Free Republic

The grand jury considering a possible indictment of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in last month’s shooting death of Michael Brown could finish its work by late October or early November but could go “possibly a little longer,” according to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch. McCulloch made the comments Wednesday morning on KTRS-AM. He said he was appearing on the radio station to address some of the misinformation surrounding the grand jury process.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree restoring the title "Dzerzhinsky Division" to an elite police unit that was previously named after the founder of the Bolshevik secret police, the Interior Ministry's internal troops press service said Monday. Felix Dzerzhinsky founded the Cheka, a security apparatus notorious for orchestrating mass summary executions during the Russian Civil War and the Red Terror. Established in 1924, the unit bore his name from 1926 until 1994, when its name was changed to the Independent Operational Purpose Division, the press service said. The Dzerzhinsky Division ensured security at the Potsdam Conference of 1945 and the...

Sexual assault by law enforcement has been a problem in Oklahoma of late, with three different officers being arrested recently for on-duty sexual misconduct. Oklahoma women are understandably a bit anxious about the threat of being mistreated during a traffic stop, but Captain George Brown of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a helpful tip for anyone who’s worried: If you just “follow the law in the first place” so you don’t get pulled over, you have nothing to worry about! That’s awesome to know, because I’m pretty sure no one has ever been pulled over for a tail light that’s...

After pleas to remove red light cameras back in 2010, they are finally coming down in South San Francisco. Although the South San Francisco City Council voted 4-1 back in March to not continue its red light camera program, the cameras didn’t become inoperable until early August. In 2010, the city fronted $1.5 million in refunds for the almost $500 tickets after an administrative error nullified tickets generated from cameras at two locations. The dismantling of the cameras should happen very shortly, said Mayor Karyl Matsumoto. Matsumoto was the one vote in favor of keeping the cameras.SnipI personally think they...

Two San Francisco residents, one of whom is disabled, are furious with what they see as an unjust parking ticket, and they have taken their complaint to federal court. The lawsuit -- which was served Sept. 12 to The City, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and one of its citation review officers, and the Police Department, its chief and the officer who issued the citation -- claims the Feb. 16 parking ticket was unlawful. Although the fine has been greatly reduced, the plaintiffs have decided to press on with their complaint.

Referencing the events in Ferguson, Missouri, US Attorney General Eric Holder called for more racial balance in the people police shoot. “What we had in Ferguson was a white officer shooting a Black teenager,” Holder recounted. “When we look at over all statistics, white officers shooting African-Americans is disproportional to their representation in the population. This establishes a prima facie case that racism is playing a role in the use of deadly force.” “We need to ask some hard questions,” Holder contended. “Why isn’t there a more proportionately balanced representation of America’s population when it comes to police shootings? Why...

Thirty years ago, the Department of Justice created a civil asset forfeiture program known as “Equitable Sharing.” Though originally created for the purpose of separating drug dealers from their ill-gotten assets and cash, since 2001 Equitable Sharing has been employed by the nation’s police to score $2.5 Billion in cash and assets from citizens “who were not charged with a crime and without a warrant being issued.” It is a high-dollar confiscation scam through which 298 police departments and 210 task forces have seized as much as 20 % of their operating budgets “…despite a federal ban [on the use...

It might seem like I'm picking on Australia but I'm not. Some of the new laws sound fine, like self defence or saving others. Laws I assumed every country already had. My problem is how some of the laws could be abused.

I'd urge everyone who believes in zero tolerance for NFL employees caught beating their wives or girlfriends to direct as much attention—or ideally, even more attention—at police officers who assault their partners. Several studies have found that the romantic partners of police officers suffer domestic abuse at rates significantly higher than the general population. And while all partner abuse is unacceptable, it is especially problematic when domestic abusers are literally the people that battered and abused women are supposed to call for help. If there's any job that domestic abuse should disqualify a person from holding, isn't it the one...

Canadensis, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Police in Pennsylvania appeared to be closing in Friday night on the suspect in the slaying of a state trooper. Police have surrounded a home where they believe Eric Matthew Frein is believed to be hiding, a local government official told CNN. The home, which was broken into, is not far from Frein's family home in Canadensis, Pennsylvania, in the Poconos Mountains. Police exchanged gunfire in the area with an individual believed to be Frein.

Amarillo, TX - An incident involving a Clovis (NM) police officer accused of using excessive force is receiving a lot of attention. A video recently released shows what happen during the traffic stop. The officer in question is Brent Aguilar. He placed Jorge Corona under arrest during a traffic stop for concealing ID. According to a local attorney, that was just the first mistake. Dan Lindsey says the second mistake was slamming Jorge Corona to the ground when he was not resisting or evading an officer. "Jorge was falsely accused of concealing his ID, falsely arrested, falsely slammed to the...

Windsor police responded in force Thursday afternoon to a residential neighborhood on Alden Lane after a prank 911 call reported a shooting in a home there. Officers swarmed the quiet residential block just before 6 p.m., when elementary school-aged kids and parents were attending an evening program at the nearby Mary Agatha Furth Center. Police showed up at the home where a retired man and his wife live with one of their daughters and her child, after receiving a 911 call that appeared to come from the their address. The caller said a grandfather at the home had shot someone...

Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer head-butted his wife and broke her nose after she refused his sexual advances, and punched her in the face the next day, police said Thursday.

Today a federal appeals court rebuked police in Orange County, Florida, for mounting a warrantless, SWAT-style raid on a barbership under the pretense of assisting state inspectors. "We have twice held, on facts disturbingly similar to those presented here, that a criminal raid executed under the guise of an administrative inspection is constitutionally unreasonable," says the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. "We hope that the third time will be the charm." On August 19, 2010, two inspectors from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) visited the Strictly Skillz Barbershop in Orlando...

Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information. The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked...

Let the media and the politicians tell these business owners, who lost everything, that the police were too "militarized." The so-called “militarization” of police is a theme that has been repeated ad nauseam by the media. Politicians have jumped on the bandwagon, and they quickly held a September 8th hearing through the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to examine this alleged problem. What they got was testimony—mostly ignored by the media—about how military-style equipment in the hands of the police can actually save lives. At issue is the Congressionally-authorized 1033 program, which provides surplus equipment from the...

Ok, I need some help here on a topic I know absolutely nothing about: how to evaluate colleges. My oldest son is graduating high school this year and wants to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. He has an excellent GPA (3.7/4.0) and achieved a 32 on his ACT test and as a result we're getting solicitations from colleges all over the country from as far south as Tulane in Louisiana, Hofstra in New York, University of Southern California, Michigan State, Valparaiso University, Marquette and others. We've narrowed down the list of colleges we're visiting based on his desire to...

Last week, The Washington Post published “Stop and Seize,” a three-part series chronicling the government’s seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from Americans not charged with a crime. Asset forfeiture laws are designed to protect the public and deter crime by taking property gained through criminal activity. However, criminals are not the only ones who have their property confiscated. According to The Washington Post, since 2001, police have seized $2.5 billion in cash from people who were never charged with a crime. Law enforcement must retain their ability to prevent criminals from bearing the fruits of criminal...

The suspect in the killing of a trooper and the critical wounding of another outside a rural barracks is a survivalist... Eric Matthew Frein, 31, of Canadensis, Pa., is still armed with the .308-caliber rifle that he used to open fire on the barracks late Friday, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said at a news conference where he revealed the suspect's name. Noonan called Frein "extremely dangerous." "

Rumors are rampant about male public safety employees in Ceres placing hidden cameras aimed at women, and the city isn't saying much about it. The stories about cameras placed under a woman's desk and in changing areas at the Ceres Police Department came to the attention of the Stanislaus chapter of the NAACP. President Frank Johnson says they got so many calls they thought it was a prank, and he says if it's not true, they'll apologize - but if it is true, the organization will take action against it. The city attorney would only say action is being taken...