Police State

New York cops’ massive salaries are robbing taxpayers blind

"Local cops in towns and counties around New York state are robbing taxpayers blind with astronomical yearly salaries — including one officer who pulled down $442,000, a new report shows. Tom Donnelly, who retired as a Ramapo school safety officer in August, earned the investment-banker-sized paycheck over a 12-month period ending in March — making him the highest paid local cop anywhere outside New York City, according to a report from the Empire Center. The study showed that local cops like Donnelly are the highest-paid group of government employes in municipalities excluding the five boroughs."

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Sheriff Indicted For Locking Down Entire School, Sexually Assaulting Kids

"Multiple students 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.' To highlight the sheer unnecessary police state tactics of the tyrannical Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby and his deputies — not a single bit of contraband was found."

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No compensation for innocent man who lost spleen in SWAT raid

"The raiding cops brought the wrong-sized battering ram, making it difficult for them to get inside quickly. One of the officers shot Ferreira within seconds, despite the fact that he was unarmed. They had no layout of the house. They weren’t aware of the fact that Ferriera was a guest on the night of the raid, which is at least suggestive of little or no surveillance. The city, of course, appealed the finding against it, and Ferreira appealed the jury’s finding that the officer who shot him wasn’t liable for his injuries. Late last month U.S. district court judge Thomas McAvoy issued his decision. Ferreira is out of luck. McAvoy first upheld the finding of no liability for the officer. He then found that the City of Binghamton isn’t liable, either."

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Treasury Caught Illegally Spying On Americans’ Financial Records

"The intelligence division at the Treasury Department has repeatedly and systematically violated domestic surveillance laws by snooping on the private financial records of US citizens and companies, according to government sources. Over the past year, at least a dozen employees in another branch of the Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, have warned officials and Congress that US citizens’ and residents’ banking and financial data has been illegally searched and stored. And the breach, some sources said, extended to other intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency, whose officers used the Treasury’s intelligence division as an illegal back door to gain access to American citizens’ financial records."

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A.T.F. Spent Millions Unchecked From Cigarette Smuggling Slush Fund

"Thousands of pages of newly unsealed records reveal a widespread scheme — a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate business. What began as a way to catch black-market cigarette dealers quickly transformed into a nearly untraceable A.T.F. slush fund that agents from around the country could tap."

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DEA Agents Sold Opioids, Stole Cash, and Falsely Identified Drug Suspects

"DEA operatives face federal corruption and conspiracy charges after allegedly engaging in all sorts of shady behavior, from selling drugs themselves to lying under oath, falsifying records, falsely identifying drug suspects, accepting bribes, and stealing cash and other property from the people they arrested. In at least one instance, their behavior led to someone being wrongly imprisoned for more than two years."

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What Country Is This? Forced Blood Draws, Cavity Searches and Colonoscopies

"Forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans are being forced to accept that we have no control over our bodies, our lives and our property, especially when it comes to interactions with the government."

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