Free Republic

Video released last weekend shows Ryan Conklin of Monroe County, New York, being detained by three police officers for simply asking a question. Conklin recounted his trip to a Henrietta Hots restaurant with a friend to blogger Davy V., recalling how he noticed three Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies inside the restaurant and decided to ask them a question. “I simply asked three Monroe County Sheriffs, why they all were all at Henrietta Hots when it is a busy holiday weekend, and I suggested they be split up and police the area, taking staggered breaks,” Conklin said. “During the full discussion,...

<p>The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly claimed that it has the authority to unilaterally garnish the wages of individuals who have been accused of violating its rules.</p> <p>According to The Washington Times, the agency announced the plan to enhance its purview last week in a notice in the Federal Register. The notice claimed that federal law allows the EPA to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order."</p>

The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly floated a rule claiming authority to bypass the courts and unilaterally garnish paychecks of those accused of violating its rules, a power currently used by agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service..... ....Critics said the threat of garnishing wages would be a powerful incentive for people to agree to expensive settlements rather than fight EPA charges. EPA officials did not respond to repeated questions by The Washington Times about why they thought it was necessary to garnish people’s wages. The EPA announced the plan last week in a notice in the Federal Register, saying...

An Indiana cop was allowed to keep his job after police brass recommended he be fired for shoving a paraplegic man out of his wheelchair during a confrontation on the street, officials said. Lafayette Police Lieutenant Tom Davidson was one of several officers called to confront the wheelchair-bound man, Nicholas Kincade, at North Ninth and Elizabeth Sts. on Oct. 1, 2013, officials said. Kincade, 25, had allegedly told employees at a nearby charter school that he was carrying a gun, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported. The cops quickly determined that Kincade wasn’t packing heat and only found a pocket...

A California trooper has been filmed brutally beating a woman on the side of a highway - but authorities claimed he simply stopped her for her own safety. A passing motorist recorded the unidentified California Highway Patrol officer as he punched the woman at least 11 times in the head along the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles on Tuesday. On the video uploaded to YouTube, the woman can be seen trying to protect herself by putting up her hands but she does not appear to resist the trooper. 'The most animalistic, most brutal way to subdue someone is to pound...

A government-contracted security force threatened to arrest doctors and nurses if they divulged any information about the contagion threat at a refugee camp housing illegal alien children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sources say. In spite of the threat, several former camp workers broke their confidentiality agreements and shared exclusive details with me about the dangerous conditions at the camp. ====================== She said children in the camp had measles, scabies, chicken pox and strep throat as well as mental and emotional issues. “It was not a good atmosphere in terms of health,” she said. “I would...

EUGENE, Ore. - If you refuse to take an alcohol breath test this Fourth of July weekend, be prepared to give blood. Eugene, Springfield and Oregon State police plan a "No Refusal Weekend" over the Independence Day holiday. Police plan to work in coordination with prosecutors and judges to quickly obtain "blood draw warrants" for drivers who refuse blood alcohol content testing.

TEMPE, Ariz. (CBS Las Vegas) - An Arizona State University English professor is claiming self-defense against a campus police officer who slammed her to the front of a police car last month. Dr. Ersula Ore was walking near campus when she was stopped by an officer while crossing College Avenue near Fifth Street. “The reason I’m talking to you right now is because you are walking in the middle of the street,” Officer Stewart Ferrin said in a video recording obtained by KTVK. “Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID.” “Are you...

Perhaps feeling a bit besieged after dog owner Sean Kendall posted a video of his impassioned confrontation with Salt Lake City police after one of their fellow officers entered his yard and shot his dog, Geist, Police Chief Chris Burbank stepped in front of a camera—and acted pissy that anybody would dare criticize his officers. "Evidence shows that the dog was extremely close, in fact within feet of the officer," he insisted, immediately after stating that he wouldn't insert himself into the review of the case. Well, OK. Let's give him that one. After all, Officer Brett Olsen, the shooter...

More in contemporary policing practice keeping you and yours safe and sound, out of Mason County, West Virginia, reported in the Charleston Daily Mail:It starts with a bunch of police cars chasing a suspect in a car down a not-much-traveled rural road. A family dog goes to investigate when eight police officers and their dog in tactical gear emerge from the woods near the Sweat family home. Then: [Ginger Sweat's] 6-year-old Basset hound/beagle mix, Willy Pete, left the porch and made his way toward the troopers. The dog, she said, suffered from arthritis in his back legs and was not...

An Ohio dad lost his job at McDonald's and may face jail after he reportedly believed his son got on a church van Sunday, but instead, the boy popped up at a nearby Family Dollar store. [....] Williamson was arrested at the scene and could be charged with child endangerment, the report said.

A man whose dog was recently shot and killed by Salt Lake City police has posted a video of an exchange he had with officers minutes after the shooting. Sean Kendall’s 3-year-old Weimaraner, named Geist, was shot in the head last week after officers entered the homeowner’s yard while searching for a missing child. The video, posted to Kendall’s Facebook page on Wednesday, begins 15 minutes after the shooting, right after Kendall received a call from animal control informing him of the incident. “Which officer shot my dog? Please,” Kendall asked several officers standing in his front yard when he...

Governor Deval Patrick today signed into law a bill raising the minimum wage from $8 to $11 per hour by 2017, setting Massachusetts on course to have the highest minimum wage of any state in the country. “Raising the minimum is about bringing a little relief to the working poor, many of whom do jobs we could not live without and who, by the way, will recycle that money right back into the economy,” Patrick said at a signing ceremony at the State House, joined by the Senate president, the House speaker and a number of other state political leaders....

As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments -------------- Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And it’s here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they’re private corporations, not government agencies.

HOMESTEAD, FL — EXCLUSIVE — A Florida couple was traumatized after a dozen heavily armed SWAT agents crashed through their front door, flash-banged their cat, aimed rifles at them and searched their home without explanation. * * * * * The raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of June 10th, 2014. At approximately 6:16 a.m., Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were intruded upon by men dressed in full SWAT gear and wielding rifles. After smashing down the couple’s front door, agents tossed concussion grenades and proceeded into the home. “They busted in like I was a terrorist or...

After our house burned down in Wisconsin a few months ago, my husband and I packed our four young kids and all our belongings into a gold minivan and drove to my sister-in-law’s place, just outside of Atlanta. On the back windshield, we pasted six stick figures: a dad, a mom, three young girls, and one baby boy. That minivan was sitting in the front driveway of my sister-in-law’s place the night a SWAT team broke in, looking for a small amount of drugs they thought my husband’s nephew had. Some of my kids’ toys were in the front yard,...

Old guy in the cell: What are you in for? New guy in the cell: I aged cheese on wooden boards. Old guy: Oh. (Moves away slowly.) From Walter Olson at Overlawyered, the FDA has interpreted the Food Safety Modernization Act to preclude the aging of cheese on wood boards. Much as you may not think this touches your life, it does if you happen to enjoy any better cheese than velveeta. From CheeseUnderground: A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community, as the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced...

We all saw this one coming. Two weeks after Elliot Roger stabbed three people and shot three more, a trio of legislators from California (including Dianne Feinstein) have proposed a new federal law called “The Pause for Safety Act” which would allow anyone at any time to seek a “firearms restraining order” against an individual to prevent them from purchasing any new firearms and also confiscate any firearms they may already own. From Barbara Boxer’s website, here are the details we have at the moment: The new legislation – The Pause for Safety Act – will include the following provisions:...

In this week's address, President Barack Obama underscored the importance of helping to lift the burden of crushing student loan debt faced by too many Americans and highlighted the efforts he's taken to ensure we uphold America's commitment to provide a quality education for all who are willing to work for it.

HOLMES BEACH, FL — With the help of new technology and federal grant money, police are preparing to warrantlessly search people’s refreshments as they visit the beaches of Florida. New passive alcohol detectors can simply be hovered above a person’s beverage to detect whether it contains alcohol. Similar devices can detect alcohol on someone’s breath. “We can go up to anybody we want, OK? If we see something that looks like alcohol.” On Holmes Beach, even the mere possession of sealed alcohol containers is illegal. Police are using that as an excuse to inspect anyone’s beverage they choose. “We can...