these cases the argument centered on whether the amount of force used was excessive.  The question shouldn’t be whether the force was excessive, but rather, why are police officers, absent violence on a student’s part, being used to enforce the administrative rules of the school?  Why is any physical force being used?

Of course there are many who blame the students when they are the victims of violence at the hand of the thugs in blue.  “They need to learn to respect authority,” is the refrain so often repeated.  But my question is, why?  Sure, as adults, you will most likely have to answer to an authority, such as an employer, but that is a voluntary relationship, it is not an imposed authority.  What possible benefit is there to teaching young people to “respect” an authority that has been imposed upon them?   Is it so they will gladly assist in herding people onto cattle cars?  Is it so they will shoot civilians when ordered to do so?  There is simply no reason that “respecting” authority should be seen as a noble virtue that should be taught to young people.  People who think deferment to authority is the only way to achieve widespread right conduct by people that make up a society must themselves be completely devoid of a moral or ethical compass.   Discipline should not be about respecting authority; it should be about respecting people.

I have said it before but it is worth repeating, 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 while they are young?

Criminalizing Student Misbehaviour is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

A Cop Block supporter guest submission

First off, check this out. It’s a story concerning a police officer of China Grove, Texas, who resigned due to failure to register as a sex offender. China Grove is the is the town I got pulled over in.

Now for my story… In April of last year (2010), I was slowly proceeding through a small town in Texas known as (Doobie Brothers) China Grove. Knowing that this is a town notorious for speed traps, and since I have been driving through this town for over 9 years, I of course always slow down to the posted 50mph. Driving to a job meeting, coming up to China Grove limits, I set my cruise to 48mph, and proceed through town. As I come around a bend, my Passport radar detector warns me of a thug, so I of course re-check my speed (still going 48mph), and proceed with no worries.

As I pass the thugs, I notice that he turns his lights on, but did not think anything about it. Next thing you know, he is behind me squawking his thug horn. Confused (thinking a light is out or something), I pull over into the China Grove Dairy Queen, and roll down my window. Thug 1 (Officer Grant), comes to my window and asks for my license and insurance. Confused, I ask what for… He then tells me I was going 63mph in a 50mph zone! I lost it… I think that most thugs would have arrested a person that was insulting them like I was. He had no ground to stand on, knowing he was trying to screw me for revenue for this tiny town.  ”NO F**KING WAY I WAS GOING 63 mph!!!” I screamed at him. After much insulting, I gave him my license. After a moment or two thug 1 was joined by thug 2 (Officer Davis). I think thug 2 was there to tame me, but NO F**KING WAY!

After this experience, I started to videotape any time I went through this town. I went to court a month or two later, and asked for a hearing, and the DA had the balls to ask me if I was serious… “Aren’t we all innocent?”  With a stone look on my face, I replied “YES I AM!” My hearing comes up, I wait my turn, and let them have it! Thug 1 is 1st to talk… “We calibrate our radars after every stop,” he tells the DA. “How do you calibrate the radars?” asks the DA. By tuning fork was his reply.

Then it was my turn. “So you mean to tell me that after every stop, you get out of your patrol car, and get a tuning fork, and hold it to your radar?” His reply was “Yes sir.” I call bullshit on this, and let him know I have witnessed otherwise. I also brought up that I work right down the road, and would not even think about speeding through this town, especially when my Passport radar detector is warning me. The DA turns to me, and ask if I have a high-end radar detector, to which I replied, “yes.”

“NO FURTHER QUESTIONS YOUR HONOR”- DISMISSED!!!! F**CKING THUGS!!!!! Not this time!!!

I am not guilty damn it… is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

By Kris Bailey

Here is the story about my arrest August 26th, and the reasons for it.  I met Chris Nielsen, owner of Electric Cab of Austin, during my recent campaign for Austin City Council.

Chris has been waging a three-year-long battle with the City of Austin over his idea for a green energy business giving pedestrians rides in low-speed electric vehicles–all on a “tips only” basis.  He does not charge for these services, as the mobile marketing company generates its revenue from advertising on the sides of the vehicles.

There is no law actually prohibiting him from operating this business, it is true, but, the enforcement side of the city–the police–have determined that the lack of a law regulating a business constitutes operating in violation of a law.  Nielsen’s drivers have received around 200 tickets and arrests now, over a law that does not exist.

The Austin City Council has had this issue in front of them multiple times, Chris said, yet never seems to vote on it, always deciding instead to continue to “study” it, thus delaying it a few more months.Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent “studying” his very small business.  The Urban Transportation Commission has recommended multiple times that the city issue him a permit to operate.  Yet, our Austin City Council refuses to act, and ignores the business repeatedly and pretends that nothing is wrong.

I have been told by multiple City Council members that nothing is “preventing” this business from operating. I met with multiple council members and made several phone calls, wrote e-mails, etc…. and came to realize that Chris Nielsen was right: He is being ignored, and the City of Austin does not wish this business to exist. Why?  The taxi lobby is concerned about competition, and donated $36,700  between all of the sitting members of the city council and the Mayor. I’m not making any direct accusations against anyone here, but I will say it gives the impression that we have private businesses buying harassment of their competition.

So, I drove a cart for him.  I gave two rides on Friday night.  The first was to a couple of women who, when dropped off, handed me a few dollars and thanked me.  I did not charge them–they voluntarily handed me the money.  At this point, three APD officers stopped me and wrote me a ticket for “Operating without a permit” and “No chauffeur’s license.”  I tried to explain that the permit and license did not exist, but they didn’t care.  I asked, multiple times, if they had read the ordinances I was accused of violating, and the officers refused to cite the law I was allegedly breaking.  They told me if they saw me operating again, they would arrest me.  (Read here to see that to be a chauffeured vehicle, requiring permit, as defined by Austin City code, there must be a passenger that is being charged a fee).

I decided that the Austin Police Department does not have the right or the authority to shut down a business on a whim.  I picked up another person, and gave him a ride.  I dropped him off where he asked to go.  The police officers saw him hand me $4 (again, I did not charge him) and immediately came to me and put me in handcuffs.  I was arrested without discussion or hesitation, and taken directly to jail.  It was quite the experience.  I got to spend the night with a lot of the late Friday evening drunks, one of them throwing up all over the floor right next to me.  I stayed in jail until I was released the next morning.

Every single officer I interacted with in jail–granted, they work for a different department: county officers have no problem trashing the city police–made comments about what a waste of time my arrest was.  I could hear them talking about it the entire night, and none of them supported my charges nor the fact that I was there.  The officer taking my mugshot and fingerprints showed my file to everyone else working in the jail, commenting about how incredibly stupid my arrest was, and making multiple remarks about the priorities of our police chief.

My arrest was for a law that did not exist, I have done nothing wrong, and our City Council refuses to even discuss that there could be a problem. In the meantime, a small business is being quietly bankrupted by the city with impound fees and arrests of its employees.  Another driver, a 19-year-old girl, was arrested just last week for the same non-existent charge that I was.

I am appealing to anyone who cares about green energy, anyone who cares about small businesses, anyone who cares about police accountability, anyone who cares about wasted resources, anyone who thinks incidents like these should not happen: Please, please, write to the Austin City Council members and tell them what an injustice they are committing.  It does not matter where you live, the issue of governments shutting down businesses concerns everyone across this country.  Please show your support for us.  We are helping keep drunk drivers off the streets, don’t charge for our services, and desperately desire to contribute to this community that we love so much.

You can contact the Mayor and the City Council here.

I Was Arrested for a Law that Doesn’t Exist is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

One crooked sheriff gets indicted, while another cops a plea. Meanwhile, the border generates another three cases of corruption or thuggery. Let’s get to it:

In Shreveport, Louisiana, the Winn Parish sheriff was indicted August 2 on charges he helped his girlfriend cover up methamphetamine deals. Sheriff A.D. “Bodie” Little is one of 11 people charged with dealing meth in the Winn Parish and Shreveport areas. A state trooper testified that Little came under investigation by a joint state-federal task force after he asked the Caddo Parish sheriff to get a task force together to investigate Winn Parish drug dealers. The trooper testified that “it’s clear he wanted everyone arrested except his girlfriend.” Little has pleaded not guilty and was set to be released on $100,000 bond sometime this week.

In Carlisle, Kentucky, the Nicholas County sheriff pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing asset forfeiture money. Sheriff Dick Garrett was accused of taking more than $43,000 from the forfeiture account and and using at least $10,000 to pay his homeowners insurance and pay off personal loans. He pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking and abuse of public trusts. A jury had recommended five years in prison on each charge. Garrett will have to pay restitution of $38,237.60 within five years and resign immediately as sheriff. He will be sentenced in November.

In Phoenix, two Border Patrol agents were indicted August 4 on charges they forced accused drug smugglers to eat marijuana and flee barefoot and nearly naked into the desert. Agents Dario Castillo, 23, and Ramon Zuniga, 29, were charged with five civil rights violations by a federal grand jury in Tucson stemming from the November 2008 incident. According to prosecutors, the pair caught four men taking part in a marijuana smuggling operation. They forced the men to eat some of the weed and strip down to their underwear, burning their outer clothes and shoes and socks, then told them to flee into the desert night, where the temperature was around 40 degrees. Prosecutors said the actions deprived the four men of their civil rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The two face 10 years each on the civil rights charges, while Castillo faces up to 20 years for a count of witness tampering.

In Laredo, Texas, a former Laredo police officer was sentenced August 4 to 6 ½ years in prison for helping a drug trafficker move and store cocaine. Pedro Martinez III, 34, agreed to escort loads of cocaine in exchange for payment from undercover FBI and BATF agents he thought were smugglers and recruited fellow officer Orlando Hale to help out. He escorted three loads and Hale escorted two, with the pair receiving $1,000 for each load. The undercover agents also persuaded Martinez to lead them to a cocaine supplier, who has already pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and awaits sentencing. Martinez testified against Hale when Hale took his case to trial last year. Hale lost and got 24 ½ years. Martinez pleaded to bribery charges.

In Laredo, Texas, a Webb County deputy constable was arrested Monday by FBI agents on charges he acted as an escort for a cocaine trafficker. Eduardo Garcia, 44, was indicted for escorting loads of cocaine through Laredo for a local trafficker for $500 a pop. Unfortunately for Garcia, the trafficker became a DEA informant and flipped on him, allowing the DEA to record meetings where they would discuss load arrangements. Garcia, wearing his badge and driving a law enforcement van, would escort the loads through the city. The snitch also asked Garcia to run a pair of license plates through a state law enforcement data base, which he did. He’s looking at up to 20 years in prison on three bribery charges and five more on one count of unauthorized access to protected computer information.

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

This is unbelievable. After a Houston police officer hit a pedestrian while speeding to a call without using his lights or siren, the department is saying that they have no policy requiring their officers to use lights or sirens when speeding. If the HPD cared one iota about safety, you would think they’d take simple precautions like these.

Houston police say lights and sirens aren’t required when speeding is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

This story was too bizarre to not share. (Note: the video might take a few minutes to start up.)

Austin cop charged with boating while intoxicated after his friend broke into a house to make a sandwich 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"

by Ajai Dittmar

I was born in Cedar Rapids, but my little brother was born in Fort Hood Texas where my father was stationed when he served in the United States Army.

My godparents still reside in Texas where my godfather has served as a police officer for more than twenty five years. My mother has also worked as a police dispatcher sometimes I went to work with her.

One of the most important things I took away from my experiences from living in Texas is an exclusive understanding about what life was like behind the ‘blue curtain’.

For those of you who don’t know what the ‘blue curtain’ is- it is best explained as the unique subculture of Law Enforcement Officers and their families. They have each other’s backs and some will cover for others simply because of this unique bond and to protect the department’s reputation.

Issue:

A formal written request for an outside investigation is being formulated as I speak by a group that was created in December 2010, called copwatchers, this group has 61 members from all walks of life who are concerned about the conduct of the CRPD. Several members have contacted the State Ombudsman requesting that an outside investigation be conducted.

Even though we have the second largest city in the state members of the copwatcher group were told by the Ombudsman’s office that they do not have the resources to conduct such an investigation. The Ombudsman office suggested we talk about these issues at a public City Council meeting.

Our copwatcher forum conducted a survey asking what issues people thought needed to be addressed. The top three concerns pertain to public relations, internal affairs, and policy on high speed pursuits.

While we like the idea of a citizen review board we would like to know who would pick the members what kind of people would be sought to serve and how would we know that chosen members are not related to people who serve in law enforcement.

The majority of our group feels that it is unethical for the police to investigate themselves.

For example when the ‘sleepy’ officer was identified Sgt. Hamblin said

“Whatever results from any internal investigation, the results are not likely to be made public”. She continued to say that “if an employee of any private company gets disciplined, those details aren’t usually shared with co-workers. The same rule applies to police officers.”

Since when have the police had the privacy of a private company? Do we not pay their salary?

Who holds the police accountable when the police don’t hold themselves or each other responsible for their actions?

When the unidentified CRPD k-9 Officer was caught at the bar in Marion he was not charged with an OWI even though he was clearly intoxicated. The Cedar Rapids police was notified about this incident the same day it happened yet it took 20-days for it to become public.

Hamblin declined to say if the officer had already been interviewed, saying it was a confidential personnel matter. She said investigators would be talking to any witnesses they can.

Hamblin was quoted as saying “Any time there’s an incident with an officer, we investigate it just like a criminal matter, not because it was, but because there are things that are against our policies,” Hamblin said. “We hold ourselves to a higher standard.” Aren’t criminals listed in the newspaper within days after they break the law? Why is it that they are not held to the same standard as the public? Do they not live by the same rules the rest of us are obligated to abide by?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have a great deal of respect for people who chose the path of a public servant and do my best to respect people who have sworn to uphold the United States Constitution. I have my degree in criminal justice. I have taken both law enforcement and corrections courses and I graduated with honors and have to say that it is my opinion the public’s opinion of the police will not change nor will our city will become a safer place until these critical internal issues are resolved

Cops Investigating Cops = Fail is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"