Category: Law Enforcement

The System

If a Cop Is Illegally Searching You, You Have to Take It

The dreary lesson from this case….Police need only the flimsiest of suspicions to stop you on the street, detain you, and search you. But even if they don’t even have that, they aren’t likely to suffer any serious sanction for an illegal search. Nor is a court likely to believe you should you try to complain. If you resist—physically or verbally, whether the search was legal or illegal—they can bring the hammer down, with damn-near impunity. And after the violence, you’ll be the one going to jail.

And this, from the comments, seems very likely:

I don’t think the judge believed the officer’s testimony, he simply pretended to in order to protect the system and the police officers.

That is trouble. Especially when more and more police officers are being equipped like the 75th Ranger Regiment.

There’s a Shocker

Memo contradicts Obama DOJ claims:

While federal officials publicly denounced a lone whistleblower and told Congress the Obama administration had done everything it could to stop guns from going to Mexico, administration officials had signs that Fast and Furious investigators were losing track of weapons, a new memo obtained exclusively by Fox News suggests.

The memo, written in early February by Agent Gary Styers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appears to corroborate allegations made a few weeks earlier by whistleblower ATF Agent John Dodson about the gunrunning probe.

Who would have guessed that?

Loser Cops and their Loser Cop Buddies

Officers Jeer at Arraignment of 16 Colleagues in Ticket-Fixing Investigation

A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.

Hmmm. Cops breaking the law are supported by other cops. There were more than 100 of the off-duty supporters, many of them holding signs reading “Just Following Orders“:

NYPD Just Following Orders
NYPD Just Following Orders

That shit oughta make anyone’s blood a bit chilly.

The unsealed indictments contained more than 1,600 criminal counts, the bulk of them misdemeanors having to do with making tickets disappear as favors for friends, relatives and others with clout. But they also outlined more serious crimes, related both to ticket-fixing and drugs, grand larceny and unrelated corruption. Four of the officers were charged with helping a man get away with assault.

So to summarize: Some cops have been breaking the law for their friends. Other cops are standing with them publicly. At the behest of the union, who supplied them with signs using the same excuse used by concentration camp workers.

Eugene J. O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice:

“The Police Department is a very angry work force, and that is something that should concern people, because it translates into hostile interactions with people.”

Ya think?

Via Instapundit. Photo from NYDailyNews.

The Gun Buyback Loophoole

Oregon: Gun turn-in pits Ceasefire against collectors with cash

Only 43 people turned in unwanted guns Saturday at Ceasefire Oregon’s latest community collection event, in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum parking lot.

Compared to 152 last year. And competition probably had something to do with it:

[Gun collectors] lined up at the parking lot’s two entrances, hoping to convince people driving in to sell them their guns rather than hand them over to police for destruction. Each gun turned in to police earned a $50 Fred Meyer gift certificate.

The gun collectors waved signs at cars approaching the lot, reading: “I buy guns, $50-$200 cash.”

By the end of the day, the collectors said they had managed to buy 10 to 15 guns that otherwise would have been turned in and destroyed.

Some guy turned in a practically-new Glock, still in its original box for a $50 grocery store card. Clear thinking on his part.

But I imagine some guys got some good deals, and the sellers got a better deal than the authorities were going to give them. And it didn’t cost taxpayers one single penny.

Liz Julee, a Ceasefire Oregon Educational Foundation board member, looked at the men and women at the parking lot entrances and refused to accept that they were there only to add to their gun collections.

“I think it’s political,” Julee said. “I think it’s unfortunate that they feel they need to have an oppositional presence.”

I doubt too many people really care what you think is unfortunate, Liz. Really. After all, it’s not like Ceasefire Oregon is un-political. You don’t like it? Get the laws changed so people can’t sell their private property to other people.

Via TTAG.

Police officer pleads guilty to illegally dealing firearms

Brmerton, Washington:

A former Bremerton police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to unlawfully dealing firearms and filing a false income-tax return.

Roy Alloway, 56, faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Jan. 20.

Federal prosecutors said Alloway bought and sold hundreds of guns without a federal firearms license, including many purchased at Tacoma gun shops and later sold at gun shows across the region

He retired in May 2010 after 32 years on the force.

You Would Never Guess It From the Headlines

Gun crime continues to decrease, despite increase in gun sales

The FBI recently released its Crime in The United States statistics for 2010. Overall, murders in the U.S. have decreased steadily since 2006, dropping from 15,087 to 12,996. Firearms murders — which made up 67 percent of all murders in the U.S. in 2010 — have followed this trend, decreasing by 14 percent.

At the same time that firearms murders were dropping, gun sales were surging. In 2009, FBI background checks for guns increased by 30 percent over the previous year, while firearms sales in large retail outlets increased by almost 40 percent. The number of applications for concealed carry permits jumped across the country as well.

It’s almost like guns don’t cause crime.

Defend yourself and be a vigilante

On Samizdata:

If these last few days shows anything it is that when push comes to shove, only you and your neighbours can defend against what can only be called barbarian scum. Contrary to what the state would have you believe, you have the right to defend yourself and your property that morally supersede any law that would deny that right.

When added an Anarchy in the UK category a while back, it was a bit of a Sex Pistols joke. Now there are efforts to make it a national policy.

Plus here are two comments from the post:

Yet, people are sitting in prison right now in the US, Britain, and every other English speaking nation for defending themselves and their property. All it takes is a bad law with good intentions, a prosecutor looking to pad his statistics, or one who has an agenda, a justice system that no longer protects the rights of the accused, and the power of the state to back up said prosecutor.

Let’s hope that the US has learned at least a little from Katrina.

The state does not wish for people to defend themselves against criminals and thus prosecutes them when they do. After all, if a citizen learns to defend himself against criminals, he might contemplate defending himself against the state.

And there wasn’t demand for a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms because they were afraid of burglars or rioters.