IN: Brutal cop throws handicapped kid around
A Bloomington police officer under investigation for a December incident involving a 7-year-old Stevenson School student is no longer employed by the police department. Police Chief Randy McKinley said Scott Oglesby’s change in employment status was effective Friday. Because it is a personnel issue, McKinley said he could not comment further. City attorney Todd Greenburg and City Manager David Hales also declined to comment for the same reason.
Oglesby was placed on paid administrative leave following the Dec. 21 incident at the school. According to police reports, Oglesby was at the school for another incident and went into a room where the special-needs child was suffering a seizure, which his parents say causes him to scream and throw a tantrum.
Oglesby told the young boy he was giving him a headache and then lifted the 65-pound boy by the throat. He “was lifted off the floor so his feet were dangling … his head was close to the ceiling … his face was turning quite red,” according to the school psychologist’s statement to police.
The psychologist left the room and told the school resource officer, who then went into the room. Oglesby then grabbed the boy by the arm, lifted him over his shoulder and carried him to the principal’s office where, according to one witness, he “threw” the boy into a chair.
On Feb. 23, McLean County State’s Attorney Bill Yoder said he was not filing criminal charges against Oglesby. The police officer was allowed to return to return to work but was placed on restricted duty, according to McKinley.
McKinley also said at the time that an internal investigation was under way. Late last week, McKinley said he had reviewed the results of the internal investigation and forwarded it to the city’s legal department.
McKinley said Monday he could not comment further because Oglesby still has legal rights — something not typically brought up when a person voluntarily leaves a position.
On March 18, the state Department of Children and Family Services, which also investigated the incident, placed Oglesby on its state register of “indicated” child abusers. By law Oglesby will remain on the list for five years.
District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly called the incident involving Oglesby an isolated case. “It’s not reflective of the high quality police officers there (at the police department),” he said.
The district has three school resource officers who are assigned to the district by the police department. Reilly said those officers know the students, faculty and staff very well and have a “relationship that helps when police presence is necessary." However, if the school resource officers are busy and a police officer is needed at a school, other officers may respond.
Oglesby, who was not a school resource officer, went to the school after hearing of an incident involving another student, police reports said. The school resource officer also was en route.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Dallas citizen spends 12 years in prison, after wrongful conviction
By all appearances, Christopher Scott doesn't stand out as a Dallas citizen. He lives in a nice home, drives a nice car and has raised two sons. Fourteen years ago, however, Scott lost everything when Dallas County wrongly convicted him of capital murder.
His story is not as uncommon as one might think. Rather, Dallas County stands out as an epicenter in the nationwide movement to overturn wrongful convictions, according to Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. Working with the Innocence Project of Texas, Watkins' Conviction Integrity Unit has worked to free dozens of wrongly imprisoned citizens in recent years, often with the help of DNA testing.
As of 2010, 269 post-exoneration cases have occurred in the United States, and Texas leads the way with 42. Of that 42, almost half have occurred in Dallas County. Scott's story starts off like many other exonerees:' with a case of misidentification.
After leaving his home to buy a Dr. Pepper at a local store, Scott and his friend Claude Simmons were taken by police on the lookout for a murderer. The two did not match the original description of the shooter, they had no gunshot residue on them, and no other physical evidence linked them to the murder.
Scott was charged with the murder of Alfonzo Aguilar, who had been killed in front of his wife during a home-invasion robbery. Aguilar's wife, Celia Escobedo, was brought to the jail, put in a room with Scott and asked if he were the shooter. She identified him as the shooter and he was charged with capital murder.
At the beginning of the trial, the judge asked Scott why the state should not seek the death penalty in his case. Scott replied, "You shouldn't kill an innocent man." He would later credit this statement with saving his life.
Capital murder cases have two options when it comes to punishment: life in prison or the death penalty. Scott may have beaten the death penalty, but he faced a capital life sentence with a minimum of 40 years before the option of parole.
During trial, seven police officers testified that, based on their findings, Scott was not guilty. The only evidence that the prosecution utilized during the trail was testimony from Celia Escobedo, despite the fact that Scott did not match her initial description to the police.
The entire proceedings lasted half a day and the jury took one more day to deliberate. When the jury came back with the guilty verdict, Scott was in shock. "The only good thing about it was I was not going to death row," Scott said. "If I was on death row, right now I would probably be dead."
Scott said his time in prison led to a stage of depression. Scott felt he had to focus his energy to remain positive, while biding his time in jail. "I can't put an amount on the degree of faith and hope I had to have to endure what I did and go through what I went through," Scott said.
After more than a decade of maintaining his innocence, Scott's fight for justice paid off with the help of two local student groups. The University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Network and the Actual Innocence Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin worked to prove his innocence when the case was reopened.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially cleared Scott of capital murder in March 2010, five months after his release from prison. Scott's case is distinct from many other appeals, as his conviction was based solely on a poor eyewitness testimony and lacked any DNA evidence.
Scott cited one hole in the system, explaining that he only met with his court-appointed attorney once and that there are no rules regarding how many times defense attorneys should meet with their clients in capital murder cases.
"I brought that up in Austin—How could this be happening on a capital murder case?" Scott said. "But it's really happening. You are not being represented right."
Some within the justice system have made attempts to address these issues. Assistant District Attorney and SMU alum Cynthia Garza works with the Conviction Integrity Unit, established by DA Watkins in July of 2007. The unit oversees the post-conviction review of more than 400 DNA cases and is the first of its kind in the United States.
Garza and the CIU aim to aid other inmates who are in the same situation as Scott was. Garza acknowledged issues within the legal system regarding post-conviction exonerations. However, she holds that problems are intrinsic to any system. "I think the system is currently working at the best level that it can be with what we have now," Garza said. "There are flaws in the system, like everything else."
But Garza also said that exonerations do play an important role in efforts to improve the system. "There are changes in the legislature that have come about because of the exonerations," Garza said.
Justice was done for Christopher Scott on Oct. 23, 2009, when he was exonerated. He has since devoted his time to reaching out to other wrong convicted individuals and aiding other recent exonerees. Scott founded The House of Renewed Hope, an organization that aims to support and encourage newly released exonerees to assimilate them back into society.
Scott also meets with a brotherhood of exonerees, a group of seven men who meet monthly to provide emotional support to one another. The men attend one another's family gatherings including birthdays, weddings, and funerals.
Claude Simmons, a brotherhood member, and Scott were two of the first exonerees to be eligible for financial compensation under the Timothy Cole Act, which was signed into Texas law in 2009. The statute increased payment to exonerated inmates from $50,000 to $80,000 for each year they spent in prison.
Both men struggled to get any of the financial compensation for several months and did not receive any of the non-monetary benefits open to paroled prisoners, according to Jaimie Page, University of Texas at Arlington exoneree project director. But this was not the only hardship for Scott. He has also dealt with being away from his two children for a majority of their childhoods.
Before his incarceration, Scott was working as a produce manager at a local grocery store and raising his two sons who are now both adults. Since his exoneration, he has reunited with both sons and reestablished a good relationship with them.
Scott also hopes to affect systemic change by getting lawmakers to look for solutions to problems associated with re-entering society after years of unjust imprisonment.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
By all appearances, Christopher Scott doesn't stand out as a Dallas citizen. He lives in a nice home, drives a nice car and has raised two sons. Fourteen years ago, however, Scott lost everything when Dallas County wrongly convicted him of capital murder.
His story is not as uncommon as one might think. Rather, Dallas County stands out as an epicenter in the nationwide movement to overturn wrongful convictions, according to Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. Working with the Innocence Project of Texas, Watkins' Conviction Integrity Unit has worked to free dozens of wrongly imprisoned citizens in recent years, often with the help of DNA testing.
As of 2010, 269 post-exoneration cases have occurred in the United States, and Texas leads the way with 42. Of that 42, almost half have occurred in Dallas County. Scott's story starts off like many other exonerees:' with a case of misidentification.
After leaving his home to buy a Dr. Pepper at a local store, Scott and his friend Claude Simmons were taken by police on the lookout for a murderer. The two did not match the original description of the shooter, they had no gunshot residue on them, and no other physical evidence linked them to the murder.
Scott was charged with the murder of Alfonzo Aguilar, who had been killed in front of his wife during a home-invasion robbery. Aguilar's wife, Celia Escobedo, was brought to the jail, put in a room with Scott and asked if he were the shooter. She identified him as the shooter and he was charged with capital murder.
At the beginning of the trial, the judge asked Scott why the state should not seek the death penalty in his case. Scott replied, "You shouldn't kill an innocent man." He would later credit this statement with saving his life.
Capital murder cases have two options when it comes to punishment: life in prison or the death penalty. Scott may have beaten the death penalty, but he faced a capital life sentence with a minimum of 40 years before the option of parole.
During trial, seven police officers testified that, based on their findings, Scott was not guilty. The only evidence that the prosecution utilized during the trail was testimony from Celia Escobedo, despite the fact that Scott did not match her initial description to the police.
The entire proceedings lasted half a day and the jury took one more day to deliberate. When the jury came back with the guilty verdict, Scott was in shock. "The only good thing about it was I was not going to death row," Scott said. "If I was on death row, right now I would probably be dead."
Scott said his time in prison led to a stage of depression. Scott felt he had to focus his energy to remain positive, while biding his time in jail. "I can't put an amount on the degree of faith and hope I had to have to endure what I did and go through what I went through," Scott said.
After more than a decade of maintaining his innocence, Scott's fight for justice paid off with the help of two local student groups. The University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Network and the Actual Innocence Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin worked to prove his innocence when the case was reopened.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially cleared Scott of capital murder in March 2010, five months after his release from prison. Scott's case is distinct from many other appeals, as his conviction was based solely on a poor eyewitness testimony and lacked any DNA evidence.
Scott cited one hole in the system, explaining that he only met with his court-appointed attorney once and that there are no rules regarding how many times defense attorneys should meet with their clients in capital murder cases.
"I brought that up in Austin—How could this be happening on a capital murder case?" Scott said. "But it's really happening. You are not being represented right."
Some within the justice system have made attempts to address these issues. Assistant District Attorney and SMU alum Cynthia Garza works with the Conviction Integrity Unit, established by DA Watkins in July of 2007. The unit oversees the post-conviction review of more than 400 DNA cases and is the first of its kind in the United States.
Garza and the CIU aim to aid other inmates who are in the same situation as Scott was. Garza acknowledged issues within the legal system regarding post-conviction exonerations. However, she holds that problems are intrinsic to any system. "I think the system is currently working at the best level that it can be with what we have now," Garza said. "There are flaws in the system, like everything else."
But Garza also said that exonerations do play an important role in efforts to improve the system. "There are changes in the legislature that have come about because of the exonerations," Garza said.
Justice was done for Christopher Scott on Oct. 23, 2009, when he was exonerated. He has since devoted his time to reaching out to other wrong convicted individuals and aiding other recent exonerees. Scott founded The House of Renewed Hope, an organization that aims to support and encourage newly released exonerees to assimilate them back into society.
Scott also meets with a brotherhood of exonerees, a group of seven men who meet monthly to provide emotional support to one another. The men attend one another's family gatherings including birthdays, weddings, and funerals.
Claude Simmons, a brotherhood member, and Scott were two of the first exonerees to be eligible for financial compensation under the Timothy Cole Act, which was signed into Texas law in 2009. The statute increased payment to exonerated inmates from $50,000 to $80,000 for each year they spent in prison.
Both men struggled to get any of the financial compensation for several months and did not receive any of the non-monetary benefits open to paroled prisoners, according to Jaimie Page, University of Texas at Arlington exoneree project director. But this was not the only hardship for Scott. He has also dealt with being away from his two children for a majority of their childhoods.
Before his incarceration, Scott was working as a produce manager at a local grocery store and raising his two sons who are now both adults. Since his exoneration, he has reunited with both sons and reestablished a good relationship with them.
Scott also hopes to affect systemic change by getting lawmakers to look for solutions to problems associated with re-entering society after years of unjust imprisonment.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Monday, May 16, 2011
Australia: Justice denied on Palm Island
Frank Brennan SJ
ON Monday I was in Townsville, talking to people about the latest saga in the police cover-up of the death of Mulrunji Cameron Doomadgee, the Aboriginal resident of Palm Island who never emerged alive from the police station after Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley fell on him in November 2004.
The Aboriginal community has had to endure three separate coronial inquiries; a decision by the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute; the reversal of that decision on advice from Laurence Street, who said, "A jury could well find that the only rational inference that can be drawn as to the fatal injury is that it was inflicted by Hurley deliberately kneeing Mulrunji in the upper abdominal area"; the trial of Hurley, who was acquitted, with his barrister telling the jury Hurley was the "instrument of another young man dying and that is a cross he will carry for the rest of his life"; a detailed hearing before the Crime and Misconduct Commission that recommended "consideration be given to commencing disciplinary proceedings for misconduct" against six named police officers; a Supreme Court case denying the Queensland police commissioner the right to conduct the disciplinary proceedings on the grounds of apprehended bias; and now a decision by the deputy police commissioner that there is no need for any disciplinary action against any Queensland police officer.
All is well again in the state of Queensland. Or at least it is back to business as usual in Aboriginal-police relations.
The public is well familiar with the fact the investigating police officers were treated to a barbecue at Hurley's residence on arrival on Palm Island before they began the inquiry into the death caused by Hurley. The barbecue was just the beginning of the chummy police cover-up of their own negligence and dishonesty. Here is one of the CMC's observations about the extraordinary behaviour of Detective Senior Sergeant Raymond Kitching, Detective Inspector Warren Webber and Inspector Mark Williams: Kitching "agreed that he only offered to pathologists information that he considered reliable and relevant".
This seems in stark contradiction to his inclusion on the Form 1 of hearsay evidence about Doomadgee drinking bleach and his exclusion not only of Roy Bramwell's evidence but also of Penny Sibley's allegation of assault (the credibility of which had not been questioned).
In effect, Kitching seems to have informed the pathologist of information adverse to Doomadgee but excluded allegations adverse to Hurley." The pathologist, Guy Lampe, had been told by police that Doomadgee had swallowed bleach (he had not) but not that he had been assaulted (he had). The CMC said the police officers who conducted the internal review of this behaviour "appear to be simply providing reasons to justify Kitching's failure to make this information available to the pathologist, and Webber's and Williams' failure to check the Form 1".
The CMC, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Martin Moynihan, concluded: "The investigation into the death of Mulrunji was seriously flawed, its integrity gravely compromised in the eyes of the very community it was meant to serve. The way in which the investigation was conducted destroyed the Palm Island community's confidence that there would be an impartial investigation of the death."
Last month, Queensland police deputy commissioner Kathy Rynders published a 410-page report finding that no officers needed be disciplined. She makes these observations about Kitching's Form 1 report: "I consider Kitching's failure to inform Dr Lampe of the assault allegations (whether reliable or not) a significant departure from service requirement and in the circumstance would warrant the commencement of disciplinary action. I note that Kitching included unconfirmed information concerning Mulrunji taking bleach. Similarly, he should have included information of the alleged assault made by Bramwell and Florence Sibley."
However, she says, "I do not consider Kitching's failure to inform Dr Lampe of the assaults constituted misconduct. However, for reasons already outlined and Kitching's acceptance that the allegations of assault should have been brought to the attention of Dr Lampe, it is not my intention to commence disciplinary action, but to provide managerial guidance."
Overall, she agrees with the CMC that there had been "failings in the initial investigation" but concludes that all her boys need is "managerial guidance". She thinks the serious flaws highlighted by the CMC relate only to matters "incidental to the investigation".
In her report, she writes, "The actions of the officers must be viewed objectively, not with the benefit of hindsight."
Addressing the Palm Island community's perception of the police misconduct, she observes, "There continues to be strong feelings amongst many in the community. The danger, however, is that strong feelings tend to cloud sound judgment. "
She concludes: "The evidence simply does not support action for misconduct or official misconduct."
Moynihan describes this decision by Rynders as "almost incomprehensible".
Three years ago, Mike Reynolds, who had been the long-time mayor of Townsville before becoming a government minister and then speaker of the parliament, called for a royal commission into the matter, saying, "This case has become so convoluted and tainted that I now believe truth and justice can only be obtained by a wide-ranging royal commission headed by an eminent jurist."
On Monday Reynolds repeated that call, telling me there was no other way for Queenslanders to put this matter behind them.
After the jury acquitted Hurley in September 2007, Aboriginal leader Gracelyn Smallwood said: "This has not ended the way we wanted it to, but it has been a win on our slow climb up the Everest of justice." On Monday she told me, "People are just so tired and drained. We have lost hope in the Queensland justice system. We've stopped climbing."
The Everest of justice is still well beyond the reach of Queensland Aborigines who happen to get in the way of the Queensland police, who remain a law unto themselves. Three years ago Premier Anna Bligh dismissed out of hand Reynolds's call for a royal commission. She was confident that the legal processes would produce a transparent, just result. We are now at the end of the legal process. The Bligh government needs to listen again to responsible citizens such as Reynolds and Smallwood. There must be a royal commission.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Frank Brennan SJ
ON Monday I was in Townsville, talking to people about the latest saga in the police cover-up of the death of Mulrunji Cameron Doomadgee, the Aboriginal resident of Palm Island who never emerged alive from the police station after Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley fell on him in November 2004.
The Aboriginal community has had to endure three separate coronial inquiries; a decision by the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute; the reversal of that decision on advice from Laurence Street, who said, "A jury could well find that the only rational inference that can be drawn as to the fatal injury is that it was inflicted by Hurley deliberately kneeing Mulrunji in the upper abdominal area"; the trial of Hurley, who was acquitted, with his barrister telling the jury Hurley was the "instrument of another young man dying and that is a cross he will carry for the rest of his life"; a detailed hearing before the Crime and Misconduct Commission that recommended "consideration be given to commencing disciplinary proceedings for misconduct" against six named police officers; a Supreme Court case denying the Queensland police commissioner the right to conduct the disciplinary proceedings on the grounds of apprehended bias; and now a decision by the deputy police commissioner that there is no need for any disciplinary action against any Queensland police officer.
All is well again in the state of Queensland. Or at least it is back to business as usual in Aboriginal-police relations.
The public is well familiar with the fact the investigating police officers were treated to a barbecue at Hurley's residence on arrival on Palm Island before they began the inquiry into the death caused by Hurley. The barbecue was just the beginning of the chummy police cover-up of their own negligence and dishonesty. Here is one of the CMC's observations about the extraordinary behaviour of Detective Senior Sergeant Raymond Kitching, Detective Inspector Warren Webber and Inspector Mark Williams: Kitching "agreed that he only offered to pathologists information that he considered reliable and relevant".
This seems in stark contradiction to his inclusion on the Form 1 of hearsay evidence about Doomadgee drinking bleach and his exclusion not only of Roy Bramwell's evidence but also of Penny Sibley's allegation of assault (the credibility of which had not been questioned).
In effect, Kitching seems to have informed the pathologist of information adverse to Doomadgee but excluded allegations adverse to Hurley." The pathologist, Guy Lampe, had been told by police that Doomadgee had swallowed bleach (he had not) but not that he had been assaulted (he had). The CMC said the police officers who conducted the internal review of this behaviour "appear to be simply providing reasons to justify Kitching's failure to make this information available to the pathologist, and Webber's and Williams' failure to check the Form 1".
The CMC, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Martin Moynihan, concluded: "The investigation into the death of Mulrunji was seriously flawed, its integrity gravely compromised in the eyes of the very community it was meant to serve. The way in which the investigation was conducted destroyed the Palm Island community's confidence that there would be an impartial investigation of the death."
Last month, Queensland police deputy commissioner Kathy Rynders published a 410-page report finding that no officers needed be disciplined. She makes these observations about Kitching's Form 1 report: "I consider Kitching's failure to inform Dr Lampe of the assault allegations (whether reliable or not) a significant departure from service requirement and in the circumstance would warrant the commencement of disciplinary action. I note that Kitching included unconfirmed information concerning Mulrunji taking bleach. Similarly, he should have included information of the alleged assault made by Bramwell and Florence Sibley."
However, she says, "I do not consider Kitching's failure to inform Dr Lampe of the assaults constituted misconduct. However, for reasons already outlined and Kitching's acceptance that the allegations of assault should have been brought to the attention of Dr Lampe, it is not my intention to commence disciplinary action, but to provide managerial guidance."
Overall, she agrees with the CMC that there had been "failings in the initial investigation" but concludes that all her boys need is "managerial guidance". She thinks the serious flaws highlighted by the CMC relate only to matters "incidental to the investigation".
In her report, she writes, "The actions of the officers must be viewed objectively, not with the benefit of hindsight."
Addressing the Palm Island community's perception of the police misconduct, she observes, "There continues to be strong feelings amongst many in the community. The danger, however, is that strong feelings tend to cloud sound judgment. "
She concludes: "The evidence simply does not support action for misconduct or official misconduct."
Moynihan describes this decision by Rynders as "almost incomprehensible".
Three years ago, Mike Reynolds, who had been the long-time mayor of Townsville before becoming a government minister and then speaker of the parliament, called for a royal commission into the matter, saying, "This case has become so convoluted and tainted that I now believe truth and justice can only be obtained by a wide-ranging royal commission headed by an eminent jurist."
On Monday Reynolds repeated that call, telling me there was no other way for Queenslanders to put this matter behind them.
After the jury acquitted Hurley in September 2007, Aboriginal leader Gracelyn Smallwood said: "This has not ended the way we wanted it to, but it has been a win on our slow climb up the Everest of justice." On Monday she told me, "People are just so tired and drained. We have lost hope in the Queensland justice system. We've stopped climbing."
The Everest of justice is still well beyond the reach of Queensland Aborigines who happen to get in the way of the Queensland police, who remain a law unto themselves. Three years ago Premier Anna Bligh dismissed out of hand Reynolds's call for a royal commission. She was confident that the legal processes would produce a transparent, just result. We are now at the end of the legal process. The Bligh government needs to listen again to responsible citizens such as Reynolds and Smallwood. There must be a royal commission.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Marine killed by SWAT was acting in defense, says family
A smashed window and a barrage of bullet holes might be the type of scene a battle-hardened marine finds in a war zone; not the Tucson home he shares with his two children and wife, "I saw this guy pointing me at the window. So, I got scared. And, I got like, ‘Please don't shoot, I have a baby. I put my baby (down). (And I) put bag in window. And, I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!" explained wife Vanessa Guerena.
Husband Jose had just come home from working at the mine. His wife Vanessa said he had just slept two hours, only to wake up to chaos in his house. It was Pima County SWAT executing a narcotics conspiracy search warrant.
"You're saying only (they) yelled SWAT after the shootout?" KGUN9asked. "Oh, yes! Yes," said Guerena.
Vanessa said Jose grabbed a gun to protect himself from what he thought were home invaders. But, authorities say the marine knew who it was; and they said he had swat in his sights. According to officials, Jose crouched with his AR-15 and said, "I have something for you!"
"Now they're saying this now that they admitted for him not shooting back (SIC). They want to throw more dirt on him," said cousin Oscar Garcia.
SWAT gunned Jose down with 71-rounds fired in just about 7-seconds; officials say they did not expect Vanessa to be home with four year old son Joel, who has questions like so many others, "The only thing he asked me, "Mom, my dad a bad guy? They killed my dad! Police killed my dad? Why? What did my dad do?" explained Guerena.
Jose's family want his kids to know he did his best to be a great husband, dad and patriot.
Authorities tell us three other neighborhood homes were targeted Thursday, all tied to a narcotics conspiracy. They say a large amount of cash was found at one of the homes. But, not at Jose's; all they said they found there was "evidence pertinent to the case".
Jose's wife insists there were no drugs or money in the home.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A smashed window and a barrage of bullet holes might be the type of scene a battle-hardened marine finds in a war zone; not the Tucson home he shares with his two children and wife, "I saw this guy pointing me at the window. So, I got scared. And, I got like, ‘Please don't shoot, I have a baby. I put my baby (down). (And I) put bag in window. And, I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!" explained wife Vanessa Guerena.
Husband Jose had just come home from working at the mine. His wife Vanessa said he had just slept two hours, only to wake up to chaos in his house. It was Pima County SWAT executing a narcotics conspiracy search warrant.
"You're saying only (they) yelled SWAT after the shootout?" KGUN9asked. "Oh, yes! Yes," said Guerena.
Vanessa said Jose grabbed a gun to protect himself from what he thought were home invaders. But, authorities say the marine knew who it was; and they said he had swat in his sights. According to officials, Jose crouched with his AR-15 and said, "I have something for you!"
"Now they're saying this now that they admitted for him not shooting back (SIC). They want to throw more dirt on him," said cousin Oscar Garcia.
SWAT gunned Jose down with 71-rounds fired in just about 7-seconds; officials say they did not expect Vanessa to be home with four year old son Joel, who has questions like so many others, "The only thing he asked me, "Mom, my dad a bad guy? They killed my dad! Police killed my dad? Why? What did my dad do?" explained Guerena.
Jose's family want his kids to know he did his best to be a great husband, dad and patriot.
Authorities tell us three other neighborhood homes were targeted Thursday, all tied to a narcotics conspiracy. They say a large amount of cash was found at one of the homes. But, not at Jose's; all they said they found there was "evidence pertinent to the case".
Jose's wife insists there were no drugs or money in the home.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A travesty of justice in Germany again
Some things have not changed much since the Nazi period
"John Demjanjuk Guilty of Nazi Death Camp Murders," ran the headline on the BBC. The lede began: "A German court has found John Demjanjuk guilty of helping to murder more than 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp in Poland."
Not until paragraph 17 does one find this jolting fact: "No evidence was produced that he committed a specific crime."
That is correct. No evidence was produced, no witness came forward to testify he ever saw Demjanjuk injure anyone. And the critical evidence that put Demjanjuk at Sobibor came -- from the KGB.
First was a KGB summary of an alleged interview with one Ignat Danilchenko, who claimed he was a guard at Sobibor and knew Demjanjuk. Second was the Soviet-supplied ID card from the Trawniki camp that trained guards.
There are major problems with both pieces of "evidence."
First, Danilchenko has been dead for a quarter of a century, no one in the West ever interviewed him, and Moscow stonewalled defense requests for access to the full Danilchenko file. His very existence raises a question.
How could a Red Army soldier who turned collaborator and Nazi camp guard survive Operation Keelhaul, which sent all Soviet POWs back to Joseph Stalin, where they were either murdered or sent to the Gulag?
As for the ID card from Trawniki, just last month there was unearthed at the National Archives in College Park, Md., a 1985 report from the Cleveland office of the FBI, which, after studying the card, concluded it was "quite likely" a KGB forgery. "Justice is ill-served in the prosecution of an American citizen on evidence which is not only normally inadmissible in a court of law, but based on evidence and allegations quite likely fabricated by the KGB."
This FBI report, never made public, was done just as Demjanjuk was being deported to Israel to stand trial as "Ivan the Terrible," the murderer of Treblinka. In a sensational trial covered by the world's press, Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to hang. But after five years on death row, new evidence turned up when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia opened up. That evidence wholly validated the claims of Demjanjuk's defenders. Not only had Demjanjuk never even been at Treblinka, the Soviet files contained a photograph of the real "Ivan" -- a larger and older man.
To its eternal credit, the Israeli Supreme Court reversed the conviction, rejected a request to retry Demjanjuk as a camp guard elsewhere in Poland, freed him and sent him home to America.
Exposed as a laughing stock, and denounced for fraud by Ohio district and appellate courts, the Office of Special Investigations began crafting a new case, John Demjanjuk of Sobibor, to deport and try again the old man whose defense attorneys had made fools of them.
Thus the Sobibor story and Demjanjuk's supposed complicity in the murder of 28,000 Jews -- though, as the BBC notes, no one testified at the trial that they ever saw John Demjanjuk injure anyone.
Consider the life this tormented American has lived. Born in Ukraine in 1920, as a boy he endured the Holodomor -- the famine imposed on his people in 1932 and 1933 by Stalin and his hated henchman Lazar Kaganovich, which resulted in the starvation and death of somewhere between 5 million and 9 million Ukrainians. It has been called by historians the "forgotten Holocaust."
Conscripted into the Red Army, Demjanjuk was captured in the German blitzkrieg. Unlike American and British POWs, whom Germans regarded as racial equals, Ukrainians were untermensch who could be used for medical experiments.
Not only did Demjanjuk survive, he managed to evade the Allied order, under Keelhaul, for all Red Army POWs to be repatriated to Stalin, which was the Soviet dictator's demand before he would return the U.S. and British POWs his troops liberated in the march to Berlin.
In the war's aftermath, Demjanjuk married his wife Vera, who had been conscripted in the Ukraine and brought forcibly west to work in the German economy. Thence he moved to Cleveland, became an autoworker, raised a family and practiced his Christian faith. But he made a mistake.
He sent his wife to Ukraine to tell his aged mother that he had survived the war and was living in the great United States of America.
Word got around the village. The KGB came calling. Swiftly, the payments his mother had been receiving for her war hero son were halted, and suddenly, there turned up an ID card that said John Demjanjuk had been trained at Trawniki to be a Nazi camp guard.
The KGB began feeding OSI from its "files," as OSI began a manic persecution of Demjanjuk that has lasted 30 years.
Stalin died in bed in 1953. Kaganovich died with his family around him in Moscow in 1991. And John Demjanjuk, 91, after spending five years on death row for a crime he did not commit in a place he never was, is stateless and homeless in a Germany where veterans of the SS walk free. That is justice -- in our world.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Some things have not changed much since the Nazi period
"John Demjanjuk Guilty of Nazi Death Camp Murders," ran the headline on the BBC. The lede began: "A German court has found John Demjanjuk guilty of helping to murder more than 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp in Poland."
Not until paragraph 17 does one find this jolting fact: "No evidence was produced that he committed a specific crime."
That is correct. No evidence was produced, no witness came forward to testify he ever saw Demjanjuk injure anyone. And the critical evidence that put Demjanjuk at Sobibor came -- from the KGB.
First was a KGB summary of an alleged interview with one Ignat Danilchenko, who claimed he was a guard at Sobibor and knew Demjanjuk. Second was the Soviet-supplied ID card from the Trawniki camp that trained guards.
There are major problems with both pieces of "evidence."
First, Danilchenko has been dead for a quarter of a century, no one in the West ever interviewed him, and Moscow stonewalled defense requests for access to the full Danilchenko file. His very existence raises a question.
How could a Red Army soldier who turned collaborator and Nazi camp guard survive Operation Keelhaul, which sent all Soviet POWs back to Joseph Stalin, where they were either murdered or sent to the Gulag?
As for the ID card from Trawniki, just last month there was unearthed at the National Archives in College Park, Md., a 1985 report from the Cleveland office of the FBI, which, after studying the card, concluded it was "quite likely" a KGB forgery. "Justice is ill-served in the prosecution of an American citizen on evidence which is not only normally inadmissible in a court of law, but based on evidence and allegations quite likely fabricated by the KGB."
This FBI report, never made public, was done just as Demjanjuk was being deported to Israel to stand trial as "Ivan the Terrible," the murderer of Treblinka. In a sensational trial covered by the world's press, Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to hang. But after five years on death row, new evidence turned up when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia opened up. That evidence wholly validated the claims of Demjanjuk's defenders. Not only had Demjanjuk never even been at Treblinka, the Soviet files contained a photograph of the real "Ivan" -- a larger and older man.
To its eternal credit, the Israeli Supreme Court reversed the conviction, rejected a request to retry Demjanjuk as a camp guard elsewhere in Poland, freed him and sent him home to America.
Exposed as a laughing stock, and denounced for fraud by Ohio district and appellate courts, the Office of Special Investigations began crafting a new case, John Demjanjuk of Sobibor, to deport and try again the old man whose defense attorneys had made fools of them.
Thus the Sobibor story and Demjanjuk's supposed complicity in the murder of 28,000 Jews -- though, as the BBC notes, no one testified at the trial that they ever saw John Demjanjuk injure anyone.
Consider the life this tormented American has lived. Born in Ukraine in 1920, as a boy he endured the Holodomor -- the famine imposed on his people in 1932 and 1933 by Stalin and his hated henchman Lazar Kaganovich, which resulted in the starvation and death of somewhere between 5 million and 9 million Ukrainians. It has been called by historians the "forgotten Holocaust."
Conscripted into the Red Army, Demjanjuk was captured in the German blitzkrieg. Unlike American and British POWs, whom Germans regarded as racial equals, Ukrainians were untermensch who could be used for medical experiments.
Not only did Demjanjuk survive, he managed to evade the Allied order, under Keelhaul, for all Red Army POWs to be repatriated to Stalin, which was the Soviet dictator's demand before he would return the U.S. and British POWs his troops liberated in the march to Berlin.
In the war's aftermath, Demjanjuk married his wife Vera, who had been conscripted in the Ukraine and brought forcibly west to work in the German economy. Thence he moved to Cleveland, became an autoworker, raised a family and practiced his Christian faith. But he made a mistake.
He sent his wife to Ukraine to tell his aged mother that he had survived the war and was living in the great United States of America.
Word got around the village. The KGB came calling. Swiftly, the payments his mother had been receiving for her war hero son were halted, and suddenly, there turned up an ID card that said John Demjanjuk had been trained at Trawniki to be a Nazi camp guard.
The KGB began feeding OSI from its "files," as OSI began a manic persecution of Demjanjuk that has lasted 30 years.
Stalin died in bed in 1953. Kaganovich died with his family around him in Moscow in 1991. And John Demjanjuk, 91, after spending five years on death row for a crime he did not commit in a place he never was, is stateless and homeless in a Germany where veterans of the SS walk free. That is justice -- in our world.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Friday, May 13, 2011
Dozens of ex-prisoners in line for payouts after British Supreme Court ruling on compensation for miscarriages of justice
The man jailed for eight years then acquitted of the murder of Jill Dando is in line for a huge compensation payout following a court ruling last night. Barry George could be handed up to £500,000 after judges lowered the bar for what qualifies as a miscarriage of justice.
The Supreme Court ruled, by the narrowest of margins, that some acquitted in court are entitled to compensation even if they cannot prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt. But judges warned the ruling would lead to some guilty people landing taxpayer-funded payouts.
Currently, anyone who overturns their conviction must have been ‘shown conclusively to be innocent’ before compensation is considered. Yesterday, five Supreme Court justices, including the President of the Court, Lord Phillips, ruled this definition was too narrow.
In future, applicants will have to show that the evidence on which they were cleared was so compelling that no conviction could ‘possibly be based upon it’. In his ruling, Lord Phillips said: ‘This test will not guarantee that all those who are entitled to compensation are, in fact, innocent. ‘It will, however, ensure that when innocent defendants are convicted on evidence which is subsequently discredited, they are not precluded from obtaining compensation because they cannot prove innocence beyond reasonable doubt.’
But in a dissenting judgement, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, argued it was right only the ‘truly innocent’ should be compensated. ‘In my judgement nothing less will do, and no alternative or half-way house or compromise solution consistent with this clear statutory provision is available,’ he said.
Lord Brown, who also disagreed with the majority ruling, declared himself ‘troubled’ by the outcome. He added that the Justice Secretary, who rules on compensation, may be forced to write cheques for people he knows to be guilty on the basis of inadmissible intercept or intelligence material.
The case was brought by two men convicted of murdering RUC officer Patrick McNulty in Derry in 1977. Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott, both from Northern Ireland, were freed after evidence suggested confessions had been beaten out of them. They are now in line for payouts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr McCartney, who was also wrongly convicted of another murder a week later, spent 17 years in prison. He was the IRA’s officer commanding in the Maze and spent 53 days on hunger strike.
Mr George spent eight years behind bars after he was convicted in 2001. At his first trial, the prosecution case hinged on a speck of microscopic firearms residue that was later said to be worthless as evidence.
His conviction was quashed on appeal in 2007 and in 2008 he was acquitted following a retrial during which a series of women gave evidence about how he ‘terrified’ and ‘intimidated’ them in the street.
Police are still investigating the murder of Miss Dando, 37, who was shot in the head in April 1999.
A spokesman for Mr George’s solicitor Wells Burcombe said: ‘In light of the Supreme Court decision, he will now ask the Justice Minister to consider afresh his compensation application.’
Last night officials at the Ministry of Justice insisted the ruling would result in ‘very few’ cases. They welcomed the decision by the judges to unanimously reject an appeal by former aircraft engineer Andrew Adams, who spent 14 years in jail before his conviction for murder was ruled unsafe.
The Court of Appeal said he had been denied a fair trial because his lawyers were incompetent, but it was not clear-cut that he would have been cleared by a jury.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
The man jailed for eight years then acquitted of the murder of Jill Dando is in line for a huge compensation payout following a court ruling last night. Barry George could be handed up to £500,000 after judges lowered the bar for what qualifies as a miscarriage of justice.
The Supreme Court ruled, by the narrowest of margins, that some acquitted in court are entitled to compensation even if they cannot prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt. But judges warned the ruling would lead to some guilty people landing taxpayer-funded payouts.
Currently, anyone who overturns their conviction must have been ‘shown conclusively to be innocent’ before compensation is considered. Yesterday, five Supreme Court justices, including the President of the Court, Lord Phillips, ruled this definition was too narrow.
In future, applicants will have to show that the evidence on which they were cleared was so compelling that no conviction could ‘possibly be based upon it’. In his ruling, Lord Phillips said: ‘This test will not guarantee that all those who are entitled to compensation are, in fact, innocent. ‘It will, however, ensure that when innocent defendants are convicted on evidence which is subsequently discredited, they are not precluded from obtaining compensation because they cannot prove innocence beyond reasonable doubt.’
But in a dissenting judgement, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, argued it was right only the ‘truly innocent’ should be compensated. ‘In my judgement nothing less will do, and no alternative or half-way house or compromise solution consistent with this clear statutory provision is available,’ he said.
Lord Brown, who also disagreed with the majority ruling, declared himself ‘troubled’ by the outcome. He added that the Justice Secretary, who rules on compensation, may be forced to write cheques for people he knows to be guilty on the basis of inadmissible intercept or intelligence material.
The case was brought by two men convicted of murdering RUC officer Patrick McNulty in Derry in 1977. Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott, both from Northern Ireland, were freed after evidence suggested confessions had been beaten out of them. They are now in line for payouts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr McCartney, who was also wrongly convicted of another murder a week later, spent 17 years in prison. He was the IRA’s officer commanding in the Maze and spent 53 days on hunger strike.
Mr George spent eight years behind bars after he was convicted in 2001. At his first trial, the prosecution case hinged on a speck of microscopic firearms residue that was later said to be worthless as evidence.
His conviction was quashed on appeal in 2007 and in 2008 he was acquitted following a retrial during which a series of women gave evidence about how he ‘terrified’ and ‘intimidated’ them in the street.
Police are still investigating the murder of Miss Dando, 37, who was shot in the head in April 1999.
A spokesman for Mr George’s solicitor Wells Burcombe said: ‘In light of the Supreme Court decision, he will now ask the Justice Minister to consider afresh his compensation application.’
Last night officials at the Ministry of Justice insisted the ruling would result in ‘very few’ cases. They welcomed the decision by the judges to unanimously reject an appeal by former aircraft engineer Andrew Adams, who spent 14 years in jail before his conviction for murder was ruled unsafe.
The Court of Appeal said he had been denied a fair trial because his lawyers were incompetent, but it was not clear-cut that he would have been cleared by a jury.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Trial of John Kurtz, Facing 6 Years in Prison for Videotaping Police
The Facts:
Just before 2 AM on January 1st, 2011 John Kurtz left a Private Party on Orange Avenue and Church Street, Downtown Orlando to investigate some apparent police activity on Church Street.
Kurtz approached the scene and videotaped the incident, which included the use of tasers, a violent take down, and a pepper spraying AFTER the suspect was subdued and in handcuffs.
Officer Adam Gruler repeatedly told Kurtz to go away and turn off the camera. When Kurtz informed Gruler that he knew his rights and wasn’t going anywhere, Gruler violently took Kurtz to the ground and arrested him.
After multiple attempts to deny Kurtz bond, relentless efforts by Kurtz’s friends, family, attorney and other privately contracted help, Kurtz was finally released from Orange County Jail after a full 7 days behind bars.
Kurtz’s Video Camera with the evidence on it that would easily clear or condemn him of these charges mysteriously went missing. It was not in Kurtz’s personal effects when he was released from jail, nor was it entered into evidence. It is unknown what happened to Kurtz’s camera. However, at best it reflects negligence on the Orlando Police Department for failure to secure evidence; at worst it shows absolute corruption and evidence tampering.
John Kurtz is a peaceful person who adheres and promotes the non aggression principle. Kurtz is known by his friends as a pacifist who is much more likely to turn the other cheek, than to retaliate with violence.
The Evidence:
- The evidence against Kurtz is nothing more than the word of a few Police officers.
- The evidence defending Kurtz includes multiple third party eye witnesses and video evidence from the street camera on Church Street. All who show Officer Gruler as the aggressor, and Kurtz simply video taping.
About Officer Gruler:
- Officer Adam Gruler was named by the Orlando Sentinel as a ‘Hunter’ and one of the top Taser users on the force. Gruler is notorious in the poverty stricken area of Orlando known as Parramore for taserings, verbal abuse, violence and questionable conduct. – Gruler’s Internal Affairs profile includes dozens of civilian complaints.
- Officer Adam Gruler is the same out-of-control cop who was recently caught on video unlawfully arresting a local Orlando News photographer!
About John Kurtz:
- Kurtz is known locally for not only his work with OrlandoCopwatch.Com, but also for a variety of civil disobedience and street theater, geared at pointing out the injustice and absurdity of some of the laws and ordinances in Orlando.
- Kurtz made national headlines when he refused to comply with a city ordinance in Orlando banning the feeding of the homeless within 2 miles of City Hall, Kurtz and others repeatedly held food sharings at City Hall.
- Kurtz is an active Jurors Rights activist who spends many mornings at the Orange county Court House informing Jurors of their rights.
- Kurtz has been a political activist as well, formerly a Precinct Chair for the Orange County Republican Executive Committee, and currently a District Coordinator with the Florida Campaign for Liberty, Kurtz has spent countless hours campaigning for local candidates and lobbying politicians for fiscally conservative and socially liberal practices.
- Kurtz has been a successful Real Estate Broker for 6 Years in Central Florida, and considers friends, family and liberty the most important things in his life.
John Kurtz stands Trial. Facing a maximum sentence of 6 years in Prison on the allegations of battery on a LEO, Obstruction of a Police officer, and resisting arrest without violence, Kurtz adamantly proclaims his innocence and that he is a political target because of his involvement with OrlandoCopwatch.com and other activism
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
The Facts:
Just before 2 AM on January 1st, 2011 John Kurtz left a Private Party on Orange Avenue and Church Street, Downtown Orlando to investigate some apparent police activity on Church Street.
Kurtz approached the scene and videotaped the incident, which included the use of tasers, a violent take down, and a pepper spraying AFTER the suspect was subdued and in handcuffs.
Officer Adam Gruler repeatedly told Kurtz to go away and turn off the camera. When Kurtz informed Gruler that he knew his rights and wasn’t going anywhere, Gruler violently took Kurtz to the ground and arrested him.
After multiple attempts to deny Kurtz bond, relentless efforts by Kurtz’s friends, family, attorney and other privately contracted help, Kurtz was finally released from Orange County Jail after a full 7 days behind bars.
Kurtz’s Video Camera with the evidence on it that would easily clear or condemn him of these charges mysteriously went missing. It was not in Kurtz’s personal effects when he was released from jail, nor was it entered into evidence. It is unknown what happened to Kurtz’s camera. However, at best it reflects negligence on the Orlando Police Department for failure to secure evidence; at worst it shows absolute corruption and evidence tampering.
John Kurtz is a peaceful person who adheres and promotes the non aggression principle. Kurtz is known by his friends as a pacifist who is much more likely to turn the other cheek, than to retaliate with violence.
The Evidence:
- The evidence against Kurtz is nothing more than the word of a few Police officers.
- The evidence defending Kurtz includes multiple third party eye witnesses and video evidence from the street camera on Church Street. All who show Officer Gruler as the aggressor, and Kurtz simply video taping.
About Officer Gruler:
- Officer Adam Gruler was named by the Orlando Sentinel as a ‘Hunter’ and one of the top Taser users on the force. Gruler is notorious in the poverty stricken area of Orlando known as Parramore for taserings, verbal abuse, violence and questionable conduct. – Gruler’s Internal Affairs profile includes dozens of civilian complaints.
- Officer Adam Gruler is the same out-of-control cop who was recently caught on video unlawfully arresting a local Orlando News photographer!
About John Kurtz:
- Kurtz is known locally for not only his work with OrlandoCopwatch.Com, but also for a variety of civil disobedience and street theater, geared at pointing out the injustice and absurdity of some of the laws and ordinances in Orlando.
- Kurtz made national headlines when he refused to comply with a city ordinance in Orlando banning the feeding of the homeless within 2 miles of City Hall, Kurtz and others repeatedly held food sharings at City Hall.
- Kurtz is an active Jurors Rights activist who spends many mornings at the Orange county Court House informing Jurors of their rights.
- Kurtz has been a political activist as well, formerly a Precinct Chair for the Orange County Republican Executive Committee, and currently a District Coordinator with the Florida Campaign for Liberty, Kurtz has spent countless hours campaigning for local candidates and lobbying politicians for fiscally conservative and socially liberal practices.
- Kurtz has been a successful Real Estate Broker for 6 Years in Central Florida, and considers friends, family and liberty the most important things in his life.
John Kurtz stands Trial. Facing a maximum sentence of 6 years in Prison on the allegations of battery on a LEO, Obstruction of a Police officer, and resisting arrest without violence, Kurtz adamantly proclaims his innocence and that he is a political target because of his involvement with OrlandoCopwatch.com and other activism
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Corrupt British Chief Constable gets off with a warning
A chief constable who helped a family member jump the queue to apply for a job in his force narrowly escaped the sack yesterday.
Grahame Maxwell, 50, was also accused of trying to ‘discredit’ the misconduct investigation for nepotism that was launched against him and his deputy, Adam Briggs.
Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross was among several senior North Yorkshire officers praised for their ‘integrity’ and ‘courage’ in standing up to the two police chiefs and challenging their actions.
The affair began in February last year when up to 500,000 phone calls were made to a hotline in response to a recruitment drive for 60 to 70 jobs. The system was ‘overwhelmed’ and most applicants were unable to get through.
Mr Maxwell agreed to allow a member of staff to ring a relative of Mr Briggs – referred to as Ms A – who wanted to apply for a job but had not been able to get through to complete the initial stage of the application process.
Challenged by Miss Cross, Mr Maxwell defended the move, said a report published yesterday by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Instead of backing down, she told her boss she would report the matter to the police authority if he failed to do so.
The IPCC said Mr Maxwell reported the help given to Ms A to police authority chiefs, but failed to mention he had helped a male member of his extended family in a similar way. The man, identified only as Mr B, also wanted a constable’s job and had failed to get through on the hotline.
Mr Maxwell rang the family member himself and completed the vetting questionnaire. Mr B was not entitled to a ‘call back’, said the IPCC.
Eight days after the police authority was informed about Ms A, Mr Maxwell came clean about helping Mr B. The chief constable went to see the force solicitor and allegedly described himself as an ‘a***hole’.
North Yorkshire Police convened a disciplinary hearing, held in private at a secret location, which heard evidence from the IPCC report. Mr Maxwell, who earns £133,000 a year, admitted the sackable offence.
He said he had ‘behaved in a manner apt to bring discredit upon, and undermine public confidence in, the police service’. Yesterday he was given a final written warning for gross misconduct.
Nicholas Long, a commissioner at the IPCC, said Mr Maxwell had shown an ‘unacceptable attitude’ which ‘seriously undermined’ his reputation. He added: ‘The IPCC at various stages has been accused of dis-proportionality.
‘We have been challenged by some senior policing figures and our investigators’ abilities were questioned by the chief constable in an unacceptable attempt to discredit the investigation.’
Mr Briggs, 49, who earned £109,000 a year, was found to have breached the code of conduct and was given ‘management advice’. He was allowed to retire on a full pension after 31 years’ service.
A statement from Mr Maxwell’s law firm Kingsley Napley said: ‘He is sincerely sorry and saddened that a very difficult week resulted in errors of judgement, but continues to lead the North Yorkshire Police and wishes only to focus on doing his best for the force in his position as its chief constable.’
Mr Maxwell, married with one son, became North Yorkshire’s chief constable in 2007, joining from South Yorkshire Police.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A chief constable who helped a family member jump the queue to apply for a job in his force narrowly escaped the sack yesterday.
Grahame Maxwell, 50, was also accused of trying to ‘discredit’ the misconduct investigation for nepotism that was launched against him and his deputy, Adam Briggs.
Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross was among several senior North Yorkshire officers praised for their ‘integrity’ and ‘courage’ in standing up to the two police chiefs and challenging their actions.
The affair began in February last year when up to 500,000 phone calls were made to a hotline in response to a recruitment drive for 60 to 70 jobs. The system was ‘overwhelmed’ and most applicants were unable to get through.
Mr Maxwell agreed to allow a member of staff to ring a relative of Mr Briggs – referred to as Ms A – who wanted to apply for a job but had not been able to get through to complete the initial stage of the application process.
Challenged by Miss Cross, Mr Maxwell defended the move, said a report published yesterday by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Instead of backing down, she told her boss she would report the matter to the police authority if he failed to do so.
The IPCC said Mr Maxwell reported the help given to Ms A to police authority chiefs, but failed to mention he had helped a male member of his extended family in a similar way. The man, identified only as Mr B, also wanted a constable’s job and had failed to get through on the hotline.
Mr Maxwell rang the family member himself and completed the vetting questionnaire. Mr B was not entitled to a ‘call back’, said the IPCC.
Eight days after the police authority was informed about Ms A, Mr Maxwell came clean about helping Mr B. The chief constable went to see the force solicitor and allegedly described himself as an ‘a***hole’.
North Yorkshire Police convened a disciplinary hearing, held in private at a secret location, which heard evidence from the IPCC report. Mr Maxwell, who earns £133,000 a year, admitted the sackable offence.
He said he had ‘behaved in a manner apt to bring discredit upon, and undermine public confidence in, the police service’. Yesterday he was given a final written warning for gross misconduct.
Nicholas Long, a commissioner at the IPCC, said Mr Maxwell had shown an ‘unacceptable attitude’ which ‘seriously undermined’ his reputation. He added: ‘The IPCC at various stages has been accused of dis-proportionality.
‘We have been challenged by some senior policing figures and our investigators’ abilities were questioned by the chief constable in an unacceptable attempt to discredit the investigation.’
Mr Briggs, 49, who earned £109,000 a year, was found to have breached the code of conduct and was given ‘management advice’. He was allowed to retire on a full pension after 31 years’ service.
A statement from Mr Maxwell’s law firm Kingsley Napley said: ‘He is sincerely sorry and saddened that a very difficult week resulted in errors of judgement, but continues to lead the North Yorkshire Police and wishes only to focus on doing his best for the force in his position as its chief constable.’
Mr Maxwell, married with one son, became North Yorkshire’s chief constable in 2007, joining from South Yorkshire Police.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Fired in secret: The hushed-up hearings of British police who are found guilty of crimes and misconduct
Hundreds of police officers accused of crimes and misconduct are being sacked in secret hearings, according to new documents. Forces across the UK are hushing up the dismissal of 160 officers every year for offences ranging from assault to leaking confidential information.
The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, give an embarrassing insight into constabularies and raise questions about their transparency.
They tell how one officer in Durham was cautioned for common assault, while two members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland were fired for being drunk while armed.
Other officers have been sacked for perverting the course of justice, breaching discipline and leaking confidential information.
Over the past three years, a total of 477 officers were sacked, 52 demoted and hundreds more fined or reprimanded – all in private hearings. Many of the accused were suspended on full pay for long periods or had their duties restricted, costing taxpayers an estimated £2.7million every year. In one case, a Grampian officer was suspended for almost five years before his case was heard.
The information was uncovered in an investigation carried out by The Times into 52 forces across Britain.
Researchers found punishments varied – with officers sacked in one part of the country for offences that would trigger only a fine in another.
The IPCC was given the power to order public hearings in 2004, but only one has been held since. Chairman Len Jackson admitted the lack of transparency in the hearings was an issue. He said: ‘This does tax the commission. We are conscious that it is something we should be looking at all the time.’
Last week the IPCC agreed to hold a second public tribunal into the case of Metropolitan Police officer Simon Harwood, who shoved Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in 2009, a few minutes before the 47-year-old died.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Hundreds of police officers accused of crimes and misconduct are being sacked in secret hearings, according to new documents. Forces across the UK are hushing up the dismissal of 160 officers every year for offences ranging from assault to leaking confidential information.
The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, give an embarrassing insight into constabularies and raise questions about their transparency.
They tell how one officer in Durham was cautioned for common assault, while two members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland were fired for being drunk while armed.
Other officers have been sacked for perverting the course of justice, breaching discipline and leaking confidential information.
Over the past three years, a total of 477 officers were sacked, 52 demoted and hundreds more fined or reprimanded – all in private hearings. Many of the accused were suspended on full pay for long periods or had their duties restricted, costing taxpayers an estimated £2.7million every year. In one case, a Grampian officer was suspended for almost five years before his case was heard.
The information was uncovered in an investigation carried out by The Times into 52 forces across Britain.
Researchers found punishments varied – with officers sacked in one part of the country for offences that would trigger only a fine in another.
The IPCC was given the power to order public hearings in 2004, but only one has been held since. Chairman Len Jackson admitted the lack of transparency in the hearings was an issue. He said: ‘This does tax the commission. We are conscious that it is something we should be looking at all the time.’
Last week the IPCC agreed to hold a second public tribunal into the case of Metropolitan Police officer Simon Harwood, who shoved Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in 2009, a few minutes before the 47-year-old died.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Monday, May 09, 2011
The Wheeler Street Riot and the Abuse of Police Power
This past Saturday, police in full riot gear, armed with chemical irritants, pepper spray, batons, and a sound cannon, confronted over a thousand students at a block party on Wheeler Street near Western Illinois University. Gathered near their large, white van, officers from several different police forces around the state (who were formed into the “West Central Illinois Mobile Field Force”) waited as loudspeakers ordered the students to leave. “We are ordering you to disperse,” it said in an electronic tone. “Leave now or chemical munitions may be used.” The warning was followed by a piercing siren that reverberated across the garbage-strewn sidewalks and lawns.
Then, between 5:30 and 6pm, riot police formed a line and began spraying chemical agents into the crowd and into at least one nearby home, where students were tightly packed onto the porch and in their living room. Anyone with a camera was warned that they were breaking the law by filming the actions of the police. Anyone who stepped close to the advancing line of black-clad officers was quickly Maced and brought to the ground. Some students jeered and booed from their porches. “You would have thought it was a Third World country,” one student told the Western Courier.
What justified this extreme action on the part of police? According to authorities, the level of behavior at the block party had become “too egregious” and “would have continued to escalate without intervention.” But what are the facts? It is true that property damage had occurred. A little after 5 p.m., several students set fire to some empty boxes at the corner of Wheeler and Albert Streets, but the police did nothing to stop it. Then those same students threw a bicycle on top of a stop sign at that intersection, but the police did nothing to stop it. Finally, those students took down the stop sign and threw it into the fire. That is when the police took action.
Oddly, however, eyewitnesses said that local Macomb police, who had been patrolling the street all afternoon, had disappeared shortly before 5 p.m., only to return with the “Mobile Field Force.” This led some students to believe that the police were prepared to clear the street with or without provocation.
“I don’t know if it was because of the fire, I don’t think it was,” a student named Zak Krause told reporters. “I think they were just going to come out and probably just stop everything. I think that was the plan from the beginning. If the police didn’t leave the streets to get this whole plan to make everyone to leave, I don’t think it would’ve been this crazy and the fire wouldn’t have happened if the police stayed on the streets.”
The situation quickly escalated, with some students throwing beer bottles while others fled into their homes to get away from the smoke, pepper spray, and the advancing line of black-clad riot police.
Al Goldfarb, president of Western Illinois University, claimed that the actions of the police were necessary to “ensure the safety of our students and our community.” Again, in a letter released after the fact, he said the Mobile Field Force had been called in “for crowd control to ensure the safety of all present.” However, it is hard to imagine how indiscriminately firing tear gas and using pepper spray on unarmed, inebriated students ensured the safety of anyone. It was reported in the Western Courier that a girl had to be taken to an ambulance because a police officer sprayed her in the mouth and she had difficulty breathing. Another student claimed, “When [the police] were marching down the street, they were hitting people standing on the side of the street . . . they just clubbed people.”
Considering the statements of local officials before and after the event, coupled with the actions of the police and the fact that simply arresting the students who damaged the stop sign would have been cheaper than using riot police to clear the street, it can be discerned that protecting private property and public safety was not the goal of this operation. In a letter published prior to the event, WIU President Goldfarb repeatedly claimed that previous Wheeler Street parties had “created a disturbance” and “tarnished the reputation” of Western Illinois University. In the past, David Letterman had called nearby Adams Street one of the top party streets in America, and Maxim magazine dubbed WIU the “Best Kept Secret in Illinois.” In this context, it is clear that police were called in because WIU administrators felt that they needed to “do something” to protect the reputation of the university.
Using the police to clear students off a street in order to protect the reputation of a public institution is a fraudulent use of force by anyone’s definition. More alarming still is the application of tactics and weapons designed to deal with full-scale riots against unarmed students, many of whom were, at most, guilty of nothing more than public intoxication.
The Wheeler Street Riot illustrates the consequences of the growing militarization of police, the targeting of groups rather than individuals, an emphasis on enforcement of positive law, and the need for justification of increased spending on law enforcement agencies. By treating all students at the block party as though they were complicit in the handful of criminal acts, the police crossed a line from protecting public safety and private property to committing open and unjustifiable aggression against a crowd. Aggression is wrong, whether it is carried out by a civilian or by an agent of the state. Unfortunately, these abuses have become increasingly frequent in the past decade, and every effort should be made to restrain or do away with the institutions that lead to such abuses of power.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
This past Saturday, police in full riot gear, armed with chemical irritants, pepper spray, batons, and a sound cannon, confronted over a thousand students at a block party on Wheeler Street near Western Illinois University. Gathered near their large, white van, officers from several different police forces around the state (who were formed into the “West Central Illinois Mobile Field Force”) waited as loudspeakers ordered the students to leave. “We are ordering you to disperse,” it said in an electronic tone. “Leave now or chemical munitions may be used.” The warning was followed by a piercing siren that reverberated across the garbage-strewn sidewalks and lawns.
Then, between 5:30 and 6pm, riot police formed a line and began spraying chemical agents into the crowd and into at least one nearby home, where students were tightly packed onto the porch and in their living room. Anyone with a camera was warned that they were breaking the law by filming the actions of the police. Anyone who stepped close to the advancing line of black-clad officers was quickly Maced and brought to the ground. Some students jeered and booed from their porches. “You would have thought it was a Third World country,” one student told the Western Courier.
What justified this extreme action on the part of police? According to authorities, the level of behavior at the block party had become “too egregious” and “would have continued to escalate without intervention.” But what are the facts? It is true that property damage had occurred. A little after 5 p.m., several students set fire to some empty boxes at the corner of Wheeler and Albert Streets, but the police did nothing to stop it. Then those same students threw a bicycle on top of a stop sign at that intersection, but the police did nothing to stop it. Finally, those students took down the stop sign and threw it into the fire. That is when the police took action.
Oddly, however, eyewitnesses said that local Macomb police, who had been patrolling the street all afternoon, had disappeared shortly before 5 p.m., only to return with the “Mobile Field Force.” This led some students to believe that the police were prepared to clear the street with or without provocation.
“I don’t know if it was because of the fire, I don’t think it was,” a student named Zak Krause told reporters. “I think they were just going to come out and probably just stop everything. I think that was the plan from the beginning. If the police didn’t leave the streets to get this whole plan to make everyone to leave, I don’t think it would’ve been this crazy and the fire wouldn’t have happened if the police stayed on the streets.”
The situation quickly escalated, with some students throwing beer bottles while others fled into their homes to get away from the smoke, pepper spray, and the advancing line of black-clad riot police.
Al Goldfarb, president of Western Illinois University, claimed that the actions of the police were necessary to “ensure the safety of our students and our community.” Again, in a letter released after the fact, he said the Mobile Field Force had been called in “for crowd control to ensure the safety of all present.” However, it is hard to imagine how indiscriminately firing tear gas and using pepper spray on unarmed, inebriated students ensured the safety of anyone. It was reported in the Western Courier that a girl had to be taken to an ambulance because a police officer sprayed her in the mouth and she had difficulty breathing. Another student claimed, “When [the police] were marching down the street, they were hitting people standing on the side of the street . . . they just clubbed people.”
Considering the statements of local officials before and after the event, coupled with the actions of the police and the fact that simply arresting the students who damaged the stop sign would have been cheaper than using riot police to clear the street, it can be discerned that protecting private property and public safety was not the goal of this operation. In a letter published prior to the event, WIU President Goldfarb repeatedly claimed that previous Wheeler Street parties had “created a disturbance” and “tarnished the reputation” of Western Illinois University. In the past, David Letterman had called nearby Adams Street one of the top party streets in America, and Maxim magazine dubbed WIU the “Best Kept Secret in Illinois.” In this context, it is clear that police were called in because WIU administrators felt that they needed to “do something” to protect the reputation of the university.
Using the police to clear students off a street in order to protect the reputation of a public institution is a fraudulent use of force by anyone’s definition. More alarming still is the application of tactics and weapons designed to deal with full-scale riots against unarmed students, many of whom were, at most, guilty of nothing more than public intoxication.
The Wheeler Street Riot illustrates the consequences of the growing militarization of police, the targeting of groups rather than individuals, an emphasis on enforcement of positive law, and the need for justification of increased spending on law enforcement agencies. By treating all students at the block party as though they were complicit in the handful of criminal acts, the police crossed a line from protecting public safety and private property to committing open and unjustifiable aggression against a crowd. Aggression is wrong, whether it is carried out by a civilian or by an agent of the state. Unfortunately, these abuses have become increasingly frequent in the past decade, and every effort should be made to restrain or do away with the institutions that lead to such abuses of power.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Canadian Police involved in Pole's taser death face charges
Four Royal Canadian Mounted police officers who used a Taser on a Polish immigrant who died at Vancouver's airport are facing perjury charges for their testimony at a public inquiry. But Richard Peck, a special prosecutor appointed to look into the case, declined to recommend charges against the officers relating to Robert Dziekanski's death itself.
Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport after being shocked five times with a Taser stun gun by police in 2007 in an incident that was widely seen around the world after the release of a witness' amateur video.
The British Columbia attorney general's criminal justice branch said in a statement Friday that Peck has concluded that there is no substantial likelihood of a conviction relating to the death itself. Instead, Peck has recommended the perjury charges.
The officers each testified that Dziekanski was stunned because he was violent and was threatening them with a stapler. But inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeal court judge, rejected their testimony, saying it was not credible and there was no reason to stun Dziekanski.
Dziekanski, who spoke only Polish, apparently had become upset after waiting 10 hours at the airport for his mother. The four officers who responded to emergency calls about a man throwing furniture, used a stun gun to knock Dziekanski to the ground about 30 seconds after arriving on the scene. By the time medical help arrived, Dziekanski was dead.
Peck was appointed to look at the case again last year to determine whether, in light of the evidence heard at the inquiry, the decision not to charge the officers should stand. Peck was also asked to review other conduct of the officers, including their testimony at the Braidwood inquiry.
The criminal justice branch released the decision to charge the officers Friday only after a news outlet gained advance knowledge of it. The branch said in a news release a more detailed statement on Peck's conclusions would be released after the deputy attorney general had a chance to complete his review of Peck's report.
However, the release cautioned that the statement won't include details about why charges weren't recommended relating to Dziekanski's death. That's to protect the integrity of the perjury prosecutions, the branch said. The details will be released after those cases have wrapped up.
Dziekanski's mother Sofia Cisowski filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year against the RCMP and others, but settled the case after receiving a public apology from the force and an undisclosed financial settlement.
Her lawyer, Walter Kostecki, said Cisowski was hoping for criminal charges relating to the death but was pleased with the perjury charges. "She's happy the officers are facing criminal charges as a result of their actions," he said.
Kostecki said Cisowski still finds it incredible the officers would stand by their stories despite what was seen on the amateur video. [Indeed!]
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Four Royal Canadian Mounted police officers who used a Taser on a Polish immigrant who died at Vancouver's airport are facing perjury charges for their testimony at a public inquiry. But Richard Peck, a special prosecutor appointed to look into the case, declined to recommend charges against the officers relating to Robert Dziekanski's death itself.
Dziekanski died at Vancouver International Airport after being shocked five times with a Taser stun gun by police in 2007 in an incident that was widely seen around the world after the release of a witness' amateur video.
The British Columbia attorney general's criminal justice branch said in a statement Friday that Peck has concluded that there is no substantial likelihood of a conviction relating to the death itself. Instead, Peck has recommended the perjury charges.
The officers each testified that Dziekanski was stunned because he was violent and was threatening them with a stapler. But inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeal court judge, rejected their testimony, saying it was not credible and there was no reason to stun Dziekanski.
Dziekanski, who spoke only Polish, apparently had become upset after waiting 10 hours at the airport for his mother. The four officers who responded to emergency calls about a man throwing furniture, used a stun gun to knock Dziekanski to the ground about 30 seconds after arriving on the scene. By the time medical help arrived, Dziekanski was dead.
Peck was appointed to look at the case again last year to determine whether, in light of the evidence heard at the inquiry, the decision not to charge the officers should stand. Peck was also asked to review other conduct of the officers, including their testimony at the Braidwood inquiry.
The criminal justice branch released the decision to charge the officers Friday only after a news outlet gained advance knowledge of it. The branch said in a news release a more detailed statement on Peck's conclusions would be released after the deputy attorney general had a chance to complete his review of Peck's report.
However, the release cautioned that the statement won't include details about why charges weren't recommended relating to Dziekanski's death. That's to protect the integrity of the perjury prosecutions, the branch said. The details will be released after those cases have wrapped up.
Dziekanski's mother Sofia Cisowski filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year against the RCMP and others, but settled the case after receiving a public apology from the force and an undisclosed financial settlement.
Her lawyer, Walter Kostecki, said Cisowski was hoping for criminal charges relating to the death but was pleased with the perjury charges. "She's happy the officers are facing criminal charges as a result of their actions," he said.
Kostecki said Cisowski still finds it incredible the officers would stand by their stories despite what was seen on the amateur video. [Indeed!]
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Shocking CCTV footage shows 'intoxicated' off-duty police officer waving loaded gun in a bar
A police officer has been suspended without pay and forced to hand over his weapons after he was caught on camera pointing a loaded gun at a bartender. Richard Heffron was drinking while off duty at the bar in Farmingdale, New York, last Tuesday when he suddenly pulled out his weapon and aimed it at the man behind the bar.
While no shots were fired, the officer has been disciplined for his potentially fatal show of bravado.
Shocking surveillance footage from the South Main Street Pub begins by showing Heffron chatting to a friend and knocking back shots while bartender Charlie Ball turns his back to pour a drink.
As he leans on the bar with his left arm, Heffron reaches down with his right hand before suddenly pulling out the weapon and aiming it at Ball. When Ball then turns around to speak to his customers, he is greeted with the terrifying sight of a gun in his face.
It is only later, when Heffron takes out the gun for a second time and pulls out his ammunition clip that the bartender realises the weapon had been fully loaded and could have gone off in his face.
'I couldn't believe this was happening,' Ball said. 'It was really a crazy, surreal situation. 'I didn't know what was going to happen. You got a gun in your face - somebody could have gotten killed.'
After walking out of the bar, Heffron then returned with his friend several hours later looking for more drinks. He was so drunk by this point he was 'incoherent', according to Ball, and while the officer apologised to the bartender for earlier pulling out his weapon, Ball decided to report what had happened to the police.
'I just want him off the street," Ball told WNBC. 'He's drinking, driving around and he's got this gun. It's a big concern.'
After finally leaving the pub in daylight, Heffron can be seen on camera getting into his truck to drive home, before being convinced by a friend to take a taxi instead.
Heffron told Ball that night that he has worked as a police officer for 17 years, a dozen of which were spent as a union delegate.
The officer's department and the Nassau County district attorney have both launched investigations into the incident.
Police bosses have now examined the video and confirmed the 'misconduct', according to a police statement. A Nassau Police source told the New York Post Heffron was 'intoxicated' during the incident.
'By their own admission, they said they had frequented a number of joints beforehand,' Ball added. 'I think he was drunk.'
Family friend Linda Deleo, told ABC: 'What he did was stupid. It looks to me like it was just three guys hanging around drinking and one of them was drunk and made a really stupid move.'
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A police officer has been suspended without pay and forced to hand over his weapons after he was caught on camera pointing a loaded gun at a bartender. Richard Heffron was drinking while off duty at the bar in Farmingdale, New York, last Tuesday when he suddenly pulled out his weapon and aimed it at the man behind the bar.
While no shots were fired, the officer has been disciplined for his potentially fatal show of bravado.
Shocking surveillance footage from the South Main Street Pub begins by showing Heffron chatting to a friend and knocking back shots while bartender Charlie Ball turns his back to pour a drink.
As he leans on the bar with his left arm, Heffron reaches down with his right hand before suddenly pulling out the weapon and aiming it at Ball. When Ball then turns around to speak to his customers, he is greeted with the terrifying sight of a gun in his face.
It is only later, when Heffron takes out the gun for a second time and pulls out his ammunition clip that the bartender realises the weapon had been fully loaded and could have gone off in his face.
'I couldn't believe this was happening,' Ball said. 'It was really a crazy, surreal situation. 'I didn't know what was going to happen. You got a gun in your face - somebody could have gotten killed.'
After walking out of the bar, Heffron then returned with his friend several hours later looking for more drinks. He was so drunk by this point he was 'incoherent', according to Ball, and while the officer apologised to the bartender for earlier pulling out his weapon, Ball decided to report what had happened to the police.
'I just want him off the street," Ball told WNBC. 'He's drinking, driving around and he's got this gun. It's a big concern.'
After finally leaving the pub in daylight, Heffron can be seen on camera getting into his truck to drive home, before being convinced by a friend to take a taxi instead.
Heffron told Ball that night that he has worked as a police officer for 17 years, a dozen of which were spent as a union delegate.
The officer's department and the Nassau County district attorney have both launched investigations into the incident.
Police bosses have now examined the video and confirmed the 'misconduct', according to a police statement. A Nassau Police source told the New York Post Heffron was 'intoxicated' during the incident.
'By their own admission, they said they had frequented a number of joints beforehand,' Ball added. 'I think he was drunk.'
Family friend Linda Deleo, told ABC: 'What he did was stupid. It looks to me like it was just three guys hanging around drinking and one of them was drunk and made a really stupid move.'
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Friday, May 06, 2011
Brutal Cop in Arizona smashes girl to the ground
A police officer is being investigated after a horrific video surfaced on YouTube of him fiercely pushing over a 15-year-old girl against a wall and to the ground.
The teenager appears to pose no threat at all to cop Patrick Larrison, but is seen walking away from an incident scene when he suddenly runs up and violently slams her to the floor in Phoenix, Arizona.
The video shows Officer Larrison running after the allegedly drunk teenager after she was kicked out of her school. She is walking slowly before being taken out, handcuffed and led away.
The girl was allegedly being removed from school on January 25 because she assaulted a male teacher and her mother, with police believing she had been drinking. She was reportedly serving alcohol out of a water bottle to other students and was belligerent and drunk, a police spokesman said.
She was allegedly in a dispute with her mother in a car park and the two of them are seen on the floor for some time in the video, but the girl managed to get free. That’s until a police officer responding to the scene near Ombudsman Charter School runs at her from behind and knocks her onto the ground.
She was taken into custody on suspicion of aggravated assault and had no injuries.
The video, uploaded in March, was found online by a police employee on Tuesday who showed it to a supervisor. The department said it was ‘greatly concerned’ by the incident.
Police have begun a criminal and internal investigation into the six-year veteran officer's actions and he has been placed on administrative leave immediately. ‘At face value, all you see (in the video) is the force that is used to effect this arrest,’ the police spokesman told the Tuscon Citizen. ‘And at face value that certainly appears (that) it is outside of the boundaries of what we would consider to be reasonable.
‘Obviously we don't like the video out there, and don't want this to be the image of us within the community.’
Officer Larrison has no history of force or use of force incidents with the department’s professional standards bureau, the spokesman said. ‘It is surprising to us this incident was not brought forward to us (earlier),’ he added.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A police officer is being investigated after a horrific video surfaced on YouTube of him fiercely pushing over a 15-year-old girl against a wall and to the ground.
The teenager appears to pose no threat at all to cop Patrick Larrison, but is seen walking away from an incident scene when he suddenly runs up and violently slams her to the floor in Phoenix, Arizona.
The video shows Officer Larrison running after the allegedly drunk teenager after she was kicked out of her school. She is walking slowly before being taken out, handcuffed and led away.
The girl was allegedly being removed from school on January 25 because she assaulted a male teacher and her mother, with police believing she had been drinking. She was reportedly serving alcohol out of a water bottle to other students and was belligerent and drunk, a police spokesman said.
She was allegedly in a dispute with her mother in a car park and the two of them are seen on the floor for some time in the video, but the girl managed to get free. That’s until a police officer responding to the scene near Ombudsman Charter School runs at her from behind and knocks her onto the ground.
She was taken into custody on suspicion of aggravated assault and had no injuries.
The video, uploaded in March, was found online by a police employee on Tuesday who showed it to a supervisor. The department said it was ‘greatly concerned’ by the incident.
Police have begun a criminal and internal investigation into the six-year veteran officer's actions and he has been placed on administrative leave immediately. ‘At face value, all you see (in the video) is the force that is used to effect this arrest,’ the police spokesman told the Tuscon Citizen. ‘And at face value that certainly appears (that) it is outside of the boundaries of what we would consider to be reasonable.
‘Obviously we don't like the video out there, and don't want this to be the image of us within the community.’
Officer Larrison has no history of force or use of force incidents with the department’s professional standards bureau, the spokesman said. ‘It is surprising to us this incident was not brought forward to us (earlier),’ he added.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Thursday, May 05, 2011
DA charges Calif. detective in killing of tenant
A Northern California sheriff's detective accused in an off-duty killing of a tenant at her family's rental property had a history of abusing and harassing renters, prosecutors said in court documents.
Kari Abbey, 24, was charged with second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and other counts on Monday, the same day she was fired from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, the Modesto Bee reported.
Abbey is suspected of fatally shooting Rita Elias, 31, during a rent dispute outside a Modesto apartment complex last September. Abbey maintained the shooting was in self-defense, after Elias threatened her with a replica handgun.
The former detective also faces counts of conspiracy, embezzlement from a government entity, cultivation of marijuana, receiving stolen property and child endangerment.
Court documents say a March 30 search of Abbey's home revealed a sophisticated marijuana growing system, loaded weapons stored within reach of her children, counterfeit cash, vials of steroids and items belonging to the Hayward Police Department, where her husband had worked until last year.
Abbey's attorney, Robert Forkner, told the Bee his client "denies each and every allegation. She did nothing wrong."
Forkner said none of the illicit items found in the search belonged to Abbey. The marijuana belonged to Abbey's father, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has a medical recommendation to use marijuana, he said.
Sheriff Adam Christianson said he was shocked by the allegations in the court documents. "I'm embarrassed and disappointed in the contents of the affidavit," he told the Bee. "It doesn't uphold the values and principles that we stand for, nor does it represent the vast majority of employees who work for the sheriff's office."
Abbey's tenants told investigators that she and her husband would harass and intimidate them and that one of them was assaulted, the documents said. The tenants also reported feeling powerless to call authorities because the couple knew so many people in law enforcement.
District Attorney Birgit Fladager said her office is still investigating the case and more charges could be filed.
Abbey, who is currently free on $300,000 bail, will be arraigned in a few weeks, Forkner said.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A Northern California sheriff's detective accused in an off-duty killing of a tenant at her family's rental property had a history of abusing and harassing renters, prosecutors said in court documents.
Kari Abbey, 24, was charged with second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and other counts on Monday, the same day she was fired from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, the Modesto Bee reported.
Abbey is suspected of fatally shooting Rita Elias, 31, during a rent dispute outside a Modesto apartment complex last September. Abbey maintained the shooting was in self-defense, after Elias threatened her with a replica handgun.
The former detective also faces counts of conspiracy, embezzlement from a government entity, cultivation of marijuana, receiving stolen property and child endangerment.
Court documents say a March 30 search of Abbey's home revealed a sophisticated marijuana growing system, loaded weapons stored within reach of her children, counterfeit cash, vials of steroids and items belonging to the Hayward Police Department, where her husband had worked until last year.
Abbey's attorney, Robert Forkner, told the Bee his client "denies each and every allegation. She did nothing wrong."
Forkner said none of the illicit items found in the search belonged to Abbey. The marijuana belonged to Abbey's father, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has a medical recommendation to use marijuana, he said.
Sheriff Adam Christianson said he was shocked by the allegations in the court documents. "I'm embarrassed and disappointed in the contents of the affidavit," he told the Bee. "It doesn't uphold the values and principles that we stand for, nor does it represent the vast majority of employees who work for the sheriff's office."
Abbey's tenants told investigators that she and her husband would harass and intimidate them and that one of them was assaulted, the documents said. The tenants also reported feeling powerless to call authorities because the couple knew so many people in law enforcement.
District Attorney Birgit Fladager said her office is still investigating the case and more charges could be filed.
Abbey, who is currently free on $300,000 bail, will be arraigned in a few weeks, Forkner said.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
British riot cop faces criminal charge over 'unlawful killing'
Not mentioned below is that the cop concerned already had a record as a thug. He should not have been allowed back into the police force. He just should not have been there on that day. Those who put him into the job as a riot cop have a lot to answer for too
Police Constable Simon Harwood, the officer who violently shoved the homeless newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, is facing disciplinary action and the prospect of a criminal charge after a coroner's jury yesterday returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
Mr Tomlinson collapsed and died minutes after being pushed over and struck with a police baton, on the fringe of a demonstration that accompanied the G20 summit in London in April 2009.
Footage of his last minutes showed him to be an ambling figure, wandering past police lines with his hands in his pockets, posing no apparent threat.
But his demeanour angered the police constable who thought he was being "almost defiant". A jury at the end of a five-week inquest ruled that PC Harwood acted "illegally, recklessly and dangerously" in shoving Mr Tomlinson to the ground and used "excessive and unreasonable" force in hitting him with a baton
PC Harwood, a member of Scotland Yard's territorial support group, was told last July that he would not face charges over the death of Mr Tomlinson, which Scotland Yard initially attributed to "natural causes". But yesterday the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, promised a "thorough review" of the decision not to prosecute.
Mr Tomlinson was a 47-year-old alcoholic with a liver disease, who was on his way to a hostel when he shuffled past police lines. His widow, Julia, told the inquest he usually walked with head bowed and hands in pockets. "This was partly because he had limited use of one of his hands – an old injury," she said. "But I would also think it [was] because he didn't like to impose himself in a situation and liked to show that he was no bother."
His family told the inquest that despite his alcoholism he had been a loving father, but drifted away from the family into heavy drinking, possibly because of a difficult childhood in Derbyshire.
Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick said: "It is a matter of deep regret that the actions of an Metropolitan Police Service officer have been found to have caused the death of a member of the public." She said misconduct proceedings would be opened against PC Harwood.
Paul King, Mr Tomlinson's stepson, said he and his relatives hope that the policeman will now face a charge of manslaughter. "After two years, we're really grateful that the inquest process has made a strong statement about how Ian died," he said. "We are grateful to the jury and the coroner and we think the jury finding speaks for itself in the verdict of unlawful killing."
The verdict discredited the findings of Dr Freddy Patel, the pathologist who said Mr Tomlinson died of a heart attack. Two other pathologists attributed his death to internal bleeding. Dr Patel has been sanctioned twice by the General Medical Council and is suspended from the Home Office register.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Not mentioned below is that the cop concerned already had a record as a thug. He should not have been allowed back into the police force. He just should not have been there on that day. Those who put him into the job as a riot cop have a lot to answer for too
Police Constable Simon Harwood, the officer who violently shoved the homeless newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, is facing disciplinary action and the prospect of a criminal charge after a coroner's jury yesterday returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
Mr Tomlinson collapsed and died minutes after being pushed over and struck with a police baton, on the fringe of a demonstration that accompanied the G20 summit in London in April 2009.
Footage of his last minutes showed him to be an ambling figure, wandering past police lines with his hands in his pockets, posing no apparent threat.
But his demeanour angered the police constable who thought he was being "almost defiant". A jury at the end of a five-week inquest ruled that PC Harwood acted "illegally, recklessly and dangerously" in shoving Mr Tomlinson to the ground and used "excessive and unreasonable" force in hitting him with a baton
PC Harwood, a member of Scotland Yard's territorial support group, was told last July that he would not face charges over the death of Mr Tomlinson, which Scotland Yard initially attributed to "natural causes". But yesterday the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, promised a "thorough review" of the decision not to prosecute.
Mr Tomlinson was a 47-year-old alcoholic with a liver disease, who was on his way to a hostel when he shuffled past police lines. His widow, Julia, told the inquest he usually walked with head bowed and hands in pockets. "This was partly because he had limited use of one of his hands – an old injury," she said. "But I would also think it [was] because he didn't like to impose himself in a situation and liked to show that he was no bother."
His family told the inquest that despite his alcoholism he had been a loving father, but drifted away from the family into heavy drinking, possibly because of a difficult childhood in Derbyshire.
Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick said: "It is a matter of deep regret that the actions of an Metropolitan Police Service officer have been found to have caused the death of a member of the public." She said misconduct proceedings would be opened against PC Harwood.
Paul King, Mr Tomlinson's stepson, said he and his relatives hope that the policeman will now face a charge of manslaughter. "After two years, we're really grateful that the inquest process has made a strong statement about how Ian died," he said. "We are grateful to the jury and the coroner and we think the jury finding speaks for itself in the verdict of unlawful killing."
The verdict discredited the findings of Dr Freddy Patel, the pathologist who said Mr Tomlinson died of a heart attack. Two other pathologists attributed his death to internal bleeding. Dr Patel has been sanctioned twice by the General Medical Council and is suspended from the Home Office register.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Young man with Asperger’s syndrome responds appropriately to police
Reginald “Neli” Latson, a 19 year-old, sat in the grass outside the library and waited for it to open. Police allege that shortly after, some children purportedly were frightened and claimed there was a suspicious black male who had had a gun. A nearby school was put on lockdown, and a search ensued. Deputy Calverley then approached Latson, squeezed the front pocket of his sweatshirt and checked for a gun. No gun was found. The children questioned later also confirmed they never saw a gun.
Calverly asked Latson for his name, and Latson refused. Calverly then grabbed Latson and attempted to arrest him. Latson struggled with Calverly, managed to flip him over, and caused Calverly’s head to hit the pavement. Latson hit Calverly several times and took his pepper spray.
After a 3-day trial, Latson was found guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer, among other charges and 10 1/2 years in prison was recommended (read the full story here). Latson’s defense centered around the fact that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a condition caused by an abnormality of the brain. People with Asperger’s syndrome often have difficulty interacting socially, and may be unable to respond emotionally in normal social interactions.
Latson’s case has drawn sympathy from autism and Asperger’s syndrome advocates, and raised concerns about how law enforcement deals with the developmentally or mentally disabled. Surely, this case is a sad one. It appears to be another classic case of a young, innocent black man getting screwed because he wore a hoodie and was in the wrong place at the wrong time – and on top of that, he had a condition that may have contributed to these circumstances.
However, what is ultimately most disturbing is the fact that this has become an issue of autism/Asperger’s syndrome. Instead of defending Latson’s justifiable reactions to an unjustified detention and attack, his supporters seek to excuse it by characterizing it as the product of a mental disability. Latson had done nothing wrong and was completely within his rights to sit on the grass until the library opened, but was accosted by an officer who then proceeded to question, detain and arrest him, even after confirming he did not have a gun (and even if he did have a gun – so what? It’s called the Second Amendment).
Latson was under no moral duty to be groped by this officer. He was under no moral duty to provide his name. He certainly should not have been arrested, either from a legal or moral standpoint. This was a young man who simply wanted to be left alone, and the officer would not yield to this simple desire of a denizen of the alleged land of the free.
Police apologists like to say, “if only he had complied, he wouldn’t have been (insert torture, beating or murder of choice here)!” But the most appropriate way to view these interactions (if in fact we are free people) is the other way around – if the police had just minded their own damn business no one would have been hurt. Yet in this case, Latson’s supporters do not decry his treatment on the basis of police abuse and the fundamental right to simply be left alone, they decry it on the grounds that police need to better learn how to deal with people who may suffer from certain conditions and/or disabilities.
This is what it has come to in this country. If you defend yourself against abusive authority, it must be because you are mentally disabled.
Significantly, people with Asperger’s syndrome sometimes are unable to pick up on social cues, and are unable to understand more abstract expressions such as sarcasm or humor. As a result, they may tend to take words more literally than most people. Thus, it isn’t a stretch to surmise that some people with autism or Asperger’s would not understand that even in the absence of provocation, a police officer has the legal authority to violate their privacy and freedom with detention and arrest.
People with autism or Asperger’s syndrome see it for what it truly is – an aggressive stranger with a gun, coming out of nowhere to interrogate, demand, and kidnap. Perhaps people with autism and Asperger’s are the only people left in this country who rightly fail to see how a uniform and a title justifies initiation of aggression and kidnapping.
Yet general consensus among those sympathetic to Latson is not that police aggression has long exceeded acceptable bounds, but that Officer Calverly was also a victim in this, and that police need to be better trained for such situations in the future.
Perhaps Latson did injure Officer Calverly more than he deserved. However, if one is going to arbitrarily initiate violence on innocent people, he should be prepared to suffer the reasonable consequences that may follow when the target of his violence tries to defend himself.
Calverly had no business disturbing a peaceful boy waiting outside a library. He negligently acted on reports of a man with a gun which were never substantiated. Even after he confirmed Latson did not have a gun, Calverly escalated the situation by demanding Latson identify himself. When Latson refused to do so, Calverly again escalated the situation by initiating violence and attempting to arrest him.
If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be legally justified in attempting to walk away from a nosy busybody. If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be justified in fighting against Calverly’s attempt to physically restrain him and jail him for doing nothing wrong.
Latson’s only “mistake” was that he failed to understand the abstract idea that a fancy government title and a uniform legally creates a different standard for police. Police often do what Calverly did, on a regular basis, but most people are cognitive of social norms and perceive that a gun and a badge grant legal rights which demand submission, and do not defend themselves against unwarranted police violence either out of misguided deference, or justifiable fear.
Even in the face of this event, people continue to argue police merely need to be better trained. This perspective, while not limited to such supporters, is delusional. Police love violence. They use it daily in the course of their employment. If they didn’t love violence, they wouldn’t have signed up for the job. To think some training would make them more sympathetic or sensitive to their victim’s particular conditions is just stupid.
*After corresponding with Neli’s mother, Lisa Alexander, we have learned that Neli was in solitary confinement for 8 months for no apparent reason. They finally moved him to the general population in January after many requests by his mother.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Reginald “Neli” Latson, a 19 year-old, sat in the grass outside the library and waited for it to open. Police allege that shortly after, some children purportedly were frightened and claimed there was a suspicious black male who had had a gun. A nearby school was put on lockdown, and a search ensued. Deputy Calverley then approached Latson, squeezed the front pocket of his sweatshirt and checked for a gun. No gun was found. The children questioned later also confirmed they never saw a gun.
Calverly asked Latson for his name, and Latson refused. Calverly then grabbed Latson and attempted to arrest him. Latson struggled with Calverly, managed to flip him over, and caused Calverly’s head to hit the pavement. Latson hit Calverly several times and took his pepper spray.
After a 3-day trial, Latson was found guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer, among other charges and 10 1/2 years in prison was recommended (read the full story here). Latson’s defense centered around the fact that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a condition caused by an abnormality of the brain. People with Asperger’s syndrome often have difficulty interacting socially, and may be unable to respond emotionally in normal social interactions.
Latson’s case has drawn sympathy from autism and Asperger’s syndrome advocates, and raised concerns about how law enforcement deals with the developmentally or mentally disabled. Surely, this case is a sad one. It appears to be another classic case of a young, innocent black man getting screwed because he wore a hoodie and was in the wrong place at the wrong time – and on top of that, he had a condition that may have contributed to these circumstances.
However, what is ultimately most disturbing is the fact that this has become an issue of autism/Asperger’s syndrome. Instead of defending Latson’s justifiable reactions to an unjustified detention and attack, his supporters seek to excuse it by characterizing it as the product of a mental disability. Latson had done nothing wrong and was completely within his rights to sit on the grass until the library opened, but was accosted by an officer who then proceeded to question, detain and arrest him, even after confirming he did not have a gun (and even if he did have a gun – so what? It’s called the Second Amendment).
Latson was under no moral duty to be groped by this officer. He was under no moral duty to provide his name. He certainly should not have been arrested, either from a legal or moral standpoint. This was a young man who simply wanted to be left alone, and the officer would not yield to this simple desire of a denizen of the alleged land of the free.
Police apologists like to say, “if only he had complied, he wouldn’t have been (insert torture, beating or murder of choice here)!” But the most appropriate way to view these interactions (if in fact we are free people) is the other way around – if the police had just minded their own damn business no one would have been hurt. Yet in this case, Latson’s supporters do not decry his treatment on the basis of police abuse and the fundamental right to simply be left alone, they decry it on the grounds that police need to better learn how to deal with people who may suffer from certain conditions and/or disabilities.
This is what it has come to in this country. If you defend yourself against abusive authority, it must be because you are mentally disabled.
Significantly, people with Asperger’s syndrome sometimes are unable to pick up on social cues, and are unable to understand more abstract expressions such as sarcasm or humor. As a result, they may tend to take words more literally than most people. Thus, it isn’t a stretch to surmise that some people with autism or Asperger’s would not understand that even in the absence of provocation, a police officer has the legal authority to violate their privacy and freedom with detention and arrest.
People with autism or Asperger’s syndrome see it for what it truly is – an aggressive stranger with a gun, coming out of nowhere to interrogate, demand, and kidnap. Perhaps people with autism and Asperger’s are the only people left in this country who rightly fail to see how a uniform and a title justifies initiation of aggression and kidnapping.
Yet general consensus among those sympathetic to Latson is not that police aggression has long exceeded acceptable bounds, but that Officer Calverly was also a victim in this, and that police need to be better trained for such situations in the future.
Perhaps Latson did injure Officer Calverly more than he deserved. However, if one is going to arbitrarily initiate violence on innocent people, he should be prepared to suffer the reasonable consequences that may follow when the target of his violence tries to defend himself.
Calverly had no business disturbing a peaceful boy waiting outside a library. He negligently acted on reports of a man with a gun which were never substantiated. Even after he confirmed Latson did not have a gun, Calverly escalated the situation by demanding Latson identify himself. When Latson refused to do so, Calverly again escalated the situation by initiating violence and attempting to arrest him.
If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be legally justified in attempting to walk away from a nosy busybody. If Calverly were any other ordinary person, Latson would be justified in fighting against Calverly’s attempt to physically restrain him and jail him for doing nothing wrong.
Latson’s only “mistake” was that he failed to understand the abstract idea that a fancy government title and a uniform legally creates a different standard for police. Police often do what Calverly did, on a regular basis, but most people are cognitive of social norms and perceive that a gun and a badge grant legal rights which demand submission, and do not defend themselves against unwarranted police violence either out of misguided deference, or justifiable fear.
Even in the face of this event, people continue to argue police merely need to be better trained. This perspective, while not limited to such supporters, is delusional. Police love violence. They use it daily in the course of their employment. If they didn’t love violence, they wouldn’t have signed up for the job. To think some training would make them more sympathetic or sensitive to their victim’s particular conditions is just stupid.
*After corresponding with Neli’s mother, Lisa Alexander, we have learned that Neli was in solitary confinement for 8 months for no apparent reason. They finally moved him to the general population in January after many requests by his mother.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Monday, May 02, 2011
Case as shallow as a birdbath but Australian prosecutors pursue it TWICE
OVER the past four years, Philip Leung has wept many times for his dead lover, Mario Guzzetti. But on Thursday, after he was acquitted for a second time of his partner's killing, he wept for himself.
Mr Leung, 50, is the first person in NSW legal history to be tried twice over the same homicide investigation. The case was only possible because of the state's controversial double jeopardy laws, introduced in 2006. Now he wants the legislation reversed to prevent anyone else being tried for the same death twice; what he calls the "ultimate injustice".
"My life will never be the same," he told The Sun-Herald. "Not only did I lose the man I love, I was accused of killing him. Before I knew it, I was locked up in jail. Nobody cared that I missed Mario's funeral, or that I had as many questions as anyone."
Mr Leung, a jeweller, began dating Mr Guzzetti in 2001. The pair shared common interests, including opera, and by 2004 they were living together. "We loved each other unconditionally. Like everyone, we argued occasionally and always over silly things."
On the morning of April 7, Easter Saturday, in 2007, a row erupted over a tiler's bag of cement that was obstructing access at their home in Alexandria. About the same time, neighbours heard a loud noise, like a shelf falling. After several minutes' silence, Mr Leung was heard wailing hysterically.
The first witnesses at the scene found him at the foot of the stairs, rocking back and forth while cradling his blood-stained partner, who had sustained head injuries. Mr Guzzetti , 72, had stopped breathing by the time ambulance officers arrived.
Later that morning Mr Leung was charged with murder, accused of killing Mr Guzzetti with a juicer the couple owned.
He spent more than five months in jail before being released on bail. At his trial, in May 2009, prosecutors alleged that Mr Leung had inflicted the injuries. Medical and scientific evidence was inconclusive, stating that the injuries were consistent with both a physical attack and a fall downstairs, followed by unskilled attempts at resuscitation.
Before Mr Leung could give evidence, Justice Stephen Rothman delivered a directed not-guilty verdict, ruling that the Crown had failed to properly establish how Mr Guzzetti had died.
However, prosecutors leaned on the controversial double jeopardy laws, which allow for appeals and retrials in homicide cases that are settled by a judge's directed verdict to the jury. As a result, Mr Leung was charged again, this time with manslaughter.
"I can't describe how that felt," he recalled. "I was so relieved to be walking out of court for the final time [after the murder verdict]. "They had 28 days to appeal and on the last day I received word that I would have to fight all over again."
On Thursday, after Justice Michael Adams directed a second jury to return a not-guilty verdict, four years of emotion spilled from Mr Leung. He had just become the first person in Australian legal history to be found not guilty twice by a judge's directed verdict.
"I felt him [Mario] alongside me always," Mr Leung said. "I still miss him. Only now can I finally begin to grieve the most beautiful, loving person I ever met."
Mr Leung said he intended to sue the police for compensation.
Original report here. (Via Australian Politics)
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
OVER the past four years, Philip Leung has wept many times for his dead lover, Mario Guzzetti. But on Thursday, after he was acquitted for a second time of his partner's killing, he wept for himself.
Mr Leung, 50, is the first person in NSW legal history to be tried twice over the same homicide investigation. The case was only possible because of the state's controversial double jeopardy laws, introduced in 2006. Now he wants the legislation reversed to prevent anyone else being tried for the same death twice; what he calls the "ultimate injustice".
"My life will never be the same," he told The Sun-Herald. "Not only did I lose the man I love, I was accused of killing him. Before I knew it, I was locked up in jail. Nobody cared that I missed Mario's funeral, or that I had as many questions as anyone."
Mr Leung, a jeweller, began dating Mr Guzzetti in 2001. The pair shared common interests, including opera, and by 2004 they were living together. "We loved each other unconditionally. Like everyone, we argued occasionally and always over silly things."
On the morning of April 7, Easter Saturday, in 2007, a row erupted over a tiler's bag of cement that was obstructing access at their home in Alexandria. About the same time, neighbours heard a loud noise, like a shelf falling. After several minutes' silence, Mr Leung was heard wailing hysterically.
The first witnesses at the scene found him at the foot of the stairs, rocking back and forth while cradling his blood-stained partner, who had sustained head injuries. Mr Guzzetti , 72, had stopped breathing by the time ambulance officers arrived.
Later that morning Mr Leung was charged with murder, accused of killing Mr Guzzetti with a juicer the couple owned.
He spent more than five months in jail before being released on bail. At his trial, in May 2009, prosecutors alleged that Mr Leung had inflicted the injuries. Medical and scientific evidence was inconclusive, stating that the injuries were consistent with both a physical attack and a fall downstairs, followed by unskilled attempts at resuscitation.
Before Mr Leung could give evidence, Justice Stephen Rothman delivered a directed not-guilty verdict, ruling that the Crown had failed to properly establish how Mr Guzzetti had died.
However, prosecutors leaned on the controversial double jeopardy laws, which allow for appeals and retrials in homicide cases that are settled by a judge's directed verdict to the jury. As a result, Mr Leung was charged again, this time with manslaughter.
"I can't describe how that felt," he recalled. "I was so relieved to be walking out of court for the final time [after the murder verdict]. "They had 28 days to appeal and on the last day I received word that I would have to fight all over again."
On Thursday, after Justice Michael Adams directed a second jury to return a not-guilty verdict, four years of emotion spilled from Mr Leung. He had just become the first person in Australian legal history to be found not guilty twice by a judge's directed verdict.
"I felt him [Mario] alongside me always," Mr Leung said. "I still miss him. Only now can I finally begin to grieve the most beautiful, loving person I ever met."
Mr Leung said he intended to sue the police for compensation.
Original report here. (Via Australian Politics)
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Sunday, May 01, 2011
At least half of all parents tried over shaken baby syndrome have been wrongly convicted, expert warns
And a disgraceful fear of reversed convictions is leading to attacks on her by police and others
It is a case that haunts Dr Waney Squier and one any parent will find deeply distressing. Eleven years ago, Lorraine Harris stood trial at Nottingham Crown Court charged with manslaughter. Although described as a woman of good character and a careful and caring mother, she was accused of shaking her four-month-old baby Patrick to death two years earlier.
Neuropathologist Dr Squier wrote a report for the prosecution saying that the child was the victim of shaken baby syndrome (SBS).
Lorraine, who vehemently protested her innocence, was convicted and jailed for three years.
Her punishment was not limited to incarceration, as tragic consequences rippled out from Patrick’s death. Lorraine wasn’t allowed to go to his funeral; a baby she gave birth to as she was starting her sentence was taken away for adoption; her partner left her and both her parents died while she was in prison. Her life fell apart.
By the time Lorraine’s appeal was heard in 2005, Dr Squier had become convinced the criteria she had used to define whether SBS had taken place were wrong. In a complete U-turn, she now appeared as an expert witness for the defence. Lorraine’s conviction was quashed.
It is difficult to imagine Lorraine’s feelings as she digested this news. Relief, perhaps, but the occasion could hardly be described as joyous. One of her children had died and she had not been allowed to grieve. Another child had been taken from her. And she would possibly never be free from the taint of the original conviction.
‘Her conviction was overturned but it was a hollow victory because her life had been completely devastated,’ says Dr Squier, who had helped right a wrong but could not erase the pain it had caused. ‘I did and sometimes still do feel terrible about what happened.
‘I now believe that half or even more of those who have been brought to trial in the past for SBS have been wrongly convicted. It is a frightening thought.’
It is indeed, and it is an extraordinary claim but one that should be taken seriously. Dr Squier, 63, is the most experienced paediatric neuropathologist in the country. She has spent 30 years researching baby brains and has a solid international reputation.
She has appeared countless times in court as an expert witness in cases of SBS, when a child is said to have been shaken so violently that it results in brain injury or death.
You would imagine that when such an eminent scientist says recent scientific developments show that, in the past, she and others have been wrong about SBS, she would be listened to. Instead Dr Squier has been on the receiving end of vicious attacks by some doctors, lawyers and police officers who do not like her views. She has even been referred to as a supporter of child abusers.
‘Why would I want to do that?’ she asks. ‘I have children of my own. I am chilled by the thought of getting it wrong because of the risk of sending babies back to abusive households, or taking them away from families, or putting people in prison.’
About 250 SBS cases go to court each year. Expert witnesses play a pivotal role in trials. Babies often do not have any symptoms other than bleeding to the head and eyes so, unlike most criminal cases, the opinion of the pathologist may be the only evidence to consider.
However, some convictions are controversial. The problem has been that there is no single agreed definition of SBS. Instead, for the past 30 years, the findings of a U.S. radiologist, John Caffey, have been used in courts.
These findings centre on three signs – swelling of the brain, bleeding between the skull and the brain, and bleeding in the retina – known collectively as the triad. If they are present then a conviction is likely. But Dr Squier is one of a growing number of doctors who believe that relying on the triad alone is no longer enough.
‘Over the past ten years so much more has been discovered about how a baby’s brain develops in its first year and these developments have seriously undermined SBS,’ she explains. ‘We now know, for example, that almost half of babies have a triad at birth, which can be caused by different factors.
‘In the past four years there have been several discoveries about the dura, the membrane covering the brain. It was thought that it was there to protect the brain from shock, but we now know it also has the very important function of controlling blood flow out of the brain. ‘At birth the dura has huge blood channels that can leak – and not always as a result of trauma. They do, however, disappear during the child’s second year of life.
‘These findings are so significant that I now believe that half or even more of those who have been brought to trial in the past for SBS have been wrongly convicted. 'I am also convinced we can virtually exclude shaking as a cause of death in babies unless, as well as bleeding in the brain, we have additional evidence of trauma, such as serious damage to the neck.
‘When a baby is shaken, the head will flop back and forth and the neck becomes the weak point. In other words, if you shake a baby so hard that it dies, it is the neck that is going to show the damage, not the brain.’
Although her view is gathering momentum worldwide, it has ignited an increasingly toxic argument between doctors, lawyers and police. ‘Some pathologists want to remain in an unchallenging comfort zone of an outdated theory,’ Dr Squier explains.
‘Some judges don’t like the fact that new scientific discoveries make convictions more complex, and the police don’t like them because it can prevent them from getting the convictions they want.
‘I think the police are so put-out that they are trying to ban me from court. It’s why I would like Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke to set up an inquiry into the methods police have used to deter expert witnesses who challenge old mainstream beliefs.
'This raises serious concerns that one side of the argument is not being heard and means there cannot be a fair trial.
‘If I am blocked from giving evidence in court, defendants already having to cope with the tragic death of a baby will not get the benefit of the new science. Equally, if the courts fail to accept that the mainstream view of 30 years ago can no longer be relied upon, there will be serious miscarriages of justice.’
Dr Squier, who is divorced with two grown-up daughters, is devoted to her work and, despite the pressure she is under, she speaks calmly. Born in Surrey, she qualified as a doctor at Leeds Medical School. After spells in Bristol, Cornwall and London, she moved to Oxford in 1984 and took up a post as consultant pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where we talked.
‘Once I came here I specialised in baby brains,’ she explains. ‘I have looked at thousands and written more than 100 medical papers on normal brain development and what happens when things go wrong both in pregnancy and after birth. In the past 15 years, I have investigated many unexpected deaths.’
Her change of opinion was triggered ten years ago by pioneering work carried out by Jennian Geddes, a former consultant neuropathologist at the Royal London Hospital. Geddes argued that, in a small number of cases, injuries associated with the triad can occur naturally; that some babies suffer from a lack of oxygen supply that triggers bleeding; and that there should be some signs that the baby suffered trauma.
‘A light went on in my head,’ Dr Squier says. ‘I became concerned that the whole basis for shaking was poor.’ She began to conduct her own investigations and found similar evidence to Geddes. ‘It made me feel guilty about my previous unquestioning acceptance of the shaking hypothesis.
‘All my cases are now based on a newer understanding of the science. I am happy with rigorous debate but take exception to attacks on my integrity and professionalism. It is intellectual laziness to apply the old triad diagnosis when symptoms can be explained by natural causes.’
Dr Squier has an impeccable professional reputation so she was shocked early last year to receive a letter from the Human Tissue Authority, an organisation which ensures that doctors keep good records and have consent for everything they do.
‘The Metropolitan Police had raised concerns about the way I was handling post-mortem tissue and the possibility that unrecorded material was being stored, used and disposed of without the knowledge of the police. Fortunately, our procedures at John Radcliffe are absolutely robust, we know where every piece of tissue is, and no action was taken.
‘Then last June, I heard that a complaint on the same subject had been lodged against me with the General Medical Council.’
Dr Squier had to face an interim orders panel, which was set up after the conviction of Harold Shipman to protect the public and the profession from dangerous doctors. Her appearance was requested by the National Policing Improvement Agency and Detective Inspector Colin Welsh, lead investigator at Scotland Yard’s child abuse investigation command.
‘I barely slept for six weeks,’ she says. ‘It was a terrible experience but the hearing had barely got under way when it was dismissed and no restrictions were made on my practice.
‘However, the panel couldn’t remove the complaint lodged about me with the GMC and I don’t know whether it will take it forward. It is hanging over me like a dark cloud. 'I know the GMC will not approve of me speaking out but too much is at stake for me to stay silent.’
The accusations began to make sense following a conference on shaken babies, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia, last September. DI [Detective Inspector] Welsh, in a public lecture, talked disparagingly about prosecution cases that had failed largely due to expert defence witnesses.
He described a way of eliminating them from criminal and possibly family court trials, thus precluding alternative views being presented. He believed they confused the jury and possibly the judges with the complexity of science.
DI Welsh’s solutions included ‘questioning everything – qualifications, employment history, testimony, research papers presented by these experts, go to their bodies to see if we can turn up anything’.
Among the audience was lawyer Heather Kirkwood, who was so shocked that she took notes and has signed an affidavit that these notes are a true record. She says: ‘In the past decade, we have learned that much of what we thought we knew about SBS was wrong, and that many of the babies that we thought were shaken were instead suffering from birth injuries, childhood stroke, or metabolic or infectious disease.
‘Now that we know we got it wrong, we need to get it right. Instead, many prominent advocates of shaken baby theory have resorted to attacking researchers such as Dr Squier, who is one of the world’s leading experts on the infant brain. ‘Families and children deserve better. To get it right, we need open, honest debate, not cover-ups or attacks on those identifying the problems and seeking solutions.’
Dr Squier was outraged to learn of DI Welsh’s comments. ‘It proved in my mind that the police have set out to remove me and two other neuropathologists who share the same view from the courts because we have stood in the way of their campaign to improve conviction rates. If an expert witness bases an opinion on reasonable scientific ground, even if the opinion is a minority one, it should not be excluded.
‘I am determined not to be silenced and if I can’t speak out in court, I shall do it in scientific papers. It cannot be fair to gag one body of opinion. The whole thing is a nightmare, not least because instead of researching vital things about babies, I have to spend time trying to clear my name.
‘Meanwhile, the number of court cases I have been asked to attend has plummeted from 30 a year a few years ago to five in the past year. ‘Some lawyers are still willing to instruct me because they believe I will give them an opinion based on the science. Others feel they can’t use me while the complaint is hanging over me.
‘The experience has made me feel like a whistleblower – on the one hand challenging all those who prefer the comfort of old mainstream opinion, and on the other struggling for my professional life.’
DI Welsh was unavailable for comment, but Scotland Yard said in a statement: ‘The Metropolitan Police did register concerns about certain practices of a doctor with the Human Tissue Authority in December 2009. The Metropolitan Police also agreed to provide any relevant information to the GMC following a report registered by the National Policing Improvement Agency with the GMC.’
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
And a disgraceful fear of reversed convictions is leading to attacks on her by police and others
It is a case that haunts Dr Waney Squier and one any parent will find deeply distressing. Eleven years ago, Lorraine Harris stood trial at Nottingham Crown Court charged with manslaughter. Although described as a woman of good character and a careful and caring mother, she was accused of shaking her four-month-old baby Patrick to death two years earlier.
Neuropathologist Dr Squier wrote a report for the prosecution saying that the child was the victim of shaken baby syndrome (SBS).
Lorraine, who vehemently protested her innocence, was convicted and jailed for three years.
Her punishment was not limited to incarceration, as tragic consequences rippled out from Patrick’s death. Lorraine wasn’t allowed to go to his funeral; a baby she gave birth to as she was starting her sentence was taken away for adoption; her partner left her and both her parents died while she was in prison. Her life fell apart.
By the time Lorraine’s appeal was heard in 2005, Dr Squier had become convinced the criteria she had used to define whether SBS had taken place were wrong. In a complete U-turn, she now appeared as an expert witness for the defence. Lorraine’s conviction was quashed.
It is difficult to imagine Lorraine’s feelings as she digested this news. Relief, perhaps, but the occasion could hardly be described as joyous. One of her children had died and she had not been allowed to grieve. Another child had been taken from her. And she would possibly never be free from the taint of the original conviction.
‘Her conviction was overturned but it was a hollow victory because her life had been completely devastated,’ says Dr Squier, who had helped right a wrong but could not erase the pain it had caused. ‘I did and sometimes still do feel terrible about what happened.
‘I now believe that half or even more of those who have been brought to trial in the past for SBS have been wrongly convicted. It is a frightening thought.’
It is indeed, and it is an extraordinary claim but one that should be taken seriously. Dr Squier, 63, is the most experienced paediatric neuropathologist in the country. She has spent 30 years researching baby brains and has a solid international reputation.
She has appeared countless times in court as an expert witness in cases of SBS, when a child is said to have been shaken so violently that it results in brain injury or death.
You would imagine that when such an eminent scientist says recent scientific developments show that, in the past, she and others have been wrong about SBS, she would be listened to. Instead Dr Squier has been on the receiving end of vicious attacks by some doctors, lawyers and police officers who do not like her views. She has even been referred to as a supporter of child abusers.
‘Why would I want to do that?’ she asks. ‘I have children of my own. I am chilled by the thought of getting it wrong because of the risk of sending babies back to abusive households, or taking them away from families, or putting people in prison.’
About 250 SBS cases go to court each year. Expert witnesses play a pivotal role in trials. Babies often do not have any symptoms other than bleeding to the head and eyes so, unlike most criminal cases, the opinion of the pathologist may be the only evidence to consider.
However, some convictions are controversial. The problem has been that there is no single agreed definition of SBS. Instead, for the past 30 years, the findings of a U.S. radiologist, John Caffey, have been used in courts.
These findings centre on three signs – swelling of the brain, bleeding between the skull and the brain, and bleeding in the retina – known collectively as the triad. If they are present then a conviction is likely. But Dr Squier is one of a growing number of doctors who believe that relying on the triad alone is no longer enough.
‘Over the past ten years so much more has been discovered about how a baby’s brain develops in its first year and these developments have seriously undermined SBS,’ she explains. ‘We now know, for example, that almost half of babies have a triad at birth, which can be caused by different factors.
‘In the past four years there have been several discoveries about the dura, the membrane covering the brain. It was thought that it was there to protect the brain from shock, but we now know it also has the very important function of controlling blood flow out of the brain. ‘At birth the dura has huge blood channels that can leak – and not always as a result of trauma. They do, however, disappear during the child’s second year of life.
‘These findings are so significant that I now believe that half or even more of those who have been brought to trial in the past for SBS have been wrongly convicted. 'I am also convinced we can virtually exclude shaking as a cause of death in babies unless, as well as bleeding in the brain, we have additional evidence of trauma, such as serious damage to the neck.
‘When a baby is shaken, the head will flop back and forth and the neck becomes the weak point. In other words, if you shake a baby so hard that it dies, it is the neck that is going to show the damage, not the brain.’
Although her view is gathering momentum worldwide, it has ignited an increasingly toxic argument between doctors, lawyers and police. ‘Some pathologists want to remain in an unchallenging comfort zone of an outdated theory,’ Dr Squier explains.
‘Some judges don’t like the fact that new scientific discoveries make convictions more complex, and the police don’t like them because it can prevent them from getting the convictions they want.
‘I think the police are so put-out that they are trying to ban me from court. It’s why I would like Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke to set up an inquiry into the methods police have used to deter expert witnesses who challenge old mainstream beliefs.
'This raises serious concerns that one side of the argument is not being heard and means there cannot be a fair trial.
‘If I am blocked from giving evidence in court, defendants already having to cope with the tragic death of a baby will not get the benefit of the new science. Equally, if the courts fail to accept that the mainstream view of 30 years ago can no longer be relied upon, there will be serious miscarriages of justice.’
Dr Squier, who is divorced with two grown-up daughters, is devoted to her work and, despite the pressure she is under, she speaks calmly. Born in Surrey, she qualified as a doctor at Leeds Medical School. After spells in Bristol, Cornwall and London, she moved to Oxford in 1984 and took up a post as consultant pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where we talked.
‘Once I came here I specialised in baby brains,’ she explains. ‘I have looked at thousands and written more than 100 medical papers on normal brain development and what happens when things go wrong both in pregnancy and after birth. In the past 15 years, I have investigated many unexpected deaths.’
Her change of opinion was triggered ten years ago by pioneering work carried out by Jennian Geddes, a former consultant neuropathologist at the Royal London Hospital. Geddes argued that, in a small number of cases, injuries associated with the triad can occur naturally; that some babies suffer from a lack of oxygen supply that triggers bleeding; and that there should be some signs that the baby suffered trauma.
‘A light went on in my head,’ Dr Squier says. ‘I became concerned that the whole basis for shaking was poor.’ She began to conduct her own investigations and found similar evidence to Geddes. ‘It made me feel guilty about my previous unquestioning acceptance of the shaking hypothesis.
‘All my cases are now based on a newer understanding of the science. I am happy with rigorous debate but take exception to attacks on my integrity and professionalism. It is intellectual laziness to apply the old triad diagnosis when symptoms can be explained by natural causes.’
Dr Squier has an impeccable professional reputation so she was shocked early last year to receive a letter from the Human Tissue Authority, an organisation which ensures that doctors keep good records and have consent for everything they do.
‘The Metropolitan Police had raised concerns about the way I was handling post-mortem tissue and the possibility that unrecorded material was being stored, used and disposed of without the knowledge of the police. Fortunately, our procedures at John Radcliffe are absolutely robust, we know where every piece of tissue is, and no action was taken.
‘Then last June, I heard that a complaint on the same subject had been lodged against me with the General Medical Council.’
Dr Squier had to face an interim orders panel, which was set up after the conviction of Harold Shipman to protect the public and the profession from dangerous doctors. Her appearance was requested by the National Policing Improvement Agency and Detective Inspector Colin Welsh, lead investigator at Scotland Yard’s child abuse investigation command.
‘I barely slept for six weeks,’ she says. ‘It was a terrible experience but the hearing had barely got under way when it was dismissed and no restrictions were made on my practice.
‘However, the panel couldn’t remove the complaint lodged about me with the GMC and I don’t know whether it will take it forward. It is hanging over me like a dark cloud. 'I know the GMC will not approve of me speaking out but too much is at stake for me to stay silent.’
The accusations began to make sense following a conference on shaken babies, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia, last September. DI [Detective Inspector] Welsh, in a public lecture, talked disparagingly about prosecution cases that had failed largely due to expert defence witnesses.
He described a way of eliminating them from criminal and possibly family court trials, thus precluding alternative views being presented. He believed they confused the jury and possibly the judges with the complexity of science.
DI Welsh’s solutions included ‘questioning everything – qualifications, employment history, testimony, research papers presented by these experts, go to their bodies to see if we can turn up anything’.
Among the audience was lawyer Heather Kirkwood, who was so shocked that she took notes and has signed an affidavit that these notes are a true record. She says: ‘In the past decade, we have learned that much of what we thought we knew about SBS was wrong, and that many of the babies that we thought were shaken were instead suffering from birth injuries, childhood stroke, or metabolic or infectious disease.
‘Now that we know we got it wrong, we need to get it right. Instead, many prominent advocates of shaken baby theory have resorted to attacking researchers such as Dr Squier, who is one of the world’s leading experts on the infant brain. ‘Families and children deserve better. To get it right, we need open, honest debate, not cover-ups or attacks on those identifying the problems and seeking solutions.’
Dr Squier was outraged to learn of DI Welsh’s comments. ‘It proved in my mind that the police have set out to remove me and two other neuropathologists who share the same view from the courts because we have stood in the way of their campaign to improve conviction rates. If an expert witness bases an opinion on reasonable scientific ground, even if the opinion is a minority one, it should not be excluded.
‘I am determined not to be silenced and if I can’t speak out in court, I shall do it in scientific papers. It cannot be fair to gag one body of opinion. The whole thing is a nightmare, not least because instead of researching vital things about babies, I have to spend time trying to clear my name.
‘Meanwhile, the number of court cases I have been asked to attend has plummeted from 30 a year a few years ago to five in the past year. ‘Some lawyers are still willing to instruct me because they believe I will give them an opinion based on the science. Others feel they can’t use me while the complaint is hanging over me.
‘The experience has made me feel like a whistleblower – on the one hand challenging all those who prefer the comfort of old mainstream opinion, and on the other struggling for my professional life.’
DI Welsh was unavailable for comment, but Scotland Yard said in a statement: ‘The Metropolitan Police did register concerns about certain practices of a doctor with the Human Tissue Authority in December 2009. The Metropolitan Police also agreed to provide any relevant information to the GMC following a report registered by the National Policing Improvement Agency with the GMC.’
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Surviving SWAT teams to empower a real America
A man advocated use of gold and silver as an alternative to America's swiftly depreciating dollar. That made him a "terrorist"
On Valentine's Day this year the home of Walter Reddy was invaded by a Swat Team. The Reddy home is located in an area of Weston, Connecticut which has seen the original modest homes, set on lots of around two acres, which still describes the Reddy home, replaced by mansions, owned mostly by wealthy members of the corporate elite.
The man who filed a police report on Walter is a long time neighbor, Rand McNeil. Rand frequently came over to have coffee with Walter, always inquiring about the possibilities of buying Walter's home. Walter would smile and decline all offers as he poured out another cup of coffee for Rand. Yet on this occasion Rand reported to the police Walter threatened the police – but refused to sign an affidavit.
Then, two Special Agents for the FBI named Walter as a 'person of interest' regarding domestic terrorism.
After being held in handcuffs for hours as his neighbors drove by, staring, Reddy was not charged with a crime, but the judge decided to keep his weapons. There as no evidence of any wrong doing on Reddy's part. Walter was astonished to hear he was supposedly a threat to others, or at least those were the boxes the officials had checked off.
Rand refused to sign an affidavit attesting to the truth of the statements he had made, covertly, to police. The mission, probably to kill Reddy, fizzled, the reason is not discussed in court or in the media but can be surmised, given the evidence.
Sometimes you have to look at the facts not immediately in evidence to see the likely chain of causality. In December 2010 Walter Reddy had a meeting with Stan Crouch of Herbert J. Sims & Co., Inc. The firm is located in Fairfield, Connecticut at 2150 Post Road, Suite 301. The meeting took place in Crouch's tastefully appointed office.
Walter was hopeful this large and ,presumably, respectable firm would want to be involved in the plans he and a group of investors, economists, and activists had worked so hard to organize for the Sovereign State Depository. It was an ambitious plan, but one they believe Americans desperately need today, as the dollar continues to fail.
Across the expanse of polished wood, Crouch's partner, Victor Saul, had sat listening to the plan to provide the states with a way to use units of gold and silver bullion as money. Victor's eyes, bugging out with shock, said, “They are going to kill you.”
Stan Crouch's comment was, perhaps, even more illuminating. “They will send the military to come down on the states.” Walter was incredulous. He asked, “Are you out of your mind?” Clearly, they viewed the world very differently – or understood those in control to different degrees.
“We, the people, have a right to our life, our liberty, and our property.” Said Reddy. “Our property includes gold and silver.” Stan responded, “Gold and silver does not belong to the people. All of it belongs to the Federal Reserve. By the way, I have been down in the basement of the Federal Reserve. I've seen what they have stored there.”
Later, Walter was told by a friend, who is also a broker, that Stan Crouch was closely affiliated with Goldman Sachs. Walter had been told Stan was like-minded, in the cause of liberty, something entirely untrue.
The exchange clarifies the beliefs of of bankers and finance people, such as Stan Crouch. This relatively small and select group believe while ordinary Americans hold precious metals all of this form of wealth really belongs to the Federal Reserve. Your hold on your precious metals is temporary. The FED retains the right to confiscate gold, as happened in 1933 through the order of FDR.
Walter Reddy is an older man, a retired contractor, raised during the tumultuous 60s, he remembers with pride having circulated petitions to ensure passage of the 26th Amendment, giving 18 year olds the right to vote. Young men, then going off to Vietnam, could at least cast a ballot. Walter always votes, remembering the importance of being an active and informed citizen. Today, as he votes, he remembers the men who died and those who returned to harassment and rejection.
Walter has been active in his community, doing volunteer work, for most of his adult life. No product of wealth, Walter Reddy was raised a military brat. He understands the sacrifices servicemen make when they are told they must fight to preserve freedom.
Walter loves his modest home. The stand of pines, over 100 feet in height, borders the property, providing a sense of peace, reminding him of his own life's journey, which has been full of unexpected discoveries. Along with his hands-on work as a contractor, he sees to the plants he raised, watching them grow and prosper, as he wants America to grow and prosper, leaving him time to work to strengthen his community.
One of the organizations to which Walter belongs is the SAR, Sons of the American Revolution. He is proud to be descended from Henry Adams, sharing the same lineage with Sam and John Adams, men to whom freedom and individual rights mattered more than life itself.
Walter studied the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, for which his ancestors fought, and died, while first a member of the SAR. Understanding that all people, from every culture and place, have the same inherent, God-given rights, Reddy also knows, in his bones, governance must be local to affirm the individual power and rights of all people.
Walter Reddy believes people should use persuasion, not coercion and force, governing through consensus, as was usual in much of New England when the Revolution was fought.
No matter where Walter is, or what he is doing, he carries in his mind the vision of a people who actively affirm their rights through self-governing and benevolence at the local level. Walter is a follower of Christ.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
A man advocated use of gold and silver as an alternative to America's swiftly depreciating dollar. That made him a "terrorist"
On Valentine's Day this year the home of Walter Reddy was invaded by a Swat Team. The Reddy home is located in an area of Weston, Connecticut which has seen the original modest homes, set on lots of around two acres, which still describes the Reddy home, replaced by mansions, owned mostly by wealthy members of the corporate elite.
The man who filed a police report on Walter is a long time neighbor, Rand McNeil. Rand frequently came over to have coffee with Walter, always inquiring about the possibilities of buying Walter's home. Walter would smile and decline all offers as he poured out another cup of coffee for Rand. Yet on this occasion Rand reported to the police Walter threatened the police – but refused to sign an affidavit.
Then, two Special Agents for the FBI named Walter as a 'person of interest' regarding domestic terrorism.
After being held in handcuffs for hours as his neighbors drove by, staring, Reddy was not charged with a crime, but the judge decided to keep his weapons. There as no evidence of any wrong doing on Reddy's part. Walter was astonished to hear he was supposedly a threat to others, or at least those were the boxes the officials had checked off.
Rand refused to sign an affidavit attesting to the truth of the statements he had made, covertly, to police. The mission, probably to kill Reddy, fizzled, the reason is not discussed in court or in the media but can be surmised, given the evidence.
Sometimes you have to look at the facts not immediately in evidence to see the likely chain of causality. In December 2010 Walter Reddy had a meeting with Stan Crouch of Herbert J. Sims & Co., Inc. The firm is located in Fairfield, Connecticut at 2150 Post Road, Suite 301. The meeting took place in Crouch's tastefully appointed office.
Walter was hopeful this large and ,presumably, respectable firm would want to be involved in the plans he and a group of investors, economists, and activists had worked so hard to organize for the Sovereign State Depository. It was an ambitious plan, but one they believe Americans desperately need today, as the dollar continues to fail.
Across the expanse of polished wood, Crouch's partner, Victor Saul, had sat listening to the plan to provide the states with a way to use units of gold and silver bullion as money. Victor's eyes, bugging out with shock, said, “They are going to kill you.”
Stan Crouch's comment was, perhaps, even more illuminating. “They will send the military to come down on the states.” Walter was incredulous. He asked, “Are you out of your mind?” Clearly, they viewed the world very differently – or understood those in control to different degrees.
“We, the people, have a right to our life, our liberty, and our property.” Said Reddy. “Our property includes gold and silver.” Stan responded, “Gold and silver does not belong to the people. All of it belongs to the Federal Reserve. By the way, I have been down in the basement of the Federal Reserve. I've seen what they have stored there.”
Later, Walter was told by a friend, who is also a broker, that Stan Crouch was closely affiliated with Goldman Sachs. Walter had been told Stan was like-minded, in the cause of liberty, something entirely untrue.
The exchange clarifies the beliefs of of bankers and finance people, such as Stan Crouch. This relatively small and select group believe while ordinary Americans hold precious metals all of this form of wealth really belongs to the Federal Reserve. Your hold on your precious metals is temporary. The FED retains the right to confiscate gold, as happened in 1933 through the order of FDR.
Walter Reddy is an older man, a retired contractor, raised during the tumultuous 60s, he remembers with pride having circulated petitions to ensure passage of the 26th Amendment, giving 18 year olds the right to vote. Young men, then going off to Vietnam, could at least cast a ballot. Walter always votes, remembering the importance of being an active and informed citizen. Today, as he votes, he remembers the men who died and those who returned to harassment and rejection.
Walter has been active in his community, doing volunteer work, for most of his adult life. No product of wealth, Walter Reddy was raised a military brat. He understands the sacrifices servicemen make when they are told they must fight to preserve freedom.
Walter loves his modest home. The stand of pines, over 100 feet in height, borders the property, providing a sense of peace, reminding him of his own life's journey, which has been full of unexpected discoveries. Along with his hands-on work as a contractor, he sees to the plants he raised, watching them grow and prosper, as he wants America to grow and prosper, leaving him time to work to strengthen his community.
One of the organizations to which Walter belongs is the SAR, Sons of the American Revolution. He is proud to be descended from Henry Adams, sharing the same lineage with Sam and John Adams, men to whom freedom and individual rights mattered more than life itself.
Walter studied the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, for which his ancestors fought, and died, while first a member of the SAR. Understanding that all people, from every culture and place, have the same inherent, God-given rights, Reddy also knows, in his bones, governance must be local to affirm the individual power and rights of all people.
Walter Reddy believes people should use persuasion, not coercion and force, governing through consensus, as was usual in much of New England when the Revolution was fought.
No matter where Walter is, or what he is doing, he carries in his mind the vision of a people who actively affirm their rights through self-governing and benevolence at the local level. Walter is a follower of Christ.
Original report here
(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress. If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where posts appear as well as on the primary site. I have reposted the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts HERE or HERE or here
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
