Free Republic

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi looks like he’ll be updating his resume after suffering a landslide loss in his re-election bid last night. \ Mirkarimi was in office when Kate Steinle was shot and killed by Francisco Sanchez, a five-time deported illegal alien. It set off a national debate about sanctuary cities, San Francisco becoming one of them in 1989. In July, Mirkarimi defended the policy, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that the policy makes the city “safer.” Nevertheless, there were other reasons why Mirkarimi was booted. His tenure was dotted with controversy, one of them, as Katie mentioned, being a...

Monique Portillo, a 33-year-old discount-store manager, found herself in the hallway of the Mesa La Quinta Inn & Suites with red laser dots on her body, thinking she was about to die. Policemen with assault rifles stood several feet away, one screaming that they might shoot her and the man next to her, Daniel Shaver, a Texas exterminator she'd met about 30 minutes before. Portillo's only mistake on the evening of January 18, 2016, was going into a hotel room for a drink at the wrong time. If only she had listened to her instincts, she would have been safe...

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman is convening a grand jury to gather evidence in the 2017 shooting of Justine Damond, but said he still will decide whether Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor will face charges in her death. Matthew Harrity, Noor's partner the night Damond was killed, was served a subpoena Wednesday to testify before a grand jury, said his attorney Fred Bruno. "It came as a surprise," Bruno said. He declined to say when Harrity will testify. Hennepin County attorney's office spokesman Chuck Laszewski maintained that Freeman "will continue the office's two-year-old policy where he makes the decision on...

CHICAGO – Chicago police continue to grapple with one of the country’s highest murder rates — 650 peopled murdered in 2017 — but it is making some serious headway in some of its most infamously dangerous neighborhoods. The department largely credits the drop in violent crime in Englewood – which saw a stunning 43 percent drop in shootings last year – to its use of ShotSpotter technology, which is basically a sonar and camera placed atop utility poles that instantly detects gun shots and alerts police. "Instead of saying it sounds like its coming from over here, or it may...

The city’s police-officers union is cracking down on the number of “get out of jail free” courtesy cards distributed to cops to give to family and friends. Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association boss Pat Lynch slashed the maximum number of cards that could be issued to current cops from 30 to 20, and to retirees from 20 to 10, sources told The Post. The cards are often used to wiggle out of minor trouble such as speeding tickets, the theory being that presenting one suggests you know someone in the NYPD. The rank and file is livid.

“I don’t have information that he was actually wanted for anything at this time, all I have at this point is that he was a suspicious person on a bike,” Johnson said. After the two-person police unit attempted to stop them, the person allegedly fled on foot. The foot chase led officers into an alley between Adriatic and Baltic avenues. Once one of the officers caught up with the person, that officer fired and shot the person, Johnson said. The person was struck once in the lower torso and transported to the hospital in stable condition. It was unknown if...

A police detective who never followed all the leads, a conflicted defense attorney who cried so uncontrollably she did not discuss appeal options after the “midnight verdict” of guilt, and a jury who convicted without any physical evidence at all. Greg Kelley, a young man in Texas convicted of sexually molesting a toddler in 2014, had a lot of things going against him that led to his spending more than three years in prison for a crime he did not commit. But Kelley had one thing to start his reversal of fortune that led to his release from prison last...

Based on the approximate eight seconds of body cam video released by Wichita police, Eyewitness News asked several experts around the country if they could answer those questions. Their perspectives didn't necessarily align. Dr. Delores Jones-Brown is a former prosecutor and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It appears that all the police officers had taken cover and there are no civilians on the street," she says. "So there would not have been a necessity to fire his weapon at the time that he fired." Jeff Noble, a former Irvine, Calif. police officer now works as a police...

On the evening of Dec. 30, Danielle Maples was making nail polishes with her children. The atmosphere in her home changed when her husband threatened to hurt himself. Maples called 911 to get help. Then after police arrived – as she and her husband stood outside their home unarmed – she heard two gunshots from inside. A Wichita police officer fired at her dog – in a small living room occupied by her four children, ages 6 to 10. Suddenly, the already stressful evening turned into a nightmare. When the officer shot at the family dog in the same room...

SEATTLE — A federal judge has upheld a $15 million verdict against police in a small Washington state city who shot and killed an unarmed black man, in a ruling that blistered the city’s lawyers for suggesting jurors ruled against law enforcement only because they didn’t want to be known for siding with white officers. The ruling Thursday from U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein found that the jury had plenty of reasons to conclude that the shooting of Leonard Thomas during a 2013 SWAT operation in the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood was outrageous, The Seattle Times reported. Thomas was unarmed,...

SIERRA VISTA — It’s a sight dreaded by drivers — red and blue lights flashing in the rearview mirror. But a traffic stop may not just be bad for the driver, sometimes they are downright dangerous for the officer. A report by the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund shows 128 federal, state and local law enforcers were killed in the line of duty in 2017. Of those, 18 died after being shot or being struck by vehicles while conducting traffic enforcement. Many more officers are injured each year during traffic stops, making it one of the most dangerous activities...

Ignorance of the law is no excuse… unless you're a police officer. Then it's a magical world of immunity and good faith exceptions! But it gets even better. In Florida, ignorance of the law is highly-profitable. On its face, Florida’s pedestrian statute 316.130(11) seems straightforward enough: fail to cross a street in a crosswalk where required, and you are liable for a ticket ranging from $51 to $77. The authorities across the state issue hundreds of the tickets every year with the public claim that they were trying to cut down Florida’s outsize number of pedestrian deaths. Good for them....

It’s when police officers mistakenly harm their fellow officers that we really see the problems with law enforcement narratives. Last September, St. Louis police reportedly beat and arrested a fellow police officer who had gone undercover during a series of protests. The police claimed that their fellow officer, who was black, was resisting arrest. That seems implausible. By the time the officer is getting arrested, there would be little reason for him to resist to maintain his cover. He undoubtedly knew how the police operate. He undoubtedly knew that resisting would bring a beating and an arrest. That both happened...

Homeowner Mark Parkinson and his wife Diana. (Photo: WSBTV.com) WALKER COUNTY, Ga. Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating an officer-involved shooting in Walker County in which a deputy shot and killed a man in his Rossville home. The incident began in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day when a woman called 911 and said her estranged daughter-in-law threatened to kill her child and then herself. When deputies arrived at the home on Meadowview Drive in Rossville, the family was sleeping. The estranged daughter-in-law was living in the home with her parents while going through a...

WASHINGTON — The shooting looked bad. But that is when the professor is at his best. A black motorist, pulled to the side of the road for a turn-signal violation, had stuffed his hand into his pocket. The white officer yelled for him to take it out. When the driver started to comply, the officer shot him dead. The driver was unarmed. Taking the stand at a public inquest, William J. Lewinski, the psychology professor, explained that the officer had no choice but to act. “In simple terms,” the district attorney in Portland, Ore., asked, “if I see the gun,...

Two years ago, Tyler Barriss called in multiple bomb threats to the Glendale offices of KABC-TV Channel 7, prompting a mass evacuation. Barriss was charged and eventually convicted in connection with the hoax, one of several high-profile incidents at the time that focused attention on the act of crank-calling known as "swatting." Now, Barriss, 25, is accused of a much more serious hoax. He was arrested in South Los Angeles on Friday for his suspected role in a deadly prank in Kansas, police said.

Deputy Chief Troy Livingston said WPD received a call reporting a shooting at 6:18 p.m. in the 1000 block of West McCormick. He said the caller stated a mother and son got into an argument and, during that, a father was shot in the head. Livingston said the caller said the father died and two hostages were being held. When police arrived, a 28-year-old man came to the front door of the home. Livingston said a WPD officer fired his service weapon. ... “We believe we were given some misinformation on the call,” said Livingston. “That’s why I said we...

SCHERTZ, Texas (AP) - The death of a 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a stray bullet when deputies near San Antonio opened fire on a woman being sought for crimes is a "tragic accident," a Texas sheriff said Friday. The woman, 30-year-old Amanda Jones, was also fatally shot in the incident Thursday afternoon. Bexar County deputies had pursued her for a car theft and other offenses about two hours before confronting her on the porch of a trailer that she had forced her way into, Sheriff Javier Salazar said. The boy, Kameron Prescott, was inside the trailer,...

The 6-year-old boy killed by a stray bullet in a shooting involving Bexar County deputies in Schertz was identified Friday by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. Kameron Prescott was shot in the abdomen and taken to University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Sheriff Javier Salazar previously said the boy was 7 years old, but the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said on Friday that he was actually 6 years old. Kameron was shot while inside his home in the 100 block of Peach Lane. Four Bexar County deputies had been chasing a wanted felon in the area,...

The judge named for a court of inquiry sought by an attorney for a biker charged in the Twin Peaks shootout on the merits of an accusation of perjury involving police and prosecutors has dismissed the inquiry without ever holding a hearing. “My decision (to dismiss the court of inquiry) rests on two separate and independent bases,” Judge David Peeples said in an email obtained Thursday by KWTX. “First, I conclude that the evidence of perjury is insufficient and does not justify continuing the court of inquiry. Second, I continue to have serious prudential concerns about procedure, as was suggested...