No, officer it’s still not a crime to film the police. Seriously, call dispatch and ask.

From our UK cousins.

Denver police continue thuggery by arresting teen girls for (spins wheel)……chalking the sidewalk.

These girls had permission from both the Denver City Attorney David Fine and Denver Deputy Chief of Police John Lamb. to write chalk messages on public sidewalks during the Democratic National Convention. Apparently someone forgot to relay that message to officers in the field. Even though they didn’t, one wonders what the security threat is of a couple of tiny girls writing on the sidewalk in chalk. I’m sure the good people of Denver felt much safer after those girls were arrested. One thing the Denver PD can’t be accused of is political bias. The teens arrested here were protesting abortion policies, but earlier this week the police knocked the living hell out a protester from Code Pink, a group opposed to the Iraq War. Right-wing, left-wing……as long as they can be violently arrested and justify the Denver PD’s overtime, it doesn’t matter.

Also arrested was Rev. Patrick Mahoney, who was further threatened with felony prosecution for “leading” the event.

Constitutional law……now there’s a good course for police cadets to learn preferably before “Tazering 101” and “Deny, Deny, Deny-A Policeman’s Guide to Protecting His Fellow Officers’ Butts.”

Watch the menacing “Sidewalk Sisters” get taken down before detonating their chalk bombs.

Camera catches NYPD officer as he drops his shoulder and sends a bicyclist sprawling through air

**Update** According to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun, NYPD Officer Pogan’s version of the events don’t exactly line up with the video below.

Pogan offered a fantastical version of the incident. Pogan claimed that Long drove his bicycle directly into him, knocking the cop to the ground and causing “lacerations on deponent’s forearm.”

Officer Patrick Pogan, a 23 yr. old rookie on his first month on the job, is currently on suspension while the matter is investigated. He’s really overdoing it in his quest to to win Rookie of the Year. After being knocked to the ground, the victim, sorry…”suspect,” Christopher Long, was then charged with attempted assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. According to Worldnetdaily.com (a website that is about as pro-military/police/flag and anti-ACLU as you can get:

Pogan reported that Long was weaving in traffic, “forcing multiple vehicles to stop abruptly or change their direction” to avoid a collision, a point contested by several riders behind the bicyclist.

Pogan also cited Long for physically struggling during the arrest, refusing to put his hands behind his back, “thereby making handcuffing difficult.”

Worldnetdaily.com

Check out the video below. If the cop wanted to stop this guy, I think he probably could have done so. Officer Pogan doesn’t raise his hands to signal Long to stop, he just waits until he’s next to him and checks him hard to the concrete. Incident happens around the 0:25 mark. Police brutality apologists, quickly turn your brains off, and being your defense……now.

Meth will ruin your chances of winning a beauty contest

I’m pretty critical over the failed “war on drugs (users)” but that doesn’t mean I think people should abuse drugs.  Case in point, the people featured on Faces of Meth, a collection of mugshots that shows the havoc meth causes on a user in a very short time.

Click here for a very scary chronological series of mugshots of meth users.  Not pretty.

Chinese Police….wait, I mean Memphis Police file lawsuit to uncover identity of blogger that is critical of the department

Source

Police director sues for critical bloggers’ names
Site popular with citizens, officers
By Amos Maki Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department.

The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar.

“In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment,” the anonymous bloggers write on the site, “Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States.

“Some members of the Enforcer 2.0 have contacted their attorneys and we are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Larry and the City of Memphis. What’s wrong Larry? The truth hurt?”

It wasn’t clear if the lawsuit is aimed at shutting down the site or if it’s part of an effort to stop leaks that might affect investigations.

Many of the documents in the case, filed in Chancery Court on July 10, have been sealed by Chancellor Kenny Armstrong. Police officials would not discuss the action, citing pending litigation.

Whatever the reason, Internet and free-speech advocates said they had serious problems with the city’s actions.

“You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions,” said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based watchdog group. “I guess they’ve kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don’t want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way.”

AOL has been ordered to turn over similar records in the past.

In 2001, Japanese company Nam Tai filed a complaint in California state court against unknown Web posters claiming they committed libel and violated the state’s unfair business practices statute.

Nam Tai was able to obtain the e-mail address of one of the posters and then obtained a subpoena from a Virginia state court to AOL seeking the name behind the e-mail address.

AOL filed a motion to have the order quashed, but lost that bid in trial court and the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee said they will be watching the case closely and that anonymous speech is essential to the free flow of ideas in a democracy.

“We are quite interested in preserving the anonymity of the bloggers,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Anonymous speech has long been protected speech under the First Amendment.”

The bloggers, who operate under the name of Dirk Diggler — the name of the porn star in “Boogie Nights” — say their site provides an important service to officers and citizens.

“This is another attempt at disrupting an outlet for officers to gather and complain about the administration,” they said on the site.

“Further, this allows us unrestricted communication with the citizens of Memphis. The citizens should be made aware of the scandals that rock the administration and shudder the rocky foundation in which they operate today.”

The bloggers also said city attorneys earlier this year wrote a threatening letter on city letterhead to a company that produced T-shirts for the bloggers.

Texas (big surprise) police raid swingers’ club with guns drawn to stop consenting adults from having sex

Well, I’m sure everyone is so much safer now.  Moral busybodies….<sighs>.  Does anyone else think that police preventing people from exercising their free will over their own bodies, either through sex or drug usage, must really cost a pretty penny?  It’s for your safety!

Source

DUNCANVILLE – Police raided a notorious swingers’ club Saturday night, confiscating personal property from more than 50 people who were there.

Duncanville police executed a search warrant at the club, the Cherry Pit, which has been the subject of a Duncanville ordinance that bans sex clubs.

No one was arrested.

“They had guns drawn when they busted down the door,” said Ed Klein, the Cherry Pit’s attorney. “You’d have thought this was some kind of meth lab.”

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance was scheduled to be heard this week, but was postponed.

The search warrant alleges violations of the city ordinance, including operating a sex club in a residential neighborhood.

Jim Trulock, 59, and Julie M. Norris, 30, operate the club at their house in the 1300 block of North Cedar Ridge Drive.

City officials have said that the club is a public nuisance that is “detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the city of Duncanville.”

Duncanville officials declined to be interviewed this afternoon, but did issue a news release.

“The Cherry Pit, located in a Duncanville neighborhood, is advertised as a swingers’ club and has been previously cited for violating the City of Duncanville Code of Ordinances,” it said.

Mr. Trulock has received 10 citations, five for operating a sex club and five for operating a sexually oriented business without a license, city public information officer Tonya Lewis said.

Duncanville police said this afternoon that they were still cataloguing the evidence collected. The city wasn’t releasing details about what was found, but Mr. Klein said wallets, credit cards and purses were confiscated.

Mr. Klein said guests were photographed, and police took their work information before letting them go early Sunday morning.

St. Louis police driving impounded vehicles around for months at a time

Naturally, there appears to be no consequences and in fact the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners said there were no laws broken. No blood, no foul I guess.

Source

Missouri: Police Caught Driving Impounded Cars
Police in St. Louis seized cars, then freely drove them for months at a time. Perk extended to troubled daughter of police chief.

Aimie Mokwa 2007 booking photoCars seized from motorists are being used as the personal rides of police officers and their relatives in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigative reporters uncovered the scandal while tracking down how Aimie Mokwa, 33, daughter of Police Chief Joe Mokwa, ended up driving vehicles registered to St. Louis Metropolitan Towing and its subsidiaries.

Like many cities across the nation, St. Louis has adopted an ordinance giving police officers the ability to grab automobiles from people suspected, not necessarily convicted, of certain crimes. Cars not recovered within thirty days are declared the property of St. Louis Metropolitan Towing, which splits profit from towing fees with the city. Such arrangements can generate millions in revenue for municipalities.

The St. Louis program had an additional benefit. The tow yard became a virtual rental car agency for local police officers who would take out “abandoned” cars for their own free, personal use for months at a time. The “test drive” privilege extended also to Aimie Mokwa.

If the officers and their relatives enjoyed the vehicles, they were offered the opportunity to purchase them at discounts of up to 75 percent. For example, Aimie Mokwa “rented” a one-year-old Dodge Neon that had been impounded in May 2001. In September 2002 when she flipped the Neon after crashing into two parked cars on perfectly dry pavement.

Aimie Mokwa replaced the Neon with a 1999 Ford Escort that she purchased from the tow company for $1100, even though its book value was at least $3750. She rear-ended another car with the Escort in January 2003. Officers investigating the collision determined she had a blood alcohol level of 0.17, but they did not charge her with drunk driving. In December 2006, Aimie Mokwa bought a 2004 Chevy Malibu from the tow yard for $1500, despite the vehicle having a book value of at least $5850. Last October, she bought a 1999 Dodge Dakota for $850, even though the vehicle was worth at least $5025.

On Friday, the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners released the report of a private law firm hired by the department to investigate the free car program. It concluded no laws were broken.

“The most that can be said would be that [the towing firm] is endeavoring to create a reservoir of future good will with the 4th District and the Department generally,” the report said, as quoted by the Post-Dispatch.

Cop arrests man for (spins the wheel of made up laws)…”unlawful photography”

Nearly everyone carries a cell phone and it’s hard to find one without that camera feature.  It’s convenient when you want to take that impromptu photo, but a Tri-Cities area man ended up behind bars after snapping a shot of a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop.

The cell phone photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life.

“Here’s a guy who takes me out of the car and arrests me in front of my kids.  For what?  To take a picture of a police officer?” said Scott Conover.

A Johnson County sheriff’s deputy arrested Scott Conover for unlawful photography.

“He says you took a picture of me.  It’s illegal to take a picture of a law enforcement officer,” said Conover.

Conover took a picture of a sheriff’s deputy on the side of the road on a traffic stop.  Conover was stunned by the charge.

“This is a public highway,” said Conover.

And it was not a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy as Tennessee code states.  The deputy also asked Conover to delete the picture three times.

“He said if you don’t give it to me, you’re going to jail,” said Conover.

Under the advice of the Johnson County attorney, the sheriff would not comment and the arresting deputy said he didn’t want to incriminate himself by talking to us.

In an affidavit, the deputy said he saw something black with a red light which he thought was a threat.  Conover was also arrested for pointing a laser at a law enforcement officer.

“At no time did I have a laser.  I had an iPhone,” said Conover.

When you take a picture in the dark with Conover’s Apple iPhone, there is no flash or any light that comes from the phone that could be mistaken for a laser.

In a witness statement by a Mountain City officer, is says the deputy asked about the picture rather than looking for a laser.

“If you arrested me, wouldn’t you take the laser?  If you arrested me, wouldn’t you take the camera?” said Conover.

He expects these charges to be dismissed.

“This guy maliciously arrested me, charging me with phony charges that he don’t even understand himself,” Conover said.

The American Civil Liberties Union would not comment on Conover’s case without fully reviewing the allegations, but told us there is no law that prohibits anyone from taking photographs in public areas, even of police.  Taking photos is protected by the First Amendment.  Conover is ordered to appear in a Johnson County court on August 6th.

Source

A good resource utilized by photographers that gives an overview of a photographer’s rights can be found here.

Controversial Police Training Video surfaces

This explains a lot. 5:30 minutes, but worth every second.

California initiative seeks to legalize marijuana for everyone. Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg vow to tour California indefinitely.

There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative.

More here

Full text of initative