It's impossible to become a badass. If you're a badass, you come out of the womb with a gun in your hand, permanent five o'clock shadow and a thirst for blood, not milk. A badass spends their entire life killing punks, causing massive explosions wherever they go and making the world a safer place for us non-badasses. They're also really useful to have around if you're wating for a table at Denny's.http://www.manofest.com/Content/the-10-greatest-movie-badasses-of-all-time.html... more
The San Jose Police Department will be the first law enforcement agency in the country to use new ear-mounted video and audio recorders on the job this month, and police say they will provide a new window into arrests and other situations.
The portable AXON cameras, made by Taser International, are expected to be given to 72 San Jose officers in late November or early December, police said. The cameras can record an officer's point of view for up to 10 1/2 hours, and police say the devices will help officers write more accurate reports and aid officers if their actions are called in to question.
For nearly a decade, naked pumpkin runners did their thing unmolested, stampeding through the frigid dark past crowds of admirers who hooted, hollered and tossed candy. But last year the run attracted more than 150 participants, and Police Chief Mark Beckner fears things are getting out of hand. "It's a free-for-all," he says.
The suspect in a massive double bomb attack in Baghdad grabbed a guard's weapon and shot an investigator, before being shot himself, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.
The incident occurred late in the week during an interrogation at the general directorate of criminal investigations in Baghdad, the ministry said in a statement.
It said a guard was giving the suspect water when he grabbed the guard's personal weapon, shot and wounded the guard and then shot the investigator, the statement said.
The wounded investigator, identified as Maj. Arkan Hajem, wrested the gun from the suspect and shot him before dying. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he died from a loss of blood, the ministry said.The suspect in a massive double bomb attack in Baghdad grabbed a guard's weapon and... more
A cell phone video that shows police officers repeatedly hitting an unarmed university student with batons and a Taser gun has prompted a criminal investigation into the officers' conduct, a San Jose police spokesman said.
The video, posted by the San Jose Mercury News on its Web site late Saturday, shows one officer hitting 20-year-old Vietnamese student Phuong Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times, including once on the head. Another officer is seen using his Taser gun on the San Jose State math major.
The final baton strike in last month's incident appears to take place after handcuffs have been attached to Ho's wrists.
Officers arrested Ho on suspicion of assaulting one of his roommates. He was not armed when police arrived and he told the newspaper he didn't resist arrest.
The confrontation began Sept. 3 when Ho's roommate, Jeremy Suftin, put soap on Ho's steak. The two scuffled, and Ho picked up a steak knife, saying that in his home country he would have killed Suftin for doing what he did.
Police were called, and four officers responded.
Officer Kenneth Siegel encountered Ho in the hallway, but couldn't understand the student's accent, police reports said. Ho then ignored a police command to stand still, reports said.
When Ho tried to follow Siegel into his room, officer Steven Payne Jr. moved to handcuff Ho. Payne wrote in his report that he pushed the student into a wall and then forced him to the floor when he resisted being handcuffed.
Ho, who weighs more than 200 lbs., said his glasses fell off. As he went to pick them up, the officers struck him, he said.
Another one of Ho's roommates, Dimitri Masouris, captured the events on his cell phone. An officer can be heard on the video shouting, "Turn over!" Ho can be heard moaning and crying as he's struck.
More @ linkA cell phone video that shows police officers repeatedly hitting an unarmed university... more
Dallas police wrongly ticketed at least 39 drivers for not speaking English over the last three years, Police Chief David Kunkle announced Friday while promising to investigate all officers involved in the cases for dereliction of duty.
Pending cases will be dismissed, and those who paid the $204 fine for the charge, which does not exist in the city, will be reimbursed, Kunkle said.
"I was surprised and stunned that that would happen, particularly in the city of Dallas," Kunkle said. "In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."
The citations were issued in several different patrol divisions by at least six different officers. One of those officers was responsible for five of the citations, Kunkle said.
The case that led to the discovery of all the others occurred Oct. 2, when Ernestina Mondragon was stopped for making an illegal U-turn in the White Rock area. Rookie Officer Gary Bromley cited Mondragon for three violations: disregarding a traffic control device, failure to present a driver's license and "non-English speaking driver."
More @ linkDallas police wrongly ticketed at least 39 drivers for not speaking English over the... more
Retired Baltimore cop Peter Moskos debates former Clinton "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey about the Obama administration's new approach to medical marijuana. Peter is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which any citizen can join for free at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com. Also featured is Tim Lynch from the Cato Institute.Retired Baltimore cop Peter Moskos debates former Clinton "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey... more
You might expect Witchcraft and the Police to be unusual bedfellows. Not so for the 500+ members of the UK constabulary who practice the Wicca religion or other Pagan faiths.
Recently acknowledged by government by the allowing of reallocation of statutory UK [bank] holidays and other annual leave entitlements to allow religious observances, one Staffordshire copper has set up a website, due for official launch August 1st, 2009, for all Pagans in the professional services or those who are curious as to how they can practice their religion [in public] and not fall foul of the Law.
Just over two weeks ago, this striking city landed the 2016 Olympic Games, the first ever in South America, setting off a sweaty, impromptu beach party that lasted most of the weekend. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil sobbed with happiness. Rio’s residents glowed with pride.
Residents of a Rio neighborhood found the body of a man in a cart on Tuesday. They said the man was killed by a rival gang.
Then over the weekend, in a chilling outburst of violence, drug traffickers wielding what the police say they believe was a large-caliber weapon shot down a police helicopter just one mile from Maracana stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held and the World Cup final will be played two years before the Olympics.
Suddenly, the celebration has been overwhelmed by hand-wringing that Rio’s chronic drug violence, its Achilles’ heel, is being laid bare before the world, and at a particularly inopportune time. Brazilian leaders are touring the world, searching for the investors needed to pay for the billions of dollars in infrastructure required for the events.
The images of the downed police helicopter “really shocked Brazilians, and now everyone is worried about what will happen with the Games,” said Nadine Matos, 21, who works at a hair salon a block from Copacabana Beach. “We need to tell the world where we stand so that people outside Brazil understand what measures we are taking and are not so worried when planning to come down here.”
More @ linkJust over two weeks ago, this striking city landed the 2016 Olympic Games, the first... more
“Script Cops: Naked Taser Strike” is a perversely funny one-minute short film produced and directed by Scott Rice as part of the web series “Script Cops” made for Sony Pictures. “Script Cops” takes place in a goofy alternate universe where bad script-writing has become a criminal offense; for example, a young filmmaker could be rounded up by the bad-script patrol and charged with committing a cliché misdemeanor. It’s a spot-on parody of the old television series “COPS,” where offensive screenwriter hacks are the bad boys, replacing the daffy drunks on “COPS” who were busy committing loony villainies.
In “Naked Taser Strike,” the offender is a dull, unoriginal writer who appears on the scene naked, waving a gun around. He’s desperately trying to peddle his latest dismal screenplay, which he’s pitching as “a stalking sex comedy, starring Paris Hilton.” The writer demands to be provided with a top literary agent, specifically Shane Black’s agent, or else he’s going to start shooting things up. Needless to say, the frantic writer doesn’t get what he wants, but he does get something that he very much didn’t want!
Includes a number of color photographs and the ironically wacky and twisted short film, “Script Cops: Naked Taser Strike.”“Script Cops: Naked Taser Strike” is a perversely funny one-minute short film... more
LEBANON, Pa. — Police in central Pennsylvania say they’ve nabbed a real pothead.
They say an officer spotted 29-year-old Cesar Lopez inside a convenience store with a bag of marijuana stuck to his forehead.
Investigators say Lopez was seen peering inside his baseball cap early Saturday morning in Lebanon, about 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. When Lopez looked up, the officer noticed a small plastic bag appearing to contain marijuana stuck to his forehead.
Police say the officer peeled the bag off Lopez’s forehead and placed him under arrest. He has been charged with drug possession. Police do not know whether Lopez has an attorney.
Authorities say the sweatband of a baseball cap is a frequent hiding place for drugs.
Cops: Man tried to eat evidence after pot bust
CORTLAND, N.Y. — Deputies say an upstate New York man has been charged with evidence tampering after he was busted for growing marijuana — and then tried to eat the evidence.
Jeremy Wheeler and his father, William Wheeler, were arrested Sunday night after deputies say they found 116 plants growing in the son’s home in Willet. Deputies say Jeremy Wheeler tried to eat some of the plants while being booked.
The 29-year-old Wheeler was also charged with resisting arrest. His 51-year-old father was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawfully growing the drug.
Both were released on tickets to appear in court at a later date. Deputies didn’t know whether the men had lawyers.
From news service reports.Dude, you, like, smoke it’ edition
LEBANON, Pa. — Police in central... more
Missy Jarzenske was headed to her Lawrenceville home on 37th Street after an afternoon of photographing the Sept. 24 anti-G-20 anarchists' march when, three blocks from her front door, she stopped on the sidewalk to take one more shot. Her boyfriend, Michael Kocis, and two other friends were photographing as well.
Police swarmed them on the sidewalk on Butler at 34th, pulled them into the street and arrested them all, she says.
"We live here! We were just taking a picture!" she recalls shouting.
Today, says Jarzenske, "I'm charged with failure to disperse in my own neighborhood, and obstructing my own sidewalk." And when she got out of jail five hours after being arrested, Jarzenske says, her camera was broken and the film ruined.
"They had ripped the back open and they had tried to tape it together" -- unsuccessfully, she says. Her other exposed roll is still missing. (Kocis' digital camera was intact, as were the photos he shot with it.)
"We weren't doing anything but documenting," says Jarzenske, who teaches photography at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. "It's kind of my job."
Some 200 people were arrested during G-20-related protests. Among them were several people trying to document the events -- either for established media outlets, or for "indymedia" enterprises and other projects. The best-known example is Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman. But two Pitt News photographers were also arrested, and other journalists were exposed to crowd-control devices like pepper spray.
Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff, who were either arrested or reportedly targeted during the week, did not reply to requests for comment. But Beth Pittinger, who heads the Citizen Police Review Board, says she has already received numerous complaints about police conduct during G-20 week, including some involving camera damage.
"The frightening part of that is, it's trying to control information that comes into the public," she says.
For example, one YouTube-posted video -- by independent journalist John Moschopoulos -- was shot Sept. 25 on the corner of Fifth Avenue and South Bouquet Street in Oakland. The video (http://tinyurl.com/ylnvhkn) shows a young male being arrested: When Moschopoulos asks the arrestee's name, a K-9 officer approaches, pointing to the camera. "Spray him," the officer orders another. He is sprayed twice. "I'm on the sidewalk," he protests.
"Disperse!" comes the reply. "You were ordered to disperse. Do it now."
Moschopoulous says there were numerous people milling on the sidewalk behind him -- proof, he says, that police targeted him not for failing to disperse, but for shooting video.
Moschopoulos was not arrested. But Nate Monkelien, with Twin Cities Indymedia, doesn't expect to get his cameras and tapes back after filming several arrests Sept. 25. He was charged that night with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and other, more minor charges -- all of which he claims are "completely fabricated."
"They were definitely targeting cameramen," he says. Not everyone agrees.
Local freelance journalist Shane Dunlap, who moved to North Carolina just after G-20, says he was photographing the protests when he was arrested. Still, he doesn't feel police were taking extra notice of being filmed.
"They had their hands full," Dunlap says. Officers "were just indifferent to who you were -- professional media or not. I don't really think they cared."
Police did run right by this working journalist to catch non-media ordered to disperse during an unpermitted Sept. 24 march. And protesters weren't always fond of photographers; one of the first chants during that protest was "cameramen assholes!"
But the advent of cheap digital recorders, YouTube and even cell-phone cameras means that the line between journalist and citizen can get blurry. That's especially true in the case of "indymedia" journalists, grassroots reporters who furnish content to online sites... full article at linkMissy Jarzenske was headed to her Lawrenceville home on 37th Street after an afternoon... more
A six-month anti-gang sweep has resulted in 1,472 arrests nationwide of foreign-born people suspected of criminal acts in the United States, officials announced Thursday.
The arrests were part of "Operation Community Shield" -- a four-year effort battling "transnational" crimes -- meaning the crimes are organized across national borders.
Ninety-one people were arrested in North Texas, including 30 in Fort Worth, 47 in Dallas and seven in Arlington, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Targeted gangs included MS-13, Surenos-13, 18th Street Gang, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips and Vatos Locos, according to ICE.A six-month anti-gang sweep has resulted in 1,472 arrests nationwide of foreign-born... more
"ESCONDIDO — Escondido police shot a woman in a car Thursday morning and arrested her male companion, authorities said.
The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. at the entrance of an apartment complex on Grand Avenue near Fairdale Avenue, Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton said.
Investigators did not immediately release details explaining what led to the incident, which involved both uniformed and plainclothes officers.
The man and woman were inside a white sedan, which appeared to have crashed head-on into a police cruiser when the shooting occurred.
Investigators did not say how many officers fired or how many rounds were fired. Witnesses reported hearing three to four shots."
Very sketchy details here. When is it not OK for police to shoot people?"ESCONDIDO — Escondido police shot a woman in a car Thursday morning and arrested... more
Traffic wardens of the Darwin City Council recently booked a dog for illegal parking.
The dog was roped to a fence outside Rapid Creek Market when two traffic wardens taped the ticket to the dog's lead.
The Courier Mail quoted witness Ray McEvoy as saying: "I watched an elderly lady and her very faithful dog roll up at the market.
"The lady tied the dog to the fence and gave him a bowl full of water. "And off she went into the markets.
"Then two traffic inspectors came along. They had a bit of a talk and, to my amazement, wrote out a warning infringement notice for the dog and taped it to his lead rope."
McEvoy said the dog was standing peacefully tied to fence wall, far from the shops.Traffic wardens of the Darwin City Council recently booked a dog for illegal parking.... more
A Portland police patrol car carrying two crew members from the television show "Cops" collided with another car Tuesday night, police said.
A Subaru Outback traveling in the opposite direction drifted into the lane of the patrol car and hit the officer's car head-on, said Detective Mary Wheat of the Portland Police Bureau. The Subaru rolled over onto its top.
Officer Jeffrey Ruppel and the Subaru driver, 63-year-old Robert King, were taken to local hospitals, Wheat said. The two TV crew members, whose names haven't been released, were also taken to the hospital. Wheat said alcohol likely factored in the wreckA Portland police patrol car carrying two crew members from the television show "Cops"... more
A Pennsylvania judge pondered a very unusual question during a ruling issued Monday: When a former police officer stuck his male member in the mouths of five baby cows, did they enjoy "suckling" it, or were they merely "puzzled"?
"During a bizarre hearing there yesterday, a Superior Court judge dismissed animal-cruelty charges against a Moorestown police officer accused of sticking his penis into the mouths of five calves in rural Southampton in 2006, claiming a grand jury couldn't infer whether the cows had been 'tormented' or 'puzzled' by the situation or even irritated that they'd been duped out of a meal," reported Jason Nark with the Philadelphia Daily News.
Weighing the case, Judge James J. Morley reportedly asked: "If the cow had the cognitive ability to form thought and speak, would it say, 'Where's the milk? I'm not getting any milk'?"
Equating the act of putting a penis in the mouth of a cow with a human baby suckling on a pacifier, the judge reportedly added: "They [children] enjoy the act of suckling. Cows may be of a different disposition."
The strained logic of such questions eventually led the judge to waive charges of animal cruelty against Robert Melia, a suspended officer with the Moorestown Police Department.A Pennsylvania judge pondered a very unusual question during a ruling issued Monday:... more
"It was all students and no protesters -- it looked like any Friday night in Oakland but with more people," said Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, of Mount Lebanon. He went to Oakland out of curiosity to see the protests and shortly before midnight was caught on Forbes Avenue, with police deploying OC gas from two directions, trapping him on the street.
He was then hit with a rubber bullet in his right leg and his left, started to run, and was then hit in an arm and his lower back. "I never heard any warning to leave the area -- all four [rubber bullet] shots were within five seconds," he said. "All the wounds are on my back. If I was opposing [the police] at all you'd think I I'd have a front wound."
Mr. Lanzendorfer, an independent computer network technician, went to UPMC Presbyterian for treatment of his contusions, two of which are shown below.
This vid is really upsetting and I don't recommend it for those who were there or who are easily triggered by police violence but pass it around so the world sees it.
If the bullet were an inch higher, he likely would have died.
