Free Republic

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that police officers are not exempt from prosecution under the state’s witness-intimidation law. In a 6-1 decision, the court upheld the 2010 conviction of a former Cincinnati police officer for intimidating a teenage boy into making a false confession for several robberies by threatening to jail his mother and remove his siblings from their home. While the boy spent nine days in juvenile detention, Officer Julian Steele persuaded his mother to meet with him several times, telling her he wanted to discuss her son’s release. Eventually getting her to meet at his apartment, Steele...

A 3-year-old police dog died from a heat stroke after being left in his handler’s patrol car, Woodstock police said Tuesday. Spartacus, a Belgian Malinois, was found dead inside the patrol car around 9 p.m. Monday at the officer’s Pickens County home, according to Brittany Duncan, Woodstock police spokeswoman. *** The officer has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Duncan said. **** In an unrelated case, a South Georgia police officer resigned in September after leaving his canine partner “Sasha” in his patrol vehicle for three days.

Cop Hits Little Girl With Motorcycle Then Shoots and Kills Angry Dad

A dog was shot and severely injured by a Leander police officer Monday night after the officer attempted to serve a warrant at the wrong address, according to the dog’s owners and a statement from the Leander Police Department. The dog, a German shepherd named Vinny that works as a therapy dog, was shot in the neck and is recovering at the home of his owners in Liberty Hill. Renata and James Simmons, the dog’s owners, are baffled and distraught by the actions of the officer. According to the statement from LPD, Warrant Officer Woodson Blase arrived at the Simmons’...

19-year-old Kendrec McDade was shot multiple times by police in Pasadena last March while fleeing. Cops continued to shoot when they mistook their own shots for shots from the suspect. Police say they believed McDade had a gun based on his behavior during the foot chase (holding his waistband) and on a 911 call reporting as much. The 911 caller, Oscar Carillo, was arrested on an involuntary manslaughter charge a month after the shooting after admitted to lying about being robbed at gunpoint in order to elicit a faster police response. Federal immigration authorities also asked that he be detained...

Police in Slaton, Texas, took exception when a 32-yeReason 24/7Reasonar-old mom had the nerve to ask to see the arrest warrant for her 11-year-old son. Rather than show it, or leave, they arrested the by-the-book mother and hauled her in to spend the night behind bars. The son who was the supposed focus of their attentions? They left him unmolested. From MyFoxLubbock: Slaton police came to this woman's house, who wishes to remain anonymous, to arrest her son. But by asking one simple question, she found herself behind bars instead. "I told him, 'I will release my son to you...

*VIDEO* Police open fire on a car sitting at crowded DWI checkpointBRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A couple celebrating Father’s Day with their baby found themselves in the middle of a shootout at a DWI checkpoint when officers unloaded on a car sitting in heavy traffic. The couple, Jared and Rose Cleerdin were hoping it wouldn’t be their last Father’s Day together as the officers fired dozens of rounds in the direction of on-coming traffic. Jared Cleerden believes the officers acted way beyond what was necessary for public safety saying, ”Every cop turned around and started unloading like super...

A retired police sergeant now working part time as a humane officer for the City of North Ridgeville, Ohio, Police Department was dispatched last Monday to the home of a local couple who’d called to report a litter of feral kittens that had taken up residence in a woodpile in their back yard. The woman who placed the call said the animals were a nuisance, bringing fleas and dead animals onto her property. Her husband also said the mother cat had been a nuisance for several years, but had grown especially fierce and protective of her litter and resisted his...

In April 8th grade student Jared Marcum was SUSPENDED and ARRESTED for wearing a NRA T-shirt to school. Local law enforcement officials confirmed Jared Marcum was arrested over the T-shirt. It was offensive. WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports Now it looks like Jared could face up to a year in jail. Guns Save Lives reported: According to a report by WTRF the prosecuting attorney is moving forward with that charge and a judge is allowing the case to move forward. Fourteen year old Jared Marcum could face up to a $500 fine and up to a year...

PELL CITY, Alabama -- St. Clair and Bibb county authorities are confirming there were roadblocks at several locations in their counties Friday and Saturday asking for blood and DNA samples. However, the samples were voluntary and motorists were paid for them as part of a study, they said. According to Lt. Freddie Turrentine of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, it isn't the first time such roadblocks have occurred in the area. "They were here in 2007," said Turrentine, the supervisor in charge of the roadblocks, which took place in several locations in St. Clair County Friday night, early Saturday...

BOSTON, June 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Criminals just got more rights in the city of Boston – at least, those who identify as transgender. According to new regulations, officers of the Boston Police Department must use a transgender suspect's preferred first name, find out whether the person likes to be called “he” or “she,” allow him to choose whether male or female officers perform his frisking, and give any transgender inmate a private ride to and from court. New BPD rules say police must use the name anyone who is arrested prefers, “even if the individual has not received legal...

Submitted by Brannon LeBouefExecutive Summary: Yes, some guns were confiscated in New Orleans, LA (NOLA) following hurricane Katrina, but it was nowhere near as widespread as some would have you believe. They were isolated incidents and the majority of those were done by out of town LEO and MIL.What you are about to read are my personal experiences and recollection of events as I saw them. While not all-inclusive, I think they lend a fiar account of what really happened on the ground. Realities:While it has been nearly 8 years since the events of Hurricane Katrina, which in my opinion...

CAPITOL POLICE SUDDENLY WANTS TO SEE TEA PARTY WEBSITES BEFORE PROTEST APPROVED. And they are taking weeks to grant the request.The Tea Party Patriots were planning a rally in Washington DC on Wednesday June 19th. But they ran into a wall. The Capitol Police want to see their websites first. Kevin Mooneyhan from the Tea Party Patriots described this latest assault on the Tea Party: Below is the timeline of events surrounding our June 19th rally at the Capitol. We haven’t done anything to publicize this event yet because we wanted to make sure we had the permit in hand....

NORTH RIDGEVILLE – Despite calls for the firing of Humane Officer Barry Accorti, who shot and killed five feral kittens in the backyard of a Vista Lake Way home Monday, the city’s police chief has decided his actions do not warrant discipline. In a written account of the incident signed by Police Chief Michael Freeman that was released to news media Tuesday afternoon, Freeman said “at no time does this agency condone or allow the indiscriminate killing of animals” while noting police believed the incident proposed the health and safety risks posed by the feral animals. After visiting the home,...

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A widow is seeking answers after her husband was shot and killed on his own property by Fort Worth police officers early Tuesday morning. “I think the police made a terrible mistake,” said Kathy Waller. She said that a loud noise and bright light woke up her and her husband, 73-year-old Jerry Waller, shortly after midnight on Tuesday. He grabbed a gun and headed to the garage, she said, where Jerry Waller was then shot by police officers who were investigating a burglar alarm. Waller thinks that the officers reacted too quickly. “Somebody just got a...

VIDEO [Original] -- This Is Sick: Cop Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Woman In Courtroom Then Arrested Her While Judge Ignores Her Plea As Young Child Watches!

The city fired a police sergeant, demoted two other supervisors and suspended nine more Tuesday for their roles in the chase in which officers fired 137 shots and killed a fleeing driver and his passenger. ....Of the 276 officers on duty on the evening of Nov. 29, 104 were involved in some way in the chase. Russell was shot 23 times and Williams 24 after a half-hour pursuit.end snips

BOULDER, Colo. - Boulder police say they have a right to enter unsecured homes if residents leave an open door. Boulder police Sgt. Michael Everett tells the Boulder Daily Camera entering unsecured residences is a standard procedure for most law enforcement agencies, including Boulder police. He says the practice is not likely to stop. Chrissy Smiley called police to complain after she returned to her south Boulder condominium after walking her dogs Thursday and found a card from a Boulder police officer sitting on her dining room table letting her know he had been there. Boulder police officials told The...

An Ohio man was charged with DUI after her was pulled over by the police, despite the fact that a breathalyzer test showed he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.000. 64-year-old Jessie Thornton who now lives in Surprise, Arizona said cops told him that they could tell he was drunk simply by looking at him. -snip- Surprise Police Department paperwork shows Thornton was 'pulled over for crossing the white line in his lane.' 'An officer walked up and he said ‘I can tell you’re driving DUI by looking in your eyes.’ I take my glasses off and he says, ‘You’ve...

ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) - A bill currently making its way through the State Legislature would make it a crime to annoy a police officer, a move that could have far reaching consequences. The State Senate passed the bill Wednesday that makes it felony to “harass, annoy, threaten or alarm� an on duty police officer by subjecting them to any physical contact. A press release from the NYS Senate originally stated, “The bill (S.2402), sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo (R-C-I, Rome) would make it a felony to harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty.� However, as the bill...

BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) - Adam Arroyo has lived in his Breckenridge apartment for three years but has never experienced a day like this past Monday; when police busted down his door in search of drugs, shooting and killing his dog in the process. "She's over here, chained up, and look at all these bullet holes man. Look at the blood right here," Arroyo explained as he showed Eyewitness cameras where his pit bull mix Cindy had been shot. "She was tied up in the kitchen like I tie her up every single day, and they shot her for no reason."...

Megan Graham claims that she had to call 911 on the police...while being arrested. Graham, who has cognitive and hearing disabilities, said she was recently beaten by a police officer while restrained by other officers in Federal Way, Wash. Meanwhile, despite her complaint, police want the bruised and battered Graham to be charged with felony assault to a police officer. "I had a concussion," Graham told KIRO 7. "I still have a hard time understanding how things got so out of control so fast. It was a total lack of communication."   Graham parked her car at an apartment complex where she...

At a pre-trial hearing on May 28, the attorney for accused murderer George Zimmerman, Mark O'Mara, slipped a time bomb into the public record that no one in the major media seemed to notice. It had to do with a homeless man, and the relationship between that man and the victim of Zimmerman's alleged crime, Trayvon Martin. O'Mara's allusion had particular resonance in this case because Zimmerman first surfaced publicly in Sanford, Florida, in a case involving a homeless man. As it happened, in December 2010, a police lieutenant's son named Justin Collison sucker-punched a black homeless man named Sherman...

Fourteen-year-old Tremaine McMillian didn't threaten police. He didn't attack them. He wasn't armed. All the black teenager did was appear threatening by shooting Miami-Dade police officers a few "dehumanizing stares," and that was apparently enough for the officers to decide to slam him against the ground and put him in a chokehold. During Memorial Day weekend, McMillian was rough-housing with another teenager on the sand. Police approached the teen on an ATV and told him that wasn't acceptable behavior. They asked him where his parents were, but MicMillian attempted to walk away. The officer jumped off the ATV, and tried...

New Jersey: Court Upholds Man Arrested For Visible Gun Case In Car New Jersey appellate court upholds five-year sentence for ex-cop who was driving with his legally owned guns. Readington TownshipMotorists driving through New Jersey can be subjected to a warrantless search if their luggage is similar in appearance to a gun case, an appellate court ruled last week. The Superior Court's Appellate Division upheld a five year prison sentence against Dustin S. Reininger, a former police officer who was in the process of moving from Maine to Texas when a Readington Township police officer recognized the cases in the...

It is a petition to end what many Tucson drivers describe as a traffic light trap. John Kromko is the man behind the petition. His group, Tucson Traffic Justice, claims the cameras are a scam. ... Ditching the cameras is not as far-fetched as it may seem. More and more cities are shutting down the system including San Diego, Los Angeles and Tempe.

New York Daily News Photo Illustration Related Stories Gunman fires at plainclothes cops in Bed-Stuy investigating shooting of parked carsBe Our Guest: Ending stop-and-frisk abuses will help rebuild neighborhood trust in the NYPD Cops offer 12G reward in honor student's club murderBrooklyn cop shot in precinct parking lot NYPD veteran Daniel Sbarra donned his dress blues on Aug. 2, 2011, and headed to One Police Plaza — where Commissioner Raymond Kelly, a promotion and a pay raise awaited. Kelly shook his hand. And targets of Sbarra’s crude and costly police tactics were left shaking their heads. The Brooklyn North Narcotics...

In Brooklyn, the district attorney’s office has ordered that about 50 murder cases — all linked to one detective — be reviewed because of questions about the officer’s tactics. Cook County, which also has a number of controversial cases linked to a single detective, should order a similar review. Dozens of defendants and witnesses over the years have alleged that retired Area 5 Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara beat and threatened them into making false statements. That doesn’t mean the allegations are true. But there are enough complaints to make these cases ideal candidates for the state’s attorney’s Conviction Integrity...

DENVER (AP) – Colorado dogs were probably one of the biggest winners of the legislative session that just concluded. On the day that shelter dogs and cats were designated the official state pet, Gov. John Hickenlooper also signed a bill into law Monday that requires new training for Colorado law enforcement on how to safely handle dog encounters in the line of duty. ***** Law enforcement offered guidance on the bill, which has exemptions for officers to exercise discretion during calls and take into account their safety and the safety of others when dealing with dogs. Sheriff’s deputies assigned to...

Baltimore prosecutors today dropped attempted murder and first-degree assault charges against a man who shot four police detectives during a November drug raid, saying they believe Lewis S. Cauthorne acted in self-defense when he wounded the officers as they barged into his home. Investigators concluded detectives did not announce that they were police just before smashing down Cauthorne's door with a battering ram and rushing in to look for drugs, State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said at a news conference this morning in Clarence Mitchell Courthouse. Cauthorne was interviewed by police the night of the incident and told them, "I...

At the President’s 2009 address to Congress, Michelle Obama was seated next to a potentially very dangerous man (no, I’m not talking about Joe Biden). 27-year-old Richard DeCoatsworth, a former Philadelphia police officer hailed as a hero, has been arrested and charged with rape, sexual assault, and terroristic threats. He allegedly produced a gun and forced two women to use drugs and perform sexual acts. On Thursday around 2:00am, DeCoatsworth left a party with two 20-year-old females. The trio then went to the home of one of the women. This is where the episode involving a firearm, and “forced” sexual...

Daniele Perazzi, president of the Italian Perazzi Shotguns firm, was taken into custody yesterday by Adams County Deputies [see update, below] along with several prototype shotguns. The executive was picked up in the parking lot of the Denver Merchandise Mart, hosting the high-end Colorado Gun Collectors show this weekend, after a taxi driver, likely reacting to a suspicious activity reporting outreach program conducted by law enforcement, told authorities he thought he could be transporting an armed “foreign speaking” terror suspect. “He loaded prototype shotguns into the cab on the way to the Merchandise Mart,” gun rights activist and newly-elected National...

THE BRONX, NYC, NY -- After a year of public outrage and legal proceedings, a judge has simply thrown out the indictment of Officer Richard Haste, who gunned down an unarmed man inside his own home, without a warrant. Haste was facing manslaughter charges until the judge tossed the indictment. https://www.facebook.com/PoliceStateUSA In February 2012, police broke into the home of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham without a warrant, did not announce themselves as police, shoved guns in the faces of the residents and ultimately gunned down Graham for no reason.

The 21-year-old Hofstra student who was killed during a Long Island home invasion was shot dead by a police officer as the gunman had her in a headlock and was trying to drag her out of the house, officials said Saturday. Nassau County Police said at a news conference Andrea Rebello was killed by police, not by the armed gunman who was trying to rob the off-campus house where she was living with her twin sister, Jessica, and several others. Rebello, a Hofstra junior studying public relations, and suspect Dalton Smith, 30, were both shot and killed as he was...

Federal accident investigators recommended Tuesday that states cut their threshold for drunken driving by nearly half, matching a standard that has substantially reduced highway deaths in other countries. The National Transportation Safety Board said states should shrink the standard from the current .08 blood alcohol content to .05 as part of a series of recommendations aimed at reducing alcohol-related highway deaths. More than 100 countries have adopted the .05 alcohol content standard or lower, according to a report by the board's staff. In Europe, the share of traffic deaths attributable to drunken driving was reduced by more than half within...

A woman says that she warned police she was filming a fatal encounter between six of them and another man. She says police took her phone before she could post the video to the Web. There are now suggestions the footage was deleted. Cell phones seem to be causing the police increasing unease. It's quite easy for ordinary people to film officers in the line of duty, and sometimes that duty can seem to be excessively dutiful. This seems to be the view of Maria Melendez, who says she used her phone to film a case of what appeared to...

The YouTube channel Patriot News Organization on Thursday uploaded a training video from the Department of Homeland Security that depicts a fake news broadcast about a police SWAT team raiding an American house and arresting "extremist" members of a “local militia group” for possession of illegal firearms and planning to commit terrorist attacks. “Very disturbing video straight from DHS website - they use it to help train all of the deputized agencies during a crisis, even hospital administrators, media faces, everything and everyone that would be involved in such an event,” reads the Patriot News Organization’s description of the video....

How is it at all legal for the police to have coerced people from their homes during the house to house search that was conducted in Watertown MA last week? By 'coerced', I mean being told to leave their residence by police SWAT teams. When you have 10 police pointing rifles at you, yelling at your to get out of your house, I'd consider that coersion. These people were removed from their homes and forced to go someplace else. It appears that they were not 'allowed' back into their homes for hours. How is that possible in America? Were homeowners...

Driving in the early morning hours to his job at a metal shop in Buda, Miguel Montanez at first thought the approaching lights were a school bus or a tow truck. But Montanez says it was a Hays County SWAT truck that rammed his car head-on. As they collided, another police vehicle pinned him from behind, he says. He heard a shot. “I saw my windshield crack, and I ducked down as low as possible,” Montanez said. “I really thought I was going to die.” Seconds later, he says, three deputies were pointing assault rifles at him. “That’s when I...

Sgt. Nathan Hutchinson of the Weber County (Utah) Sheriff's Office had no idea he and his narcotics strike force team would be shot at when they arrived to search for a pot growing operation in January 2012. Hutchinson braved gunfire to move two injured team members out of harm's way. He suffered four gunshot wounds and endured a lengthy recovery to return to duty. For his actions he has been selected as the March 2013 Officer of the Month by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. On the night of Jan. 4, 2012, Sgt. Hutchinson led a team from...

DACONO, Colo. — A Dacono family is demanding answers from police, after their support dog was shot when he got loose and ran toward a neighbor’s yard Sunday night. Mongo, a 3-year-old pit bull puppy, is recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest, as his owner, James Vester, is hoping for an apology from Dacono Police. “I didn’t think I would see that again. You see it in Iraq — and then you see your best friend here get shot,” said Vester, a Marine Corp. sniper, who says he got Mongo, a certified emotional support dog, to alleviate stress...

TAMPA BAY, Florida (WTSP) -- A subtle, but significant tweak to Florida's rules regarding traffic signals has allowed local cities and counties to shorten yellow light intervals, resulting in millions of dollars in additional red light camera fines. The 10 News Investigators discovered the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) quietly changed the state's policy on yellow intervals in 2011, reducing the minimum below federal recommendations. The rule change was followed by engineers, both from FDOT and local municipalities, collaborating to shorten the length of yellow lights at key intersections, specifically those with red light cameras (RLCs). While yellow light times...

Show us the data. That’s the message behind a joint lawsuit seeking to force the Los Angeles law enforcement authorities to release a massive trove of information collected by ubiquitous cameras that read license plates and can thus track the movements of millions of motorists not suspected of any crime. The cameras, called automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), are on fixed locations, including stop lights, street signs and in squad cars. Each camera can record as many as 1,800 plates per minute, and more than 160 million "data points" have been collected in Los Angeles County, according to one report....

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Minnesota State Patrol had to put down two horses after they got away from their Faribault farm early Monday morning. They’d been trying to get the horses back onto their property when they say the situation just became too unsafe. But, as can be imagined, the horses’ owner is very upset — and has to foot the bill. Suzette Clemens didn’t even realize her quarter horses, Roper and Frenchie, had escaped when a tree fell on her electric fence, until a Rice County deputy showed up at her door in the middle of the night. He...

From people upset at being kept awake by explosions and helicopters to conspiracy-minded theorists with their own explanations, Tinley Park citizens were outspoken on the Defense Department's urban training exercises. Read what they had to say. (TWEETS-AT-LINK) The U.S. Department of Defense's two-night stint of urban training exercises on the grounds of the closed Tinley Park Mental Health Center ended early Thursday. The highlight of the final night, which began Wednesday, April 24, and went until about 1 a.m. Thursday, April 25, were numerous flyovers from military helicopters using the village's helipad. And even though the drills were being staged...

DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department is looking at another possible breakdown in the city's 911 phone system.A store owner called police just before 11 p.m. Sunday to say he had just been robbed and shots were fired, but it took Dallas police nearly 90 minutes to respond.Four robbers, armed with rifles, walked into Pepe’s Grocery Store in the 4800 block of Bernal Dr. Sunday night. The store owner said they demanded money, so he fired his .38 caliber revolver. Then he called 911.He would only talk to News 8 off-camera, because he said he is afraid of retaliation."I called...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California may speed up the release of some inmates while allowing other inmates with a violent history to become firefighters, under a proposal to cut crowding in state prisons filed by Gov. Jerry Brown late Thursday night. Brown filed the plan "under protest," said Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard. Brown warned that the options he presented to the court would undermine public safety, and Beard reiterated that the state plans to appeal in an attempt to avoid going through with the measures. The governor's plan calls for increasing early release credits for inmates and paroling elderly and incapacitated prisoners, while...

In a state facing over $34 billion in debt, Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill spending $24 million on literally going after guns bought legally by people who later entered a status that the government thinks should bar them from a key tool for the basic human right of self-defense. The Los Angeles Times reports: The state will send dozens of new agents into California neighborhoods this summer to confiscate nearly 40,000 handguns and assault rifles from people barred by law from owning firearms, officials said Wednesday. The plan received the green light Wednesday, when Gov.Jerry Brown signed legislation providing...

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating after a Volusia County deputy shot a woman in the shoulder outside her Volusia County home Thursday evening. The deputy was dispatched to the home on Eloise Circle near Ormond Beach about 6:10 when a woman called and reported that someone was trying to break into her house, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. When deputies arrived, a woman was outside pointing something that "appeared to be a weapon" at them, sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said. Deputy Omar Bello, 28, fired a single shot. Deputies think the woman who was shot is...

lorida House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., from occurring on his turf. Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch “prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed. The goal will be avoiding crime — and making sure law enforcement knows about...