May 23, 2013 @ 12:19 PM
From the Washington Post:
According to police, Dawkins, 22, a shuttle driver for the “PBS NewsHour,” was fatally shot by an off-duty Arlington County sheriff’s deputy. Family members say they are still struggling to understand why.
“He was a working guy. Didn’t bother nobody,” said Curtis Dawkins, Julian Dawkins’s father. “It’s just so sad and senseless that these things had to occur.”
The officer was interviewed, but not charged. Police declined to offer details about the incident.
May 9, 2013 @ 2:23 PM
From Jacksonville.com:
A 40-year-old Jacksonville police officer with a history of DUIs since her 2004 hire was charged Tuesday with five counts of driving under the influence causing damage as well as multiple hit-and-runs, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Diana Laura Jones, who was off duty, also was cited with reckless driving after officers found her in her truck eating a hamburger after three cars were hit in an Atlantic Boulevard parking lot and another on Hodges Boulevard, according to her arrest report.
Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt said he had fired Jones after a DUI investigation in 2011, but an arbitrator reinstated her. Senterfitt said he is frustrated she was rehired and is now under investigation a third time
February 15, 2013 @ 2:41 PM
The police commander says he saw no wrongdoing in the video. Hmm.
A few questions:
1. What would have happened if the young man’s mother had not arrived so quickly?
2. What would have happened if she had not been a police officer herself?
3. What would happen if these undercover officers tried to swarm on a person who was carrying a firearm? The police often remind us that they must make split-second decisions. True. But note that this tactic gives the citizen only a split second to decide if he’s being attacked by thugs or whether it’s a police stop.
4. The other day a columnist at the Wall Street Journal heaped praise on the stop and frisk tactics of the New York City Police Department. He said the police have an “uncanny” ability to discern who is carrying a gun. He is looking at paper statistics and gets a warped view of what’s actually happening out there. Consider two scenarios. (A) The police swarm on someone. If they find a handgun, they take him downtown–paperwork shows arrest and gun confiscated. (B) How many times do the police swarm on a person, no gun is found, and the police just walk away as above? No paperwork on that (usually). From the paper records, it is as if frightening incidents like this never even happened.
What if they happen a lot? What then?
February 15, 2013 @ 11:11 AM
From the Baltimore Sun:
According to sources familiar with the investigation, Kern was at the Rosewood Center for a training exercise when recruits peered through a window from another room. He playfully pointed a weapon in their direction, the sources said, and did not intend to harm anybody.
The shot struck the trainee — who remained in critical condition Thursday and has not been identified — in the front of the head, and a second officer was injured from broken glass, police have said.
Looks like an accident, not a (real) crime. Should he still be a trainer? Still be a cop? Probably not, but let the investigation proceed and let his full record be taken into account as higher-ups decide how to handle the incident.
But let’s consider how an ordinary citizen would be treated under similar circumstances. Let’s say an NRA instructor had been “playing around,” picked up a loaded weapon, and accidently fired at some spectators during a training session. Would reckless endangerment charges be brought?
If a Virginia gun owner drove into Washington,DC and forgot that his rifle was still in the trunk from his time at the shooting range over the previous weekend, DC prosecutors would bring charges if the gun was discovered during a traffic stop. Even if no one was harmed. Even if it was an accident. And even if the owner had a stellar reputation for integrity.
People do get criminal records and go to jail for having unregistered guns (no one hurt). The “universal background check” sounds nice, but it means that if one hunting buddy tells another “Hey, I’ll give you $300 for that shotgun you never use anymore” and the other says “You’re right. I don’t use it much anymore and I could use that money to fix a problem on the house. Here you go.” Federal crime–”unauthorized transfer.” Recently, here in DC, a man saved the life of a boy who was being attacked by pit bulls. The man saw what was going on, ran into his house, got his gun, ran back out and shot one of the dogs. That man saved a life and instead of being praised, he’s under criminal investigation.
February 13, 2013 @ 11:03 AM
Letter to the editor published in the New York Times:
Last fall, the criminal defense clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law represented a young black man charged with possession of a knife (recovered from his pants pocket) after he was searched by a police officer who swore — under penalty of perjury — that the client was blocking the entrance to a building in violation of a disorderly conduct statute. A video obtained from an adjacent store revealed a very different reality — just a young kid talking with friends, never blocking anyone’s way.
Too often, though, without a video, our clients’ accounts of the lies told by police fall on deaf ears. Prosecutors and judges engage in cognitive dissonance — on the one hand understanding that police lie; on the other, failing to address the issue in any meaningful way.
Perhaps this is because our criminal justice system relies so heavily on the assumption of police as truth tellers. Acknowledging the problem threatens the very foundation of an already dysfunctional system.
For those who have experienced the corrupting effect of police lies, however, the question remains: what will it take to break a police practice that leads to so much injustice?
JENNIFER BLASSER
New York, Feb. 4, 2013The writer is a clinical assistant professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
February 1, 2013 @ 3:24 PM
From Philly.com:
Nine current and former Philadelphia Traffic Court judges were charged with conspiracy and fraud Thursday, capping a three-year FBI probe into what authorities said was rampant ticket-fixing and pervasive corruption on the bench.
The charges, outlined in a 77-count indictment, described “a well-understood conspiracy of silence” that created two distinct courts: one where typical citizens paid for their infractions, and a second where offenders with the right connections won acquittals or saw their fines or cases disappear.
January 31, 2013 @ 10:54 AM
ATF set up a undercover sting operation. But criminals stole weapons from them and the ATF, in turn, rips off citizen-landlord. Note also that when the citizen lodges complaints about damages and unpaid bills, he is threatened with criminal charges. Hmm.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
When David Salkin put his single-story building on E. Meinecke Ave. up for rent on Craigslist, he had a choice: Lease to a church or Fearless Distributing.
He went with the upstart Fearless operation because they were willing to take all 8,000 square feet of the building and pay the $3,200 in monthly rent in cash.
The agent who signed the lease gave Salkin a fake name and home address. Fearless was not registered with the state. The agents told Salkin their operation was new and they would get to that.
The agents, wearing shirts that said “Brew City Hustle,” carved out a part of the warehouse for a showroom of jeans, coats, shoes and purses along with bongs and fake urine, for those trying to beat a drug test. They also set up an office with a cash-counting machine….
The day after the burglary, Salkin and his wife met with an ATF supervisor, who assured them that they would take care of everything.
Salkin said by going over on the $800 a month utility allotment and damage to walls, doors and carpeting, the ATF owes him about $15,000, which includes a month of lost rent.
The ATF has balked, saying there was less than $3,200 in damage and telling Salkin to return the security deposit. They told him to file a claim with the federal government and warned him to stop contacting them.
In an email to Salkin, ATF attorney Patricia Cangemi wrote, “If you continue to contact the Agents after being so advised your contacts may be construed as harassment under the law. Threats or harassment of a Federal Agent is of grave concern. Utilizing the telephone or a computer to perpetrate threats or harassment is also a serious matter.”
Read the whole thing.
January 25, 2013 @ 9:05 AM
Hmm. If an ordinary Joe threatened a prosecutor, would he get an anger management class and then have the charges thrown out? Or would he be looking at a felony charge and prison time? Would the ordinary Joe be eligible for a law enforcement position?
July 2, 2012 @ 10:55 AM
Story here.