Gangsters in Blue

Richland, Washington. November 21, 2011.

By Snap.

When cases come to light of officers using unnecessary violence, or otherwise exceeding their authority, it is easy for the law-abiding citizen to downplay the complaints. “I’m sure that there’s more to it than that,” or, “We didn’t see what happened before the camera was turned on,” or, “That’s just an isolated occurrence.” But isolated occurrences have been accumulating, and don’t seem so isolated anymore. More and more reports, more video, more accounts of blatant and flagrant conduct by those we trust, not to abuse the law, but to uphold it. And we have seen many cases of federal officials molesting, harassing, arresting, and charging individuals for the so called crime of taking pictures in the vicinity of a federally owned building.

This brings us to my own story. I was detained, bullied and threatened, first for merely daring to snap some photos and sketch some doodles, then for my reluctance to hand over my papers. One might say the incident ended happily, because nobody was (physically) injured, nobody was cuffed, nobody was caged. But the sad fact remains that I was held without good reason for a period of time, and subjected to verbal abuse for daring to assert my rights.

So, on with my story. I have recently started going on brisk walks to get some exercise. I decided that, while on such a stroll I would conduct an experiment that would put my mind at ease: I would test the situation at the Richland, Washington federal building. I set out with a camera, on a route that took me past the federal building. As I approached, I took pictures of my surroundings. (Mostly of trees.) I walked along the sidewalk in front of the building, and took a picture of the sign out front. A uniformed security guard emerged from the building, and eyed my progress. I nodded politely, and he returned the nod. He did not follow me, but when my route circled around the back of the building, I did notice that he had come out the back door, and watched me across the sprawling parking lot.

Intrigued, I returned a few days later. This time, I brought a notepad. I specifically took pictures only of trees. I stopped on the public sidewalk in front of the building, and made sketches of some of the trees on the grounds.

The same uniformed individual approached me: “How can I help you, sir?” at the same time, another fellow appeared, in street clothes. He claimed to be “the federal government,” and refused to identify himself, (even making a show of covering his ID badge with his coat,) but demanded I show him my ID. I asked, and was told I was not being detained, and walked away. As I walked away, the “federal government” shouted something at me, but I didn’t catch what he said.

A few days after that, I went again. After an initial stroll past the front of the building, I crossed to the public park on the opposite side of the street, and sat on a park bench set some distance back from the sidewalk. As I sat, I sketched trees and pine cones.

Several people passed on the sidewalk, but one sticks in my mind. He had an ID badge on a lanyard, and he gave me a suspicious look. I nodded to him in greeting, and he nodded back, but without any sign of friendliness. He crossed the street and entered the courthouse.

I then started seeing official-looking individuals, Deputy Scott Suplus, coming out the front door of the building, looking USMS my way, and then going back in. This was repeated several times, and then, the main event began. Four armed men emerged and marched over to where I was sitting, sketching trees. Three of them were young, clean cut, fit, and serious looking. They wore matching black outfits. The fourth was elderly, and was dressed in a business suit. When they reached my bench, they fanned out and encircled me. The suited individual requested picture ID, and when I asked why, he threatened me with felony arrest. This was thirty seconds after they showed up. He then upgraded his request to a demand.

The situation deteriorated from there. I asked if he alleged criminal activity. “Yes!” he replied. “Well…not necessarily of a criminal nature, but of a suspicious nature.” What was I suspected of? “Suspicious activity!” He claimed a “right” to see my papers, and if I didn’t produce them, I would be booked for obstruction of justice, or hindering a federal criminal investigation. I was, he said, observed behaving suspiciously, and therefore he had a “right” to detain me. He called it a “Terry” stop, and mentioned the case Terry v. Ohio.

So, I explicitly asked what crime was alleged. “None,” was the reply. Then how can I be the subject of reasonable suspicion, if no crime is suspected? “It doesn’t matter,” I was told. “You have been engaging in suspicious behavior.” “Now,” he said, raising his voice, “I am asking to see your ID, for the last time!” There was no hint of doubt in my mind that he was demanding that I show my papers. Just in case there remained some confusion, one of the other individuals shouted in my ear, “Are you going to show picture ID or are you going to jail?!”

I quietly asked whether I was even required to carry an ID card with me. He sputtered for a moment before he asserted that I was “jumping to conclusions.” After all, he never said he needed to see a card, after all! ID can be written or verbal. Why was I assuming he meant I had to show something written? (Silly lad!)

So the demands for “ID” changed into demands for “name and date of birth.” I continued to suggest that I was under no duty to provide that information, and they continued to insist that they had the “right.” Please note that Washington has no “stop-and-identify” statute.

Several minutes in, I asked the question, “Who are you?” because these individuals had never even bothered to identify themselves. The suited individual’s name is Cliiford Nelson. He is a Court Security Officer. I later learned that CSOs are private contract guards hired to work the metal detectors at the courtroom entrances. The others’ names are Brian Johnson, Randall McCalmant and Scott Surplus, introduced as US Marshalls. Never mind that there is only one Marshal in a district.

Before the individuals had even bothered to identify themselves, Deputy McCalmant (I’ll refer to him as “Chew Toy,” because he kept grabbing me,) barked at me to take my hands out of my pockets, and grabbed my wrist. When I turned to face him, Nelson barked at me to pay attention. During this time, city police were also accumulating, until I estimated that there were around a dozen armed individual surrounding me. Me! An overweight, out of shape middle-aged guy. With a camera. And a notebook.

About halfway through the ordeal, It occurred to me that I ought to be recording video, so I pulled out my camera. Chew Toy grabbed me again, and grabbed for my camera, because “I don’t want you taking my picture.” When I continued, he blocked my picture with his hands, exclaiming, “I asked you nicely!” I’m reminded of the five year old child who wants ice cream for breakfast, and when told “no,” complains that “I said pleeease!”

One of the city guys, Sergeant DuBois, started trying to talk sense into me. He must have been the “good cop” sent to get me to “be reasonable.” He explained that I had to understand, how this was all extremely suspicious, what with everything going on, you know, with the threats and all. What threats? Didn’t they tell you? Oh, yeah, there have been threats…on judges…and to…blow up courthouses…isn’t that right, guys? The deputies replied: “oh yeah…yeah, that’s right.” I didn’t see any winking or nudging, but…

Eventually, I decided that it would be inconvenient to get arrested on that particular day, and I had no confidence that the deputies would allow me to leave, so I told them my name and was on my way.

When I reviewed my footage, I found that it was mostly garbage, though it did have some excellent shots of Nelson’s knees. The audio is good, and I’m (slowly) figuring out how to present the incident effectively.

After I thought about things, I came to some conclusions:

1) This stuff is a lot harder than it looks. I was stressed and raised my voice several times. I also did a lot more talking than I should have. I have watched lots of videos and thought “he should have just stopped talking,” but that’s actually pretty hard.

2) Even as they were threatening me with arrest, (“for the last time!”) they didn’t actually arrest me. I was assuming that they simply didn’t know the rules, but I now believe there’s a good chance they knew they couldn’t arrest me, and were just trying to scare the crap out of me.

3) At one point, the head deputy ran off to check out something I said. “If you’ve lied to me, “ (I hadn’t) “I can arrest you!” That tells me he didn’t have anything, even though I hadn’t coughed up ID yet.

4) In a Terry stop, besides the ability to detain someone, cops are allowed to do a frisk, or quick patdown for weapons. They didn’t do that, so I’m thinking they knew they didn’t have grounds to detain. What’s especially telling is that they wanted me to keep my hands out of my pockets, even if they didn’t feel threatened enough to frisk.

5) If they knew that the detention was illegal, then it would have been interesting to see what would happen if I just started walking away.

6) If they have such a tizzy when some guy shoots a few snapshots outside the building, their security must be awfully feeble, and the officers guarding the facility incompetent.

7) The individuals who confronted me displayed a disgraceful ignorance of the law. Either that or they wantonly ignored the law. Since the second option would require a blatant lack of professional integrity, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume they are ignorant. I’m probably being overly generous.

 

 

Fed Misconduct not Confined to Eastern States is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

If you spend any amount of time reading the laundry list of crimes committed by police officers at Injustice Everywhere, you may start to think to yourself, “Man, what does a cop have to do to get fired?”  Corrective counseling, short suspensions, or just a good ole talking to, seems to be the punishment of choice for crimes that would land you or me in jail.  Every once in a while a deserving cop gets fired, but as the case of King County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Savage demonstrates, it can take a long list of egregious behavior to finally end up in the unemployment line.  Deputy Savage was fired recently after 22 internal investigations and 26 finding of misconduct over the course of two years.  Not 26 accusations, but 26 actual sustained findings of misconduct.  That is apparently what it takes for a cop to get fired in King County.

Deputy Savage came to work for the King County Sheriff in 2006.  In 2010, he was assigned to patrol Vashon Island where because of its small size, he worked without the supervision of a sergeant.  According to residents, he quickly gained a reputation for being a bully.  During his time on the island he was accused of buying alcohol while in uniform, playing pool in local bars while on duty, physically threatening and intimidating witnesses in a effort to have them change their stories, and breaking into a home without a warrant and arresting a woman without probable cause.  In just 9 months on the island, it was found that Savage committed misconduct 18 different times.  His punishment?  He was given a 5 day suspension and reassigned.

It did not take long before Savage was again racking up complaints on his new beat, including allegedly telling a teenage girl that he could sexual assault her with a pen and that there was nothing that she could go to stop him.  Savage was finally put on paid vacation administrative leave in June.  Between that time and his firing, he received over $28,000 in pay.

It should come as no surprise that it took this long for Savage to be fired.  It is more surprising that he was fired at all.  Remember, King County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Paul?  He slammed an innocent man, Christopher Harris, into a wall so hard that the he was left paralyzed.  He also has a long history of using violence, up to six times more often than other officers who walked same beat as him.  His superiors were aware of his tendency to escalate situations and to cause injuries.  He still has a job with the King County Sheriff.

Of course, the proclivity for not firing bad cops is not limited to King County Washington.  A Superior Wisconsin police officer, Kirk Babic, who has admitted to stealing more than $5,000 from his fellow officers will receive a suspension, and extra training, but will not be fired for his felony theft.  Can you guess the reason the Police and Fire Commission decided not to fire Babic?  Because they NEVER fire police officers for committing crimes!  They decided it would be unfair to fire Babic for committing a crime when they have never fired other officers for committing crimes, including a hit and run, domestic assault, damaging property, and giving false testimony.  This decision, along with the admission that they can’t fire an officer for breaking the law, because they never have before, gives other officers in the department permission to just go ahead and commit crimes, because they are indeed above the law.

Maybe we are being to hard on these departments for not firing bad cops.  The reality is that many times they will be forced to rehire the bad cop anyway by a judge or an arbitrator, so why go through the trouble in the first place?  Early this year I told you the stories of several bad cops who were fired, then rehired and then continued to be their normal thuggish selves.  One such cop, Boynton Beach Florida Police Officer David L. Coffey, has now once again been fired for excessive force.  This time, for slamming a man into a game-console at a restaurant while making an arrest without trying to first handcuff the individual.  He is also facing charges stemming from an incident in which he activated his taser inches from a fellow officer’s ear in retaliation for her honking her horn at him.

Even incompetent police officers can get their jobs back.  San Jose Police Officer, Matty Hrncir, was fired in 2010 for mishandling several sexual assault cases. Hrncir’s incompetence, which included failing to follow up on leads, not turning over crucial evidence to prosecutors, misquoting victims and witnesses, and even minimizing crimes in her reports, resulted in criminals walking free without being charged for their crimes.  An arbitrator recently ruled that she should be reinstated with back pay.   Can you imagine keeping your job if you sucked at it that bad?

We can only hope that Deputy Savage doesn’t get reinstated, but with the apparent job security provided to police officers I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Want Job Security? Become a Cop is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

The prosecuting attorney for the city of Renton, Washington is investigating an anonymous cartoonist who created several videos mocking the Renton Police Department. The prosecutor and the police, in a gross and disturbing abuse of power, convinced a complicit judge to sign off on a search warrant that would force Google to turn over the identifying information that would lead to the identity of the anonymous cartoonist. In a ridiculous stretch of an already ambiguous law, the the city prosecutor wants to pursue “cyberstalking” charges against the cartoonist.  The charges are so ridiculous that the Renton Police had to do some prosecutor shopping to even find someone that would pursue the case.

The videos (one of which can be seen here) feature an animated police officer making comments that apparently match up with some of the indiscretions of Renton police officers or other city employers. The videos themselves do not name a particular city, police department, or individual, but this is not stopping the petty tyrants of Renton from claiming that what is clearly satire is a crime worthy of jail time.

In the affidavit (see below) for the search warrant, Officer Ryan Rutledge, of the Renton Police Department states that “three people have come forward and have identified themselves as being persons targeted by embarrassing and emotionally tormenting comments about past sexual relationships or dating relationships that were discussed within some of these videos… they would like to be considered victims of Cyberstalking.”

All three of the so-called “victims” have been subjects of previous internal investigations involving inappropriate relationships, including a relationship with a murder suspect. They all still work for the Renton Police Department, so we know how those internal “investigations” turned out. It appears that the Renton Police take poking fun at a police officer’s misconduct more seriously than the actual misconduct.  How dare a mere mortal air the police’s dirty laundry for all the public to see.

Renton Parody Doc1 8

 

Cartoonist Who Mocked Police Investigated for “Cyberstalking” is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

I think this video basically speaks for itself. (Note: the video took a long time to load on my computer, so give it a few minutes if it doesn’t start playing right away.)

I do think it’s worth emphasizing, though, that these officers were suspended for using vulgar language, not for threatening to commit violent crimes. Apparently dropping a few F-bombs is a no-no if you’re a cop in Seattle, but threatening to break someone’s neck or rape them is a-okay.

Cop: “I’m going to skull fuck you and drag you down the street” is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

A few days ago, I wrote about how racist thug Shandy Cobane — the Seattle police officer who threatened to “beat the fucking Mexican piss out of” a innocent man and stomped on his head — would not be losing his job. Unfortunately, when I typed up that post, I was not yet aware of a second brutality case Cobane was involved in just a week after the first incident.

In the second case, Cobane and several other members of the Seattle gang unit were responding to a fight. Cobane accused one of the men arrested in the fight, David Rengo, of assaulting him. Rengo denied this accusation and claimed that, in fact, it was Cobane who had assaulted him. According to Rengo, the detective choked him multiple times “just for fun” while he was handcuffed in the back of his police cruiser. Rengo also said that was only involved in the fight because he and his friends had been attacked.

Rengo’s lawyer Peter Connick subpoenaed the dashcam footage of the incident from Cobane’s police cruiser to clear the matter up, but crucial portions of the video were missing. Imagine that! There were other discrepancies too. In fact, when Rengo’s assault charge went to trial, Judge Joan DeBuque dismissed it, saying “I have not seen a case this poorly prepared or investigated in my 22 years on the bench.”

You can watch KIRO TV’s video about this story here and you can listen to audio of the judge blasting the police here.

Racist Seattle cop was involved in second brutality case is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

A few days ago, I wrote about how racist thug Shandy Cobane — the Seattle police officer who threatened to “beat the fucking Mexican piss out of” a innocent man and stomped on his head — would not be losing his job. Unfortunately, when I typed up that post, I was not yet aware of a second brutality case Cobane was involved in just a week after the first incident.

In the second case, Cobane and several other members of the Seattle gang unit were responding to a fight. Cobane accused one of the men arrested in the fight, David Rengo, of assaulting him. Rengo denied this accusation and claimed that, in fact, it was Cobane who had assaulted him. According to Rengo, the detective choked him multiple times “just for fun” while he was handcuffed in the back of his police cruiser. Rengo also said that was only involved in the fight because he and his friends had been attacked.

Rengo’s lawyer Peter Connick subpoenaed the dashcam footage of the incident from Cobane’s police cruiser to clear the matter up, but crucial portions of the video were missing. Imagine that! There were other discrepancies too. In fact, when Rengo’s assault charge went to trial, Judge Joan DeBuque dismissed it, saying “I have not seen a case this poorly prepared or investigated in my 22 years on the bench.”

You can watch KIRO TV’s video about this story here and you can listen to audio of the judge blasting the police here.

Racist Seattle cop was involved in second brutality case is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

Last year, Shandy Cobane, a racist thug employed by the Seattle Police Department, assaulted Martin Monetti, Jr. while he was lying on the ground compliantly. “I’m going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you, homey. Feel me?” Cobane taunted. Then he and a fellow officer, Mary Woollum, began stomping on Monnetti’s head and arm. Several other officers were present, but none intervened. The stomps left visible marks on Monetti’s forehead.

Shortly after the unprovoked attack on Monetti, the police realized he wasn’t the person they were looking for and allowed him to leave.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Cobane will not lose his job over the incident. Instead he is simply being given a 30 day suspension without pay. No criminal charges will be filed against him.

Cobane insists that he’s learned his lesson and the Seattle Police Department says it will will not tolerate incidents like this in the future, but there is no reason to believe them. The whole message of this affair is that if you’re a cop, you don’t have to worry if you act like a violent, bigoted thug because even if there’s indisputable evidence of your crimes, nothing bad will happen to you. Police brutality cases like this one will not stop until police are held to the same standards as everyone else.

Seattle cop free to continue beating the “fucking Mexican piss” out of people is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

Chris Harris will never walk again.

In 2009, Harris was accosted by a group of cops who had wrongly identified him as a “suspect” and fled from them. The officers were dressed in black and several witnesses testified that they never identified themselves as police which might explain why Harris chose to run from them (see here and here). Deputy Matt Paul caught up with Harris and shoved him with such tremendous force that he was launched into the air, thrown several feet, and slammed headfirst into a wall. The resulting injury caused such severe brain and spinal damage that Harris will be paralyzed for the rest of his life.

Paul should be in prison. Instead police and prosecutors have defended his actions. No criminal charges have been filed against Paul nor has any disciplinary action been taken. Harris’s family was awarded $10 million in a lawsuit, but that money came from from taxpayers, not from Paul’s savings account. “There was no evidence of misconduct on the part of Deputy Paul,” according Sheriff Sue Rahr. According to one prosecutor, the incident “was just a freak accident.” In fact, King 5 News did some digging into Deputy Paul and found out that he has a long history of brutal violence. More importantly, Paul has continued to be violent since his assault on Chris Harris:

And that shouldn’t come as any surprise. As long as violent police continue to be shielded from taking responsibility for their actions, we should expect more of the same from them in the future.

Cop who paralyzed man for life continues to be violent is a post from Cop Block - "Something must be done about vengeance, a badge, and a gun"

In late December of 2010, we posted about John T. Williams, who was shot and killed by Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk. Mr. Williams was fifty years old, a chronic alcoholic, and was deaf in one ear. He was walking down the street, holding a whittling knife with a 3-inch blade when Birk chased after him, yelling for him to drop the knife. Mr. Williams appeared not to hear Birk (he was hard of hearing, after all), and was shot by Birk in a matter of seconds (original article here).

At an inquest into this matter, jurors unanimously found  Mr. Williams was carrying an open knife when first seen by Birk. However, four said “no” and four answered “unknown” when asked if the blade was extended when Birk fired (here). Thus, it is reasonable to conclude Mr. Williams was shot for hobbling along with an unextended knife. Since the shooting, Birk has been on paid leave (what a sweet job! You get to kill someone and still get paid on the taxpayer’s dime — where do I sign up?!).

King County Prosecutors have recently decided not to file criminal charges against Birk the murderer. Although no criminal charges were filed, the Seattle Times reported that the department’s Firearms Review Board reached a final decision that the August 30th shooting was not justified.

The incident was subject to several reviews, one by a San Diego Police Department homicide commander, and another by the Austin Police Department in Texas. The results of both these reviews are worthless and too negligible to mention in detail because they did not come to the necessary conclusion that this killing was murder and instead lodged petty criticisms against the Seattle Police Department for “conducting too many telephone interviews” and not giving an officer an opportunity to “orally explain their decision to use deadly force” (according to the Seattle Times). Unsurprisingly, the investigation of this particularly despicable police officer was conducted by other police officers, not an independent entity.

The Seattle Times reports prosecutors faced a legal hurdle in deciding whether to charge Birk because state law protects officers from criminal prosecution when they claim they used deadly force in self-defense unless it can be shown they acted with malice and lack of good faith. As the prosecutors have declined to file charges, it is reasonable to assume they believe chasing down a slow, hobbling, half-deaf elderly man and shooting him in a matter of 3-4 seconds is not an act characterized by “malice” or lacking in “good faith.” Effectively, as long as an officer claims he used deadly force in self-defense, even murder is excusable under the law.

At any rate, it’s quite clear what is going on here. Police officers have the legal authority to commit murder. In the event they do commit murder, they get a special panel composed of people highly sympathetic to them to judge and review their actions, before any possibility of criminal prosecution is considered. This is to contrast with an ordinary murderer, who would likely be immediately arrested and charged, and certainly with no free pass decreed by a panel of loyal and sympathetic comrades.

After review by three panels of highly sympathetic peers (San Diego, Austin, and the Seattle police department’s Firearms Review Board), even if one of them does find the officer engaged in an unjustified shooting, criminal charges still do not ensue. The Seattle department’s Firearms Review Board apparently found the shooting unjustified, yet Birk will still escape criminal punishment. The more succinct word for “unjustified shooting” is murder.

After committing murder, and three useless reviews by useless people in uniforms, a murderer escapes with only resignation from his pathetic job. We cannot be too cynical here, though. Police serve a very important function in society. Without them, there would be no one to ticket people for playing chess, no one to fine people $2,000 for recycling, no one to Taser 64-year old cancer patients, no one to Taser 10-year-old children, and no one to torture people into confessing to crimes they did not commit.

There would be no one to fuel gang crime with drug prohibition. There would be no one to arrest those damn do-gooders trying to feed the homeless. There would be no one to loot and destroy stores under the protection of the law, just to steal cigarettes and candy for themselves. Without police, rape would decrease. Without police, there would be no one to harass and arrest random people (with a tendency toward minorities) for a plant that was decriminalized 30 years ago. Without police, who would dress in all black, kick down doors in the middle of the night, and murder your grandfather? Above all, and most importantly, without police, who would perform the indispensable task of shooting caged kittens?

Without all this murder, animal abuse, rape, theft and torture, society would surely become disorderly and eventually descend into chaos.

Therefore, we must not judge these hard working members of law enforcement because of the crimes of just one man. And his pal from San Diego. And the entire crew involved in the Austin review. And all the King County prosecutors involved who refuse to file charges. And Birk’s entire department who stands idly by. And everyone in the city government responsible for a policy of continuing taxpayer-funded paychecks to a degenerate while he sits at home, jerks off, and laughs about how he got away with murder.

If you are angry about this shooting, check out this Facebook page.

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A few months back, John T. Williams was shot and killed by Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk. Mr. Williams was fifty years old, a chronic alcoholic, and was deaf in one hear. Julie Reisman, who knew Mr. Williams personally said he was far too slow and feeble to hurt anybody. “Every step that he would [...]