SSCC #376–DEA

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.

As expected though the DEA is refusing to accept responsibility for the damages to his truck.  This however is unsurprising since I’m sure Obama would claim this man wasn’t building a business, someone else was.  Now for those who claim that his insurance should cover the costs:

Copies of letters and emails from Patty’s insurance company state that it won’t pay for repairs because the truck was part of a law-enforcement operation. Patty drew from his 401K retirement fund to repair the truck, which was out of operation for 100 days.

So basically what happened here is the DEA shifted the costs and risks for their idiocy onto a small business man and when it went south they left him with the bill.

State Sponsored Criminal #376: The Entire DEA

Because when fighting the war on drugs, collateral damage is inconsequential. 

SSCC #372 – Phoenix

Phoenix police higher-ups refused to release any information on the circumstances which led to Davis’ leave. Sources told CBS 5 News that the supervisor was caught on surveillance video pocketing several thousands of dollars in cash from a business while he was responding there on official duty.

Heaven forbid you inform the public of corrupt officers within your department.

State Sponsored Criminal #372: Sgt. Arnold Davis

Because when you respond to a criminal robbing an establishment, you’re free to take cash from the drawer, it’s a reward for doing your job right?

SSCC #367–Lake County FL

Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed a man they assumed was an attempted murder suspect on Sunday, but they now know they shot the wrong man.

This is going into the count because the deputies were ultimately responsible.  They went to the wrong house.  It was their job to verify they were at the proper address prior to initiating contact.  Further it was their job to properly identify themselves.  Not that it would really help much because I’m not going to believe someone at OH ‘Dark Thirty when they’re claiming to be the cops.

Further the only people we have left to tell what happened are the officers themselves.  It is only their side of the story we are hearing and it could be they embellished it specifically to ensure they would remain “justified”.

The fact is as long as we have qualified immunity, innocent people will continue to die from deputies half-assing their police work.  Why should they do the job proper and right when Qualified Immunity will shield them from their gross negligence.

Let this be a serious lesson in NOT opening the door at bum fuck thirty in the morning.  I find it interesting though that the victim supposedly had his gun pointed at them and neither of them was shot as the victim returned fire.  I think this is a classic case of the victim armed himself and the officers felt that made them justified in shooting him.

State Sponsored Criminal Count #367: Officer John Doe

Because doing your job right is too much work when you don’t have consequences if you screw up.

via RobbHis discussion on it is here.

ICHH – The Kind I Hate

Normally TMW does these posts, she hasn’t been as active about it lately though.  Also when we do them it focuses on people’s belief that it can’t happen here.  Usually someone says a variant of the following, “I never thought it could happen here.”

Well this one close enough to home for some of us that it should drive the point home.

Everything that has just occurred took place, not in minutes, but seconds.  From the initial observation of the man… to his strange question… to the attack… and finally to the assailant running off took a total of maybe less than ten, not more than fifteen seconds.  The sheriff’s department was called… the young gal… all of sixteen… was taken to the hospital for treatment… and the assailant was caught… found lying on the ground under another camper not far away… apparently under the influence of drugs.

Go read Dann’s post, seriously, it is a prime example of how quickly the world can change, and no place is safe.  This particular incident occurred at a County Fair, with her parents close by and a friend sitting next to her.

Many of us exercise risk management and the thing is, like firearms, “Is Life, Is not Safe.”  Everything in life has risk, some things are lower risk that others.  Ultimately though your number can be called.  It may be an unlikely event, but it very well could be called out.  It can happen without warning and without cause.  It can happen there, it can happen here.  It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

I carry a gun, among other tools because I won’t get a warning if my number is going to be called.  I could very well only have seconds to identify my number is up and to react.

Accountabilibuddyable–Indiana

Via Tam comes this story which I am doing instead of a SSCC today.

Authorities said Hubbard was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.

He was arrested on charges of dealing while in possession of a handgun, possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine and dealing in marijuana.

So why was this an Accountabilibuddyable instead of an State Sponsored Criminal?  Tam said it best so I’ll quote her:

I guess their union isn’t as good as the FOP Local here in Indy, because his employers dropped him like a live grenade as soon as he was charged. Quis custodiet, indeed.

Yeah, I wish more departments would fire their officers immediately when busted for bad behavior.  Now let’s hope the legal system will continue the accountability string.

Officer Robert Hubbard – He’s so bad we had to hold him accountabilibuddyable!

SSCC Honorable Mention–Australia

So this one came from Sean and hails from the land down under*.

A former Victoria Police officer charged with child sex offences allegedly held a gun to the heads of victims and gave Kit-Kat chocolate bars to another after abusing him.

Yeah, it’s just as bad as it sounds.

The man, who now lives in New South Wales, faces 39 charges including several counts of rape, indecent assault and gross indecency. The charges relate to nine girls and boys aged between five and 14.

The real icing on the cake is that some of the incidents occurred while he was on duty.  State side many monsters have gone in to law enforcement to allow them to hide in plain sight.  Since this was outside the states, I’m hesitant to give him a number though I really want to.  I run the count to predominantly show corruption in the American system, if I included foreign governments I could just call it a day with Iran, China, and North Korea.

The fact this is an honorable mention has nothing to do with the incident itself, but merely the fact it occurred outside the US.  There have been other’s that have made the count in similar circumstances and this man deserves as much scorn as his countrymen can throw at him.

International State Sponsored Criminal: John Doe**

Because being a cop means that you have a huge amount of trust merely by having a badge.

*I had to put something in there to cheer me up because this sucker is just depressing. 

**As always if you get his name, please let me know.

SSCC #360 – Houston

The officers didn’t see it that way. Shortly after she took up her post, a squad car pulled up to Miss Plummer and an officer grabbed her backpack off her shoulder and began rifling through it.

Then, he handcuffed her and told her she was under arrested for felony obstruction of justice and that she would spent three to five years in jail, at minimum.

So what did this woman do to attract the attention of an officer in such a way to make him so aggravated, quite simple really.

Then, she said, she turned around and wrote ‘Speed Trap!!’ in large letters on a piece of grocery bag to warn oncoming traffic.

Never mess with cops who are generating revenue or otherwise engaging in tax collection penalty collection.  For you see in this day in age, and in all honesty, a penalty is really a tax on something other people disagree with.

Speed, pay an extra tax.  Want to smoke weed, pay an extra tax.  Want to set off explosives, pay an extra tax.  Want a suppressor or SBR, pay and extra tax.  It is possible to continue, however that is unnecessary.  It is well known that the concept of “mens rea” is under attack and the proliferation of victimless crimes.  Each of which could be ruled just the same a penalty tax.

State Sponsored Criminal #360: Officer John Doe

Because a citizen daring to alert her fellow citizens about officers rounding up “sinners” is a bad thing, they can’t let people dare do that, it would cause chaos. 

*I meant for this to go up on Monday but the scheduling failed for what ever reason.

SSCC #358/#359–Chicago

He bashed Luis Cordero Jr. over the head with a revolver over and over, cursing all the while, according to Cordero, his girlfriend and witnesses.

Then it was Cordero’s girlfriend’s turn for terror.

“He put his gun in my mouth and said: ‘You better shut the f— up, bitch, or I’ll blow your brains out,’ ” the girlfriend, Heather Rzany, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The man with the gun wasn’t a gangbanger, an angry relative or an armed robber.

He was an off-duty Chicago cop, far outside his Englewood district, getting involved in a noise complaint being handled by a private security guard on the Northwest Side, Cordero and Rzany allege. And now he’s being sued for brutality and investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority.

No worries though because this is in a place where despite Heller and McDonald it is still increasingly difficult to obtain a firearm.  So the probability of either of these citizens putting up a fight against this anointed tyrant was nil allowing him to operate without fear.

Now why would I put this in the sponsored count though?  Simple, because of the following:

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses an on-duty officer who responded to the beating of letting Gofron walk away — and of failing to document his name, badge number and where he worked.

Yup, it’s handy when your buddies can try and cover for you.  Isn’t Chicago great?

State Sponsored Criminal #358: Chris Gofron

359: Jason Burg

Because being a cop means you can get drunk while carrying a gun and do what ever the hell you want.