Straight Dope Message Board

[Typo Negative]

Officer shot his neighbor, DA says, then waited to call 911 — and lied about what happened

New York's Finest.

Prosecutors say Yeboah did not initially try to help Afoakwah. Instead, they say he left the apartment to change his shoes and waited in the lobby of the building until first responders arrived, rather than performing first aid. The indictment alleges Yeboah did not call 911 until the victim’s father urged him to.

Looks a lot like he accidentally shot his friend and thought it was better to let him die then fess up. 15501

[Chisquirrel]

Originally Posted by Shalmanese

According to the CBP, this was all perfectly legal because the normal due process rights afforded to all Americans are suspended at the border, regardless of whether there was an intention to cross.

Huh. Guess I missed that part of the Bill of Rights.

"These rights shall not exist within 1000 feet of any border with a foreign nation or airport." 15502

[echoreply]

Originally Posted by Chisquirrel

Huh. Guess I missed that part of the Bill of Rights.

"These rights shall not exist within 1000 feet of any border with a foreign nation or airport."

1000 feet? More like 528,000 feet. 15503

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Shalmanese

US citizen enters into the bizarre, Kafkaesque world of no rights at the US border because he was trying to pay a customs fee.

Second sentence in the article:

A box of celebratory gifts — clothing and perfume from family in the Middle East — arrived at Buffalo Niagara International Airport customs.

A bit further down:

The incident (...) also calls into question whether the man, who is Muslim, was singled out because of his faith.

Call me paranoid, but I suspect they didn't care whether he was Muslim, Orthodox, Coptic, Unitarian or a 6th-generation atheist.




Note that the 10-mile zone includes any possible point of entry, so not only land borders but also airports and, depending on who has the more expensive lawyer, the whole coast. That's a damn big chunk of territory; in fact, wouldn't lots of small, inhabited islands be within that zone? 15504

[Shalmanese]

Originally Posted by Nava

Note that the 10-mile zone includes any possible point of entry, so not only land borders but also airports and, depending on who has the more expensive lawyer, the whole coast. That's a damn big chunk of territory; in fact, wouldn't lots of small, inhabited islands be within that zone?

Not a 10 mile zone, a 100 mile zone that includes 65% of all Americans.

Greyhound busses in Maine and New Hampshire driving purely domestic routes are being raided by CBP and anyone who "looked like they could be an immigrant" were asked for document checks. 15505

[carlb]

Originally Posted by Shalmanese

Not a 10 mile zone, a 100 mile zone that includes 65% of all Americans.

Greyhound busses in Maine and New Hampshire driving purely domestic routes are being raided by CBP and anyone who "looked like they could be an immigrant" were asked for document checks.

Hell, it includes the entirety of the state of Florida. The entire state. That is utterly ridiculous. 15506

[wguy123]

Not sure this is posted anywhere else, but a cop shot a teen fleeing because he was reaching for his waistband. This happened back in 2017 and was ruled a justified shooting. Video has now been released. Yeah, he was reaching for his waistband...to pull up his pants....as he ran away. Yet another cold-blooded execution at the hands of a cop.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...video-emerged/ 15507

[manson1972]

Originally Posted by wguy123

Not sure this is posted anywhere else, but a cop shot a teen fleeing because he was reaching for his waistband. This happened back in 2017 and was ruled a justified shooting. Video has now been released. Yeah, he was reaching for his waistband...to pull up his pants....as he ran away. Yet another cold-blooded execution at the hands of a cop.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...video-emerged/

I don't understand the withholding of the video. The police had to know what it showed. And if they did, why the hell would they give it to the lawyer? I mean, I'm glad they did, but it doesn't make any sense. 15508

[control-z]

Originally Posted by Shalmanese

Not a 10 mile zone, a 100 mile zone that includes 65% of all Americans.

Greyhound busses in Maine and New Hampshire driving purely domestic routes are being raided by CBP and anyone who "looked like they could be an immigrant" were asked for document checks.

This is something everyone should be writing their congressman about. Border patrol should be patrolling the border, not miles or a freakin' hundred miles from it! 15509

[wguy123]

Originally Posted by control-z

This is something everyone should be writing their congressman about. Border patrol should be patrolling the border, not miles or a freakin' hundred miles from it!

Spokane, WA is about 90 miles from the Canadian border. Border patrol has caused issues at the bus station:

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/20...t-against-bor/

Spokane is a white city. This is just a case of "you don't look like you're from around these parts". What border do you think Andres Sosa Segura might've crossed? The northern border? 15510

[RickJay]

Originally Posted by control-z

This is something everyone should be writing their congressman about. Border patrol should be patrolling the border, not miles or a freakin' hundred miles from it!

The underlying idea makes sense. Suppose you have a section of border in wilderness that's difficult to access; say, the right angle of the US-Mexico border east of Antelope Wells, or any number of spots around northeastern Minnesota/Ontario. Having CBP back off and protect the border from someplace more accessible, where border-crosses would inevitably have to go, is logical - and if held to only logical places, would not infringe on civil rights.

The problem is it's NOT being held to only logical places. 15511

[mhendo]

Police were called when a California man with mental health issues, crying out for help, doused himself in flammable liquid and refused to drop a lighter that he was holding.

The responding officer's solution? Hit him with a stun gun.

Nice going, genius! The stun gun ignited the liquid, ensuring the very outcome that the police were called to prevent, and the man is now in hospital with burns to 70 percent of his body. 15512

[Sicks Ate]

Originally Posted by mhendo

Police were called when a California man with mental health issues, crying out for help, doused himself in flammable liquid and refused to drop a lighter that he was holding.

The responding officer's solution? Hit him with a stun gun.

Nice going, genius! The stun gun ignited the liquid, ensuring the very outcome that the police were called to prevent, and the man is now in hospital with burns to 70 percent of his body.

Yes, but it was LESS lethal force. See? 15513

[Czarcasm]

Originally Posted by Sicks Ate

Yes, but it was LESS lethal force. See?

The officer is being investigated for excessive use of force because, unfortunately, there are no laws on the books concerning excessive use of stupidity. 15514

[Rick Kitchen]

OCTOBER 30, 2019
Somebody who works for the California Department of Corrections thought it would be appropriate to hang a Nazi flag in their office window where it could be seen by the passing public.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics...236820648.html

The department says the person is a Person of Color who is not a white supremacist, but just showed bad judgement 15515

[amarinth]

Guy steals wallet and belt from Walmart.

Police pursue and cause 100s of thousands of dollars of damage to an innocent bystander's home. Apparently, it's in bad form to let your gear go to waste when a store could be out... $50? Maybe? (it's Walmart - so I'm guessing it's not that much money) The grenades could pass their "use by" date.
They offer the homeowner (who had nothing to do with anything other than choosing to live somewhat close to a Walmart) $5K. Court says "yes, sucks to be you." 15516

[Muffin]

The land of the free, and the home . . .

scratch that -- the home was blown up for free.

What a shithole country. 15517

[UCBearcats]

G4S spread security guards and guns around world. Then came violence

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/ne...-s/3994676002/

Amazing that we pay people as low as $9.25 per hour and give them a gun. WTF?!? 15518

[manson1972]

I've never, nor will I ever, understand how companies that hire a contractor to perform services stick up for that contractor? I've seen it up and down the government spectrum and now with commercial companies. I just don't get it. 15519

[Ike Witt]

So the police have zero accountability. For anything it seems. Wow. It really is a racket. 15520

[Typo Negative]

Originally Posted by UCBearcats

G4S spread security guards and guns around world. Then came violence

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/ne...-s/3994676002/

Amazing that we pay people as low as $9.25 per hour and give them a gun. WTF?!?

This is horrifying.

An administrator at a G4S juvenile detention center in Florida discovered guards molesting kids, police said, and then hid it from state officials because she was worried about losing the contract.

She should have to spend some time with these kids. Then spend some years in prison.

Rios said "G4S had no way of knowing” that Mayo and other guards “would be capable of criminal acts.” She added that they all passed the company's screening procedures.

Except for the fact that they had committed criminal acts before, which is why they got fired from from police forces. If history teaches us anything, it's that you have to fuck up really really bad to be fired from a police force. 15521

[UCBearcats]

Deputy indicted on assault charge after face-slapping incident

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...m_medium=email 15522

[Ruken]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/b...athalyzer.html

Shoddy science, bad procedures, faked calibrations, black box software, disabled safety features, and tens of thousands of questionable convictions.

I mean, fuck drunk drivers, right? But make sure they're actually intoxicated. 15523

[JRDelirious]

Originally Posted by manson1972

I've never, nor will I ever, understand how companies that hire a contractor to perform services stick up for that contractor? I've seen it up and down the government spectrum and now with commercial companies. I just don't get it.

Because if they throw the contractor under the bus then (a) they’ll be admitting they chose wrong, and (b) now both the injured party AND the contractor will sue them, one for beimg ultimately responsible, the other for the underbusing. 15524

[Anglachel]

Officer found guilty of 2nd degree murder in shooting of suicidal man holding lighter fluid and lighter.

https://oklahoman.com/article/564608...ficer-shooting 15525

[MEBuckner]

Courtesy of Lowering the Bar, but I'll also link to the less-snarky Chicago Tribune story: Back in 2015 (a recently filed lawsuit alleges) the Chicago Police Department conducted a no-knock raid on a family home, complete with the usual accoutrements of no-knock raids (kicked-in doors, "flashbang" grenades, Scary Black Rifles pointed at people, and so on). Now, in this case, they didn't even kill any members of the (of course) African-American family living at this house (which included three boys, then-ages 11, 6, and 4, and their mom); they didn't shoot anybody; they didn't even shoot the family dog. The only problem with this particular no-knock raid was that the guy they were looking for didn't live there. He had lived there, but had moved away in 2009.

That is, the guy they were looking for had "moved" involuntarily, to the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Illinois, where he is expected to remain until 2029.

The entire thing was, also of course, over drugs.

So, some really heads-up detective work there from Chicago's finest, but, again, they didn't even shoot anybody, so the whole incident barely even qualifies for this thread. 15526

[Typo Negative]

California’s Criminal Cops: Who they are, what they did, why some are still working

More than 80 law enforcement officers working today in California are convicted criminals, with rap sheets that include everything from animal cruelty to manslaughter.

They drove drunk, cheated on time cards, brutalized family members, even killed others with their recklessness on the road. But thanks to some of the weakest laws in the country for punishing police misconduct, the Golden State does nothing to stop these officers from enforcing the law.

The review found 630 officers convicted of a crime in the last decade — an average of more than one a week.

All of the criminal cops who are still on the job were convicted of misdemeanors. Convicted felons can’t be police officers in California — or in most other states.

However, the review found a third of the convicted officers still working were originally charged with a felony or violent misdemeanor that could have cost them their right to carry a gun. Most managed to plead down to a lesser crime to stay on the job.

The review also found convictions for about half of the officers still working appear never to have been covered in the media.

And it's not like California Law Enforcement is hurting applicants. Cops in Ca, especially the big cities, get paid pretty well. 15527

[mhendo]

Dallas Transit Agency Pays $345,000 to Settle Lawsuit by Photographer Arrested for Taking Pictures

A DART audio recording of the incident that led to Adelman's arrest showed that everyone else at the scene recognized that [Officer] Branch was out of line. "He was just taking pictures, right?" one paramedic said. "Why is she going crazy?" Elmar Lee Cannon, one of Branch's fellow DART officers, replied: "I don't know. That's going to be on her. He can take all the pictures he wants. That's why I'm not getting involved in that." Another paramedic concurred, saying, "I don't know where that idea [that Ademan had committed a crime] came from…because there is freedom of the press."

Emphasis mine.

So, one of this cop's colleagues recognized that the cop was out of line, but rather than actually attempt to correct the situation, he just lets the cop violate the civilian's civil rights because he's "not getting involved in that."

This should qualify as dereliction of duty. 15528

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

There's an in-depth follow up to the article Typo Negative linked to. Today's article focuses on the Central Valley town of McFarland, and how several of their chiefs are also tainted.

Scariest quotes:

How could one police department make so many questionable hires? For one, California does close to nothing to stop problem police officers from popping up at job after job. The state doesn’t flag disgraced officers to potential employers or revoke their badges. Instead, it’s up to local police chiefs to decide when a candidate is too tainted to hire. And some, like McFarland, set the bar extraordinarily low.

“I can understand that you would like everybody to be squeaky clean, but I didn’t have that world to live in,” said David Frazer, McFarland’s first police chief. “The ones that I turned down scared me, really scared me. Drug use, recent DUIs, just stuff in their background that was just like ‘are you kidding me?’”

And when one chief in another city realized many of the officers he fired were all ending up in McFarland, he reported it to the state oversight agency. The response?

Two months after he had sent out his pleas demanding an investigation into McFarland’s police force, Purvis got a letter back from POST’s interim executive director shooting him down.

“The decision whether to appoint an individual as a peace officer rests with the agency head,” he wrote. “Differences of opinion can exist regarding whether or not an individual should be appointed as a peace officer.”

15529

[Rick Kitchen]

Originally Posted by ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness

There's an in-depth follow up to the article Typo Negative linked to. Today's article focuses on the Central Valley town of McFarland, and how several of their chiefs are also tainted.

Scariest quotes:


And when one chief in another city realized many of the officers he fired were all ending up in McFarland, he reported it to the state oversight agency. The response?

As of 2010, 91% of the population of McFarland was Hispanic. I doubt very seriously that many of those police hires were Hispanic. 15530

[PastTense]

This is off-topic because it is between two cops (do we have a thread for this?). A small town police chief and detective in his department go to a law enforcement conference on handling death scene investigations. The detective kills the police chief while there:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ida/ar-BBWB0Jd

I don't know but this may be going a bit too far to get some practical experience with this issue... 15531

[Typo Negative]

Originally Posted by Rick Kitchen

As of 2010, 91% of the population of McFarland was Hispanic. I doubt very seriously that many of those police hires were Hispanic.

I hate to say it, but I think they are being hired because of a ........moral flexibility. They may be willing to do things that are a bit out-of-bounds, ethically. 'Cause ethically, they're kinda shaky.

As I said before, CA Law Enforcement does not want for applicants. McFarland and several other cities could field entire departments from last years LAPD Academy wash-outs. 15532

[mhendo]

We've talked on quite a few occasions about civil asset forfeiture in this thread, and about how it's often used in incredibly unjust ways by law enforcement.

Check out this video posted by the FBI. They are literally trying to convince us that civil asset forfeiture saves puppies' lives.

You don't want the puppies to die, do you? 15533

[Projammer]

Disturbing video shows police officer tackling a 15-year-old who has no arms or legs

Because. Umm. Reasons! 15534

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by Projammer

Disturbing video shows police officer tackling a 15-year-old who has no arms or legs

Because. Umm. Reasons!

"I thought he was armed" 15535

[manson1972]

I hope you know I feel disgusted at myself for laughing at that. 15536

[eschereal]

Originally Posted by mhendo

We've talked on quite a few occasions about civil asset forfeiture in this thread, and about how it's often used in incredibly unjust ways by law enforcement.

Check out this video posted by the FBI. They are literally trying to convince us that civil asset forfeiture saves puppies' lives.

You don't want the puppies to die, do you?

So the people who had the dogs were just going along their way when the fuzz stopped them, took their dogs, told them that they had to prove that the dogs were not involved in any crime and then never charged those people with anything? I mean, like most of the forfeiture cases we hear about? 15537

[kayaker]

Originally Posted by Euphonious Polemic

"I thought he was armed"

I tried to think of a comeback, but I'm stumped. 15538

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by Projammer

Disturbing video shows police officer tackling a 15-year-old who has no arms or legs

Because. Umm. Reasons!

Don't trust the video, it doesn't show you everything. Like the way the suspect moved his eyelids in threatening fashion. 15539

[kayaker]

Originally Posted by Projammer

Disturbing video shows police officer tackling a 15-year-old who has no arms or legs

Because. Umm. Reasons!

the deputy was called to a group home where the 15-year-old teen resides after being abandoned by his parents.

No arms, no legs, no parents, and he has to deal with Officer Friendly. 15540

[SteveG1]

This particular piece of shit should be fired, arrested, locked up, and have his sorry ass stomped every day for the rest of his life...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...ampaign=recent

Sheriff's deputy tackles a 15-year old quadruple amputee and screams in his face

Staff at a group home for teenagers in Tucson, Arizona, called 911 after one young person knocked over a trash can and began yelling. I’m still trying to figure out why staff couldn’t handle the situation themselves: the boy in question is a quadruple amputee, which I think would dramatically limit his ability to endanger anyone.

Anyway, when sheriff’s deputies arrived, one of them apparently thought that a 15-year old without arms or legs posed such an imminent threat that he needed to be bodily assaulted and pinned to the floor. Then, to ensure that the quadruple amputee would “respect his authoritah” he proceeded to yell and scream in his face, because of course that’s what anyone would normally do with a severely disabled person who didn’t obsequiously comply with one’s every wish, right?

Of course, this scene wouldn’t be complete without some gratuitous power-tripping against bystanders as well. Apparently, Tucson deputies are under the assumption that they have the final word on the law and the Constitution so they can ignore court rulings upholding the right of citizens to film police activities. That explains why they handcuffed another teen who was filming the incident, without interfering, and gratuitously slammed his head against the wall after he was already cuffed … and then arrested both boys for disorderly conduct.

Watch the damn video.

https://youtu.be/11jrByA6m0c 15541

[SteveG1]

Originally Posted by kayaker

No arms, no legs, no parents, and he has to deal with Officer Friendly.

You beat me to it. 15542

[Rick Kitchen]

Originally Posted by Projammer

Disturbing video shows police officer tackling a 15-year-old who has no arms or legs

Because. Umm. Reasons!

He also arrested the kid recording it. 15543

[UCBearcats]

Originally Posted by SteveG1

This particular piece of shit should be fired, arrested, locked up, and have his sorry ass stomped every day for the rest of his life...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...ampaign=recent




Watch the damn video.

https://youtu.be/11jrByA6m0c

Fuck these vile pieces of shit with a badge. 15544

[septimus]

Originally Posted by Typo Negative

As fucked up as the situation is, I don't know if a murder charge is appropriate....

The charging was just for show. The charges will eventually be dropped; killer will get extra paid vacation and a reprimand. (The mantra "I was afraid" absolves any police guilt.)

But shouldn't this whole story be in the Positive Gun News thread? As example of the perils of NOT being properly armed? Victim should have had an AR-15 ready and willingness to use it. (She'd have ended up dead anyway, but at least taken out some of her opposition.) 15545

[SteveG1]

Originally Posted by Ike Witt

So the police have zero accountability. For anything it seems. Wow. It really is a racket.

Yeah, no shit. 15546

[Typo Negative]

Shopping while Black is suspicious

The responding officer spoke with the two men who questioned why Jones ran their plates without just cause. The officer told the pair: "Not necessarily. We can run plates for any reason or no reason at all. What he does have to have is he has to have what's called reasonable suspicion in order to make a stop. He has to have some sort of reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed."

15547

[Balance]

Originally Posted by Typo Negative

Shopping while Black is suspicious

On the plus side, the responding officer (the Indianapolis Metro cop in your quote) who showed up when the asshole constable called for backup apparently told him to back off and go away, then stayed to explain it to the two guys being harassed. Maybe I'm being overly charitable toward him because he deescalated the situation, but I think you can read that quote as explaining both why it was legal to run their plates and why the other cop had no legal grounds to stop them.

Even better, the Chief Constable fired the guy "within two hours of viewing [the video]".

So, it still sucks that there was a racist asshole cop harassing people, but at least two other cops actually did something to stop him. That's better than I've come to expect. 15548

[Miller]

What he does have to have is he has to have what's called reasonable suspicion in order to make a stop.

That cop needs to be prosecuted for aggravated assault against grammar. 15549

[margin]

Originally Posted by Steophan

You know what isn't normal human behaviour? Following someone around the internet, calling them a liar, and insulting them. Especially when the things you call lies are either deliberate misinterpretations of what I've said (as in this case), actually true or at worst debatable, or often both of the above.



Firstly, it's not bullshit, any noise loud enough to vibrate a car from a few feet away is enough to damage hearing. And secondly, neither Dunn nor I have claimed that music would be enough to justify any form of physical interaction.

What is allowable is defending yourself against threats of imminent violence, which is what Dunn claimed the antisocial, argumentative guy in the car was doing. That Davis's behaviour escalated to threatening is hardly impossible to believe, despite what you say.



What does shooting at them have to do with his honesty? He didn't lie about doing that. And to say, as you are, that because he's guilty of one crime, he must be guilty of another, separate crime is hugely unjust. Not surprising from you, as you seem to have no concept of justice, rather thinking that you know everything and that the vengeance you call for us necessarily right.

Regardless of anything else, Davis's behaviour to Dunn was indefensible. His death doesn't change that, and even if Dunn did murder him, it doesn't change that.

But hey, you keep on assuming that people who report being victims of crime are liars. Maybe you could go work for Trump, or somewhere in Hollywood. They'll be looking for people who can argue that point as tenaciously as you. Your tedious and inaccurate characterisation of those you disagree with as liars, instead of refuting their arguments, is also remarkably Trumpian. Perhaps you should make a bit more effort not to remind one so much of a sad, pathetic, barely literate, self-important buffoon.

Bolding mine, for the breathtaking hypocrisy. 15550