Thread: The US Has Become A Worse Police State Than Orwell Could Imagine

Are We Living in a Police State?

Published on: August 22, 2014

The answer to that question gets an emphatic “yes” by Cheryl Chumley in her book Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality.
As with any systematic abuse of power, we find instances of agencies regularly using force or spying against its citizens as a matter of policy. But force does not always have to be employed.

Back in the 1950s, the CIA recruited journalists to project the CIA’s take on many issues in a program called Operation Mockingbird. Foreign policy and political campaigns were targets of Mockingbird. In other words, the American public was the target of government propaganda, but in a much slicker way than anything George Orwell ever imagined.

The program came to an end when congressional hearings put the light of day on Operation Mockingbird.
One of the most concerning developments is the use of SWAT teams to serve warrants (assuming one was obtained) in situations where no one’s life is in danger.

A deadly example comes out of a SWAT raid on the home of Jose Guerena, a 26-year old Marine and Iraq War veteran. When police awakened Guerena and his sleeping family, Guerena thought a gang was invading their home. He hid his wife and four-year old son in a closet and grabbed a rifle. The cops saw the rifle and opened fire, hitting him over sixty times. (See the video below)


Jose Guerena SWAT Raid Video From Helmet Cam


CazyDayz
Uploaded on May 26, 2011
Go check out The Ballad Of Jose Guerena @ http://youtu.be/TuZORi4nn5Q a Ballad that i respect.

It happened so fast. How Could He Have Known ? it was the police ? This Video Contains Some Video That May Not Be Suitable For Children. Viewer Discretion is advised

RIP Jose Guerena The Country Is now Watching.

More News must read !http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...

The Reports coming out are heart breaking his 4 year old Son was the 1st to walk out with his hands up with his Spider Man pajamas on. some of the files have been released and this is a statement from a SWAT member he seen his Dad laying there dieing I'm not sure what happened to our country.

Its time to end Marijuana Prohibition. Email or call Your Government Reps today !

Update 5/28/11 5PM
The Media is now backing out there old position and using the term minutes of video and not seconds there starting to make it sound like Jose knew and had plenty of warning the local cover up has started and it started when national news started to report on it something stinks here.
Updates
http://www.kgun9.com/story/14878050/2...
http://www.kgun9.com/story/14859918/p...

Thank you KGUN9 for letting us use your content.
Source http://www.kgun9.com/story/14736691/r...

Try To Keep It Clean if you can.
Viewer Count On 12/11/20110 1:00PM PST is 350,483 Views

"In September 2013, Pima County, the towns of Sahuarita, Marana, and Oro Valley, approved a combined settlement of $3.4 million to Guerena's widow."

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In the resulting investigation, Guerena’s rifle was found on the floor with the safety still on. Guerena’s family has been awarded a $3.4 million settlement paid for by the county of Los Angeles, CA.

Oh, and the cops had the wrong address.

What a contrast to some forty years ago. I was in the Virginia state legislature, and through a mutual friend, I was able to spend a morning riding along with a Fairfax County police officer.

At one point, the officer pulled up in front of a nice suburban house, told me to stay where I was, got out of the car and went up to the door – by himself. He knocked a few times, and finally a sleepy young man came to the door in his skivies. The officer went inside, and in about five minutes both of them came to the car. The young man had been cuffed and was placed in the back seat.

When we got to the police station, the prisoner was booked on drug charges. The cop never raised his voice, and treated the suspect with considerable respect. Had the same warrant been served today in many jurisdictions, there would have been many police vehicles and lots of cops in battle dress uniforms with guns drawn. And this always carries the risk of killing the suspect.

Another concern that Chumley raises is asset forfeiture — a practice that is a gross violation of the Fourth and Fifth amendments. Private property is usually seized without a warrant and then, often suddenly penniless, the defendant has to prove his innocence. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) uses this tactic all too often.

For example, beginning in early 2013, Gun Owners of America came to the legal defense of the Reese family that operated a gun shop in New Mexico, and found itself squarely in ATF’s sights.

Reeling from the fallout from its infamous Operation Fast and Furious and the bloodshed that ATF caused on both sides of the border by deliberately letting guns “walk” to Mexico, ATF apparently found it useful to distract its critics by blaming others for selling guns that might wind up in Mexico.

To make matters worse, before trial, the government seized everything of value that the Reeses owned — guns, ammo, precious metals, and other personal property — forcing them to rely on others to provide their defense. Even though the family members were charged in a 30-count indictment, the jury acquitted the Reese family of all charges, including conspiracy and smuggling, except for four false statement counts.

This case is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. But even now, as the case drags on, the government spends unlimited taxpayer money, but refuses to return a penny that belongs to this devastated family.

Perhaps the most blatant and frightening example of police state powers is the President’s assertion that if Congress will not act, he will use his phone and his pen. The President is declaring that, in effect, he has legislative as well as executive powers. One term for this is coup d’état.

Push back has begun with Kansas nullifying unconstitutional gun laws and county sheriffs across the country threatening to arrest federal agents acting without constitutional authority.

One thing that would help rein in the President would be for the House of Representatives to defund unconstitutional executive actions:

• One example would be for the House to attach an amendment to a spending bill that says “no funds can be used to enforce gun control policies that have been unilaterally initiated by the President.”
• Another example would be an amendment providing that “none of these funds may be used to transport the army of illegal alien invaders anywhere but south of the border.”

But, of course, none of these amendments will become reality unless the American people insist on them.

For instance, even though the number two Republican in the House, Rep. Eric Cantor, was defeated by David Brat in large measure over the amnesty issue, House Republican leaders have been determined to ram it through. They quite incorrectly believe that this will make Republicans out of Latinos. Believe me, I attend a Latino church and can assure you that Latinos will only become Republicans by spending time with them and being involved in their lives. A piece of legislation will have no impact.

We have our work cut out for us before the Republicans in Congress get serious about sizing back the federal police forces. They are too easily distracted by rabbit trails such as “getting the Latino vote.”

It looks as though a few more David Brats will be needed to deliver the message.

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Friday, August 22, 2014

Why "Good Cops" Stay Silent: The Persecution of Officer Adam Basford

Officer Adam Basford is in the back row, center.

(See update below)


“I can't get killed for this job,” observed one of Adam Basford's former colleagues in the Yakima Police Department, explaining why he had refused to come to Basford's aid during a hand-to-hand struggle with an armed suspect. “I thought we were going to get killed, so I had to leave you there.”


That officer was one of three who were in a position to help on August 18, 2013 when Basford attempted to arrest Antonio Cardenas, a recently paroled felon who was suspected of aggravated assault with a firearm. Concerned over the safety of bystanders, including a young girl, Officer Basford didn't pull his gun. He found himself grappling with a younger ex-convict who was several inches taller and at least sixty pounds heavier, while every other available nearby officer found something better to do.

Basford was able to subdue the suspect without killing him or risking the lives of people in the neighborhood. Rather than receiving a commendation, Basford is now off the force and facing criminal charges – not for taking down an armed, violent felon without using lethal force, but for filing a misconduct complaint against an erstwhile colleague.

Basford, an Air Force veteran who regarded himself to be a peace officer rather than a law enforcer, had patrolled a violent neighborhood riven with gang-related violence. On many occasions prior to August 18, he had called for backup, only to find – as he did that night – that no help was forthcoming. This wasn’t just because Basford’s fellow officers were afraid, but because he had violated the unwritten but binding rules of police solidarity by speaking out against routine misconduct and abuse within the department.




Basford had just finished an administrative call when he heard gunshots and saw an armed man later identified as Cardenas racing through the neighborhood. Basford pursued Cardenas into a nearby yard, overtaking him when the suspect failed to clear a fence.

“I didn't want to draw my gun, because there was a young girl just a few feet away,” Basford recalled to Pro Libertate. “Cardenas took a swing at me, and missed. I took his back while the two of us were still on our feet. He reached for my lapel microphone and broke it, then said he was going to kill me and that nobody would find my body.”

As they struggled, Cardenas reached for his .44 Desert Eagle and squeezed off a shot. Basford managed to wrench the shooter's hand away from his body at the last second, but still suffered a grazing gunshot wound to his knee. Already in severe oxygen debt from the struggle, Basford quickly began to feel the effects of blood loss. Worried that if Cardenas escaped he might finish killing him or attack a bystander, Basford applied a rear-naked choke – a potentially lethal hold that was, in this situation, used defensively.

The combatants hit the ground, and Basford saw his backup, Officer Booker Ward, arrive.

“He saw what was going on, heard me scream at him,” Basford later recalled. “We made eye contact, and he turned and ran away.”

Two other Yakima PD Officers were on bicycle patrol nearby.

“They heard me get shot,” Basford recounted to me. “They heard me scream for assistance. They were just two blocks away – but they were fifteen minutes from the end of their shift, and they went back to the station instead of coming to my aid.” Basford would find out later that the bike patrol officers “didn't think the overtime would be approved.”

Finally, after Cardenas was subdued and nearly unconscious, five other officers arrived, and paramedics soon followed. Basford limped away from the scene of the struggle and allowed the emergency personnel to do their work. As the EMTs attended to Cardenas, however, Basford saw the suspect trying to extract something from his pants. Concerned for the safety of his colleagues and the medical personnel, Basford drew his gun, holding it at “low-ready” while approaching the scene.

“I pushed past the paramedics and my supervisor, who was losing her sh*t,” Basford related to me. “As I did, Patrol Officer Ryan Yates yelled that I was about to `execute the suspect,' and pulled his gun on me, as did several other officers.”

Basford had pointedly declined to use lethal force during the desperate hand-to-hand struggle in which he received no help from the officers now pointing their guns at him. He surrendered his gun to another officer and was taken to the hospital, which treated and discharged him with panicked haste because of what were described as security concerns.




“From what I was told it was clear that Cardenas's gang associates had learned about his arrest, and there was concern about potential retaliation,” Basford told me. “But nobody seemed all that worried about me when I was fighting with this guy on the street.”

This atypical lack of concern continued as Basford was debriefed by his supervisors. Usually, a police officer involved in a use-of-force incident invokes his “Garrity” privileges, which means that he cannot be criminally or civilly prosecuted for statements made during the official investigation. This time was different, according to Basford.

Ira Cavin, left, gets in some SWAT cosplay.

“Our union representative, Officer Ira Cavin, told me that Garrity didn't apply in this situation, because I had supposedly committed a criminal act,” Basford attests. To his astonishment, Basford was told that he would be charged with assaulting the man who shot him in the knee – but that charge was quickly dropped.

Cardenas, who had served prison time for his role in a pair of drive-by shootings, faced his “third strike” if the DA charged him with a felony. For reasons that remain unexplained, he was allowed to plead guilty to a single charge of first degree “attempted assault” for shooting a police officer in the leg.

To put that anomalous act of leniency in context, it's worth remembering that an unarmed Florida man who was assaulted by a police officer during a traffic stop at a convenience store was recently charged with “attempted murder” for defending himself against what appeared to be the officer's attempt to choke him out. That incident involved a driver accused of running a stop light. Cardenas, a convicted violent felon, was carrying a stolen gun that he had allegedly fired during a nearby shooting – and that he used in an attempt to kill Basford.

Basford, who has undergone multiple surgeries on his knee, and is receiving treatment for the psychological effects of the incident, was maneuvered into accepting an “amicable separation” from the Yakima PD. After leaving the force, Basford inevitably encountered several of the people involved in the incident, including the previously mentioned officer who had abandoned him in the street.

Cardenas in court.

“He asked me to forgive him,” Basford informed me with a grim chuckle. “My reply to him wasn't terribly charitable.”

“Look, my beat was a neighborhood where the Nortenos and Suraneos were engaged in a turf war,” Basford explains. “Gang members would sometimes isolate and swarm a cop. The streetlights have all been shot out, and gang-bangers sometimes throw toxic improvised devices that can have the explosive yield of a small grenade. So I understand why officers wanted to avoid it. But in the entire time I served as a patrol officer, I never – not once – received requested backup. The officers always told Dispatch that they had a traffic stop, or something else going on. I can understand that this would happen on occasion – but when it happens every time, something's going on.”

Basford believes that he was singled out for aggressive neglect “because I crossed the Blue Line. I filed official complaints about misconduct and abuse that I saw on the street and in the lock-up.”

“Our job was to investigate crimes and arrest suspects, not to inflict punishment,” Basford continues. “I saw countless instances in which officers" -- including, he says, Ryan Yates, who pulled drew his gun on him in the Cardenas incident – "would goad and mistreat people during contacts in the street, and then arrest them without cause. I really tried to do the job in a different way. I would get out of my patrol vehicle and talk with people about what was going on in their neighborhoods – and I always explained to them that they didn't have to talk to me, and that they could say anything they wanted to me without fear of reprisal. I'm not going to pretend that I was perfect, but I did try to do my job – at least, the job as I understood it.”

Agitprop detail: Officer Yates is in the middle.

That job, as Basford perceived it, meant protecting the rights of suspects following an arrest, and he had no patience for what he described as the routine abuse of prisoners.

“It was a common practice to turn off the video monitor and the lights when officers were dealing with what they called a `lippy' prisoner, especially if it was an intoxicated woman,” Basford narrates. “This wasn't done for the safety of the inmate or the officers. It was a cruel, abusive, and completely wrong. So I filed a complaint about it – and from that time, I was on my own. I later filed several excessive force complaints. I was an officer who had crossed the Blue Line, which meant that none of my supposed brother officers would ever have my back.”

The treatment inflicted on Basford offers a stark contrast to the official solicitude displayed toward Officer Casey Gillette a few months earlier after Gillette attacked an unarmed man, falsely arrested him, and engaged in a cover-up to avoid being charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping. Gillette, significantly, was one of the officers who pulled their guns on Basford the night of August 18.

Gillette and his partner were responding to a report of a fight on the evening of May 10 when they encountered a loud-mouthed, shirtless man swearing at them from his front yard.

The intoxicated man was yelling that “this is La Raza’s hood, you know, smoke you fools,” Gillette told investigators. “And he started challenging us from what I remember.” Offended by his “aggressive attitude,” and convinced that the drunk presented “an officer safety issue,” Gillette strode onto the man’s property and “punched him in the left side of the face,” the officer recalled. The blow didn’t knock the man down, but with the help of three other officers, he was handcuffed.

At this point, Gillette had to invent a criminal charge to justify the summary punishment he had meted out for “contempt of cop.” He initially wanted to use “disorderly conduct,” a cover charge he had often used while employed by the police department in Toppenish. The problem is that the Yakima City Code doesn’t include an offense called “disorderly conduct.”

“Gillette used the force to arrest the man for disorderly conduct, which does not exist in the City of Yakima,” admitted the department’s Supervisory Review. The official Personnel Complaint observed that “At the time force was used there was no probable cause to arrest the man or need to use force upon him. The force was unnecessary and therefore excessive in violation of policy.”

This wasn’t merely a “policy violation,” Basford protests: It was a “criminal act – at best misdemeanor assault.” That original crime was compounded by “Unlawful Imprisonment, which is a Class C felony in Washington.” To protect themselves and their employer, Gillette and his unidentified supervisor, a sergeant, arrested the victim for “obstructing.”

According to the Supervisory Review, this was nothing less than a criminal conspiracy: “[Name Redacted] consulted with Officer Gillette and the two agreed to charge the man with Obstructing, even though the man was not obstructing, hindering, or delaying any lawful duties of the officers. The charge appears to have been chosen to justify Gillette’s prior use of force and possibly to protect the city.” (Emphasis added.)

“This was a great example of my [former] Squad’s dynamics,” Basford wearily explained to me. “The sergeant reports the guy for Obstruction … thereby assisting in the criminal act of the original assault by Gillette. They knew there was no charge and they still took him to jail and charged him for exercising his First Amendment rights.”

During the inquiry, Gillette’s superiors “coached him … to say `open hand’” when asked about the strike. “Then Chief Rizzi claims `no harm, no foul,’ and doesn’t punish Gillette, but puts him back on the street, knowing he would just hurt people.”

Rather than being charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping, Gillette was given a written reprimand. He remains on the force. Last January Gillette shot and killed a man named Rocendo Arias while he was asleep in his vehicle at a car wash. Despite the fact that Arias was not a criminal suspect, the shooting was ruled “justified” because of the “perceived threat.” Oddly, that “threat” wasn’t apparent to a female state trooper who had seen the napping man and left him unmolested before Gillette arrived on the scene.

Gillette later claimed that he saw a gun in Arias’s hand. That supposed firearm was actually an Airsoft pellet pistol which Arias might have kept as a prop to deter would-be assailants – other than those invested with “qualified immunity,” of course.

Gillette, who murdered an innocent sleeping man in a fit of panic, remains on the force.
Basford, who was seriously injured while arresting an armed felon, may be headed for jail.

On August 18 – exactly one year after his life-altering fight with Cardenas – Basford had a preliminary hearing on a charge of “filing a false report to a public servant.” If the case goes to trial, and Basford loses, he may spend a year in jail – nearly as much time as the recidivist felon who shot him in the leg.

Given Basford's experience as a conscientious officer with the Yakima PD, it's not surprising that he now faces a patently retaliatory charge for filing a police misconduct report as a civilian.

“I ran into Yates outside a gun shop, and he smirked at me and grabbed his gun,” Basford told me. “I had seen him do this same thing many times on the street in an effort to provoke somebody he wanted to rough up and arrest. I thought his conduct was threatening and unprofessional, so I filed a complaint with his supervisor.”




That supervisor was Lt. Nolan Wentz, who has a history of retaliating against “civilians” who annoy him. Among them was a Yakima resident named Eddy Ford, who as it happens has a very close personal connection to Basford.

“When I trained in mixed martial arts, Eddy Ford was my boxing coach,” Basford pointed out to me.

In July 2007, Ford was on his way to work when he noticed a Yakima police cruiser on his tail, clinging to him through multiple lane changes. When they arrived at a stop light, Ford got out of his car to ask the officer what he had done to warrant such attention. The cop, Officer Ryan Urlacher, told Ford to get back in his car, and Ford complied. In fact, Ford was compliant during the entire encounter – but he spared no adjectives in describing his opinion of Urlcher’s behavior.

As he ran Ford’s license, Urlacher told another officer: “I think I’m going to arrest him for [a] city noise ordinance violation right now. He might only get a ticket if he cooperates, but with that attitude, he’s going to get cuffed.” Urlacher then told Ford as much, reproaching him for “diarrhea of the mouth.”

Wentz arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, and he all but ordered Urlacher to arrest Ford.

Describing the cooperative but self-assertive citizen as a “hot head” who was “getting worse over time,” Wentz told Urlacher: “I would not just write him a ticket and let him go…. I’d sign his ass up.”

With his supervisor’s permission, Urlacher abducted Ford and had his car impounded.

On the way to the jail, Ford protested that he was being punished for exercising his freedom of speech.

“I have the freedom to take you to jail, too,” sneered Urlacher. “And that’s going to happen… You exercise it [freedom of speech] all you want, OK? If you just cooperate and treat the police like humans, we’ll treat you like that. But when you act like that, like an animal, you’ve got to get treated that way, you know…. Your mouth and your attitude talked you into jail.”




Ford, it probably doesn’t need to be said, is black. He wasn’t being arrested for acting like an “animal,” but for daring to insist on being treated like a free man. Urlacher’s express intention in carrying out that unnecessary and unjustified arrest was to teach that uppity Mundane a lesson in submission.

(Urlacher, incidentally, would later be suspended for charging $400 worth of beer to city credit cards during a “training” junket. Since city policy forbids expenditure of public funds for alcohol, the charges were initially disguised as hyper-extravagant “tips” to waitresses at Hooter’s and similar establishments.)

The pretext charge of a noise violation was later dismissed. Understandably, Ford filed a lawsuit that was eventually heard by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that he had standing to sue the City of Yakima. Citing a similar case from Chicago, the panel observed that the “freedom of individuals verbally to challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state.”

As is usually the case in such matters, the City government settled the case, paying Ford $65,000 in lieu of going to court. Yakima PD Chief Dominic Rizzi reacted dismissively, insisting that “We did not lose that lawsuit” and instructing his subordinates to ignore the ruling – which is to say, apply what the court described as a “police state” sanction by using retaliatory arrest as a means of punishing Mundanes who criticize them.

This apparently applies to former police officers who are now among the “little people” – such as Adam Basford.

“Even though Lt. Wentz was the same guy who authorized the illegal arrest of my former boxing coach, I took my complaint to him after my run-in with Yates,” Basford told me. “I was hoping that he would be disciplined and brought to heel. Instead, I was hit with a criminal charge that I can't fight in court.”

Basford’s injuries have left him unable to work, and his ongoing legal struggles have left him in career stasis. Even worse, he is being maneuvered into a plea agreement that would make him unemployable in any field for which he is qualified.

“I contacted every attorney in the area, and was told that it would cost at least $30,000 to retain legal counsel,” Basford relates. “I can't afford to hire competent legal help, so I wound up with a public defender who is six months out of law school.”

During the August 18 hearing, Basford's attorney (actually, the paralegal who acted on behalf of his public defender, who didn't attend) was offered a “12 month Stipulated Order of Continuance” – a form of probation during which he would be subject to a “stipulated trial” if he were arrested and charged with any criminal infraction. A “stipulated trial” is a procedure in which “the judge reads the police reports and makes a determination,” Basford was told. “A stipulated trial would most likely result in a conviction.”

Happier times: Adam Basford with his wife.

To avoid a Cardassian-style “trial” in which a guilty verdict is foreordained, Basford would have “to sign a waiver agreeing not to sue the city.” What this means, of course, is that his former employer is now threatening him with incarceration in order to compel him to waive his right to seek redress.

The source of Basford’s trouble is the fact that he didn't define his professional identity in tribal terms.

“My oath was to the public, not to protect abusive fellow officers,” he declares. “I swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution as an Air Force officer, and I took that seriously. I'm not a religious man, but I also believe that there will be a final judgment of some kind, and that I will be accountable for every punch, every kick, every baton strike, and of course every round I fire. I don't think that attitude was commonplace among my colleagues.”

Basford's military background, counterintuitively, reinforced his restraint in using force for purposes he considered defensive.

“In the military, at least when and where I served, we were forbidden to inflict punishment on civilians and were required to use force only in response to an attack,” he recalled. “I found that the rules of engagement for the police were much less restrictive. If I had engaged in the kind of behavior I witnessed on the part of the police while I was in the military I'd be residing in Leavenworth right now.”




Owing to the perverse incentives that prevail in government law enforcement, it would have been to Basford’s advantage to kill Antonio Cardenas, rather than using less-than-lethal means – at considerable personal risk, and substantial personal cost – to arrest him. If Basford had used lethal force during that confrontation, it’s likely that the department would have rallied to his defense – not out of admiration for him, but rather in search of limiting their institutional liability.

Basford was purged from the ranks because he saw his role as that of a peace officer sworn to protect persons and property, rather than a member of a privileged enforcement caste. While he fights to keep himself out of jail, nation-wide fundraising and support efforts are underway on behalf of Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold, and Darren Wilson, who shot and killed the unarmed teenager Michael Brown under what can charitably be described as highly dubious circumstances.

Cops who kill, it appears, are considered worthier of support than peace officers who cross the Blue Line.

An important postscript

An anonymous commenter below complains that the foregoing account of Adam Basford's experiences with the Yakima Police Department is one-sided. While not stipulating to that characterization, I will point out that today, more than a year after the encounter with Antonio Cardenas, that incident is subject to an "ongoing investigation," which means that the YPD is refusing to release the documents concerning Officer Basford's conduct in the matter. An official review of the shooting has reportedly been finished, and although both Basford and his physician have been promised a copy of that document, it has not been provided to either of them.

Contemporaneous press accounts to which I've provided links confirm that Basford arrested Cardenas, that he was wounded by gunfire, and that his own weapon was not used. I have seen numerous photographs -- some of them unsettling -- of the injury he sustained. It was not trivial.

The commenter made a veiled reference to Basford's "background." Without delving into the details, I will disclose that Basford described to me a difficult upbringing in a troubled home with a father who was intractably mired in a criminal subculture. Earlier this year his father committed suicide in suspicious circumstances. There may be a connection between Cardenas's associates and the death of Basford's father, but Adam was in no way implicated in that matter, beyond being an understandably horrified observer. I didn't deal with that aspect of the story because the article had become prohibitively lengthy and complicated -- and because I haven't been able to answer certain key questions to my satisfaction.

It's not necessary to regard Mr. Basford as a paragon of virtue (he certainly doesn't) in order to appreciate his sincere and commendable effort to be a conscientious peace officer within a thoroughly (which is to say, typically) corrupt department.


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Journalist Ryan Schuessler Ashamed of Colleagues’ Coverage of Ferguson Frenzy

Posted by T.M. Burroughs on Aug 25, 2014


Ryan Schuessler has still got it.A journalist used to be a source of unbiased reporting of facts. Not anymore. Reporting has gradually become slanted in the most egregious manner, raising the question, “Whom can we trust?” One journalist, Ryan Schuessler, is so ashamed of his colleagues in the Ferguson, MO Michael Brown / Darren Wilson incident that he has washed his hands of the story, leaving the scene in the hands of unscrupulous reporters.
See video report below. h/t: KMOV.com, St. Louis
video at link below

Thu Aug 21 19:44:09 PDT 2014
Journalist covering Ferguson appalled by behavior of media

A photojournalist who has been covering the protests in Ferguson said he no longer wants to cover the story because he said he is appalled by the behavior of other media. view full article

A photojournalist who has been covering the protests in Ferguson said he no longer wants to cover the story because he said he is appalled by the behavior of other media.
Ryan Schuessler is a freelance photojournalist who has worked for a variety of outlets. He said he is covering Ferguson for Al-Jazeera. He said he came Monday morning because the news outlet called him because stores were looted the previous night.
“I feel like I’m another part of this large media circus that has consumed [these] three blocks,” said Schuessler.
On his blog, Schuessler said he would not be returning to Ferguson for a variety of reasons.
“Another major TV network [rented] out a gated parking lot for their one camera, not letting people in. Safely reporting the news on the other side of the tall fence,” Schuessler said on his blog.
He also recounted another incident.
“One reporter who, last night, said he came to Ferguson as a ‘networking opportunity.’ He later lased me to take a picture of him with Anderson Cooper,” he said on his blog.

(T)

Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/08/jou...vwExpoJs8Me.99

Some Still Threaten: 'Justice in Ferguson, or Else'

Aug. 25, 2014


Sharpton

The streets of Ferguson, Missouri, are relatively quiet now, as the riots and looting have largely been quelled. Yet Monday marks an important event – Michael Brown’s funeral, where the race-baiting “Reverend” Al Sharpton is delivering the eulogy as we go to press.
Michael Brown Sr., the slain man’s father, asked, “I would like for no protesting going on. We just want a moment of silence that whole day, just out of respect for our son.” We hope citizens honor his request and the funeral doesn’t become a political charade.
But Sharpton made clear Sunday that he will continue to pursue his agenda. “I think that what we can say is that we must turn this moment into a movement to really deal with the underlying issues of police accountability and what is and is not allowable by police, and what citizens ought to be moving toward,” he said. “I think that we need to deal with how we move toward solutions, how we deal with the whole aggressive policing of what is considered low-level crimes.” Sharpton may have a point when he says the police response was troublesome, but he also largely misses the point – cultural rot.
Police actions were indeed at the center of the original dispute. Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown six times. Even weeks later, however, details of the shooting are unclear, including the extent of any injuries Wilson suffered and whether he had legitimate cause for shooting Brown. And the subsequent police response to the violence only exacerbated the situation.
Yet inner city culture, with its systemic poverty, high unemployment, gang culture and broken families, is the real problem.
So-called protesters have insisted the shooting was due to racism, but they have no proof to substantiate their claims. In reality, it ended up serving merely as an opportunity to loot convenience stores while spreading Democrats' classist and racist themes.
Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. (D-MO), who represents Ferguson, did his part to inflame tensions, declaring, “I’m more concerned if we do not get to the truth and get to what actually happened and bring justice to this situation, then there’s going to be a problem in the streets.” In saying so, he joins other prominent Democrats, including Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, in condemning Officer Wilson before the facts are known. Nixon said, “I ask that we continue to stand together as we work to achieve justice for Michael Brown.”
Justice includes the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.
To Democrats and the thugs on their poverty plantations, however, “justice” means getting something for nothing. Clay and Nixon are doing little but more articulately saying the same thing as their constituents. CBS interviewed three young black men in Ferguson who blamed police for the unrest and demanded jobs so they don’t have to loot any more. “If they [businesses] don’t restore the community,” said one, “there’s going to be hell to pay.” Another added, “That’s why people looting [sic] – ‘cause they can’t get no jobs.” Unemployment for young black men in Ferguson is 46%, caused in part by the complete cultural breakdown of family and education. That in turn results in practically illiterate and bitter men with all the time in the world to cause trouble.
But violence and looting probably aren’t the best qualifications to put on a résumé.
Perhaps these men should direct some of their ire at Barack Obama and the Democrat Party. Blacks have been a monolithic vote for Democrats for the last 50 years. Where has this “Great Society” gotten them?
Dr. Ben Carson, a rising conservative star and a black man, says the issue is one of “personal responsibility,” and that while jobs are key, people still must “take control of their own lives.” Indeed, Liberty won’t survive without a moral people who take on that personal responsibility. The worst part is Democrats are working to destroy morality, create dependence and undermine Liberty.

http://patriotpost.us/articles/28498





Sharpton


This man is a pin head, my opinion of course!!!



‘All I want is peace’: Father of slain Ferguson teen tells hundreds rallying against police violence ~ Learn more: http://bit.ly/VOcqfS

Hundreds have gathered in St. Louis for the annual Peace Festival, which this year took on a special theme following the slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown by the police. The boy’s father used the opportunity to ask for peace at his funeral on Monday.




‘All I want is peace’: Father of slain Ferguson teen tells hundreds rallying against police violence
The Free Thought Project

Hundreds have gathered in St. Louis for the annual Peace Festival, which this year took on a special theme following the slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown by the police. The boy’s father used the opportunity to ask for peace at his funeral on Monday. RT.com The aftermath of the black teen’s August 9 shooting has…



Ben Carson Clashes With Jesse Jackson Over Ferguson: ‘Nothing To Do With Race’

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson challenged civil rights activist Jesse Jackson to defend his contention that the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson was a racist ‘state execution,’ declaring that the 18-year-old’s death has ‘nothing to do with race.’

via DailyCaller


video/ audio at link below
Read more at http://conservativevideos.com/2014/0...M1MRXfMFOxE.99

Florida City Fires Their Entire Police Force
The Free Thought Project

April 3, 2014 One Florida town has been hit by corruption and it is so bad, the entire police force has been fired. The most corrupt city in the state has been exposed for its unlawful ways during a recent audit. All cops and elected officials in office have been let go or will be…

31 March, 12:44

Florida hit by corruption, entire police force fired


Photo: EPA

One Florida town has been hit by corruption and it is so bad, the entire police force has been fired. The most corrupt city in the state has been exposed for its unlawful ways during a recent audit. All cops and elected officials in office have been let go or will be soon as this is just one of the stipulations that had to be followed to spare the city of Hampton, as its corruption runs deep.

The one horse town celebrated its victory in a church this past Friday night. The townspeople broke out into smiles after finding out two Florida policymakers quit their journey to take away Hampton's cityhood. The 89-year-old city, with a population of 477, was on a tight rope after an audit came out in February revealing a plethora of violations. It found 31 federal, state, and local codes were broken, with allegations surrounds double-dipping and using city property for personal reasons.
The quaint city was already known as an infamous speed trap zone but gained even more publicity as a small-town with big corruption when lawmakers threated to pull its city charter a month ago. However, the townspeople persevered. Within a matter of four weeks, they had come up with an outline that persuaded Representative Charles Van Zant and Senator Rob Bradley to allow them to keep their city. They won the tough battle with all odds against them.
"Thank you for the work that has been done," Bradley told the crowd of 50 gathered Friday at Victory Baptist Church, according to a CNN article, "You've got a lot more to do, but boy. ..." He clearly was impressed, as was Van Zant, who said, "You've done yeoman's work. I think you've done well."
Trouble arose in a quite innocent way according to the newly hired city attorney John Cooper. A Texaco gas station on nearby US 301 asked for cops to protect the place after a couple of bad accidents and homicides took place. Then, Hampton annexed a 1,200-foot stretch of highway. Later on though, someone arrived at the idea that a lot of easy cash was to be made from pulling over speeders and writing up tickets they would have to pay.
When Hampton's map was redrawn, it resembled a giant mosquito, draining money straight from the highway. The biggest issue at the time was the police department as it was constantly going over its budget and the revenue from the tickets did not seem to make its way to any person working outside of its city hall building.
The amount of officers increased to 19, which included the chief. However, Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith confessed that a bunch of the cops were not at all trained in the proper manner. What is worse, the audit discovered that a couple of them had been driving uninsured vehicles. One policeman, who was better known as "Rambo," kept an assault rifle strapped across his chest just to write up traffic tickets.
By April 2013, Van Zant requested for the state auditor general to check into the city's budget situation. At the time, Mayor Barry Layne Moore was locked up in Bradford County jail when the audit was publicly released. He and other officials had an idea that the audit would come back with poor marks though, nobody knew how bad it would actually turn out.
The results came in from the audit and were so daunting, Bradley and Van Zant wanted to call for Hampton to cease to exist as a city as soon as they could. Besides the uncountable amount of code violations, the audit found tons of irregularities. To illustrate, a $132,000 credit account from a local BP gas station and $27,000 in credit card charges for entities that "served no public purpose" were found to be some of the shocking irregularities of the audit. Van Zant blamed Hampton of "abusing the public," while Bradley questioned, "Why is this even a city?"
Four replacements took over Hampton to clean up the city's act once and for all. The legislators were so surprised by their short-term progress that they decided to allow for the city to stay intact. In a matter of four weeks, Hampton has already progressed by leaps and bounds. All elected officials that were in power when the corruption ring broke headlines will be forced to resign. Special elections are to be held in September of this year.
The entire crooked police force is being fired as well. The $132,000 spent at the BP gas station and the $27,000 from credit cards was accounted for. Water meters in the city are now being tracked. An ordinance de-annexed the section of US 301 where the speed trap had been set up. City Council meetings are now being held at normal hours and are open to the general public.
"What you've seen here in the past month is the rebirth of your town," Van Zant told the residents as Friday's meeting came to a close, as stated on CNN.com, "I want to encourage everybody who has never served on the City Council to run for office. ... We want some new blood. We want to see a new genesis in Hampton. Make this thing work for you." Once the city progresses a little more, the lawmakers are expected to pay a visit in the future.
Voice of Russia, CNN

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_03_31/...ce-fired-8894/

Dillon Taylor: Unarmed, Shot by Police, Dead, White – Who Cares?

Posted by Rodney Lee Conover on Aug 25, 2014 in Culture, Media, Racism

Dillon Taylor and Michael Brown were both young men, both unarmed and both shot dead by police recently. That’s what they have in common..
Dillon Taylor was white, did not attack the officer who killed him, did not go for his gun, had not just robbed a store or committed a crime of any sort, did not have illegal contraband on his person, was not resisting arrest, did not rush the officer, assault anyone – yet was still shot dead. The officer who killed Dillon is black. There was no rioting, no looting, no calls for violence against the officer or prejudging of the facts of the case.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that you’ve never heard of Dillon Taylor and President Obama could care less about it and that goes double for Eric Holder.
Hat tip: The Inquisitor

The Dillon Taylor shooting, which involved a 20-year-old white unarmed teen and an African-American police officer, has gone largely unreported save for The Inquisitr’s own Jonathan Vankin and numerous conservative blogs.

The relative lack of media attention and the White House’s lackadaisical attitude toward the death of Taylor — though to be fair, they may not be saying anything because none of the so-called “serious” journalists are asking about it and they may not know, though we doubt it — has fueled the anger and outrage of many on the opposite side of the Michael Brown shooting.

In an effort to win sympathy from what the Ferguson protesters are going through, President Barack Obama has even called for a review of the military-grade equipment and gear that has been issued to the Ferguson police and departments in general throughout the country (Something I’m not entirely against).

Through all this, we’ve heard so much talk of race being the primary motivator for the death of Michael Brown.

With the Dillon Taylor shooting, however, we’ve heard nothing.

Nothing from so-called journalists, who seem to be creating news instead of reporting it. And that’s a shame, really, because it highlights the conversation that Ferguson protesters should be having instead of the racially-charged animosity that has broken out as a result of the Michael Brown shooting.

And that conversation should be over this: how we allow the news to influence our actions.

As with Michael Brown, the Dillon Taylor shooting still has a few variables we know nothing about. For instance, the cop responsible for shooting Taylor was wearing a camera at the time. To date, the police have not released the footage captured in Taylor’s final moments.

There could be an entirely plausible reason for this delay; then again, they could be stonewalling with a more sinister motivation.

We don’t know. And this is why we shouldn’t be taking to the streets and social media spreading misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies.

Some clarification: The young deceased man, Dillon Delbert Taylor was Hispanic. There are Hispanics of every color – white, brown, black and everything in between. But look at him and ask yourself why doesn’t Barack Obama give a rat’s ass?

It doesn’t fit his narrative. Dillon Taylor doesn’t matter, that’s why.

But make no mistake, Michael Brown doesn’t matter to President Obama or Eric Holder either.

They won’t care two weeks from now, because they’ll be on to their next scandal, their next opportunity, their next fundraiser, their next voter drive, their next golf outing, their next whatever.
Dillon Taylor, Michael Brown? .. Whatever.

-30-
by Rodney Lee Conover
Friend him on Facebook – no one refused
www.facebook.com/rodneyleeconover

email : kowenhoven@gmail.com

Sugar? No thanks, I’m sweet enough..

follow Rodney Lee on Twitter @RCCA08
by the way, Twitter is #prettystupid

Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/08/dil...xjyUQ5K6LOe.99

No Political Gain in the Shooting of Antonio Smith

Posted 6 hours ago

So a black child was fatally shot. His grieving mother tearfully described her son:
“My baby, he was a good kid. He’s a mama’s boy. He stayed up under me. He called me every day. I’m at work, ‘Mama, I love you. Mama, can I have this. Mama, can I have that’. My boy, he was just an angel. All he did was joke and laugh and play.”

The victim’s father says, “I love my city, but the city took something from me that I love even more. And that was my son. That was my little guy right there.”

I know you’re thinking – little guy?! The kid was a giant. Michael Brown was like 6’ 4″ and 300 pounds. We know the media and the race pimps promote him as a “young child,” to further garner sympathy, but for the father to say “little guy” is a bit much.

But I can understand your confusion. See, you think I’m writing about the Ferguson shooting, where white cop kills a black boy. No – that’s not it.
You see, while the country was still riveted on the shooting of the “Gentle Giant,” there was another shooting – this one of an actual little black child named Antonio Smith in — where else — Chicago.

Just this past Wednesday, the same day Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said, “I’m sick of unarmed black man being shot by police. I’m sick of the lawlessness on the streets, I think everybody’s tired of it,” nine-year-old Antonio Smith was gunned down outside of an apartment building in South Chicago.[1]
Antonio Smith

Take a guess who the shooter was. If you guessed that he wasn’t shot by a white cop, you win the prize. The prize should be self-satisfaction because you’re not getting anything else.

And Antonio is just the latest Chicago statistic under 18. This summer, at least 11 kids have been shot to death in the city. The same day Antonio was murdered, "seven others were wounded in city shootings throughout the day."

So where is “Megaphone” Al Sharpton? Where are Jesse Jackson and Atty. Gen. Eric Holder?

Could Antonio have been Barack Obama’s son? Remember this from President Obama?

“You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is: Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African-American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here. I think it’s important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at the issue through a set of experiences and the history that doesn’t go away.”

But you see, Antonio couldn’t be young Barack because he was more than likely shot by someone who was black, and that wouldn’t fit the race baiting template of Sharpton, Jackson, Holder, and Obama.

According to police, tensions between two rival gangs boiled over resulting in gunfire. They suspect the little nine-year-old got caught in the crossfire.
So where are the protests, the marches, the asinine sloganeering like, “Hands Up – Don’t Shoot”?

Why doesn’t Mayor Rahm Emanuel have to call for help from the National Guard to quell the violence and looting?
We all know why – because Antonio wasn’t shot by a cracker (most likely).

By all accounts and evidence, Antonio Smith was a good kid, who did have his whole life ahead of him only to have it snuffed out.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Michael Brown’s parents took part in a “Civil Rights” march, joining Al Sharpton on Staten Island. Gee, I haven’t read reports of Antonio’s parents receiving an invite. Huh? I wonder why?

Here’s why – other than the obvious race industry profiteering. Black-on-black killings happen so often that they have become common place. It’s said to say, but it’s true.

It’s become so common that it’s no longer newsworthy – other than the occasional statistic. White-on-black shootings are almost nonexistent, so when it does occur, because of the rarity, it’s automatically a headline, race baiting notwithstanding.

I feel for Michael Brown’s parents, but the evidence, at least so far, is that the kid was no angel. My heart truly goes out to Antonio’s family. No one should have to bury their child.

It’s a shame incidents like this go virtually unreported because there is no political and/or financial gain.

Notes:

• "I'm sick of unarmed black men being shot by police. I'm sick of the lawlessness on the streets. I think everybody's tired. When are we gonna get through with this kind of thing? I'm hopeful, with the Attorney General of the United States going out, that federal law enforcement will be fully engaged, and I hope bring to a decision quickly. But that's a really tough mission that he's set out on, and I know that from some experience." [↩]

Read more at http://godfatherpolitics.com/16787/p...bFO7Jt7hI9z.99


I am sick of thousands of unharmed American citizens no matter the color or ethnicity shot and killed by Police on our streets in every state, city, or hamlet!!!

Curious how much your local police force is militarized? This article/database should help HERE: http://bit.ly/1tA8dtT




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