SSCC #339–Denver

He wore a badge and a gun. And when the Denver police officer demanded sex in the front seat of his squad car two years ago, according to Valerie Arend, she felt she had to comply with his demands.

Yeah, go read the story.  Sounds like a class A character right there.  She had every reason to be afraid, our sworn officers of the law get preferential treatment.  Don’t believe me, resist an unlawful arrest as you’re legally allowed to do and tell me how that ends up.

She could have used force to resist but his buddies who arrive on scene are going to pummel her face and no one will believe her.

Great how the system works isn’t it?

State Sponsored Criminal #339: Hector Paez

Because citizens should have the deck stacked against them so an officer always has the benefit of the doubt, no matter what he does.

SSCC #338–Duval County

Federal prosecutors say Duval County Sheriff’s deputy Ruben Silva took $5,000 in payment and planned to smuggle cocaine in his sheriff’s department vehicle from the Rio Grande Valley north through the Border Patrol inland checkpoint. He was arrested Thursday.

Yup, the “War on Nouns”, it’s nothing but a giant ploy so the government can create it’s own monopoly.  Prohibitions fail, period.  The “War on Drugs” just means that the smugglers who go and work for the state get preferential treatment and can do the inside jobs.

They only reason he’s facing punishment is because the DEA and ATF still have a black eye from fast and furious.  Besides, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone doing an inside job like this.

State Sponsored Criminal #338: Ruben Silva

Because you’ve been sworn to enforcing the law, means you can enforce it against others while breaking it yourself to make some money on the side.

via Bob S.

SSCC Honorable Mention – Dallas

Here’s the static link to the video in case embedding didn’t work.

Obviously this guy felt that rules were for everyone else and not him.  Thankfully no one was injured and this is yet another example to add to my anointed class post

Since he didn’t identify as an officer and he’s currently facing charges I’m putting this as an honorable mention.

State Sponsored Criminal Honorable Mention – Hector Roa

Because rules are for everyone else, no one, not even the property owner can keep you out of his bar!

via Bob S.

A Note for CSGV, Here’s What PSH Gets the Public (SSCC #336)

Someone on their way to work induced someone in the greater Boston area to go into a fit of PSH recently.

What people inside didn’t know–Brockton police had just received a
911 call–reporting a man with a gun walking toward the store.

911 caller: “And he’s got a gun in his back pocket, so I don’t know what’s up with that.”

911 Operator: What’s he look like?

Caller: He’s black, he has a red shirt on, and like tan pants.

So we have someone turning their pants brown on account of someone walking towards a store with a “gun” in their pocket.  So what happens to the store employees that don’t actually match the description?

Watch: the man police confront in the red shirt and black pants is Bill Ceneus, a 10 year employee of Save-a-lot.

You can see one officer wraps his arms around Ceneus, lifts him up, and within seconds, he’s on the floor.

Ceneus
is handcuffed and searched by three officers. No weapon is found…

Well I guess it’s a good thing the officers didn’t just shoot him.  But it begs the question, where’s the guy with the tan pants, since you know the officer is obviously color blind.

So
where’s the guy the 911 caller saw with a gun? While Ceneus sits in
handcuffs, another store camera shows police confronting a different
store employee–wearing a red shirt and tan pants. He’s in the produce
section –and as he shows them, he has a pricing gun. The police report
says that’s what “was mistaken for a firearm.”

Lets see here, the caller induced himself into a rage of PSH over what he thought was a gun.  The end result, one man physically assaulted and another detained and harassed.  The result of the physical assault is now a lawsuit whereby the taxpayers are going to pay out*.

The public at large, especially those who go into PSH over the sight of a firearm are not able to accurately separate real firearms from fake.  Take this (the call was for a man with an AK-47 mind you), this and this for other examples.  There are numerous other examples but those drive the point home.

There is a cure to the cause of PSH though.

State Sponsored Criminal #336: John Doe

*I am including this in the criminal count.  It was an unnecessary assault based on the ramblings of a panicking individual which the officer couldn’t be bothered to see he didn’t match the description or the fact red was a store uniform.  Doubly so since the report differs from witness statements and video as to their justification for force.

SSCC #334–Vallejo

Call 911 and kill your dog, at least that’s what happened here.

A Vallejo family expressed outrage Thursday that police shot and killed one of their dogs after it ran toward an officer coming to their home to take a report.

So why was the officer coming to the house I hear you ask.

The incident began at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday when Officer Chase Calhoun went to Erika Gregory’s home to investigate a case of identity theft she had reported, said police Lt. Ken Weaver.

So he opens the gate into the yard and the two dogs come around the corner in what he claims is an aggressive manner.  I know most dogs get upset with strangers but that doesn’t mean that they are going to actually bite and attack unless actually provoked.  The full kicker though:

Gregory, 49, said police had never told her that an officer was coming to take the report, and that she would have kept the dogs inside had she known. Although her dogs are friendly with visitors who are familiar to them, they are protective and will bark at strangers, she said.

However, the dogs have never attacked anyone, Gregory said.

You know, maybe officers should be trained into actually thinking all the way through into determining if something is actually aggressive.  If my neighbors dog gets out of his kennel and starts running at me, odds are I’m not going to shoot it.  Even dogs I’m unfamiliar with, I don’t shoot them.  Unless they have actually attacked something or are attempting to bite me there is no reason.  Is a dog running at you scary?  Yeah, but pull up your big boy pants and stare it down.  Most dogs are not trained attack dogs.  Yes there are reasons to shoot a damn dog, and it seems these bums are never around when it’s necessary.  Even then they didn’t shoot the dog when they showed up, no it was taken to quarantine. 

No this officer is just like every other officer.  Oh god a dog is running towards me, kill it.  The officers story would be believable if it wasn’t for all the incidents of puppycide like this, this, and this, by officers for no actual reason.  Which made the following quote:

Weaver said, “No one likes to use deadly force on a person or a dog. It’s unfortunate circumstances, and we feel for the family. We do feel bad.”

All sorts of ironic.  While shooting a dog isn’t exactly a crime, this happens often enough that it is easily animal abuse.  Doubly so when you also consider incidents like this or this where the dog is still living.  If their dog can maul me and get away with it, maybe they should just stay the hell out of my yard, if they want to talk to me, they can call me out of my house to the gate.

State Sponsored Criminal Count #334: Chase Calhoun

Because as I’ve said before, whenever a cop shows up, a puppy has to die.

Update: I forgot to thank Ry for sending this one in.

SSCC Honorable Mention – Washington DC

Via Uncle we get to see an up and coming state sponsored criminal in the making.

Including an indemnification clause, which means Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier
cannot be held liable for actions done on the job, is standard practice
in contracts for police chiefs and other government officials, said Leonard A. Matarese, a public safety expert with the International City/County Management Association.

Standard practice?  See here’s the thing, it’s complete horse crap.  It’s an effort to skate around the laws that cover “under color of law” when an officer does something wrong.  Guess what, as an engineer I’m held responsible for my actions.  Just the same a cop, no matter their position in the department should be held accountable for theirs.  If you can’t take it, if you’re afraid you might make a wrong decision and can’t handle the consequences it’s quite simple, get the hell out of the kitchen.

Now it isn’t giving her free reign to commit murder while on the job.

The contract states the District “shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless” Chief Lanier
in any civil or criminal proceedings so long as she was “properly
exercising or performing her duties and responsibilities within the
scope of her employment” and “acted in good faith, did not act in a way
that violates an applicable law, and did not act in an intentionally
tortuous manner.

“Did not act in an intentionally tortuous manner.”  So in other words you now must have an intent-o-meter to go after her for doing something bad.

Here’s the problem with these types of things, including qualified immunity.  It is they exist specifically to prevent thinking and bringing consequences to bear on those who decide not to think things through. 

I’ve said it before, but I will say it again.  You know who has more of a right to go home at the end of the night to their wife and kids?  Any innocent law abiding citizen.  More often than not however some innocent is caught up with some cop who instead of thinking just reacts.  Well the reaction results in injury or death to the innocent person. 

Who is at fault for this?  No it’s not the officer who committed the act.  For you see that would be silly in a world where we blame inanimate objects for the actions of others.  You see it was the fault of the department for improper training.  No one is actually at fault.  Then thanks to things like qualified immunity like that you get incidents like this.

Wait, he was never charged or convicted of a crime.  They fired him, but they couldn’t prove intent.  Maybe in fact that clause does allow for murder.

State Sponsored Criminal Count Honorable Mention: Chief Cathy L. Lanier

Because everyone who works in law enforcement should be able to work outside the law.  We wouldn’t want them to have to arrest their own you know.

SSCC #333 – DeKalb County

DeKalb County is back again, their previous incidents are here.  I’ve noticed that much of the time bad actions are all within the same area.  Take Seattle PD for example. This incident has holy hell written all over it.

A DeKalb County police officer is under criminal investigation after
being accused of kicking a woman who was almost nine months pregnant,

What was her grievous offense that provoked a response like that from the officer?

Raven Dozier said she was trying to help her brother calm down during a
child custody issue that involved police. She said she started crying
and questioning officers after a Taser gun was used on her brother.

The officer claimed he didn’t know she was pregnant, possible but doubtful, and that she came at him threateningly.  The prosecutors dropped charges against the woman.  It really is telling though given the following.  It ends up though that Jerad Wheeler is the officer from one of the previous incidents in the count.

Two other complaints about use of force have been filed against Wheeler,
including when he allegedly shot a family’s dog after responding to the
wrong address, the report said.

Considering this officer is too stupid to figure out if he’s at the right address and then threatens the home owner, is it really that surprising that he would kick a pregnant woman?  I mean he’s obviously mentally deficient and heaven forbid they actually can someone who love his Authoritah!

If anyone has information on the third complaint mentioned in the article please contact me.  Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three or more times is enemy action.  At this point he’s writing checks his ass can’t cash and obviously should not be employed in law enforcement.  That just means he’ll be promoted and given more Authoritah.

State Sponsored Criminal Count #333: Jerad Wheeler

Because the scowl of a pregnant woman about to pop is so fearsome it requires physical force.  Doubly so if she’s crying since she’s obviously hysterical!

SSCC #331 & #332 – LA

Go read the other details of the incident.  This though was the most telling thing about the incident:

“But one thing the second officer said to me right after he took the
cuffs off was,  ‘You know why we did this?  You know why we did this,
right.'”

Because you’re a bunch of authoritarian tyrants.  He has pending litigation against your department so you proceeded to harass him and threaten him.  Good job fellas on costing the tax payers even more, I just wish it came out of your pocket instead of the public’s.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 331: John Doe

332: John Doe

Because the fact that the public can record us to hold us accountable is a serious problem and scourge.  To battle this scourge we need CCTV cameras on every corner and unmanned drones flying 24/7 monitoring the public!