False Sense Of Security

Police Intervention Always Makes Things Worse — Continued

"Last April, a Brooklyn landlady named Karen Brim was mopping the floors in her apartment building when three police officers suddenly materialized in pursuit of several local teenagers. The officers claimed that the teens were trespassers. Brim said that they were guests and were welcome on her property. The police, however, were not. The officers responded by throwing the 42-year-old woman to the floor, shattering her leg. She was taken to a local hospital where she was shackled to a bed and held under armed guard for seventeen days. Brim, who was the victim, was charged with five offenses." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice Intervention Always Makes Things Worse — Continued

Treasury chief Jacob Lew not worried about financial bubble

"US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday that he was not worried about a potential financial bubble forming as Wall Street stocks racked up record highs. 'The analysis that I’ve seen doesn’t give me reason to be worried right now,' Lew said in an interview on US business news channel CNBC. Lew nevertheless called for monitoring of the situation in order to avoid another crisis like the 2008 Wall Street crash that led to the Great Recession. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday closed at a record high for the eighth day in a row, though the US economy remains sluggish and massive government spending cuts kicked in on March 1." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTreasury chief Jacob Lew not worried about financial bubble

Police gun down 83-year-old woman in her backyard responding to 911 call she dialed

"A police officer shot and killed an 83-year-old woman in her own backyard. Delma Towler dialed 911 to report a burglary but when police arrived, one officer killed her outside her home in Altavista, Va. Towler had never fired her gun before that night. She fired a warning shot out the window to scare the burglar off. Then she started walking through her backyard toward her sister's house. She grasped the gun for protection from the reported intruder — not the police, her family maintains. The two responding officers claim that they shot Towler after she refused to put her weapon down. The woman reportedly did not have her glasses on or hearing aid in at the time." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice gun down 83-year-old woman in her backyard responding to 911 call she dialed

Woman injured in LAPD manhunt says cops won’t pay taxes on replacement truck

"The attorney for a woman who was mistakenly targeted by Los Angeles police during the manhunt for Christopher Dorner in February has accused the department of breaking its promise of a new truck for her. 'You tried to murder the woman, you put 102 bullet holes in her truck,' Glen Jonas told KNBC-TV on Monday. His client, 47-year-old Maggie Carranza, refused a police offer of a new Ford F-150 truck if she agreed to pay taxes on it, in part because it meant Carranza would have to pay an additional $10,000 in personal income taxes she cannot afford. He said the department’s offer also barred Carranza from selling the vehicle for a year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWoman injured in LAPD manhunt says cops won’t pay taxes on replacement truck

Is Detroit a Self-Defense Haven?

"Detroit has been getting a lot of attention for its recent shootings. Not the usual criminal stuff, but the step-up in self-defense shootings as people have come to realize that the police only exist to mark the outlines of bodies with chalk. Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79% in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200% above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs Detroit a Self-Defense Haven?

SWAT ‘automatic assault rifle’ stolen from New Orleans police car

"Deputies in Jefferson Parish says that an 'automatic assault rifle' and other SWAT gear was stolen from a New Orleans Police Department car over the weekend. A Wednesday statement from Sheriff’s office spokesperson Col. John Fortunato said that five vehicles were burglarized in the Audubon Oaks subdivision on Sunday morning before the Super Bowl. The officer 'allegedly broke a departmental Performance of Duty rule by leaving his equipment in the trunk of his vehicle,' according to NOPD spokesperson Remi Braden." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSWAT ‘automatic assault rifle’ stolen from New Orleans police car

Charge three officers in squad car asphyxiation death of suspect, jury recommends

"Three of the officers involved in the arrest of Williams, who died after gasping for air in the back of a squad car, should be charged with failure to render aid by a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail, jurors concluded. Officer Richard Ticcioni put his knee across Williams' back during the arrest. Officers Jeffrey Cline and Jason Bleichwehl each spent time in the front seat of the squad car as Williams struggled to breathe for nearly eight minutes in the back, a squad video shows. The three officers refused to testify during the inquest, citing their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCharge three officers in squad car asphyxiation death of suspect, jury recommends

Miami police officers caught on camera allegedly ignoring 911 calls, report says

"The Miami Dade Police Department has fired a sergeant and two officers and suspended three others without pay in what is considered one of the worst incidents of delinquency in the department's history, CBS Miami reports. The accusations vary against each officer, but they include: failing to respond to emergency calls, pretending to be on calls when they weren't and falsifying police records, according to the station. The officers-- an entire squad assigned to patrol a large area of Kendall, Fla. -- were followed and caught on surveillance video by Internal Affairs in 2010, but it wasn't until September 2012 that they were ultimately disciplined, the station says." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMiami police officers caught on camera allegedly ignoring 911 calls, report says

Former Newark Airport TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe

"It is perhaps America’s most unsafe airport. Despite being the launching point for one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 — Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania — Newark Airport has had numerous security violations since. The latest: a fake bomb that made it past Transportation Security Administration officers. Here, a Newark TSA screener who recently left the agency tells how silly policies and lazy workers do little to stop real threats." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer Newark Airport TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe

Undercover agent sneaks past TSA at Newark Airport with ‘bomb’ in pants

"Despite undergoing a pat-down search, a federal agent was able to sneak past Transportation Security Administration agents at Newark Airport last month with a simulated explosive device in his pant, an unnamed source told The New York Post. 'This episode once again demonstrates how Newark Airport is the Ground Zero of TSA failures,' the source reportedly said. The TSA did not confirm whether the incident took place, telling the Post that it 'regularly conducts covert testing' of security and does not disclose details about those operations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUndercover agent sneaks past TSA at Newark Airport with ‘bomb’ in pants