Police State - Official Thread

[Soul Crusher]

Things are gettting worse rapidly

Appeals Court Rules That Cops Can Physically Make You Unlock Your Phone

This week, a federal court decided that police officers can make you unlock your phone, even by physically forcing you to press your thumb against it.

In November 2021, Jeremy Payne was pulled over by two California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers over his car's window tinting. When asked, Payne admitted that he was on parole, which the officers confirmed. After finding Payne's cellphone in the car, officers unlocked it by forcibly pressing his thumb against it as he sat handcuffed. (The officers claimed in their arrest report that Payne "reluctantly unlocked the cell phone" when asked, which Payne disputed; the government later accepted in court "that defendant's thumbprint was compelled.")

The officers searched through Payne's camera roll and found a video taken the same day, which appeared to show "several bags of blue pills (suspected to be fentanyl)." After checking the phone's map and finding what they suspected to be a home address, the officers drove there and used Payne's keys to enter and search the residence. Inside, they  found and seized more than 800 pills. Payne was indicted for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine.

In a motion to suppress, Payne's attorneys argued that by forcing him to unlock his phone, the officers "compelled a testimonial communication," violating both the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination. Even though the provisions of his parole required him to surrender any electronic devices and passcodes, "failure to comply could result in 'arrest pending further investigation' or confiscation of the device pending investigation," not the use of force to make him open the phone.

The district court denied the motion to suppress, and Payne pleaded guilty. In November 2022, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Notably, Payne had only served three years for the crime for which he was on parole—assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer.

Payne appealed the denial of the motion to suppress. This week, in an opinion authored by Judge Richard Tallman, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled against Payne.

Searches "incident to arrest" are an accepted part of Fourth Amendment precedent. Further, Tallman wrote that as a parolee, Payne has "a significantly diminished expectation of privacy," and even though the conditions of his parole did not require him to "provide a biometric identifier," the distinction was insufficient to support throwing out the search altogether.

But Tallman went a step further in the Fifth Amendment analysis: "We hold that the compelled use of Payne's thumb to unlock his phone (which he had already identified
for the officers) required no cognitive exertion, placing it firmly in the same category as a blood draw or fingerprint taken at booking," he wrote. "The act itself merely provided CHP with access to a source of potential information."

From a practical standpoint, this is chilling. First of all, the Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that police needed a warrant before drawing a suspect's blood.

And one can argue that fingerprinting a suspect as they're arrested is part and parcel with establishing their identity. Nearly half of U.S. states require people to identify themselves to police if asked.

But forcibly gaining access to someone's phone provides more than just their identity—it's a window into their entire lives. Even cursory access to someone's phone can turn up travel history, banking information, and call and text logs—a treasure trove of potentially incriminating information, all of which would otherwise require a warrant.

https://reason.com/2024/04/19/appeals-court-rules-that-cops-can-physically-make-you-unlock-your-phone/

[Skeletor]

Just a misdemeanor... Don't expect any rioting or looting of course.


Colorado sheriff’s deputy convicted of misdemeanor in shooting death of man who called for help

A former Colorado sheriff’s deputy was convicted of a misdemeanor on Friday in the shooting death of a 22-year-old man in distress who had called 911 for help after his car got stuck in a small mountain community.

Andrew Buen was also charged with second-degree murder and official misconduct in the 2022 death of Christian Glass, which drew national attention and prompted calls for police reform focused on crisis intervention. But jurors could not reach a verdict on those charges and only found him guilty of reckless endangerment, which is typically punished by a maximum four months in jail, The Denver Post reported.

A second-degree murder conviction would have carried a sentence of years in prison. A second officer indicted in Glass’ death previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Six other officers have been charged with failing to intervene.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christian-glass-killing-former-colorado-sheriffs-deputy-convicted-misd-rcna149646

[Skeletor]

A police youth program is plagued by sexual abuse allegations across the U.S.

The last known person to see Sandra Birchmore alive was a police officer.

He stopped by her apartment days before the elementary school teacher’s aide, 23 years old and newly pregnant, was found dead in February 2021. The medical examiner later ruled her death a suicide.

The officer worked for the Stoughton Police Department, near Boston, where he first met Birchmore about a decade earlier through the agency’s Explorer post — part of a youth mentorship program run by local departments across the country.

He acknowledged having sex with her when she was 15, according to a court ruling citing the officer’s text messages. That document indicates that his twin brother — also an officer and Explorer mentor — and a third Stoughton officer, a veteran who ran the program, eventually had sex with her, too.

These assertions, disclosed in an internal police investigative report and through an ongoing lawsuit filed by Birchmore’s family, have sparked demonstrations and an online petition asking for further investigation into her death. The three men, who did not respond to requests for comment, have denied any wrongdoing and have not been charged with a crime.

The youth program that introduced Birchmore to the officers is among hundreds of such chapters at police agencies around the country. Created by the Boy Scouts of America decades ago, law enforcement Explorer posts are designed to help teens and young adults learn about policing.

Birchmore’s case is among at least 194 allegations that law enforcement personnel, mostly policemen, have groomed, sexually abused or engaged in inappropriate behavior with Explorers since 1974, an ongoing investigation by The Marshall Project has found. The vast majority of those affected were teenage girls — some as young as 13.

Lack of oversight was partly responsible for the abuse, The Marshall Project investigation found. In many programs, armed officers were allowed to be alone with teenage Explorers. In a few instances, departments minimized or dismissed the concerns of those who reported troubling behavior, records show.

The officers accused of abusing teenagers spanned the ranks, from patrolmen to police chiefs. Some were department veterans cited in news articles for their community work. A handful had served their agencies for barely a year. And some were married men with families of their own.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-explorer-boy-scouts-sexual-abuse-allegations-rcna145347

[Skeletor]

Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on US Soil

A top FBI official is encouraging employees to continue to investigate Americans using a warrantless foreign surveillance program in an effort to justify the bureau’s spy powers, according to an internal email obtained by WIRED.

Known as Section 702, the program is controversial for having been misused by the FBI to target US protesters, journalists, and even a sitting member of Congress. US lawmakers, nevertheless, voted to extend the program in April for an additional two years, while codifying a slew of procedures that the FBI claims is working to stop the abuse.

Obtained by WIRED, an April 20 email authored by FBI deputy director Paul Abbate to employees states: “To continue to demonstrate why tools like this are essential to our mission, we need to use them, while also holding ourselves accountable for doing so properly and in compliance with legal requirements.” [Emphasis his.]

Added Abbate: “I urge everyone to continue to look for ways to appropriately use US person queries to advance the mission, with the added confidence that this new pre-approval requirement will help ensure that those queries are fully compliant with the law.”

“The deputy director's email seems to show that the FBI is actively pushing for more surveillance of Americans, not out of necessity but as a default,” says US representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California. “This directly contradicts earlier assertions from the FBI during the debate over Section 702’s reauthorization.”

Following publication, FBI spokesperson Susan McKee provided a statement from the bureau that mischaracterized WIRED's reporting, inaccurately claiming it “alleged that that the FBI instructed its employees to violate the law or FBI policies.” The statement added that Abbate's email “emphasized Congress’ recognition of the vital importance of FISA Section 702 to protect the American people and was sent to ensure that FBI personnel were immediately aware of, and in compliance with, the privacy enhancing changes the law has put in place.”

https://www.wired.com/story/fbi-section-702-us-person-queries-email/

[Skeletor]

Another shameful decision on the issue by the Supreme Court. The argument about not requiring a separate preliminary hearing is a cop out, since the "timely forfeiture hearing" took almost 2 years for one of the victims.


Supreme Court Rules No Due Process Right to Preliminary Hearings in Civil Asset Forfeiture Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the due process rights of two Alabama women were not violated when they both had to wait over a year for a court hearing to challenge the police seizure of their cars.

In a 6–3 decision, the Court's conservative majority held in the case Culley v. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama that property owners in civil asset forfeiture proceedings have no due process right to a preliminary court hearing to determine if police had probable cause to seize their property.

"When police seize and then seek civil forfeiture of a car that was used to commit a drug offense, the Constitution requires a timely forfeiture hearing," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. "The question here is whether the Constitution also requires a separate preliminary hearing to determine whether the police may retain the car pending the forfeiture hearing. This Court's precedents establish that the answer is no: The Constitution requires a timely forfeiture hearing; the Constitution does not also require a separate preliminary hearing."

Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is never charged or convicted of a crime. Law enforcement groups say it is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other organized crime.

Those criticisms have been echoed in the past by not just the Supreme Court's liberal justices but also Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, giving forfeiture critics hope that a skeptical majority on the Court would clamp down on civil forfeiture.

However, despite writing in a concurrence that "this case leaves many larger questions unresolved about whether, and to what extent, contemporary civil forfeiture practices can be squared with the Constitution's promise of due process," Gorsuch, joined by Thomas, both agreed with the majority opinion.


https://reason.com/2024/05/09/supreme-court-rules-no-due-process-right-to-preliminary-hearings-in-civil-asset-forfeiture-cases/

[Soul Crusher]

The process is the punishment 

Another shameful decision on the issue by the Supreme Court. The argument about not requiring a separate preliminary hearing is a cop out, since the "timely forfeiture hearing" took almost 2 years for one of the victims.


Supreme Court Rules No Due Process Right to Preliminary Hearings in Civil Asset Forfeiture Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the due process rights of two Alabama women were not violated when they both had to wait over a year for a court hearing to challenge the police seizure of their cars.

In a 6–3 decision, the Court's conservative majority held in the case Culley v. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama that property owners in civil asset forfeiture proceedings have no due process right to a preliminary court hearing to determine if police had probable cause to seize their property.

"When police seize and then seek civil forfeiture of a car that was used to commit a drug offense, the Constitution requires a timely forfeiture hearing," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. "The question here is whether the Constitution also requires a separate preliminary hearing to determine whether the police may retain the car pending the forfeiture hearing. This Court's precedents establish that the answer is no: The Constitution requires a timely forfeiture hearing; the Constitution does not also require a separate preliminary hearing."

Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is never charged or convicted of a crime. Law enforcement groups say it is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other organized crime.

Those criticisms have been echoed in the past by not just the Supreme Court's liberal justices but also Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, giving forfeiture critics hope that a skeptical majority on the Court would clamp down on civil forfeiture.

However, despite writing in a concurrence that "this case leaves many larger questions unresolved about whether, and to what extent, contemporary civil forfeiture practices can be squared with the Constitution's promise of due process," Gorsuch, joined by Thomas, both agreed with the majority opinion.


https://reason.com/2024/05/09/supreme-court-rules-no-due-process-right-to-preliminary-hearings-in-civil-asset-forfeiture-cases/

[Skeletor]

8 automakers misled customers about giving driver data to police, lawmakers say

Eight automakers misled customers about giving their vehicle location data to police without a warrant or court order, according to lawmakers.

Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Kia told lawmakers in response to an inquiry that they would provide data to police and other government agencies when subpoenaed, a departure from a prior pledge.

“Automakers have not only kept consumers in the dark regarding their actual practices, but multiple companies misled consumers for over a decade by failing to honor the industry’s own voluntary privacy principles,” Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., wrote in a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the manufacturers.

The senators alleged not that the automakers violated privacy laws, but rather that the companies engaged in deceptive conduct by claiming one policy and then enacting another. Deceptive conduct is forbidden by the FTC.

https://www.autonews.com/regulation-safety/automakers-will-give-connected-car-data-police

[B_B_C]

What good is the Second Amendment if you can be in your home, peacefully existing, and using a firearm exactly as intended for personal protection—and still be shot dead by police?

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/09/us/roger-forston-florida-airman-shot/index.html


The NRA held its annual convention on the same weekend that Roger Fortson’s family laid him to rest.

[Skeletor]

After attacking the deaf, the disabled and the elderly, the police has reached a new level of bravery. A cop shot and killed a tiny 13 lbs dog that was deaf and blind in one eye. Meanwhile the brave cop looks to be 240+. But the police claim the cop "acted within his authority".


Sturgeon residents react with concern after police officer shoots, kills 13-pound dog

https://www.komu.com/news/midmissourinews/sturgeon-residents-react-with-concern-after-police-officer-shoots-kills-13-pound-dog/article_369beef2-17a8-11ef-86d3-330ab4838892.html

[Skeletor]

This is horrific. In "the land of the free", regime henchmen can make people confess to anything if they torture them enough.

These criminals interrogated a man for 17 hours and told him to confess that he murdered his father (who was still alive but the cops lied as they usually do) and then threatened to kill his dog, even bringing it to the interrogation cell for a final goodbye. As usual, instead of disbanding the criminal gang and locking up its members for life or executing them, the taxpayers will have to foot the bill. How many others have made false confessions because they were kidnapped, extorted and tortured by criminal gangs?


Fontana pays nearly $900,000 for ‘psychological torture’ inflicted by police to get false confession

Within hours after Thomas Perez Jr. called police to report his father missing, he found himself in a tiny interrogation room confronted by Fontana detectives determined to extract a confession that he killed his dad.

Perez had told police that his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez Sr., went out for a walk with the family dog at about 10 p.m. on Aug. 7, 2018. The dog returned within minutes without Perez’s father. Investigators didn’t believe his story, and over the next 17 hours they grilled him to try to get to the “truth.”

According to court records, detectives told Perez that his father was dead, that they had recovered his body and it now “wore a toe tag at the morgue.” They said they had evidence that Perez killed his father and that he should just admit it, records show.

Perez insisted he didn’t remember killing anyone, but detectives allegedly told him that the human mind often tries to suppress troubling memories.

At one point during the interrogation, the investigators even threatened to have his pet Labrador Retriever, Margosha, euthanized as a stray, and brought the dog into the room so he could say goodbye. “OK? Your dog’s now gone, forget about it,” said an investigator.

“How can you sit there, how can you sit there and say you don’t know what happened, and your dog is sitting there looking at you, knowing that you killed your dad?” a detective said. “Look at your dog. She knows, because she was walking through all the blood.”

Finally, after curling up with the dog on the floor, Perez broke down and confessed. He said he had stabbed his father multiple times with a pair of scissors during an altercation in which his father hit Perez over the head with a beer bottle.

He was so distraught that he even tried to hang himself with the drawstring from his shorts after being left alone in the interrogation room. Perez was arrested, handcuffed and transported to a mental hospital for 72-hour observation.

But later that day, the truth derailed the detectives’ theory and their prized confession.

Perez’s father wasn’t dead — or even missing. Thomas Sr. was at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a flight to see his daughter in Northern California. But police didn’t immediately tell Perez.

https://www.sbsun.com/2024/05/23/fontana-pays-nearly-900000-for-psychological-torture-inflicted-by-police-to-get-false-confession/

[illuminati]

This is horrific. In "the land of the free", regime henchmen can make people confess to anything if they torture them enough.

These criminals interrogated a man for 17 hours and told him to confess that he murdered his father (who was still alive but the cops lied as they usually do) and then threatened to kill his dog, even bringing it to the interrogation cell for a final goodbye. As usual, instead of disbanding the criminal gang and locking up its members for life or executing them, the taxpayers will have to foot the bill. How many others have made false confessions because they were kidnapped, extorted and tortured by criminal gangs?


Fontana pays nearly $900,000 for ‘psychological torture’ inflicted by police to get false confession

Within hours after Thomas Perez Jr. called police to report his father missing, he found himself in a tiny interrogation room confronted by Fontana detectives determined to extract a confession that he killed his dad.

Perez had told police that his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez Sr., went out for a walk with the family dog at about 10 p.m. on Aug. 7, 2018. The dog returned within minutes without Perez’s father. Investigators didn’t believe his story, and over the next 17 hours they grilled him to try to get to the “truth.”

According to court records, detectives told Perez that his father was dead, that they had recovered his body and it now “wore a toe tag at the morgue.” They said they had evidence that Perez killed his father and that he should just admit it, records show.

Perez insisted he didn’t remember killing anyone, but detectives allegedly told him that the human mind often tries to suppress troubling memories.

At one point during the interrogation, the investigators even threatened to have his pet Labrador Retriever, Margosha, euthanized as a stray, and brought the dog into the room so he could say goodbye. “OK? Your dog’s now gone, forget about it,” said an investigator.

“How can you sit there, how can you sit there and say you don’t know what happened, and your dog is sitting there looking at you, knowing that you killed your dad?” a detective said. “Look at your dog. She knows, because she was walking through all the blood.”

Finally, after curling up with the dog on the floor, Perez broke down and confessed. He said he had stabbed his father multiple times with a pair of scissors during an altercation in which his father hit Perez over the head with a beer bottle.

He was so distraught that he even tried to hang himself with the drawstring from his shorts after being left alone in the interrogation room. Perez was arrested, handcuffed and transported to a mental hospital for 72-hour observation.

But later that day, the truth derailed the detectives’ theory and their prized confession.

Perez’s father wasn’t dead — or even missing. Thomas Sr. was at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a flight to see his daughter in Northern California. But police didn’t immediately tell Perez.

https://www.sbsun.com/2024/05/23/fontana-pays-nearly-900000-for-psychological-torture-inflicted-by-police-to-get-false-confession/

Seriously WTF - Those Khvnts should be strung up & left to Rot.

[B_B_C]

“It cannot be true that in America, it is easier to take away one’s liberty than hold the government accountable for violating the very Constitution guaranteeing liberty.”

Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves called for the eradication of qualified immunity.

First and most fundamentally, the judiciary’s job is to apply law, not make it. And yet,  the U.S. Supreme Court read into the nation’s premier civil rights law, 42 U.S.C. §1983, the defense of qualified immunity despite the fact that the statute itself makes no mention of any immunities whatsoever.

[Soul Crusher]

Why do our FBI agents so regularly abuse their power?
American Thinker ^ | 29 May, 2024 | Patricia McCarthy
Posted on 5/29/2024, 7:30:30 AM by MtnClimber

Is the agency purposely selecting people who sign up precisely because they want to act outside the law?

The American people are learning by dribs and drabs that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was not only unconstitutional, it was a set-up, an attempt to frame former President Trump for having documents illegally stored there. The set-up proves the lie. Both the National Archives and the FBI knew said documents, which Trump was legally allowed to have, were carefully stored in a locked storage room. Many of those boxes were packed and sent there by the National Archives; they likely knew what was in those boxes better than Trump did. In short, it was a Gestapo-like ploy to both incriminate and humiliate Donald Trump. As the truth of the raid leaks out (such as the authorization of lethal force) thanks to Judge Cannon who has ordered Jack Smith’s redactions unredacted, it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is the FBI and the National Archives working with the Biden administration that plotted to create a situation by which they could indict Trump. Jack Smith, a known legal thug who has no respect for the actual law, was then appointed, illegally and unconfirmed by the Senate, to prosecute Trump and convict by any means necessary. That case seems to be falling apart. It was a farce from the outset and Judge Cannon is allowing the American people to see just how much of a farce by releasing unredacted Smith documents.

The raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 is hardly the only example of FBI skullduggery. They raided hundreds of persons who were in attendance at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in much the same way — fifteen to twenty agents, armed with all manner of weapons.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...

[B_B_C]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/louisiana-police-law

Louisiana law criminalizes approaching police under certain circumstances
Critics fear law could stop bystanders from holding police accountable by preventing them from filming officers

[Skeletor]

40 Percent of Police Officers Convicted of Child Sex Abuse Don't Get Prison Time, Investigation Finds

A new investigation from The Washington Post has revealed that over the past two decades, almost 1,800 police officers were charged with crimes related to child sexual abuse. Even worse, of those convicted, nearly 40 percent managed to avoid prison time.

The investigation revealed a staggering lack of accountability for officers who sexually abuse minors—finding not only that convicted officers often received paltry sentences, but that police departments sometimes rehired officers with child sex abuse convictions.

The Post's analysis looked at thousands of court filings, as well as The Henry A. Wallace Police Crime Database, the county's most comprehensive database of police arrests. The authors found that, between 2005 and 2022, around 17,700 police officers were charged with crimes—and 1 in 10 of those were charged with a crime involving the sexual abuse of minors.

The crimes officers were charged with varied, though most charges were for a few specific offenses. According to the Post's analysis:
39% of officers charged with child sexual abuse crimes were charged with rape.
20% were charged with crimes related to child sexual abuse material.
19% were charged with forcible fondling.


83% of charged officers were convicted, however, only 61% of convicted officers received prison time.

15% received local jail sentences, and a striking 24% received sentences as light as probation, fines, and community service.

But even those imprisoned received relatively light sentences. Half were sentenced to less than five years in jail.

Why did so many officers seem to get off easy for heinous sex crimes? According to the Post, it comes down to how prosecutors and judges treat police officers.

"Prosecutors have broad discretion in the types of charges they bring, the plea bargains they offer and the cases they are willing to take to trial," the Post's analysis reads. "Judges play a critical role at sentencing hearings in determining what punishment officers deserve."

Police departments also shoulder much of the blame.

"Departments hired officers who had been accused—or sometimes convicted—of child abuse, domestic violence and other serious crimes," reads the Post's investigation. "In some cases, officers fired for their conduct have appealed their terminations through their police union protections, won their jobs back and then were convicted of abusing kids."

https://reason.com/2024/06/12/40-percent-of-police-officers-convicted-of-child-sex-abuse-dont-get-prison-time-investigation-finds/

[Skeletor]

Crazy case and shows how not only out of control cops are but also how they will fight tooth and nail to not be held accountable for their crimes.


A Federal Judge Rejects the Lame Excuses of Texas Cops Who Kidnapped a Supposedly 'Abandoned' Teenager

On a Friday morning in October 2018, two police officers who worked for a Texas school district kidnapped a 14-year-old girl from her home based on spurious child abandonment concerns. Although Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) promptly determined there was no reason to suspect neglect or abuse, the cops pursued criminal charges against the girl's mother, leading to a trial in which a jury acquitted her after deliberating for 5 minutes.

A civil rights lawsuit provoked by these outrageous abuses has been working its way through the federal courts for nearly four years. On Tuesday, a federal judge scathingly rejected the officers' motion for summary judgment, clearing the way for a trial.

"A lot of cops, like these two, think they can do whatever they want and search whatever they want and make up their own rules because they believe nobody will hold them accountable," Megan McMurry, the lead plaintiff in the case, says in an email. "It has been almost six years, but I want to change that narrative. Our system is broken. Our rights were violated and our lives have been constantly trampled through as we have fought to defend those rights."

https://reason.com/2024/06/19/a-federal-judge-rejects-the-lame-excuses-of-texas-cops-who-kidnapped-a-supposedly-abandoned-teenager/

[Skeletor]

As usual the state did not admit wrongdoing and the taxpayers will foot the bill. If the cop was in prison and had his assets confiscated or the payment came out of the police pension/union fund it might have made some cops think twice before violating the Constitution and commit crimes.

Vermont agrees to $175K payout over arrest of man who flipped off trooper

Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard's First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.

Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.

Bombard was stopped again and arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, and his car was towed. He was jailed for over an hour and cited to criminal court, according to the ACLU. The charge was eventually dismissed.

The Vermont State Police did not have a comment on the settlement. Vermont did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/vermont-agrees-175k-payout-arrest-man-flipped-trooper

[Skeletor]

Not only do the cops keep using this system that scrapes the entire contents of phones, even locked ones, but the information scraped is sent to the company first (based in Israel as usual) and they then return the data to the cops.

Baltimore Brings Back Controversial Cellphone Hacking System

Cellebrite is a dream come true for police surveillance. Plug in any cellphone, even a locked one, and get a full report of every file on its hard drive. Cellebrite, along with its main competitor, Grayshift, is one of the few companies offering this service. No wonder the Baltimore Police Department, like 6,900 other law enforcement agencies, bought a subscription.

Where police saw a dream, however, courts saw a constitutional nightmare. In September 2022, the 5th Appellate Judicial Circuit in Maryland ruled that police must stop using "general and overbroad warrants" to scrape the entire content of people's cellphones. After the ruling, Baltimore police announced that they would suspend their use of Cellebrite and work with lawyers "to ensure the current search warrant template is in line with all requirements."

Less than a year after the ruling, Baltimore cops re-upped their Cellebrite subscription, Reason has learned. In response to a Maryland Public Information Act sent through the website MuckRock, the Baltimore Police Department disclosed a $112,940 contract for Cellebrite services from March 2023 to March 2024, and another $6,100 contract from September 2023 to September 2024.

The device works to bypass the "secure enclave," the hardware that prevents a phone's storage from being read while it is locked. Then the software generates a report, sometimes thousands of pages long, listing all of the information stored on the phone. Police can specify what specific parts of the phone's storage they would like to search, although they are often loath to limit their searches.

In the past, police had to send the cellphone or a copy of its data to the Cellebrite headquarters for analysis, according to Budington, which raised serious privacy concerns. A foreign private firm—Cellebrite is owned by a Japanese company and based in Israel—was given the run of the house on citizens' most sensitive personal information.

https://reason.com/2024/06/27/baltimore-brings-back-controversial-cellphone-hacking-system

[Skeletor]

Former Uvalde school district police chief charged with child endangerment after shooting that killed 21

The former school district police chief in Uvalde, Texas, who oversaw the response to the 2022 elementary school shooting that killed 21 people, including 19 children, was arrested on a child endangerment charge, an official at the Uvalde jail said Thursday.

Pete Arredondo, 52, was taken in by law enforcement officers and is accused of abandoning and endangering a child, the jail official said and confirmed Arredondo was being booked into the facility Thursday afternoon. Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said Thursday night that Arredondo was released on bond.

Early this year, the Justice Department released a 600-page report that said poor coordination, training and execution of “active shooter” protocols led to a “failure” in the response of the Uvalde officers who rushed to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.

Instead of continuing to engage the 18-year-old gunman — who was locked in a classroom with 33 students and three teachers — officers retreated after an initial burst of gunfire and did not “push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat,” the Justice Department said.

The officers had been taught ​​erroneously that a situation involving an active shooter — an armed peron whom federal authorities define as “actively” killing or trying to kill others — “can easily morph into a hostage crisis,” the report says.

More than 70 minutes passed between the time officers arrived at the school and when the gunman was confronted and killed. In addition to the 19 students, two teachers were fatally shot, and 17 other people were injured.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-uvalde-school-district-police-chief-charged-child-endangerment-rcna134848

[Skeletor]

Horrible.

She called 911. The deputy who responded is charged with murdering her.

An Illinois sheriff’s deputy has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting an unarmed Black woman in her house after she called 911 to report a prowler.

Sean Grayson, 30, was one of two Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies who went to 36-year-old Sonya Massey’s house in Springfield, Ill., early on July 6. Within a half-hour, Grayson had shot Massey in the face and — as she lay dying — told another deputy not to bother with trying to save her, prosecutors allege.

Around 12:50 a.m. on July 6, Grayson and another deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call about a prowler near her house in Springfield, prosecutor Mary Rodgers wrote in a sworn affidavit. They allegedly went into her home to get more information and make sure it was safe.

While inside, Grayson noticed a pot on the stove and allowed Massey to remove it to prevent an accidental fire, Rodgers said. Meanwhile, the other deputy searched Massey’s house and found nothing dangerous, she added.

Grayson then made a comment about the pot, which held heated water, Rodgers said, and Massey responded by setting it down on the kitchen counter while Grayson was still in the living room.

Despite having cover and being some distance away from Massey, Grayson allegedly pulled his gun and threatened to shoot Massey in the face. Massey put her hands in the air and said “I’m sorry” as she ducked behind the counter between them, the prosecutor said.

Grayson came toward her and “aggressively yelled” at Massey, Rodgers said. Massey grabbed the pot and tossed out the water, according to an Illinois State Police memo obtained by the New York Times. Then, Grayson allegedly fired three times at Massey, hitting her once in the face.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/19/illinois-deputy-charged-sonya-massey/

[Skeletor]

Body camera video shows Watonga man slammed to the ground by police during morning walk with son

https://www.koco.com/article/watonga-body-camera-body-cam-video-walk-with-son/61667877

[Skeletor]

Cop drives over a woman at the beach and kills her, he gets the usual paid vacation and is then quietly allowed to retire.


Horry County beach patrol officer accused of killing beachgoer retires, HCPD confirms

https://www.wmbfnews.com/2024/08/02/horry-county-beach-patrol-officer-accused-killing-beachgoer-retires-hcpd-confirms/

[Skeletor]

Tulsi Gabbard under gov’t surveillance after criticizing Biden, Harris, whistleblowers warn: Report

A new whistleblower report claims that former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is currently under surveillance as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA’s) Quiet Skies program after criticizing the Biden-Harris administration.

According to Undercover DC, multiple Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers have claimed that Gabbard, who was a Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate before leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent in 2022, is being monitored under the Quiet Skies program. The outlet noted that Quiet Skies is a TSA surveillance program that tracks a list of suspected terrorists.

Undercover DC reported that while Quiet Skies is a program intended to protect U.S. citizens from domestic terrorist suspects, the program is allegedly being used to monitor people involved in the Capitol Hill protest on January 6, 2021.

According to Undercover DC, the whistleblower information was first shared with Air Marshal National Council Executive Director Sonya LaBosco. The Air Marshal National Council is an advocacy group for the Federal Air Marshals. LaBosco noted that at least one whistleblower was prepared to share documentation regarding the allegations.

LaBosco reportedly warned that Gabbard is currently unaware that she has three federal air marshals, one TSA supervisor, two explosive detection canine teams, and one Transportation Security Administration specialist shadowing her on every flight.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/08/fmr-congresswoman-under-govt-surveillance-after-criticizing-biden-harris-whistleblowers-warn-report/

https://uncoverdc.com/2024/08/04/fams-whistleblowers-report-tulsi-gabbard-on-quiet-skies-list

[Soul Crusher]

MO for the deep state and liberals 

Tulsi Gabbard under gov’t surveillance after criticizing Biden, Harris, whistleblowers warn: Report

A new whistleblower report claims that former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is currently under surveillance as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA’s) Quiet Skies program after criticizing the Biden-Harris administration.

According to Undercover DC, multiple Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers have claimed that Gabbard, who was a Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate before leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent in 2022, is being monitored under the Quiet Skies program. The outlet noted that Quiet Skies is a TSA surveillance program that tracks a list of suspected terrorists.

Undercover DC reported that while Quiet Skies is a program intended to protect U.S. citizens from domestic terrorist suspects, the program is allegedly being used to monitor people involved in the Capitol Hill protest on January 6, 2021.

According to Undercover DC, the whistleblower information was first shared with Air Marshal National Council Executive Director Sonya LaBosco. The Air Marshal National Council is an advocacy group for the Federal Air Marshals. LaBosco noted that at least one whistleblower was prepared to share documentation regarding the allegations.

LaBosco reportedly warned that Gabbard is currently unaware that she has three federal air marshals, one TSA supervisor, two explosive detection canine teams, and one Transportation Security Administration specialist shadowing her on every flight.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/08/fmr-congresswoman-under-govt-surveillance-after-criticizing-biden-harris-whistleblowers-warn-report/

https://uncoverdc.com/2024/08/04/fams-whistleblowers-report-tulsi-gabbard-on-quiet-skies-list

[Skeletor]

The FBI Raided This Innocent Woman's House. Will She Ever Get Justice?

On an early morning in 2017, Curtrina Martin inadvertently attended a pyrotechnic exhibit she compares to the Fourth of July. Except it was October, and it was inside her home in Georgia.

The source was considerably less joyful. The FBI detonated a flash grenade in the house and ripped the door from its hinges in a raid to arrest a man, Joseph Riley, accused of gang activity, who lived in a different house approximately one block over.

The agents would not realize their mistake until after they made their way into Martin's bedroom, where they found her and her then-fiancé, Hilliard Toi Cliatt, hiding in the closet, which the couple had retreated to when they were jolted awake by the commotion. An officer on the SWAT team dragged Cliatt out and handcuffed him, while another officer screamed and pointed his gun at Martin, who had reportedly fallen on a rack amid the chaos.

"I don't know if there is a proper word that I can use" to describe her fear that night, Martin tells me. She says she initially had no idea it was law enforcement that had broken into her home. Her 7-year-old son was in a different room she couldn't get to.

The leader of the SWAT raid, Lawrence Guerra, who was then a special agent with the FBI, noticed that Cliatt did not match the physical description of Riley, while Michael Lemoine, another FBI special agent, saw a piece of mail with a different address than the target. Guerra ultimately ended the raid.

Almost 7 years have gone by, and Martin and Cliatt are still trying to find recourse for what happened that night. A federal lawsuit they filed continues to wind its way through the judiciary, although the courts have thus far immunized the government from having to pay any damages.

The most recent decision came in April of this year, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Guerra—who, according to his LinkedIn, retired from the FBI in 2022—did not violate the Constitution when he led the SWAT team to the wrong house. In the court's view, Guerra had taken reasonable steps to prepare for the raid, despite that they didn't pay off. Martin's home and the target home "share several conspicuous features," the judges wrote in a per curiam opinion, such as both being "beige in color" and having "a large tree in the front." It was also dark outside, rendering it "difficult to ascertain the house numbers on the mailboxes," they wrote.

"Therefore, the decisions that Guerra made—albeit mistaken—in the rapidly-changing and dangerous situation of executing a high-risk warrant at night," the court ruled, "constitute the kind of reasonable mistakes that the Fourth Amendment contemplates." He received immunity.

Martin and Cliatt also sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which allows victims of abuse to bring certain state torts against the federal government. There are a few wide-ranging exceptions to that, too, however. Such claims are doomed if the government's misconduct arose from a duty that "involves discretion." Since "the FBI did not have stringent policies or procedures in place that dictate how agents are to prepare for warrant executions," Guerra had discretion, the 11th Circuit said, and is thus protected. Next came the Supremacy Clause, the rule that bars state tort claims if "a federal official's acts 'have some nexus with furthering federal policy and can reasonably be characterized as complying with the full range of federal law,'" as the court recently reiterated in Kordash v. United States (2022). The 11th Circuit said that stipulation foreclosed Martin and Cliatt's remaining claims.

More recently, Amy Hadley's home was left a shell of what it was after police detonated dozens of tear gas grenades in the house, threw flash grenades through the front door, shattered windows, punched holes in the walls, destroyed the security cameras, and more. An officer's faulty investigation led them there. The government said that it's her problem to shoulder alone. (Her lawsuit is ongoing.)

https://reason.com/2024/08/08/the-fbi-raided-this-innocent-womans-house-will-she-ever-get-justice/