Van Shooter Fired

New Mexico officer in van shooting is fired - Houston Chronicle:

The New Mexico State Police officer who fired shots at a minivan full of children during a chaotic October traffic stop has been fired, a spokesman with the law enforcement agency said Friday.

Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez, a State Police spokesman, said he confirmed with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas that Officer Elias Montoya was no longer employed by the department. Montoya's termination was effective at 5 p.m. Friday...

Well, that's a start. How about a reckless endangerment charge? And what about the other two "officers"?

O Attack Too Low For Even Wingnuts

Disgusting Liberal-Hating Facebook Page Posts Fake Photo of President Obama Inappropriately Touching His Daughter | Progressive Populist:

In what might be the sleaziest, hateful, and most detestable stunt ever pulled in the name of political warfare, a barely-human clod-brained jackass did an amateurish alteration of a photo taken of President Obama and his family leaving a grocery store. The altered photo shows President Obama with his hand down his daughter Sasha’s pants....

If you want to look at this obvious fakery, click on the link. While you're at it, can you imagine Obama in a bait shop, which what the place looks like-- it even has a "fishing tackle" sign.

Diapers Going For Guv?

Vitter eyes Louisiana governor's mansion | MSNBC:

Republican Sen. David Vitter is eyeing the Louisiana governor’s mansion, and he’ll decide over the holidays whether he will launch a 2015 bid.

The GOP senator said in an email to supporters on Wednesday he would weigh whether to launch a campaign over Christmas with his family,..

O'Donnell On Deadly Force

Lawrence O'Donnell Blasts New Mexico Police Who Open Fire On A Van Full Of Children (Video) | Political Minute:
...Also, since when do police open fire when they are in no physical harm. Last week Bill Maher had Radley Balko on who stated that if you have ever been pulled over in New Mexico you would feel like you live in a police state and even said that your interaction with those police may be your last interaction. The usual anxiety and fear that you may feel from a regular police stop are probably times ten in those situations. They also discussed the rise in the use of lethal force and Balko said that where they used to teach officers how to use the least amount of force possible and focused on conflict resolution, they now teach you justify force AFTER you have shot a suspect...

Another Police Execution

Cop Caught On Tape Shooting Unarmed Man Won't Be Charged With A Crime | ThinkProgress:

...In the prosecutors’ defense, putting a cop in prison is remarkably difficult. Police officers are allowed to shoot if they fear for their lives, and proving that use of force was “unreasonable” sets a very high bar. Few police who have used force under suspicious circumstances ever face a judge. A 2007 study by UChicago law professor Craig Futterman found that just 19 of 10,149 complains of excessive force, illegal searches, racial abuse, sexual abuse, and false arrests led to a police suspension of a week or more. Individual police officers are also largely protected from damages claims in civil court through “qualified immunity...”

The Most Amazing Abuse Of Authority Ever

David Eckert: Colonoscopy, Enema, X-Ray By Cops For Drugs (VIDEO):

David Eckert went shopping at a Wal-Mart in Deming NM on January 2nd, 2013. He then got into his car to leave the parking lot. David Eckert was then stopped by Officer Chavez for allegedly not yielding at a stop sign. Officer Chavez ordered David Eckert out of his car. Things went downhill after that...

Another Police Execution

Woman calls 911 for diabetic fianc�, cops arrive, shoot him dead - Salon.com:

When Alcia Herron of Georgia called 9/11 to get emergency medical help for her diabetic fianc�, Jack Lamar Roberson, she did not expect the police to show up. And she certainly did not expect them to shoot Roberson dead as he held his hands up...

No Justification For Shooting

I'm glad someone else besides me noticed this little fact.

The smearing of Miriam Carey: How the media bungled the Capitol Hill shooting - Salon.com:

...For one thing, at least one part of the chaotic series of events was clarified: Carey was unarmed and shot after having gotten out of her car.

Ms. Carey managed to get out of the car, and was shot by several officers. According to a law enforcement official, she was not armed, and it was not known whether she presented an immediate danger.

Yet, with few exceptions, the media had little interest in exploring those two tiny details. In fact, they unquestioningly repeated the police narratives which—no surprise there—were intended to justify the shooting...

She Was Out Of Her Car

... and no longer in command of a "deadly weapon."

Rampaging driver shot dead on Capitol Hill: Did cops do the right thing? - CSMonitor.com:

...The deadly shot came after Ms. Carey, with her one-year-old daughter in the back of her black Infinity coupe, crashed into White House barricades, sideswiped at least two police cars, crashed into gates at the Capitol, and then stepped out of her car...

Running Will Get You Shot In NC

Man seeking help after North Carolina car crash shot by police | Reuters:

An unarmed man who was shot dead after running toward police officers in Charlotte, North Caroline, may have been just trying to get help after crashing his car, police said...

Update: here.

Pointing Will Get You Shot

NYPD Officers Shoot Bystanders in Midtown - WSJ.com:

...The man was able to get away from the officers, and as additional officers arrived, allegedly put his hand into his pocket and then took it out, making a motion as if he was shooting in the direction of the police officers, police said...

107 Year Old Shot

It's an AP article, so you get no words. Here: SWAT officers kill man, 107, in standoff | The News Star | thenewsstar.com.Potentially relevant: here.

Another Taser Misuse

Ontario woman, 80, suffers fractured hip after being struck with police Taser | News1130:

Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating an incident in which they say an 80-year-old woman suffered a fractured hip after she was struck by police with a Taser.

Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Monica Hudon said three Peel region police officers approached the woman around 3:30 a.m. last Wednesday as she was walking along a road in Mississauga...

From The About Time Department

Judge rules New York police's 'stop and frisk' tactics unconstitutional | Reuters:

The New York City Police Department's controversial "stop and frisk" crime-fighting tactics violate the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said the city police adopted a policy of "indirect racial profiling" by targeting racially defined groups for stops...

Dial Back Police Craziness

The modern age of police over-response began way back in '85 with the MOVE bombing. Everyone saw this coming and now the chickens are roosting and we are all stuck in the guano. We are close to the brink, but before we go completely off the cliff, let's try dialing back the police's ability to swat (pun) flies with Hellfire rockets.

Rise of the Warrior Cop - WSJ.com:

,,,In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily). These victims were bystanders, or the police later found no evidence of the crime for which the victim was being investigated. They include Katherine Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed by an Atlanta narcotics team acting on a bad tip from an informant in 2006; Alberto Sepulveda, an 11-year-old accidentally shot by a California SWAT officer during a 2000 drug raid; and Eurie Stamps, killed in a 2011 raid on his home in Framingham, Mass., when an officer says his gun mistakenly discharged. Mr. Stamps wasn't a suspect in the investigation.

What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures? The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement...

Police Outrage

“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”: The new warrior cop is out of control - Salon.com:

...The raid on Sal Culosi was merely another red flag indicating yet more SWAT team mission creep in America. It wasn’t even the first time a Virginia SWAT team had killed someone during a gambling raid. In 1998 a SWAT team in Virginia Beach shot and killed security guard Edward C. Reed during a 3:00 AM raid on a private club suspected of facilitating gambling. Police said they approached the tinted car where Reed was working security, knocked, and identified themselves, then shot Reed when he refused to drop his handgun. Reed’s family insisted the police story was unlikely. Reed had no criminal record. Why would he knowingly point his gun at a heavily armed police team? More likely, they said, Reed mistakenly believed the raiding officers were there to do harm, particularly given that the club had been robbed not long before the raid. Statements by the police themselves seem to back that account. According to officers at the scene, Reed’s last words were, “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book...”

Scootin' Fraud & Hoverin' Too!

Uppity Woman | I'm just one of those Uppity Women. Live with it.

...Now there’s the obvious truth that some people are in need of these scooters. But the truth is, a hundred million dollars worth of people who have them have no business defrauding the Medicare and Medicaid systems at the peril of people who just got rejected this morning for a needed medical procedure. These people deserve to wake up one morning really soon not able to walk, and crawling to that free scooter they didn’t need the day before. The FBI won’t be going after these “customers”. That’s too bad. I think these system milkers all belong in jail and should be forced to reimburse Medicare and Medicaid for their part in this fraud.

One more thing. It seems that scooter website references to medicare are disappearing like cockroaches under a sink. Here’s USA Mobility’s “Medicare” reference page. Or what was their Medicare reference page.

Well, there is one silver lining here. I won’t have to look at that smug smirking bastard in that commercial who says, “It didn’t cost me a thing!” every five minutes on cable Tee Vee. I always wanted to smack that arrogant bastard in the face.

Up next, really soon we hope: Hoveround, where “Your local Mobility Specialist” is standing by!”……..and “9 out of 10 Hoveround owners got their electric wheehchair at little or no cost.”

Video Game Racism

We are respectable negroes: Cyber Racism 101: Have You Played the New Christopher Dorner Video Game?

Dorner And The Left

The Rude Pundit --No, Liberals Aren't Making Alleged Killer Christopher Dorner Into a Hero:

...Also, in his manifesto, Dorner praised media figures, condemned conservative beliefs, and said that he was a victim of ongoing racism in the LAPD. Because some people think that the allegations in the manifesto might bear investigation, people like, you know, the notoriously liberal LAPD, that must mean that those people want to elect Dorner the next Pope. Mostly, the right is acting all hurt because they think that if Dorner had been a Tea Party member or a right-winger, his views on anything would be dismissed and called lunacy. Here's the thing: Dorner isn't saying he's on a killing spree because he's afraid Mitch McConnell will get rid of Obamacare. In other words, his political beliefs are not his motivation. When Jim Adkisson shot up the Unitarian church in Knoxville, Tennesseee, in 2008, he said it was because he hated liberals.

Again and again and again, the right in this country thinks that it's impossible to hold a couple of thoughts in one's head at the same time. You can think that Dorner might have a legitimate grievance that he is bringing to the public's attention in the worst possible way. And you can also hope that the authorities shoot, or, preferably, arrest the messenger.

Anonymous Joins The Dorner Fray

Chris Dorner finds an ally in Anonymous; the group explains why | Washington Times Communities