Mishap=Gunshots to the Torso and Arm

Two Maryland teens "shot in police mishap" during a drug investigation in Howard County.

Two teenagers were wounded yesterday by a shot apparently fired accidentally by a Howard County police officer during an investigation of suspected drug activity in a Jessup neighborhood, police said.

A 14-year-old boy who was shot in the torso was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, and a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the arm was taken to Howard County General Hospital, police said.

Don't worry, they found drugs:

Llewellyn said illegal drugs were recovered at the scene but did not say whether police suspect that the wounded youths were buying or selling them.

If I Can't Finger Random, Unwilling Women; Then Cops Can't Either

Come to think of it, maybe that's a good recruiting strategy...If you're trying to recruit rapists as police officers. Which for all I know is the plan now-a-days at police departments around America . Possible billboards:

Sign Up Now and Enjoy All the Finger Blasting You Want!!

Excellent Health and Retirement Benefits Too!!

Via Radley comes this story of a frightening police encounter for a young woman in Albany:

The actions of police in the minutes that followed would end in controversy rather than with an arrest. They would also leave Shutter, a 28-year-old single mother from Ravena, shaken and angry after one of the officers allegedly inserted his finger into Shutter's vagina on a public street during an apparent search for drugs.[...]

Shutter was behind the wheel of a friend's rented car, and said she saw the police car drive past her twice before the stop.

The officer at her window grilled her about drug use and hidden crack pipes, she said.

"You fit the profile," the officer said, according to Shutter. "You're a white girl in a rental car."

Before it was over, Shutter was ordered to stand outside her vehicle with her hands on the trunk. One officer searched her body while a second scoured the inside of the car. They also dumped the contents of her purse and asked whether she'd spent her money on crack because her wallet was empty.

Shutter said she never consented to a search of her vehicle, her telephone or her body. She said she pleaded with the officer who allegedly slid his hand down the back of her jeans, and inside her underwear, to stop.

And what about her experience with the Department's ironically titled Office of Professional Standards?

Shutter said she grew increasingly unnerved by her experience with internal affairs -- which is known as the Office of Professional Standards -- because male detectives twice requested she wear clothes from the night of the incident to re-enact the body search.

Shutter said internal affairs detectives told her that an officer involved in the incident had been suspended, but they wouldn't say why and declined to identify any of the officers by name, or to have her look at their photographs. Neither Fargione nor Abrams has been suspended, sources said.

Awesome. I can just see some smarmy NY police officer with a mustache saying, "So you know those clothes you were raped in? Mind wearing those again? Totally for the sake of recreating the scene of the crime. Oh, and don't wash your panties. I'm going to need to smell those." Maybe it's just me, but it sure seems like this shit gets worse and worse...At what point does the average American stand up and say enough already?

Story here.

Police Officer Alerts Schools to Dangerous Drug, Also Passes Along Information on Cheap Viagra and a Sweet Business Deal with Nigerian Royality

Oxfordshire, England. Hysteria run amok after a cop falls for a fradulant, chain e-mail.

A policeman alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth - despite the fact it does not exist.

Pupils and parents at 80 schools in Oxfordshire were warned of the possible risks of the fruit-flavoured drug, also known as Strawberry Quick, by the unwitting officer.

The spurious alert came after the officer sent an email via a special system connecting police and schools without checking it with colleagues.

The drug, said to contain deadly crystal meth, had apparently been given to children in sweet form by strangers outside school gates, leading to two victims being hospitalised.

But there had never been such an incident, and the officer had forwarded on an email well known for being an Internet hoax.

Full story here.

Police Mootality

The cow probably called the cop "dude":

ROGERS — A Rogers police lieutenant will be suspended 10 days without pay for firing a department-issued electric stun device at two cows in June 2006.

Lt. David Mitchell's suspension will begin March 17, said Rogers Police Chief Steve Helms.

The department began an internal investigation into the matter last month after an animal-rights organization complained to the Police Department and city administration that Mitchell showed several colleagues a video of himself and another man firing the stun gun at a cow.

Here's the punch line:

A report detailing the investigation released today stated the incident happened during the first half of June 2006 on property Mitchell owns and involved cows owned by his family.

The report says the first cow was not hit, and in fact, the device malfunctioned and shocked Mitchell and the other man, who is not a member of the Police Department.

Brilliant.

Thinking this over, I'm pretty sure that the cow got a better response out of the police department than a human victim of a tasing. Full story here.

Armed with Video Cameras

Good article in the Baltimore Sun today on citizens video taping police officers.

Drive though some Baltimore neighborhoods at night and it quickly becomes obvious: The blinking blue-light cameras show the police are watching.

But the police also are being watched.

Citizens armed with cameras - even in their cell phones - are filming officers in action, sometimes with unflattering results.

That's a fair point when talking about the supposed controversy surrounding the act of taping police officers. If I leave my house and walk west on Washington Blvd, I am guaranteed to be on film for more than 8 blocks. No doubts about it, every time I do it, I'll be captured on film by the city. I'm not a criminal*, but the camera captures you whether you are committing a crime or not, or whether you have the intent to commit a crime or not.

The logic is that the blue-light cameras will prevent crime from happening, or allow police to solve more crimes that do occur. The cameras don't actually accomplish those goals, but nonetheless that's why they are there. Plus, if you aren't doing anything illegal, what do you have to fear? It's fucked up. That logic shouldn't apply to innocent citizens who, for perfectly reasonable reasons, feel uncomfortable about being filmed by their frequently abusive government. But that logic should be applied to government agents, who are given immense amounts of power and responsibilities, and -- last time I checked -- supposedly worked for the taxpayers.

Some police officers don't like the new reality that they can be under surveillance by the citizenry.

"I think that cops are terrified of video cameras," said Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer who is now a sociologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "I think the end result is cops will police a little more carefully.

Uh, this is a good thing, right? 'Cause, if cops are more careful with their power that's a net positive for everyone, right? Better community relations, less complaints and lawsuits, and most importantly -- fewer people getting the shit kicked out of them.

But officers do have some reasons to fear the lens. Recently retired Lt. Frederick V. Roussey said that in his 29 years on the force he used to encounter suspected gang members who would walk up to his officers and take pictures of them with their cell phones.

"If I had someone doing it, I would go over and grab the phone," he said. "It would be like, 'No way.'" Roussey said he feared that gangs were compiling electronic hit lists of officers.

Bullshit. To the best of my knowledge one police officer was killed in all of 2007. He wasn't even on-duty, he was robbed, and shot to death while returning home from work. Just like other innocent Baltimore residents who aren't adequately protected by our failing city services. According the Baltimore Police Department's website, the last officer killed on-duty, in a non-traffic related accident, was in 2004. Almost 4 years ago. If thugs in west Baltimore are compiling electronic hit lists of cops, they aren't making much headway on them. Which is surprising, because if there is one thing Baltimore criminals are good at, it's killing people. Most likely, criminals understand that killing a cop is bad for business, so they tend to avoid it. But forget about logic; let's look at the facts. In the same period that one police officer was shot to death, on-duty, we've had 49 fatalities at the hands of police officers. 49. 49-1. With that ratio, who needs to be filmed?


*I use the term "criminal" and "not" loosely. I do not consider the occasional Pigtown tranny pick-up to be a crime. I hardly ever pay; most time I just trade them drugs for oral sex**

**ATTN Baltimore PD: This is not a confession of illegal acts (although I'm not sure I want to live in a country where trading crack for a blow job is illegal), this web site is merely for entertainment purpose only and should not be taken seriously.

Baltimore Cop Objects to the 'Dude' Label

Making the rounds today on the web. Baltimore police officer (one that I recgonize as a regular patrol in that area) roughs up skateborder at the Inner Harbor.

Best part is the very end as the video is being cut off the cop asks the kid if he is filiming the confrontation and begins to say, "If I end up on you tube..". Too late. The cop in question has been suspended pending an internal affairs investigation.

When Bad Cops Stay Bad

I thought I had blogged on this (involving the same cop as below) story a few weeks back, but checking our archives I was proven wrong. In fact, I thought I had written a bunch of quality posts that turn out not to exist. What a bummer.

This will make up for my oversight:

A police officer and the City of Baltimore face a $100 million lawsuit filed by a man who says he was sexually assaulted.

Adam May reports Steven Vernarelli claims he was walking to Johns Hopkins Hospital in October, when he was stopped for no reason and sodomized with his own paper money by a Baltimore City police officer.

Vernarelli filed a $100 million lawsuit against Officer Jerome Hill.

"He took the money, ripped it and then reached behind me and shoved the twisted pieces," said Vernarelli.

Good to know my tax dollars are going to something useful. Like paying $100 million for a city employee to sodomize a citizen with a dollar bills. At least give me a buzz next time so I can catch this on video and get a front-page hit on you tube or break.

There's more to this officer's problems. The story I mentioned at the top of this post, the one that I'd thought I'd blogged on, involved Officer Hill and an integrity-testing sting about a month back. Here's how dirty this cop is, or I guess I should say was:

BPD receive multiple complaints, including a "serious allegation" made in district court about Officer Hill. The integrity testing unit sets up a sting involving a couple of undercover officers planted as suspected drug dealers. Officer Hill is dispatched to the corner where the undercover officer/suspect is and he properly drills the guy in the face with his fist. No provocation, no reason to do it, he just smashes the undercover officer in the face. Back up comes out to pull Hill off the undercover officer and arrest him. It took ONE sting to get this guy. The very first time he just shows up and punches the guy in the face. I mean Christ, give us some hope that you weren't beating the shit out of everyone EVERYTIME you had an opportunity.

So that story made front pages, he was charged with assault and placed on unpaid leave. Now the stories start flooding out, as well as the lawsuits. I blame the individual officers, but I also blame the city for poor management and oversight of a police department that everyone knows is both corrupt and dangerous.

But Most Cops Aren't Power-Hungry Assholes With Guns.....

Idaho Police Academy graduates select the quote, "Don't suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic syndrome), go out and cause it", as their class slogan.

Officials promise to review slogans in the future to prevent a repeat embarrassment. No word yet on what they plan to do about the reckless and aggressive pricks that they are unleashing on the public armed with guns.

Ooops, Wrong Home. Sorry for the Tear Gas

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- A SWAT team raids the wrong home in Lawrenceburg, Ind., now the homeowner wants some answers.

Police said they were led to the Village Apartments on the trail of fugitive Sean Deaton.

Convinced he was inside apartment 407G, the Lawrenceburg SWAT unit surrounded the building. [...]

"It looked like they were ready to go to war," one neighbor said. "Some of the ones out here had AR15's and shotguns."

Neighbors said police spent hours, ordering Deaton to surrender. But when that didn't work, they responded with tear gas and forced entry.

"It looked like my apartment was on fire. The smoke was just blowing out of my windows," Kayla Irwin, the tenant of 407G said.

Irwin, a single mother of two, said she is unable to live in her apartment and didn’t even know the man police were searching for.[...]

Neighbors said the police action was simply overkill.

"Overpowered. In my opinion it looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. They did not need to do all this," Emanuel Brightwell, an Iraq veteran and neighbor said.

Full article here.

Don't Tase Me Bro

Another taser death in Maryland. This time in Frederick:

FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ) ― The Frederick County Sheriff's Office says a man died after a deputy used a Taser to break up a fight.

Adam May reports, 20-year-old Jarrell Grey was set to interview for a new job Monday, now family members are planning his funeral.

As par for the course, this attack seems to have been overkill.

Around 5 a.m. Sunday, Frederick County Sheriff's deputies got a call that Jarrell and some friends were fighting near the Grisham Court East Town Houses.

"Right when they got out of their car they had their tasers, one of them had a gun," said a witness.

Witnesses say the deputy ordered Jarrell to the ground.

"I heard Jarrell say three times, my hands are on the ground officer, my hands are on the ground officer, my hands are on the ground officer and then they tasered him. Then they did it again," the witness said.

Full article here.

You Tell 'Em Ozzy

Ozzy Osborne is rightly pissed about the underhanded tactics of the Cass County, ND, Sheriff:

Osbourne claims his reputation was tarnished when Sheriff Paul Laney invited 500 people with outstanding warrants to a phony party at a Fargo nightclub before the rocker's concert with Rob Zombie at a nearby arena. More than 30 showed up and were arrested.

"Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests," Osbourne said in a statement.

"It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job," Osbourne said.

Although maybe the people were a bit naive for believing this, and undoubtedly many of them deserved to be arrested, this strategy makes me uncomfortable. It's probably a safe bet that many of them had warrants for nothing more than pot possession or unpaid parking tickets.

Yes, I know these things are in fact illegal and the sheriff must enforce the law, but the means seem like overkill. Did the Sheriff actually, you know, knock on these people's doors first?

And it doesn't help when the Sheriff says shit like this:

He said mentioning Osbourne's name in the invitations was no different than a bar advertising a Super Bowl party by mentioning the teams playing in the game.

Actually, it's completely different. Off the top of my head:

* The Super Bowl is real. When the bar advertises it, the event will actually happen.

* The bar wants to attract voluntary customers, not to take them into custody.

* The teams in the Super Bowl are widely known anyway.


And this is just unbelievable:

"Three people called to say, 'I got one of those letters. Since you're being so creative, I'm turning myself in. Give me a court date,'" Laney said.

DC Police Find a New Way to Scare People

"The Rumbler" is a new device installed on MPD marked cars. It "vibrates everything" within 200 feet and is being used in conjunction with sirens and lights to force motorists to yield to police cars.

I would have less issue with The Rumbler if it replaced the urban nuisance of constant police siren blaring, much of it probably unnecesary, at all hours. Instead, this device will be an additional nuisance. If it shakes anything within 200 feet, then won't it also rattle windows of homes? From the Wa Post today:

With a pair of high-output woofers and an amplifier, the Rumbler is not louder than a regular siren. It gets its message across with low-frequency sound waves that shake everything, including rear-view mirrors.

The Rumbler is meant to be used judiciously, in situations where motorists should pull over to make way for the police. It is timed to turn off automatically after 10 seconds. Still, police officials said, some people might be startled when they first experience it. And it remains to be seen if the public will view all that shaking as a helpful warning or just a nuisance.

Hit & Run post on the subject here. To assess the odds of police using force "judiciously" go here.

News of the Day: Allowing Untrained Cops to Take Patient's Suspect's Blood Sample Could Lead to Infection

Nothing says a fun night out like getting stopped by a cop for suspected drunken driving and ending up with an infection in your arm. After he jabs you a couple times with a syringe.

Attorneys are putting new scrutiny on a practice that has become common among law enforcement in the West-- having officers, not medical personnel, draw blood with syringes in suspected drunken driving cases.

That comes after a man developed a persistent infection at the site of a blood draw administered by a Pima County sheriff's deputy. He has filed what is believed to be the first claim in Arizona against the practice, which could put local taxpayers on the hook for any damages.

Arizona law requires that drunken driving suspects submit to a test or lose their license for a year and it's the officer's choice, not the driver's, whether to use a breath or a blood test.

And the reason for this unsafe, and invasive policing tactic?

Law enforcement agencies say having officers do blood draws themselves is quicker and more convenient than going to a hospital and more accurate than a breath test.

Or, we could just start arresting anyone in a bar who has keys in their pockets. Quick, certainly more convenient, and the most effective way to make sure no one ever drives drunk again.

Via The Corner, full article here.

Blackwater Might be Training Your Local Cops

Blackwater, the professional military force that has come under fire for its indiscriminate killing of civilians in Iraq, also trains US police departments and agencies such as the DEA. This is scary, as Blackwater tactics seem to be shoot first and ultimate force protection at the expense of innocent civilians.

The Wa Post had a fascinating long piece on Blackwater this past Saturday. The arm patches of the many local and federal police forces that have trained at Blackwood are pictured above in my crooked scanned-in pic (no real pic was available online).

I know it must be fun for cops to train with former Navy Seals and play war games at Blackwater's 7,000 acre facility that includes a "Little Baghdad" plus

an airstrip and hangar filled with gleaming helicopters, a manufacturing plant for assembling armored cars, a pound filled with bomb-sniffing dogs and a lake with mock ships for training sailors. An armory is stacked to the ceiling with rifles. Throughout the place are outdoor ranges where military, intelligence and law enforcement authorities from around the country practice shooting handguns and assault rifles at automated metal targets made by the firm.

But the militarization of local and federal police forces is a troubling development. Radley Balko has excelled in his coverage the impact of police militarization on citizens and their rights. For his coverage, go here for his blog and to Reason, where he is a Senior Editor.

It's Dangerous Work Being a Police Cruiser; Lucky For Them We Have Cops Like This One

Over the weekend in Baltimore:

(WJZ) BALTIMORE A developing story out of northwest Baltimore where there's been another police-involved shooting Saturday night.

It happened around 7:30 in the 3000 block of Dupont Avenue. Police say a man was beating a police cruiser with a tire iron. The officer told the man to stop, but police say he refused and the officer shot him in both legs.

In case you're keeping track that is the 28th police-involved shooting in the city this year.

Charles Ramsey Being Considered for BPD Chief

Looks like former DC Police chief, Charles Ramsey might end up as the new top cop in Baltimore. Says the Baltimore Sun:

WASHINGTON - Former Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who presided over a sharp drop in homicides and crime in the nation's capital before he stepped down late last year, says he would like to be Baltimore's next police commissioner.

"I've been interviewed. I want the job," Ramsey, 57, said in a phone interview yesterday.

I don't really have an opinion on Ramsey. Usually that would prevent a blogger from posting about a topic. But not me. Anyone down in DC have any thoughts on the guy?

This is Your Police on Drugs

Funniest thing all week!!

How Doesn't This Happen More?

Baltimore Sun

A 32-year-old Howard County police officer working a speed-enforcement detail on Route 32 in Savage was struck by a car and critically injured yesterday.

[...]

Wheeler and two other officers were checking for speeding vehicles traveling east on Route 32 near U.S. 1. Wheeler was attempting to flag down a driver when he was struck by a Nissan Sentra about 2 p.m. He suffered head injuries and was flown to Shock Trauma.

It always looks like a very dangerous practice. Full article here.

Updates!

The Guardian Angels announce they will open a chapter in New Haven, CT, and walk beats alongside the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol. How bad is your neighborhood when it's reminiscent of 1979 New York?

In related New Haven governmental apathy, a man struck and detained a robber with an ax handle, then called police. When an officer finally arrived, he arrested the man -- and very nearly arrested an off-duty detective who intervened on the man's behalf. Thank you, New Haven Police Department. Your lack of judgment and slow response times are a shining example to racist cops everywhere.

MeMe Roth received death threats after she criticized American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.

And finally: this is a week old, but law enforcement surrounding Ed Brown's Plainfield, NH home disbanded uneventfully, although they did seize his wife's dental practice and its alleged network of tunnels in nearby West Lebanon.

Brown, who asserts that the federal government has no jurisdiction in New Hampshire and no authority to charge him under a non-existent law, said the activity surrounding his properties in Plainfield and West Lebanon yesterday was a "Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason movement."

And with that, any remaining sympathy I had for the man officially evaporated.

Good Advice

The Examiner:

Annapolis (Map, News) - Nearly five years after Straughan Lee Griffin’s carjacking death in Annapolis, law enforcers are divided over how to prevent the type of violent crime that killed him.

The prevailing philosophy for responding to carjackings and other armed robberies — complete submission — has changed, said Officer Hal Dalton, a spokesman for the Annapolis Police Department.

“Traditionally, police everywhere used to tell people not to resist robbers,” he said. “We’ve rethought that now. They have to make their own choice based on their own abilities.”

It would be fun to try and compile some extremely vague stats about the number of people killed because they were blindly following the traditional advice of law enforcement. Of course, if you think you had a chance to fight back during an attack, and you choose not to based solely on the advice of police who do not know you and often do quite a poor job themselves in preventing crime, then....maybe it didn't matter.

It just seems to me a bit odd that we have law enforcement officials instructing us to make our own best decisions in a life or death scenario, based upon the facts available to us. Shouldn't that be common sense? Full article here

Raiders of the Lost Park

Murdering time yesterday in New Haven allowed me to reacquaint myself with the city and how far it's come in the 12 years since I first moved there. Temple Street was barely recognizable to me. In 1995, the three blocks between Chapel and Route 34 were nothing but empty storefronts and hypodermic needles in the gutters. Yesterday it glittered with bars and restaurants. A cineplex has taken over the deserted meeting hall of the vaguely sinister White Eagle Club. And of course now there is also the Omni Hotel.

But appearances aside, New Haven is still the same city I knew and detested in the mid-90s, an urbanscape constructed on the borderland of perpetual civic breakdown:

People don’t feel safe in the daytime anymore, said East Rock alderman Roland Lemar, due to recent brazen crimes. Two people were mugged in broad daylight in mid-May, including one woman who was beaten up. There have also been nighttime muggings by gun-toting teens; a pair of Yale English grad students were held up at gunpoint on Edwards Street.

Source (second item).

Mrs. Kuhl lived on Edwards; I lived a few blocks away. East Rock is a nice, well-kempt residential area full of enormous Victorian and early 20th-century homes, many subdivided into apartments for the students. It's difficult to imagine it as a place of violent street crime, even though such things happened when we lived there too. I would blame DeStefano but he's only been in office 13 years. Don't rush the man!

Recently the police force numbered as many as 419, but they’re now down to the 370s, mostly due to retirements, explained Assistant Chief Herman Badger. They’d like to be up in the 450s, but the recruitment drives have had such a poor turnout that New Haven police won’t be able to fill enough positions to restore the ranks to 419. The current class of police recruits is only 29 strong—they’ll graduate in September.

All of this by way of explaining what's happening across town in Edgewood:

Members of a politically influential yeshiva led by Rabbi Daniel Greer -- who have spent more than a decade rebuilding their stretch of Edgewood -- have organized an armed citizens patrol.

This is already all over the MSM which, as usual, is light on background. The yeshiva is an island in a poor, predominantly black ghetto. While the rabbis and black leaders occasionally stage a photo op together and mumble something about brotherly love, really they just hate each other. The attack on Rabbi Dov Greer, which apparently precipitated the formation of the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol, was outrageous but probably not random.

The group takes its name from nearby Edgewood Park, a series of rolling, lightly wooded hills perfect for every variety of crime. Police don't patrol it because, like the rest of the citizenry, they're terrified of going inside. Yet now it seems that a bunch of whiskered Torah-readers have the cojones to do what New Haven's crookedest cannot. G-d bless 'em!

Curtis Sliwa is supposed to meet with the Patrol today. Yesterday, while waiting for my big break, I compared the Edgewood Patrol to the Guardian Angels and the teen behind me didn't know who or what I was talking about. Boy, did I feel my age.

UPDATE: Crime in New Haven IS down from the notorious heights of the early 90s. But to focus on homicides a moment, there were 24 murders in New Haven in 2006, comparable to those in the mid-90s (see these crime stats). If we assume a population of 124,512 (according to the 2003 estimate of the US Census) -- and if I've done my math right -- that puts the city's 2006 homicide rate at 19.275 per 100,000 people. According to the FBI, the national rate in 2005 was 5.6 per 100,000.

Some People Use the Internet, Some Use Giant Pieces of Hanging Cloth

Another dog gunned down by police, this time while carrying out an arrest warrant for child support at a home the suspect no longer lived at. From the WaPost:

Motorists on Route 231 saw an alarming sign Friday afternoon about one mile west of the Patuxent River Bridge.

"Charles County Deputy Murdered Our Dog," it read.

The words had been spray-painted on a large outdoor curtain, which hung off the front bucket of a backhoe. Two similar banners hung from a parked Chevy pickup and from a sign advertising produce.

Full article here.

Unforced Error

I enjoyed this one. From Leadville, Colorado:

At least once a year, counties are required to publish in local papers (under the heading of legal or public notices) lists of expenses. The [drug] informant was, at Holte's direction, supposed to be listed under "road and bridge employees." Instead he was listed as a sheriff's employee. It was the fault of the county clerk and recorder's office, not the newspaper.

[...]

Believing the undercover operation had been destroyed that night, Holte, his deputies and Leadville police obtained warrants before midnight. Within a few hours, they had arrested 11 suspects in the drug ring. Three others named in warrants fled town that night.

[...]

The money to pay the informant came from a state grant, Holte said. The county will probably get the grant again, he said, meaning more undercover operations are likely.

[...]

"A big cocaine ring like this is unusual," she [local newspaper editor] said. "Up here it's usually pot. I can't remember how many photos we've run of deputy sheriffs with a big plant under each arm."

Full article here.

The Marlo Deliverymen Tragedy

I have been out of town for a couple of weeks and since no one has posted on this here I go. Two Marlo furniture deliverymen were shot by an employee of DHS in his home on January 24th while they were making a delivery. One of the deliverymen died and the other was seriously wounded. I saw the network news the night that it happened, and the PG police spokeswoman said with shameless certainty that the movers had threatened the shooter and it was a clear case of self-defense and that the deliverymen (they were both still alive) would be charged with assault. The minute I heard that I thought it was total protect-police-at-all-costs bullshit, as why would furniture movers endanger their lives? They were just trying to get the bed into the house, for crissake.

The PG County police have since backpedaled a bit.

Police initially said, based on statements from Washington and a family member, that Washington acted in self-defense and that the deliverymen would probably be charged with assault. Police have since said they would draw no conclusions until their investigative work is complete.

The police officer's explanation for shooting them is that Clark and White, 36, of the District, were in a part of the house they were not supposed to be in.

To me, this looks like another case of extreme and unwarranted police force against unarmed civilians, with the law coming down on the side of the police. For more on that subject, see the case of a sports bettor, Salvatore Culosi, who was gunned down, unarmed, by a SWAT team outside of his Fairfax house. The cop who killed him received a punishment of three weeks without pay and a transfer out of the SWAT team.