Free Republic

The left's police-hating chickens are coming home to roost. While partisan liberals have gone out of their way to blame conservative media and the Tea Party movement for creating a "climate of hate," they are silent on the cultural and literal war on cops that has raged for decades -- and escalated tragically this year. The total number of law enforcement officers shot and killed this year is up 19 percent over last year, according to the Christian Science Monitor. More officers have died in ambush incidents this year than in any other since 2000. The Lakewood, Wash., massacre on...

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent -- Adam Smith Mike Huckabee is in the news. Back when he was Arkansas governor, his misguided bleeding Christian heart led him to release a criminal who showed his gratitude by killing four police officers in cold blood.  Blame everybody but the criminal... The brutal gang rape last month of a young woman at a high school dance evoked the expected response from the San Fran Sicko Cornicle. It's society's fault, poverty, white people, bla bla bla... Blame everyone and everything but the dirty bastards who committed the crime. Their...

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A DDOT bus carrying dozens of people was hijacked and, for some reason, Detroit Police let the suspected hijacker go with just a ticket. Now here's the part you may find hard to believe: For some reason, Detroit Police let the suspected hijacker go with just a ticket for interference.

Hilarious dashcam video from Taylor, TX. :^)

A federal jury on Friday awarded more than $1.5 million to a supervisor in the city's Traffic Management Authority after finding that four Chicago police officers conspired to violate her civil rights when she was arrested during a dispute over a parking ticket. Jacqueline Fegan hunched over the plaintiff's table in U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's courtroom and wept at word of the verdict. She alleged the officers permanently injured her wrist when she was handcuffed and tossed into a police vehicle on Michigan Avenue.

It's the end of the road for drama "Southland," which has been canceled before the launch of its sophomore season. Production on the John Wells-produced cop series is being shut down after six episodes. "Southland," from Warner Bros. TV, was originally slated to debut in its new Friday 9 p.m. time slot during premiere week, but in August, NBC opted to push the start to Oct. 23 and air "Dateline NBC" in the meantime. "Dateline NBC" will now continue to run in the Friday 9 p.m. hour. It is not clear when the six produced new episodes of "Southland" will...

Note: The following text is a quote: Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference DENVER, COLO. ~ Monday, October 5, 2009 Remarks as prepared for delivery. Thank you, Chief Laine, for that kind introduction. Chief Whitman, thank you for hosting the IACP in your home city. And IACP Executive Director Dan Rosenblatt, thank you for your strong leadership of this outstanding organization. Officers and Members of the Board of Directors, friends, and colleagues. It is my great pleasure to be able to join you today for the first time as Attorney General....

A Pinellas County deputy defused a potentially dangerous situation involving two marauding pit bulls by luring them into his squad car with dog treats, the sheriff's office said this morning. Deputy Vance Nussbaum, 45, was dispatched to a report in Belleair Beach last week that the two canines had charged a 65-year-old woman as she was running into her home away from them, clutching her Doberman pincher puppy, the sheriff's office said.

Call it Bagelgate. The controversy involves a Larksville coffee shop, a Plymouth police officer and a $1.30 bagel. On Wednesday afternoon, witnesses say an on-duty officer in a Plymouth police sport utility vehicle held up the drive-through lane of the Curry Donuts on Route 11 waiting for a toasted bagel with a coffee he was given free. When told he had to pay for the bagel, the officer claimed he didn't have his wallet, said "If it's not free, I don't want it" and drove off. The bagel went to waste. The flap over the bagel has placed a spotlight...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Two police officers who chased and Tasered a 76-year-old man driving a tractor in a Wyoming town parade have been fired. Bud Grose, who was shocked five times by Officer Michael Kavenius, welcomed the decision announced Tuesday by the Glenrock Police Department. "Hopefully this will kind of help bring the community together and be an answer to a lot of questions and problems," he said. Kavenius shot Grose with a Taser on Aug. 1 near the end of Glenrock's annual Deer Creek Days parade. Sgt. Paul Brown was also relieved of duty. Police say Grose, who...

A city police officer who was fired last year after he punched a robbery suspect in front of a patrol car dashboard camera should get his job back, an arbitrator wrote in a decision sent to the police department today. Officer Jason Zangara, 36, was fired in August 2008 along with Officer Louis J. Schwartz, 30, after a department probe concluded the duo used excessive force in arresting Pablo Gilberto Valenzuela, 43, of West Palm Beach. A third officer, Kurt Graham, still was on probation when the internal investigation started. He resigned in July 2008. In June, Schwartz and Graham...

THE ALTERCATION began when Officer Tamika Gross challenged Latifa Savage to a brawl in front of a vacant store next to Savage's Mill Creek home on Saturday, according to neighbors. " 'You got a lot of mouth 'cause you holdin' that baby,' " Gross said, according to witnesses. [snip] Still, witnesses said the tiny woman got the best of the cop in the fight. When backup officers arrived and restrained Savage, Gross kicked her, slammed her head in the sidewalk and screamed threats, forcing her colleagues to repeatedly pull her away, witnesses said.[snip]Savage was face down on the ground. As...

In January, an Onondaga County sheriff's deputy pulled over Audra Harmon, who had two of her kids with her in her minivan. A routine traffic stop escalated quickly. The deputy, Sean Andrews, accused her of talking on her cell phone. She said she could prove him wrong. He said she was speeding. She denied it and got out of the van. He told her to get back in. She did, then he ordered her back out. He yanked her out by the arm, knocked her down with two Taser shots and charged her with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. His...

DeLoyd Scott was riding his bicycle through a residential street in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho last year when he came across a group of officers making a traffic stop. One of the cops stopped him and asked for his identification. He asked them if he was under suspicion of a crime. The cops said he was. He refused to provide his identification until he was provided with “assistance of counsel” - which is his legal right in Idaho, according to the local news report. That prompted the cops to wrestle him to the ground and use their Taser on him. Twice....

Boston police are probing a bloody brawl that left an off-duty Cambridge cop stabbed on Boylston Street in the Back Bay, the Herald has learned. Officer Michael Hinds, 23, told police he was waiting for a cab with friends when a passer-by touched his female friend “inappropriately,” according to a source. Hinds told police he approached the scofflaw and told him what he did was wrong, the source said. But the man began reaching for something in his pockets, Hinds told police. So Hinds began to back away from the suspect, as did another off-duty Cambridge cop who was with...

Terry at ConWebWatch took issue with David Horowitz’s appearance on the Glenn Beck Show and my defense of it: Then, in a July 23 appearance on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show, David Horowitz responded to complaints by Beck’s black crew members about racial profiling by saying: “If he’s on the New Jersey Turnpike or in that area, 70 percent of the drug dealers are black. And who do you think they’re dealing the drugs to? Poor blacks in the — in Newark, in the inner cities there. So the fact that they stopped him — I mean, it’s an inconvenience....

A Gahanna police officer pleaded guilty this morning to speeding charges after he was ticketed last month for traveling almost 150 miles per hour on a motorcycle. Gahanna Officer Christopher Thomas, 33, received a speeding ticket eight days after he was caught going 149 mph on I-70 near Buckeye Lake, and then only after the Ohio Highway Patrol made a courtesy call to his department. Trooper Jason E. Highsmith, 35, who was riding his motorcycle near Thomas, received a ticket for going 147 mph four days later. Licking County Municipal Judge W. David Branstool fined Thomas the maximum $150 and...

After Professor Gates, Why Pretend? NEW YORK--The current national conversation about race and the police reminded me about an incident that occurred when I was in Uzbekistan. As I walked into an apartment complex for an appointment I noticed the decomposing body of a man lying on the side of the road. "How long as he been there?" I asked my host. "Three, maybe four days," he said. "What happened to him?" "Shot, maybe," he shrugged. "Or maybe hit by a car. Something." I didn't bother to ask why no one had called the police. I knew. Calling the Uzbek...

PALM BAY, Fla. -- Police shot a dog Thursday while responding to a domestic disturbance in Palm Bay. Officers, with guns drawn, approached a house on Geary Street. That's when a pit bull charged at officers. Officers say they were forced to open fire. "I myself fired a bean bag, less lethal round, hitting the pit bull in the head. The other officer fired a 9-mm, hitting the pit bull in the right rear leg," explained Sgt. Don Smith, Palm Bay Police Department. The dog survived the shots. Police took the dog, along with two others, into custody. Police also...

The Chicago Police Department has instituted a major change in policy regarding the use of deadly force. Effective next Monday, police officers will be able to fire their guns under circumstances where they previously could not. The new policy, from police Supt. Jody Weis and confirmed by WBBM Newsradio 780 Wednesday morning, allows police officers to shoot at fleeing vehicles if the driver or passengers are suspected of committing a felony. The old policy allowed officers only to shoot at vehicles that pose a threat to them or others, such as if the driver were trying to run down the...

Last week, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, a black man, was arrested by a white police officer for disorderly conduct. Gates accused the officer of racism. President Obama created a national media firestorm by commenting on the arrest, saying the cops "acted stupidly" and that the U.S. has a "long history" of "African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact." It's that old liberal stereotype once again - bigoted white cops picking on poor, innocent blacks, just like Selma, Ala. in 1963. Really? Perhaps Mr. Obama, who lives in a bubble, ought to get...

A Queens cop was shot and wounded when he waded into a heated battle between a transsexual and her ex-con boyfriend today -- hit when a gun accidentally discharged as he wrestled with an armed man near the scene of the domestic mayhem, authorities said.

July 24, 2009 Officer of no color Editor's Note: You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. The President is now backpedaling from his woefully uninformed comments made about a fine officer from Massachusetts. Calling Sergeant James Crowley on the phone and saying to the press that Crowley is "a fine man" rings hollow today because of the knee-jerk reaction we heard on Wednesday. Police work is infinitely more complex than a 10-second sound-bite, and the President's comments are just the most recent, most visible evidence that a lack of understanding about law enforcement permeates our society. I and...

A report issued Wednesday by Boise Community Ombudsman Pierce Murphy found that a Boise police officer who used a Taser on a suspect's buttocks violated the police department's use-of-force policy. The Boise Police Department did an internal investigation, and both employees were disciplined; details on the discipline were not released. It is considered an internal personnel matter, said police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. Murphy transcribed some of it in his report: Officer #3: Do you feel this? Complainant: Yes, sir. Officer #3: Do you feel that? That’s my - Complainant: Okay Officer #3: -Taser up your ass. Complainant: Okay Officer #3:...

This is so drenched in common sense, one wonders from where Obama gets his advice.

Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.

Police Sgt. James Crowley told WHDH-TV that scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was "agitated" when he arrested for disorderly conduct. Sgt. Crowley said he tried to speak to Gates, however he responded "why, am I black man?" Sgt. was also called a "racist." Crowley said this response is not one he would expect from a reasonable person As the situation progressed, Gates became increasingly frustrated. As Sgt. Crowley was leaving, he said, Gates told him "he picked the wrong guy to mess with" and "I'll see your momma on the porch.

Leadership: Barack Obama promised a new "post-racialism." But when a black pal was arrested by a white policeman for disorderly conduct, the president's response was pure old race politics. So which is it?Leadership: Barack Obama promised a new "post-racialism." But when a black pal was arrested by a white policeman for disorderly conduct, the president's response was pure old race politics. So which is it?

Should Sgt. James Crowley apologize to Henry Louis Gates Jr.? Yes No I have mixed feelings AND: President Obama says the police "acted stupidly" in this case. Do you agree? Yes No Plus 2 more...

Obama Attacks Docs and Cops President Obama spent most of his press conference tonight denying what President Kennedy famously affirmed -- that to govern is to choose. Obama promised us health care this is at once better and cheaper, with both more regulation and more freedom to choose, featuring an assurance that government won’t limit our care and a commitment to a government panel that will save money by restricting care. The juvenile happy talk reached its peak with this presidential statement: “If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of...

CHESTER, Pa., July 19 (UPI) -- The deputy police chief in Haverford Township, Pa., says a police officer's decision to shut down a lemonade stand run by children was a misunderstanding. Deputy Chief John F. Viola said the officer shut down a lemonade stand run by seven children because the young entrepreneurs were allegedly peddling their refreshments to residents by visiting their homes, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. Viola said the lemonade stand visit by the officer, whose identity was not released, was prompted by a call from a concerned neighbor. "We all sold lemonade when we were kids," Viola...

(AP Photo/El Monte Police Department) It all started out with a kick to the head. True, the suspect was not exactly one to elicit sympathy, but that's not the point. A free society cannot tolerate police acting outside the law to administer physical punishment. Except Dean Scoville, "Associate Editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department," disagrees with that: There was a time when post pursuit ass-kickings were obligatory. Cops knew it, suspects knew it, and there are enough old timers on both sides of the fence that will verify the...

I would welcome fellow Freeper input on an exchange I had with the police last night. First a little background. I've got 20 years in the military, started out my life giving police officers a great deal of respect and knee jerking to their defense. Over the course of years, however, I've lost a lot of respect for the police via watching continual police traffic violations, watching unprofessional behavior and seeing shows of petty tyranny over their fellow citizens. Although I'd still like to be wholeheartedly pro-law and think the way to get respectable enforcement officers is to demand professionalism,...

"Special coverage: Law Enforcement and the Economy" CHICAGO — SNIPPET: "As hundreds of jobs in Chicago's police department go unfilled, officers who once patrolled the streets with partners are riding alone in what some cops bitterly call "rolling coffins."" SNIPPET: "This is what the nation's economic crisis looks like in law enforcement. As tax revenue shrivels, police agencies that for years were bulletproof when it came to funding are tightening their belts. Some worry that criminals will take advantage of the situation."

They use forklift in getaway from city lotThieves of the especially brazen variety busted into a New Orleans repair lot for city-owned vehicles Thursday night or early Friday, and made off with two unmarked police cars. The car-lot burglars apparently hopped the fence at the maintenance facility on Alvar Street in the Desire neighborhood, said Bob Young, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department. They managed to break into a building and snatch keys to two cars that belong to the Police Department.Then, to get the cars out, the thieves used a forklift inside the compound to knock down...

Shawn Gaston, the 20-year-old accused of fatally shooting Chicago Police Officer Alejandro Valadez, is every judge's nightmare. Gaston appeared to be the kind of young person community and social activists are trying to save. When he was arrested two years ago for carrying a handgun, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Bertina Lampkin, a 22-year veteran, gave him probation. But Lampkin's decision not to put the young man behind bars after he violated conditions imposed by that probation has caused her grief.

NORFOLK A Newport News police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony embezzlement charge. Thomas D. Crouch was accused of taking money from a Police Emerald Society of Tidewater account that held fund raising money, according to a summary of evidence submitted to the court. Crouch, who was president of the society from September 2007 to June 2008, admitted to members that he took more than $5,400 because he had fallen on financial hard times. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Crouch must resign from the Newport News Pol ice and return the money by June 10. His sentencing...

Birmingham police beating video: Five officers fired Posted by Carol Robinson - The Birmingham News May 20, 2009 9:08 AM Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today. Authorities believe the video, [see the full chase here: http://videos.al.com/birmingham-news/2009/05/birmingham_police_beating_vide_1.html] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect's van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and...

NEEDHAM, Mass. – A Massachusetts man may wish he had breakfast in bed instead of in his car. Police said a man who was stopped for erratic driving on Central Avenue last week was eating a bowl of cereal and milk while he drove. He told officers he was hungry. ... Schlittler didn't know what kind of cereal the driver was eating.

Created in the middle of President Bill Clinton's first term, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program[1] promised to put 100,000 new state and local law enforcement officers on the street by 2000. Critics said that COPS would fail to meet this goal and that state and local governments would do what they always do when the federal government subsidizes any core responsibility of state or local governments: stop paying for it themselves and become dependent on funding from Washington. The critics were right on both counts.As a crime-reduction policy, the COPS program failed to live up to its sponsors'...

January 26, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- When we think of police canine units, the breed that most commonly comes to mind is the German shepherd. But rookie canines on the job now are anything but ordinary. The two newest members of the Cook County Sheriff's K9 unit are unique and are already performing beyond expectations. A big bloodhound puppy named Melanie helped police rescued a suicidal man from a forest preserve earlier this month.

They call it the patriot act. It is suppose to help protect citizens. It is supposed to be used as a tool to assist law enforcement in determining who and who is not a threat to the U.S. It was meant to be an aid, in protecting the Freedoms that all American have. But there is nothing patriotic about how a bunch of law enforcement idiots have misused it to come down on a 16 year old citizen from North Carolina. They determined that Ashton Lundeby was a threat due to information they got from the net that was supposed...

Two off-duty Atlanta Police Department officers were arrested early Monday morning in Cherokee County, charged with reckless conduct for shooting dozens of bullets into Lake Allatoona. At around 1 a.m. Cherokee 911 received several calls complaining about the gunfire. Deputies were dispatched to the Allatoona shoreline, and one reported a bullet landed just 15 feet away from where he stood, said Cherokee Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jay Baker. “There were people fishing in the area at the time,” he said. The shots were traced to the Cedar Drive home of Atlanta police officer Dan Rasmussen, 43. Fellow cop Chad Armstrong, 31,...

CLEVELAND (AP) — The sister of an Ohio soldier killed in Iraq was ticketed for speeding and missed a ceremony awarding him a posthumous Bronze Star and Purple Heart. The ticket was issued by a state trooper to 25-yearold Rebecca Davis of Cuyahoga Heights along Interstate 77 on Thursday despite her request for a warning and to call and confirm her situation. The ticket was withdrawn about three hours later when a State Highway Patrol lieutenant went to the funeral home and apologized. A relative of Davis, who is a police officer, had called to complain about the ticket. She...

04-16) 21:44 PDT Modesto -- The man who shot and killed four Oakland police officers last month has been named as a suspect in another violent crime: a February home-invasion robbery in Modesto. Lovelle Mixon's apparent link to the robbery was announced Thursday by the Modesto Police Department after the arrest of the other suspect in the robbery, Cedric Larue Daniels of Modesto. The crime occurred on February 21st, when two men ransacked a Modesto house, pistol-whipped a man in the home and assaulted the woman who was there.

East. St. Louis — Twenty minutes after a killing in a Schnucks store Tuesday, Officer Kristopher Weston arrested a suspect he found hiding in some bushes. A few hours after that, the mayor called Weston before the City Council to recognize him for his work. And less than five minutes after that, they voted to lay him off. Weston's low seniority put him among five police officers, five firefighters and about as many other employees who will lose their jobs at the end of the month as part of budget cuts unanimously approved at the emergency council meeting Tuesday. In...

It's very touching. here

Trooper in trouble over Facebook photos Posted: March 24, 2009 10:24 PM Updated: March 25, 2009 11:43 AM ISP Trooper Chris Pestow IMPD Officer Andrew Deddish Pestow and Deddish are in trouble for this photo posted on Pestow's Facebook page. Bob Segall/13 InvestigatesIndianapolis - An Indiana State Trooper is under investigation for what some call compromising photos and statements he posted on the Internet. Police say what 13 Investigates found on Trooper Chris Pestow's personal Facebook page is embarrassing and might even be against the law. Some of the entries showed Pestow with a .357 Magnum pointed at his head,...

2:48 p.m. Orlando Police Chief Val Demings took full responsibility for the theft of her gun as new details emerged Wednesday. The pistol disappeared a month but did not become public until late Tuesday when a tipster contacted the Orlando Sentinel. Demings held a press conference at noon Wednesday to talk about what happened and that a policy that allows cops to leave their guns in cars overnight will be reviewed. "I would say to the community 'Anybody can be a victim, it happened to me,'" she said. "Do everything you can to safeguard your family, your home and yourself."

A Roman Catholic priest who monitors law enforcement treatment of minorities with a video camera released footage that appears to contradict the police account of his own arrest. A police report says the Rev. James Manship was confronted and arrested Feb. 19 because he was holding an "unknown shiny silver object" and struggled with an officer who was trying to take it from him. But a 15-second video released this week by Manship's attorneys shows East Haven police Officer David Cari asking Manship, "Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"