Ordinary cops have too much fire power

The local police, with the help of the feds, have become militarized, using weapons and tactics that were once reserved for foreign battlefields.

DHS has equipped 400 police departments with military-grade sound cannons.  A recent article in the Mohave Valley Daily News revealed that DHS is using grant money to equip Arizona police departments with military-grade sound cannons or Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD).  The Bullhead City Police Department received $54,000 in grant money to purchase a 100X model and a 450XL model LRAD.  The mass media has known about DHS's plan to equip police departments with LRADs for more than a decade but has remained largely silent.  A Washington Times article from 2009, titled "DHS helps local police buy military-style sonic devices" warned everyone that military-grade sound cannons are being used against Americans.

Police across the country are adding sonic weapons to their crowd control arsenal.  With forms of police crowd control such as worrying as tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets — not to mention batons, boots, and fists — why spend time covering long range acoustic devices?

Connecticut Bill Would Allow Police to Arm Drones.  The Connecticut State Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday [3/29/2017] that would allow local police to weaponize drones. [...] Three cities in Connecticut — Hartford, Plainfield, and Woodbury — already use unarmed drones.  If this bill becomes law, it would make Connecticut the first state in the union to allow police to use armed drones in their work.

Watch out, Yogi!
Assault Rifles, Flash Bang Grenades Bought for Park Rangers, Report Finds.  A supervisor at the Mojave National Preserve in California violated policy by buying fully automatic assault rifles and dozens of flash-bang grenades, according to a federal study released Thursday [1/14/2016].  A supervisory park ranger at the immense desert park northeast of Los Angeles bought nine Colt M-4 fully automatic rifles between 2008 and 2010, and 24 grenades some years later, according to a report from the inspector general's office from the U.S. Department of the Interior.  The purchases violated park service policy, which specifies semi-automatic rifles and requires prior approval for defensive equipment, although the policy doesn't specifically mention flash-bang grenades, the report said.

Less-lethal weapons get new interest amid police shootings.  Police in more than 20 North American cities are testing the latest in less-lethal alternatives to bullets — "blunt impact projectiles" that cause suspects excruciating pain but stop short of killing them.  Or at least that's the goal.

The latest in non-lethals: A stink bomb for crowd control.  You may have heard of non-lethal weapons like Tasers, plastic bullets, flash bangs and smoke grenades.  But there's a new kid on the block that has taken the playground concept of stink bombs to the next level.  Skunk is like a grown-up stink bomb on steroids.  It's been used in Israel, but it's now coming to the U.S.  Both the Israeli police and the Israel Defense Forces began deploying the technology several years ago and it is now available in the U.S. through Bethesda, Md.-based Mistral Security.

Blinded by laser-armed cops — scared yet?  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 splash at the Urban Shield trade show last October in Boston.

Pinellas schools add M16 rifles to police cache.  The Pinellas County School District has purchased 28 M16 rifles for its internal police department, according to Law Enforcement Support Office documents.  The guns aren't currently in use, but school police officers will begin training to use and store the weapons, school district spokeswoman Melanie Marquez Parra said.

Bring it back with a full tank of gas, and I don't want to see any scratches on it.
San Diego school district to return armored military vehicle.  The San Diego school district will return its armored military vehicle to the Department of Defense, school officials announced Thursday night [9/18/2014].  The district joins a list of agencies returning excess military equipment amid a national controversy over local law enforcement agencies using such equipment.

The Kampus Kops get grenade launchers.  What could go wrong?
Pentagon gives guns, grenade-launchers, armoured vehicles to US schools.  The US Defence Department program accused of fuelling the militarisation of local law enforcement is stirring controversy again, this time for providing equipment and weapons to school police.  Law enforcement agencies affiliated with at least 120 schools, colleges and universities have received gear through the program, according to a Washington Post review of data from 33 states.  The items received include at least five grenade launchers, hundreds of rifles and eight mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, the hulking machines designed to withstand the kind of roadside attacks seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

13 Ways The American Police State Squanders Your Tax Dollars.  [#1]  $4.2 billion for militarized police.  Almost 13,000 agencies in all 50 states and four U.S. territories participate in a military "recycling" program that allows the Defense Department to transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police.  In 2012 alone, $546 million worth of military equipment was distributed to law enforcement agencies throughout the country.  [#2]  $34 billion for police departments to add to their arsenals of weapons and equipment.  Since President Obama took office, police departments across the country "have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft."

Surplus US military gear, including MRAPs, going to local police.  But the program also has its critics, who say arming police with military-grade equipment blurs the lines between cops and soldiers and encourages unnecessary confrontations and injuries.  "The military is trained to search and destroy — to go find the enemy and subdue them," said Tim Lynch, director of the Project on Criminal Justice with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think thank [sic].  "What we want from our civilian police departments is to use the absolute minimum amount of force that may be necessary in some cases to bring a suspect into a court of law, where disputes can be resolved peacefully."

Incoming Boston mayor, police clash over AR-15 proposal.  Boston police are clashing with the city's incoming mayor over a proposal to arm some officers with AR-15 rifles.  Mayor-elect Martin Walsh came out against the plan over the weekend.  The Boston Police Department had been pushing for a limited number of officers to carry the high-powered rifles, in light of recent mass shootings as well as the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year.

The Editor says...
Bigger guns do not equate to faster response and smarter cops.

Cops can use radio waves to bring your car to a halt.  Finding a safe way to stop fleeing cars has been a difficult problem for law enforcement for a long time.  Police have tried everything from spike strips to PIT maneuvers to bring fleeing villains to a halt.  Now, however, a British company has a slightly more high tech idea:  radio waves.  The company, known as E2V is working on a system called RF-Safe Stop that projects radio pulses which overwhelm and shutdown engine electronics.

The Editor says...
I would not want to be in the vicinity when that weapon was used.  Will the police pay for knocked-out engines on nearby cars?  Probably not.  If the radio signal is powerful enough to kill an automobile engine, wouldn't it also kill all the electronics in the area, and wouldn't it be a severe health hazard?  At the very least, this would almost certainly violate the FCC's RF exposure standards for "uncontrolled exposure areas."  If the weapon kills the electronics in your engine, wouldn't it also kill your pacemaker?  This idea comes from the same nanny state that requires warning signs where there's a microwave oven in use in a public place!

Online Ammunition Salesman Says One Police Department Is Ordering Lots Of Ammo.  Seems like more than just the Social Security and DHS etc are gearing up for what is coming.  Reading about these .gov agencies buying all the ammo that they have been buying is eye opening, but to be on the phone talking to someone trying to procure this much ammo for a police department, is chilling!

On the other hand ...
Why one cop carries 145 rounds of ammo on the job.  Before the call that changed Sergeant Timothy Gramins' life forever, he typically carried 47 rounds of handgun ammunition on his person while on duty.  Today, he carries 145, "every day, without fail."  He detailed the gunfight that caused the difference in a gripping presentation at the annual conference of the Assn. of SWAT Personnel-Wisconsin.  At the core of his desperate firefight was a murderous attacker who simply would not go down, even though he was shot 14 times with .45-cal. ammunition — six of those hits in supposedly fatal locations.

New York's Long-Distance Body Scanners Challenge 4th Amendment.  The NYPD, sometimes referred to as the world's "seventh largest army" with 35,000 uniformed officers, already does a brisk business frisking potential suspects, with little pushback.  In the first quarter of last year, 161,000 New Yorkers were stopped and interrogated, with more than nine out of 10 of them found to be innocent.  And there are cameras already in place everywhere:  in Manhattan alone there are more than 2,000 surveillance cameras watching for alleged miscreants.

New Anti-Crime Cameras Being Installed Downtown.  Officials said 38 anti-crime cameras will soon be installed in downtown Los Angeles.  In the coming weeks, this new equipment will replace cameras which have been broken or failing for years.

Police in Iowa city to buy their own semi-automatic AR-15s.  Police in one Iowa city could soon be buying their own assault rifles to carry in squad cars to ensure they aren't outgunned by criminals in the wake of several high-profile shootings involving semi-automatic AR-15s, FoxNews.com has learned.  Half of the 50-member force in Marion, Iowa, will take part in the upgrade, paying for the $2,000 guns in installments deducted from their paychecks, according to Police Chief Harry Daugherty.

Just like the Telescreens in 1984:
Talking Surveillance Cameras Coming to U.S. Streets.  Talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its 'Intellistreets' system.

ACLU launches nationwide look into police 'militarization'.  ACLU cites ten cases where the use of excess force and weaponry demonstrate the need for investigation.  In one case, police blinded themselves with a flash bang grenade and then mistakenly shot a sleeping nine-year-old.  Police in Paragould Arkansas had to pull back from a plan to patrol streets in full SWAT gear after public pressure mounted.  The Paragould Police Chief had said he expected most people stopped would be innocent of any crime, but claimed it was the civilian's responsibility to "prove" innocence.

DHS deploying in Homeland with 'weapons of war'.  Compounded by the administration's now "on the radar" push to further restrict civilian firearm ownership, the recent controversy over the potential use of drones over American soil to kill citizens without due process, and a longstanding and documented train of abuses tied to the militarization of law enforcement activities, those who keep an eye on such things are noticeably distressed.

NYPD's Kelly says cops could take down an aircraft.  The NYPD now has anti-aircraft capability.  New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tells "60 Minutes" that the NYPD has "some means to take down a plane" in what he termed an "extreme situation," during an interview tonight on CBS, according to a transcript of the exchange.

Bossier sheriff launches 'Operation Exodus'.  The Bossier Parish sheriff's office is launching a program called "Operation Exodus," a policing plan for an end-of-the-world scenario involving a mostly white group of ex-police volunteers and a .50-caliber machine gun, inspired in part from the Book of Exodus in the Bible.

Big Brother Not Only Watches Us, It Toys with Our Children.  Lego, for example, in 2003 began marketing a plastic construction set depicting a police 18-wheeler housing a surveillance unit, complete with monitoring devices and control panels to track movements of little Lego citizens. … While the Lego surveillance play set is — according to the company — oriented toward 8-year-olds, a rival company, Playmobil, which produces plastic figures for younger darlings, apparently has determined there is a market for toys teaching 4-year-olds the benefit of submitting oneself to intrusive police searches.

Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant.  The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday [1/3/2011] to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.  Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.

Where have you gone, Sheriff Taylor?  [Scroll down]  Not long ago I reported on an even more absurd case, in Shreveport, Louisiana.  There, the police chief cooked up this hare-brained idea of holding gas station employees and owners criminally liable in cases where drivers drive away without paying.  I can almost hear your incredulity. ... Well, you see, the chief got the town council to require station attendants to make their customers pre-pay.  If they don't, and the driver drives off without paying, then the attendant is also a criminal!  This sort of regulation of everyday life is all too common.  The basic idea is to scribble out a criminal code to make it easy for law enforcement.

The Rise of the American Police State.  The increasingly antiterrorism-oriented police units have begun to regard dissenting citizens, or even innocent and unsuspecting citizens, as the "enemy" in domestic "war zones." ... The militarization of the police does not occur instantaneously, but is the cumulative result of each military tool amassed, each protester silenced based on his political views, or each wrongful search that goes unchallenged.

Child abuse! Call the SWAT team!  Apparently they take their polygamy very seriously in Texas.  Our troops in Iraq might be able to use a piece of equipment like the one at [left], pictured during the raid on the FLDS compound in Texas.

S.W.A.T. Team Use In U.S. Law Enforcement Dramatically Increases.  The SWAT teams wear camouflage, body armor and gas masks, and use weapons such as diversionary "flashbangs" (a diversionary device), submachine guns, explosives and chemical weapons.  Kraska's survey shows that the SWAT teams receive training by active and retired military experts in special operations.  Heckler and Koch, makers of the MP5 submachine gun used by the Navy Seals, also provide training to the SWAT teams.  Some units also have helicopters and armored personnel carriers at their disposal.

Our Growing Police State.  The Giffords/Roll shooting was brought to an end by a bystander.  The Ft. Hood massacre on November 5, 2009, which killed 13 American soldiers and wounded 29 others was brought to an end by two base police officers using conventional sidearms and procedures.  The warning signs for this terrorist attack, the first on American soil since 9/11, were ignored and yet it was the local cops on the beat who faced and dealt with a terrible crime.  Every case one can think of was resolved by conventional methods.  And yet the police powers of government on a local and national level have been growing at an alarming rate.  And despite a dissonant data base there is a growing trend towards militarization of police forces and of an invasive state security apparatus.

Obama and his Syndicate.  [Scroll down]  Now the extremely bad news for US citizens.  First, on 19 January 2012, multiple videos were made of a shipment — via rail — of hundreds of Bradley armored vehicles and related equipment moving from Northern California Southward. ... The US military, Department of Homeland Security and LOCAL Police are conducting "urban warfare exercises" in recent and unprecedented "showings of force" under the now undeniable (by any intelligent beings) Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama.  These military forces are inhabiting the streets and air of and over Los Angeles, Boston, Little Rock, Miami and Colorado amongst others.

Homeland Security seeking assault and sniper rifles.  The Department of Homeland Security issued a bid for 36 Colt LE901 rifle systems, which will accept and function any military specification (Mil-Spec) .223 caliber upper receiver, and is thus backwards compatible with all CBP/U.S. Border Patrol M4 upper receivers.  Not surprisingly in this matter is the recent award by DHS, but no solicitation can be found for, .223 caliber Remington Enhanced Performance ammunition.

Who Does The Government Intend To Shoot?  The Social Security Administration (SSA) confirms that it is purchasing 174 thousand rounds of hollow point bullets to be delivered to 41 locations in major cities across the U.S.  No one has yet said what the purpose of these purchases is, though we are led to believe that they will be used only in an emergency to counteract and control civil unrest.  Those against whom the hollow point bullets are to be used — those causing the civil unrest — must be American citizens; since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens. [...] If this were only a one time order of ammunition, it could easily be dismissed.  But there is a pattern here.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ordered 46,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition.

It's illegal for passengers to ride in a trailer — unless you're a cop.
Passaic County sheriff's department enlists 16-foot trailer for mass arrests response.  No longer will Passaic County law enforcement have to take separate cars to respond to a scene where mass arrests are expected.  Now the sheriff's department has a 16-foot dual axle trailer to transport up to 20 officers to parades, demonstrations, shopping frenzies or college parties that might get too rowdy.  The $130,000 trailer came from the state's Department of Corrections through a federal Homeland Security grant, putting Passaic County on New Jersey's Mass Arrest Response Team.

Why do America's police need an armored tank?  If the new American paramilitary is being created not to repel a massive invasion of Al Qaeda based terrorists unleashed on our homeland, then why are we militarizing our society to a point that surpasses the wildest dreams of former Iron Curtain leaders of the 1970's?  Perhaps it is not to keep the masses protected but incarcerated; to hold their wealth and prevent it from leaving the country, to control their spending with strict illegal monitoring and currency manipulation, to tax without representation, and to modify behavior just like prison inmates are manipulated using controls beyond the scope of most inmates mental capacity.

Somewhat related...
DNA Gun Tags Rioters for Future Arrest.  [A] new high velocity DNA tagging system, designed by UK firm Selectamark, fires small soft green DNA pellets which could remain on the target's skin for weeks.  Andrew Knights from Selectamark said:  'On contact with the target the uniquely-coded SelectaDNA solution leaves a synthetic DNA trace mark that will enable the relevant authorities to confirm or eliminate that person from their involvement in a particular situation and could ultimately lead to arrest and prosecution.'

The use of drones against civilians:

Introduction:
Unmanned aerial vehicles, colloquially referred to as drones, are now being used as a high-tech law enforcement surveillance tool.  (When did we vote on this?)  The UAVs are used to obtain aerial video from an altitude of 400 feet or less.  They might not make enough noise to alert you to their presence, and in the event of a SWAT situation, the SWAT team can make plenty of noise to be sure you don't hear any aircraft.  The UAVs I've seen do not appear to be powerful enough to lift a good camera lens, to say nothing of an image stabilizer, so the resulting video is probably not that great.  (If the video is completely useless, that fact will never be made public.)  So far there has been nothing said about the penalties for shooting down a drone, or confusing it enough to make it crash, but after that happens you can be sure there will be legislation written, debated, passed and signed into law in a matter of 24 hours — much like the way the 300-page Patriot Act materialized in six weeks and was signed into law without being read by anyone in Congress.  (What's the rush?)  The penalty for shooting at a UAV will probably be the same as the penalty for shooting at a police car, and the first person to do so will be prominently featured on the evening "news" (which is usually nothing more than an infomercial for big government — but that's another story).

Police Use Drones To Spy On Suspicious People At "Potential Crime Scenes".  For years, law enforcement has been claiming that drones will only be used for natural disasters, crime scene investigations, car accidents and rescue operations.  That is the bill of goods, being sold to the public but it is all a lie.  A perfect example of how law enforcement promises the public one thing and after time passes, uses it for something else is taking place in Texas at the Memorial Villages Police Department (MVPD).  Two years ago, Click2Houston reported how the MVPD claimed that they would only use drones for "better emergency response during disasters."  They also used police officer and UAV pilot, Larry Boggus to solidify their claim that drones would only be used for natural disasters saying, "drones are a huge asset for us because very quickly we were able to see the amount of houses that were damaged" during a 2018 storm.  I love it when police department's provide comic relief to prove my point.

Six ways to disable a drone.  Civilian drone activity has increased exponentially as drones become more easily accessible and affordable.  With more drones in the sky every day, there have been some creative and sometimes dangerous attempts to disable drones.  The reasons for disabling a drone can vary from boredom and curiosity to privacy and safety concerns.  To be clear, the Center for Technology Innovation does not condone or promote the act of harming drones.

Pentagon admits it has deployed military spy drones over the U.S..  The Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. territory for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights have been rare and lawful, according to a new report.  The report by a Pentagon inspector general, made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, said spy drones on non-military missions have occurred fewer than 20 times between 2006 and 2015 and always in compliance with existing law.  The report, which did not provide details on any of the domestic spying missions, said the Pentagon takes the issue of military drones used on American soil "very seriously."

Pentagon admits operating military drone flights over U.S..  The Pentagon has deployed spy drones to fly over U.S. territory for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights were few and lawful, according to a new report.  The domestic drone flights have occurred less than 20 times between 2006 and 2015 and were always conducted in compliance with existing laws, according to the report by the Pentagon Inspector General which was made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, according to USA [T]oday.  The Pentagon did not provide details of the domestic spy missions, but said it takes the issue of military drone flights over America soil "very seriously."

American Police Start Pushing to Weaponize Domestic Drones.  Police are now voicing their concerns about domestic drone use — specifically, they want the option to be able to employ weaponized drones in the future, should the need arise.  As if police brutality and aggression weren't already an epidemic in the United States, police departments in Connecticut oppose a bill to outlaw the weaponization of drones.  The bill also address unmanned aerial vehicles fitted with cameras, and their potential to violate the privacy rights of individuals.  But law enforcement departments in the state appear far more concerned with being deprived of the possibility of arming them with weapons, rather than cameras.

Can Police Drones Save Money for Ohio?  Law-enforcement official in Ohio hope that drone deployment may make their jobs more effective and trim down their aerial budgets.  Several departments across the Buckeye State are reporting successful uses of UAV tech to complement or even replace more expensive helicopters.  WSYX reports:  "If departments are successful in establishing drone projects, the unmanned aircraft will be whizzing 400 feet above neighborhoods."

North Dakota just made it perfectly legal for cops to arm drones with weapons.  Just when you think you've seen the wildest story about drones (like that kid who strapped a handgun to one), something even crazier always seems to be just around the corner.  Well today we've reached that corner, as a recent bill amendment in North Dakota officially legalized police use of armed drones anywhere within the state.  This is no joke.  Cops in North Dakota now have the legal ability to tase lawbreakers with unmanned aircrafts.

The First Legal, Armed Police Drones Are Here!  It is a small start.  The first armed police drones only have taser weapons.  But it is still a start.  Where will it end?  The most disturbing element in this is the role of technology businesses in taking sides in the legislative process.  Much of the Daily Beast article is taken up with the debate in the legislature about whether to require a warrant for drone surveillance over private property.  I tend to favor a warrant but I can also see why law enforcement would claim they have a right to public space.  It isn't a straightforward Constitutional issue because human flight was not reality when the Constitution was written.

North Dakota cops will be first in nation to use weaponized drones.  North Dakota's Bill 1328 was supposed to be cut and dry.  "In my opinion there should be a nice, red line:  drones should not be weaponized.  Period," Rep. Rick Becker (R-Bismarck), the bill's original sponsor, told a committee hearing back in March, per The Daily Beast.  That was going to happen too, at least until an industry lobbying firm got involved.  Now, law enforcement agencies in North Dakota are legally allowed to arm their UAVs with any manner of weapons, so long as they aren't "lethal".

Illinois State Police will fly "unmanned aircraft" not "drones".  The Illinois State Police recently received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to add "unmanned aircraft" to its list of tools for the next two years.  In a statement released to the Sun-Times Media Wire, the police department said that it was intentionally avoiding the word "drone" because "it carries the perception of pre-programmed or automatic flight patterns and random, indiscriminate collection of images and information."  The state police said they worked with legal professionals and civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union to minimize the privacy impact on average citizens.

Homeland Security's Drone Program a Waste of Money, Audit Finds.  Homeland Security's drone program has been a waste of money so far, according to the department's inspector general, who on Tuesday told the department to cancel plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars on more of the aircraft.  The department paid more than $12,000 an hour to fly its drones, kept them in the air far less than it had promised and chiefly used them over just 170 miles of the 1,993-mile border.

Domestic Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Drones.  [Scroll down]  The Governor of Virginia said in 2012 that he thought it would be "great" to have drones flying over his State.  The Miami-Dade Police Department in Florida used Federal grant money to purchase a small drone vehicle.  Reports dating back to 2008 explain that Miami was seeking to use a small drone known as a Micro-Air Vehicle, "to gather real time information in situations which may be too dangerous for officers."  However, police have admitted that the drone can be used to look into houses.  As of December 2010, the FAA was reporting that they were cooperating with urban police departments in Houston and Miami on test programs involving unmanned aircraft.  One drone manufacturer advertises on its webpage that police offices that want to own a drone should seek funding from the Department of Homeland Security.

Defense Department Launches Surveillance Blimps.  On Friday, December 19, 2014, the US army will deploy drone surveillance blimps just north of the nation's capital.  The surveillance blimp system, known as "JLENS," is comprised of two 250' blimps.  As deployed in Iraq, one blimp contains aerial and ground surveillance technology that covers a 340-mile range, while the other has targeting capability including HELLFIRE missiles.  The surveillance blimps fly as high as 10,000 feet and can remain operational for up to 30 days straight.  The JLENS system is manufactured by defense contractor Raytheon.  Raytheon has tested the JLENS system with the company's MTS-B Multi-Spectral Targeting System.  The MTS-B offers long-range video surveillance that allows the real-time tracking of moving targets, including vehicles and persons, on the ground.

Speaking of JLENS...
Report: Army's runaway blimp flew for hours due to missing batteries.  An Army blimp that broke loose in Maryland in October stayed airborne for hours because someone failed to put batteries in its automatic-deflation device, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday [2/14/2016].  The blimp escaped from Aberdeen Proving Ground and its dangling tether caused power outages in Pennsylvania.  The mishap led to widespread ridicule of the Pentagon's blimp surveillance program, known as JLENS for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, which has cost taxpayers $2.7 billion since 1998.

Missing batteries among issues that caused Army's runaway blimp.  The blimp that broke loose from an Army facility in Maryland last fall, wreaking havoc with its milelong tether, flew uncontrolled for hours because someone neglected to put batteries in its automatic-deflation device, Pentagon investigators have found.  The pilotless, radar-carrying blimp was part of the troubled JLENS missile-defense system, which has failed to perform as promised while costing taxpayers more than $2.7 billion since 1998.

Police employ Predator drone spy planes on home front.  Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June.  The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said. ... The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers.  The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.

Is there a drone in your neighbourhood?  There are at least 63 active drone sites around the U.S, federal authorities have been forced to reveal following a landmark Freedom of Information lawsuit.  The unmanned planes — some of which may have been designed to kill terror suspects — are being launched from locations in 20 states.

Surveillance Drones Don't Live Up To Expectations.  Predator Drones have proven not to be worth the cost in their ability to curb contraband, drug traffic, and illegal alien activity.  Nearly two years after Predator B drones were deployed along the Texas/Mexico international border, the unmanned surveillance aircraft have proven to be, well, not worth it.  The drones were intended to augment the presence of border agents and physical barriers such as some 700 miles of intermittent border fencing along the Rio Grande River.  The Hill reported on June 10, 2010 that setting up a single drone in Corpus Christi, Texas (on the Gulf Coast), would have an estimated cost of between $20 and $80 million to focus on the Texas border alone.

Krauthammer On Drones Flying In US: "Stop It Here, Stop It Now".  "I'm going to go hard left on you here, I'm going ACLU," syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said in opposition to the use of drones on the U.S. homeland.  "I don't want regulations, I don't want restrictions, I want a ban on this.  Drones are instruments of war.  The Founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside even the United States.  It didn't like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes of using the army in the country."  "A drone is a high-tech version of an old army and a musket.  It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys but not in America.  I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. [...]"

A Predator Drone in the USA Could be Spying On You.  Americans are familiar with unmanned spy drones providing surveillance of Iranian nuclear complexes and Taliban armed militants combating American troops along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Now the Obama administration has quietly authorized Predator Drone use by law enforcement officials in the United States to spy on American Citizens.

Government Withholds Information on Drone Flight Authorizations.  State and local law enforcement are increasingly using unmanned aircraft for investigations into things like cattle rustling, drug dealing, and the search for missing persons.  Any drone flying over 400 feet needs a certification or authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the DOT.  But there is currently no information available to the public about who specifically has obtained these authorizations or for what purposes.

Privacy concerns as US government rolls out domestic drone rules.  Unmanned drones could soon be buzzing in the skies above many U.S. cities, as the federal government green-lights the technology for local law enforcement amid widespread privacy concerns.  The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday [5/14/2012] began to explain the rules of the sky for these newly licensed drones at potentially dozens of sites across the country.

Is There a Drone In Your Backyard?  Earlier this week, the federal government announced that the Air Force might be dispatching drones to a backyard near you.  The stated purpose of these spies in the sky is to assist local police to find missing persons or kidnap victims, or to chase bad guys.  If the drone operator sees you doing anything of interest (Is your fertilizer for the roses or to fuel a bomb?  Is that Sudafed for your cold or your meth habit?  Are you smoking in front of your kids?), the feds say they may take a picture of you and keep it.  The feds predict that they will dispatch or authorize about 30,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles across America in the next 10 years.  Meanwhile, more than 300 local and state police departments are awaiting federal permission to use the drones they already have purchased — usually with federal stimulus funds.  The government is out of control.

Despite Change to Drone Policy, Drones Still Controversial.  The use of drones by the United States is so controversial that even mainstream media outlets cannot ignore it.  Earlier this week, CBS News asked who would be targeted by U.S. drones, and who would decide whom the drones target.  According to that report, the decision would be "concentrated" in the hands of a very small group of people at the White House.

America: The Home of the... Compliant?  If you want a quick measure of the state of American society, you might consider the federal government's use of unmanned aerial drones to monitor U.S. citizens, and in particular the EPA's matter-of-fact defense of its use of drones over the Midwest as necessary to "verify compliance" with environmental laws.  And as the EPA's "environmental justice" agenda is quickly becoming the government's official overarching priority, we might describe the Obama era as the dawning of the Age of Compliance.

U.S. government to use 'drones the size of Golf Balls to spy on American citizens'.  A 30-page memorandum issued by President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley on April 23 has stated that the drones, some as small as golf balls, may be used domestically to 'collect information about U.S. persons.'  The photos that the drones will take may be retained, used or even distributed to other branches of the government so long as the 'recipient is reasonably perceived to have a specific, lawful governmental function' in asking for them.

Sen. Paul proposes bill protecting Americans from drone surveillance.  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday [6/12/2012] introduced the Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act, which would require the government to get a warrant before using aerial drones to surveil U.S. citizens.  More broadly, Paul's bill is aimed at preventing "unwarranted governmental intrusion" through the use of drones, according to the lawmaker.

Rand Paul Tries To Shoot Down Drone Surveillance.  Does the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures include aerial surveillance of your house and property?  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., thinks so.

Talk of drones patrolling US skies spawns anxiety.  The prospect that thousands of drones could be patrolling U.S. skies by the end of this decade is raising the specter of a Big Brother government that peers into backyards and bedrooms.

Dumb and Dumber Drones.  On Valentine's Day (politicians know that holidays and weekends are ideal times to pull the wool over our eyes), Obama signed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act.  This law allocates $63.6 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration between 2012 and 2015.  Basically, it authorizes the FAA to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to loosen and expand drone regulations for both military and private/commercial use.

The Drone Zone.  It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at.  A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road.  When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.  "Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?" a reporter asked.  One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

GPS Hijacking: Team of U.S. Faculty, Students Take Control of Drone.  Faculty and students at the University of Texas at Austin have proven that a sophisticated surveillance drone can be hacked mid-flight via its GPS.  The same could be done with virtually any type of drone, or even with a commercial airliner.  Drones, or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), are used both domestically — particularly along our southern border — and by the military and the CIA abroad, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.  Last week, a small team of faculty and students was able to take control of a Department of Homeland Security drone by "spoofing" its GPS.

U.S. Drone Manufacturers Contribute Millions to Congressional Campaigns.  President Obama's drone fever is contagious and is spreading worldwide, and the American industries that build the drones are slavering over the chance to supply the demand.

Air Force Wants Tiny Drones That Squirt Trackable Sensor Goo.  The Air Force wants a new kind of tracking tech in which a tiny drone surreptitiously "paints" an individual with some kind of signal-emitting powder or liquid that allows the military to keep tabs on him or her.  Or perhaps upload his coordinates to a hellfire missile.  On Tuesday, the Air Force put out a call for proposals for such technology, though it didn't specify exactly what kind of drone might deliver the magic powder, or what the magic powder might be.

FAA Has Authorized 106 Government 'Entities' to Fly Domestic Drones.  Since Jan. 1 of this year, according to congressional testimony presented Thursday [7/19/2012] by the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Aviation Administration has authorized 106 federal, state and local government "entities" to fly "unmanned aircraft systems," also known as drones, within U.S. airspace.  "We are now on the edge of a new horizon:  using unmanned aerial systems within the homeland," House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) said as he introduced the testimony.

Drone Use Increases Worldwide; Trade Rep Says Only the Guilty Need Fear.  It's been about a year since a North Dakota man was arrested after a local SWAT team tracked him down using a Predator drone it borrowed from the Department of Homeland Security.  Although the story has not been widely reported, Rodney Brossart became one of the first (if not the first) American citizens arrested by local law enforcement with the use of a federally-owned drone surveillance vehicle after holding the police at bay for over 16 hours.

Laser-Powered Drone Could Remain Airborne Forever.  A drone being used by the United States Special Forces has the potential to remain airborne indefinitely if engineers can get the science right.  Using lasers beamed from the ground to the unmanned aerial vehicle, the military could send a continuous source of power to the drone allowing it to fly without landing for refueling.  This is the "exciting possibility" demonstrated during an indoor test flight conducted by Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the Stalker drone.  Lockheed Martin has already developed an electric version of the Stalker that has a two-hour battery life and this latest experiment is an attempt to perfect the technology that will recharge that battery from the ground while the drone remains in flight.

Bill would clip wings of private drone use.  Concern over the personal privacy implications of the nation's inevitable drone boom continues to grow on Capitol Hill.  This week, Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and former judge, will introduce the Preserving American Privacy Act, which sets strict limits on when, and for what purpose, law enforcement agencies and other entities can use unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.  Drones are being used on a limited basis by some police and federal departments, but they will be available for commercial and private use in 2015.

Grain of salt:  This comes from a Russian news site.
Predator drones to start operations over North Dakota.  The FAA has authorized the use of remote-controlled Predator drones in the airspace above nearly 10,000 acres in North Dakota.  As of this fall, unmanned military aircraft will use lasers to aim at ground targets from nearly 2 miles above the earth.  Grand Forks, North Dakota — the third largest city in the state — will host a domestic training facility for the military's unmanned aerial vehicles starting in October.  Several times a week pilots will remotely guide robotic drones through the sky at altitudes as high of [sic] 9,999 feet above sea level and zone in [sic] on ground targets with the use of dangerous lasers.

This is an indication of the state of the art:
X-47B Completes First Pax River Flight.  Naval aviation officials chose 11 a.m. on Sunday morning [7/29/2012] to make history as the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator made its first flight at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. [...] Pax River has a simulated aircraft carrier environment to test the incredible feat of landing an unmanned aircraft on a carrier at sea.  Navy leaders hope to make the first X-47B landing on a carrier in 2013.

Somewhat related:
Self-Guided Bullets and Super Sniper Scopes Deliver Death From 2 Km.  As the technology facilitating the expansion of the surveillance state becomes more advanced, the need for proximity to the target of the surveillance diminishes.  For example, very soon drones will be equipped with lasers that can penetrate walls, map the interior of a home or other building, and scan a targeted individual's genetic code from 50 yards with dizzying speed and accuracy.  Additionally, the ability to keep drones perpetually airborne is being engineered thanks to multi-million dollar research and development grants offered by the Pentagon to companies on the edge of technological advancement.

Remember, military hardware and tactics eventually find their way into local police departments.
U.S. Air Force Training More Drone Pilots Than Traditional Pilots.  The U.S. Air Force is training more drone "pilots" than those who will be at the controls of traditional aircraft, according to the Air Force chief of staff.  To date, there are reportedly around 1,300 people controlling the Air Force's arsenal of Reaper, Predator, and Global Hawk drones, and the Pentagon plans to add about 2,500 pilots and support crew by 2014, according to an article in published August 3 by The Times (of London).  The UK paper reports that 350 new drone pilots were trained in 2011 "compared to 250 conventional fighter and bomber pilots."

Drones in the sky over America.  In a few years the skies over the United States will be filled with hundreds if not thousands of of drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, doing a variety of tasks — border security, disaster relief, search and rescue, counter-terrorism and looking down on people and streets on behalf of police departments.

One nation under surveillance.  America is no longer "one nation under God."  Today, America is "one nation under surveillance."  Cameras monitoring our every movement, satellites taking pictures of our homes, listening devices being used to record our conversations, hi-tech computers capturing virtually every piece of correspondence, banking institutions forwarding our private financial records to Big Brother, and now armed drones flying over the neighborhoods of the American citizenry all reveal that America is anything but the "land of the free."

Police Chief Group Suggests Guidelines for Use of Police Drones.  In advance of law enforcement's deployment of their drones, a group representing police chiefs have issued recommended guidelines for the lawful use of the unmanned aerial vehicles.  The Aviation Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) published a three-page pamphlet suggesting ways local police can successfully and safely include drones in their law enforcement efforts.  The document breaks down its directions into four broad categories:  community engagement, system requirements, operational procedures, and image retention.

Law enforcement groups back drone-use guidelines.  The Airborne Law Enforcement Association, the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and the FBI National Academy Associates joined the International Association of Chiefs of Police in supporting rules designed to keep police and other agencies from abusing the power that comes with drone use.  The guidelines call for law enforcement personnel to "secure a search warrant prior to conducting the flight" if a drone could infringe upon "reasonable expectations of privacy."

Drone may be coming to Miami-Dade.  A new piece of technology may soon be coming to South Florida, but is already raising concerns from residents.  The Miami-Dade Police Department recently finalized a deal to buy a drone, which is an unmanned plane equipped with cameras.  Drones have been used for years in Iraq and Afghanistan in the war against terror.  Many residents are concerned that the new technology will violate their privacy.

Drone Gives Texas Law Enforcement Bird's-Eye View on Crime.  The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is weeks away from launching an unmanned aerial asset to help deputies fight crime.  The ShadowHawk helicopter is six-feet long, weighs fifty pounds and fits in the back of an SUV.

At America's Biggest Drone Show, the Focus Shifts Toward Domestic Skies.  If you want to know what the future looks like, sit down and have a talk with Roy Minson.  He's the senior vice president and general manager of unmanned aircraft systems at Aerovironment, the manufacturer of nearly 85 percent of the Department of Defense's unmanned aircraft fleet — not the Reapers and Predators that so often make headlines, but small aerial systems that make up the vast majority of the DoD's 7,000 strong unmanned aircraft fleet.  That is to say, business with the defense sector is good at Aerovironment.  But today Minson is talking almost exclusively about non-military applications for the company's hardware — him, and just about everybody else at the nation's largest robotic systems show.

U.S. Navy Cloak Blade Inherently Stealthy Micro-Copter Presentation.  A presentation accompanied a recent demonstration of the Cloak Blade, a micro-copter developed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory under contract from the U.S. Navy.

Will Police Drones Destroy the Fourth Amendment?  Although the president's use of drones to execute the war on terror and those he assumes are associated with it has so far occurred only outside the United States, soon drones will slice through the domestic skies, as well.  While the sight of drones over U.S. cities and towns is rare now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts that by 2020, 30,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will be patrolling American airspace.  Scores of these UAVs will be deployed by state and local law enforcement, adding to the many that will be sent airborne by the federal government.

The coming drone attack on America.  Drones on domestic surveillance duties are already deployed by police and corporations.  In time, they will likely be weaponised.

The anti-drone hoodie which can make its wearer invisible to spies in the sky.  Those concerned about the conspiratorial machinations of the state surveillance infrastructure can now swap their tin-foil hats for a more fashion conscious accessory.  A New York-based artist has designed an 'anti-drone hoodie' stitched from metallised material used to counter the infra-red cameras that spy drones use to spot people on the ground.

Incredible U.S. military spy drone.  A sinister airborne surveillance camera gives the U.S. military the ability to track movements in an entire city like a real-time Google Street View.  The ARGUS-IS array can be mounted on unmanned drones to capture an area of 15 [square] miles in an incredible 1,800 MP — that's 225 times more sensitive than an iPhone camera.

City in Virginia Becomes First to Pass Anti-Drone Legislation.  Charlottesville, Va., has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution.  The resolution, passed Monday, "calls on the United States Congress and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt legislation prohibiting information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into a Federal or State court," and "pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones."

Texas "Anti Drone" Laws Would be Toughest in USA.  Texas would have the toughest anti-drone legislation in the country under a bill filed by State Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Terrell).

Which police departments want drones?  Following a FOIA request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration has released an updated list of bodies, both public and private, that have applied for permission to fly surveillance drones in U.S. airspace.  The FAA lists 81 entities altogether including police departments, government agencies and universities such as Cornell and Penn State.

FAA moves closer to widespread US drone flights with plan for test sites.  A future in which unmanned drones are as common in U.S. skies as helicopters and airliners has moved a step closer to reality with a government request for proposals to create six drone test sites around the country.

FAA To Kick Off State Drone 'Competition'.  States will soon compete to operate six unmanned aircraft test sites, commonly known as drones, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Wednesday [2/13/2013].  The FAA wants states to compete for the drone test sites, which were mandated by Congress last year in the 2012 FAA Reauthorization bill.  The sites will test the safety of drones before they are introduced into the National Airspace System by 2015.

Like a Swarm of Lethal Bugs: The Most Terrifying Drone Video Yet.  An Air Force simulation says researchers are at work on killer robots so tiny that a group of them could blend into a cityscape.

DHS re-designs Predator drones to spy on Americans.  The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department's unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States' northern and southern borders but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police.

US Drones Intercept Electronic Communications and Identify Human Targets.  New records obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is operating drones in the United States capable of intercepting electronic communications.  The records also suggest that the ten Predator B drones operated by the agency have the capacity to recognize and identify a person on the ground.  Approximately, 2/3 of the US population is subject to surveillance by the CBP drones.

Will drones be used to spy on Americans?  A small group of police and fire departments around the country are using new high-tech drones for emergency response situations stoking fears about misuse of the unmanned aircraft.  Some are using sophisticated fixed-wing drones that can remain in the air for hours as well as online digital mapping software to create virtual crimes scenes.

Homeland Security Drones Designed to Identify Civilians Carrying Guns.  Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been custom designed to identify civilians carrying guns and track cell phone signals.  "I am very concerned that this technology will be used against law-abiding American firearms owners," said founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, Alan Gottlieb.  "This could violate Fourth Amendment rights as well as Second Amendment rights."

Weaponized drones.  Drone manufacturers may offer police remote controlled drones with weapons like rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear gas.  Congress has required the Federal Aviation Administration to loosen their regulations on drones and allow more drones in domestic airspace by 2015.

Oregon Company to Sell Drone Defense Technology to Public.  Do you want to keep drones out of your backyard?  An Oregon company says that it has developed and will soon start selling technology that disables unmanned aircraft.  The company, called Domestic Drone Countermeasures, was founded in late February because some of its engineers see unmanned aerial vehicles — which are already being flown by law enforcement in some areas and could see wider commercial integration into American airspace by 2015 — as unwanted eyes in the sky.

The Other Drone Question: Is Obama Building A Federal Police Force?  [Scroll down]  Put it all together, and it sure looks like Obama is building the backbone for that national police force he wanted the first time he ran for office.  Worse yet, both Democrats and Republicans are now openly discussing a plan to put all the drones flown in America's skies, including those owned and operated by local police departments, under the ultimate supervision of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, consolidating the country's surveillance and law enforcement powers under one powerful federal police jurisdiction.

17 Civilian Drone Facts You Really Should Know.  [#13]  Connections between UAVs and the operators are easily broken.  The frequency between the drone and its operator is easily lost.  Civilian drones use the same frequencies (GPS) as your cell phone.  The frequencies are subject to interference from variables such as weather or deliberate jamming.  [#14]  Drones are easily hacked.  Under the direction of the US Department of Homeland Security, engineering students were told to see if they could hack a drone.  They did, and were easily able to substitute their information for the drone's programming via GPS.

GAO report on unmanned aircraft systems, September 2012.  [Scroll down to page 36]  Additionally, a June 2012 poll conducted by Monmouth University reported that 42 percent of those sampled were very concerned about their own privacy if U.S. law enforcement started using UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] with high tech cameras, while 15 percent said they were not at all concerned.  However, the poll reported that of those sampled, 80 percent said they supported the use of UAS for search and rescue missions while 67 percent said they oppose the use of UAS to issue speeding tickets.

Hundreds of Drones Go Homeless.  As the war in Afghanistan winds down, many commanders are asking what is going to happen to the large fleet of drones that have patrolled the skies, according to the Air Force Times [...]

The Editor says...
See if you can predict the fate of surplus military UAVs.  What's going to become of them?
    (A)  They will be dismantled and sent to a recycling company.
    (B)  They will be sold at Army Surplus stores.
    (C)  The weapons will be removed (if we're lucky) and they will be given to big-city police departments.

Somewhat related:
PETA Plans to Fly Drones That Would 'Stalk Hunters'.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is actively shopping for a drone that would "stalk hunters," the organization said Monday [4/8/2013].  The group says it will "soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves" and that it is "shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds."  The group says it will not weaponize the drones, but will use them to film potentially illegal hunting activity and turn it over to law enforcement.

The Editor says...
The PETA people obviously do not understand hunting or hunters.  I don't know much about it myself, but here's what I think I know:  Most hunting takes place on private property in the middle of nowhere with the permission of the property owner.  The people who engage in "illegal hunting activity" aren't gonna hesitate to blow a PETA drone to pieces, and the PETA people would be wise (for once) to forget about looking for those pieces.  In any event, how can you tell a private drone from a police drone?

Glenn Beck: If Police Get Drones, 'The 2nd Amendment Is Absolutely Dead'.  Senator Rand Paul's media tour following his "misunderestimated" statements on drones brought him to Glenn Beck's radio show Friday, where the two men discussed the prospects of a terrifying future where police cars have "robotic firing arms" that take down criminals with the push of a button.  If that ever happens, Beck told Paul, "the Second Amendment is absolutely dead."

Dodging drones.  The mayhem following Boston's Marathon massacre left four dead and 260 injured, prompting Police Commissioner Edward Davis last week to endorse the use of unmanned spy aircraft above next year's marathon.  "Drones are a great idea," he told the Boston Herald.  Actually, they're not. [...] Surveillance cameras don't prevent crime.  There was no lack of video footage of the marathon, and the images were useful in quickly identifying the suspects after the fact.  Much of the useful footage came from men and women filming the finish line or from cameras installed to watch over nearby shops and stores. Government drones would not have thwarted the attack.

Bill to Allow Police to Use Drones Without Search Warrant Heads to Maine Senate.  In a narrow decision, lawmakers accepted an amendment to a bill offered by Sen. John Patrick, D-Rumford, that could allow police to use a drone without a search warrant.  In a 7-6 vote on May 1, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee sided with Maine Attorney General Janet Mills on the issue of how police can employ unmanned aerial vehicles in criminal investigations.

Chicago Suburb Approves Two Year Ban on Drones.  The Evanston City Council voted 5-4 for a two year ban on the use of airborne drones.  The vote brought together an odd coalition of people:  the anti-war groups were joined by the libertarians and the privacy advocates to pass the measure.

Mueller: FBI deploys drones in US for 'limited' surveillance.  The FBI uses drones to watch specific targets within the United States, the bureau's chief said Wednesday [6/19/2013].  FBI Director Robert Mueller told senators the agency uses drones infrequently for surveillance in the U.S., and only in regards to specific investigations.  "Our footprint is very small," Mueller said in testimony.  "We have very few and have limited use."

FBI Chief Admits Use of Drones in Skies Over U.S..  Federal Aviation Administration officials claim that within the next five years there will be close to 10,000 civilian drones in use once the FAA grants them greater access to U.S. skies.  Congress had directed the FAA to provide drones with widespread access to domestic airspace by 2015, but the agency is behind in its development of safety regulations and isn't expected to meet that deadline even though the FAA has granted more than two hundred permits to state and local governments, police departments, universities and others to experiment with using small drones.

Colorado town, concerned about surveillance, considers drone hunting licenses.  The small Colorado town of Deer Trail is considering an ordinance that would create drone-hunting licenses and offer bounties for hunters who shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle.  "We do not want drones in town," Phillip Steel, a resident in town who drafted the ordinance and submitted it for approval by the town board, told The Denver Post.  "They fly in town, they get shot down."

FAA warns shooting at drone could result in prosecution similar to shooting at manned airplane.  People who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday [7/19/2013].  The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drowns.  The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation's airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns.

The Editor says...
This is one of the symptoms of impending tyranny:  "The authorities" establish severe penalties for interference in their pet projects.  In this case, they are equating unmanned aircraft with manned aircraft, much like the way they equate a police dog with a police officer.

Bravado is contagious.
FBI says it doesn't need warrant to use drones.  The FBI has told Congress it does not need to get a warrant to conduct surveillance with drones, in a letter laying out some of the top federal law enforcement agency's policies for how it uses unmanned aerial vehicles.  In a July 19 letter to Sen. Rand Paul, Stephen D. Kelly, assistant director for the FBI's congressional liaison office, said the agency has used drones in 10 instances, including twice for "national security" cases and eight times for criminal cases.  The FBI authorized the use of drones in three other criminal cases but didn't deploy them.

Drone industry gives journalists not-so-subtle hint — don't use the word 'drones'.  "Drone" is a dirty word at this week's drone industry convention in Washington.  The sector long has opposed use of the term, seen by some as having an inherently negative connotation that doesn't accurately describe the awesome technology and potential positive uses of today's unmanned aerial vehicles.

Even a small aircraft overhead can put you in danger.
Toy helicopter kills teen in Brooklyn: report.  A model helicopter hobbyist was killed Thursday [9/5/2013] when a remote controlled helicopter cut off the top of his head in a Brooklyn, N.Y., park.

Texas law gets tough on public, private drone use.  More than 40 state legislatures have debated the increasing presence of unmanned aircraft in civilian airspace, with most of the proposals focused on protecting people from overly intrusive surveillance by law enforcement.

What could possibly be the motive, other than chest-thumping supremacy?
FEMA threatens to arrest volunteer drone operators during Colorado flood relief.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) threatened to arrest anyone flying drones over the Colorado flood damage over the weekend, even those volunteering with the relief effort.  On Saturday [9/14/2013], FEMA grounded Colorado company Falcon UAV — a drone manufacturer that had been helping local authorities map the disaster area in near-real time — and threatened to arrest anyone flying a drone over the disaster area, IEEE Spectrum reports.

Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey to team for drone tests.  Maryland has agreed to work with Virginia and New Jersey on research into unmanned aircraft, a move that could strengthen Maryland's bid to land one of the six drone test sites to be awarded this year by the Federal Aviation Administration.  The three states are among the 25 finalists seeking an FAA-sanctioned site to study how unmanned aircraft might safely be integrated into U.S. airspace.

Ignoring the Constitution.  [Scroll down]  The president also has stepped up the use of airborne drones to spy on Americans in apparent violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unreasonable and unwarranted searches.  Previously owning up to only two instances of domestic unmanned aerial surveillance, officials of the Customs and Border Protection service released a list last week of 500 occasions over three years in which the agency flew Predator drone missions on behalf of other federal agencies.

How drones will change your life.  Apart from what they do for the military; drones have already proven themselves capable sheep herders, delivery boys, tour guides, filmmakers, archaeologists, and — possibly — spies.  The global economic potential of these machines is astounding; a recent study estimated the worldwide market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at $89 billion in 2013.

US announces six drone test sites.  The US aviation regulator has announced the six states that will host sites for testing commercial use of drones.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) picked Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia.  The sites are part of a programme to develop safety and operational rules for drones by the end of 2015.

FAA says New York, five other states chosen to host drone test sites.  New York was among six states selected Monday to develop sites to test drones, a decision that likely will bring the unmanned aircraft to New York's skies and badly needed jobs to upstate.  The New York site will be at Griffiss International Airport, a former Air Force base in upstate Rome. Aerospace firms and universities in New York and Massachusetts will be involved in the research.

FAA names 6 sites for testing drones.  The Federal Aviation Administration named six teams across the nation that will host the development and testing of drones to fly safely in the same skies as commercial airliners.  The announcement represents a major milestone toward the goal of sharing the skies by the end of 2015, in what is projected to become an industry worth billions of dollars.  But technical hurdles and privacy concerns remain in a regulatory program that's already a year behind schedule.

Blimplike surveillance craft set to deploy over Maryland heighten privacy concerns.  They will look like two giant white blimps floating high above I-95 in Maryland, perhaps en route to a football game somewhere along the bustling Eastern Seaboard.  But their mission will have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with war.  The aerostats — that is the term for lighter-than-air craft that are tethered to the ground — are to be set aloft on Army-owned land about 45 miles northeast of Washington, near Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a three-year test slated to start in October.

Drone Surveillance Leads to Man's Arrest, Prison Sentence.  Rodney Brossart has a unique distinction, although it may not be one he wanted.  The North Dakota man became the first person to be sentenced as a result of drone surveillance in the United States.  Brossart's three-year sentence comes following a 116-hour stand-off with a SWAT team on his ranch in 2011.  The team was called in after Brossart resisted arrest for not returning livestock from a neighboring farm that had wandered on to his property; Brossart and his three sons then engaged in the stand-off before authorities brought in the Predator drone.

Meet CUPID: The Drone That Will Shoot You With an 80,000 Volt Taser.  Are drones not scary enough for you yet?  How about this?  A drone helicopter that spots you and identifies you as an intruder.  It tells you to stop and put your hands behind your head.  Instead, you keep coming.  The drone then shoots you with barbed Taser darts that pump 80,000 volts into you.  If you try to get up, it will continue pumping voltage into you until you submit and the authorities arrive.  This isn't some dystopian theory.  It's very real already, and I just saw it in action.  Yes, it is terrifying.

Prepare for drones that 'perch' on power lines to recharge, never have to land.  Imagine a world where drones never have to touch the ground after takeoff.  That's what MIT PhD. candidate Joseph Moore did, and now he's on the cusp of creating a drone that can "perch" on power lines just like birds to recharge its batteries.

L.A. drones: LAPD gets new UAVs to combat crime.  The Los Angeles Police Department announced Friday [5/30/2014] it had added two "unmanned aerial vehicles" to it's arsenal on Friday.  The department received the two Draganflyer X6 aircraft as gifts from the Seattle Police Department, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday [5/30/2014].  Both drones are equipped with a camera, video recording and infrared night-vision capabilities, the newspaper reported.  LAPD officials were hesitant to refer to the gifts as drones, avoiding negative connotations the word has taken on alluding to privacy concerns.

Somewhat related:
BP allowed commercial drones by US regulators in unprecedented decision.  The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it has granted the first permission for commercial drone flights over US land to the BP energy corporation, the latest effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft.

Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America's standing army?  The DHS has been at the forefront of funding and deploying surveillance robots and drones for land, sea and air, including robots that resemble fish and tunnel-bots that can travel underground.  Despite repeated concerns over the danger surveillance drones used domestically pose to Americans' privacy rights, the DHS has continued to expand its fleet of Predator drones, which come equipped with video cameras, infrared cameras, heat sensors, and radar.  DHS also loans its drones out to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies for a variety of tasks, although the agency refuses to divulge any details as to how, why and in what capacity these drones are being used by police.

Military Blimps Will Float In Aberdeen, Tracking Potential Threats.  As Mike Schuh reports, two large blimps will soon rise over Harford County and stay put.  Radar blimps like these have been used on the battlefield to track the enemy, and in the Caribbeanto intercept drug runners.  Testing in Utah is complete.  Now they're being packed up and sent to Maryland.

The cops like their drones, but they don't like YOUR drones.
2 arrested after drones nearly take out NYPD chopper.  Two drones nearly took out an NYPD chopper over the George Washington Bridge on Monday, and cops arrested the wayward devices' operators, law-enforcement sources told The [New York] Post.  The Aviation Unit helicopter was on patrol around 12:15 a.m. when it had to swerve to avoid the small, unmanned aircraft, the sources said.  The NYPD pilots "observed flying object[s] at 2,000 feet in vicinity of the George Washington Bridge, then circling heading toward the helicopter," a police report said.

Seat belt laws:
They're not about public safety, they're about control.

Seat belt laws give cops an excuse to stop motorists and look for other violations.  This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with justifying the cop's paycheck.  Your local TV reporter is much too eager to assist in this effort, telling you only the government's side of the story.

Should you wear a seatbelt?  Of course.  I wouldn't drive 50 feet without wearing my seatbelt.  But in a "free country" it should be voluntary.

How Can We Lose?  Thirty years ago I suffered my first infringement of reasonable liberty.  It was a little thing, it was the passage of a seat belt law, that few thought meant very much at all.  To me, it was the state laying claim to my body, determining that it was their role in my life to tell me when I should put Tab A into Slot B.  Now, I have studied the statistics and I have never claimed that seat belts are not good ideas, or that they don't save lives, because it is and they do, but a law claiming that the state has a greater interest in my life than I do is absurd.  It didn't take much digging to uncover the real factors involved, which were insurance company lobbyists and the statists teaming up to pass a law that instantly achieved two goals:  1) save money for the insurance companies; 2) establish a precedent that the state has the right and the role to dictate the actions of its citizens.

Feds Propose Tracking Black Boxes in All New Cars.  The vehicle black boxes — which are either tiny standalone devices or part of a vehicle's computer system — are to record speed, engine throttle, breaking, ignition, safety belt usage, the number of passengers, airbag deployment, and among other things time of the recording and sometimes a passenger's location, depending on a vehicle's model.

The Editor says...
There will be no need for the cops to ask you if you were wearing your seatbelt two minutes ago.  Your car will snitch on you.

Buckles and bucks:  The seat belt mandate is back.  The people of New Hampshire are about to find out if their legislators are so hard up for money that they will sell their principles for cash.  Every legislative session, leftist and "moderate" lawmakers try to pass a law requiring drivers to wear seat belts.  The argument is always the same:  The law will save lives.  This year, the argument is different:  The law will bring cash.

Facts About State Mandatory Seat Belt Harness Laws:  While the use of a seat belt has saved some people in certain kinds of traffic accidents, there is ample proof that in other kinds, some people have been more seriously injured and even killed only because of forced seat belt use. ... The public is denied the right to know there is a legitimate contrary side to the seat belt law controversy.  At one time, it was the same with air bags until one investigative reporter decided to start printing the truth about air bag dangers in certain kinds of traffic accidents.

There's a web site about this specific issue:
Seat Belt Choice dot com.  There is a concerted effort from Washington through the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to pressure every state in America to enact a primary seat belt law and make everyone buckle up or lose federal transportation money.  A primary law means you can be stopped solely if you or someone else in your vehicle is not wearing a seat belt.  And if you are stopped, you may be ticketed, fined and perhaps even arrested.

The truth about seat belts:  When we read the instructions to police officers and emergency personnel for filling out the FARS data forms, we learn that all persons who fell off the bed of a pickup truck or fell off a snowmobile or a three-wheel or four-wheel ATV or from a go-cart are to be listed as having been "ejected".  Moreover, there is no evidence to prove that all the persons who are listed as having been "ejected" actually were. ... When we look at the actual data we find that most of these data points are coded as "9" which is the FARS code in this category for "unknown".  In other words, all they really know in most cases is that the victims was outside the vehicle when they arrived on the scene.

Seat belt laws:  Primary seat belt laws give law enforcement agents a virtual carte blanche to conduct traffic stops.  Nevada's recent experience proves states don't need more intrusive statutes to persuade more people to buckle up.

The cops aren't always wearing seat belts themselves.
No seat belts in 42% of fatal police car crashes.  The study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which analyzed 733 crashes from 1980 through 2008, comes less than a week after a separate report found that fatal traffic incidents in 2010 were the leading cause of officer deaths for the 13th straight year. ... Some officers resist wearing seat belts because the restraints slow their movement in and out of the cars, Floyd says.  Others complain that the straps get tangled in utility and gun belts.

Dangerous Changes in Seat Belt Law:  Primary enforcement allows the police to freely go on a "fishing" expedition to find sometime wrong under the pretense of not using a seat belt.  Primary enforcement resuscitates the once dreaded "general warrants" of King George III of colonial America against motorists.

On the other hand...
In Praise of Routine Traffic Stops:  In July 2004, Michael Wagner's not wearing a seat belt got him stopped in a SUV near Council Bluffs, Iowa, that had in it "flight training manuals and a simulator, documents in Arabic, bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles, a night-vision scope for a rifle, a telescope, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition."

One more step toward cradle-to-grave nanny state paternalism:
Stricter booster seat requirements begin Sunday.  Six- and 7-year-olds who had "graduated" from their booster seat to a passenger seat will find themselves back in the saddle come Sunday [1/1/2012], thanks to a new law designed to increase child safety in California.  California state law currently requires parents to keep their kids in booster seats until they reach the age of 6 or weigh at least 60 pounds.

The Great Golden State Business Exodus.  One would think that given the serious nature of [California's] problems, the legislature would focus on solutions at the exclusion of all else.  Instead, lawmakers — what would we ever do without them? — found the time in 2011 to trespass even deeper into Californians' personal lives.  Topping off Sacramento's monument to foolishness is a law requiring children younger than 8, except for those taller than 4 feet 9 inches, to sit in booster seats in cars.  Previous law let kids leave their boosters at 6.  Now children who had moved out of cars seats are being forced back into them.  Actually, the law is more authoritarian — and offensive and infuriating — than it is silly.

The Editor says...
This is another example of incremental changes in restictive laws, and once again, the changes only move in one direction.

Not buckling up your pet in the car can mean big fines.  Judging from the alarming number of summonses issued so far for failing to buckle up in the back seat, motorists don't seem overly concerned about the current Click It or Ticket crackdown.  After all, most unrestrained drivers and passengers can afford a measly $46 fine.  But if you drive with an unrestrained pet, don't expect a slap on the wrist.  Penalties range from $250 to $1,000 and as much as six months in jail.

The Editor says...
Just imagine if they catch you with a box of kittens in the back of your truck!

Ranch exempt from 'Click It or Ticket'.  President Bush found himself in a flap Tuesday about seat-belt use, a day after a federal agency began a campaign to encourage drivers to buckle up.  Video cameras caught Bush without his seat belt while driving a pickup on his Texas ranch last weekend, giving a tour to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The Editor says...
Most of the reporters who cover the White House beat probably have very little experience with wide-open ranch land.  It is also possible that some of the reporters have never considered the possibility that certain laws do not apply on private property.

If you're important enough, you don't need to wear seatbelts, even while surrounded by cops.
(White House photo by Pete Souza)

You're guilty of something, we just need to figure out what it is.

There are so many laws on the books these days, it's almost as if every activity is either mandatory or prohibited.  If you look suspicious and you fail the "attitude test", it won't take long for the neighborhood policeman to think of some charge to file.

When you call 9-1-1 for help, the first thing the cops investigate is YOU.
911 Call Led to Man's Own Arrest; 28 Firearms, Drugs Seized in San Diego.  A 25-year-old man called the police saying that he found several dead people in his Encinitas apartment.  However, there were no dead people in the residence, but the police arrested two people and seized weapons and drugs because of the call, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported Jan. 20.  Around 11 a.m. on Jan. 9, deputies responded to the apartment where Ryan Lander, 25, lived to conduct a welfare check.  No dead people were found, but law enforcement found multiple illegal firearms in plain view, according to the department.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed down a refresher on suspicion.  Police officers thought an anonymous tip about a man carrying a gun and someone running away from them created enough suspicion to chase down Daniel Brown, stop him at gunpoint, and search him for contraband.  Contraband was found, leading to Brown's motion to suppress.  The lower court said this combination — an anonymous report of a gun and Brown's decision to run when he saw the police cruiser — was reasonable enough.  Not so, says the Ninth Circuit, pointing out the obvious fact that a person carrying a gun can't be inherently suspicious in a state where carrying a gun in public is permitted.

Ninth Circuit:  There's Nothing Inherently Suspicious About Running From The Police Or Carrying A Gun.  [Scroll down]  See, carrying a weapon isn't a valid reason to stop people, innocent or not.  [Nathaniel] Black was in fact a felon in possession of a firearm and the Fourth Circuit let him go and vacated his sentence, as they should have.  Innocence or guilt has nothing whatsoever to do with anything concerning rights, the behavior of the police, and precedent.  But LEOs don't learn the law these days, so sadly, I know more about it than most cops do.  And you do too.

Notable testimony from the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force corruption trial.  A federal jury has convicted two Baltimore Police detectives, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, for their roles in one of the biggest police corruption scandals in recent memory. [...] [Detective Maurice] Ward testified that his squad would prowl the streets for guns and drugs, with his supervisor, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, driving fast at groups of people and slamming on the brakes.  The officers would pop their doors open to see who ran, then give chase and detain and search them.  Ward said this occurred 10 to 20 times on slow nights, and more than 50 times, "easy," on busier nights.  The officers had no reason to target the crowds other than to provoke someone who might have drugs or a gun into running.  "A lot of times" guns and drugs were recovered in this way, Ward said.

Students Sue After Entire High School Illegally Groped And Molested By Cops.  Violated children and furious parents have just filed a massive lawsuit after the Worth County Sheriff's office conducted an illegal search of 900 students — in the name of the war on drugs.  The rights-violating intrusive and aggressive patdowns and drug dog searches at the school yielded absolutely nothing.  An Atlanta attorney is now representing multiple students who were subjected to invasive and outright horrifying body searches during a mass — and warrantless — search for drugs at a South Georgia high school.  Attorney Mark Begnaud, who filed the class-action lawsuit, called out the sheriff for conducting "900 illegal, suspicionless searches."

Playing with water guns is now deemed 'suspicious activity' by police.  DHS must be throwing office parties nationwide, as Americans call police to report kids playing the "Assassin" water gun game.  NH police, said the game poses a threat to public safety and has resulted in a rise in suspicious person calls.  Neighbors are calling police to report 'suspicious activity'.  DHS's "See Something Say Something" program is out of control, it's created a nation of spies.

How One Missouri Town Generates Revenue By Treating Its Residents Like Criminals.  One March day in 2013, Valarie Whitner received a rude welcome when she came home to Pagedale, Missouri:  A police officer spotted Valarie, arrested her and threw her in the back of a squad car, before driving her to city hall.  Only after Pagedale's chief of police became involved was Valarie free to go.  Incredibly, an unspecified "building code violation" caused Valarie to get handcuffed.

When everything is a crime.  What began as a trickle has become a stream that could become a cleansing torrent.  Criticisms of the overcriminalization of American life might catalyze an appreciation of the toll the administrative state is taking on the criminal justice system, and liberty generally.

Kick Open the Doorway to Liberty: What Are We Waiting For?  Just consider some of the First Amendment battles that have taken place in recent years, and you too will find yourself wondering what country you're living in:
  •   Harold Hodge was arrested for standing silently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, holding a sign in protest of police tactics.
  •   Marine Brandon Raub was arrested for criticizing the government on Facebook.
  •   Pastor Michael Salman was arrested for holding Bible studies in his home.
  •   Steven Howards was arrested for being too close to a government official when he voiced his disapproval of the war in Iraq.
  •   Kenneth Webber was fired from his job as a schoolbus driver for displaying a Confederate flag on the truck he uses to drive from home to school and back.
  •   Fred Marlow was arrested for filming a SWAT team raid that took place across from his apartment.

NY Deputy Attacks Man For Refusing Search Over Legal Gun.  Saratoga County, NY Deputy Sgt. Shawn Glans can likely kiss his law enforcement career goodbye after assaulting a young man who refused to consent to the search of his vehicle after deputies spotted an otherwise legal rifle in the back seat of the vehicle.  The stunning example of law enforcement abuse of power was caught on video.

Connecticut Supreme Court Says State Cops Can Detain You Simply For Being In The Vicinity Of Someone They're Arresting.  Gideon, the pseudonymous public defender who blogs at A Public Defender, has a thorough rundown of a very disturbing ruling recently issued by the Connecticut Supreme Court. It involves every Connecticut citizens' civil liberties, which have now been thrown under a bus bearing the name "officer safety."  The court's decision basically makes everyone a suspect, even if they're suspected of nothing else than being in the relative proximity of someone a police officer suspects of committing a crime, or someone simply "matching the description."

Cop beats up model Air Force captain in his own home, issues arrest weeks later.  An Air Force captain discovered he was banned from Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California, due to pending charges against him from a previous encounter with a cop who had tried to arrest him for entering his own home.  The charges — resisting arrest and obstructing an officer — have infuriated Captain Nicolas Aquino, a first-generation immigrant whose parents came to the United States from Paraguay as political exiles.  Last December, an officer paid a visit to Aquino's Monterey residence.  Apparently, a neighbor had seen a man entering Aquino's home, and reported a possible burglary to the authorities.  The "burglar" was Aquino himself.  No one else was in the house.

Lawsuit: Cops found nothing in raid, so they planted drugs to frame innocent woman.  California cops planted drugs in a woman's home to frame her after finding nothing in their illegal search of her home, a lawsuit alleges.  Allison Ross has filed a federal lawsuit against against the Santa Clara sheriff's department, crime lab and 12 officers that she claims participated in a conspiracy to plant drugs in her house and frame her for a crime she did not commit.  Ross was initially charged with being under the influence of methamphetamine, but the case against her was thrown out after the district attorney determined that the police made false statements about Ross's arrest.

Annie Dookhan's Falsified Lab Data: Symptom of a Corrupted System.  Friday [12/6/2013], former Massachusetts chemist Annie Dookhan pleaded guilty to all 27 counts of falsifying nearly 40,000 criminal drug cases, effectively upending the Massachusetts criminal justice system.  Dookhan admitted to filing false test results, mixing drug samples together, and lying under oath about her job qualifications. [...] Dookhan's "dry labbing" is just one part of a structure that incentivizes people working in the criminal justice system to get convictions — not truth — and put as many people in prison as possible without regard to their actual guilt.

No One Is Innocent.  Have you ever thrown out some junk mail that came to your house but was addressed to someone else?  That's a violation of federal law punishable by up to 5 years in prison.  Harvey Silverglate argues that a typical American commits three felonies a day.  I think that number is too high but it is easy to violate the law without intent or knowledge.

We're all potential suspects and should be treated as such, apparently.  Earlier today [6/19/2013], a Washington Examiner editorial warned that "if phone records are useful now in stopping terrorist attacks, how long before politicians and bureaucrats decide archiving the entire phone call would be even more useful?  How long before the limitations and safeguards now in place are set aside?"  Within a few hours, King provided an illustration of precisely what the [Washington] Examiner editors fear.  Responding to a question by Fox News' Bill Hemmer about why the government needs everyone's phone numbers and not just suspects', King said, "Because if you don't have all of them, the system is incomplete."

6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days — Average 68 per Day.  It's Friday morning, and so far today, the Obama administration has posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website.  In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices — an average of 68 a day.

Once You're On the 'List,' You Can't Get Off.  Thanks to the all-encompassing nature of federal databases, and the seamless integration of the "Homeland Security" apparatus, every police officer and sheriff's deputy has the ability to ruin the life of any Mundane who displays something other than instant and unconditional submission.  This was demonstrated in the case of Los Angeles resident Shawn Nee, an amateur photographer, who was accosted by sheriff's deputies while taking photos of subway turnstiles.

Court Rules Motorists Can Be Detained For Paying By Cash at Toll Booths.  The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that private contractors operating toll roads on behalf of the state have the power to detain and store records on motorists who pay by cash at toll booths — another example of how using cash is increasingly being treated as a suspicious activity.

The 5 Dumbest Drug Laws in America.  In Texas, it's illegal to buy or sell chemistry equipment without the state's permission. [...] In Florida, every drug user is a potential drug trafficker.

Paying Cash for that Latte? It May Land You on FBI's Terrorist List.  Really?  Yes, crazy as it sounds, in our post-9/11 snitch/spy/surveillance society, if you "always pay cash," you may be marked as a potential terrorist.  That's according to an FBI flyer that appears to be aimed at proprietors and employees of Internet cafés.

Some laws are on the books just in case the cops can't think of anything else you've done wrong.
Use a Computer, Go to Jail.  If you are reading this column online at work, you may be committing a federal crime.  Or so says the Justice Department, which reads the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) broadly enough to encompass personal use of company computers as well as violations of website rules that people routinely ignore.  In April the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rightly rejected this view of the CFAA, which Chief Judge Alex Kozinski noted could conceivably make a criminal out of "everyone who uses a computer."

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist.  A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity.  The document, part of a program called "Communities Against Terrorism", lists the use of "anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address" as a sign that a person could be engaged in or supporting terrorist activity.  The use of encryption is also listed as a suspicious activity along with steganography, the practice of using "software to hide encrypted data in digital photos" or other media.  In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone "overly concerned about privacy" or attempting to "shield the screen from view of others" should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities.

Insult added to injury:
Florida man who lost hand charged with feeding gator.  A Florida airboat captain whose hand was bitten off by a 9-foot alligator faces charges of feeding of the animal.

Student jailed for 2 nights when she can't show ID.  News about the Police Department lately could run under the headline of the daily Dismal Development, starting with a judge declaring Tuesday that an officer was guilty of planting drugs on entirely innocent people and continuing back a few days to gun-smuggling, pepper-spraying and ticket-fixing.  Here, in the pointless arrest of Ms. Zucker, is a crime that is not even on the books:  the staggering waste of spirit, the squandering of public resources, the follies disguised as crime-fighting.

Did the U.S. Sanction Murder?  In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers said one of the reasons for their rebellion against King George is that he had "erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance."  Those brave gentlemen wouldn't believe how many Swarms of Officers harass us today, or how much of our Substance they consume. ... Our government has created so many rules and regulations and has so many agents and inspectors to enforce them, there is no way on earth you can obey them all.  If they want to get you for something, they can.  And worst of all, in many cases you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent.

We All Have Something to Hide.  Criminalizing huge swaths of behavior is one of government's favorite weapons.  Not only does it bring much of life under rulers' control, it also silences dissent.  Authorities can easily muzzle critics by investigating them.  Given an endless list of laws and the likelihood of having broken some, which of us wouldn't quail at the threat of such a fishing expedition?

Victims of Over-Zealous Police Officers:  No one disputes the fact that seat belts save lives.  Most states, therefore, have buckle-up laws that make it a misdemeanor to drive with being properly belted.  However, in Texas, the Transportation Code not only permits a police officer to stop a driver for the non-use of seat belts, it also permits the officer to arrest the driver for violating that law.  Gail Atwater was one of those unfortunate Texans.

Running From the Police — Is It Sufficient For A Stop?  In a 5-4 decision decided in January, the United States Supreme Court effectively dished up more power onto the plates of law enforcement officers, giving them the authority to detain a person who flees at the mere sight of a policeman.

A nation choking on endless laws.  Heading back to work this week, Americans were greeted not only by a new year but also by a whole slew of new laws — 31,000 of them at the state level — covering everything from guns to 100-watt light bulbs to, of course, "health care."  As usual, most of these laws tell us what we can't do:  texting while driving (duh), cyberbullying and smoking in bars.  In the near future, everyone will be a criminal for at least 15 minutes, whether they know it or not.

Every American Is Now a Criminal!  You think you are a law abiding citizen, don't you?  Think again!  You have been, you are now, and you will continue to break the law for the rest of your life, because there are too many laws, with millions more laws to follow.  Many of these laws are totally unconstitutional but have never been challenged in the courts.  Sometimes you break the law without any knowledge of it, even though ignorance of the law is not an excuse, if you are caught.  But worse, millions are breaking the law because they are convinced the laws are illegal, or just plain stupid.  With more people intentionally breaking the law, eventually the rule of law breaks down, as does our Republic.  The examples of stupid laws would fill volumes.  Examples of conflicting laws would fill even more volumes.

Top Ten Campus Follies of 2002:  [For example] An American University student was pinned down and handcuffed outside a Tipper Gore speech by plainclothes campus police who refused to identify themselves.  The student was charged with stealing Gore's intellectual property by videotaping her speech, which was open to the public.

How Free Are We Really?  There is neither such thing as a people with complete freedom nor one completely bereft of it; it's a matter of degree.  While many realize this, few understand that there is a barometer with which liberty can be measured:  The number of laws in existence.  By definition, a law is the removal of a freedom, as it dictates that there is something you cannot or must do. ... Every year our nation enacts more and more laws but hardly ever rescinds any, which means every year we become progressively less free.  I call this "creeping totalitarianism."

Federal Regulations Back to Near-Record Levels.  Federal government regulators issued 4,148 new rules in the 71,269-page Federal Register in 2003, 19 fewer than they did in 2002.  The cost of those rules appears nowhere in the federal budget.  According to the Federal Register, the five most active rule-producing agencies — the Departments of Treasury, Transportation, Homeland Security, and Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency — account for 46 percent of the rules under consideration.

Ten Thousand Commandments 2011.  Thanks to the bailouts and other amplified spending, CBO projects a FY 2011 deficit of a previously unthinkable $1.48 trillion, greater than FY 2010's actual deficit of $1.294 trillion.  With the unveiling of the 2012 budget, President Obama projects an even larger FY 2011 deficit than CBO does:  $1.645 trillion.  This figure will be the largest deficit since World War II, at 11 percent of the entire U.S. economy.

Time to stop the flood of federal regulation.  According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's just-updated annual snapshot of federal regulations — "Ten Thousand Commandments" — the federal government spent $49.1 billion to enforce regulations in 2008, costing businesses $1.17 trillion to comply.  In other words, businesses are being forced to allocate vast sums of money and time to comply with the federal government's bewilderingly complex rules and mandates.

10,000 Commandments (2010 edition).  Precise regulatory costs can never be fully known, because, unlike taxes, they are unbudgeted and often indirect.  But scattered government and private data exist on scores of regulations and on the agencies that issue them, as well as on regulatory costs and benefits.  Some of that information can be compiled to make the regulatory state somewhat more comprehensible.

Earlier issues of "10,000 Commandments":
[1996] [1999] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009]

Law restricting cell use in cars takes effect today.  Beginning today [3/1/2008], police in New Jersey can write $100 tickets to motorists they catch using hand-held cell phones behind the wheel.  Cell phone use by drivers has been against the law in New Jersey since 2004, but it has been a secondary offense.  A police officer could only write a ticket if the driver had been pulled over for speeding or running a stop light or some other infraction.  The updated law makes talking or texting on a hand-held cell phone a primary offense.

The Editor says...
Oh, yes, and it makes another handy excuse to look for guns and drugs in the car during a traffic stop.  That's where the real money is anyway.  But what about the use of CB radio, FRS walkie-talkies and other two-way radios?  What about other activities that require the use of a hand, such as smoking, taking a sip of a beverage, or catching a sneeze with a Kleenex?  Is it now illegal in New Jersey to apply make-up while driving to work?

Why the Proposed Car Cellphone Ban Is Wrong.  It has been said that we can't go a day without breaking the law.  This one is for those who haven't broken any of the millions of others yet.  The ruling class can always put your in jail for something.  You're only exempt if you are a member of the ruling class.

6 Laws You've Broken Without Even Realizing It.  Say hello to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a crime to gain "unauthorized access" to a computer or a website.  What does "unauthorized access" actually mean?  Nobody knows.  But the law says it applies to wireless routers.

Buckle up laws were just the beginning.
Unsafe at Any Smoke.  A study just released by the CDC characterizes second-hand smoke as the latest threat to "safety" — and of course, "the children."  It urges what you'd expect:  That it be made illegal to smoke in your own car, at least, if "the children" are present and possibly even if they're not.  For as any smoker knows — as anyone who has shopped for used cars knows — any car that has been smoked in retains the essence of the Marlboro Man for years, even decades after the last butt was crumpled in the ashtray.

California's New Frisbee Law Just Latest Attempt to Raise Cash.  This week, Los Angeles County okayed a new regulation banning the throwing of Frisbees or footballs on the beaches — which, of course, destroys the purpose of living in Southern California in the first place.  The first offense will earn you a hefty $100 fine; the second, $200; the third and beyond, $500.  You can, of course, apply for a permit.  For parents with industrious children, holes deeper than 18 inches are also banned — so get your kids the cheap plastic shovels or pay a fine.

Los Angeles County Bans Frisbees on Beaches.  The moonbat micromanagers ruling La-La Land must finally be running out of things to ban.  Now they're suppressing fun on the beach.

End the Drug War, Mr. President.  The War on Drugs has been a massive failure by any serious estimation.  Sixty-seven percent of our nations' [sic] police chiefs consider it so.

The War on Drugs: Because Prohibition Worked So Well ...  Forty years ago, the United States locked up fewer than 200 of every 100,000 Americans.  Then President Nixon declared war on drugs.  Now we lock up more of our people than any other country — more even than the authoritarian regimes in Russia and China.  A war on drugs — on people, that is — is unworthy of a country that claims to be free.

Why black people don't trust the police:  I don't trust cops and I don't know many black people who do.  I respect them.  I sympathize with them.  I am appreciative of the work they do.  But when you've been pulled over for no good reason as many times as I have; when you've been in handcuffs for no good reason as many times as I have; when you run out to buy some allergy medication and upon returning home, find yourself surrounded by four squad cars with flashing lights and all you can think about is how not to get shot, you learn not to trust cops.

IRS May Draft Cops to Catch Tax Cheats, Official Tells Senate.  One police officer's responded, "We're prevented from going after illegal alien lawbreakers, but we're going to go after American citizens who try to keep more of their own money?"

Shredding the Constitution.  In Dearborn, Michigan, in June, 2010, a pastor and two lay Christians were arrested outside an Arab festival, under the pretense that they were blocking a tent entrance, creating a public danger, and "screaming into a crowd."  Video footage of the event clearly showed that this was untrue.  Last year, an assistant evangelical pastor from a Southern California church and two church members were arrested by the California Highway Patrol for reading the Bible outside a DMV office to those waiting in line almost an hour before opening time.  Although the Christians were 50 feet away from the entrance, they were cited for "impeding an open business."

Radioactive man? Milford resident pulled over by state police.  Mike Apatow was minding his own business Wednesday, driving to an appointment for work in Washington Depot when a state police car appeared suddenly and signaled for the Milford resident to pull over. [...] "I asked the officer 'What seems to be the problem?'" Apatow said.  "He said 'You've been flagged as a radioactive car.'"  Apatow's doctor had given him a document attesting that he'd had a medical procedure involving a small amount of radioactive material that he handed to the officer.  A Stratford firefighter, Apatow was more curious than annoyed by the incident.  "I had no idea the police even had devices like that," he said.

The Editor says...
It is safe to assume that the officer took a good look at Mr. Apatow's car while it was pulled over, looking for expired stickers, guns, drugs, or cash.

Distracted driving

Get Ready for In-Car Ads.  Because being bombarded with roadside signage while taking a leisurely Sunday drive isn't enough, Ford has patented a new system that uses a vehicle's cameras to detect billboards and then pull them up on a car's infotainment display as inescapable in-vehicle advertisements.

Political Idiocracy:  Driving and Using a Zoom Background — While Debating Legislation on 'Distracted Driving'.  The winner of this week's "Superior Achievement in the Field of Political Idiocracy" is GOP Ohio state Senator Andrew Brenner, who participated via video conference in the Ohio Legislature's Controlling Board Committee debate on legislation concerning "distracted driving."  The meeting was conducted via Zoom, and Brenner attempted to use a couple of different virtual backgrounds behind him.  To do so, he needed to handle his cell phone and pick a background to appear.  But, that was just the beginning of the fun.

Driver's Alleged Crime: Drinking Coffee.  There's a good chance you broke the law on your way to work today — at least in the eyes of Minnesota police.  The offense:  drinking coffee while driving.  Lindsey Krieger tells KMSP she was "dumbfounded" when an officer told her she'd been pulled over for the apparent crime in St. Paul on Wednesday [10/21/2015].  "It's against the law to drink coffee while you're driving,'" she quotes the officer as telling her.  As it turns out, the cop let her off with a warning for the coffee but gave her a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt (which Krieger says she unbuckled only after being pulled over).  So was the officer right?  Well, "kind of," a post at Munchies explains, because drinking coffee would fall under rules against distracted driving.

Text a driver in New Jersey, and you could see your day in court.  [Scroll down]  On Tuesday [8/27/2013], three appeals court judges agreed with it — in principle.  They ruled that if the sender of text messages knows that the recipient is driving and texting at the same time, a court may hold the sender responsible for distraction and hold him or her liable for the accident.  "We hold that the sender of a text message can potentially be liable if an accident is caused by texting, but only if the sender knew or had special reason to know that the recipient would view the text while driving and thus be distracted," the court said.

Study:  Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes.  Those sleep-deprived, multitasking drivers — clutching cell phones, fiddling with their radios or applying lipstick — apparently are involved in an awful lot of crashes.  Distracted drivers were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes, says a study released Thursday [4/20/2006] by the government.

Statistics disprove the "study" cited above.
Cellphones and Distracted Drivers:  Cellphones have gone from a rare luxury to ubiquitous in the last ten years.  Yet over the same time period, automobile accidents have declined steadily:  from 1994 to 2004 the fatality rate per 100 million miles has gone from 1.73 to 1.44, and the injury rate from 139 to 94.  For cars (which are the most common vehicles) the numbers for fatal crashes went from 2.07 to 1.57, injury crashes from 191 to 123, and property-only crashes from 351 to 260 over the same period.

The Editor says...
Obviously this "study" was published to generate popular demand for a new law against driving while distracted.

I'm not putting down ham radio, really.  (Why do you suppose I have a fresh copy of QST on hand?)  Ham radio operators can and do provide valuable services in actual emergencies, when no other communications are available.  Events like the charity bike ride (in the photo) are used as drills, so the hams will be ready if needed.

This leads to another point:  Have you seen the inside of a police car lately?  Besides the lights and sirens, guns, and multi-channel two-way radios, they have computer terminals through which they receive almost all their instructions from headquarters.  (Not to mention car-to-car text messages about where they're going to eat lunch.)  Some have GPS maps that show the location of other police cars as well as their own.  Occasionally there's a rowdy drunk in the back seat.  So you see, the cops are in no position to judge others as distracted drivers.

Talking on a cell phone or sending text messages while driving are serious concerns.  And if that's what the distracted driving laws address, they have my support.  But if the purpose of this campaign against distracted drivers is to establish another technicality and a very broad and fuzzy law that will allow the police to stop random cars and look for drugs, weapons, large amounts of cash, I'm opposed to it.

Appended 6/12/2018:
Here is another even worse example of a ham operator with so much stuff in the front seat of his (or her) car that he (or she) must have trouble fitting in.  (Original source here.)

Police forced to get creative in battle to make drivers to put down their phones.  In Bethesda, Maryland, a police officer disguised himself as a homeless man, stood near a busy intersection and radioed ahead to officers down the road about texting drivers.  In two hours last October, police gave out 56 tickets.

The Editor says...
"Distracted drivers" are about to become the biggest cash cow since the invention of the radar gun.

Oregon school district scrutinized after memo ordered bus drivers to stop playing rap music.  An Oregon school district has discussed reversing its ban on rap music on buses after allegations of racism.  The Oregonian reported Wednesday [8/24/2016] that Portland Public Schools had ordered its bus drivers to stop playing hip-hop music after it deemed rap "inappropriate."  Teri Brady, the senior director of transportation in the district, sent a memo to bus drivers in March ordering them to stop playing "religious, rap music or talk show programs."  The only acceptable music to play was pop, country and jazz, according to The Oregonian.

The Editor says...
Why are school bus drivers listening to the radio at all?  Isn't that "distracted driving?"

Rise of Selfies Adds to Distracted Driving Problems Across the U.S..  Over the weekend, a driver in Maine injured several of his passengers after he attempted to take a selfie while behind the wheel.  He now faces a distracted driving summons.  On Saturday, August 29th, 29-year-old Jordan Toner of Hampden was driving himself and several friends through Orient, Maine, when one of his friends leaned in to take a selfie.  Toner reportedly leaned into the frame for the picture, and ended up crashing into the tree.

Indiana driver distracted by GPS, food in fatal crash is charged with misdemeanor.  A warrant was issued Tuesday, Sept. 22, against Travis Fox, 40, for one count of moving violation causing death, a one-year misdemeanor, according to court records.  He has yet to be arraigned.  The crash, which occurred Aug. 3, was caused by Fox, who told police he was distracted while eating a sandwich and checking his GPS.  He didn't notice the traffic in front of him had slowed due to construction.

Driver in I-93 rollover accident charged with distracted driving under Hands-Free Law.  A rollover accident on Interstate 93 in Canterbury on Monday night was caused by a distracted driver using a mobile device, police said.  Two vehicles, a Honda Civic and a Toyota Tacoma, were involved in the crash on I-93 southbound about 9:30 p.m. Monday, said state police Trooper Micah Jones.  The accident was caused by the driver of the Honda, he said, who was cited under the state's Hands-Free Law.

Woman Charged in OC Distracted Driving Case Appears in Court.  Jorene Nicholas' first trial ended in 2014 with a deadlocked jury.  In court Wednesday, prosecutors showed jurors photos of a mangled Hyundai that belonged to 23-year-old Deanna Mauer.  Nicholas is accused of killing Mauer in 2011.  Prosecutors say Nicholas was using her cellphone while driving 85 miles per hour on the 405 Freeway.  Traffic had stopped and she ploughed into Mauer's car in Westminster.

No offense is too petty to overlook

The Editor says...
There are parts of any big city where the streets are crawling with truly awful people who have served time in prison, or should be in prison, yet the cops seem to spend most of their time making themselves visible to non-violent citizens who are just trying to get from one place to another.  Law and order is a wonderful thing, but hair-splitting legalism is not.

A Violent Horde of Police Break down a Door and Arrest a Father for the Crime of Piercing His Son's Ear.  Police in full-on SWAT mode break down a door to arrest a father — for the 'heinous' crime of...piercing his son's ear?  Yes, you heard that right.  Apparently, this dad committed the ultimate parental sin of allowing his son to get his ear pierced, even though the boy had asked for it.  It's a shocking and bizarre story that highlights the absurdity of some of our laws and law enforcement practices.  [Video clip]

No Constitutional Right To Honk Your Car Horn, Court Says.  A federal appeals court says honking isn't First Amendment-protected activity.  There's no constitutional right to honk your car horn, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.  The case involves Susan Porter, who repeatedly honked her car horn while driving past protesters in California in 2017.  A deputy with the San Diego County Sheriff's Office issued Porter a ticket, saying she had violated a state law against misuse of car horns.  Porter pushed back, filing a federal lawsuit in 2018.  In it, she alleged that honking her horn in solidarity with the protesters was protected First Amendment activity and that the California law used to ticket her — which prohibits using a car horn except "when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation" or when used "as a theft alarm system" — was unconstitutional.

Bad New Idea From Florida: Ban Dogs From Sticking Their Heads Out of Car Windows.  Not content to merely regulate human fun, a Florida lawmaker has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for drivers to let their dogs stick their heads out of car windows.  Senate Bill 932, introduced last week by state Sen. Lauren Book (D-Plantation), tackles a wide range of animal welfare issues.  It would ban the declawing of cats, prohibit the sale of rabbits in stores in March and April, create a registry of animal abusers, and limit cosmetic testing on animals, among many other policies.  The legislation centers on what Book believes would improve the quality of life for Florida's animals, but one section of the bill would single out a favorite activity of the state's canine population.  Dogs would be banned from sticking their heads "or any other body part" outside a vehicle's window while on a public roadway.  Drivers would also be banned from holding dogs on their laps while driving.

Battling the Leftist Education Playbook.  Several years ago, my husband and I learned a valuable lesson when we visited San Diego: Ignorance is not an excuse.  After returning to our car from a beach trip, we noticed that we'd been ticketed.  We drove to the police station and discovered that we'd parked in a red curb zone.  We hadn't seen any No Parking signs, and the curbs weren't red.  However, there doesn't have to be red paint to signify a restricted area; people are expected to know the rules.  We weren't excused from that ticket, and we were chided for not knowing the law, even as vacationers.

Obnoxiously loud car?  A traffic camera might be listening.  Over the years, there have been numerous efforts to quiet the cacophony [in New York City].  One of the latest:  traffic cameras equipped with sound meters capable of identifying souped-up cars and motorbikes emitting an illegal amount of street noise.  At least 71 drivers have gotten tickets so far for violating noise rules during a yearlong pilot program of the system.  The city's Department of Environmental Protection now has plans to expand the use of the roadside sound meters. [...] The new devices record the license plates of offenders, much like how speedsters are nabbed by roadside cameras.  Vehicle owners face fines of $800 for a first noise offense and a penalty of $2,625 if they ignore a third-offense hearing.  City officials declined to reveal where the radars are currently perched.

The Editor says...
Every big city is noisy.  The population density is high, and everybody has a leaf blower, a subwoofer, a couple of dogs, or a crying baby.  Sirens are necessary.  Gunshots abound.  Jackhammers mean progress.  The big city airport has lots of big planes arriving and leaving every few minutes.  The big city is where it's at, and it comes with unavoidable byproducts.

Police Arrest 82-Year-Old Alabama Woman For Not Paying $77 Trash Bill.  An elderly Alabama woman last Sunday [11/27/2022] was arrested for an unpaid trash bill totaling $77.80.  The 82-year-old woman was cuffed and charged with misdemeanor offense of 'failure to pay solid waste fees.'  Martha Louis Menefield, of Valley was released on bond, according to a statement from Valley Police Chief Mike Reynolds.

Ohio Cops Decide First Amendment Doesn't Exist, Arrest Newspaper Editor For Committing Journalism.  Ohio cops just can't seem to get their head around First Amendment protections.  A case hopefully en route to a Supreme Court review involves Parma, Ohio cops who decided it was completely legal to arrest a town resident for creating a clearly satirical Facebook page that suggested the Parma PD was offering free abortions in a roaming van and promoting a "pedophile reform" event.  In another case, a cop temporarily managed to obtain an injunction forbidding people from publishing his name while he sued several Cincinnati residents for libel for suggesting he might be a racist.  That cop's name is Ryan Olthaus and he has a long history of use of force complaints.  And, in yet another case, a woman was arrested by Ohio cops for repeating a false rumor that a gun had been found at a school.  She did not originate the rumor.  She just repeated it.  And for that, she was sentenced to 180 days in jail and stripped of access to social media sites for a year.

It's now illegal for anyone under 21 to buy canned whipped cream in New York.  It is illegal for New Yorkers under age 21 to purchase a can of whipped cream, according to recently-passed state law.  The law, which went into effect in November 2021, is meant to prevent teenagers from using canned whipped cream to inhale nitrous oxide, otherwise known as "whippets."  "Inhalants are invisible, volatile substances found in common household products that produce chemical vapors that are inhaled to induce psychoactive or mind-altering effects," according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration factsheet.

Coming soon:  You must also prove that you own a pumpkin pie.
You Now Have to Prove You're 21 to Buy Whipped Cream Canisters in New York.  Do you periodically enjoy an adult beverage?  I'm talking, of course, about a milkshake — the kind with whipped cream on top.  New York stores are now checking identification per a state law aimed to reduce drug deaths.  The measure bans the sale of whipped cream canisters to anyone under 21.

Couple fined $1,500 for parking in their driveway after nearly 40 years of doing so.  In what appears to be an instance of bureaucratic excess if not a lack of common sense, San Francisco officials threatened to fine a couple $1,500-plus for illegally parking in their own driveway, a spot they've been using for nearly four decades.  The sudden notification, which was reportedly prompted by an anonymous complaint, came from the city's Planning Department.  Longtime residents Judy and Ed Craine, who live on a steep hill, received the $1,542 ticket, for parking on a carport in front of their home in apparent violation of code.

Seattle Police Justify The "Defund the Police" Movement by Arresting a Preacher for Reading His Bible Too Close to a Gay Pride Event.  A Seattle man was arrested for reading aloud the Gospel of Saint Matthew in a public park as a "Gay Pride*" event was taking place.  Matthew Meinecke, often referred to as a "street preacher," was on public property reading aloud from the Bible without the benefit of amplification when he was rousted and then arrested by Seattle's finest.  Meinecke was also arrested last week for reading his Bible aloud near a pro-Moloch demonstration.  I'm not sure what the facts were there, but according to reports, the Seattle city prosecutor does not plan on charging Meinecke for anything.  This reveals the true purpose of the arrest was to silence Meinecke so the Gay Pride bunch wouldn't be upset.

Alabama man is fined and handed a suspended jail sentence for placing boxes of flowers on his fiancée's grave.  An Alabama man has been convicted of criminal littering and ordered to pay $300 for repeatedly placing boxes full of flowers on the grave of his fiancée, whose father didn't like the gifts or approve of their relationship.  Winston 'Winchester' Hagans was convicted Thursday in Auburn city court after the Reverend Tom Ford, the father of Hannah Ford, signed a warrant against him.  Hannah died in a wreck in January 2021 about a month after becoming engaged to Hagans, according to The Opelika-Auburn News.

Hey, subway cops:  Arrest the mango merchants after you get real bad guys.  "Broken windows" policing is a strong deterrent to more serious crimes.  But the NYPD's mango-sale crackdown at a Brooklyn subway station was just goofy when cops seem unable or disinclined to go after the real bad guys right under their noses.  Anyone who uses the Broadway Junction subway station in Brooklyn — which frightened me as a child and feels even creepier today — knows what might be in store.  The dilapidated, century-old, mostly elevated iron structure where East New York and Ocean Hill touch is Brooklyn's third-busiest subway hub.  With 100,000 daily users, it's intimidating despite omnipresent crowds that might lend a sense of safety elsewhere.  Mayor Eric Adams defended the cops who cuffed the hapless mango merchant last month, an incident that went viral on YouTube:  "Next day, it's propane tanks being on the subway system.  The next day, it's barbecuing on the subway system.  You just can't do that."

C'mon, man!
Lancaster County man arrested after putting Joe Biden sticker on gas pump.  The average price of gasoline hovers around $4.139 per gallon at the moment and some people are putting their frustrations into action by taking to the streets with stickers.  Yes, stickers.  All across the country, people are placing stickers on gas pumps that depict President Joe Biden pointing, if placed correctly, at the price of gas with "I did that" scrawled beneath.  One Lancaster County man was arrested, however, after an employee at a Turkey Hill convenience store saw him placing a Biden sticker on a gas pump there on March 31.  According to a bystander who filmed the incident, things got heated between the employee and Thomas Richard Glazewski, 54, of Manor Township, and police were called.

Denver man faces felony after city accuses him of making pickleball court without permission.  A 71-year-old Denver man is facing a felony charge after city officials say he made a pickleball court without permission.  With prosecution on the table, some believe the punishment doesn't fit the crime.  "The whole pickleball community is really saddened and shocked," said Jan Devor, a friend of 71-year-old Arslan Guney and fellow pickleball player.  Guney and others use a basketball court at Denver's Central Park Recreation Center for pickleball.  Last Monday, the markings on the court had faded, so Guney re-marked them with a Sharpie.  Three days later, an arrest warrant for felony criminal mischief was issued for Guney.  The court document also claims ten thousand dollars in damages.

Great-grandfather, 78, is handcuffed by cops in Ottawa for honking his car horn in support of Freedom Convoy.  An elderly man was cuffed and arrested in Ottawa for honking his horn in support of demonstrators on Sunday [2/6/2022], a day before a judge outlawed honking, as protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates rage on in the Canadian capital.  A bystander filmed while two officers pulled over Gerry Charlebois, 78, for beeping his horn.  'What did he do wrong?' the bystander asked.  'None of your [...] concern, man,' one officer responded.

The Editor says...
Is it really necessary to handcuff a 78-year-old man whose only offense is making too much racket?  If a little old man is really such a threat, you need to find another line of work.

Ottawa Police Are Now Arresting People For Honking Their Horns In Solidarity With The Truckers.  An elderly man was arrested in Ottawa Monday morning after he was pulled over by police for apparently honking.  He was arrested in a tense confrontation in which he refused to provide an officer his driver's license and people on the sidewalk derided the officer. [...] A passerby filming the incident informed the man he didn't have to show his identification to the officer.  The officer replied he did because honking a horn "is an offense."  [Video clip]

Chicago: Authorities Seize 130 Fake Vaccination Cards as 22 Shot over Weekend.  U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities in Chicago seized two parcels of counterfeit vaccination cards bound to the greater Detroit area from Moldova.  In a tweet Wednesday morning [1/26/2022], CBP Chicago announced it had intercepted the packages, one containing 100 false vaccination cards and the other carrying 30 phony cards.  According to CBP Chicago, the cards were headed to two separate addresses in Livonia, Michigan, and were sent from the Eastern European country of Moldova.  In a separate incident in upstate New York this month, a couple allegedly presented falsified vaccination cards to enter a Buffalo Bills playoff game on January 15, Breitbart News reports.  They were arraigned Tuesday and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Pregnant Woman Is Detained By Police For Not Wearing A Mask Around A Swimming Pool.  A pregnant woman and her husband were detained by police in Nanaimo, British Columbia recently for failing to comply with B.C.'s "Limitation Order #2", but more generically the infractions mentioned by police appeared to be for failing to wear a mask, provide identification and not having a vaccine passport.  [Video clip]

German police arrest Santa Claus for not wearing a mask at Christmas market.  Perhaps panicking over Germany's record COVID case count (despite 68.1% of its population being fully vaccinated), the Polizei there have invited worldwide scorn and ridicule in recent days for their punctiliousness in enforcing arbitrary and mostly ineffective regulations supposedly aimed at inhibit the spread of the virus.  Although it happened last month, video of police arresting a Santa Claus at a Christmas market in Stralsund, a Hanseatic city on the Baltic coast, has just surfaced in American media.

German Jackboot Cops Arrest Santa For Not Wearing A Mask!  German police arrested Santa Claus for not wearing a mask at a Christmas market, surreal footage shows.  Video circulating on social media shows a group of police officers surrounding a man dressed as Santa before frog-marching him from the event as the crowd cheered for him in solidarity and booed the police officers.  This comes just a day after German police were seen walking in between anti-lockdown demonstrators using a long ruler to keep them socially distanced by 6 feet.  [Video clip]

Watch As 16 Year Old Girl Is Arrested For Not Wearing a Mask In High School, Entire School Is Locked Down.  A 16-year-old high school student was arrested Thursday over a mask dispute, forcing the school into lockdown for over an hour.  Grace Smith, a student at Laramie High School, was suspended from school for six days via three separate two-day suspensions, she claimed in an interview with Wyoming Sen. Anthony Bouchard about her arrest.  She also allegedly received $1,000 in trespassing fines for refusing to leave school grounds.  "It makes me angry," Smith said.  "It makes me feel unwanted by the school system.  It makes me stressed out that I have to fight this battle as a 16-year-old.  Right now, I should be playing sports and having fun.  And instead, I'm fighting for the rights that were supposed to be won hundreds of years ago."  [Video clip]

Wyoming teenager arrested after refusing to wear mask on school grounds, family says.  A 16-year-old girl in Wyoming was arrested Thursday [10/7/2021] at her school after she refused to wear a mask on school grounds, she and her father said.  Grace Smith, a junior at Laramie High School, told state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, in an interview posted online, that police placed her in handcuffs for trespassing after she was suspended for not following the school's mask mandate and refused to leave school grounds.

16-Year-Old Wyoming Student Arrested for Not Wearing Mask, Entire School Placed on Lockdown.  A 16-year-old student in Wyoming was arrested and the entire school was placed on lockdown — all because she refused to wear a mask.  Grace Smith, 16, had already been suspended twice from Laramie High School in Wyoming for refusing to wear masks in class.  As the brave student attempted to go to class unmuzzled once again, she was met with police and given a $500 citation.  When she was told to leave the school, she refused to comply.  At that point, she was handcuffed and arrested.  As the situation unfolded, an announcement over the loudspeaker said that "we are in a lockdown, please stay in your rooms."

Concerned Parents Protesting CRT Arrested After Virginia School Board Meeting Declared Unlawful Assembly.  Parents were arrested while protesting against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a transgender policy at a Virginia school board meeting Tuesday [6/22/2021].  The meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia abruptly ended after the crowd became too rowdy and was later declared an unlawful assembly, footage posted to Twitter showed.  Two arrests were reportedly made for trespassing after some parents refused to leave.  [Video clip]

Things Explode at School Board Meeting Over CRT, Arrests Are Made.  Things are popping off in Loudon County, VA tonight as the debates over critical race theory and transgender issues in schools heat up.  Over 200 parents signed up to give public comments at a local school board meeting, and things just got crazier from there.  Eventually, an unlawful assembly was declared and several arrests were made. [...] All the crowd did was clap in support of someone's comment.  That's literally the extent of their "eruption," but that was enough for the little tyrants on the school board to shut down the meeting and get the cops involved.

Police Arrest Woman at School Board Meeting for Not Wearing Mask.  You know, one argument AGAINST cops is they follow orders, like good Nazis — and at one level you can't blame them if they were ORDERED to arrest someone if a law was broken, but what law was broken here?  NONE.  [Video clip]

Ontario is now handing out tickets for shaking hands.  As a Michigander, I live pretty [...] close to the new totalitarian nightmare that is Canada.  Having lived under Queen Gretchen's thumb for the past year, one of the only positives has been looking across the Detroit river and feeling sorry for the citizens of Ontario.  If you're wondering just how far our neighbors to the north have descended into lunacy, they are now issuing tickets for shaking hands.

Police Ticket Journalist For Violating Virus Rules - Including for 'Shaking Hands'.  Whenever we think that the rules imposed upon us to "beat" the Wuhan coronavirus are screwy, just remember, you could always be in Canada, where it's still really nuts.  Ontario is on lockdown with a stay-at-home order prohibiting people from having any social gatherings outside of their household.  People are prohibited from traveling outside of their public health region and are only "allowed" to go out for necessities.  If you don't comply, you can be fined and face potential jail time.  Folks came out in Hamilton, Ontario to protest the rules on Sunday.  They've gotten tickets in the past even when socially distanced.  Efron Monsanto, who reports for Rebel News, came out to cover the action and he got nailed by the police, too.  [Tweet]

New Hampshire Police Arrest Maskless Parents Attempting to Confront School Board — Following Arrests Board Cancels Meeting To Avoid Parents.  Comrades, it is interesting — some would say disturbing — to watch law enforcement arrest people for not violating laws.  The requirement to wear a mask is a local school board policy, created by random fiat, not a law.  The arrested maskless parents were proactively accused of 'disturbing the peace', before any disturbance could be identified.

Police arrest unmasked attendee as maskless group shows up at Timberlane school meeting.  A Sunday school teacher was arrested at Thursday night's [5/20/2021] Timberlane Regional School Board meeting moments after she and several other unmasked attendees showed up to demand an end to a school mask mandate.  The meeting was planned to be held in person at the district's Performing Arts Center, but board Chairwoman Kimberly Farah quickly shut it down before it began and required that it be held remotely.  "I didn't want to jeopardize the health of the staff and the students," Farah said as several Plaistow police officers and state police troopers swarmed inside and outside the auditorium.

Security At A Baseball Game Cuff And Slam A Man In Front Of His Crying Child For Having His Mask Down While Eating.  This was the pathetic scene at an Omaha Beef baseball game at the Ralston Arena last week when security cuffed, then body-slammed a man in front of his family for daring to eat with his mask down.  They dragged the poor man out of the arena while his young son cried.  [Video clip]

Former Oklahoma resident had unknown charge of felony embezzlement for not returning VHS tape rental 21 years ago.  A woman says she didn't know she had a felony charge for over two decades for not returning a VHS rental.  Caron McBride says she found out she was charged with a felony when she changed her name on her driver's license in Texas after getting married.

This is exactly the kind of cops America does not need:
Ron Paul:  She Wouldn't Wear A Mask; Galveston Police Broke Her Foot.  A 65 year old Galveston woman found herself tackled, handcuffed, arrested, and with a broken foot after she refused to leave a local Bank of America branch without her money.  The bank demanded she put on a mask, she refused, so they called in the police.  [Video clip]

Roaming Mask Cops Writing Tickets for No Masks, Improper Wearing of Masks — 'We'll Arrest You Right Here'.  Another sad day for civil liberties in America — or what's left of it.  [Video clip]

West Vancouver, where tire treads are hate symbols.  If ever you find yourself driving in West Vancouver, British Columbia, don't.  You may find yourself on the wrong side of the law for the supposed crime of ... leaving a tire mark on a public crosswalk?  "West Vancouver Police are investigating a mischief to property, after someone defaced the department's new Pride crosswalk," law enforcement officials announced this week in a statement.  It adds, "On July 7, 2020 at 4:04 pm staff inside the police station heard a loud and sustained tire squealing outside.  When officers took a closer look, they discovered that someone had just left tire marks across a portion of the crosswalk, at the intersection of 16th St and Esquimalt Ave."

Alameda Police Release Body Cam Footage Of Black Man's Arrest For Dancing In Street.  A video showing Alameda police officers arresting an African American man who had been exercising in the street has gone viral and has prompted a response from city officials.  The video shows four Alameda police officers restraining the unidentified man and wrestling him to the ground on the 2000 block of Central Ave. in Alameda.  On Friday [6/5/2020], Alameda Police released several officer body camera videos of the incident along with the audio of the call to police dispatchers reporting an African American man walking and dancing in the street.

As Rioters Destroy New York, Cops Kick Jewish Families Out of a Playground.  Jewish community leaders are condemning New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for a "blatant double standard." He singled out the Jewish community in enforcing coronavirus restrictions, yet defended protesters who violated social distancing rules in order to protest the heinous police killing of George Floyd.  In fact, videos showed police officers dispersing Jewish mothers and their children at a playground while a larger group of protesters gathered in violation of lockdown rules.

Stopping Petty Tyrannies Is How We Beat the Serious Ones.  As states across the country begin the process of reopening, Americans continue to battle over the methods governors and local authorities have used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.  Unfortunately, many states and localities have set up arbitrary and, in many cases, absurd rules that do little more than aggravate citizens and almost nothing to stop the spread of the virus.  For instance, some Americans have been pulled over and ticketed for merely driving, hardly an activity that is likely to spread disease.  One Pennsylvania woman received a $200 ticket for violating Gov. Tom Wolf's statewide stay-at-home order when she said she had merely gone on a drive to relieve her quarantine restlessness, according to the York Dispatch.

Cops Lecture Parents About 7-Year-Old's Toy Gun.  There's really nothing worse than neighbors ratting out neighbors.  But that's what Democrats are urging citizens to do across the country.  And more often than not innocent Americans are getting caught in the crosshairs.  Sheila Perez Smith tells the Todd Starnes Show that she was stunned when the police showed up at her home near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Smith's 7-year-old son had just completed a zoom class from the den of their home when she received an urgent email from her son's first grade teacher.  It just so happened that the little boy had recently been gifted a toy gun and the child had placed his "new favorite thing" on the table next to the computer.

Wisconsin Police Visit Mom Because She Allowed Her Child to Play at Friend's House.  A video surfaced yesterday [4/30/2020] showing Wiscosin police officers visiting the home of a parent who allowed her child to play at their friends house during stay-at-home orders.  The video starts as the mom answers the door and is greeted by two police officers, one male and one female.

North Carolina Police Arrest Man for Attempting to Reopen His Business, Others May Follow Suit.  As RedState managing editor Streiff wrote earlier today [4/29/2020], the "Reopen" rebellion against North Carolina's stay at home order is in full effect.  The arrests of protesters are continuing as well, with four arrested during Tuesday's ReopenNC protest, which was the third one held to date.  But in a disturbing incident that happened around lunchtime today, an Apex, NC man was seen on video being being led away by police from his business in handcuffs after attempting to reopen his tattoo parlor.

Cops Wage Elaborate Undercover Scheme to Arrest Woman for Giving a Manicure Out of Her Home.  Two Texas police officers went undercover in an elaborate sting operation to catch citizens giving salon services for money in their own home.  The cops posed as regular citizens needing to get a manicure.  Tipsters (also known in some neighborhoods as "rats" or "snitches") pointed police to a woman who was advertising manicure services on social media — the horror.  Laredo police arrested Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia, 31, at the 1200 block of Harding Street after she allegedly agreed to provide an undercover officer with a manicure.  Again, the horror.  Castro-Garcia was arrested and charged with "Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B" and was taken to the Webb County Jail where she was offered a $500 bond.

Idaho Police Arrest Subversive Mom For Taking Children to Playground.  Comrades, after the Meridian cornavirus enforcement police received several calls from compliant citizens, a dangerous group of subversive moms were identified engaging in non-approved playground activity against the interests of the state.  Local authorities activated an emergency response task force & arrested the lead scofflaw mom at the park.  According to video smuggled from the park by an underground network of rebellious female breeders, Mrs. Sarah Brady was instructed by the COVID-19 compliance officers to vacate the playground.  Ms. Brady refused to comply with the order and was subsequently handcuffed and arrested for violations of the state lock-down, ie. misdemeanor trespassing.

Gang Of Cops Arrest Some Guys For Eating Pizza In A Car Together.  As first reported by Pedestrian.TV, footage from Facebook page Sydney Crime News shows a swarm of police on a group of four men in Condell Park, who had been eating pizza in a car on Saturday afternoon.  The video begins with one man in handcuffs sitting on a driveway, with a friend soon tackled by four police after attempting to move his friend onto the grass as the two argue over the amount of police present.  [Video clip]

NYPD Arrests Young Boy Selling Candy On Subway.  This video is blowing up all over social media showing a young boy being arrested by NYPD for selling candy and chips to make money for his family.  A user posted:  Thousands of NYPD officers have the coronavirus and they are still going all over the city harassing and touching and grabbing and breathing all over people.  People are out here hurting.  This boy wasn't selling drugs, he was selling candy and chips BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO.  These boys are out here doing this because they provide for their families.  [Video clip]

Here's One Thing Officials Can Do to Make Lockdown Life Better:  Stop Being Hypocritical Tyrants.  Too many of our elected and unelected officials are acting like toddlers testing their boundaries.  There are the police officers who thought it was a good idea to pester a little girl shooting baskets alone in a park.  She was socially distanced.  She was fine.  If a game of street 3-on-3 suddenly broke out, well, that's a different story.  But she was alone.  So leave her alone.  The police later apologized, but they should have just used some common sense and avoided the whole situation.  And there are the police officers in Colorado who arrested a dad playing ball with his daughter in a park.  Leave people alone or this could start getting ugly.  Most Americans support the police, but we don't support a police state.

Cops Smashed A Residents Door In Looking For 'Social Gatherings'.  The Coronavirus will pass but losing our freedom is something that we will regret.  The criminals are being released from prison and being replaced with peaceful, law-abiding citizens who dare go outside. [...] We don't know about third world countries but in Britain, we had the first case where the police entered a man's home and broke his door.  In the recording, which went viral online, the officers appear to forcibly enter his house after he refuses to open the door over coronavirus fears.

The "Officer-Friendly" Police Fantasy.  [Scroll down]  Unfortunately, there are endless pretexts for people to be arrested nowadays because federal, state, and local politicians and officials have criminalized daily life with hundreds of thousands of edicts.  Capt. Steve Powell of the Colorado State Patrol commented, "Ninety percent of the cars out there are doing something that you can pull them over for.  There are a jillion reasons people can be stopped — taillights, windshields cracked, any number of things."  Gerard Arenberg, executive director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, told me in the 1990s, "We have so damn many laws, you can't drive the streets without breaking the law.  I could write you a hundred tickets depending on what you said to me when I stopped you."

Jail time for defiant Ohio lady who feeds homeless cats.  Finally, authorities in suburban Cleveland are cracking down on an old lady who feeds cats without homes.  Now that officials in Garfield Heights have conquered serious crimes, they're focused on Nancy Segula, a 79-year-old widow who lost her husband two years ago.  Segula feeds stray cats, lots of stray cats[,] and in bad weather she takes some in.

Elderly woman given 10-day jail sentence for feeding stray cats.  A 79-year-old woman has been given a 10-day jail sentence after she was repeatedly cited by police for feeding stray cats in her Ohio neighbourhood.  Since 2015, neighbours of Nancy Segula have been complaining to officials about the strays.  She claims the cats were left behind by an ex-neighbour.  "I'm a cat lover," she told Fox 8 in Cleveland, after learning of her coming term in the Cuyahoga County Jail.  Mrs Segula has been ordered by a judge to begin her sentence on 11 August.

Man Gets Interrogated By Police For Liking A 'Transphobic' Limerick On Twitter — It's Recorded As A 'Hate Incident'.  In the UK lives a man named Harry Miller.  As per Metro.co.uk, Harry has a particular viewpoint:  "Trans women are not women."  On Twitter, there arose a post containing a limerick.  The poem appeared to mock transgenderism.  Harry "liked" the tweet.  Subsequently, he was interrogated by police for half an hour.

Texas is about to make sex jokes on campus a criminal offense.  Republican lawmakers seem to have a better grip than their Democratic colleagues on the inherent censorship of so-called free speech zones and viewpoint-based security fees.  David French of National Review counted eight states that have passed campus free-speech bills in less than six months, most recently Texas.  He has one major quibble with the new Texas law:  its failure to define a phrase that dictates when students can be punished for disruptions.

Officer quits after confronting black man picking up trash.  A white Colorado police officer who confronted a black man picking up trash around his dormitory resigned this week under an agreement that lets him collect $69,000 in salary despite violating department policies.  Body camera footage released Thursday provided a full video account of the tense encounter, which gained national attention based on video shot by someone inside the building.

Man charged after spraying children, home with water from a hose.  An 18-year-old faces charges after authorities say he sprayed a group of children and their home with water from a hose, according to court records.  A criminal complaint states Zachariah Manahan faces one count of stalking because of bias, a felony.  He also faces one count of third-degree damage to property and one count of disorderly conduct.

Australian man fined for giving money to a homeless man.  [Scroll down]  A motorist from Perth, Western Australia named Luke Bresland was fined A$50 earlier this year when he gave A$1.50 (that's a little more than 1 US dollar) to an apparent homeless man who washed his windshield while stopped at a traffic light.  When the light turned green, Mr. Bresland continued on his journey, only to be pulled over by a local policeman.  The policeman asked him if he had given money to the homeless man, and then cited him for violating a local ordinance.  Under local law, it is illegal for anyone in a vehicle to buy or offer to buy an article or service from a person who is on the road.

Fined over $1.50: Perth driver takes fight against obscure window-washer charge to court.  WA Police have conceded a $50 fine handed to a Perth driver who gave a window washer some coins while stopped at traffic lights was "heavy handed".  Luke Bresland was gearing up to fight the charge in court and had already entered a not guilty plea after receiving the obscure fine for 'buying a newspaper from a person' earlier this year.

Cops Strip-Searched a 4-Year-Old After Mom's Errand Took Too Long.  A mom who let her six children wait ten minutes in the car while she ran in to get them muffins at a local Kentucky cafe is the focus of this oped I co-authored in The Washington Post.  Perhaps you can guess what happened next to the mom, Holly Curry.  In fact, I'll bet you can.  Though it was 67 degrees and partly cloudy, and though it is statistically safer to let kids wait in the car than drag them across a parking lot — the heart-wrenching stories of kids who die in cars almost always involve children forgotten there for hours, not simply waiting out an errand — Curry found herself in trouble with the police.

Florida man arrested for refusing to remove vulgar sticker: 'They're just words'.  A Florida man was arrested over the weekend for refusing to remove a sticker from his vehicle's window that crudely described a person's sexual appetites.  Dillon Shane Webb, 23, was charged with misdemeanor counts of violating Florida's obscenity law and resisting an officer without violence, a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report said.

Innocent Child Harassed, Threatened by Cops for Shoveling Snow Without a Permit.  Residents in Normandy, Missouri are questioning a new ordinance they are calling ridiculous which requires anyone who wishes to shovel snow for money to have a permit.  To be clear, this is not just for adults running businesses, but as the following case illustrates, it's being enforced against children trying to earn some extra money.

Veteran facing fine for buying light bulb, bug spray.  Police created a temporary zone of heightened security restrictions for the downtown mall area that required all people entering have their bags searched.  Some items were being prohibited.  However, a disabled veteran went into the mall, purchased a number of ordinary household items, and then was arrested when leaving the security zone because the items were banned.  "Talk about overkill:  government officials spent more than $3 million on security for the August 12 anniversary events, only to have a dozen police swarm a disabled veteran with a walker buying cans of iced tea and bug spray from a CVS," said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.  "This case is yet another vivid example of how dysfunctional, excessive and out of sync the government has become at all levels."

New York coffee shop fined $300 by Sanitation Department for sign announcing how many cups they've kept out of landfill.  A coffee shop in New York was allegedly fined $300 by the Department of Sanitation for a misplaced sandwich board on the sidewalk, which announced that the business had kept over 2,000 cups out of the landfill in 2018.  Smith Canteen's owner, Kerry Diamond, posted about the ironic incident on Facebook, claiming the sign has been in the same spot for the past seven years.  "I've been spending a lot of money and time trying to figure out waste reduction, composting, and single-use plastic alternatives at the Canteen, so this really burns me," she wrote.

Michigan brothers face $450,000 in fines for tree removal on their property.  Brothers in Michigan are facing nearly $500,000 in fines for allegedly removing more than 1,400 trees from their 16-acre property without permission, a report on Monday said.  Gary and Matt Percy removed the trees with the intention of creating a Christmas tree farm on the Canton Township plot, their attorney Michael Pattwell told MLive.com.  The attorney said that the land was filled with invasive plants.

Vietnam War hero sentenced to 7 years for decades-old rifle purchase: report.  A decorated Vietnam veteran and firearms collector was sentenced to seven years in federal prison Wednesday for a decades-old purchase of a rifle.  Alfred Pick, 70, purchased the M14 — a fully automatic weapon illegal to own — at a Ft. Worth gun show in the early 1980s, the Dallas Morning News reported.  The rifle, which had a scratched-off serial number, was similar to the one Pick used as an Army lieutenant in Vietnam, where he earned a Silver Star after participating in more than 100 combat missions and his brief time as a POW.  "The man is a Silver Star winner, he saved lives, he took care of his wife, he's been in custody for a year, I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero you don't destroy the rest of his life for one mistake," Mark Shackelford, a friend, told KDFW-TV.

Virginia Cities Make it a Crime for Kids Older Than 12 to Go Trick-Or-Treating.  A town in Virginia has now passed a law ruling that kids older than 12 can face jail-time for trick-or-treating on Halloween.  And several other towns have similar rules, including hefty fines.  You read that right.  Cities in Virginia have passed rules to jail and/or fine kids for tick-or-treating and it's all in a purported effort to "keep everyone safe."

Criminal Charges for North Carolina Woman Who Sheltered Pets During Hurricane Florence.  A North Carolina woman says she just wanted local pets to have a safe place to stay as Hurricane Florence made landfall earlier this month.  But now she's facing upward of a dozen criminal charges related to the medical care she freely provided to the animals.

Michigan Cop Forced an 80-Year-Old Great Grandmother To Spend a Night in Jail Over an Expired Medical Marijuana Card.  Your outrageous cannabis story of the day — maybe even the summer — comes from Clare County, Michigan, where 80-year-old Delores Saltzman, a great-grandmother and arthritis patient, was jailed for the first time in her life after a Clare County deputy found her in possession of a small amount of medical marijuana and an expired medical cannabis recommendation.

Couple gets 'parking ticket' at their own wedding.  A woman passing by a wedding at a town hall in Somerset, England was appalled to spot a parking ticket on the happy couple's car.  The white Audi convertible was wrapped in a ribbon and clearly part of the festivities.  She snapped a photo and shared it with local media, telling them "I was really shocked.  I know a lot of newlyweds get money or gifts but that seems a bit extreme.  They are now having to give someone else money on one of the happiest day of their lives."

Lawsuit Argues Honking Your Car Horn Is Protected By The First Amendment.  The First Amendment covers a whole lot of area.  Since it covers "expression," it doesn't necessarily have to be anything commonly thought of as "speech."  It doesn't have to be printed.  It doesn't have to be said.  Lighting a flag on fire requires no statement of intent.  The act itself is expressive enough.  Passively gathering information (like recordings or public records) is protected by the First Amendment.  Taking photos is a protected act, even if the photos are never used to express anything more than a memory of an event or place. [...] A plaintiff currently suing a sheriff and the head of the California Highway Patrol is arguing that honking a car horn is protected speech and that the citation she received after engaging in this expression is unconstitutional.

Woman detained in US for 2 weeks after accidentally jogging across Canada border.  A French citizen visiting Canada said she was detained for two weeks after she accidentally jogged across the U.S.-Canada border in May.  Cedella Roman, 19, said she did not realize she crossed the border during her jog along a beach in White Rock, British Columbia on May 21.  The young woman said she stopped during her jog to take a picture of the beach before deciding to turn around to run back when she was apprehended by two U.S. Border Patrol officers who told her she illegally crossed the border into Blaine, Washington.

The Editor says...
How I wish the Mexican border was given this level of fastidious scrutiny!

Student, 13, Charged With Felony for Recording a Conversation With His Principal.  Paul Boron is 13 years old.  And he's facing a felony eavesdropping charge that could change the course of the rest of his life.  His story stands as another chapter of controversy surrounding an eavesdropping law some experts have criticized as ripe for abuse and misapplication.  On Feb. 16, 2018, Boron was called to the principal's office at Manteno Middle School after failing to attend a number of detentions.  Before meeting Principal David Conrad and Assistant Principal Nathan Short, he began recording audio on his cellphone.

Amarillo Man Arrested for Clapping.  Let it be known that clapping is not allowed at Amarillo City Council meetings.  Just ask Kip Billups, who was arrested Tuesday [4/3/2018] at the request of Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson after applauding a speaker during open forum.  Ironically, the arrest was made in an attempt to create a "less intimidating" environment during city council meetings.  "We are not going to clap," Nelson said at the beginning of the meeting.  "I want to make sure that we create an environment that's not intimidating for folks ... If that's not something you can abide by that's fine, you can leave now."  Billups, along with other attendees, applauded in response to public comments made by resident Michael Greene, who expressed grievances with the city council's conduct.  Of those grievances, Greene noted city council's repeated violations of the Open Meetings Act as well as Nelson's "clapping ban" infringing on First Amendment rights.

Amarillo man involved in the "clapping controversy" explains his applause.  Applause is used to express approval, but clapping got one Amarillo man in trouble with the law.  He spoke exclusively with ABC 7 News about the incident at Amarillo city council Tuesday night [4/3/2018].  "You can all clap if you want," said Mayor Ginger Nelson.  It was a statement followed by applause after the Amarillo city council issued a proclamation on child abuse awareness.  Minutes later that changed during public comment.  "We are not going to clap," said Nelson.  She followed that statement with a loud bang of her gavel.

'We are not going to clap' at council meetings, mayor said.  One guy even got arrested.  Clapping may be commonplace at council meetings when officials give out keys to the city or other grip-and-grin awards, but let it be known, there is to be no applause during the public comment portion of City Council meetings in Amarillo, Texas.  You might even be arrested for it, as was Kip Billups, a local homeless advocate, according to the Amarillo Globe-News.

Woman, 27, is arrested in Georgia for driving with a Canadian license after she was unable to show the police officer her original passport.  A Canadian woman was reportedly arrested in Georgia last month because she was driving with a Canadian license.  Emily Nield, of Ontario, said the arrest 'was the most horrendous incident of my life'.  'It was mortifying.  I was terrified the entire time,' she told CBC.  Nield, 27, who was charged with driving without a license, was traveling from Tennessee where she had just finished her master's degree in geology.

Driver in Virginia Beach given $100 ticket for smoking in a vehicle with a child.  A person in Virginia Beach has been ticketed $100 for allegedly smoking with a child in the car with them.  According to the citation, which was tweeted out by Virginia Beach Police Department Traffic Safety, the violation happened on Monday [5/7/2018] around 8:30 a.m.  The official charge on the citation was smoking in a vehicle with a minor present.

A deputy sheriff came to inventory family's property — over a $160 trash bill.  Joe Kirby was at work in Maryland when he got the phone call.  He drove back to his Pennsylvania home, texting his boss that there was an emergency.  His wife, Christina, was hysterical.  There was a member of the York County Sheriff's Office going through every room of their house, taking inventory of their property to eventually put up for sale.  The deputy sheriff told her he'd already done it with the cars in the driveway:  a 2002 BMW 3 Series and 2007 Volkswagen GTI.  It was over their unpaid trash bill to Penn Waste.

What good are police?  Police have morphed from the quaint notion that they were once "peace officers" into the reality that they are "law enforcers." But as the late columnist William Norman Grigg pointed out, policing was militarized from the start.  LEOs see it as their job to "enforce" the law no matter what it takes, no matter how ridiculous the law may be or even regardless of whether the law actually exists.  Most of the laws they enforce are victimless crimes (traffic laws, pedestrian laws, gun possession, prostitution, drug use, etc.) with laws forbidding those acts created to serve as revenue streams for local government and/or to steal the people's liberties.  If there's no actual law to enforce, police often make one or more up out of thin air, claiming that innocuous activities like watching or videotaping police activities — including arrests on public streets, walking in certain neighborhoods, parking on certain streets and putting trash in trash cans — are crimes.

Bill would charge owners of wandering chickens with trespassing.  The New Hampshire Legislature is considering a bill that would make trespassing fowl a violation, not for the chicken, but for its owners.  Under the proposal, anyone who knowingly, recklessly or negligently allows their domestic fowl to enter someone else's property without permission can be convicted of a violation if the birds damage crops or property.

Texas Tech student questioned by TSA for brandishing school's 'finger gun' salute.  Taking a semester off from Texas Tech University to help her family recover from Hurricane Harvey, Diana Durkin was thrilled to return to campus for her sophomore year.  But ironically, it was her enthusiasm that nearly halted her plans when she was stopped by the TSA before a Jan. 6 flight out of William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

The 10 Worst Helicopter Parenting Moments of 2017.  An Omaha woman taking her niece out of an SUV when the wind blew the door shut and the car locked with her keys and the child inside.  The mom, the aunt and two other relatives tried frantically to open the door using a hanger and screwdriver, and when they couldn't, they called 911.  The cops arrived, broke the window, and got the child out, safe and sound.  Then ticketed mom on "suspicion of child abuse by neglect."

Woman faces criminal charges for rescuing starving dog.  A dog rescued in Scioto County was so emaciated, an official said it lost half of its body weight.  That official, Rhonda Rose from the Scioto Area Humane Society, said she rescued the dog at the last minute, only to be charged with two crimes.  Rose works as the Treasurer of the Humane Society.  She has been charged with criminal trespass and petty theft after rescuing the dog.

Good samaritan could face charges for trying to help rescue child from burning truck.  An Idaho woman who acted as a good Samaritan when a child was stuck inside a burning truck could face charges — all over a fire extinguisher.  "I'm in absolute shock," said Tequila Isaacson who jumped in to help when the pickup truck went up in flames.

Food Truck Giving Free Food to Hurricane Workers, Kicked Out of Town for Not Having a Permit.  After Irma devastated Florida, most restaurants and stores were shut down in certain areas.  Green Cove Springs was one of those places.  So, when Jack Roundtree, owner of the Triple J BBQ food truck, arrived in town, not only was he welcomed with open arms — he was desperately needed.  As he sold BBQ to paying customers, Roundtree used the extra money to feed utility workers for free for all their hard work.  However, once officials saw a man who'd dare sell food in their town without paying them first, police were called in to make quick work of this entrepreneurial good samaritan.

Now, bringing an American flag to Arlington Cemetery can get you one year in jail.  Current law does not permit people to bring American flags to grave sites after Congress passed legislation following protests from the Westboro Baptist Church at service members funerals, The Washington Post reported Tuesday [7/4/2017].  Former Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers helped pass the Respect For America's Fallen Heroes Act in 2006, making it illegal to protest funerals within 300 feet of a cemetery.  The legislation had the unintended consequence of barring the bringing of "any placard, banner, flag, or similar device."  Flags are permitted, however, if they are "part of a funeral, memorial service, or ceremony."  Violating the law can bring penalties of up to a year in jail.

People's Cube Artist Faces 5 Years in Prison for Hanging Up Anti-Terror Posters at GMU.  The artistic genius behind the highly acclaimed conservative satirical site The People's Cube has been arrested and released on $8,000 bail for putting up pro-Israel posters to combat a pro-Islamist conference at George Mason University.  He now faces the prospect of five years in prison for allegedly committing a "class 6 felony."  Beloved satirist Oleg Atbashian (who has contributed to PJ Media) has gotten in trouble for defying authorities before:  "Back in my Soviet dissident days, when I was collecting signatures in defense of Andrei Sakharov, I was screamed at, threatened, and lectured by the KGB and Communist functionaries," Oleg says.  "What I never imagined was that in the United States, the land of the free, I would not only be subjected to similar treatment, but go to jail."

Who Knew It Was A Crime To Hang Anti-Terrorism Posters?  My friend and compatriot Oleg Atbashian found that out the hard way.  Imagine my surprise this morning to find out he had been roughed up and arrested in Fairfax, Virginia.  His crime was hanging anti-terrorism posters on the university campus.  Oh, and bonus... he wasn't even read his rights.

Cop shoots driver — Justified?  You be the judge.  These incidents pretty much all seem avoidable.  Blacks seem to want to run, even from a ticket.  This infraction was "Driving While Dangling Your Handicap Sticker."

Prosecutors Gone Wild?  IHOP Employee Actually Arrested For Giving Away Too Many Free Drinks.  The gig is up for a 27-year-old man accused of giving away $3,000 worth of free drinks at a Downtown Brooklyn IHOP.  William F. Powell, was arrested after Akrell Cox, the owner of the IHOP, grew suspicious of Powell's dismal beverage sales.  "I am the modern day Robin Hood," Powell told investigators after he was caught.  "I am not stealing, I am serving the ones in need, I take from the rich and give to the poor," the former employee said, according to a criminal complaint.

Single Mom Faces Jail Time After Participating in Facebook Food Group.  A Stockton woman faces an impending trial and potential jail time after she joined a social media community food group, and sold some of the meals she cooked, which county San Joaquin County officials say is against the law.  Mariza Reulas was cited by San Joaquin County for selling an illegal substance, but it wasn't a powder, a pill or a plant.  It was her bowl of homemade ceviche.  "It was just like unreal that they were saying you could face up to a year in jail," said Reulas.

Florida man behind bars for having a milk crate.  The crate was attached to a bicycle that Timothy Troller was riding when he was stopped in Auburndale Thursday night [10/6/2016] by a deputy with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, WFLA-TV reports.  Troller was arrested and charged with possession of a dairy crate, a misdemeanor, the station reported Friday.  As of Saturday the 34-year-old man was still being held at the Polk County Jail.  Troller's grandfather Edward Hale told the station he didn't know having a milk crate was a crime.  "I never heard of it," he said.  "This is the first time ever.  He didn't know it was against the law or he wouldn't have put it on the front of the bicycle and rode up and down the road."

What a Middle Schooler's Arrest for Stealing 65-Cent Carton of Milk Says About America's Justice System.  Teenager Ryan Turk faces criminal charges for disorderly conduct and petit larceny for allegedly stealing a 65 cent carton of milk from his middle school cafeteria in Virginia.  That's right, the criminal justice system is utilizing the time, expense, and effort needed to adjudicate a criminal matter in a dispute over a carton of milk.  The mere fact that an eighth-grader can face a criminal charge for such a minor transgression points to a failed exercise of discretion by both the school administration and the law enforcement official involved in this incident, which can be a significant contributor to overcriminalization — the misuse of criminal laws and penalties to try to solve every problem and punish every mistake.

Ohio Man Acquitted For Making Parody Police Department Facebook Page that Led to SWAT Raid.  An Ohio man facing criminal charges for making a satire Facebook page mocking the Parma Police Department got the last laugh last week after he was acquitted by a jury that unanimously decided the page did not violate the state's felony disrupting public services law.  Anthony Novak made international headlines after he created the satire page on March 2 and posted jokes like suggesting helping the homeless was illegal for three months, encouraging minorities not to apply to the department and announcing a police-sponsored 'Pedophile Reform' event that offered sex offenders a chance to become an "honorary police officer of the Parma Police Department."

Vietnam Vet Arrested for Hanging US Flag Upside Down to Protest Eminent Domain.  Homer Martz is a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran who's never committed a crime.  He is so dedicated to protecting and practicing his rights that he stood up for the rights of people to protest the Vietnam war — even after they spat on him.  So, when Homer Martz is arrested for do nothing other than practicing the very rights he stands to protect, and the flag that ostensibly represents them — something has gone awry.  Last week Martz attempted to practice the very rights that the United States government claims its military protects, and for this, he was arrested.

Cops Force Activist to Stop Cleaning Up Neighborhood Trash Left To Rot by City.  Government intrusion into the lives of private citizens knows no bounds.  Reports of citizens living off the grid, camping on their own land, and collecting rainwater, for example, have pushed local and state governments to write, rewrite and re-interpret laws to punish those who have sought to diminish dependence on the existing social hierarchy and seize control of their own lives.  Yet another example comes from the city of Fairfield, Alabama, where local activist Mercutio Southall Sr. — whom readers might remember as the first in a long line of people of color none too gently escorted from Trump rallies across the nation — stepped out onto the streets of Fairfield to visit family and noticed garbage was piling up.  House after house had rotting piles of garbage possibly infested with rats, roaches, ants, and maggots in residential neighborhoods throughout the city.

13-Year-Old Strip Searched Then Thrown in Jail for Burping in Class.  Because of his loud burps, his teacher, Margaret Mines-Hornbeck, reported the boy to Officer Arthur Acosta.  The seventh grader was then taken to an administrative office after being searched for drugs, as the assistant principal accused the 13-year-old of participating in a marijuana transaction.  During the search, the boy was asked to remove his jeans and shoes, then flip the waistband of the shorts he had been wearing underneath.  This was all in vain considering no drugs were found.  After the traumatizing experience, the boy was suspended for the remainder of the year, all because he burped too loud.  But sure enough, that wasn't the end of it.

Court rules for middle school, officer in teen's burp arrest.  A federal appeals court has upheld the petty misdemeanor arrest of an Albuquerque student accused of repeatedly disrupting his middle-school class with loud burps [8/1/2016].

Michigan Family Arrested for Overdue Library Book.  After receiving four notices from the library asking them to return the books and pay the resulting late fees, the Duren family did indeed return The Rome Prophecy.  However, they did not return A Hatful of Seuss, as their son had lost it.  Because the Durens did not return the Dr. Seuss book, the library contacted the Economic Crimes Unit (ECU) of the Lenawee County Prosecutor's Office.  A detective by the name of Robert Kellogg became involved, demanding the family pay the library late fees; the amount owed has not been disclosed.  However, local reporting by The Tecumseh Herald found that between 2013 and 2014, library patrons had a total of 248 overdue items, and those overdue items generated $3,061 in late fees.  That equals, on average, around $12 in fees per item.  The actual amount the Durens owed to the library remains unknown, but the Dr. Seuss book can be acquired on Amazon for as little as 63 cents.

Man Asks Girls If They Are Selling Girl Scout Cookies.  It Was Plausible.  Cops Were Called.  Let's hear it for the Caledonia, Wisconsin police, who are alerting neighbors in the proximity of something truly terrifying:  A man who spoke to two girls without getting out of his car.  Perhaps the best thing about this story is the headline, from WDJT in Milwaukee:  "Potentially Suspicious Man Asks Girls about Buying Girl Scout Cookies.  Is "potentially suspicious" even a thing?  Aren't we all potentially suspicious?

Parents to face charges if they approach school to pick up child under new policy.  Texas parents have had enough of an elementary school's new pick up policy that reportedly could have them face trespassing charges if they try to get their child after the school day is over.  Bear Branch Elementary in Magnolia implemented the policy at the beginning of the school year.  Under the new rules, if a student does not take the bus, parents must wait in the mile-long car pick up line to get their child, according to Fox 26 Houston.  Now, some parents have pulled their kids from the school.  "She's threatening to arrest people," Wendy Jarman said about Principal Holly Ray to the Fox station.

School's new policy bans parents from walking children to school.  Pick your child up from school and you could be charged with trespassing.  That's the threat against parents at Bear Branch Elementary School in Magnolia ISD.  This is the school's tactic to keep parents who live close to the school from walking on school grounds.  Bear Branch is losing students over this pick up policy, that's been in place since the beginning of this school year.  The principal has decided that no matter how close the student lives to the school, the student must either take the bus, or the parent must wait in a long car pickup line.  Try to walk your student off the campus and you could face criminal charges.

The Editor says...
No matter how close you live, you can't walk to that school.  Is the school not on public property?  Can pedestrians with no connection to the school walk by?  Why are the schools centrally located in neighborhoods if the kids can't go there on foot?  And aren't these the same nanny-state bureaucrats who preach about childhood obesity?  Maybe walking to school would be good for them.  And if walking to school is prohibited, what does the parent do who does not own a car, or the car's in the repair shop?

Ohio Cops Think This Guy Should Go to Jail for Making Fun of Them.  Anthony Novak's parody of the Parma Police Department's Facebook page included what the Cleveland Plain Dealer describes as "obviously fake news posts," but this is not one of them:  The Parma Police Department wants to charge the 27-year-old with a felony for creating the page.  The felony, disrupting public services, is punishable by up to 18 months in prison — a pretty steep penalty for irking local police officials.  "We believe the material that Novak posted on the fake account crossed the line from satire to an actual risk to public safety," Lt. Kevin Riley told The Plain Dealer.  "We presented the facts of this case and the investigation to our law department, and they agreed that Novak's actions were criminal in nature."  It is hard to see how.  Novak's page is no longer online, but there is nothing in The Plain Dealer's description of of it that sounds like a crime.

Charleston's storied history is off-limits to the unlicensed.  [Scroll down]  And of course there's more antebellum mansions than you can shake a stick at.  And if I were telling you all of this while standing on a street in Charleston, there's at least a small chance I'd be arrested for doing it.  That's because anyone who wants to talk about Charleston's history must first obtain a license from the city.  Getting that license means passing a 200-question written exam — a passing grade is 80 percent or higher — and then passing an oral exam conducted by taxpayer-funded city officials.  To pass both exams, would-be tour guides have to memorize pretty much the entire history of Charleston.

In advance of big storm, New Jersey lifts licensing laws for shoveling snow.  Just days ahead of an expected blizzard on the East Coast, New Jersey has officially repealed a nonsensical rule banning the shoveling of snow without a license.  Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed a bill making it legal for New Jersey residents to offer snow shoveling services without first registering with their town.  Last year, two entrepreneurial teens going door-to-door and offering to shovel snow for a small fee were stopped by local police in Bound Brook.

Man charged with felony for passing out jury rights fliers in front of courthouse.  A Mecosta man is charged with a felony for obstruction of justice and misdemeanor of tampering with a jury for passing out fliers about jury nullification rights on the sidewalk of the Mecosta County courthouse.  Keith Wood, 39, faces these charges after handing out about 50 fliers on Nov. 24, which the Fully Informed Jury Association wrote, that describe juror rights that are typically not given by judges during jury instructions before a trial.

Florida Woman Arrested, Accused of Riding Sea Turtle.  Multiple media outlets report that 20-year-old Stephanie Marie Moore was arrested by Melbourne police early Saturday [9/26/2015] on the felony charge of trying to "possess, sell, molest marine turtle."

Student Arrested For 'Impeach Obama' Sign Sues the Police.  I live on Long Island and am fairly sure no one ever got arrested for hanging an "Impeach Bush" sign anywhere, which there were a lot of. [...] The judge tossed the charges against him because it was a violation of his free speech.

Marine Vet Charged for Painting Picnic Table.  Charges are expected to be dropped against a disabled Marine veteran who painted a deteriorating picnic table at his Virginia apartment complex.  Mickey Triplett was charged with destruction of property for painting a picnic table at the Potomac Ridge Apartments.

Woman who lifted baton during fatal Los Angeles police shooting could receive long prison term.  An officer dropped a nightstick during a struggle with a homeless man who was shot to death by police on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and the woman who picked it up now faces an assault charge that could send her to prison for 25 years to life.

The Editor says...
Stealing a nightstick is a serious offense — but not serious enough to send someone to the penitentiary.

Woman Jailed For Not Renewing Dog License.  This is just stupid.  I can see charging her a fine for being late with getting the dog license, but this is way out of line.  She is 3½ months late on renewing the dog license, gets repeated calls, emails and threats on it, with the last one being a threat of a warrant being issued.  She renewed the license and went down the next day to prove it.  Instead of accepting the proof, they left her 14 year-old daughter in the car, frisked her, printed her and threw her in jail.

Since when are offensive signs illegal?
Colorado Springs man arrested on suspicion of posting offensive signs.  A 44-year-old man was arrested Tuesday [6/30/2015] on suspicion of posting offensive signs in the city, Colorado Springs police said.  Vincent Broughton of Colorado Springs is accused of posting signs near a church at the 200 block of East Platte Avenue earlier this month, according to a police news release. [...] One said "Black men be aware, you are the target."

Black Suspect Arrested After Racist Message Discovered Outside Predominately Black Church.  A Colorado Springs man was arrested after police believe he left racist messages outside a church.  Vincent Broughton, 44, who is black, is facing charges for committed a bias-motivated crime and disorderly conduct.

Florida Town to Make it Illegal for Homeowners to Back Into Own Driveway So it's Easier for City to Fine Them.  The city bosses in Jacksonville, Florida are floating a new ordinance that would make it illegal for homeowners to park their cars with the front end pointing toward the street.  The new rule is meant to help city cops and government officials to more easily fine homeowners if they have a disabled car on their property.

Federal Court Says It's 100% Legal To Give Cops The Finger.  It's now perfectly legal to flip off a cop.  A police officer can't simply pull you over because you gave them the "finger," according to a federal appeals court ruling from 2013.

State Rep Wants to Make it Illegal to Taunt Police.  Before he was elected to the House in 2009, Democratic Pennsylvania State Representative Dom Costa was the Chief of Police in Pittsburgh.  In total, he spent nearly three decades as a member of the force. He was even shot in the line of duty in 2002.  He is no stranger to what police have to go through on a daily basis.  He knows that it's one of the toughest jobs there is.  But it's more than a little troubling that Costa wants to take a permanent marker to the Constitution, drawing a big old line through that little thing we like to call the First Amendment.  You see, Costa has decided that it should be against the law to taunt a police officer.  Yes, taunt.

Let 'free range' kids roam home.  Two Sundays ago, Danielle and Alexander Meitiv of Montgomery County, Md., got a call from Child Protective Services.  Police had taken their two children, ages 10 and 6, into custody three hours earlier and were holding them at the crisis center.  Had the children been abused?  No.  Were they lost?  No.  So what prompted this extraordinary intervention?  A concerned pedestrian had seen the children walking alone and called 911.  It was the second time in four months that the Meitivs' children were reported to authorities as they walked home from parks about a mile away.

'Free range kids' and the dangers of an overprotective society.  [Scroll down]  In Sunday's event, the police lured the children into their car by telling them they would take them home from the park.  Instead, they were, in their mother's words, "confined to the back of a police car for almost three hours without any explanation of why they were being detained."  They were not fed and were unable to call or speak with their parents who were growing frantic with worry.

'Free-range' kids and our parenting police state.  They were coming home from a park, on this gorgeous, blossoming weekend, after playing.  And for this, a 10-year-old and his 6-year-old sister ended up in the back of a squad car.  Again.  For hours this time.  In the bizarre nationwide culture war over how much freedom children should have to play outside alone, the youngest combatants — Rafi and Dvora Meitiv — are the ones being damaged the most.  This is getting pretty ridiculous.  Somehow we've morphed from being a village that helps raise children to a parenting police state.

'Free-Range' Parents Will Sue CPS for Grabbing Their Kids.  The Meitivs are lawyering up, and will file some kind of lawsuit against Montgomery County, Maryland, officials who took their children while the youngsters were walking outside by themselves. [...] Aren't prisoners allowed one phone call, or is that just on TV?  Because the Meitiv kids weren't able to contact their parents in the six hours they were held by the authorities.

You are probably breaking the law right now.  If you walk down the sidewalk, pick up a pretty feather, and take it home, you could be a felon — if it happens to be a bald eagle feather.  Bald eagles are plentiful now, and were taken off the endangered species list years ago, but the federal law making possession of them a crime for most people is still on the books, and federal agents are even infiltrating some Native-American powwows in order to find and arrest people.  (And feathers from lesser-known birds, like the red-tailed hawk are also covered).  Other examples abound, from getting lost in a storm and snowmobiling on the wrong bit of federal land, to diverting storm sewer water around a building.

Atlanta-area garbage collector jailed for going to work too early: 7 Online.  A sanitation worker in an Atlanta suburb is behind bars for getting to work too early.  Kevin McGill was sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating a Sandy Springs ordinance that says workers can only haul trash between the hours of 7am and 7pm.  McGill was cited for picking up the trash just after 5am one morning.

72-Year-Old-Man Facing 10 Years In Prison Over Antique Pistol.  Gordon van Gilder, a retired teacher and self-proclaimed history buff, is facing 10 years in prison and the loss of his pension over his possession of an unloaded antique flintlock pistol.  The day after van Gilder told a deputy during a routine traffic stop about his antique gun, four law enforcement officers showed up at his house to arrest him, because New Jersey state law classifies antique firearms the same way it classifies regular guns.

New Jersey man facing ten years in prison for possession of 300 yr old flintlock pistol.  There's trouble brewing in New Jersey, as reported by our Townhall colleague Matt Vespa.  72 year old retired teacher Gordon VanGilder was arrested and now faces trial on weapons possession charges.  That's a sad, but not terribly unusual story in the Garden State which remains fairly unfriendly to Second Amendment rights.  What gives this story a seriously tragic twist is that the weapon VanGilder was "caught" with is nearly 300 years old.

When letting your kids out of your sight becomes a crime.  One recent Saturday afternoon, six police officers and five patrol cars came to my home in Silver Spring.  They demanded identification from my husband and entered our home despite not having a warrant to do so.  The reason for this show of force?  We had allowed our children to walk home from a neighborhood park by themselves.  A few hours later, a Montgomery County Child Protective Services (CPS) social worker coerced my husband into signing a "temporary safety plan" for our children by threatening to take the children "right now" — a threat she backed up with a call to the police.

NYPD Has a Plan to Magically Turn Anyone It Wants Into a Felon.  On Wednesday [2/4/2015], NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton urged state legislators to consider increasing the penalty for resisting arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony.  The change, he argued, would help New Yorkers "get around this idea that you can resist arrest.  You can't."  It would also give cops an easy way to turn victims of their own worst impulses into the worst class of criminal.  In theory, a resisting arrest charge allows the state to further punish suspects who endanger the safety of police officers as they're being apprehended; in practice, it gives tautological justification to cops who enjoy roughing people up.

Police stop teens seeking snow shoveling work.  School was closed for the blizzard that wasn't, but there was still enough snow on the ground that two high school seniors thought they could make a few extra bucks.  In the process, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, both 18, also learned a valuable lesson about one of the costs of doing business:  government regulations.  The two friends were canvasing a neighborhood near this borough's border with Bridgewater early Monday evening, handing out fliers promoting their service, when they were pulled over by police and told to stop.

This is a lot like the zero-tolerance nonsense in the public schools.
Eagle-Eyed Detective Thwarts Inmate's Theft Of Jail Spork Valued At Two Cents.  After completing a jail sentence, a Florida woman left the Manatee County lockup last month with a smuggled memento of her time behind bars.  In a Facebook post, the woman wrote, "just a pic of a souvenir I picked up on my 6 month vacation."  Next to that caption was a photo of a spork, the spoon/fork hybrid used by inmates during jail meals.  In a subsequent message, the inmate noted that, "it wasn't easy to get out with me... that's for sure!!!"  What the inmate, whose last name is Jones, did not anticipate was that her Facebook page was being monitored by Detective Todd Zink of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

George Zimmerman Police Report.  Apparently the Lake Mary Police Department made the decision to charge George Zimmerman despite the non-existence of an actual cooperating victim.  The LMPD went to rather extraordinary lengths in order to generate an arrest. [...] Six investigators, body cameras, squad car cameras, DVD's, neighbors questioned, and eight pages of investigative testimonials later — you discover the Lake Mary Police must have a lot of free time on their hands.

Tea Party mom wins lawsuit after being arrested for her beliefs.  The situation that landed 58-year-old Nancy Genovese in jail for four days in 2010 was subject to quite a bit of interpretation on the part of her arresting officer.  The Long Island native might have been taking a picture of a decorative helicopter in the hopes of using it as a feature on a "Support our Troops" website after leaving a rifle range with her legally owned and registered weapon.  Or she might have been taking surveillance photographs of the Gabreski Airport at the Westhampton Beach Air National Guard base with a deadly weapon in her car.  Guess which of these interpretations won the day?

Man From Fruitvale Arrested For Pointing Banana at Officer Bunch.  Nathen Channing, a 27-year-old resident of Fruitvale, Colorado, was taken into custody on Sunday night for pointing a banana at a pair of Mesa County Sheriff's deputies, both of whom initially believed the piece of fruit was a handgun.  The two involved Mesa County deputies were identified as Joshua Bunch and Donald Love, both of whom were identified as victims in the case against Channing, who was arrested on two counts of felony menacing.

Man arrested after pointing banana at police.  A man is facing a felony menacing charge, because two Colorado sheriff's deputies say they thought a banana he pointed at them was a gun. [...] According to an arrest affidavit, Mesa County deputies Joshua Bunch and Donald Love said Channing pointed the fruit at them while crossing a street.  The deputies said they feared for their lives even though they saw that the object was yellow.  Bunch wrote in the affidavit that he has seen handguns in many shapes and colors.

Jail Time for Feeding The Homeless?  Fort Lauderdale, Florida Police charged two pastors and a 90-year-old man, for feeding the homeless in public.  The charges were made on Sunday [11/2/2014], following a new ordinance effectively banning feeding the homeless in public that took effect Friday.

Is this the worst person in America?  Somewhere out there, possibly in Rockaway, N.J., is a person who enjoys making senior citizens suffer.  This hater of the aged decided to rain on their parade by reporting their 10-cent bingo game to the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs this past May, according to the Asbury Park Press.  But don't place all the blame on that Grinch.  For instead of laughing off the complaint — because come on, it's 10-cent bingo at a senior home — New Jersey's Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission made the decision to drop the hammer.

Nanny-State Mindset Leads to Police Brutality.  In Florida recently, police pulled up to a young boy playing in the park and asked where his mother lived.  According to a report on WPTV, the mom was then arrested for "allowing her son to go to the park alone."  Her son had a cellphone, and she would check in with him along the way.  The mom believes "he's old enough, but Port St. Lucie Police disagree."  There is a tendency to dismiss stories such as this as a silly mistake by an overzealous police officer, but sadly it's part of a larger problem.

Md. police investigate 'No undocumented Democrats' graffiti as hate crime.  Maryland state police are investigating as a hate crime graffiti that protested illegal immigration on the wall of a former Army Reserve Center that was mulled for use as a shelter for unaccompanied alien children.  "No illeagles [sic] here.  No undocumented Democrats," the graffiti said in capital letters, according to the Carroll County Times.  Lt. Patrick McCrory, commander of the state police Westminster barracks, said the message likely went up Saturday night or early Sunday [7/13/2014].  He said he considered the message to be a hate crime.  "This is definitely a racial, religious, ethnic incident," he told the paper.

The Black Market For Dinosaurs.  On the morning of October 17, 2012, a cadre of federal agents and sheriff's deputies in Gainesville, Florida, went to the home of a suspected fossil smuggler named Eric Prokopi and arrested him.  As I reported in The New Yorker in January, 2013, the case against Prokopi was unusual and aggressive:  it included several counts of felonious smuggling, and characterizations of the defendant as a "one-man black market."  Two months after his arrest, Prokopi pleaded guilty to smuggling the bones of a Tarbosaurus bataar, a Tyrannosaurus rex cousin that lived seventy million years ago in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, which prohibits the commercialization of natural history.

Texas man faces possible life sentence for selling pot brownies.  A couple of weeks ago, I put up a post about the absurd method in which the drug laws allow law enforcement officials to determine the quantity of an illicit drug for which a suspect can be charged.  The laws aren't written to punish offenders for the amount of a given drug they have made available to the public (or, put another way, for the amount of harm they have done).  They're written to inflict the maximum possible amount of punishment.

Diabetic pastor sues after being arrested, denied food and water for holding pro-life sign.  On March 30, 2011, Pastor Stephen Joiner was driving through the streets of Columbus, Mississippi, when he saw dozens of members of Pro-Life Mississippi peacefully holding signs supporting the unborn child's right to life.  He pulled over and learned they were trying to build support for the state's Personhood Amendment, which failed to pass the following November.  Joiner, the pastor of the city's Church of the Nazarene, supported the cause, so he picked up a sign and stood alongside them. [...] Joiner says that Police Captain Frederick Shelton told him to move, because he was blocking traffic, although he was several feet from the road.

Young children could face bullying charges in city.  The Carson City Council gave preliminary approval this week to an ordinance that would target anyone from kindergarten to age 25 who makes another person feel "terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested" with no legitimate purpose.

ACLU backs Nebraska man arrested for handing out religious fliers.  The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said Wednesday [4/16/2014] that Larry Ball was on a public sidewalk and exercising his First Amendment rights when he handed out the fliers.

Rappers selling CDs in Times Square file joint suits against city.  Eight rappers say the NYPD treats them differently than other vendors and argues that their music sales are protected free speech.  The most common charges are for disorderly conduct and aggressive begging, but the rappers say the allegations are phony and their cases are ultimately dismissed.

Austin Police Arrest Jogger Because She Couldn't Hear Them.  Austin, Texas, is supposed to be weird.  It is not supposed to be a police state. [...] Jaywalking is a class c misdemeanor, not typically an offense that leads to arrest.  Police say the jogger was arrested for failure to identify herself and for a traffic signal violation.  The arrest is under investigation.  Municipalities often use traffic violation citations to generate revenue.

Boy, 13, arrested for allegedly throwing snowball at cop.  A 13-year-old boy arrested for allegedly hitting a Chicago police officer with a snowball says he was wrongly picked out of a crowd of kids walking home from school.  And besides, he adds, the snowball didn't even hit the cop.  "It made me mad," said the eighth-grader, who is facing a felony charge of battery to a police officer.

Drivers ticketed for failing to clear snow off their vehicles under new 'ice missile' law.  A new law requiring motorists to remove snow and ice from their vehicles has become a new source of revenue for Connecticut.  State police are aggressively ticketing drivers who ignore the so-called 'ice missile' law.  Since the law took effect Jan. 1, state police have issued at least 230 tickets to truckers and motorists who were driving snow-covered vehicles.  At $120 per summons that amounts to $27,600 in tickets in a month and a half.  The fine is $75, plus $45 in various surcharges.

When you ask the police for help, the first thing they investigate is YOU.
South Carolina woman jailed after failing to return movie rented nine years ago.  A South Carolina scofflaw movie renter spent a night in jail this week after police busted her for failing to return a Jennifer Lopez movie she rented nine years ago.  WHNS reports the scenario unfolded after Kayla Michelle Finley went to the Pickens County Jail in the northwestern tip of the state Thursday [2/13/2014] to report an unspecified crime — but instead got charged with one, herself.

Woman jailed for not returning 2005 video rental.  Kayla Michelle Finley may be wishing that services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime had been around a little earlier.  The South Carolina woman spent a night in jail last week for failing to return a video she rented — in 2005.  It was a VHS tape.  Of a Jennifer Lopez movie.  Finley, 27, was arrested Thursday in Pickens County, South Carolina, on a misdemeanor charge of failure to return the video, according to CNN affiliate WYFF-TV.

Woman Says Duke Police Opened Investigation [of her] After She Called To Complain About Muslim Chant.  An Ohio woman who says she called Duke University — to speak her mind about a plan to allow a Muslim student group to issue a weekly call-to-prayer on campus — claims she was contacted by a member of the Duke University Police Department who said she was conducting an investigation about the phone call.  The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Pam, said she called the office of the Duke men's basketball team early Thursday [1/15/2015] after she read that the school was planning to allow the Muslim Students Association to chant a call-to-prayer, the "adhan," over a microphone from the Duke Chapel bell tower each Friday.

Man discovers it is illegal to wash his car in his own driveway.  A couple of friends cleaning up a car they had just purchased were threatened by the police for car washing in their own driveway.  The reach of the nanny state truly has no bounds when it comes to dictating what people must do on their own private property.

Electric car owner charged with stealing 5 cents worth of juice.  One Saturday in November, Kaveh Kamooneh drove his Nissan Leaf to Chamblee Middle School, where his 11-year-old son was playing tennis.  Kamooneh had taken the liberty of charging the electric car with an exterior outlet at the school.  Within minutes of plugging in the car, he says a Chamblee police officer appeared.  "He said that he was going to charge me with theft by taking because I was taking power, electricity from the school," Kamooneh said.  Kamooneh says he had charged his car for 20 minutes, drawing about a nickel's worth of juice.

City Shuts Down 11-Year-Old Selling Mistletoe to Fund Braces.  An 11-year-old Oregon girl who wanted to help her father pay for her braces by selling mistletoe over the holidays, found herself embroiled in city bureaucracy.  On Saturday, Madison Root went to the downtown market to sell fresh mistletoe she cut and wrapped herself from her uncle's farm in Oregon.  She told KATU News, "I felt like I could help my dad with the money."  However, a private security guard hired by Portland Saturday Market blocked her path to a straighter smile by telling her to stop selling the mistletoe, citing city rules that ban conducting business or soliciting at a park without proper approval and documentation.

Orders for mistletoe pour in after Oregon girl told she can't sell them, but can beg for money at city park.  It appears the Oregon girl who was told she could not sell mistletoe in a public park, but could beg for money to pay for her braces, will be able to pay for dental work... and then some.  Hundreds of mistletoe orders have poured in after reports of 11-year-old Madison Root being told by a security guard that she cannot sell the item at a public park, but she could, if she wanted to, beg for money, KATU.com reported.

Georgia restaurant told to remove flags honoring USA, troops.  Three months ago, Miller put up the American flag, the Georgia state flag and banners for every branch of the military.  On Friday [11/15/2013], he was told they have to come down.  "I'm just floored," said Miller.  "And I called the guy and asked what they're for.  And he said I'm in violation with my flags flying above my restaurant."

Christianity Under Attack in America.  [Scroll down]  This prohibition against Christian religious practice is not limited to the military.  Police throughout the land also frequently come down hard against Christians.  In 2010, a group of students from the Arizona-based Wickenburg Christian Academy were ordered by a police officer to cease their quiet prayers on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.  The officer cited a statute that prohibits demonstrations on the steps, but no official policy bars prayer at that location.

Woman Forced To Strip And Serve Jail Time For Overdue Ticket.  A North Texas woman was handcuffed, stripped down and booked into jail — all because of an overdue traffic ticket.  It was just a ticket.  Sarah Boaz was cited in August after an officer said she ran a stop sign.

D.C. businessman faces two years in jail for unregistered ammunition, brass casing.  Mark Witaschek, a successful financial adviser with no criminal record, is facing two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition after D.C. police raided his house looking for guns.  Mr. Witaschek has never had a firearm in the city, but he is being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  The trial starts on Nov. 4.  The police banged on the front door of Mr. Witaschek's Georgetown home at 8:20 p.m. on July 7, 2012, to execute a search warrant for "firearms and ammunition ... gun cleaning equipment, holsters, bullet holders and ammunition receipts."

The Editor says...
When the cops start raiding houses looking for gun cleaning equipment, holsters and receipts, we are living in East Germany.

Viva the shutdown! Like Atlas Shrugged in reverse.  You or I might think one of the main points of sequestering a wilderness zone like Yellowstone Park would be so visitors could get more intimate with nature by skinny-dipping in a cooling stream, perhaps under the influence of alcoholic beverages.  But the park rules say no — and there's a whole army of uniformed government employees just itching to enforce them.  Is this really what government is for?  Really?

Park Service threatens to arrest WWII vets who try to visit their memorial.  So, you've heard the story today about the group of World War II veterans who had to break through barriers deliberately placed there by the Obama administration as part of its game-playing over the Democrat-forced government shutdown.  It's bad enough that they were deliberately inconveniencing 80-90 year old men who honorably served their country.  I thought that was pretty low.  And I was right, but I didn't think they could sink any lower.  Well, they did.

CO Rescue Pilot Issued Parking Ticket for His Helicopter.  So ridiculous it's funny... and sadly idiotic.

You step out of line, the man comes and takes you away.
Seattle cops to don opponents' jerseys.  The Seahawks announced Wednesday that undercover law-enforcement officers will wear opposing team jerseys at games this season in an effort to quickly detect fans exhibiting unruly and inconsiderate behavior.

This was either an act of nit-picking legalism or political activism:
Hidden camera catches culprit taking man's Second Amendment sign.  A New York man, frustrated when his pro-Second Amendment sign kept disappearing, was surprised when the hidden camera he set up revealed the culprit to be a local cop.  Jon Gibson, of rural Lake Lincolndale, about 50 miles north of New York City, told FoxNews.com he set up a hunting field camera near the sign, which reads "Protect the Second Amendment," and features the silhouette of an assault rifle, after two mysteriously vanished.  A third sign disappeared before the camera finally captured the sign stealer — a police officer from the nearby Somers Police Department.

Caught On Camera: Cop Kicks, Confiscates Pro-2nd Amendment Sign.  A police officer from Somers Police Department in New York has been caught kicking and then taking a pro-Second Amendment sign from the yard of Jon Gibson of Lake Lincolndale, New York.  Gibson's sign said, "Protect the Second Amendment," with a silhouette of an AR-15 across the top.

Every action requires a permit.
Police Stop Effort to Feed the Homeless.  In Raleigh, North Carolina the non-profit religious group, Love Wins Ministries, makes an effort to feed and help the homeless every Saturday and Sunday.  But this weekend was different.  The group was attempting to hand out coffee and sausage biscuits when the police officers arrived.

State Seizes Two-Year-Old Child From Parents Because They Smoked Pot, Child Dies in Foster Care.  Statistics on child abuse in foster care are, perhaps unsurprisingly, hard to come by, but children in foster care may be up to 10 times more likely to die than children in the care of their own parents; one estimate places the number of children who die in foster care in the US every year at about 1540.

Auburn cop fired for blowing the whistle on ticket, arrest quotas.  Do police officers write tickets because of quotas?  Most law-enforcement agencies will deny that any exist, but the police department in the college town of Auburn, Alabama will find that difficult.  One of their officers secretly recorded briefings in which quotas were explicitly demanded for traffic citations, arrests, and other "contacts," which if enforced would have meant nearly 1.5 police contacts per resident each year.

Man charged with Brandishing for putting gun away.  [Scroll down]  I grew up in a legal family, married a judge's daughter and have known dozens of judges both good and bad over the years.  I have never however, seen a judge behave as badly as the one in this case.  He simply did not want to hear any of the defense.

Free Justin Carter Now.  In the state of Texas, a 19-year-old man named Justin Carter sits in prison, ruthlessly stripped of his freedom for making an offensive joke. [...] For this he was arrested by Austin police, charged with making a "terroristic threat," and thrown into prison. He may languish there until the start of the next decade. [...] He's been incarcerated since March without trial.

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Exercise Their 1st Amendment Rights.  This last winter a Texas teenager, Justin Carter, made a very stupid and tasteless mistake. [...] Carter has been jailed on (an unaffordable) $500,000 bail since the late winter/early spring (accounts vary), through the spring and now well into the summer.  According to his parents (who claim that he is a danger to no one at all), he has been assaulted numerous times and is now in solitary confinement on suicide watch, stripped naked in a dimly lit cell with a hole in the ground.

Indiana man faces possible jail time for nursing bald eagle back to health.  This reminds me of a 2011 story in which an 11-year-old Virginia girl rescued a woodpecker from the family cat only to be approached by a Fish & Wildlife agent flanked by an armed state trooper informing them of a court date and a $500 fee.

When everything is a crime, government data mining matters.  Prosecutors have become kings, with the ability to find a crime committed by just about anyone.  Data mining and access to internet activity can help find terrorists, but it also can be used to find crimes which were not previously known to have been committed by political opponents.  A "find the target first, then find the crime" political approach requires access to information of an unprecedented level.  Which is exactly what is happening.

Philly Activists Arrested and Cuffed at Independence Hall for Handing Out Fliers.  Mark Passio wrote about his experience last Saturday [5/25/2013].

Yep, it's those last two bullets that'll really do some damage.
NY Man Arrested for Having Nine Bullets Instead of Seven Loaded in Gun.  Gregory D. Jean of New York was pulled over Sunday evening because the lamp over his license plate was not working.  He ended up arrested for violating the new NY SAFE Act.  The troopers saw Jean's .40 caliber pistol in the front seat and asked to inspect it.  The weapon is legally registered and possessed, but it contained nine bullets instead of the new legal amount of seven.

DA Refuses to Prosecute Man Arrested For Having Two Extra Bullets.  Gregory Dean Jr. was recently arrested — pulled over when authorities noticed a license plate lamp was out on his vehicle.  The lamp wasn't the problem, however.  Troopers noticed a handgun in the vehicle.  The weapon was legally registered to Dean, but upon further inspection, the gun was noted to have 9 rounds as opposed to 7 — a violation of the SAFE Act.  He was charged with 'Unlawful possession of certain ammunition feeding devices', and faced a possible 6 months in jail.  For two extra bullets.

Dad in New York Arrested For Letting His Daughter Play With Plastic Airsoft Gun in Park.  A father in New York City has been arrested on a host of charges after letting his daughter play with an Airsoft Gun in a park.  The father let the child fire a couple of plastic BBs at a tree and then carry the "gun" around the park.  The father was arraigned Thursday on charges including reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and violating city weapons laws.  The man was also charged with resisting arrest after he objected to the arrest.

Mother of 3-Year-Old Fined $2,500 for Toddler's "Public Urination".  A Piedmont [Oklahoma] police officer was fired for writing an excessively hefty fine for her three-year-old's "public urination" on the family's property.

The $4,000 Trash Can.  [Martha] Boneta, a Fauquier County farmer, hosted a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls — an occasion for which she lacked the proper "events permit."  For this, the county slammed her with a $5,000 fine.  She also got in hot water for selling items, such as yarn and birdhouses, that she had not made herself.

The Mayor of East St. Louis is the New Baby Sitter.  A new restriction passed by Mayor Alvin Parks of East St. Louis has enacted a new curfew and dress code for the city's youth.  Anyone under 18 that is caught out of class during school hours, outside after 10pm or out of the house or school anytime without a parent or guardian, they will be arrested.  Additionally, the mayor decided that youth should also be prohibited from wearing any blue or red.

'Overcriminalization' Making Us a Nation of Felons?  Critics argue there are so many new laws, rules, and regulations that it's all too easy to violate one of these laws and never know you did it.  Take, for example, Texas retiree George Norris and his wife, Kathy:  federal agents raided and ransacked their Texas home in 2003.  Originally, the indictment against them was sealed, so they weren't even told why they were targeted at first. [...] George wound up serving nearly two years in federal prison alongside killers, rapists, and other hardened criminals.  What was his crime?  A paperwork violation related to flowers in his backyard nursery:  buying, importing, and selling perfectly legal orchids.

The Environmentalists' Police and Welfare States.  The story about the abuses by Fauquier County against Martha Boneta, the farmer, of pitchfork protest fame, just gets creepier and creepier.

Duncan, South Carolina Police Ticket Parents for Cheering During High School Graduation.  [In Duncan, South Carolina,] it's against the law to cheer for your kid during the graduation ceremonies.  In the past, parents and relatives who cheered were escorted by cops from the stadiums.  But Duncan residents went civil disobedience in response, standing to cheer and then simply leaving the stadium on their own. [...] This year, the cops busted 13 parents for nefarious cheering.

The Nanny State Meets the Quota Cops.  Here's the kind of story that makes me fear for the future of the nation.  It is a disturbing example of both government stupidity and soft tyranny.

Pitchfork Protest Farmer Confronts Government Corruption and Retribution.  American Thinker was the first to report about how Fauquier County, Virginia attempted to fine farmer Martha Boneta for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a special events permit.

I'll bet they wouldn't have stopped a Muslim from doing the same thing.
City tells woman she can't pass out free water in 112-degree heat.  The city of Phoenix is facing a possible lawsuit after a woman claimed a city worker told her she could not pass out free water in the Arizona heat without a permit.  Dana Crow-Smith tells ABC 15 she was passing out water bottles in the 112-degree heat along with others in an attempt to share their Christian beliefs with people attending a festival downtown last month, when a city worker ordered them to stop.  She said the worker told the group they would be cited if they continued passing out the water because they did not have a permit.

Connecticut town threatens to take overgrown pet bunny from girl, 7.  A 7-year-old Connecticut girl will lose her 20-pound pet rabbit if North Haven officials get their way.  Zoning Enforcement Officer Arthur Hausman issued a cease-and-desist order to the Lidsky family two weeks ago, informing them that they were violating town zoning regulations because their property was smaller than the 2 acres required to keep rabbits and other types of livestock.

The Editor says...
The city government thinks a rabbit needs two acres of land?  Really?  Who has two acres or more in Connecticut?

Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail — for Collecting Rainwater on His Property.  Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Oregon, says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called "three illegal reservoirs" on his property — and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.

NJ dad saves 5-year-old, car plunges over cliff, dad gets traffic tickets.  Some stories so teem with action that they create a nightmare for headline writers.  This one not only teems with action but has a galling anticlimax.

Business Owner Threatened with Jail Time for Flying American Flag.  A Georgia man was slapped with a ticket and threatened with jail time after he refused to remove an American flag that's been flying outside his business for more than thirty years.  An Albany code enforcement officer alleged that Tom Gieryic's flag was in violation of the city's sign ordinance.  The standard size American flag was posted on a pole outside Gieryic's automotive repair shop.

Choc and Awe.  I am looking this bright Easter morn at a Department of Homeland Security "Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence".  Late last night, crossing the Quebec/Vermont border, my children had two boxes of "Kinder Eggs" ("Est. Dom. Value $7.50?) confiscated by Customs & Border Protection.  Don't worry, it's for their own safety.

Woman cuffed for not holding escalator handrail.  Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen — and likely ignored — little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.  In Montreal's subway system, the friendly advice seems to have taken on the force of law, backed by a $100 fine.  Bela Kosoian, a 38-year-old mother of two, says when she didn't hold the handrail Wednesday [5/13/2009] she was cuffed, dragged into a small holding cell and fined.

D.C. Cops Throw Drivers in Jail for Expired Tags.  In a city that hosts its fair share of murders and terror plots, Washington, D.C., police are cracking down on another threat to the nation's capital — expired vehicle registrations.  To the frustration of forgetful drivers, Metropolitan Police Department officers are throwing people in jail for letting their tag renewals lapse.

Vertical tag law costs unsuspecting biker.  Antonio Gonzales rode his customized Harley-Davidson from New Mexico to Bike Week, and then his wallet got a painful welcome from a Flagler Beach police officer — a $1,151 citation for having his bike's license plate mounted vertically on a saddle bag.  "I rode all the way out here and all I have is 700 bucks," Gonzales said.  "Then I get a $1,151 ticket."  Many bikers who ride customized motorcycles mount their plates vertically.

Girl, 10, Arrested for Using Knife to Cut Food at School.  A 10-year-old Florida girl faces felony weapons charges after bringing a small steak knife to school to cut up her lunch, according to a report on MyFOXOrlando.com.  School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and a four and a half inch steak knife with which to cut it.  According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county's juvenile assessment center.

Many more stories like this are on the Zero Tolerance Page.

Topeka Cracks Down On Unlicensed Bicycles.  Topeka police are warning local bicycle owners they could face up to $76 in fines and court costs if they're caught pedaling unlicensed bikes.  Already this year 27 cyclists have received citations that include a $10 fine plus $66 court costs for riding unlicensed bikes.

Police in Laramie, Wyo., Cite Teen Girls Who Threw French Fries for 'Hurling Missiles'.  Three 13-year-old girls accused of throwing french fries during lunchtime at their school were cited for "hurling missiles," an adult infraction covered by city ordinances.

Woman Arrested for Dancing at the Jefferson Memorial.  At 11:59, just four minutes after the event's start, U.S. Park Police had detained and were handcuffing the aforementioned "Jefferson 1" … ostensibly for unauthorized dancing.  Or, as former Bureaucrash chief Jason Talley puts it, "One minute I'm taking video of people celebrating the freedoms etched in the walls surrounding us, the next we see armed agents of the state putting chains on a friend of ours."

Woman cuffed, booked for not paying library fines.  A Wisconsin woman has been arrested and booked for failing to pay her library fines.  Twenty-year-old Heidi Dalibor told the News Graphic in Cedarburg that she ignored the library's calls and letters as well as a notice to appear in court.  Still, she was surprised when officers with a warrant knocked on her door, cuffed her and took her to the police station to be fingerprinted and photographed.

The U.S. police state:  Attorney Russ Stein details his arrest for "idling."  You have to read it to believe it.

Subway Rider Busted for Selling a Token.  Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine.  Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker … acknowledged that [Donald] Pirone sold the token at face value and did not make a profit.  But the law is the law, she said.

A similar but different case:
Just for a nickel token.  Because Mrs. Romanski picked up an abandoned token, she was surrounded, arrested and led to a security office.  There the guards stole her orphaned nickel.  They refused to let her use a restroom by herself.  They prevented her from having lunch with her friends.  Finally they threw her out of the casino.

Police Arrest NH Man For Giving a Manicure Without a License.  A self-proclaimed manicurist decided to open for business in Concord [NH] on Monday [5/9/2005] without the state's approval, attacking state licensing laws with a nail file.  Michael Fisher, 23, of Newmarket, N.H., was arrested and charged with violating the state's license law.  He said he organized the protest to call attention to what he said are needless obstacles facing small businesses in the state. … The manicure performed without a license was undertaken right outside the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics office.

HPD still issuing tickets for license plate borders.  "It was never the intention of the Legislature for people to be receiving traffic citations for having license brackets," said state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, who sponsored the bill.  "It's clearly out of bounds for them to be issuing tickets now." ... The [Houston police] department's most prolific officer, Matthew Davis, issued at least 1,216 license bracket tickets since January.  He wrote 30 in one day in February and has issued more than 200 since [Governor] Perry signed Williams' bill.

$185 fine for dropping sunflower seed.  It could be called a case for the birds, but an Oklahoma woman is crying fowl over a $185 fine for dropping a sunflower seed in public.

Boston transit police begin passenger ID stops.  Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce identification and be questioned about their activities.

It's illegal to recite the Gettysburg Address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  It is illegal to deliver the Gettysburg Address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial without permission from the U.S. National Park Service.  On President's Day — standing where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech" — Phillip Howell, 25, recited Lincoln's famous address and was quickly stopped by a Park Police officer.  He told Howell that he could not give speeches on the steps of the memorial without a permit.

Woman Ticketed for Sitting on a Playground Bench with No Kids.  The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. … [The ticket] could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail.

What ever happened to respecting our elders?  An 82-year-old California woman says an officer cited her for taking too long to cross an intersection.  Mayvis Coyle insists when she entered the crosswalk the signal was green, but it turned red before she reached the other side where an officer was waiting with a $114 ticket.  "He treated me like a six year old, like I don't know what I'm doing," Coyle said.

Woman arrested over 96 cents.  A Mansfield, Ohio, woman was arrested and jailed for failure to file a 2001 city income tax bill totaling 96 cents … [after] she explained the situation to a city employee who told her not to bother with the trifling amount.

Handicap permit should let a man sit.  Arthur doesn't want me to tell you his last name because he'd rather not get on the bad side of the police. … His wife walks into the store to shop.  Arthur likes to wait in the car.  "I can't follow her around for an hour and a half," he tells me.  They've been doing it this way the past year and a half … This worked out fine until the other day when a community service officer working for the Cudahy Police Department leaned in Arthur's open window and told him it was not legal for him to sit in the car and wait like that.

In a police state, everyone is a criminal suspect.
Guards make woman remove bra that triggered metal detector at Idaho courthouse.  Security guards refused to allow a woman into a federal courthouse in Idaho until she removed a bra that triggered a metal detector.  Lori Plato says she and her husband, Owen Plato, were stunned when U-S Marshals Service employees asked her to remove her bra after the underwire supports set off the alarm.

Criminal barbering?  Raids at Orange County shops lead to arrests.  As many as 14 armed Orange County deputies, including narcotics agents, stormed Strictly Skillz barbershop during business hours on a Saturday in August, handcuffing barbers in front of customers during a busy back-to-school weekend. ... In "sweeps" on Aug. 21 and Sept. 17 targeting at least nine shops, deputies arrested 37 people — the majority charged with "barbering without a license," a misdemeanor that state records show only three other people have been jailed in Florida in the past 10 years.

Pennsylvania Woman Cited for Cursing at Toilet.  A Scranton woman who allegedly shouted profanities at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct, authorities said.  Dawn Herb could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300.

No suspect is too young.
Texas school police ticketing students as young as six.  School police officers in Texas are doling out more tickets to children as young as 6, who under past disciplinary practices would have been sent to the principal's office instead, according to a report by a Texas nonprofit.

No suspect is too old.
Failure to Water.  In another example of overcriminalization, police in Orem, Utah decided to enforce an ordinance against neglected yards by arresting Betty Perry, a grandmother and widow who was seriously negligent in watering her lawn.  The 70-year old was handcuffed, arrested, and taken to jail.

Police target careless drivers in crosswalk sting.  Coos Bay Police were kept busy Tuesday [2/9/2010] targeting drivers who didn't comply with crosswalk safety laws during a pedestrian safety operation in Empire.  For three hours Tuesday morning, officers were staked out at the intersection of Cammann Street and Newmark Avenue, while a non-uniformed decoy pedestrian used the crosswalk.

Lawsuit: Student arrested for burping.  A 13-year-old was handcuffed and hauled off to a juvenile detention for burping in class, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed against an Albuquerque public school principal, a teacher and a city police officer.

DC Resident Fined Thousands For Not Recycling Cat Litter.  Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash.  The fines total $2,000.  White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter.  She believes she is helping the environment by reusing the paper and avoiding cat litter you will find in stores.  After being fined several times, White says she called the Department of Public Works inspector who issued the tickets.  According to White, the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations.

Milledgeville Police Handcuff 6-Year-Old Girl for Misbehaving at School.  Milledgeville's acting police chief, Dray Swicord, said Tuesday [4/17/2012] that he stands by an officer's decision to handcuff an elementary school student for safety Friday after she allegedly threw a tantrum.  Swicord said the arresting officer is not under investigation for his actions.

Cops believe their computer terminals, no matter what they say

Facial Recognition Software Leads to Mistaken Arrest of Georgia Man.  Anyone who has ever seen a Hollywood dystopian action flick knows that the more automated life becomes, the closer we are to huddling in giant, underground cities while an elite few humans battle the machines for dominance of the planet.  When it comes to law enforcement activities, the use of artificial intelligence takes on a particularly sinister feel. [...] One Georgia man recently discovered the dark side of facial recognition technology when he was arrested on a warrant from Louisiana.  Randall Reid, 28, was picked up in DeKalb County, Georgia, last November.  Authorities had connected him to a string of purse thefts in Jefferson Parish and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Randall insisted he'd never been to Louisiana in his life, and didn't even know what "Jefferson Parish" was.  He couldn't have done it.  The problem is, the computer said he did.

Whistleblowers: Software Bug Keeping Hundreds Of Inmates In Arizona Prisons Beyond Release Dates.  According to Arizona Department of Corrections whistleblowers, hundreds of incarcerated people who should be eligible for release are being held in prison because the inmate management software cannot interpret current sentencing laws.  KJZZ is not naming the whistleblowers because they fear retaliation.  The employees said they have been raising the issue internally for more than a year, but prison administrators have not acted to fix the software bug.  The sources said Chief Information Officer Holly Greene and Deputy Director Joe Profiri have been aware of the problem since 2019.  The Arizona Department of Corrections confirmed there is a problem with the software.

Colonie mom spent three days in jail due to 'clerical error'.  It began as a minor dispute over a free pizza.  But when the police got involved, a Colonie mother ended up in handcuffs and thrown in jail for three nights due to a "clerical error" on an arrest warrant that should have listed her ex-boyfriend.

A Mother Spends a Week in Jail, Is Fired From Her Job, and Temporarily Loses Her Kids After a Police Mix-Up.  Aberdeen, Ohio, police are searching for two people accused of trafficking heroin and fentanyl and possessing drug paraphernalia.  They identified two suspects a Facebook post on the department's page, including a woman named Ashley Foster.  About a week after making the post, a deputy in Hamilton County found an Ashley Foster outside of a Target.  It was the wrong woman.  FOX 19 reports that the warrant used to arrest the wrong Foster contained the correct picture, birthday, and Social Security number, but had the wrong address.  Though Foster insisted that the officers were mistaken, she was still handcuffed.  Her two sons were in the vehicle and Foster said that she was not allowed to feed or change her 8-week-old as he cried.  Child protective services took her children after the arrest.

Peninsula woman battles DMV over alleged false conviction.  Maryann Raab says she hasn't been to Florida since 1977, yet the DMV claims it has proof she was convicted of DUI there in 2005 and as a result suspended her driver's license last month.

Innocent Man Stuck With 100 Parking Tickets.  After two years, innocent man is still fighting parking tickets incorrectly issued because of a personalized license plate.  In the two years since San Carlos resident Nick Vautier moved to California's San Francisco Bay Area, he has received over a hundred parking tickets worth $3000.  He is not responsible for a single one of them, but several jurisdictions continue to prosecute him without ever having established any guilt.

Elderly Woman Slammed in the Slammer.  In a very sad story, 78-year-old Garland resident Betty Smith related her horrendous tale of woe to Dallas County Commissioners at their January 9th meeting.  Her story of abuse by the Dallas County judicial system and Sheriff's Department began when she was awakened by knocks on the door at 4:00 one morning.  The officer told her she was being arrested for illegally ordering a duplicate copy of her driver's license.  Never mind that Ms Smith's car had been carjacked not long ago, along with her purse and personal belongings, including her driver's license. [...] On the way to jail, the deputy told her that her record indicated that she had committed a homicide in Arizona.

Wyoming woman arrested on false federal charges.  Hope Clarke was put in handcuffs on a bench warrant for failing to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate while staying at Yellowstone National Park last year.  Federal agents apparently blindly relied on a computer database, even though the court had a copy of the citation showing she had paid.

Proof that the minimum wage is too high:
Prisoner wrongly freed after officials get phony, typo-filled fax.  Officials mistakenly released a prisoner from a Kentucky facility after receiving a phony fax that ordered him freed, and it took them nearly two weeks to realize it.  The fax contained grammatical errors, was not typed on letterhead and was sent from a local grocery store.

Computer snafu is behind at least 50 'raids' on Brooklyn couple's home.  Blame it on a computer.  Embarrassed cops on Thursday [3/18/2010] cited a "computer glitch" as the reason police targeted the home of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys.

Homeland Security sifts through internet traffic looking for "suspicious" words.
Sticks, stones and dangerous words.  [Scroll down]  The bureaucrats trying to keep the homeland secure, even at the cost of damage to the First Amendment, concede that the manual's language is vague and should be "updated."  In the hands of normal speakers of English, the lists can be harmless enough, but computers are only as smart as whoever is punching the keyboard.  That's not always very smart.  The hands of government agents are heavy on all of us.

Fraudster escapes from one of Britain's most secure prisons by forging letter granting him bail.  Neil Moore, 28, crafted an elaborate ruse to dupe wardens into believing he had been given bail by the court before brazenly walking out of Wandsworth jail in south London where he was being held for a £1.8 million fraud.

Cops believe their polygraph machines, no matter what they say

EU border 'lie detector' system criticised as pseudoscience.  The EU has been accused of promoting pseudoscience after announcing plans for a "smart lie-detection system" at its busiest borders in an attempt to identify illegal migrants.  The "lie detector", to be trialled in Hungary, Greece and Latvia, involves the use of a computer animation of a border guard, personalised to the traveller's gender, ethnicity and language, asking questions via a webcam.  The "deception detection" system will analyse the micro-expressions of those seeking to enter EU territory to see if they are being truthful about their personal background and intentions.  Those arriving at the border will be required to have uploaded pictures of their passport, visa and proof of funds.  According to an article published by the European commission, the "unique approach to 'deception detection' analyses the micro-expressions of travellers to figure out if the interviewee is lying".

Christina Blasey Ford's Polygraph Was [Suspicious].  The fact that Christine Blasey Ford's lawyers refused to release the results of her polygraph exam until the day before her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month caused some suspicion.  And when we finally got a look at them, a lot of Judge Kavanaugh's supporters were confirmed in their suspicions. [...] Even if Ford's exam had been entirely on the up and up, despite the credence most people give them, polygraph tests are something of a joke among serious research psychologists.  The American Psychological Association will tell anyone who cares to listen (which unfortunately isn't many) that "most psychologists and other scientists agree that there is little basis for [their] validity."  The APA has such a dim view of the procedure in part because, though research indicates that a polygraph exam can detect deception better than chance, there's still a significant likelihood of error.  And doing better than flipping a coin isn't all that great when someone's reputation is on the line.

The Truth About Polygraph Tests.  News organizations would render a valuable service if, whenever they report that someone has taken or proposes to take a polygraph, they reminded readers (or explained to them) that polygraphs are voodoo.  Junk science.  They are no more reliable than a pack of Tarot cards.  Polygraph evidence is inadmissible in court.  There is a good reason for that. [...] The only value of a lie-detector test is as an interrogation tool — if you're dealing with someone who believes in it.  But it's insanity to rely on it.  People can be trained not to crack upon interrogation.  If the polygraph is administered by someone friendly, there will be no interrogation.

How to Beat a Polygraph Test.  "A polygraph is nothing more than a psychological billy club used to coerce and intimidate people," says Doug Williams, a former Oklahoma City police detective and polygraph examiner who for 36 years has trained people to pass the lie-detector test.  The first step is not to be intimidated.

The Polygraph Has Been Lying for 80 Years.  Eighty years ago, Leonarde Keeler's lie detector made its debut in court. Decades later, we're still paying the price for his con job.

DEA settles suit alleging government lie-detector abuses.  The Drug Enforcement Administration has agreed to pay 14 contractors $500,000 to settle a lawsuit that accuses the agency of illegally requiring them to undergo highly intrusive lie detector tests to keep their jobs as translators.  The settlement appears to be the first time that a federal government agency has settled allegations involving contractors' lie detector tests since a 1988 law banned the use of polygraph screening for most private employees, said a lawyer for the group.

Seeing threats, feds target instructors of polygraph-beating methods.  [Scroll down]  The federal government previously treated such instructors only as nuisances, partly because the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven.  Instructors have openly advertised and discussed their techniques online, in books and on national television.  As many as 30 people or businesses across the country claim in Web advertisements that they can teach someone how to beat a polygraph test, according to U.S. government estimates.

How accurate are lie-detector tests?  [Scroll down]  If polygraphs are so fallible, why use them at all?  In part because testing can intimidate people into confessing, deter bad behavior, and create an impression (however misleading) of vigilance.  In other words:  security theater.

The Truth About Lie Detectors (aka Polygraph Tests).  The accuracy (i.e., validity) of polygraph testing has long been controversial.  An underlying problem is theoretical:  There is no evidence that any pattern of physiological reactions is unique to deception.

The truth about lie detectors.  The county prosecutors offered Buzz a deal:  they would drop all charges if he agreed to take a polygraph — a lie detector test — to prove his innocence.  Convinced the whole episode was one big mistake, Buzz readily agreed.  He took two tests but both suggested he was lying about his innocence.  This, along with circumstantial evidence, sealed his 1979 conviction and he spent two-and-a-half years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.

'Elephant in the Room' Ignored by Prosecutor After Conviction of 'Beat the Polygraph' Instructor.  As someone who spent much of the past four years conducting an exhaustive investigation of the U.S. Government's use of credibility assessment technologies, including the polygraph, I didn't expect MacBride to mention the proverbial "elephant in the room" — that is, the fact so many countermeasures exist to make it possible for any individual to "beat" or pass a polygraph exam.  And he didn't.

Indiana Man Sentenced to Prison for Teaching People How to Beat Polygraph Exams.  Eight months in prison.  That was the sentence handed down to Chad Dixon today by a federal court judge in Alexandria, Va.  His crime?  Teaching people — in particular, government job applicants — how to beat polygraph exams.

The Editor says...
Sounds to me like a violation of the defendant's rights to free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of association.  He is apparently being silenced because the government does not want the general public (jury pool) to know that it is possible to spoof a polygraph exam.

The polygraph is merely a psychological rubber hose, not a way of detecting deception.  [T]here is nothing in the polygraph procedure that can discriminate between nervousness caused by anxiety in the innocent in response to a question, and nervousness caused by fear of getting caught in a lie in the guilty.

The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.  The polygraph pens don't do a special dance when a person lies.  The polygrapher scores the test by comparing physiological responses (breathing, blood pressure, heart, and perspiration rates) to these probable-lie control questions with reactions to relevant questions such as, "Did you ever commit an act of espionage against the United States?" (commonly asked in security screening). [...] If responses to both "control" and relevant questions are about the same, the result is deemed inconclusive.

The curious story of how the lie detector came to be.  Ninety years after its invention, the polygraph still has not been accepted by the scientific, legal or political communities.  "The whole process smacks of 20th Century witchcraft," said Senator Sam Ervin, who died in 1985.  It does not help that every now and again serious criminals trick the polygraph.  In 2003, Gary Ridgway admitted he was the Green River Killer, having murdered 49 women in the Seattle area.  Ridgway had passed a lie detector test in 1987, while another man — who turned out to be innocent — failed.

Please refrain from defending your own life and property

Alvin Bragg to New Yorkers: don't get involved.  Suppose I deliver a solid punch to the aggressor's head and, even though a punch is not reasonably expected to result in death or serious injury unless it is directed at a smaller and weaker person, he falls the wrong way, hits his head on the pavement, and dies.  Then, even though I've just stopped a violent crime, I get charged with a felony in response to demands from leftists who think criminals have the right to do whatever they want to whoever they want.  Now my freedom is at risk for trying to do the right thing, and I am likely to incur six figures in legal costs.

Daniel Penny, man who choked subway rider Jordan Neely, to face manslaughter charge: DA.  Daniel Penny turned himself in to New York City police on Friday to face criminal charges in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train.  Penny, 24, was seen walking in to the New York City Police Department's 5th Precinct in Chinatown shortly after 8 a.m. ET.  He's expected to appear in court Friday afternoon.

We Must Defend Self-Defense.  Their wicked plan is perfectly obvious — to criminalize normal people and normalize criminals.  Thieves, bums, losers, junkies, whores, and other trash — they are the heroes in this morally bankrupt morality play, and we normals are the villains.  The first step to fighting back is to see the truth, and the truth is right there.  You just have to be hard enough to accept it and to not allow them to leverage your empathy or compassion into tolerating having to be afraid as some sort of price you owe for the crime of not being a lowlife.  They want us, quiet, complacent, and obedient.  They want a society where we live in fear.

NY Governor says there's no right to self-defense.  It's hard to find any other interpretation of Gov. Kathy Hochul's latest statement about the death of Jordan Neely; the mentally disturbed New York man who died after being placed in a chokehold by a Marine veteran on a NYC subway after allegedly threatening passengers.  Hochul's been taking heat from progressive activists for not immediately condemning the veteran and convicting him in the court of public opinion, as well as for her first statement after the incident, in which she vaguely spoke about "consequences for behavior".  It was unclear whether Hochul was talking about Neely or the veteran, but in her attempt to clarify her earlier remarks she also made it clear that she doesn't think self-defense is ever justified.

Manhattanites are again reminded that self-defense is illegal.  Manhattan under D.A. Alvin Bragg is Bizarro World.  It's not just that this out-of-control politician indicted Donald Trump for a non-crime; it's also that he's making self-defense illegal for ordinary citizens.  Last July in Manhattan, a video captured a thug brutally stabbing Jose Alba, a Manhattan bodega clerk.  Alba, defending himself, proved to be the more effective fighter, leaving the thug dead.  It was a textbook case of self-defense, so Alvin Bragg and his team charged Alba with murder and sent him to Rikers Island.  Only a public outcry saved Alba from the maw of Braggs' criminal injustice system.

Update:
Bragg Backs Down, Won't Pursue Charges Against Man Who Shot Robber in Self-Defense.  It was reported last week that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, was seeking murder charges against Moussa Diarra, a parking garage attendant in Manhattan who had shot a thief in an act of self-defense.  However, Bragg has since changed his stance and will no longer pursue charges against Diarra.  The original charges stemmed from an incident in the garage where Diarra worked on West 31st Street, where he encountered a thief peering into cars.  Diarra suspected the man of stealing and asked him to reveal the contents of his bag.  However, the thief had a gun, and when Diarra tried to grab it, the gun went off, injuring him in the stomach and grazing his ear.  Diarra then used the gun to shoot the would-be thief in the chest.

Bragg brings murder charges against man who shot thief who shot him first.  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is really making a name for himself on a national level, likely much to his eventual regret.  After convincing a grand jury to bring preposterous charges against Donald Trump, Bragg had to find something to keep himself busy until Tuesday, and a New York garage attendant named Moussa Diarra offered him that opportunity.  Diarra was working the overnight shift yesterday when he spotted Charles Rhodie rooting around the garage with a bag, apparently attempting to steal some of the tools and equipment in the garage.  Diarra confronted Rhodie and demanded to inspect the bag.  Instead of complying, Rhodie pulled a gun from the bag and shot Diarra twice, once in the stomach, with the second shot grazing his head.  Despite his injuries, Diarra wrested the gun away from Rhodie and shot him in return.  So what did Bragg do about it?  Obviously, he charged the garage attendant with attempted murder.

Rancher, 73, is charged with murder on his Arizona land after shooting dead Mexican, 48, who had history of illegal crossings into US and multiple deportations.  An Arizona rancher has been charged with first-degree murder and had his bail set at a whopping $1million for fatally shooting a Mexican citizen on his property.  George Alan Kelly, 73, was arrested following the January 30 fatal shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, 48, on his ranch in Kino Springs, just a mile and a half north of the US-Mexico border.  Authorities are still investigating the fatal shooting, with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's chief deputy saying it does not appear that Kelly knew Cuen-Butimea ahead of the shooting.

Art Gallery Owner Who Was Caught On Video Spraying A Homeless Person Sleeping In Front Of His Business Is Arrested.  The San Francisco art gallery owner who was filmed hosing down an unhoused person last week has been arrested, according to police.  The San Francisco District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Collier Gwin on Wednesday afternoon.  Gwin has been charged with misdemeanor battery for the alleged "intentional and unlawful spraying of water on and around a woman experiencing homelessness," DA Brooke Jenkins tweeted.  [Video clip]

New Jersey Bus Driver Gets Assaulted By Thugs, Pulls Gun And Shoots, Gets Arrested For Protecting Himself.  A New Jersey Transit bus driver was arrested after allegedly shooting at several teenagers and critically injuring one of them after an altercation in Jersey City on Saturday night.  Charles Fieros, 48, of Staten Island, was "outside the bus when he retrieved an illegal handgun and shot at the group of males who had allegedly assaulted him," Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said, adding that the weapon recovered by Jersey City police came back as stolen.  The injured teen, a 15-year-old, arrived at a local hospital by taxi with three gunshot wounds to the abdomen and is in critical but stable condition, Wallace-Scalcione said.  [Video clip]

Baltimore police arrest 'good guy with the gun' who stopped armed attacker.  After Marine veteran Lloyd Muldrow stopped an attack by an armed assailant at a Baltimore bar, police officers thanked him — and then they arrested him.  Now the Good Samaritan credited with saving a man's life faces up to a year in prison, charged with violating a city ordinance that forbids bringing handguns within 100 feet of a public building, even though he neutralized the attack without drawing his pistol.  Mr. Muldrow, a North Carolina security specialist, holds a concealed weapons permit, but it was issued in Virginia, not Maryland.  Even so, he has no intention of accepting a plea deal when he appears at his Oct. 31 hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court.

Man Tried To Rob Another Man By Gunpoint, However, The Man Being Robbed Also Had A Gun.  During an attempted robbery at Ryan Howard Jersey store in Philadelphia, the would-be robber received instant justice and was killed.  As a man tried to get money out of an ATM just after 1 a.m., another man walked into the store and announced a robbery, police said.  Police believe the victim then took out his own gun and shoot the would-be robber who died.  Police are now looking for the victim and they would like to charge him because of Pennsylvania's stand your ground rule.

Mom who ran into Uvalde school during shooting to save her kids said police were more aggressive with her than the shooter.  The mother who ran into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, during the recent mass shooting there told a news crew this week that police officers were "more aggressive" in trying to prevent her from entering than they were with the shooting suspect.  The woman, Angeli Gomez, told the CBS News crew interviewing her that after rushing to the scene and seeing that responding officers were taking up positions along the school's perimeter even while gunshots were ringing out inside a classroom, she told police she was going inside to retrieve her two sons.  Continuing, she said that officers told her she could not go inside and handcuffed her for a short time.  After marshals removed her handcuffs at the direction of Ulvade police, she bolted over a fence and into the school, eventually returning with her sons.

Uvalde mom handcuffed by 'coward' cops for trying to rush inside school and save her kids says police threatened her if she spoke to media.  A mom who was handcuffed by cops for trying to save her children during the Texas school shooting has blasted police for threatening her for talking to the media.  Angeli Rose Gomez slammed officers for warning her with a probation violation for obstruction of justice over her interviews with journalists.  She said she was called by an officer who said she would be hit with legal trouble over a charge against her from over a decade ago.

Mother trying to save children at Uvalde was handcuffed by federal marshals.  After it was revealed on Thursday that not only did police delay their response to sending tactical teams into the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. amid a school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead but prevented parents from entering, the Wall Street Journal reported that one mother sprinted into the school to get her children, over objections from law enforcement.  Angeli Rose Gomez drove 40 miles to the school upon hearing of the shooting, and she arrived, said "The police were doing nothing.  They were just standing outside the fence.  They weren't going in there or running anywhere."

Fourth Circuit:  A Person has a Right to Come to the Door with a Firearm.  On March 30, 2022, a three judge panel of the Fourth Circuit published an opinion in the case of Knibbs v Momphard.  The Court found for the Estate of Knibbs, which is suing Deputy Momphard of the Macon County Sheriff's Department.  It was a split opinion, for the Knibbs Estate.  Important precedents involving firearms and the Second Amendment are solidified by this opinion, which cites several previous cases.  The Constitutional Amendment primarily cited is the Fourth Amendment.  However, the citation to the Fourth relies on the Second Amendment, which includes the possession of a firearm in the home for self defense.  This author sees the important issues in this case, clarified by the March 30 opinion, as:
  [#1]   The mere possession of a firearm by a homeowner is not sufficient to justify the use of deadly force by officers.
  [#2]   There is a right to come to the door with a firearm.
  [#3]   Officers must identify themselves as officers to gain qualified immunity.
  [#4]   Mere verbal announcement, without visual confirmation, is not sufficient to gain qualified immunity.
  [#5]   Sufficient precedent exists for officers to be aware of their duty in these situations.

Car Owner Booby-Traps His Truck So When These Thieves Show Up, They Got A Big Surprise.  A Metairie man rigged a flashbang to deter people from breaking into his truck, and the incident was caught on video.  The man who rigged the flash bang said he understands this wasn't the best way to go about deterring car burglaries, but was frustrated with how often his truck was broken into it.  He rigged a flash-bang inside his truck that would trigger if someone broke in.  Surveillance shows that the flashbang went off while someone broke into his truck in New Orleans. [...] NOPD released the following statement about the incident:  "While we understand the frustrations our citizens have with crime, rigging an explosive device to detonate inside a vehicle is illegal and a bad idea.["]

Somewhat related:
Subway Employee Defends Her Own Life From Robber, Subway Fires Her Even After Watching This Video.  A local Subway worker has been suspended after defending herself during an attempted robbery.  The incident happened Sunday morning [9/5/2021] at the restaurant located at 1120 East State Street.  [Video clip]

[Black] Creep Sexually Harasses Two [White] Women, One Woman Pulls A Knife To Warn Him Away, Both Women Get Arrested.  Police arrested the two females after it was determined by police they got into a verbal argument with a male victim over political matters according to Sgt. Emil Brimway of the Burbank Police Department.  "During the argument, one of the females pushed the victim.  The second female then pulled a knife and walked toward the victim.  The victim and suspects then separated without further incident.  No injuries were sustained to the victim," according to Brimway[.]  He identified the suspects as 21-year-old Miranda Marinch from North Hollywood who was arrested and booked for 417(a)(1) PC — Exhibiting a deadly weapon.  The second suspect was later identified as 26-year-old Melissa Gutirerrez from Van Nuys who was arrested and booked for 242 PC — Battery.  [Video clip]

Trump supporter pulls a gun on ANTIFA rioter who tried to smash his truck's windows during clash between rival groups.  This is the moment a Trump supporter pulled a gun on rock-throwing Antifa protesters after they vandalized his truck and maced him during a rally near the Oregon Capitol.  Footage captured the demonstrators spraying paint across the windshield of the man's truck and smashing the tail lights in Salem on Sunday [3/28/2021].  The driver, who was wearing an American flag sweatshirt, stepped out of his vehicle as he engaged with the protesters, who then appeared to mace him.  The video then shows him pulling out his gun and pointing it at the anti-fascist protesters. [...] As police arrived, the man could be seen putting his gun into the back of his truck before putting his hands up and kneeling on the ground.  The man was rubbing his eyes as the officer approached to arrest him.

ANTIFA Terrorists Throw Paint On Elderly Man's Car, Pepper Spray Him, Smash His Windows, Man Pulls Gun To Protect Himself, Salem Cop Arrests Elderly Man.  One thing has been made crystal clear by those who run Oregon:  STAY [...] OUT OF OREGON.  That is if you are one that believes in freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of not being assaulted at random, equal protections, those sorts of things.  This elderly man in Salam found out, none of those thing apply to him as ANTIFA terrorists destroyed his pickup for the crime of flying a flag off the rear bumper.  The gentleman's car first had paint tossed on it.  When he got out of the truck, he was pepper-sprayed, and then his passenger side window was smashed out.  At this point, the elderly man pulls a gun to get the mob away from his vehicle.  Now at this point of the story, you would have figured the cops, who were standing just about 50 feet away would have arrested a bunch of Black Blocheads but no, this cop pulls his gun and aims it at the victim, arrested the old man.  [Video clip]

Also posted under Violence and hate speech come from the left.

Update:
Drivers Have to Go Through Gauntlet of Antifa Attacking Them, It Doesn't End Well for the Radicals.  My colleague Brandon Morse reported earlier about some of the Antifa violence in Salem, Oregon, about an encounter that one driver had with some of them.  The Antifa people attacked him, throwing rocks at his car and yellow paint.  Then when he got out of the car to see the damage, they bashed parts of his car more and maced him.  Bad move on their part because at that point he pulled out his gun to get them to back off.  Then the anti-police radicals suddenly were all hot to have the police respond to protect them, which is so hypocritical and hilarious.  When the police responded, they temporarily held and questioned the victim, but he was the victim and he was not charged.

Additional update:
No charges for man who drew gun at dueling Oregon protests; four others arrested.  A man who drew a gun during Sunday's [3/28/2021] dueling statehouse protests in Salem, Oregon, was not arrested after complying with police officers.  The incident was captured in dramatic video, as Antifa protesters clashed with demonstrators taking part in a "Freedom Rally."  The white-haired man got out of his American flag-adorned pickup truck to look at the damage allegedly caused by Antifa protesters.  That's when he was attacked with pepper spray, by a mob that was surrounding him, police said.  He dropped his weapon at the orders of police, the video showed.

The Left's Campaign Against Self-Defense.  The case of journalist Michael Strickland is emblematic: he was found guilty by an Oregon court for defending himself by pulling out and pointing a gun for which he had a concealed carry permit.  Covering an Antifa-BLM protest in Portland in 2016, he was surrounded and attacked.  Fearing for his life, he pulled out his handgun — and with finger off the trigger — got the mob to back off so that he could escape.  He was arrested, accumulated 21 charges, ten of which were felonies, found guilty by a stacked jury, and ordered to jail.  The prosecuting attorney launched a media smear campaign against Strickland and the presiding judge, who ended up denying that the case met the "reasonable person" standard, refused to allow exculpatory evidence.  Strickland served 40 days, received five years' probation, and was stripped of his Second Amendment rights.  He is no longer allowed to practice journalism and cover leftist mobs.

This is only slightly off-topic:
Oakland Chinatown store owner who intervened in robbery arrested.  An Oakland Chinatown liquor store owner was arrested by police after he intervened in a robbery outside his store on Monday [2/15/2021], KTVU has learned.  A 36-year-old man faces one count of felony assault with a firearm, authorities said.  A community member told KTVU that the store owner fired four gunshots when he witnessed a woman being robbed for her camera outside his store at 9th and Franklin streets on Monday at about 5:45 p.m.  No one was injured after his gun went off.

Therese Duke, Massachusetts mom punched at DC rally, loses hospital job.  The punched Massachusetts nurse who went viral after her teenage daughter publicly shamed her for being at a violent pro-President Trump rally has now lost her job of 15 years — and fears she'll never get another.  Therese Duke told the Boston Herald she was innocently "looking for a place to eat" in Washington, DC, with "like-minded" Trump supporters when they were accosted by counter-protesters near the White House.  The melee on Jan. 5 — the night before rioters stormed the Capitol — saw her getting punched in the face, with her sister getting arrested for retaliating on the alleged attacker.  "I did nothing wrong," Duke insisted to the Herald.  "I was the one who was assaulted."

DC Police Chief Threatens Pistol-Packing GOP Rep. Boebert.  It appears as though our country becomes more divided by the day, politically speaking, as evidenced by the behavior displayed by public officials in Democrat-run cities when it comes to Republicans and conservatives.  You may have heard in recent days that freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) led a successful effort to preserve a 1960s-era congressional rule that allowed lawmakers to carry concealed weapons on the Capitol Hill grounds.  In a letter signed by 83 current and freshmen lawmakers, she wrote to House leaders, "If Members can't carry on Capitol grounds, they can't protect themselves in D.C. while making their way to and from their offices to perform their official duties.  The 'last-mile' transition of self-protection is critical.  The current regulations provide transitional coverage once the Member is physically on campus."  The Second Amendment is near and dear to Boebert.  She is the owner of a gun-themed restaurant, Shooters Grill, in Rifle, Colorado (not even kidding) where the wait staff all open-carry handguns.  In a fundraising message after arriving being sworn in, Boebert reiterated her support for our fundamental right to keep and bear arms — anywhere.

GOP congresswoman Boebert defends decision to carry gun in DC: 'I am my own security'.  U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told "Fox & Friends" there is "no question" she will carry her Glock handgun in Washington, D.C., despite pushback from the chief of police.  The newly elected lawmaker and owner of Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colo., defended her viral ad Tuesday [1/5/2021].  "It's right there in our Constitution.  It's an amendment to our Constitution, and there's an absolute uproar over people wanting to defend myself," the 34-year-old mother of four said.  "I mean, come on.  I'm 5-foot, 100 pounds.  I am now in one of the most dangerous cities in America.  The violent crime rate here is 158% times the national average.  I will be walking alone a lot," she said.  "Just like I say in my ad, being a member of Congress is pretty basic.  I don't go to work in an armored vehicle.  I don't have personal police escorts.  I am my own security here and my most basic right is my right to defend myself," Boebert concluded.

CT man arrested after shooting bear to protect his dog.  A 26-year-old Thomaston man was arrested Tuesday [9/22/2020] by environmental conservation police after killing a bear to protect his dog, officials said.  The mother bear was killed and her two cubs survived.  The dog was not hurt.  Will Healey, spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said William O'Connor had let his dog outside Tuesday afternoon.  The dog ran toward a bear and her cubs that were foraging in the woods near O'Connor's Walnut Hill Road property line.

Buy Guns and Ammo — You can't count on the state for your security.  Recently I have noticed an interesting new trend taking shape on my phone.  More and more, my liberal friends are texting me with concern for their safety, wondering how to buy a gun.  A friend in NYC was recently threatened with violence — he's gone from being passionately anti-gun to being dead-set on buying a firearm.  But regulations in NYC make it practically impossible to do so.  In today's world you can burn down a church, tear down an abolitionist statue, or pour fake blood on the portrait of a founding father, and you'll be praised.  But don't dare defend your family from a violent mob threatening to kill you, your wife, and your children — that would be wrong.

Governor says Pardon will be likely if St. Louis couple is charged.  Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) suggested during an interview that a pardon would likely happen if the controversial St. Louis couple was charged with a crime.  The interview took place on the Marc Cox Morning Show, where they asked Gov. Parson if he would even consider issuing a pardon over this incident.  "I think that's exactly what would happen," Parson said.  He later added that based on what he knows about the case, "I don't think they're going to spend any time in jail."

Hawley calls for civil rights probe of prosecutor investigating gun-wielding St. Louis couple.  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called on the Justice Department to launch a civil rights investigation into St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and her office after Gardner announced an investigation into a white couple who were seen on video threatening Black Lives Matter protesters at gunpoint.  In a letter to the Justice Department obtained by The Washington Post, Hawley said that Gardner had established "a pattern of politically motivated prosecutorial decisions" during her time as St. Louis's top city prosecutor.  "The Second Amendment is not a second-class right.  No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right," he wrote to Attorney General William Barr.

Couple Who Defended Home: 'Rumor Is That We Are Going To Be Indicted Shortly'.  Mark McCloskey, the homeowner who defended his St. Louis home recently from a large mob of demonstrators, told Fox News on Monday that he excepts to be "indicted shortly."  The segment came after St. Louis law enforcement officials served a warrant on the McCloskeys late last week and confiscated the rifle that he used to defend his home.  "The police were really very professional and very nice," McCloskey said.  "The cops that came out to issue the search warrant on us, they were almost apologetic.  They didn't want to have to be there.  They were doing their job.  Patty wanted to take a picture to document it, and she asked if they wouldn't mind facing away from the camera so that people wouldn't get mad at them if their faces were shown on TV."

The Editor says...
The cops didn't want to be there.  They didn't want to take the couple's guns.  They were only following orders.  Does that sound familiar?  Adolph Hitler only needed a few cops and bureaucrats like these guys to get where he got.  People who were willing to follow orders, no matter what those orders were.  The same thing is happening now in the U.S.A., not only with gun confiscations, but with the Mask Police making sure we all wear muzzles in public.  The mask mandate will end as soon as you take your mask off!  What are they gonna do about it?

Local St. Charles Gun Store Announces Free AR15 to McCloskeys After Police Confiscate Their Rifle.  On Friday night [7/10/2020] St. Louis Police served homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey with a search warrant and confiscated their rifle.  The McCloskeys made national headlines when they defended their home from hundreds of BLM protesters who trespassed into their neighborhood to protest at the home of the St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson.  Following the visit to their home by St. Louis City Police local gun store Alien Armory Tactical announced they will donate a free AR15 to the McCloskeys after Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sent police to their house to confiscate their rifle.

Missouri AG On Warrant Served On St. Louis Couple:  Democrat Prosecutor Has History Of 'Politically Motivated Decisions'.  Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt responded to Friday night's breaking news that a search warrant was served and at least one gun confiscated from the St. Louis couple who defended their home last month from an angry mob by saying that the Democrat prosecutor who was handling the decision has an alleged track record of making politically motivated decisions.  "I know this is being handled by a local prosecutor, not something you'd be involved with, but what is your take on what we're seeing tonight?" Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Schmitt.  "The local warrant there signed off by a judge and being executed by St. Louis police?"

Have we reached the point at which self-defense is a crime?  Thirty-five American states have stand-your-ground laws, while the remaining fifteen require retreat only when it can be done with absolute safety (although none require retreat when the attack takes place in a person's own home or "castle"). America strongly supports self-defense.  Or does it?  Recently, activist prosecutors seem to be criminalizing self-defense when whites use it against blacks. [...] With Democrats defunding the police or driving them off the streets, people of all colors are going to resort to self-defense.  It's legal in one form or another across America, and people's lizard brains are going to react hard when threatened.  We're at a perilous moment in America if leftists first deprive people of police protection and then activist prosecutors criminalize self-defense only when whites do it.  If people do not believe they are getting the benefit of equal protection under the law, they will stop complying with the law entirely.

Missouri couple who defended home have rifle seized during police search: report.  Authorities in St. Louis executed a search warrant Friday evening [7/10/2020] at the home of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who made headlines last month when they took up arms to defend their home from protesters.  During the search, police seized the rifle that Mark McCloskey was shown holding during the June 28 incident, KSDK-TV of St. Louis reported, citing information from a source.  The couple claimed the pistol that Patricia McCloskey held during the June confrontation was already in the possession of their attorney, the station reported.

Police Consider Charging Crowd Confronted By Armed St. Louis Couple With Trespassing, Intimidation.  A group of protesters in Missouri who famously found themselves facing an armed husband and wife may soon be facing multiple charges.  As a group of demonstrators marched toward the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's home on Sunday night to demand that she resign, they marched through an area that was closed off to the public, where a husband-wife team stood outside with a rifle and a gun to protect their property.

St. Louis Authorities Will Investigate Homeowners Who Met Trespassing Protesters With Guns.  St. Louis attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey went viral when they stood in front of their million-dollar home with firearms and confronted protesters — but now Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has vowed to have them investigated.  The McCloskeys, Mark armed with a rifle and Patricia with a handgun, stood outside as protesters marched by on the way to Democratic St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson's home.  The protesters had broken down a gate to march onto the private drive — and McCloskey repeatedly yelled at them that it was private property.

Soros Funded St. Louis Circuit Attorney Threatens Legal Action Against Property Owners Who Defended Themselves Against Rampaging Mob.  This is a great example why law-abiding citizens need to be very involved in local elections.  The husband and wife who defended themselves and protected their property from looters/protestors are now being threatened by a Soros funded STL Circuit Attorney.  Ms. Kimberly M Gardner is an activist within the legal profession who has an expressed purpose to destroy property rights, advance the cause of a socialist society, and collapse the legal system that allows citizens to protect themselves from the rampaging mob.

Police Chief Forced Out After Offering Support For Armed Citizens.  It's hard to believe that we're now at the point where expressing support for a constitutional right can cause a public official to lose their job, but that Orwellian nightmare's come true in Lowell, Michigan, where police chief Steven Bukala was forced to resign just days after expressing his support for armed citizens who decided to patrol the downtown area while legally carrying firearms in an attempt to thwart any looting in the area.  The small town of about 4,000 people is located just a few miles from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where riots resulted in burned out buildings, looted storefronts, and the arrests of at least eight individuals on charges related to rioting or looting.  Shortly after the riots took place, the Lowell police department posted on Facebook about several individuals who were lawfully carrying in the small downtown area in an effort to prevent looting or rioting.

Virginia Store Employee Jailed for Shooting Masked Burglars.  An employee working at a smoke shop business in Arlington, Virginia has been arrested and charged after the Arlington County Police Department says he shot at people trying to break into the store where he was working, according to The Daily Caller.  Jowan Zuber, the smoke shop owner defended the jailed employee who could face decades in prison for firing his weapon at a group of masked burglars, wounding one.

Virginia Clerk Is Locked Up for Shooting at 3 Masked Robbers in His Store.  A Virginia store clerk heard a crash that sounded like a car had crashed into the place at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday.  He grabbed a gun and shot at three masked men he found stealing merchandise and cash from the shop.  When it was over, the clerk was the one in handcuffs.  He now sits in jail on no bail, charged with crimes for which he could be locked up for 20 years.  Those charges include:  "Malicious Wounding, Reckless Handling of a Firearm and Violation of a Protective Order."  Police say they'll get around to charging the robbers later.

Busted For Defending Your Own Home.  This is probably one of my least favorite subjects to cover, but it's the sort of thing we need to remain aware of.  Questions of self-defense, the castle doctrine and home security come up often enough, and they can impact nearly anyone in the country if your luck runs low.  But a story from upstate New York is now making the rounds for an unusual reason.  The Daily Signal has the story of Ronald Stolarczyk, who lives in the Utica, New York region.  He found himself forced into a position where he had to use lethal force to save his life in his own home when armed intruders broke in.  He thankfully survived (the intruders did not) but that turned out to only be the beginning of his problems.

This New York Man Got Arrested After Defending His Own Home.  All too often, advocates of strict gun control promise that more complex and convoluted laws will save lives without imposing a serious burden on the right of law-abiding citizens to exercise their constitutional rights.  Their argument simply doesn't hold up.  Their gun control laws fail not only to address how actual criminals get their firearms, but they also impose a real burden on ordinary citizens' Second Amendment rights.  They even risk making felons out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.  If that sounds like an exaggeration, just look to the case of Ronald Stolarczyk of Oneida County, New York.

Elderly Man Who Shot Two Burglars In His Home Charged With Felony Over Inherited Gun.  An elderly man in New York was arrested for shooting two burglars in his house, not for murdering the intruders, but for shooting them with an unregistered gun.

Elderly NY man kills repeat burglars, is charged for using inherited gun, loses his home.  Imagine being arrested and losing your home after two repeat burglars break into your house again and rush toward you with the possible intention of murdering you.  This exact scenario played out in New York late last month thanks to the far-left state's draconian gun control laws.  A 64-year-old Deerfield homeowner was charged with illegal firearm possession and arrested after he used a gun he'd inherited from his deceased father to kill two repeat burglars.  Then upon his release from a jail a couple of days later, he found himself homeless because his house had been condemned.

Oklahoma: Cop Caught On Video Harassing, Fining Flood Victims For Trying To Help Each Other.  Residents in Oklahoma are experiencing near-historic flooding this week as well as damaging wind and tornadoes.  Thousands of people have been displaced and have lost everything.  Adding to the extreme harsh hand dealt out by mother nature is the fact that in at least one instance, people trying to save their property or rescue others are being harassed and fined by police — for being good Samaritans. [...] In the video, we see the cop identified as Sperry Police Officer Bobby Sappington Jr. swearing at residents receiving help, calling them "stupid" and threatening to arrest them.

Leader of armed militia that held migrants arrested on weapons charges.  The leader of a militia operating along the southern border has been arrested by the FBI days after the armed group detained over 200 migrants who had just illegally crossed into New Mexico.  Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of Flora Vista, New Mexico, was arrested Saturday [4/20/2019] on charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the FBI Albuquerque office said.  Hopkins was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, which lies right on the border with Mexico and is just 8 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas.

Maryland's "Red Flag Law" Claims Its First Victim As Police Kill Gun Owner.  While most of us were focused on the upcoming election, there was a tragic story unfolding on Monday [11/5/2018] in Ferndale, Maryland, a suburb to the south of Baltimore.  Maryland has enacted a new "red flag" law which allows people to call in reports of gun owners who are acting erratically and may present a danger to themselves or others.  Under this new law, that gives the police the right to show up and confiscate their firearms.  (The law has only been in effect for a month.)  That's what happened to 61-year-old Gary J. Willis.  Unfortunately, when the police rolled up at his house before six in the morning, Mr. Willis answered the door holding his handgun.  Then everything went wrong.

Police fatally shoot armed homeowner who had just shot and killed an intruder: 'Sad and screwed up'.  Police fatally shot an armed homeowner in Aurora, Colorado, just after the homeowner shot and killed an intruder early Monday morning [7/30/2018], the Denver Post reported.  Dispatchers received a 911 call about an intruder at the home, and officers heard gunshots from inside the home when they arrived around 1:30 a.m., the paper said.  An officer shot an armed man police encountered — and that man turned out to be a resident of the home, the Post added.  The armed homeowner — whose name hasn't been released — was taken to a hospital where he died, the paper said.

Rancher faces 4 years in jail for stopping intruders.  Eddie Maurice was home alone with his family when two people snuck onto his property, one was shot in the arm and now Eddie faces up to four years in prison.  [Video clip]

Connecticut assault victim gets 18 months in jail for stabbing attacker.  A Connecticut man who was assaulted by three juveniles while at work has been sentenced to prison for stabbing one of the attackers.  The Connecticut Post reports 21-year-old Jeffrey Sumpter of Bridgeport received 18 months in jail Monday [7/2/2018] at a Stamford courthouse. [...] Sumpter was working at a Dunkin' Donuts in Norwalk last October when he was jumped by three males.  During the assault, Sumpter stabbed one of them in the leg.  "I was defending myself," Sumpter said during the hearing.

Man Shoots Intruder, Turns Out to Be Cop — Gets 13.5 Years.  Tyler Harrell was found guilty of a charge of aggravated assault today in a case that should concern anyone who cares about the right to self-defense.  Back in 2016, Harken [sic] grabbed his AK-47 after being awaken by a loud bang.  With him and his mom believing his house was being broken in to, he went on to shoot one of the intruders in the knee.  Unfortunately for Harken [sic], the people that broke down his door had government badges.  The Austin SWAT team, allegedly responding to Snapchat photos of Harrell with drugs, guns, and cash, were conducting a no-knock raid on the house.  Their search found no drugs, but Harken [sic] faced the assault charge as well as an even more ludicrous charge of attempted capital murder, of which he was found not guilty.  He now faces thirteen-and-a-half years in prison.

Redwood City man shoots and kills his own dog after surprise attack.  A Redwood City man shot and killed his own dog when it attacked him on a walk Wednesday [12/27/2017], police said.  The 76-year-old man was walking his dog, a large mastiff, in the 1300 block of Elmer Street in unincorporated Belmont when the dog turned and bit him in the lower leg.  The attack continued, police said, until the man pulled out a handgun and fatally shot the dog.  The man was taken to the hospital for treatment but police said he is expected to recover.  The gun was recovered and secured as evidence.  Police said the man did not have a permit for a concealed weapon.

Father Uses .44 Magnum to Shoot Grizzly Bear off Son.  [Scroll down]  The FWP officers told Dave if he had bear spray, he might have avoided having to shoot the bear.  Dave noted the FWP officers were all armed with shotguns and had loaded pistols on their hips. [...] Dave told me if he had spray and had sprayed the bear, he would have had to spray Rory as well.  Then, if the bear turned on him, Rory would have been unable to help. [...] David Buckallew said "I will depend on my .44 magnum."  The bear never vocalized during the attack.  Dave said you could hear the loud breath of the bear, but there were no warning growls, or other sounds from the bear.  FWP found the dead bear the next day. [...] The bear did not have any tags, or previous history of aggressive encounters with humans.  Unprovoked grizzly attacks have been noted throughout the history of grizzly bears.  The current fad is to always assign a human motivation.

Army officer dealing with terror threats denied concealed carry permit in N.J..  The state of New Jersey told an Army officer dealing with terror threats at Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton that there is no "justifiable need" for him to have a concealed carry permit.  Lt. Col. Terry S. Russell, the product manager for the Army's Individual Weapons and Small Arms program, requires a Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance for his job.  The base where he works was chosen as a terrorist "dry run" for a a Vehicle Borne Improved Explosive Device, and hackers have tried to obtain information on personnel.  Regardless, Oceanport Police Chief Daniel W. Barcus still denied the solider a permit, a decision ultimately backed last month by Superior Court Judge Joseph Oxley.

Guns found at TSA checkpoints could mean fine, jail time for travelers.  Starting June 1, anyone who forgets they have a gun in their carry-on luggage will be looking at up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine if the firearm is caught at the security check point at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.  Until Georgia law was changed two years ago, "we didn't really have any issues here," Britt Johnson, who is head of the Atlanta FBI office, said of the "Guns Everywhere Law" that expanded the list of places guns were allowed.  The law said gun owners with a permit could take guns discovered in their carry-on luggage back to their cars or give them to someone for safe keeping, and they would not face criminal charges.

Brooklyn teen tries to steal Air Jordans, loses arm in Craigslist robbery gone wrong: police.  A robbery victim, who decided to take the law into his own hands by mowing down an armed teen thief, severing his right arm, is now in handcuffs himself, police said.  Police arrested the robbery victim, Philip Pierre, 39, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and charged him with attempted murder.  The alleged teen thief, Zachary Sam, 17, also of Canarsie, Brooklyn, was charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in the Craigslist robbery gone wrong.  Both were charged on Friday [2/12/2016].  Police sources say the teenager connected with Pierre on Craigslist on Friday.  Pierre was selling a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.

The Editor says...
Craigslist would work as intended only among moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the transactions of any other.

NJ Man who Shoots Three Problem Bears gets $4,000+ Fines and Fees.  In October, 2014, a 76-year-old New Jersey resident shot three problem bears on his property.  One was an adult sow that was on his deck and looking in through his sliding glass door.  The location of the two juvenile bears when they were shot, is disputed, but was either on the deck or close to it.  Bears are more dangerous as they are larding up for the winter hibernation.  Bears that display this level of familiarity with humans, who associate humans with food, are a severe problems waiting to happen.  It is why the conservation community has come up with a well used phrase:  A fed bear is a dead bear.  Judge James G. Devine handed down the fines against Robert Ehling on the 28th of January, 2016.  I found the judges attitude a bit disturbing in one particular sense.  He thought that Robert C. Ehling acted as a "vigilante".

Colorado homeowner robbed at gunpoint may face charges for killing suspect.  A Colorado homeowner who was tied up and robbed at gunpoint Sunday [1/24/2016] may face charges for shooting and killing the suspect who was fleeing in a stolen car, Fox 31 reported.  The unidentified homeowner, who managed somehow to untie himself after the robbery, reportedly went outside his home in Littleton and fired shots into the car at the fleeing suspect.  The man in the car was reportedly identified as David Martinez, 38, who has a long criminal history of burglary, theft and drugs.  Martinez crashed the car about a block later and died.  The Denver Channel reported that under the state's Make My Day law, a homeowner is able to shoot an intruder who enters the home, but, according to one legal analyst, the law does not protect a homeowner if the shooting occurs from the porch, yard or driveway.

Sacramento Democrats Made Students Sitting Ducks for Criminals/Terrorists.  If you carry a gun on a California campus you are breaking the law.  If you use your gun to stop a massacre or a terrorist event, YOU are in trouble for having a gun.  The great news for wannabee terrorists is that they can shoot up a California campus and not worry about the teachers, professor's staff or students shooting back or trying to stop you.  The Sacramento Democrats have students and professor's ducks in a shooting arcade, like at a Fair. [...] Think about this when you send your children off to a California college — they are not allowed to protect themselves from predators.  This, in a so-called free nation.

There aren't many cops near your house.
Don't count on the police.  Of the just under 800,000 combined full time, sworn law enforcement officers in the U.S., in 2000, only about 150,000 were on duty on the streets at any given moment to protect a population of roughly 281 million, at that time.  That means that there was one policeman to protect almost 1900 civilians in 2000.  That ratio has not changed significantly in many years.  But, it's worse than even that sounds.  In 2000, over 43,000 of the listed law enforcement officers were classified by the Bureau of Justice statistics as "Special Jurisdiction".  More than 88,000 are federal officers, who do not respond to 911 calls.  They are the officers whose job is certainly not to protect you, as an individual.  So that means that a rather significant number of the 150,000 on-duty officers, mentioned above, are not dedicated to general police work, but to "special tasks".  But, even those numbers are inflated.  Many cities, like Houston, have large, dedicated traffic task forces, that do not fall into that "Special Jurisdiction" category, yet who are dedicated to special tasks.  Not only are such groups dedicated to special tasks, but they most often operate on a different radio frequency than regular patrol officers, so they won't even hear your emergency call.

South Carolina Pastor Defies Cop's Orders, Rescues Casket From Historic Flood.  A South Carolina pastor defied police orders to save an unearthed casket from historic floodwaters.  Pastor Wayne Reeves witnessed two caskets surface and began walking towards the water, but a police officer ordered him not to go.

11 Year Old Thwarts Home Invasion With A Gun, Cops Criticize Mother.  An 11-year-old boy shoots an almost 17-year-old who had broken into his home, saving his 4-year-old sister and scaring away another burglar.  The burglars repeatedly tried to break into the home, finally succeeding on their third attempt.  The mother apparently purchased the handgun because of several previous attempted break-ins of her home.  One can only imagine the relief that the mother had that her children were safe.  Yet, the reaction from police and authorities was to question why the gun was so easily accessible.

Police union wants more exemptions from L.A. proposal to lock up handguns.  Los Angeles lawmakers have been mulling new rules that would require residents to lock up their handguns or disable them with a trigger lock when they are not being used.  But the plan, championed by Councilman Paul Krekorian as a way to spare children from deadly accidents, spurred opposition from the city police officers' union, which argues that current and former officers shouldn't be held to those rules.

The Attack on Self-Defense.  Some years back, a public service TV ad depicted patients being told by a doctor that they had a tobacco-related illness:  lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, etc.  It asked, "If you're not planning to quit smoking, then what are you planning?"  So let me ask:  If you're not planning to use a firearm to defend your home against invasion, what are you planning to do?

Homeowner is handcuffed after being gunned down by police after she shot estranged husband.  This is the dramatic moment a homeowner was gunned down and handcuffed by police after she blasted her estranged husband who allegedly broke into her house and tried to kill her.  Lisa Skinner, 52, shot the male home invader, who has now been identified as her estranged husband Bradley Skinner, 59, after he broke into the house she shared with her mother around 6 p.m.  Police said Mr Skinner was armed with both a pistol and a large knife.

Not Guilty, and Handcuffed; Woman Forced to Shoot Attacking Ex.  If you are in a defensive shooting, do not be surprised if you are treated as a criminal as the police sort things out.  This is especially likely in large city police departments, where crime is common, such as in Houston.  Expect it.  In some cases you will be held in jail for a period without seeing a lawyer or a judge.  The police are allowed up to 24 hours to process your case.  If they forget or make mistakes, it can take much longer.

911 dispatcher tells grandmother to 'put the gun down' during break-in.  A Florida grandmother whose home was broken into says a 911 dispatcher ordered her to put her gun down in the middle of the invasion.  NJ Logan, 80, was recovering from hip replacement surgery upstairs in her Holmes Beach home when she heard noises coming from downstairs, EAG News reported.  "I kept hearing a commotion, like there were people walking around down there," she said.  "Once I realized it wasn't my husband, you have no idea how fast you can go. ... Honestly, all I wanted was my gun."

NYC alarms with notice: 'Immediately surrender your rifle'.  New York City authorities have been sending out notices to residents who own guns that now violate new ammunition capability laws, demanding they relinquish their weapons — and even though the notifications may just be standard police procedure, the text is a shocker.  At issue:  Weapons that hold more than five rounds of ammo, The Blaze reported.

Man shoots intruder at 2am, gets charged with murder.
A man's home is his castle, except in Maryland.  US Air Force Tech Sgt. Matt Pinkerton shot an intruder in his home on September 13th just before 2 am.  That is not in question.  Yet somehow, in Maryland, where Castle Doctrine does not exist by statute but rather only by case law, Sgt. Pinkerton is being charged with 2nd degree murder.

Defenselessly 'sheltered' as anti-gun fortress is breached.  As any decent American knows, there is no feeling more powerless than to realize that a couple of mass murderers are loose in your neighborhood and you are denied the right to keep a gun to defend yourself, your family or your home.  A sickening knot tightens in your gut. [...] Then came the latest Orwellian phrase in the "homeland security" lexicon:  "Shelter in place!"  So, not only are you not allowed to defend yourself against mass murderers, you are not supposed to run from them, either.  This, my fellow countrymen, is pure insanity.

Son who locked boys who were vandalizing father-in-law's home in a closet faces jail.  A man who says he caught four boys vandalizing his father-in-law's home has been charged with child endangerment after corralling them in a closet until police arrived.

Man Charged For Stopping Youth Gang Vandalizing Family's Home.  And before you assume there is more to this story... there isn't.  Just another victory for convenient 'victims' preying on the few producers that remain in Amerika.  Get this, the four thugs are of ages 8 and 10.  They and their 'parents' should be taken out to the woodshed.  But they won't, because today's 'entitled misunderstood youth' and their [amoral] guardians are free to destroy anything that offends their parasitic reality-TV lifestyle.

Clyde man arrested after corralling vandals in a closet until police arrived.  [Scroll down]  Upon entering the house, Daniels saw a great deal of the damage downstairs and went upstairs to confront the intruder.  Jesse encountered four young boys, all with hammers.  The boys tried forcing their way out several times, Daniels corralled them into a closet awaiting police arrival.

Update:
DA says he won't prosecute upstate NY man who put 4 boys in closet after vandalism spree.  A district attorney says he won't prosecute a New York man who corralled four boys in a closet when he found them vandalizing a relative's home.

Millionaire points gun at burglar, and guess who gets arrested.  George Bardwil, who owns linen company Bardwil Home, was at home in his E. 51st Street apartment in Manhattan in January, when a man broke in.  Bardwil, 60, brandished the gun at the intruder, who then fled, and the businessman called 911.  But when he showed police footage of the incident recorded on his home security system he was arrested on suspicion of possessing an illegal gun.

The feverish de-legitimization of personal self-defense .  Three Florida high school students disarmed another student who was armed with a loaded pistol while riding home on a school bus.  The school district then promptly suspended all three students for being involved in an "incident" with a weapon.  One of the suspended students asked, "How are they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?"

Excuse Me, Your Illogic Is Showing: Orwell's Vision Emerges In California.  Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James claims that guns are not defensive weapons.  If true, then why do police carry them?

Why I own an AR-15.  I bought an AR-15 so that I wouldn't have to ask twice for a criminal to get out of my house.

California police chief: The idea that a gun is a defensive weapon is a 'myth'.  California Police Chief Ken James insisted earlier this month that the idea of a gun as a "defensive weapon" was a "myth."  Speaking at a news conference about gun control with California lawmakers, James explained that he was concerned with the amount of weapons owned by American citizens.  "One issue that always boggles my mind is that the idea that a gun is a defensive weapon," James said.  "That is a myth.  A gun is not a defensive weapon."

Utah Resident Forced to Forfeit Gun Used to Stop Home Invasion.  In late January, 64-year old Clare Niederhauser was arrested for shooting at burglars fleeing from his property.  At a plea deal hearing, he apologized for firing the shots, agreed to pay a $700 fine, take a weapons class, and forfeit the weapon he used.  Fellow residents of Layton, UT are coming to the aid of the elderly man, who was arrested after firing a shot at a burglar's vehicle and a fleeing accomplice after they attempted to break in to his property with a crowbar.

A Gun Ban That Misfired.  The D.C. gun ban, enacted in 1976, prohibited anyone other than law-enforcement officers from carrying a firearm in the city.  Residents were even barred from keeping guns in their homes for self-defense.  Some in Washington who owned firearms before the ban were allowed to keep them as long as the weapons were disassembled or trigger-locked at all times.  According to the law, trigger locks could not be removed for self-defense even if the owner was being robbed at gunpoint.

If you're counting on the government to keep you safe, you can expect to be disappointed.
Homeland Security: In an Emergency; Grab Your Scissors.  Continuing the idea that only the government can protect you the Department of Homeland Security has released this video of options if you are in a dangerous situation.  Key in the DHS plan is to take cover and hide. [...] One has to wonder if teaching actual self defense tactics might be a better plan.  Or maybe an offer to put a baseball bat at every cubicle.

Homeland Security has advice for confronting mass murders: scissors.  Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman?  No problem — just grab a pair of scissors and fight back!  That's some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted on the agency's Web site just a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

'Tackle crazed gunmen with scissors or just hide under your desk'.  The U.S Government has issued a controversial video telling office workers what to do should a crazed gunman storms their building.  Issued by Homeland Security, the video, called Active Shooter Situation:  Options for Consideration, tells workers to flee if it is safe or find a hiding place if trapped should a gunman storm the building.  The video even advises using scissors as a weapon to defend yourself if your are caught in the open.

Rep. Nadler: Two to Four Self-Defense Shots is Enough.  Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) applauded his state's expansion of the current gun control laws on Tuesday [1/15/2013] telling Breitbart News, "I'm glad New York passed strong legislation.  Would I have preferred stronger? — always — without knowing the details of what they did."  The passage of the new gun control laws make the New York legislation the strictest in the nation.

Chicago Police Chief: We'll Shoot Licensed Civilians With Guns.  During an interview on radio station WVON 1690 am this week Chicago's Police Chief Gary McCarthy surprised listeners when he commented on the upcoming concealed carry law that must be passed in Illinois within the next six months.  McCarthy made a scary prediction that citizens carrying legally could be shot by Chicago police.

Chicago Police Chief: We'll Shoot Licensed Gun Owners.  Under Chicago's Police Chief Gary McCarthy and the hack that hired him, Chicago has quickly become Murder City USA.  Last year by a substantial amount, more Americans died from gunfire in the Windy City than died in Afghanistan.  The gunfire is coming from the violent street gangs that infect the streets of Chicago.  Since they have failed to solve the real problem of gunfire killing people in their streets, the current administration has invented a problem their media pals can fool the dupes that vote for them into thinking they are solving.  Their invented problem is:  what to do about "dangerous" people who are licensed gun owners?

Tucson Gun Turn in — First Hand Account.  As I walked the line for the next two hours, I saw very few guns that had any value in excess of the value of the $50 gift card being offered.  Quite frankly, most of the guns were rusted, inoperable junk.  I saw only three firearms that I would value in excess $400, two S&W revolvers and a single 4" blue Colt Python.  Most of the guns worth anything were comprised of .22 rifles, and all of those were of nominal value.

Progressives and the Phony Gun Debate.  To typical Progressives, government is the very essence of life, and anyone who is not directly employed by government or who has been given police powers by the State stands in the way of the State providing life and happiness.  Lest anyone believe that denial of individual self-defense is a top agenda for Progressives, think again.  Both Canada and Great Britain essentially have outlawed individual self-defense, and should any individual use any kind of "offensive weapon" in self-defense, then that person faces extremely harsh punishments.

People are Buying Guns and Ammunition for a Reason.  Police response time to a 911 call is roughly 8 minutes, but making that call may attract the intruder's attention.  There are other sounds that are sure to get his attention as well.  For instance, there's the sound that a 12 gauge pump shotgun makes when you chamber a round, and then there's the sound of an AR 15 when you release the charging handle.  Both of those sounds will put the fear of God into anyone with any sense, and the response time of an AR 15 is 3200 feet per second.

Congratulations to Mayor Rahm Emanuel for Chicago's successful gun control policies: only 19 shot in 18 hours yesterday!  Curious how the cities that are most restrictive when it comes to law-abiding citizens possessing firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones are also the cities that are awash in violent crime.

Cops Arrest Homeowner for Crime of Self-Defense.  A man in New York recently scared off some gang members by firing a couple of warning shots into the ground.  When the cops arrived, did they congratulate the man for protecting his family and start looking for the thugs?  That's what would happen in a logical and just society, but the anti-gun mentality in New York is so pervasive that the cops actually arrested the homeowner.  Needless to say, I can't imagine this happening in Georgia or Wyoming — places where both the law and cops seem to be more rational.

The police can't protect you.  The Aurora, CO police force is a fine, highly motivated department — I know because the police association was formerly my client.  There were officers already at the theatre for the midnight showing of Batman to deal with the anticipated crowd.  Only 90 seconds elapsed between the first 911 call and officer's arrival on scene.  This is a spectacular response time.  Yet 12 people were already dead and 58 wounded.  Which is why they are called "first responders" and not "first preventers."

Gun Crazy II.  [Scroll down]  But waiting for the Man is not an option.  "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away" — in Newtown, they were twenty minutes away.  The obscene horror of mass-shooting sites is often compounded by how long the killers have to go about their deadly work in "gun-free zones" (which should be re-dubbed "free-fire zones") before being interrupted — at which point they typically kill themselves.  In the recent Oregon mall shootings, the killer decided to turn his gun on himself when he caught sight of an armed civilian, and the Connecticut monster shot himself once the "first responders" started to arrive.

Until We All Understand Police Limitations, Some Will Put Faith in Gun Control.  [Scroll down slowly]  Response times for emergencies vary enormously from place to place.  In some rural or semi-rural areas, emergency response is measured in hours.  Even in towns or cities, a five-minute response — from the moment an officer receives the radio call until he arrives in a school parking lot — would be amazingly fast.  Consider, however, that a radio call likely would not have been made until someone at the school realized what was happening and made a call, a call that will take precious seconds — even minutes — to make and to be understood.  By the time a radio signal flashes out, a shooter could easily have been shooting for five minutes or more.

Sandy Hook shooting timeline.  Authorities say the first emergency call about the shooting came in at "approximately" 9:30 a.m.  "Sandy Hook school. Caller is indicating she thinks someone is shooting in the building," a dispatcher told fire and medical personnel, according to 911 tapes.  Police and other first responders arrived on scene about 20 minutes after the first calls.  Police report that no law enforcement officers discharged their weapons at any point.

When Seconds Counted, The Police Were 20 Minutes Away.  The murder of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook is both a massacre and a tragedy.  The fact that the murderer met no armed resistance during the 20 minutes of his massacre is an obscenity.  The solution to this problem seems pretty simple.  The only way to stop a person with a gun is another person with a gun at the time and place of the crime — and, as former police officer Mike McDaniel writes at PJM, because of response times, that will rarely, if ever, be a member of the police.

Disarming We the People.  In America, there were no "police" forces as we understand them today until 1835, and their creation by no means negated either the citizenry's unalienable right of self-protection or the expectation that ultimate responsibility for the individual's safety fell squarely on his own shoulders.  The police are public employees, there to add to the safety of the citizenry; they are not the sole arbiters of public order.  To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand the role of government and its relationship to the individual.

Cops: Man, 80, charged after shooting burglar in his Englewood home.  Awakened by his 75-year-old wife, [80-year-old Homer] Wright confronted a 19-year-old burglar who had broken through some plywood over a bathroom window in hopes of stealing liquor, according to police.  Wright grabbed his 38.caliber pistol, loaded with four rounds, and shot the intruder in the leg.  The suspect was arrested — but so was Wright.

80-year-old bar owner who shot burglar would like his gun back.  Homer "Tank" Wright says he's happy prosecutors dropped charges filed against him after he shot a suspected burglar last week.  But the 80-year-old tavern owner in Englewood is upset they did not return the .38-caliber pistol he used to shoot the intruder in the leg.

SWAT and the Second Amendment.  In a free society, a society with a fundamental right to keep and bear arms, police officers believing they may shoot a citizen in his own home simply because he is carrying a firearm cannot be tolerated.  Officers must absolutely avoid putting citizens in situations where they might be armed, or even pointing firearms in the direction of police officers banging on or breaking down their front doors.  If such misconduct is tolerated, as in the cases of Jose Guerena and Andrew Scott, the next knock on any citizen's door may be the last they ever answer.

City official insists residents shouldn't defend themselves.
D.C.'s crime solution: Be a victim.  Washington residents are up in arms, though not armed.  With violent crime up 40 percent in the first two months of the year — including double the number of robberies at gunpoint — residents are looking for ways to protect themselves.  Elected officials and police have no solution.

Shotgun-wielding Minnesota farmer, 74, charged after chasing down thief.  A farmer who chased down a thief and held him at gunpoint until authorities arrived now faces a more serious charge than the thief himself.  Kenneth Englund, 74, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony.  The thief, who the sheriff said admitted stealing about $5 worth of gasoline from Englund's neighbour, was charged with misdemeanour theft.

Felonized for Foiling a Real Crime.  Bradford Township, Minn., doesn't have its own police force, relying instead on deputies sent from 15 miles away.  When Bradford Township Board member Kenneth Englund detected thieves stealing gasoline from his neighbor's farm, he attempted to detain the thieves using his unloaded shotgun. ... [Now] Englund faces the most serious charge from the incident.

The government goes after the victim rather than the perpetrators.
Elderly man facing serious charges for shooting at thieves.  Legal analyst Dan Recht said he believes the Jefferson County District Attorney is "seriously overcharging" a Wheat Ridge homeowner, accused of attempted first degree murder for shooting at two thieves.  82-year-old Robert Wallace said he fired two shots at two men when they tried to run him over while stealing his flatbed trailer.  Wallace now faces twelve felony counts, including four counts of attempted first degree murder, for what he described as an act of defending his property and his life.

Stolen Trailers.  Say you're 82 years old.  Say that you see two people a third of your age with criminal records stealing your trailer.  Say that you run out to stop them and they almost run you over.  You fire two shots.  The thieves are let go, and you find yourself facing life in prison.  It's not a hypothetical scenario.

Defend your family, go to jail.  A Brooklyn man who shot and wounded an intruder while defending his family will spend three days in Rikers Island, the same jail housing the burglar who terrorized his home, because he owns an unregistered gun.

One law for us, another for you.  The California state Senate voted 28-8 Wednesday [6/1/2011] to exempt itself from the pointless gun-control laws that apply to the rest of the populace.  Legislators apparently think they alone are worthy to pack heat on the streets for personal protection, and the masses ought to wait until the police arrive.

Thanks to Otis McDonald and the Supremes.  The fact is that most crimes cannot be deterred because the bad guys don't generally mug people in front of the officer on patrol.  Since the police can't be everywhere, people need a way to protect themselves.

State "Emergency Powers" vs. The Right to Arms.  After Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleans residents legally armed themselves to protect their lives and property from civil disorder.  With no way to call for help, and police unable to respond, honest citizens were able to defend themselves and their neighbors against looters, arsonists and other criminals.  However, just when these people needed guns the most, New Orleans's Police Superintendent ordered the confiscation of firearms, allegedly under a state emergency powers law.  "No one will be able to be armed," he said.  "Guns will be taken.  Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns."

Why do civilians need assault weapons?  One self-defense situation that comes to mind is the L.A. riots.  Who can forget the nightly news's live footage of thugs hurling rocks at passing cars, buildings on fire, and looters smashing storefront windows?  Then there was the savage beating of truck driver Reginald Denny.  What was stunningly absent from the video footage?  There were no police or fire personnel.  According to the Los Angeles Times, police were ordered to stay out of the area for three hours.  Numerous 911 calls for assault, murder, and fire-bombings went unanswered. [...] When there's no law and order — only chaos — that's when civilians need assault weapons.

Dial 911 and Die.  Do the police owe a duty to protect you from criminal attack?  In most of the United States, the answer is "no."  In fact, in most cases the police do not even have to respond to your emergency 911 call.  Don't believe it?  Read the true stories from all across America about citizens who depended solely upon their telephone and police response for emergency help against a violent criminal.  Not only did those crime victims not get help, the local government and police escaped legal responsibility for failing to help those victims.

DC 911 Puts Woman on Hold... During a Home Invasion.  When seconds count, the cops are minutes away or... they put you [on] hold.  A Washington DC woman was recently the victim of a home invasion and when she called the police for help, the 911 operator made her wait.  As a reminder, the average crime happens in one minute.

Sleeping 911 Operator Cost FL County $75,000.  Pasco County, Fl. owes a family $75,000 because of a 911 operator who grew frustrated with a caller and dropped the call to fall asleep while the caller's girlfriend died due to choking.  According to WTSP out of Tampa, Nancy McGhee died while choking on food because when her boyfriend called 911, the certified operator grew frustrated and passed the call along to his subordinate.

The Best Defense:  The basic premise of this book is: defensive use of firearms is not just for the military and police; it is for every citizen confronted or assaulted by violent criminals violating their personal and property rights.  This book contains numerous examples of citizens who used firearms to save their own lives, or the lives of others, before law enforcement arrived.

Cases in which guns saved lives:  There are approximately two million defensive gun uses per year by law abiding citizens, according to a recent national survey.*

The Police Have No Obligation To Protect You.  Americans have come to believe that first responders, particularly the police, not only will protect them but have a duty to protect them.  It is this belief that underpins arguments about gun control and every other nanny state social policy.  Don't worry, be happy for the benevolent state will provide for and protect you.  Leave it to the experts.  In truth, the state can't protect anyone and has no such legal obligation.  As the citizens of Alameda discovered, the state has no conscience and can decide — on the spot — which services it will provide.  A little-known yet vital Supreme Court case explains why.

Have gun, will travel.  Law-abiding gun owners can run into serious trouble when on the move.  Venturing into firearm-unfriendly states creates confusion about what individuals need to do to abide by a confusing maze of regulations.  Congress should act to prevent honest citizens from winding up behind bars because police are misinformed.

Gun Control Laws Only Control the Law Abiding.  Just like the majority of police officers who never have to fire their gun during the course of a career, most civilians will never be shot at while watching a movie, browsing in a shopping mall or attending school.  But for those few that do have the misfortune to be an unwilling participant in an ambush here are a few rules of thumb you may find useful.

Dispelling bullet myths.  Terms like "stockpile" are used to scare people, but gun owners know they can go through that amount in a couple days of training.  The handful of people who buy ammunition with the intent of committing a crime could just circumvent Mr. Lautenberg's provisions by buying 999 rounds in local stores.  As usual, the gun grabbers won't do anything to stop actual crime, but they'll hinder innocent Americans who just want to protect themselves and their families.

Milwaukee Sheriff: Calling 911, Waiting Not Best Option for Defense.  Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. has released a 30 second public announcement calling on the citizens of Milwaukee to familiarize themselves with a firearm and aid the police in defending life between the time they dial 911 and the time the police arrive.

Wisconsin sheriff urges residents to arm themselves.  A sheriff who released a radio ad urging Milwaukee-area residents to learn to handle firearms so they can defend themselves while waiting for police said Friday that law enforcement cutbacks have changed the way police can respond to crime.

Police Poll: Armed Citizens, not Gun Control, Will Lower Violent Crime.  In a poll conducted by PoliceOne, a majority of law enforcement personnel said universal background checks, "assault weapons" bans, and "high capacity" magazine bans do not make police safer and will not lower violent crime.  Armed citizens, on the other hand, do make a positive difference.

Huge cop poll: 85% say gun control won't work, 86% want civilians armed .  An authoritative new poll of more than 15,000 cops released on the eve of this week's Senate anti-gun debate shows that a sweeping majority of officers don't believe gun control will work or keep them safer, and nearly nine in 10 believe having more armed citizens would curb gun violence.

News that must be suppressed.  If our major media were not fully committed propagandists, they would report the findings of a large scale survey of law enforcement personnel on the subject of further gun legislation.  After all, they are currently following the President's strategy of distracting the public from the awful state of the economy by exploiting the victims of Newtown to push for further erosion of Second Amendment rights.  So the views of law enforcement personnel ought ot [sic] be of some interest.

Sluggish response, or no response at all

Cops Basically Tell a Woman She's On Her Own as a Mob of [black] Kids Destroy Her Work Truck.  In a shocking incident captured on camera, a woman finds herself in a nightmarish situation as a mob of unruly [black] kids unleashes chaos on her work truck.  With no assistance from the authorities, she is left to navigate the mayhem on her own until an elderly man shows up and chases the little badasses off.  [Video clip]

What the Arrest of Daniel Penny is All About.  Experienced subway riders know that they are trapped for minimally three minutes, longer on express trains and, occasionally even longer if there's a track fire, a broken switch, or a stuck train.  You are also stuck with all the people on the ten-car train (usually a 100+).  Furthermore, though walking between cars is prohibited, people ignore the restriction (doors are unlocked), so forget about choosing only cars with non-threatening fellow passengers.  That scruffy vagrant you saw sleeping in the end car before you boarded a crowded middle car may soon be standing over you requesting a "donation."  This is not an airplane with screened passengers, cabin staff, and FAA rules banning unruly passengers.  The subway's unpleasant reality has been made even worse as cops now ignore turnstile jumpers.  Nor is there any police protection while you are trapped.  Mayor Eric Adams has flooded the subway with cops, but the bad news is that you only see them outside the train, often chatting while watching their cellphones.  Worse, they typically just mill about at the station entrance many yards from subway platforms.  In other words, when the next Jordan Neely corners you yelling and screaming, you're on your own until the next station and then, if lucky, you can exit to summon law enforcement.

The Editor says...
In Dallas, there are several differences:  The trains are mostly above ground, the cops are sometimes seen on board the trains (if only to check to see if you really bought a ticket), and a substantial percentage of the riders are carrying weapons, legally or not.

The disappearing law-enforcement presence in San Francisco.  Last month a group of business owners in Seattle gathered for a town hall to discuss persistent crime in the city.  All of the owners had experienced break-ins, often several of them in a year.  And the cost to repair broken windows and doors was often more than the value of whatever thieves had stolen.  Several of the owners had been dropped by their insurance because they'd made too many claims.  They wondered why the police never seemed to have time to walk around their neighborhood at night to keep the thieves at bay.  The situation doesn't seem to be much different in San Francisco.  When Joe Vernieri, the owner of the Black Magic Voodoo Lounge, reported his bar had been broken into it took police 15 hours to respond and even then they responded in the middle of the night when no one was around. [...] So as far as Vernieri is concerned there are no police in San Francisco.  None that will help him.

Something About School Shootings.  [Scroll down]  Without fail, such events encourage those who'd like to wipe the Second Amendment off the books and deprive lawful citizens from the means to defend themselves.  Does the fact that the cops stood outside the school for an hour during the slaughter give you comfort?  It doesn't ease my friend Betsy Gorisch:  "Among all the other things we need to keep in mind about the Uvalde school shooting there is this:  In what is arguably the only true test of whether or not we should rely on the police to protect us, the courts have ruled that they cannot be sued for failure to do so."  That's another way of saying law enforcement has no legal duty to protect you.  Professor Ann Althouse also finds that the police response diminishes the anti-gun crowd's arguments:  "If the police don't arrive and save us from violence, how can this event support the argument for restricting guns?  This is the very situation that makes the most responsible people want to own guns.  It reminds me of the summer of 2020, when there were riots, and the police stood down."

Regarding the Uvalde shooter, are we really being told the truth?  Where was Salvador Ramos born?  Early reports say he was from North Dakota.  North Dakota is a big state.  In what town in North Dakota was the future mass killer born?  Where is a copy of his North Dakota birth certificate? [...] America is sick and tired of the invasion aided and abetted by the Swamp in D.C.  What would happen if we learned that our latest mass killer entered America illegally?  What president and what party would get the blame?  I realize that I will be labeled as racist and xenophobic for voicing these questions, but I suspect I am asking what many others are wondering.  If Ramos is from south of the border, leftists will have a tough time pinning this latest fiasco on Trump.  Didn't he warn us about the folks flooding into this country?  Wasn't his election in 2016 a sign that Americans want a sensible immigration policy?

Police Have No Duty to Protect You, Federal Court Affirms Yet Again.  Following last February's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, some students claimed local government officials were at fault for failing to provide protection to students.  The students filed suit, naming six defendants, including the Broward school district and the Broward Sheriff's Office, as well as school deputy Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina.  On Monday [12/17/2018], though, a federal judge ruled that the government agencies "had no constitutional duty to protect students who were not in custody."  This latest decision adds to a growing body of case law establishing that government agencies — including police agencies — have no duty to provide protection to citizens in general.

NYC woman calls 911 three times as she's terrorized, slashed by ex-boyfriend, but cops don't show up until next day.  The breakup was followed by a break-in.  And then — despite three calls to 911 — a Bronx mom's 12-hour wait for help.  Jennifer Vega recounted the terrifying winter's night when her recent ex-boyfriend arrived uninvited through her apartment bedroom window, slashed her leg with a liquor bottle and hung around for hours as she waited in vain for someone to save her this past Feb. 18.  Spurned boyfriend Manual Rivera at one point went outside to wait for police after hearing sirens during the ordeal on Teller Ave. near E. 166th St.  Vega first dialed 911 after his 9:05 p.m. arrival and made the final call hours before help finally arrived at 9:27 a.m. the next day.

Bowie woman waits 22 minutes for police during attempted break in.  A Bowie woman said it took Prince George's County, Maryland, police over 20 minutes to respond to an unknown man trying to enter her home last Tuesday.  They said it was due to staffing shortages.  Kezia Williams was outside her house when a stranger in a Lakers hoodie came onto her lawn.  She quickly went inside and called police.  "I immediately started to put down the blinds in my house and shut my windows," Williams told our news partners at NBC Washington.  Williams was on the phone with 911 dispatchers, who told her not to trigger an alarm and to wait for police to arrive.

BLM: A Righteous Cause or Communism in Blackface?  According to the Gallup Center on Black Voices, 81% of black Americans either want to retain police presence, or want more. [...] [I]n many cities, including my hometown of Stockton, California, one of our biggest complaints about the police is that they don't come fast enough when called; that sometimes, police don't show up for up to two hours, if they show up at all.  In my city, that has a lot to do with the fact that our police officers were reduced by a third in 2010, after a former mayor cut $14 million from the department.  The reduction was felt across the city as crime drastically increased in the subsequent years and Stockton set new records for most homicides in 2011 and 2012.  When the cuts were made, it was so dire that Stockton PD officers had to reluctantly let the city know that they could no longer guarantee our safety.

Sobbing mother stuck in raucous BLM protest is told police will not respond to her 911 call because it is a 'sanctioned event'.  A 911 call has been released documenting a mother's frightening experience of having a stranger jump on her car during a Black Lives Matter protest in Virginia last month, and her futile attempts to get police to help her.  On June 13, Tara Durant was driving with her 12-year-old daughter in the backseat in downtown Fredericksburg when she found herself trapped by a group of George Floyd protesters who were blocking Caroline and Hanover streets.  Unable to drive through the intersection because of the crowds, Durant called 911 at 7.34 pm seeking assistance, only to be told that police 'can't do anything about it' beyond monitoring the protest, which has been sanctioned by the city.

911 calls bring no response after break in at auto shop near Capitol Hill protest zone.  Capitol Hill auto shop, Car Tender, says it was broken into overnight by protesters in the "CHOP" or "CHAZ" area Sunday night.  A suspect tried to start a fire and stole cash, as well as car keys.  The business owner, John McDermott, says he and his son managed to detain the suspect — but despite more than a dozen 911 calls, police and fire never showed up.  McDermott said he got a call Sunday after the suspect smashed a window and got inside his business.

Aurora workplace shooter was set to be fired by company, police chief says.  The gunman in a deadly shooting spree at a manufacturing warehouse in Aurora, Ill., where five employees were killed and five officers were wounded Friday [2/15/2019], was set to be fired by the company, Police Chief Kristen Ziman told reporters at a news conference Friday night.  The suspect, identified as Gary Martin, 45, of Aurora, used a handgun and had worked for the Henry Pratt Co. — one of the largest makers of industrial water valves — for 15 years, she said.  He was killed at the scene.  The attack lasted 90 minutes.

The Editor says...
Hmmm.  The attack lasted 90 minutes.  Why?  Does it take that long to set up the Mobile Command Unit and set up the robots?

Maine: Gang of young Somali Muslim thugs are now attacking citizens in the streets of Lewiston.  On any given day, dozens if not hundreds of Somali youth can be found occupying Kennedy Park and the violence is nothing new.  Local residents bearing the brunt of these violent mobs are growing frustrated.  Maine First Media was told it took police at least 7-8 minutes to arrive on the scene — despite the police station being right across the street from the park.

Trenton man says he held off intruder for 30 minutes before police arrived.  Police officials are examining the response to a 911 call Sunday night that left a city man struggling with an intruder at his building without any officers arriving.  Dan Dodson said it was 20 or 30 minutes before two officers eventually arrived in response to his wife's calls to police telephone numbers.

911 Dispatcher Tells Woman About to Be Sexually Assaulted There Are No Cops To Help Her Due To Budget Cuts.  An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn't be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts.  Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place.  Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff's Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.

Call 911, Wait two hours; Buy Gun.  On March 16, Teri Bice awoke to the sound of someone trying to break down the door of her home in New Orleans.  She did what most Americans would do:  dial 911.  One big problem, there was no answer at the other end.

10 things that just don't add up about the Las Vegas mass shooting.  [#8] When seconds count, the police are only 72 minutes away... but why?  I'm not trying to diss the cops here.  As you know, I'm an advocate of honest, local police, and it's clear that the beat cops did a fantastic job helping people seek cover on the ground below.  But I do have an issue with the 72-minute response time during a full-auto machine gun spree in a city where there are dozens of cops within a one-mile radius.  Seventy-two minutes?  Really?  Was there a committee involved somehow?  Why is it that the FBI's former traitor-in-chief James Comey can decide in an instant that Hillary Clinton is innocent of everything, but all the cops in Las Vegas can't breach a simple hotel door in anything less than 72 minutes?

New Orleanians on average wait over 1 hour for police to arrive.  New Orleans businessman Trey Monaghan, writing in an opinion piece last month, shared with agonizing detail how he chased a suspected burglar outside his newly opened restaurant on St. Claude Avenue, only to have to wait more than an hour for a police officer to show up. [...] A call to New Orleans police, many residents have learned, likely comes with a wait — a long wait in most cases.

Family calls 911 when intruder tries to enter home, waits hours before police show up.  [Terri] Bice believes it wasn't the door, but barking from Molly that stopped the intruder in their tracks.  So, she did what anyone would do.  Grabbed her phone and dialed 9-1-1.  She got no answer.  "We all know about first responders and what their importance is that's not going to happen if no one answers," said Bice.  She documented her calls for help:  two to 911; two to the NOPD's non-emergency line; and one to NOPD's Second District.  The final call was answered and Bice confirms an officer showed up two hours after the attempted home invasion.

Warrantless searches

This 9-0 SCOTUS Ruling on Guns Shows Just How Extreme (and Dangerous) the Biden Administration Really Is.  Did you hear that Joe Biden's Department of Justice wanted the Supreme Court to rule that police could search Americans' homes for firearms — and confiscate them — without a warrant?  In the case of Caniglia vs.  Strom, this issue was in play.  Had SCOTUS ruled that police could do that, your Second Amendment rights would have been in grave jeopardy.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Warrantless Gun Seizure 9-0.  In some ways this was a very narrowly tailored opinion, in that the Second Amendment was not invoked at all, only the Fourth.  And indeed, Justice Samuel Alito' concurring opinion specifically states that "Our decision today does not address those issues" in relation to the constitutionality of red flag laws.  However, the decision was a blow for individual rights against warrentless police seizures in the home.  Also, by explicitly including guns as property that is equally protected from such warrentless seizures, the Supreme Court has properly supported Second Amendment rights against the state's overreach.

The Supreme Court bans most warrantless gun seizures from homes.  [Scroll down]  During a fight with his wife, Petitioner Edward Caniglia grabbed his handgun, put it on the table, and said, "Shoot me now and get it over with."  Instead, his wife headed for a hotel.  The next day, when she couldn't reach him, she called the police for a wellness check.  When the police met up with Caniglia, he willingly went for a psychiatric evaluation on the condition that the police wouldn't take his gun.  The moment he was in the ambulance, using a ruse the police got Caniglia's wife to show them the gun, which they seized.  Caniglia sued, claiming the police violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.  The First Circuit gave the case short shrift.  It relied on Cady v. Dombrowski, a 1973 case in which the Supreme Court held that, if officers patrolling public highways concluded that "community caretaking functions" militated in favor of seizing a gun from a car, they could do so.  The First Circuit, therefore, declined to consider whether Caniglia consented, whether there were exigent circumstances justifying seizing the gun, or whether state law permitted the police to seize a gun from a home without a warrant.  Justice Thomas, in a miraculously brief four-page opinion, reamed the First Circuit for its careless, cavalier, and erroneous decision.

Supreme Court shuts down police attempts to search homes without a warrant.  The case arose out of a 2015 incident in which a Rhode Island married couple argued over attempted suicide.  At one point, the husband, Edward Caniglia, gave his wife, Kim, an unloaded gun and told her to kill him.  She left the house instead and later called local police to check on him.  When the police arrived, they entered the house and confiscated Caniglia's guns.  He later sued.  A district court sided against him.  When he brought the case to an appeals court, it also decided against him — and extended the "community caretaking exception" for police to search cars without a warrant to homes as well.  It was in this last decision, Thomas wrote, that the lower courts had erred, arguing that the home is a much more private sphere than a car.

Oregon Supreme Court:  Cops Can't Collaborate with Garbage Haulers to Paw Through Your Trash Without a Warrant.  The Oregon Supreme Court scored a victory for privacy rights yesterday, ruling that cops can't paw through your garbage without first getting a warrant.  The decision came in response to the case of a Lebanon, Oregon, couple, Tracy Lien and Travis Wilverding.  Convicted of unlawful delivery of meth and heroin — both felonies — they appealed on the grounds that crucial evidence had come from an illegal, warrantless search of their garbage.  Back in 2014, Lebanon law enforcement officers asked the local waste management company to collect the couple's trash separately so police could search it.

Smartphone passcodes are protected by the Fifth Amendment, says US court.  If someone wants to view your photos or contacts on your passcode-protected iPhone they may be able to gain access to the device with Siri.  But if the federal authorities in the US want to see the contents of your phone in the old fashioned way — by asking you your password — they won't get any help from the judicial system.  So says Judge Mark Kearney of the federal district court in Eastern Pennsylvania who recently ruled that passcodes on all such smartphones are protected by the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.

WSJ Report: "U.S. Spies on Millions of Cars".  Over a year ago we brought you the story of Mr. Filippidis and his family, a Florida Driver who was pulled over by law enforcement in Maryland.  The traffic stop would have been typical except for the fact the responding officer demanded, at random, Mr. Filippidis's firearm.  Mr. Filippidis did not have his legally owned — CCW permitted — hand gun, it was home in Florida.  Nor did Mr. Filippidis ever say he had a firearm — yet the officer was insistent Mr. Filippidis owned one, handcuffed Mr. Filippidis, and strip searched his vehicle on the side of the road.  Numerous Maryland state police arrived to assist in the search.  They found nothing, because Mr. F was telling the truth.  After two hours Mr. Filippidis and his family were allowed to continue their travels, but the entire process was unnerving.

New police radars can 'see' inside homes.  At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside, a practice raising new concerns about the extent of government surveillance.  Those agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, began deploying the radar systems more than two years ago with little notice to the courts and no public disclosure of when or how they would be used.  The technology raises legal and privacy issues because the U.S. Supreme Court has said officers generally cannot use high-tech sensors to tell them about the inside of a person's house without first obtaining a search warrant.

Chris Johnson: an Example of why you Do not Consent to a Search of your Car.  It has become a hallmark of advice from lawyers.  Do not give consent to police to search your vehicle or your home.  If they had probable cause to search, they do not need to ask.  Politely refuse to give consent.  Believing that you "have nothing to hide" is escapist fantasy in today's world of overlapping amd vague laws.

Report: D.C. police need guidance to avoid unlawful home entry.  D.C. police officers need a refresher on when it's legal to enter a home without a warrant, according to a report issued Wednesday [6/12/2013] by the city's Police Complaints Board.  The board said it routinely receives complaints about officers entering homes — the complaints comprise nearly 14 percent of all those received since 2009 — and recommends the department should write a general order clarifying the exigent circumstances that would justify a warrantless search.  "Providing better training and developing a general order on warrantless entries for officers will aid them in carrying out their duties all the while protecting the rights of the public," said Philip K. Eure, director of the Office of Police Complaints.

Suit Against SAFE Act Claims it Allows 'Warrantless' Police Searches.  The registry process of New York's SAFE Act allows for warrantless police searches into gun owners' homes, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, according to plaintiffs of a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District.  The law firm representing plaintiff Gabriel Razzano argues the registry process is "essentially secret and results in a mandatory, warrantless Penal Law 400 gun removal visit from police."  "The entire purpose of the registry is a sham to permit intrusions into a person's home on consent without a warrant for a 'gun removal,'" La Reddola, Lester and Associates said in a release.  "The entire registry and database seek to justify warrantless police searches, which my client and I now believe to be the real purpose of the SAFE Act."

The SWAT Team Would Like to See Your Alcohol Permit.  How police use regulatory inspections to conduct warrantless searches.

How police use regulatory inspections to conduct warrantless searches:  In August [2010] a team of heavily armed Orange County, Florida, sheriff's deputies raided several black- and Hispanic-owned barbershops in the Orlando area.  There were more raids in September and October.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, barbers and customers were held at gunpoint, some in handcuffs, while police turned the shops upside down.  A total of nine shops were raided, and 37 people were arrested.  By all appearances, these raids were drug sweeps.  Shop owners told the Sentinel police asked where they were hiding illegal drugs and weapons.  But in the end, 34 of the 37 arrests were for "barbering without a licence," a misdemeanor for which only three people have ever served jail time in Florida.  Two arrests were for misdemeanor marijuana possession.  Just one person was arrested on felony drug and weapon charges.

Local Government Stupidity Contest.  [Scroll down]  Contestant Number Two is the Metro Police in Washington, DC, which has decided to harass random travelers by searching their bags before they board the subway.  This is akin to the TSA's mindless bureaucracy — but even worse. [...] Good intelligence by the CIA and FBI is the way to stop these crackpots, not empty security theater that makes life more difficult for law-abiding people.

Police push for warrantless searches of cell phones.  This is an important legal question that remains unresolved:  as our gadgets store more and more information about us, including our appointments, correspondence, and personal photos and videos, what rules should police investigators be required to follow?  The Obama administration and many local prosecutors' answer is that warrantless searches are perfectly constitutional during arrests.

Editor's note:
Additional information about warrantless searches can be found in the cell phones subsection.

SWAT teams

Map of Botched Paramilitary Police Raids.

Homeowner is fatally shot by police when officers went to the wrong address.  The Farmington Police Department released body camera footage from the deadly shooting at the wrong address earlier in April.  FPD officers were dispatched to 5308 Valley View Ave for a domestic violence call.  However, New Mexico State Police, who are investigating the fatal shooting, said FPD went to 5305 Valley View Ave.  Farmington's officers were heard expressing confusion over whether they were at the correct address moments before gunshots were fired from FPD.  [Video clip]

Officers kill homeowner after responding to wrong address.  Officers with the Farmington Police Department in northwestern New Mexico shot and killed a homeowner when they showed up at the wrong address in response to a domestic violence call, state police investigators said.  The shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.  New Mexico State Police released more details late Thursday, and Farmington police confirmed Friday that the three officers involved are on paid administrative leave pending a review of the case.

FBI handcuffs, interrogates innocent Delta Air Lines pilot in botched Boston training exercise.  The FBI and other federal agents burst into the wrong Boston hotel room Tuesday night during a training exercise, startling the guest inside who had no idea what was going on as he was handcuffed.  The incident occurred on the 15th floor of the Revere Hotel as agents were conducting a mock investigation.  FBI agents were assisting the U.S. Department of Defense in a training exercise inside the hotel to simulate a situation that DOD personnel might encounter in a deployed environment.  "Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player," the FBI said in a statement.  The agents targeted room 1505, where a Delta Air Lines pilot was sleeping inside and opened the door, WBZ-TV reported.

Police Chief Under Investigation For Raiding the Wrong Home.  Galveston, Texas, Chief of Police Doug Balli gets an unscheduled 10-day vacation on administrative leave while the internal investigation unwinds.  His SWAT team raided the wrong house.  They were searching for a teenager in connection with a murder.  They had that wrong, too.  The suspect was "falsely accused."  Every day, it seems there's another story about investigators under investigation.  From the FBI right on down to the individual precincts.  Police have a huge target on their back to start with and what happened in Memphis, Tennessee, doesn't make their job any easier.  We need law enforcement to keep the public safe from lawless anarchists.  Thanks to the general deterioration of society, cops can't seem to do any better at their crucial job than the kids behind the drive through window.

Illinois State Cops In Full Tactical Gear And Armored Truck Break Through Fence, Aim Guns At 6 Year Old Over An Old Property Dispute.  Some larping Illinois state cops busted through someone's fence to point guns at their 6-year-old without a search warrant in their hand... over an old stolen property estate claim from 2018 that was settled in court.  The cops came equipped with full tactical gear and armored truck as if they were raiding Osama Bin Laden's compound.  [Video clip]

SWAT Team Wakes Up Couple, Shoots Unarmed Disabled Husband, Attempts to Cover It Up.  If you read the original headlines in December 2022 after police filled Jason Harley Kloepfer, 41, with bullet holes, you would have thought that police acted heroically and saved the day.  Headlines, however, especially when they involve "official" statements from police, are often very wrong. [...] After the SWAT officer drags Koepfer's body from the trailer, they realize they are on camera and quickly acknowledge it.  "F***, cameras," an officer says after seeing the video recording device.  Police then turn the lights back on as they appear to put on night vision in a futile attempt to cover their actions — apparently unaware that the camera had night vision as well.  Kloepfer, who was disabled before the shooting, has been in recovery ever since, having undergone multiple surgeries.  He has been sharing his recovery on Facebook and says he and his wife are staying out of state, claiming they fear for their lives with the Cherokee county SWAT team giving them ample reason to do so.

SWAT Team Storms Grandma's House Based On An iPhone Ping, Turns Out It Was The Wrong House.  A SWAT team stormed a grandmother's home after an app led them to the wrong house, the ACLU of Colorado said in a recently filed lawsuit.  Ruby Johnson, 77, was in her Montbello home of 40 years in January when a Denver Police Department SWAT team wearing body armor and holding automatic weapons rushed in, according to a news release by the ACLU of Colorado.  The operation was "based on a manifestly deficient search warrant and turned up nothing," according to the lawsuit filed Dec. 1.  The SWAT team left Johnson's home "damaged, in disarray and caused (her) physical and emotional harm," according to the release.  [Video clip]

SWAT Team Blew Up Innocent Woman's Home & Gave Her A $50,000 Bill!  She Fought Them & Won!  In July of 2020, Vicki Baker, 75, was excited to move on to the next chapter of her life in Montana by selling her home she owned for 12 years in McKinney, Texas.  That sale would never take place on schedule, however, because the day before she was supposed to close, a SWAT team destroyed it.  After destroying her home, Baker was told by local government that she was on the hook for the $50,000 bill to repair it.  After fighting for nearly two years, however, a federal jury ruled this week that the city was liable and awarded her $59,656.59 in damages — and more may be coming.  The case marks a "sea change in the law," according to Baker's attorney, Jeffrey Redfern of the liberty-minded Institute for Justice.

Woman wins a round in fight over SWAT team's demolition of her home.  A Texas woman has won a round in her fight to force the city of McKinney, Texas, to be held accountable for the destruction of her home.  The Institute for Justice explained a federal judge ruled recently the lawsuit by Vicki Baker over the destruction of her residence by the city's SWAT team can move forward.  "The court recognized that the city of McKinney is not exempt from the Constitution," said IJ Attorney Jeffrey Redfern.  "This is the first step towards Vicki getting her due, but it's a big one.  The government must compensate individuals when it deliberately destroys their property."

And here's the rest of the story.  BLM terrorists are not interested in the truth, but the Breonna Taylor case is not unique.  There have been numerous cases of innocent residents being attacked in their homes due to no-knock warrants and that is the real case for reform.  These warrants were originally approved to prevent criminals from destroying evidence like drugs or money.  What is more important, loss of evidence or loss of innocent life?  There is no need for tactical swat teams attacking private residence like they are cartel hideouts.  These are the forces that need vigorous retraining and more strenuous vetting by judges of each individual case.  If there is any positive result from Breonna's tragic death, it will be the complete end of reckless issuance of no-knock warrants.

A Just Decision Not to File Homicide Charges in the Tragic Breonna Taylor Case.  The criminal law is not designed to address every human tragedy.  That is the lesson of the tragic death of Breonna Taylor.  It was also the theme repeatedly struck by Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron on Wednesday, in announcing the indictment of one of the three officers involved in the raid that lead to her death.  The charge will not satisfy the mob.  Neither the peaceful protesters nor the radical rioters, who have taken to the streets since shortly after Ms. Taylor was killed on March 13, are interested in the facts of the case.  They could not care less how the law applies to the evidence a Lexington grand jury pored over this week.  Their interest is only to set in stone a distorted narrative:  Police officers on the hunt for a young black man, callously gunned down an innocent young black woman after supposedly crashing into an apartment without warning.  In light of that, the indictment will just fuel the mob's outrage.  The two officers who actually shot Ms. Taylor a total of six times were not charged.  The indictment, instead, lodges three counts of wanton endangerment — not homicide — against Brett Hankison, then a detective (since fired), whose wild firing put neighbors in harm's way but did not kill the young woman.

Breonna Taylor:  Yet Another Grand Jury Defies the Fake News Narrative.  [Scroll down]  The cops executed their warrant and never found any drugs.  The boyfriend shot at men invading the premises without their manifesting clear reason to be breaking in.  The cops shot back at a guy shooting at them.  Horrible.  Tragic.  But not at all racial.  It was just a horrible, horrible thing.  The grand jury did not indict anyone for Breonna Taylor's shooting, but the City of Louisville agreed to pay her family $12 million and to adopt new police reforms so that this awful tragedy never recurs.

Everything the Media Claimed About Breonna Taylor's Death Was a Lie.  Everything the media and lawyer Ben Crump claimed about the death of Breonna Taylor and the circumstances around her death was based on lies.  The officials in Kentucky allowed a mountain of lies to grow until the evidence was finally presented to a grand jury and the Kentucky Attorney General was forced to admit the truth.  According to evidence revealed at a press conference by AG Daniel Cameron, the police executed a search warrant by knocking on the door.  Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker refused to answer the door after the police identified themselves.  The police broke down the door.  Kenneth Walker was armed and shot first at police.  The police returned fire and that's how Breonna Taylor was shot and killed.

Breonna Taylor's Family to Receive $12 Million Settlement From City of Louisville.  After months of protests that turned Breonna Taylor's name into a national slogan against police violence, city officials agreed to pay her family $12 million and institute changes aimed at preventing future deaths by officers.  The agreement, announced Tuesday [9/15/2020], settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the young woman's family.  As her mother, her lawyers and leading activists walked into the council chamber alongside the mayor, there was a momentary show of unity, after months of nightly, sometimes violent demonstrations that have left Kentucky's largest city boarded up.  It comes six months after the death of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, in a botched drug raid, but before the state's attorney general has said whether the officers involved in the shooting would be criminally charged — a key demand of protesters.  "My administration is not waiting to move ahead with needed reforms to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again," said Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville.

Three Nashville cops are 'decommissioned' after raiding the wrong home, again.  Three Nashville police officers have been "decommissioned" (a.k.a. paid vacation to disneyland) after raiding the wrong home, again, and breaking down the door of an innocent family during a botched investigation early Tuesday morning [8/18/2020]. Lieutenant Harrison Dooley, Sergeant Jeff Brown, and officer Michael Richardson, were "suspended" on Wednesday, The Metro Nashville Police Department said. [...] Police Chief John Drake said officers did not give the family enough time to answer the door and failed to exercise due diligence in confirming that the person they were looking for lived at the apartment.  [Video clip]

3 Nashville police officers decommissioned after raiding innocent family's apartment.  Three Nashville police officers were decommissioned late Wednesday, and the metro police department has launched an investigation into the department's execution of a search warrant on an innocent family's residence.  The department released body camera footage of the 6:05 a.m.  Tuesday incident in which officers used a battering ram to knock in the door of a home occupied by a mother and her two children.  The subject of the search warrant, however, was a 16-year-old who did not live at the home and had not resided there for at least four months, The Tennessean reported.

Three Nashville Police Officers Decommissioned After Raiding Wrong Home.  Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake has ordered an investigation into the department's execution of a search warrant at the home of an innocent family.  He also decommissioned three officers on Wednesday while the investigation is ongoing and adjusted the approval requirements for search warrants.  Officers at 6:05 a.m.  Tuesday used a battering ram to knock in the door at the Edgehill home of a mother and her two children.  MNPD has released body camera footage of the incident.

Breonna Taylor and the Moral Bankruptcy of Drug Prohibition.  Last Friday [6/19/2020], three months after Louisville, Kentucky, police officers gunned down a 26-year-old EMT and aspiring nurse named Breonna Taylor during a fruitless drug raid, acting Police Chief Robert Schroeder initiated the termination of Detective Brett Hankison, who he said had "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "wantonly and blindly fired 10 rounds" into Taylor's apartment.  But Hankison's recklessness is just one element of the circumstances that led to Taylor's senseless death, which never would have happened if politicians did not insist on using violence to enforce their pharmacological prejudices.  The March 13 shooting, which has figured prominently in recent protests against police brutality, followed a sadly familiar pattern.  Hankison and two other plainclothes officers broke into Taylor's home around 12:40 a.m., awakening her and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who mistook the armed invaders for robbers.  Walker grabbed a gun and fired a single shot, which hit one of the officers in the leg.  The cops responded with a hail of more than 20 bullets, at least eight of which struck Taylor, who was unarmed. [...] Taylor had no criminal record, and there was no evidence that she or Walker was involved in drug dealing.

I Like My Cops Like I Like My Surgeons:  Cautious, and Not Looking to Kill Me.  You only become a surgeon by excelling academically in school, getting a great grade on your MCAT, successfully completing your medical degree, successfully completing your medical residency, successfully completing your specialization in surgery, passing your board exams, and successfully interviewing and beating out several other candidates for an available position.  And even still, despite all this education and training, and in the face of ample evidence of sound judgment and decision-making ability, surgeons STILL use a big black marker to draw a large 'X' on someone's leg so that they don't accidentally amputate the wrong limb. [...] I know this is going to sound crazy, but maybe our police need to adopt that same sort of precautionary attitude and approach before breaking into somebody's home.  Just by having someone who waits outside of the home with a photograph of the suspect, for example, and who's responsible for comparing the person in the home to the person in the photo, and who, if the two don't match with 100% certainty, would be responsible for saying something on the order of, "The person who lives here is 7-feet tall with three arms, but the person in the photo is 2-feet tall with four legs.  Weird.  It's almost as if they're entirely different people.  Perhaps we should take a beat to double-check everything before proceeding."

A Kentucky EMT was shot and killed during a police raid of her home.  Kentucky woman working as an EMT was killed after officers forced their way inside her home and exchanged shots with her boyfriend, according to a lawsuit filed by her mother.  The officers were executing a search warrant in a narcotics investigation, the Louisville Metro Police Department has said, when they entered Breonna Taylor's apartment just before 1 a.m. on March 13.  Taylor's mother, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed last month against the three police officers involved, argues that the officers should have called off their search of Taylor's apartment because a suspect police were looking for had already been arrested by other officers executing a warrant at a separate location.

Armed SWAT Team Raids Bar Who Dared To Open During Lockdown!  Texas police have arrested a bar owner and six armed men who were protesting lockdown orders issued amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Cops were called to Big Daddy Zane's Bar in West Odessa Monday evening after owner Gabrielle Ellison, 47, re-opened the establishment, violating laws put into place by Gov. Greg Abbott.  Upon arrival, cops were met by a group of men who said they were there to support and defend Ellison as she opened the premises back up.  Six of the men were wearing armor and were armed with guns.  [Video clip]

Texas sheriff sends SWAT team with guns drawn to arrest armed lockdown protestors.  A Texas sheriff sent his department's SWAT team with guns drawn to break up a rally in support of a bar owner who reopened her business in violation of Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) coronavirus lockdown on Monday [5/4/2020].  The protestors say they did nothing wrong and argue they were simply practicing their First and Second Amendment Rights, while the sheriff says the demonstrators exhibited "a show of force" in their demonstration.  Eight people were arrested — six of them for unlawfully carrying a weapon on a premises licensed to sell alcohol.

Texas sheriff receives threats from 'all over the country' after arresting anti-lockdown protesters.  A Texas sheriff is being inundated with threatening phone calls days after his deputies arrested eight protesters outside a bar in Texas.  Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said anti-lockdown protesters had rallied outside the county's office and at a house they believe belongs to Griffis this week in response to his decision to detain bar owner Gabrielle Ellison and members of Open Texas, who attempted to reopen Big Daddy Zane's bar in Odessa on Monday [5/4/2020].

Dumb And Corrupt Cops Risk Losing Our Support.  Here's the thing — we normals respect our police not merely because they have badges and funny hats but because they take personal risks to protect us from those who would violate our rights.  Usually, these violators are criminals.  But the category of "People who violate our rights" also includes political hacks and bureaucratic petty fascists.  And we reasonably expect to be protected from those creeps too.

I carry a badge. And a fork.  It was 11 AM, second breakfast.  Luther and I were working Candy Crush detail out of the Shoney's near the interstate when the call came in... American citizens, protesting.  We got our waffles, bacon, eggs, and more waffles, to go and suited-up.

Innocent EMT Killed in Her Bed by Cops Raiding the Wrong Home.  According to his attorney, Kenneth Walker woke up in the middle of the night to armed intruders kicking in his door.  He then grabbed his legally owned firearm to defend himself.  A hail of gunfire subsequently ensued, all but one of the bullets coming from police weapons, and Walker's girlfriend 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a certified EMT working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, was killed in her bed. [...] After the raid, Walker was arrested for defending himself in his own home against armed invaders because he shot one of the armed invaders in the leg.  Showing the unnecessary nature of the entire deadly debacle is the fact that Walker was released from jail after his arrest because he is not a threat.  Naturally, this infuriated the police union.

Cops Destroyed This House To Arrest a Shoplifter.  A Federal Court Says Police Don't Have To Pay for the Damage.  A federal appeals court ruled this week that the Colorado man who had his home destroyed by a police raid in 2015 is not entitled to compensation for the damage, which was severe enough to require a complete demolition of the house.  "Under no circumstances in this country should the government be able to blow up your house and render a family homeless," Leo Lech, the homeowner, told NPR after the court ruling on Wednesday [10/30/2019].  The raid that left Lech and his family homeless had nothing to do with any of them.  They weren't even home when an armed shoplifter broke into their house on South Alton Street in the leafy Denver suburb of Greenwood Village.  Although the burglar was armed only with a handgun and was fully barricaded inside the home, local police responded as if they were confronting Osama bin Laden.

SWAT: Overkill and Out Of Control.  Being a supporter of our Law Enforcement community does not mean that we give license to destroy a person's home without consequence.  Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) have increasingly gone beyond the pale to destroy homes and buildings with little to no reason for that level of destruction.  When it happens, we expect that Law Enforcement Department to take responsibility for their over-zealousness, as we expect the average Joe to take responsibility for his behavior and actions.  However, recent cases show that the situations are getting worse, not better.  And the courts are backing up the fanatical destruction of these SWAT teams.

Demonization of Gun Owners:  Philadelphia "Wellness Check" Results in Hysteria, Propaganda.  On 28 August, 2019, relatives of a former gun dealer called police because, they said, they were concerned the 72-Year-Old man might be depressed and/or suicidal.  I do not know if the man was suicidal or not, but old white men commit the largest percentages of suicides.  They tend to use guns to do the deed.  The police raided the house, on the authorization of the relatives.  It appears to be a nice home in a nice neighborhood.  Bustleton is home to many of Philadelphia's police officers and firefighters.  The wellness check turned into a full blown media circus.  Swat was called "to assist in clearing weapons".  The bomb squad was called.  Hazmat was called.  Why?  Because the man involved, who had been a gun dealer, according to relatives, had a modest gun collection, some inert grenade bodies (easily and legally purchased), a smoke grenade (totally legal), some mercury (totally legal), and about a thousand rounds of ammunition.

Amir Worship Lawsuit.  Amir Worship is the 12-year-old son of Crystal Worship, an Illinois mother who filed a lawsuit Thursday [8/8/2019] accusing police of "terrorizing" her children.  Amir, Ms. Worship's youngest son, was shot in the knee by a white officer while sitting on his bed with his hands raised.

Arizona SWAT busts down door to take 2-yr-old unvaccinated boy with 105° fever away from home for help.  After the parents of a sick 2-year-old child refused a doctor's recommendation late last month that they take their unvaccinated son to the emergency room for treatment for the boy's 105 degree fever, he reportedly sicced a police swat team on them via the Arizona Department of Child Safety.  Shocking police surveillance footage released by the media this week shows Chandler Police Department officers busting down the parents' front door and storming into their home as if they were taking down drug dealers or trying to apprehend armed fugitives.  Except they were, in reality, looking for the 2-year-old because they incorrectly believed he was in danger.

Swat Team Takes Children from Home because of Political Liability.  On 26 February, 2019, the Chandler Police SWAT team raided a home where the children were sick.  The parents had not committed any crime, nor was any child in any substantial danger.  The raid itself created far more danger than the danger it was supposed to mitigate.  It was a perfect storm of the conflict of rights and the Nanny State, parental responsibility and bureaucratic fear of liability.  In short, it resulted from the basic conflict in our society between those who insist on perfection, and reality.  It shows how creeping tyranny is advancing in society.

Phony Houston Drug Warrant Prompts FBI Investigation and Review of 1,400 Cases.  The fraudulent search warrant that authorized last month's deadly Houston drug raid has prompted an FBI investigation and a review of more than 1,400 cases involving the narcotics officer who obtained the warrant.  "The FBI Houston Field Office has opened an independent civil rights investigation into allegations that a search warrant obtained by Houston police officers was based on false, fabricated information," the FBI announced in a press release yesterday.  "The execution of that search warrant at 7815 Harding Street, Houston, TX, on January 28, 2019, resulted in the deaths of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle as well as serious injuries to several Houston police officers."  Officer Gerald Goines, who was shot in the neck during the no-knock raid, obtained the warrant by claiming that he had sent a confidential informant into the house on January 27 to buy heroin from a man matching Tuttle's description.  The C.I. supposedly returned with "a quantity of brown powder substance," subsequently identified as black-tar heroin, and reported that there many more bags of it in the house, along with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.  Police found neither of those things, or any other evidence of drug dealing, when they searched the house the next day after they killed Nicholas and Tuttle during a shootout they started by breaking into the house and killing the couple's dog with a shotgun.

TBI investigating raid on wrong house in Bradley County; DEA apologizes to family.  The Drug Enforcement Administration acknowledged it made a mistake when officers raided Spencer Renck's house Tuesday morning [5/29/2018].  The Bradley County Sheriff's Office assisted in the raid, which happened during the search for a murder suspect staying at the house next door.  The federal agency says it's sorry for the mix-up.  But, will it pay for any damages?  On Wednesday morning, District Attorney General Stephen Crump asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to review the incident to see what went wrong.  "Clearly on property issues, the DEA and/or the Bradley County sheriff's department is going to liable for that," said attorney Bill Speek.  He sees a lot of situations like this unfold.  There was severe property damage inside the Rencks' home.  Door frames are busted, ceilings dented and clothes are ripped.  The family says agents threw flash bangs while four children slept nearby.  But Speek says it could have been much worse.

The SWATting Death of Andy Finch.  There's body cam video of the shooting, but the cops were a good distance away from Finch and the video provides little insight.  You can hear a cop yell "show your hands, walk this way."  To the cop, who knows why he's taking charge, his commands make sense.  To a good guy, who couldn't possibly conceive of why a distant cop was yelling at him, it makes no sense.  There is a good chance he wasn't sure they were yelling at him, and he was looking around to see who else they might be screaming at.  The idea that police would command him to "show his hands," not the clearest phrase to a good guy to begin with, must have seemed absurd.  Why would a cop tell him to show his hands?  He was in his home, with his family, having an ordinary evening.  Finch was unarmed.  He didn't have any object in his hand that might have been mistaken for a gun, even though there would have been nothing wrong, nothing even unusual, if he had.  The cops saw no glint of steel.  They weren't open and exposed, but distant and protected.  But the cops had it in their head that he was a killer, and so they saw his every move as a killer's move.

Elderly Vet Accidentally Trips His Medical Alert System, Cops Show Up and Kill Him — No Charges.  A police officer who shot and killed an innocent 68-year-old mentally ill veteran who accidentally hit the medical emergency button in his home, will face no consequences after acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim determined that there was insufficient evidence to press charges.  The victim, Kenneth Chamberlain, accidentally triggered a medical alert through "Life Aid," which prompted police to visit his home.  When the officers arrived unexpectedly, Chamberlain told the responding officers that he was OK and did not need any help.  He refused to answer his door, and instead called Life Aid and told them that he did not need the police at his home.

Wichita Swatting Victim's Mother Isn't Even Allowed To See Her Own Son.  [Scroll down]  While it's deplorable that someone would do this, it wouldn't be a problem if cops wore uniforms, didn't assume that the call was legitimate, and simply knocked on the door to chat with the occupants since, after all, it is their property.  The practice of swatting is a problem only because of the hero soldier-boy complex that infects the police forces around the nation.

10 Facts About The Growing SWAT Team Raids In America That Everyone Should Know.  The number of SWAT team raids in the United States every year is now more than 25 times higher than it was back in 1980.  As America has conducted wars overseas in recent years, our police forces have become increasingly militarized as well.  And without a doubt, many of our cities have become much more dangerous places.  Thanks to relentless illegal immigration, drug cartels are thriving and there are now at least 1.4 million gang members living in the United States.  But there are many that believe that the militarization of our police forces has gone way too far.  Almost weekly, SWAT team brutality somewhere in America makes national headlines.

Woman says cops raided her home, called her a drug dealer — but she's not.  In a recently filed lawsuit, the homeowner, Patricia Gold, said she called police earlier on the night of Dec. 14, 2015 after a neighbor told her there was a suspicious minivan driving back and forth in front of her home.  Police informed Gold that the minivan was, in fact, a UPS vehicle delivering packages and she later found a package outside her home, according to the complaint.  All seemed well until about a half hour later, when Gold heard pounding on her front door and saw a State Police trooper outside, the complaint says.  Assuming the trooper was responding to her earlier call, Gold says she opened the door.  It was then that the trooper, later identified as Richard Nugnes, "grabbed her right wrist, threw it above her head and slammed her body into the center foyer wall," the complaint says.

The Illusion of Freedom:  The Police State Is Alive and Well.  [Scroll down]  In fact, the American police state has continued to advance at the same costly, intrusive, privacy-sapping, Constitution-defying, relentless pace under President Trump as it did under President Obama. [...] SWAT teams haven't stopped crashing through doors and terrorizing families.  Nationwide, SWAT teams continue to be employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activities or mere community nuisances including angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession.  With more than 80,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans for relatively routine police matters and federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions, the incidence of botched raids and related casualties continue to rise.

Army, Navy, Air Force, EPA.  If sending Marines, Navy Seals, and Delta force to the world's trouble spots doesn't work, we could also send the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).  Both agencies have military equipment, weapons, SWAT teams, drones, and highly trained "Special Agents;" so do many others not traditionally considered law enforcement agencies.  A new report from transparency watchdog group Open the Books documents an explosion in the number of federal agencies with gun-toting, badge-wielding law enforcement divisions.  The report, called "The Militarization of America" details the astonishing scope of federal police power.  There are now over 200,000 federal officers with arrest and firearm authority, in a whopping 67 different federal agencies.  That is remarkable when you consider there are only 182,000 U.S. Marines.  Those 67 federal agencies — 53 of which are not law enforcement agencies — spent a total of $1.48 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between 2006 and 2014.

FBI Alaska SWAT Team Failed Breach.  Did they leave an M4 or AR-15 leaning up against the garage door while they tried to break into the house?  What was that dude in the truck doing with his time?  Eating doughnuts?  I think it might have been easier and done with greater tactical fidelity if they had gone up to the door and knocked.  I hope they didn't just go in and shoot the dog, leave the door all broken and walk away like most other SWAT raids.  Or confiscate an ounce of marijuana and call it a success.  [Video clip]

Keywords:  trigger happy, urban gunslinger, oops.
For man, 76, shot by NJ trooper in 911 mixup, 'whole thing is just unbelievable'.  Gerald Sykes, his wife, and their Miniature Pinscher, Sarah, never heard police knock outside their rural South Jersey home, according to the family, before a state trooper shot him Friday night [7/29/2016] while responding to a disconnected 911 call.  Authorities mistakenly believed the call, in which the person hung up before speaking, had come from Sykes' house.  It had not.  In the dark, Sykes and his wife believed the two troopers outside were intruders. [...] [The family's attorney, Rich] Kaser said Sykes' family is "aggressively exploring" the possibility of legal action, but has not taken steps yet. [...] Kaser said Sykes' wife got out of bed just before 11:30 p.m. because she saw shadowy figures on the back deck.  She then awakened her husband, who walked to the living room, also saw the figures, then walked to the bedroom to grab a shotgun from the closet.  Upon walking into the living room with the shotgun, Sykes was hit by three bullets through the glass, Kaser said.

Judge Napolitano:  FBI Transcript Shows Nobody Died in Orlando Shooting Until SWAT Teams entered the Building.  What should have been front page news everywhere, somehow got buried amid the official narrative we were given about the Orlando shooting.  Judge Andrew Napolitano told FOX News that an FBI transcript indicated that no one died until 05:13am Sunday morning when the police SWAT teams entered the building.  "Here's what is news in the summary — nobody died until 05:13 in the morning, when the SWAT team entered.  Prior to that no one had been killed.  The 53 that were injured, and the 49 that were murdered all met their fates at the time of, and during, the police entry into the building," Judge Napolitano said.

Militarized USDA and EPA using SWAT teams to terrorize innocent people including lemon growers and small farmers.  The federal government is becoming increasingly militarized, with numerous agencies now employing their own SWAT teams to conduct raids on raw milk producers, beekeepers, lemon growers — or anyone else who runs afoul of agency policies.  The trend has increased during Obama's presidency and is not only costing taxpayers enormous amounts of money, but also terrorizing citizens who could hardly be considered dangerous criminals by any sane estimation.  The USDA is just one example.

Empty home destroyed in 4-hour SWAT siege, innocent woman left with $100,000 in damages.  A SWAT team spent hours firing "mortars, grenades, and teargas canisters" at an empty home.  The 4-hour siege destroyed windows, doors, and walls and left the home in ruin.  The suspect didn't even live at the address, and the innocent homeowner was left homeless for months and ultimately was stuck with over $100,000 in repair bills, which the responsible parties have refused to pay.

Kids traumatized after SWAT team ransacks wrong home.  A family was terrorized and accosted when a masked paramilitary outfit unexpectedly broke through their back door.  Frightened children hid in a closet as the masked invaders spent hours tearing apart all the possessions in the home.  The family assumed they were being attacked by robbers, but it turned out to be a SWAT team sent from the local "Department of Public Safety."

Armed EPA Agents? The Truth Is Way Out There.  According to a report released last week by a watchdog group called Open the Books, the EPA has spent millions of dollars recently on guns, ammo, body armor, camouflage equipment, and even night-vision goggles to arm its agents in the war on polluters.  The Illinois-based investigative group examined thousands of checks totaling more than $93 billion from 2000 to 2014 by the EPA, and its auditors indicate that about $75 million is authorized each year for "criminal enforcement" of America's clean air and water laws.  This includes cash for a cadre of 200 "special agents" that engage in SWAT-style ops.

USDA and Submachine Guns: Latest Example of Mission Creep as Federal Policing Expands.  Why does the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) need submachine guns?  The agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is seeking .40 Caliber semiautomatic submachine guns.  But while many may wonder why USDA agents need semiautomatic weapons, the OIG's request is not unusual for other similar and seemingly unlikely federal agencies that are rapidly becoming armed and equipped with police units of their very own.

Why Do the Postal Service, USDA, EPA, And Department of Agriculture Need SWAT Teams?  All throughout the United States there are government agencies who have no association with national security acquiring military-like equipment, according to news talk KFLD.  Many agencies are also receiving SWAT teams including the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Education Department.  In almost prophetic fashion Ron Paul in a 1997 warned about the militarization of federal bureaucrats; including the BLM, which was not yet armed.

Turning police into soldiers has made America into a war zone.  The raid that wounded Bou Bou [Phonesavanh] has much in common with police SWAT deployments around the country, according to a new ACLU report on the militarization of America's police forces.  Increasingly, police departments choose SWAT to handle relatively low-stakes and low-risk tasks in low-income communities of color.  We found that police often opt for the SWAT team, with its 10-or-more officers armed with assault rifles, to do routine police work in black and Latino neighborhoods.  We reviewed multiple cases in which SWAT teams held children at gunpoint, killed family pets, and destroyed property simply because the cops believed they would find drugs.  In the process, they have brought terror into people's homes, eroded public trust in law enforcement, and undermined civil liberties.

How to serve a warrant: 1972 versus today, by Lt. Harry Thomas.  Since the early 80's, the use of SWAT teams in civilian law enforcement has increased about 1500%.  No, those two zeros are not a typo.  At least FORTY completely innocent American citizens have been shot to death by rogue police, either because incompetent law enforcement officials hit the wrong address, or because startled homeowners attempted to defend themselves against the masked strangers violently entering their homes and were gunned down.  One of them, Kathryn Johnston of Atlanta, was 92 years old.

The United States of SWAT?  Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions.  It's not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them.  But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?  All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.

Dept. of Education SWAT Raid Update: Not for a Student Loan, DoE Says.  This will certainly come as a relief to Millenial deadbeats, but the notion that "bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds" is all it takes to get a paramilitary squad to bang down your door at 6 a.m, handcuff you in your boxers, and throw your three pre-teen children into the back seat of a squad car, all in the service of a warrant aimed at someone who no longer lives in your home, is frankly every bit as terrifying.  Unless and until we hear that this "criminal investigation" involves some kind of imminent threat of violence, there will be no margin of excuse for it, only new opportunities for bureaucrats and commentators to demonstrate that they are perfectly content living in and even contributing to a police state.

The Department of Education's S.W.A.T. Team.  Since when does the US Department of Education have a SWAT team at their disposal?  Official answer:  they borrowed it from the Inspector General.  Okay.  Now, let's rephrase the question.  Since when does the US Department of Education's Inspector General have a SWAT team at its disposal?  The short answer?  Since the enactment of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.  President Jimmy Carter and a social progressive Democratic Congress created the Department of Education with Public Law 96-88 on Oct. 17, 1979, and George W. Bush and a Republican Congress armed them in 2002 with an extension of the Patriot Act in what can only be described as the silent creation of the Bully State.  And, finally — why?  When the other questions are pondered and answered, one nagging question remains.  Since the Office of the Inspector General was specifically created to investigate waste and fraud by individual employees in the federal government, why would the IG for any federal agency need a SWAT team?

Congressman on mission to disarm federal agencies.  Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, introduced HR 4934, also called the Regulatory Agency De-militarization Act or RAD, in late June, and it has since gained more than 30 co-sponsors in the House. [...] In recent years, nearly every federal regulatory agency — from the U.S. Department of Education, to the Food and Drug Administration and the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — has deployed some kind of SWAT-type unit with high-powered assault rifles, helmets, menacing black uniforms with faces covered, body armor and militarized armored vehicles.  Stewart said it's disturbing for Americans to read stories of federal regulators armed to the teeth and breaking into homes and businesses with no reason to think there would be resistance.

The Trivialization of SWAT.  A couple of things going on in America are dramatically increasing the possibility of violence in these situations, which in the process undermines public support for legitimate law-enforcement tools.  The first is the use of SWAT teams to serve search warrants on nonviolent offenders, enforce evictions, and otherwise get involved in cases where the use of force is unlikely to be necessary.  The second is the growing use of SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics by government agencies that have no business employing such methods.  As mentioned, these include the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the National Fish and Wild Life Service, the National Park Service, and, perhaps the worst of all, the hated Internal Revenue Service.

Bill seeks to disarm federal SWAT teams.  Does the Department of Education really need SWAT teams?  How about the Department of Agriculture or HUD?  Finally, legislation has been introduced to reverse the militarization of the federal bureaucracy.  Representative Cynthia Loomis (R-WY) has introduced lefgislation that would reverse the dangerous madness.

Why does NASA need a SWAT team?  A strong trend of militarizing law enforcement has been occurring for some time, and if this is a surprise to you, its time to catch up.  Yes, even NASA has a SWAT team, and you may be surprised with some of their assignments, which include militarized perimeter security and robbing grandmothers of heirloom decorative paperweights.  NASA's recent purchase of Armalite AR-15 rifles, documented on FedBizOpps.gov, is only the tip of the iceberg regarding NASA's equipment and capabilities.  The space agency also has its own police department and round-the-clock SWAT team.

The United States of SWAT — Federal Agencies.  Many veteran law-enforcement figures have severe qualms about the turn police work is taking.  One retired veteran of a large metropolitan police force told me:  "I was recently down at police headquarters for a meeting.  Coincidently, there was a promotion ceremony going on and the SWAT guys looked just like members of the Army, except for the police shoulder patches.  Not an image I would cultivate.  It leads to a bad mindset."  Indeed, the U.S. Constitution's Third Amendment, against the quartering of troops in private homes, was part of an overall reaction against the excesses of Britain's colonial law enforcement.  "It wasn't the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia," Balko writes.  "It was England's decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement."  There are things that can be done to curb the abuses without taking on the politically impossible job of disbanding SWAT units.

Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens.  Our police forces have become dangerously militarized. We need cops, not soldiers on the streets of America.  In fact it is pretty much against the American tradition to have what are essentially soldiers on patrol in our country.  Most cities don't need Bradley Fighting Vehicles.  But they are getting them.  Most cities don't need SWAT teams, but they are expanding them.  Much of this militarization has come from an influx of federal money aimed at fighting "terrorism."  But Iowa City Iowa doesn't have much of a terrorism issue.  Nor does 98% of the United States.  But the cops in places outside of New York, DC, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco want their piece of the pie.  And they've gotten it — to the overall detriment of civil society in the United States.

Depth of federal arms race should surprise, shock citizenry.  It may come as a surprise to many U.S. taxpayers, but a slew of federal agencies — some whose responsibilities seem to have little to do with combating crime — carry active law enforcement operations.  Here's a partial list:
  •   The U.S. Department of Education
  •   The Bureau of Land Management (200 uniformed law enforcement rangers and 70 special agents)
  •   The U.S. Department of the Interior
  •   The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (with an armed uniformed division of 1.000)
  •   The National Park Service (made up of NPS protection park rangers and U.S. Park Police officers that operate independently)
  •   The Environmental Protection Agency (200 special agents)
  •   The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (224 special agents)
  •   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
That's right, NOAA — the folks who forecast the weather, monitor the atmosphere and keep tabs on the oceans and waterways — has its own law enforcement division. It has a budget of $65 million and consists of 191 employees, including 96 special agents and 28 enforcement officers who carry weapons.

FBI reportedly to pay after botched raid destroyed family's Christmas tree.  After a botched FBI raid in Kansas nearly destroyed a family's home, the bureau vowed to pay for damages including a ruined Christmas tree and lost toys, The Joplin Globe reported Wednesday [12/16/2015].  Law enforcement officers reportedly surrounded the home Monday night [12/14/2015] in Galena believing an armed gang member was holed up in the attic.  He was wanted on charges including failing to appear in court on a misdemeanor assault charge.  The FBI joined in Tuesday after a federal warrant accused the man of hopping state lines to avoid prosecution, the Globe reports.

Peace Officer  is a feature documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of William "Dub" Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state's first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later.  Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.

Gov. Walker Supporters Claim Police Raided Their Homes Over Politics.  Megyn Kelly shared new information tonight [4/23/2015] about a series of terrifying raids which were reportedly a form of political retribution against supporters of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI).  She explained that a few of the people who were raided came forward and spoke to the National Review about what they experienced.  Kelly reported that Cindy Archer had a raid conducted on her home when she was sound asleep one night.  Archer claims that more than a dozen police officers were yelling and pounding on her door.  She said that police would not tell her why they were there as they ransacked her home, Kelly reported.

Wisconsin's Shame: 'I Thought it Was a Home Invasion'.  Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive movement and home of the "Wisconsin idea" — the marriage of state governments and state universities to govern through technocratic reform — was giving birth to a new progressive idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election results, shame opponents, and ruin lives.  Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives.  For good reason.  Bound by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the lights shining down on targets' homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?

50 Real Numbers From 2014 That Almost Defy Belief.  80,000 — Back in 1980, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids conducted in the United States.  But today, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country.

Bureaucrats With Berettas.  It's a morning Kenneth Wright will never forget:  15 armed agents break in his front door and grab him by the neck, still in the boxer shorts he slept in.  For six hours, a handcuffed Wright sat in a cruiser parked outside with his three children, ages 3, 7, and 11, while agents searched his house.  "They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," the Stockton, Calif., resident told a local news outlet at the time.  Drugs?  Weapons?  Domestic violence?  No.  As Wright later found out, his gun-toting visitors were from the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG).  What the neighbors mistook as a S.W.A.T. team raid was really the execution of a search warrant in a student loan fraud case involving Wright's wife, who wasn't even there at the time.

Ft. Bend Police, Prosecutors Accused of Abuse in SWAT Incident.  "While I had my hands up naked in the shower they shot me with a 40 millimeter non-lethal round," said [Chad] Chadwick.  A second stun grenade soon followed.  "I turned away, the explosion went off, I opened my eyes the lights are out and here comes a shield with four or five guys behind it.  They pinned me against the wall and proceeded to beat the crap out of me," said Chadwick.

Sex, Spice, and Small-Town Texas Justice: The Purple Zone Raid.  On the morning of May 7, 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) launched Project Synergy Phase II, a national "day of raids" in 29 states, with the goal of taking down purveyors of synthetic drugs who funnel their proceeds to Middle Eastern terrorist organizations.  The Purple Zone, a smoke shop in Alpine, Texas, owned by 29-year-old Ilana Lipsen, was the target of one of these raids.  This particular raid was so heavy handed and its aftermath so clumsily handled by law enforcement that it drew national attention as a symbol of police militarization and the vagaries of laws pertaining to drug "analogues."  Analogues are chemicals that are not prohibited but are similar enough to controlled substances that they become illegal depending on who interprets the data.

Meet the New Serfs: You.  The New Haven SWAT team must have been pretty amped up:  It was midnight, and they were getting ready to bust down the door of a man wanted on charges involving weapons violations, robbery — and murder.  They were not sure how many people were in the house, or how they'd react.  After a volley of flash grenades that set fire to the carpet and a sofa, they moved in, guns drawn.  A minute later, they had their man zip-tied on the floor.  If only they'd double-checked the address first.

Police raid roundup.  [For example,] The grandson of a New Hampshire woman who was shot by police during a drug raid says she was reaching for her 18-month-old grandchild when the police fired at her.  The bullet ripped through her arm and lodged in her abdomen.  Two of the woman's daughters were arrested on drug charges during simultaneous raids, but neither lived with the woman.  According to the grandson, the police then tore the woman's home apart but did not find any contraband.

The militarization of America's police.  Are SWAT tactics an overreaction?  In many cases, yes.  Of the 124 SWAT raids conducted daily, only 7 percent meet the original LAPD criteria.  About 62 percent of the raids are mounted to conduct drug searches — many of them based on tips from unreliable informants.  Most are undertaken to investigate nonviolent offenses.  In Orlando in 2010, for example, heavily armed SWAT teams raided nine barbershops and arrested 34 people for "barbering without a license."  Adrenalin-fueled SWAT teams have often been accused of overexuberance:  In 2011, an Arizona paramilitary police unit riding in military vehicles — including a tank driven by special deputy and action movie star Steven Seagal — drove straight into the living room of an unarmed man suspected of staging cockfights.  Such "no-knock" operations are now commonplace — often with tragic consequences.

The nastiest political tactic this year.  The early-morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens' homes were conducted by law enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats.  Spouses were separated as the police seized computers, including those of children still in pajamas.  Clothes drawers, including the children's, were ransacked, cellphones were confiscated and the citizens were told that it would be a crime to tell anyone of the raids.  Some raids were precursors of, others were parts of, the nastiest episode of this unlovely political season, an episode that has occurred in an unlikely place.  This attempted criminalization of politics to silence people occupying just one portion of the political spectrum has happened in Wisconsin, which often has conducted robust political arguments with Midwestern civility.

Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws.  These agencies oversee police activities.  They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill.  They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences.  And yet they say that because they've incorporated, they're immune to Massachusetts open records laws.

Barney Fife Meets Delta Force.  Historians looking back at this period in America's development will consider it to be profoundly odd that at the exact moment when violent crime hit a 50-year low, the nation's police departments began to gear up as if the country were expecting invasion — and, on occasion, to behave as if one were underway.  The ACLU reported recently that SWAT teams in the United States conduct around 45,000 raids each year, only 7 percent of which have anything whatsoever to do with the hostage situations with which those teams were assembled to contend.  Paramilitary operations, the ACLU concluded, are "happening in about 124 homes every day — or more likely every night" — and four in five of those are performed in order that authorities might "search homes, usually for drugs."  Such raids routinely involve "armored personnel carriers," "military equipment like battering rams," and "flashbang grenades."

Have police departments gone too far with SWAT units?  At the end of the 1960s, the Los Angeles Police Department decided it needed a better way to handle situations, such as confrontations with barricaded gunmen or hostage takers, that presented a high risk of deadly violence.  So it created Special Weapons and Tactics units, known thereafter as SWAT.  In the decades since, these units have spread nationwide, contributing to a startling militarization of local police agencies.  The American Civil Liberties Union now raises troubling questions about the blurred lines that come with arming and training domestic law enforcement officers as though they are an extension of the U.S. military.

The Age of Mafia Government: People Wind Up Mysteriously Dead.  The ultimate way to earn power over other people is to threaten not just their livelihood, but also their lives, and the lives of those they love.  On that note, perhaps it's appropriate to mention that the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Education each have their own SWAT teams. [...] When black-helmeted men circle your home, break down your door, throw your children from their sleeping beds onto the dew-ridden lawn, and shoot you 22 times because some meathead mistook your house for a drug dealer's, it's clear government has gone from protecting you from threats to becoming a threat itself.

Nanny-State Mindset Leads to Police Brutality.  In Georgia, a SWAT team broke into a house searching for drugs and threw a flash-bang grenade inside a child's crib.  The excessive force was disgusting to begin with.  Even worse is the fact that the police had the wrong house and there were no drugs.  The child is in critical condition.  Amazingly, the local sherriff and other Georgia authorities said the officers didn't do anything wrong.  That's ludicrous.  They deployed a grenade developed for war in a private home and sent a child to the hospital fighting for his life.  Something is terribly wrong.

Baby in Coma After Police 'Grenade' Dropped in Crib During Drug Raid.  A Georgia toddler has been put into a medically induced coma after he was badly burned by a police "flash bang" grenade that landed in the crib where the boy was sleeping during a drug raid, his mother told ABC News today.  The raid occurred before dawn Wednesday night [5/28/2014] in Habersham County while the Phonesavanh family was sleeping.  "It was a big flash, a loud bang, a bunch of yelling, and my son screaming," the boy's mom, Alecia Phonesavanh, 27, told ABC News.

How Cops Became Baby Burners.  The cops were looking for the Phonesavanhs' 30-year-old nephew, Wanis Thonetheva, who a few hours before had allegedly sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant from the same doorway through which the SWAT team entered.  They had obtained a "no knock" warrant by claiming Thonetheva was apt to be armed and dangerous.  Thonetheva was not there, and police did not find any drugs, cash, or guns either.  When they arrested him later that morning at a different location, he had about an ounce of meth but no weapons.

The Editor says...
You would think there would be somebody in charge of such an operation who had made sure they had their facts straight, before charging in and using potentially lethal weapons.

Amateur SWAT is Worse Than Regular SWAT.  Here's a few fun facts about the incident that wounded "Bou-bou" Phonesavanh.
  •   The individual who threw the grenade in Georgia had no [...] flash-bang certification.  Neither did any of the SWAT members.
  •   The thrower had not had any formal training on how to use the grenade, or its capabilities.
  •   He'd never thrown one before.
  •   The individual never looked in the room, but threw the grenade blind into the toddler's crib.
  •   The SWAT members didn't just lie to the child's stressed-out mother, Alecia Phonesavanh.  They also lied to their superiors about the incident.  Many departments will countenance the former, but not many have much toleration for the latter.
  •   The SWAT team was all new and had conducted almost no individual and collective training.
  •   They claimed they "knew" there were no children in the house, but no policeman had been in the house, and even their informant had not been inside.  They actually had to move a baby stroller and walk past a minivan with four child seats to stack up on the house.  Four child seats and a stroller are what an intelligence officer might call "indicators."
  •   News stories say the target of the raid was arrested "later," but supposedly the investigation has uncovered that he was already in custody when the raid initiated.  So the raid took place to grab a guy who was already in the back of a cruiser elsewhere.

Update:
Parents left with $1 million in hospital bills after toddler son was disfigured in botched SWAT drug raid.  The parents of a toddler who was left disfigured after being hit with a stun-gun grenade in a botched drug raid while he slept in his crib are speaking out after a grand jury decided not to bring up charges in the heartbreaking case.  Alecia and Bounkham Phonesavanh's youngest son Bounkham Jr, called 'Bou Bou', was just 18-months-old when a SWAT team burst through his bedroom and threw a flash-bang device at his sleeper crib, in the hunt to find a drug-dealing cousin who didn't even live there.  Now, after several surgeries to address the boy's serious injuries, the family is left with over $1million in medical bills that the county has refused to pay.

Police Militarization, Abuses of Power, and the Road to Impeachment.  Mountain Pure Water, LLC is headquartered on Interstate 30 just outside the town of Little Rock, Arkansas.  The company manufactures and distributes beverage containers, spring water, fruit drinks, and teas.  In January 2012, about 50 federal agents, led by Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent Cynthia Roberts and IRS Special Agent Bobbi Spradlin, swooped in, guns drawn.  Without explanation they shut down plant operations, herded employees into the cafeteria, and confined them to the room for hours.  They could not so much as use the bathroom without police escort.  Cell phones were confiscated and all Internet and company phones were disabled.  Plant Manager Court Stacks was at his desk when police burst through his office door, guns drawn and pointed at him — a thoroughly unprofessional violation of basic firearms discipline in this circumstance, and the cause of numerous accidental SWAT killings.

Wisconsin prosecutors abuse the law for partisan ends.  Eric O'Keefe's refusal to be intimidated by lawless law enforcement officials produced [U.S. District Judge Rudolph T.] Randa's remarkably emphatic ruling against an especially egregious example of Democrats using government power to suppress conservatives' political speech.  Wisconsin's sordid episode began, appropriately, with a sound of tyranny — fists pounding on the doors of private citizens in pre-dawn raids.  While sheriff's deputies used floodlights to illuminate the citizens' homes, armed raiders seized documents, computers, cellphones and other devices.

The United States of SWAT?  Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle's grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy's ranch.  They shouldn't have been.  Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions.  It's not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them.  But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?  All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.

Aggressive SWAT Team in Full Body Armor Raids Home, Confiscates ONE Dud Shell Casing, Federal Charges Laid.  At 8:20 p.m. on July 7, 2012, SWAT agents showed up at Mark Witaschek's D.C. home to execute a search warrant for "firearms and ammunition ... gun cleaning equipment, holsters, bullet holders and ammunition receipts."  Witaschek's 14-year-old daughter answered the door and let about 30 officers, who were in full tactical gear, inside.  The officers immediately charged upstairs and demanded that Witaschek and his girlfriend, Bonnie Harris, surrender, face-down.  Both were handcuffed.

SWAT Mix-Up: U.S. Marshals Mistakenly Raid Home of Fla. Nurse.  A police mix-up nearly had a disastrous outcome in Sarasota, Florida, when a SWAT team burst into a woman's apartment with their guns drawn.  Louise Goldsberry, a 59-year-old nurse, was terrified when she saw a man with a gun outside her kitchen window.  She then ran to her bedroom and grabbed her gun, leading to a tense standoff.  Fortunately no one was injured during the confusion.

Florida Nurse Terrorized by US Marshals in Warrantless Raid.  It was a typical evening after work when Sarasota, Fl., resident Louise Goldsberry finished dinner and began to clean up.  The nurse, employed by the Sarasota Doctors Hospital, proceeded towards the kitchen sink to clean the dishes when she gazed out her window.  Her gaze met the eyes of a man wearing a hunting vest who was aiming a gun directly at her face.

NYPD broke down door without warrant, beat up family, stomped pet bird to death.  A Staten Island family barbecue turned into a nightmare when it was interrupted by police investigating the improper use of a parking cone to save a parking spot on the street.  What resulted was a day the family will never forget, as their home was invaded without a warrant, several family members were bludgeoned, and a NYPD officer sadistically stomped on a pet parakeet that lay helpless on the floor.

If Police Can't Identify a Masked Officer, How Can The Public?  At a local public safety fair in Austin, Infowars Nightly News reporter Jakari Jackson asks Austin police officers about the masked Austin SWAT team member who confined him to his own home. [Video clip]

Mother of three negligently shot in the head during botched drug raid.  The American Drug War claimed another casualty when a woman was shot in the head while sitting on a couch by an incompetent police officer, who fired his weapon through an exterior wall prior to raiding the home.  At about 10:30 p.m. on December 11th, a group of cops calling themselves the U.S. 23 Task Force swarmed the residence and prepared to break in and capture people for possessing drugs.

Licensed to Kill: The Growing Phenomenon of Police Shooting Unarmed Citizens.  I'm not talking about a situation so obviously fraught with risk that there is no other option but to shoot, although I am hard pressed to consider what that might be outside of the sensationalized Hollywood hostage crisis scenario.  I'm talking about the run-of-the mill encounters between police and citizens that occur daily.  In an age when police are increasingly militarized, weaponized and protected by the courts, these once-routine encounters are now inherently dangerous for any civilian unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

SWAT-Team Nation.  In 1972, America conducted only a few hundred paramilitary drug raids a year, according to Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."  By the early nineteen-eighties, there were three thousand a year; by 2001, Alexander notes, the annual count had skyrocketed to forty thousand.  Today, even that number seems impossibly low; with one annual count of combat-style home raids hovers around eighty thousand. [...] But what's remarkable is how routine these tactics have become as a means of pursuing nonviolent suspects and low-level investigations, particularly in the war on drugs. Thousands of police departments nationwide have recently acquired stun grenades, armored tanks, counterattack vehicles, and other paramilitary equipment, much of it purchased with asset-forfeiture funds.

107-year-old Arkansas man dies in shootout with S.W.A.T..  A 107-year old Pine Bluff man died Saturday [9/7/2013] after a shootout with officers and S.W.A.T. members.  The Pine Bluff Police Dept. released the following information about the incident on Saturday evening.

Mission Creep: EPA Agents Enter Drug War.  A large-scale narcotics investigation and sentencing in Montana has revealed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has entered the enforcement of U.S. war on drugs.  The EPA has full federal law enforcement capabilities, and their charter allows them to participate in the investigation and prosecution of "criminal conduct that threatens people's health," according to the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division (EPA CID).

Armed EPA raid in Alaska sheds light on 70 fed agencies with armed divisions.  The recent uproar over armed EPA agents descending on a tiny Alaska mining town is shedding light on the fact that 40 federal agencies — including nearly a dozen typically not associated with law enforcement — have armed divisions.  The agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June 2012 Justice Department report.  Though most Americans know agents within the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Prisons carry guns, agencies such as the Library of Congress and Federal Reserve Board employing armed officers might come as a surprise.

E.P.A. is the New Gestapo.  Just recently, a task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the tiny town of Chicken[,] Alaska[,] with a population of 17 last month, in what locals described as a raid.  "Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say "POLICE" emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms," gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. [...] According to the EPA The investigation was into possible violations of the Clean Water Act.  The officers were part of the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force and visited the outpost near the Canadian border during the third week of August to investigate water discharges into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans.  This is how the EPA handles an investigation, with rifles, handguns and bullet proof vests?

Parnell orders investigation of mining raids.  Enforcement officers with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management were armed and wore body armor, according to Parnell.  He said an investigator with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation joined the agents, who said they were looking for violations of the Clean Water Act.

The Editor says...
I suspect this investigation could have been carried out by two little old ladies with a smart phone and a laptop.  Instead they sent a SWAT team.

Book Review: "Rise of the Warrior Cop".  Today SWAT teams are nothing special.  They've multiplied like mushrooms.  Every city has a SWAT team; 80% of towns between 25,000 and 50,000 people do as well.  These teams are busy; in 2005 there were between 50,000 and 60,000 SWAT raids in the U.S.  The tactics are pretty much what you would expect — breaking down doors, rushing in with military weaponry, tear gas — but the targets aren't.  SWAT teams are routinely deployed against illegal poker games, businesses suspected of employing illegal immigrants and barbershops with unlicensed hair stylists.

Are Police in America Now a Military Occupying Force?  [Scroll down]  When considered in terms of cops per square mile, Los Angeles assigns a whopping 469 officers per square mile, followed by New York with 303 officers per square mile, and Chicago with 227 cops per square mile. [...] Consider that in 1980, there were roughly 3,000 SWAT team-style raids in the US.  By 2001, that number had grown to 45,000 and has since swelled to more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year.  On an average day in America, over 100 Americans have their homes raided by SWAT teams.

Armed agents raid animal shelter for baby deer.  WISN 12 News investigates an operation raising questions about the use of government resources and the state policy that meant a death sentence for a fawn.  "It was like a SWAT team," shelter employee Ray Schulze said.  Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.

13 Wisconsin officials raid animal shelter to kill baby deer named Giggles.  Two weeks ago, Ray Schulze was working in a barn at the Society of St. Francis no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wis., when officials swarmed the shelter with a search warrant.  "[There were] nine [Department of Natural Resources] agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth," Mr. Schulze told WISN 12.  "It was like a SWAT team."  The agents were there to retrieve a baby deer named Giggles that was dropped off by a family worried she had been abandoned by her mother, the station reported. Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

13 Wisconsin officials raid animal shelter to kill baby deer named Giggles.  Two weeks ago, Ray Schulze was working in a barn at the Society of St. Francis no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wis., when officials swarmed the shelter with a search warrant.  "[There were] nine [Department of Natural Resources] agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth," Mr. Schulze told WISN 12.  "It was like a SWAT team."  The agents were there to retrieve a baby deer named Giggles that was dropped off by a family worried she had been abandoned by her mother, the station reported. Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

Rise of the Warrior Cop.  The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though [Matthew David] Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement.  Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250.  Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed.  Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested.  He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.

SWAT Overkill: The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force.  [Scroll down]  Abetting this trend was the federal government's willingness to make surplus military equipment available to police and sheriffs' departments.  All sorts of hardware is available, from M-16s to body armor to armored personnel carriers and even helicopters.  Lots of police departments grabbed the gear and started SWAT teams, even if they had no real need for them.  The materiel was free, and it was fun.

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.  Americans have long maintained that a man's home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders.  Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing.  Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work.  The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.  These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.  These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors.

An Unbearable Aroma of Self-Righteousness in SWAT Nation.  [Scroll down]  The so-called "voluntary lock-down" in Watertown — a more appropriate phrase might be "martial law" — offered a chilling spectacle for anyone who cherishes his personal freedom.  Remember the Fourth Amendment?  That guaranteed that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."  Yet in Watertown, platoons of heavily armed police in combat gear went from house to house, guns drawn, banging down doors, screaming at people to come out of their own houses with their hands on their head.  There were "a lot of big guns pointed at us," said one Watertown resident.  Several news outlets used the word "surreal" to describe this concentrated display of the coercive power of the state.  What worries me is not that it is "surreal" but that it is, increasingly, all too real.

Second time this month: Obama gun-ban critic raided by heavily-armed fed contingent.  I'm sure his opposition to the President's assault on the Constitution has nothing to do with the raid.  Aren't you?  This is the second known military-style raid on "preppers" in New Jersey in a little over a month based upon the word of informants, and I hasten to add, "known."  There are quite possibly other raids that haven't made the news.  In neither of these instances are the people raided known to have a violent record.  Whether New Jersey is singling out preppers for these insanely over the top, highly dangerous, and extremely wasteful raids are legitimate questions that should be asked of the local, state, and federal agencies in New Jersey that are putting lives at risk to justify their quasi-military toys.

Maryland State Police, FBI SWAT Teams Thwart a Guy with a Few Guns.  You are forgiven for thinking that a major terrorist attack was thwarted in Sharpsburg, Maryland, this past Thursday.  A Maryland State Police helicopter was in the air over 4433 Mills Road most of the day, as police, FBI SWAT teams, armored vehicles, and K-9 units converged upon the residence of Terry Allen Porter, 46.  Porter, however, wasn't home.  Nor, it turned out, was Porter on any "Most Wanted" lists.  Terry Allen Porter's home was raided using all the power of the state security apparatus not because he was terrorist, a bank robber, serial killer, or a relative of the Kennedy clan, but because of an anonymous tip that he was an avid outdoorsman.

Apparently, cops must watch a lot of television.  Sometimes there is a good reason to send a dozen cops out to surround somebody's house, toss in some tear gas, and drag the bad guys off to jail.  But it isn't necessary for the police to initiate violence against non-violent suspects.  And in their zeal, they sometimes raid the wrong house altogether.  SWAT team raids are probably really justified about once a month, but one article below says there are 4½ SWAT raids every day — in Maryland alone!*

Remembering the Murder of Donald Scott.  [Scroll down]  More than thirty officers from five different agencies — including the DEA and the Forest Service but not, significantly, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office — took part in the assault on Scott's home.  Two of the participants in the attack on Scott's home told Bradbury that the possibility of "forfeiting" the land was explicitly discussed during the pre-raid briefing.

Man Dies in Police Raid on Wrong House.  A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house.  Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night [9/26/2012].  They intended to raid the home next door.

Florida Police Knock on Wrong Door at 1:30 a.m. Without Identifying Themselves, Then Fatally Shoot Armed Resident.  Via Instapundit comes the news that deputies in Lake County, Florida, early on July 15, fatally shot a man named Andrew Lee Scott.  Deputies say they didn't identify themselves as police when they knocked on Scott's apartment door at 1:30 a.m.  They also say that when Scott, 26, answered  while armed  with gun drawn, they immediately opened fire and killed Scott in his own doorway.  His girlfriend was present in the apartment.

The SWAT Shooting of Jose Guerena.  All evidence suggests an incompetent investigation and raid resulted in the death of an innocent father and Marine.

Marine Survives Two Tours in Iraq, then SWAT Kills Him.  [Scroll down] KGUN's Joel Waldman says the SWAT team prevented paramedics from going to work on Guerena for one hour and fourteen minutes.  The sheriff's department maintains that Guerena was holding an AR-15 when the paramilitary force fired 71 bullets in his home, but other key parts of the government story have collapsed.  While PCSD initially claimed Guerena fired the weapon he was alleged to have been holding, the department now says it was a misfire by one of the deputies that caused this deadly group panic inside a home containing a woman and a toddler.

A Guy Gets SWAT Team-ed for Not Securing His Wireless Network.  [Scroll down]  You know where this is going.  They got the wrong guy.  Someone else had used Covert's wireless connection to download child porn.  ["]Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale.["]  It sure is.  I can certainly think of some lessons we might draw.  One might be:  Maybe the cops should check to see if a suspect's wireless network is secure, and therefore that they have the right guy, before they break into his home and point their guns at his head.

The EPA's Swat Team:  Hubert Vidrine, a manager at a refinery plant, was at work when FBI and EPA Criminal Division Agents stormed into his place of business using M-16s and police dogs.  His alleged crime was storing waste covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) without obtaining a permit.  Just wait, it gets better...

DOE 'SWAT' raid still troubling after story corrections.  The story was a sensation on Wednesday morning [6/8/2011].  A Department of Education SWAT team broke down the door to a house owned by a man whose wife was delinquent on her student loans, according to original reports.  The man was handcuffed and, along with his children, put in a cop car for 6 hours.  It turns out that some of this story was misreported.  It wasn't a SWAT team but a special branch of the DOE who executes search warrants.  And it wasn't for a student loan, but the warrant was in connection with a criminal investigation.  But before you breathe a sigh of relief, it should be rightly asked:  What ... is DOE doing with a paramilitary unit to serve warrants?

SWAT team launch dawn raid on family home to collect unpaid student loans.  A father was dragged from his home and handcuffed in front of his children by a SWAT team looking for his estranged wife — to collect her unpaid student loans.  A stunned Kenneth Wright had his front door kicked in by the raiding party at 6 am yesterday before being dragged onto his front porch, handcuffed and led to a police car with his three children.

SWAT Team Raids House at 6 AM ... for Estranged Wife's Defaulted Student Loans.  If this story isn't a wake-up call about the militarization of police and criminalization of everything, then I'm afraid the patient is even deader than the Fourth Amendment.  Read this, and weep for what your country has become.

The cops raid the wrong house:
Computer snafu is behind at least 50 'raids' on Brooklyn couple's home.  Blame it on a computer.  Embarrassed cops on Thursday [3/18/2010] cited a "computer glitch" as the reason police targeted the home of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys.

Wrong house:
Wrong apartment raided in Annapolis.  Wearing masks and carrying rifles, Annapolis police officers attempting to execute a search warrant broke down the door of an apartment, set off a percussion grenade that released smoke and a flash of light and noise, and kicked one occupant in the groin.  Then they realized that they were at the wrong address.

FBI Executes No-Knock Raid — On The Wrong House.  A young girl was nearly killed by FBI agents who not only raided the wrong house, but shot at an unarmed teenage girl.

FBI Shoots Up House of Unarmed People.  An FBI SWAT team stormed a family home in District Heights, Maryland, yesterday [11/15/2012] at 6 a.m.  Agents fired at an unarmed 18-year-old woman in what appears to have been a no-knock raid.

Oops!  Wrong house.
FBI cuts down Mass. mom's door in wrong-home raid.  A Massachusetts mother says the FBI used a chain saw to cut through her door and held her at gunpoint for at least 30 minutes before agents realized they were conducting a raid at the wrong home.

Wrong house again.
An Innocent Naked Woman Whose Home Was Wrongly Raided By Police Had To FOIA For The Evidence.  Recently released police body camera footage shows officers with guns drawn handcuffing an innocent naked woman during a raid of the wrong home in early 2019, a local CBS affiliate reported Monday [12/14/2020].  Anjanette Young had to file a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to obtain the body camera footage of officers wrongly entering her home and handcuffing her on Feb. 21, 2019, CBSN Chicago reported.  A court order required the CPD to provide Young with the footage as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the department.  "I feel like they didn't want us to have this video because they knew how bad it was," Young said, CBSN reported.  "They knew they had done something wrong.  They knew that the way they treated me was not right," Young added, CBSN reported.

Chicago mayor changes story about botched raid.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday [12/17/2020] that her staff informed her in November 2019 about a botched police raid that happened nine months earlier — thus revising her office's Tuesday claim that she hadn't learned about the February 2019 raid until this week.  The mayor stood by her claim that she hadn't viewed video of the raid until this week but said she had no recollection of the November 2019 briefing from her staff when she spoke at a news conference Wednesday, Chicago's WBBM-TV reported.

Mother, Children, Terrorized by Police by Mistake.  Does this report sound like citizens encountering the police their taxes support?  Or does this sound like the kind of treatment people get from troops in an occupying army?

Uh-oh.  Wrong house.  Sorry we killed you.
SWAT and the Second Amendment.  On July 15, 2012, at 1:30 a.m. in Leesburg, Florida, Lake County deputies knocked on the door of 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott's apartment, thinking attempted murder suspect Jonathan Brown was inside.  They did not identify themselves in any way.  Brown had been seen earlier in the apartment complex, and his motorcycle was parked near Scott's apartment.  This was the only "evidence" of his presence.  When Scott opened his door with a gun in his hand, a deputy opened fire, killing Scott.  Brown was later found in a nearby apartment and arrested.

Minneapolis SWAT Team Raids Wrong House.  Khang, a Hmong immigrant with shaky command of English, set down his gun, raised his hands and was soon on the ground, an officer's boot on his neck.  The gunmen, it turned out, were members of a police SWAT team that had raided the wrong address because of bad information from an informant — a mistake that some critics say happens all too frequently around the country and gets innocent people killed.

Murder with a badge.  Public confidence in law enforcement is essential to maintaining a free and orderly society.  The thin blue line frequently finds itself under attack from the left, so it's natural for conservatives to come readily to its defense.  This instinct should be resisted when police make serious mistakes and engage in a cover-up instead of asking forgiveness from the public.

The cops raid the wrong house, again:
Alameda raid mistakenly targets TV reporter's home.  Police and FBI agents arrested a drug suspect in Alameda on Wednesday [9/14/2011], but not before mistakenly trying to raid a home across the street belonging to a network TV reporter and her political consultant husband.  Alameda and Martinez police, together with FBI agents, pounded on the door of CBS News contributor Priya David Clemens and her husband, Alex Clemens, at their home on Lina Avenue at about 7 a.m.

When cops knock, can they barge in?  Police came to Maria Huff's Burbank home in 2007 after hearing that her son had written a letter threatening to shoot up his high school.  They asked Huff if they could come in and she said no, not without a warrant.  When they asked if there were any guns in the house, Huff said she would get her husband, then headed inside, followed by her son, who was also at the doorway, and four officers.  After remaining for five to 10 minutes and finding no evidence of a crime, the officers left.  In short order they were hit with a civil suit by Huff, her husband and son — who had written no such threatening letter — for entering the home without any legal justification.

Guilty no matter the intent.  In May of 2004, federal agents in a black sport utility vehicle ran Krister Evertson off the road, piled out of their vehicle in full SWAT gear, trained an automatic weapon at his head, and arrested him.  Evertson's crime?  He failed to put a federally mandated sticker on a UPS package.  A jury acquitted Evertson of the charges, but the feds later charged Evertson for "abandoning" hazardous material.  Evertson is an award-winning scientist working on fuel-cell technology, and the chemicals were both properly stored and necessary for his work.  Nonetheless, he spent 21 months in federal prison.

Armed and dangerous:  Federal agencies expanding use of firepower BATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, even the National Park Service and Department of Health and Human Services — all have their own SWAT teams.

Former Marine killed by SWAT was acting in defense, family says.  New details are emerging about Jose Guerena, the man killed last Thursday [5/5/2011] in a SWAT incident at his Tucson home.  He was gunned down by SWAT members while his wife and young child hid in a closet.  Now, the Pima County Sheriff's Department has taken responsibility for the fatal shooting.

Sheriff Lott's New Toy.  The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff's Department just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun.  Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle "The Peacemaker," and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it's generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will "save lives."  Can we call this overkill, yet?

4.5 SWAT Raids Per Day.  Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day.  In Prince George's County alone, with its 850,000 residents, a SWAT team was deployed about once per day.  According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, 94 percent of the state's SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended.

Bellevue family sues FBI over 'terrifying' raid.  The lasting impact of the raid on Gary Adams' home became clear in a comment from his 3-year-old granddaughter during a recent trip to the pharmacy.  "She said, 'Granddad. Police. Hide,'  " Adams, 57, of Bellevue recalled Wednesday while discussing the federal lawsuit he filed against the officers who burst into his home March 3.

Botched Paramilitary Police Raids:  An Epidemic of "Isolated Incidents".  Map shows where incidents have occurred resulting in death or injury of a police officer, death of a nonviolent offender, raid on an innocent suspect, unnecessary raids on doctors and sick people, and other examples of paramilitary police excess.

Stockton Homeowner Wants Police To Fix Trashed House.  The San Jose Police Department stormed into a Stockton home searching for an accused killer, but they left without him, and left behind a complete mess.

Apparently it was a SWAT raid for no reason other than intimidation.
Gibson Guitars still faces no charges, months after raid.  Back in August, the federal government's raid on Gibson Guitars made huge news.  The raid by armed agents was ostensibly conducted because Gibson was illegally using rare, restricted woods from India and Madagascar to make its guitars — even though nobody in India or Madagascar filed any complaints against them.

More about the raid on Gibson Guitar.