Free Republic

The Associated Press is asking whether our police will change the way they deliver service to the people of the cities and towns they patrol. The answer is a definite Yes and No. Yes they will; but No; those who will be watching won’t perceive the difference. Police work requires the continual processing of data drawn from your surroundings. What a police officer sees and does not see is far more subjective than those who have never done a tour in a radio car can possibly imagine. As a patrol officer you process information constantly and on some days make...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) didn't think much of the Baltimore riots that erupted in protest of the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, Cummings spoke of the violence as a "situation" that "could've been a lot worse." The violence that erupted in Cummings's city caused the entire crowd gathered at the Baltimore Orioles' stadium to be stuck in lock down mode while the "protestors" raved outside smashing cop cars and hurling flaming barrels. Cummings, who was there at the time, said he had a direct hand in...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guardians?) – Juvenal Honest observers in this country have to admit that we have a police problem that is increasingly growing more serious. While some of the stories that have come out about police brutality and police overreach have clearly been invented or exaggerated by the Left for the purposes of inflaming racial tensions and undermining American civic stability, there are nevertheless a large number of incidents in recent years which cannot simply be wishcast away. The warrantless, no-knock, early morning, heavily-armed SWAT raid for even the most minor of things is becoming...

A Virginia police officer detained a television news videographer Tuesday because his camera vest could have been tactical gear. The incident was captured on cell phone video by veteran investigator reporter Russ Ptacek from WUSA9, who posted it on Twitter along with photos of the detainment. The video is posted below. The cop was from the Arlington County Police Department, part of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to my article about Wisconsin prosecutors’ efforts to criminalize conservative activism,complete with terrifying dawn and pre-dawn raids. Without the courage of the raids’ targets who were willing to speak with me–on and off the record–there would have been no story. Ironically enough,on the very weekend that my story hit National Review,the Huffington Post published yet another screed against so-called “dark money” relying on the very existence of the unlawful John Doe investigations to cast a cloud of suspicion on conservative activists. The language is instructive: The Wisconsin Supreme Court is slated to take up...

When a neighbor was engaged in a domestic dispute, Henderson, Nevada police demanded that Anthony Mitchell allow them to use his home as a fort and command center in order to gain a tactical advantage in their efforts to cope with the situation. Mitchell refused, but police battered down his door, pepper sprayed him, and put him in jail for the duration. Mitchell sued contending that this home invasion by the police violated his constitutional rights under both the Third and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution. Federal district court Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed Mitchell’s Fourth Amendment argument, saying that...

The West Memphis NAACP has legitimized and inflamed the war on cops by urging blacks to arm up against them. “Law enforcement has to understand, you cannot do what you please when you see us,” Crittenden County NAACP head Shabaka Afrika said in a news conference. The deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown had really roiled angry black activists and street thugs who make up their army. But the killing of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD and the shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina have pushed them over the edge. Nation of Islam leader Louis...

‘They came with a battering ram.” Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

The Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation weapon mounted to a handgun. Last summer’s riots in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted much talk by President Obama and certain members of Congress about the need to demilitarize local police forces. Nearly a year later, the opposite is happening. New and more powerful weapons are flowing into local police departments daily, and still others are new to the marketplace. One weapon about to make its debut is the “Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation” gun. When fired, the gun allows an officer to temporarily blind his targeted subject for up to 15 minutes. The new “compliance weapon” made a...

Cherished family heirlooms were among the 21 firearms Michael Roberts surrendered to the Torrance Police Department in 2010, after his doctor filed a restraining order against him. The court order was the result of a dispute Roberts had with a member of the doctor’s staff and, after Roberts pleaded no contest, the matter was resolved. Yet, even though he filed the proper Law Enforcement Gun Release paperwork on four separate occasions, obtained clearance from the California Department of Justice and had two court orders commanding the return of his guns, police refused to hand them over. With the backing of...

It’s a phrase few Americans ever have the occasion to say: “I’m really getting pulled over by a tank right now.” The reasons why the Florida man said it are just as eyebrow-raising as the fact that he was pulled over by a “tank” in the first place. The whole encounter was captured on video. The Gainesville Sun reported Monday on the story of 23-year-old Lucas Jewell, a self-professed Navy veteran and Gainesville City Commission candidate, who was pulled over by sheriff’s deputies in an armored personnel vehicle after a University of Florida football game Saturday. At first, Jewell thought...

In August of 2014, military helicopters flew low over residential neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, engaged in a series of night-time training exercises. The exercises involved the Naval Warfare Development Group - a "special forces" component of the U.S. Navy - and were aimed at enhancing urban combat tactics. Just as they had two years earlier, military personnel had come to the Twin Cities to conduct counter-terrorism training operations in an urban environment. And just as before, those operations commenced with little advance notice to the public.

he Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday.. The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police are using a cell site simulator, more commonly known as a "stingray," a technology that authorities have gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing. The device mimics a cellphone tower to force phones within its range to connect. Police use it to track down stolen phones or find...

Everything this nation once stood for is being turned on its head. Free speech, religious expression, privacy, due process, bodily integrity, the sanctity of human life, the sovereignty of the family, individuality, the right to self-defense, protection against police abuses, representative government, private property, human rights—the very ideals that once made this nation great—have become casualties of a politically correct, misguided, materialistic, amoral, militaristic culture. Indeed, I’m having a hard time reconciling the America I know and love with the America being depicted in the daily news headlines, where corruption, cronyism and abuse have taken precedence over the rights of...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has crafted a new policy that would allow government officials to seize bank accounts involved in financial structuring schemes prior to filing criminal charges against the individuals who own those accounts. The new policy stems from the Justice Department’s ongoing review of its asset forfeiture program. The policy is aimed at preventing criminals from making a series of currency transactions under a certain monetary threshold in order to evade reporting the transaction to the authorities, according to a department statement. Those types of transactions typically lead to “the most serious illegal banking transactions” and occur...

A driver of a vehicle tried to ram a gate at the National Security Agency building in Fort Meade Monday morning, resulting in a shooting, authorities say. It is not clear if anyone has been injured. There are two vehicles with damage outside the gate. Anne Arundel County police say the National Security Agency is handling the investigation, WUSA9 reports. The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. local time.

Police opened fire on a vehicle that attempted to ram the gates at the National Security Agency, according to multiple media reports. It is unclear if there are any injuries. This a breaking news story and will be updated as more information comes available. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/30/police-shoot-vehicle-ramming-nsa-gates-ft-meade-re/#ixzz3VsXmFSU4 Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

MSNBC correspondent Jeremy Lancaster sat down with government official Darrin Cornia to discuss recent rumors that have been in circulation in regard to registered motorcycle owners being placed on a classified FBI gang list. After a few moments of introduction, Lancaster bluntly asked the following question,” Mr. Cornia, if I were to make the statement, all registered motorcycle owners are currently showing on a classified FBI gang list, would the statement be true or false? Cornia responded by saying, “That would be a true statement, the FBI has been collecting and compiling Department of Motor Vehicles and Drivers License Division...

President Obama has lamented that special interests dominate the world of politics. My first reaction was to laugh out loud. After all, we are listening to the words of a politician/community activist who has done his very best job handing over the country to the communist bankers that are loosely referred to as the New World Order. This is the same Obama who has supported continued bail-outs of criminal bankers, has overseen and mandated a failing education system (i.e. Common Core), and has mandated a failing health care system that has instituted death panels (e.g. Obamacare age related treatment exclusions)....