Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Another Brick in the Wall




Those that ought to be holding police officers accountable simply are not listening nor are those that society holds responsible for training police officers.  Decades of increasing brutality toward citizens culminated in eight dead cops over the last few weeks but the lesson hasn't sunk in.
Wynnewood Oklahoma made national and international news with the shooting of a family pet, inside the yard at the Malone family home, while the children were celebrating a five year old child's birthday.  Opie, the family dog was shot by a cop using a high power rifle to stop the dog from barking and two more shots in the presence of the children to finish off the dog.  The officer claimed that the dog attacked and he had to kick the dog off but the cop was on one side of the fence and the officer on the other side of the fence.
And the reason for the killing of the family pet?    The cop was searching for someone that had listed the address as his home over ten years before.   The ten year old warrant was for Shon McNiel who had lived in the rent house a decade earlier and the police department was aware that the Malone family had lived there for over a year. 
Another example of enormous insensitivity and blindness to the real problems was a police chief in Waterbury Connecticut telling a crowd of black community members to simply give up their 4thAmendment rights when being confronted by a police officer.
The 4th Amendment wasn't about providing an avenue to sue after your civil rights were violated by the state, it was about preventing citizens from having to go through the indignity of an illegal and unneeded search in the first place.  Suing the state after an illegal stop, search, or arrest might bring some level of justice but as it is the citizens of that locality paying the bill and not the actual out of control cop even a lawsuit does little to remove the incentive.   Here is a short video about such a lawsuit and the pitfalls involved for an average citizen.
The case above was pretty typical, a driver following the speed limit, doing nothing wrong, and being pulled over simply because the cop wanted to search the car.   The cop in this case is caught lying, first claiming the passenger was nervous, then telling the passenger that the driver was nervous, then using a K-9 dog to signal a false hit on the car to force the driver into allowing a search.   Nothing found of course, it was a fishing trip by the cop and illegal as hell.
Rodriguez vs. U.S. from the Supreme Court is one recent case that makes it very clear that cops can't conduct a dog sniff absent reasonable suspicion and they can't prolong the stop while a dog is brought to the scene.  In the Rodriguez case the dog was actually in the car with the cop but the cop waited eight minutes after writing a traffic warning, holding the driver while a second officer showed up.
Previous SCOTUS decisions have laid out the restraint on cops when using a traffic violation as a pretext for detaining and searching cars.  The cop is to use the stop to deal only with the traffic violation and any safety concerns.  Running the driver's license, checking insurance and registration, and enough time to write out a warning notice or ticket is all that is allowed.  Using a dog to search the vehicle isn't part of the mission to regulate traffic and public safety.  It is of no issue if the dog searches before or after a ticket or warning notice is written, what is important is if running the dog around the car increases the time spent on the traffic stop and that doing the dog search isn't part of a traffic violation stop.
The game that was shut down in April of 2015 was that of a cop using a traffic stop to do a fishing expedition to search for other crimes.  Absent reasonable suspicion a hunch isn't sufficient to get away with violating 4th Amendment rights yet due to the profitable civil asset forfeiture laws the cops continue to break the law and the Constitution and in doing so they like the pet dog shooting above adds to the ledger sheet of injustice that led to the murder of eight police officers.
The training of police officers has been done with a "them versus us" mentality and it has bred a coward mentality among out police officers.  The shooting of the unarmed black therapist in Miami last week is further proof of that.
It seems an autistic man had wandered out of a day care center and the unarmed black therapist had intervened after police showed up and were ready to kill the autistic man for playing with a toy truck.   The video show cops hiding behind trees and cars while aiming rifles at the autistic man who was sitting in the roadway playing with his toy truck.  The day care worker, the therapist, had came out warning the cops that the guy wasn't normal and couldn't follow the demands being made and that all he had was a toy truck in his hands.  Ordered by the cops to lay down and keep his hands in the air the black therapists was then shot in the leg after one of the cops attempted to shoot the autistic man, shooting three times with a high powered rifle, one bullet of the three striking the therapist in the leg as he lay on the roadway.  When asked why he shot the therapist the officer replied "I don't know."  Later the story changed to say that the cop was actually aiming at the autistic man and he simply missed.
Of course the victim, the therapist, was handcuffed and searched after being shot, removing any doubt that the police officer as trying to protect him from the toy truck wielding autistic man.
This is insane, police that have been so poorly trained or are so obsessed with avoiding all risk that they are incapable of using common sense in dealing with a mentally challenged man child.  The therapist was a true hero, inserting himself into a dangerous situation trying to save an innocent person from harm.   I think that the majority of citizens have enough sense to understand that a mentally incapable man-child playing with a toy truck isn't endangering anyone and add the fact that you have a day care center therapist telling the cops that the guy isn't normal and only an imbecile would escalate the situation to the point that guns are drawn and pointed.
The therapist made a significant comment, saying that if the cops would just admit they made a mistake that would go along way of defusing the situation and earning back some respect.  Instead the police force usually finds a way of blaming one of the victims and the injustice goes unpunished while an idiot cop remains on the force to use bad judgment on other situations.
There will be no short term solution to what is to come.  The pump has been primed well by massive disrespect toward citizens by the police.  Decades of bad will might mean a protracted war on police unless state and local government step up and begin setting things right.  Even the Justice department has begun warning cops that gangs have begun discussing the targeting of cops.   The police chief in Austin did the right thing when he described the brutality used against a school teacher during a traffic stop and suspended the officer involved.   When the day comes that the trainers and leaders of law enforcement officers begin calling a spade a spade then the citizen's trust in law enforcement will begin to be reset.  Good cops will always need backing and respect but the bad apples MUST be rooted out and be dealt with using the rule of law.

Monday, July 18, 2016

How I Wish we Were Wrong Last Week


July 10th 2016 Newsletter

  In this business you know when you hit a nerve as the emails and sometimes phone calls will flood in.  Generally you don't hear a whimper when the stories aren't controversial.   Last week's crop of emails was no different believe it or not, only one two sentence email accusing us of anti police bias was received so the vast majority of our reader were not shocked or upset about our article stating that more police killings would be coming as we had reached a tipping point.

  Sadly that turned out to be true, the morning news brought us the details of the Baton Rouge shootings where a rather disturbed black man from Kansas City traveled to Baton Rouge to kill and wound police officers.  Three dead, three wounded, with one or more facing life threatening injuries.  This guy was also ex military, hopefully not the panty snatching pervert that the Dallas shooter turned out to be according to news stories.  But the guy wasn't well prepared and you have to wonder how he racked up the deaths given that he was walking down the side of a road carrying a rifle and wearing a mask.

Richardson Exposes Turnpike Authority Secrets

Gary Richardson to Speak at Southside Republican Club August 9th



 Tulsa attorney and former gubernatorial candidate Gary Richardson will speak about the corruption of the Turnpike Authority that the Southside Oklahoma City  Republican Club on the 2nd Tuesday of next month,  August  9th

  Doors open at 6:30 pm, program starts 7 and ends around 8pm.  More time for mingling til 8:30.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Soft on Crime, Does it Work?

   Here in Oklahoma we have seen former Speaker Kris Steele and Oklahoma County D.A. David Prater fall on their faces with the JRI program back in 2013 but like the committed liberals they are they simply renamed the campaign and set to work implementing the same programs under an different name.  It doesn't help that the Justice Department is pressuring local and state public safety systems to do the same, claiming the disparate impact on minority communities.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned municipal and state judges earlier this year that they would face the loss of federal funding if they don't ease up on fines and arrest warrants against poor and indigent minorities.  Lynch urged community service or "amnesty days" that allowed outstanding warrants to be cleared for nominal fees.

   Failure to comply will trigger discrimination investigations according to Lynch in her "guidance" letter to local court systems.   Enforcing outstanding warrants for failure to pay fines and court fees will have a "disparate impact" on African-Americans according to Lynch, because they are arrested or fined at an "disproportionate" rate compared to whites.

Insurance Cameras

Last session we saw the insurance traffic camera make its way through the process  as a way to project some dollars to pseudo balance the budget but do these systems work and will the income actually be generated and liability insurance rates increase?

  The camera systems belong to a private third party company that gets the lion's share of the profits from the tickets.  The cameras will scan license plates of passing cars and try to match them up to the state database of insurance policies.  They private company has no background of successful systems implemented so far and of course the percentage of uninsured drivers was vastly inflated in order to generate support for the scheme.  Generally around 12 to 14% of the drivers will have lapsed insurance, usually because they cancel the policy after getting their car tags.

CAIR Loses a Decision on a Major Fraud Case

  CAIR recently lost an appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reversing a trial court's dismissal of a fraud case brought against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The ruling allows the fraud case to go to a jury trial.   Last year Judge Paul Friedman, a federal judge overseeing the five year old lawsuit, dismissed a fraud case where hundreds of Muslim and non Muslim clients were defrauded by CAIR and an alleged attorney hired by CAIR.

  The case revolves around CAIR hiring a fake attorney who failed to provide proper legal service in hundreds of cases, the fake attorney's main purpose of course was to threaten litigation against anyone that stood in CAIR's way or was trying to expose the group. CAIR of course is a Muslim Brotherhood front group as found by the Holy Land Foundation (HLF)trial, leading the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office to refuse to cooperate with them.  HLF was found to have raised money for terrorists groups and several top level CAIR executives were convicted of terror related crimes.

Election Results


 …were interesting to say the least.   Democratic Rep. Donnie Condit barely survived with a half point victory over his challenger.  Bridenstine thumped his two opponents by almost 81%  despite some serious RINO cash spent on trying to take Bridenstine down.  Steve Russell survived an attempt by Frank Volpe by a huge margin; then again Volpe was a bit of an odd character and didn't exactly inspire confidence.  The rest of the congressional races went as expected when you have a wealthy and entrenched incumbent being challenged by a poorly funded opponent.

  Senator Rob Standridge survived handily despite a RINO attempt at taking him down but Senator Ron Sharp, one of the worst of the RINO liberal senators barely squeaked out a win, less than 4% margin.  Senator Bryce Marlatt survived, a hell of a thing that a drunk can survive a primary election.  Senator Nathan Dahm survived a RINO attempt, winning by around two thirds.   Paul Blair and Adam Pugh head into a runoff election in August with both candidates bringing in over 45% in the primary election.    RINO senator Corey Brooks was defeated by just over 1% of the vote.  Senator Kyle Loveless won a 5% victory despite a heavily financed attempt to oust him due to his conservative voting record.

The True Face of the Muslim Society

  It is difficult enough when something happens to a small child, worse when it happens to a small girl child, and almost unimaginable when it happens to a small handicapped girl.  Ours is a civilized society for the most part but  there are those among us that are willing to pump hundreds of thousands of new "immigrants" into our society for political reasons, to expand their base of voters, or for cheap labor for their restaurants, motels, construction sites, or factories.  Of course the labor isn't cheap once you figure in the vast increases needed for welfare and schools.

   But it is the other costs of pumping tens of thousands of barely civilized "people" into a civilized and orderly society that costs us the most.  Last week we saw the story of the five year old handicapped girl in Twin Falls Idaho, sexually assaulted, urinated on, and filmed by the 14 year old instigator of the attack.  Initially the local authorities and immigrant advocates covered up the fact that all three of the young boys were immigrants and Muslims from Sudan and Iraq. The boys, 7, 10, and 14 years old were from about 300 "refugee" families settled in the area by the U.S. government.