WTF is wrong with the police?
- Thread starter Scott Free
- Start date
Deflecting? Au contraire. I'm focusing...on your sexist, racist, generalizing attitude.
Thats because red light cameras are like photo radar. They are a profit center, not a safety device. If they were about safety the tax(fine) would go to the driver, not the registered owner. The police have now become tax collectors instead of protecting us from criminals.
Gee ... they sure like the expensive route. Years ago, I recall a face-to-face with a guy in a Smokey-the-bear hat on the outskirts of Greece NY. He posed like his hand-held radar was .45 calibre and stood about 100 feet beyond a half-size 30 mph sign welded into a Chevy rim.
"Squirm" is being far too polite Lone Wolf.
His problem, he has to live with his opinions
I don't know where you live but in BC it is in the Paramedics union contract that they don't do extrications nor are they to go past the shoulder of the highway for an accident. That is left up to First Responders from the fire dept. We also get a lot of Assist calls to help carry patients to the ambulance. In another odd twist of union rules against lifesaving in B.C.> if you are hurt and get yourself to the ER but cannot get from your vehicle and into the hospital, staff are not allowed to come outside the door to help. They MUST call for an ambulance crew to get you inside the building.
Taxslave:You have talked before about being (I think) a volunteer fireman in your area. Are you also a paramedic (you do say - "We also get alot of assist calls") and are you a paramedic where you live or here in the city?
I'm going to assume by your post you are a firefighter (correct me if I'm wrong). No doubt union rules play a part but alot of it is common sense. As an IC at a vehicle collision I'm telling my guys not to enter the hot zone without full protective gear for safety reasons. How can I then allow the ambulance crew to do so in coveralls. I'm not sure how they do it in BC but we have EMRs and EMTs on many of our departments in Alberta so in most cases we don't want the ambulance crew in the way. In places like Lethbridge, they have an integrated service so most, if not all, firefighters are paramedics so it isn't an issue at all.
The paramedics in our area are not unionized and they will call for assistance also.
Property seizure by police called 'highway piracy'
TENAHA — A two-decade-old state law that grants authorities the power to seize property used in a crime is wielded by some agencies against people who are never charged with, much less convicted, of a crime.
Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008, and, to date, filed criminal charges against fewer than half, according to a San Antonio Express-News review of court documents.
Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car that was being driven through town. Some affidavits filed by officers relied on the presence of seemingly innocuous property as the only evidence that a crime had occurred.
Linda Dorman, a great-grandmother from Akron, Ohio, had $4,000 in cash taken from her by local authorities when she was stopped while driving through town after visiting Houston in April 2007. Court records make no mention that anything illegal was found in her van and show no criminal charges filed in the case. She is still waiting for the return of what she calls “her life savings.”
Dorman’s attorney, David Guillory, calls the roadside stops and seizures in Tenaha “highway piracy,” undertaken by a couple of law enforcement officers whose agencies get to keep most of what is seized.
Guillory is suing officials in Tenaha and Shelby County on behalf of Dorman and nine other clients who were stripped of their property. All were African-Americans driving either rentals or vehicles with out-of-state plates.
More...
TENAHA — A two-decade-old state law that grants authorities the power to seize property used in a crime is wielded by some agencies against people who are never charged with, much less convicted, of a crime.
Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008, and, to date, filed criminal charges against fewer than half, according to a San Antonio Express-News review of court documents.
Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car that was being driven through town. Some affidavits filed by officers relied on the presence of seemingly innocuous property as the only evidence that a crime had occurred.
Linda Dorman, a great-grandmother from Akron, Ohio, had $4,000 in cash taken from her by local authorities when she was stopped while driving through town after visiting Houston in April 2007. Court records make no mention that anything illegal was found in her van and show no criminal charges filed in the case. She is still waiting for the return of what she calls “her life savings.”
Dorman’s attorney, David Guillory, calls the roadside stops and seizures in Tenaha “highway piracy,” undertaken by a couple of law enforcement officers whose agencies get to keep most of what is seized.
Guillory is suing officials in Tenaha and Shelby County on behalf of Dorman and nine other clients who were stripped of their property. All were African-Americans driving either rentals or vehicles with out-of-state plates.
More...
Dead teenager 'chose road over Taser'
A 16-year-old boy who was killed by a car while under arrest for aggressive behaviour lay down on the road after being threatened with a Taser, police have said.
Police intercepted the boy on Albion Street at Brasall, Ipswich, after receiving reports of a man allegedly carrying a machete about 11pm on Saturday.
Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said police confronted the youth, who was unarmed at the time, and after they presented a Taser, he lay down on the road.
Mr Stewart told reporters the teenager had been "obviously aggressive".
"They (police) took steps to deal with that and this person made his own choice to immediately comply and lie down on the road once the Taser was presented to him," Mr Stewart said.
While the teenager was on the road, he was hit by an 18-year-old female driver of a car. Police said they tried to warn the woman, but without success.
The boy sustained serious head injuries and was taken to Ipswich General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The incident is being treated as a death in custody and the Ethical Standards Command (ESC) is investigating.
Source
So this kid was being aggressive but complied with police on the spot!!!! BS detector. I wonder what really happened? No one will ever know.
A 16-year-old boy who was killed by a car while under arrest for aggressive behaviour lay down on the road after being threatened with a Taser, police have said.
Police intercepted the boy on Albion Street at Brasall, Ipswich, after receiving reports of a man allegedly carrying a machete about 11pm on Saturday.
Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said police confronted the youth, who was unarmed at the time, and after they presented a Taser, he lay down on the road.
Mr Stewart told reporters the teenager had been "obviously aggressive".
"They (police) took steps to deal with that and this person made his own choice to immediately comply and lie down on the road once the Taser was presented to him," Mr Stewart said.
While the teenager was on the road, he was hit by an 18-year-old female driver of a car. Police said they tried to warn the woman, but without success.
The boy sustained serious head injuries and was taken to Ipswich General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The incident is being treated as a death in custody and the Ethical Standards Command (ESC) is investigating.
Source
So this kid was being aggressive but complied with police on the spot!!!! BS detector. I wonder what really happened? No one will ever know.
Final Arguments Expected In Trial Of Galveston Girl Mistaken For Hooker
Final arguments are expected to begin today in the criminal trail of Dymond Milburn, the 12-year-old Galveston resident who is accused of assaulting cops who tried to arrest her outside her home after mistaking her for a hooker.
We first wrote about her here, in a story that rocketed around the web. Galveston police got a call that three white prostitutes were working Milburn's neighborhood; the girl was outside her home dealing with a tripped breaker. Saying she was wearing provocative clothing, the cops tried to arrest her as she yelled for her hather. She was hospitalized.
They later arrested her at her school.
We wrote a follow-up item from the transcript of the first trial, which ended in a mistrial.
Attorneys for the police have told the current jury, KHOU reports, that all proper procedures were followed.
Milburn is facing assault charges; her attorney, Anthony Griffin, has also filed a federal suit over her arrest.
Source
Final arguments are expected to begin today in the criminal trail of Dymond Milburn, the 12-year-old Galveston resident who is accused of assaulting cops who tried to arrest her outside her home after mistaking her for a hooker.
We first wrote about her here, in a story that rocketed around the web. Galveston police got a call that three white prostitutes were working Milburn's neighborhood; the girl was outside her home dealing with a tripped breaker. Saying she was wearing provocative clothing, the cops tried to arrest her as she yelled for her hather. She was hospitalized.
They later arrested her at her school.
We wrote a follow-up item from the transcript of the first trial, which ended in a mistrial.
Attorneys for the police have told the current jury, KHOU reports, that all proper procedures were followed.
Milburn is facing assault charges; her attorney, Anthony Griffin, has also filed a federal suit over her arrest.
Source
Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash
Judges allegedly took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juveniles in lockups
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.
The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.
In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
“I’ve never encountered, and I don’t think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids’ lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money,” said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.
Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.
No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.
The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles’ records expunged.
Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.
Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.
'I have disgraced my judgeship'
The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.
Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County’s juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, “I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame.” Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.
Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.
Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.
In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.
One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.
The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.
Allegations of extortion
Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.
“Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands,” he said. “These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies.”
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters’ constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.
The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups’ worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.
Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella’s courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.
Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.
“I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?” said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.
Source
Yeah, that's what we need, American style justice and stiffer penalties for our kids :roll:
Judges allegedly took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juveniles in lockups
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.
The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.
In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
“I’ve never encountered, and I don’t think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids’ lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money,” said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.
Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.
No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.
The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles’ records expunged.
Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.
Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.
'I have disgraced my judgeship'
The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.
Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County’s juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, “I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame.” Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.
Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.
Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.
In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.
One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.
The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.
Allegations of extortion
Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.
“Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands,” he said. “These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies.”
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters’ constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.
The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups’ worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.
Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella’s courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.
Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.
“I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?” said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.
Source
Yeah, that's what we need, American style justice and stiffer penalties for our kids :roll:
Thats kind of a silly reason not to do it?
Why not just not have police officers, why have external oversight of the general population since police are just human too.
For most of human history, there was no such thing as an official police force. People enforced the laws themselves and hauled people before judges and courts themselves.
Why not just not have police officers, why have external oversight of the general population since police are just human too.
For most of human history, there was no such thing as an official police force. People enforced the laws themselves and hauled people before judges and courts themselves.