Reasons for creating volunteer civilian review police board

[fruhmenschen]

The organizational model of a volunteer civilian review police board with subpoena
powers would have the power to hire and fire law enforcement personnel.


Should FBI agent Rogero be fired?

Does your community have a volunteer civilian review police board with subpoena
powers.?

Why not?

Watch how quickly Judge Salant gats a promotion.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pu ... story.html


FBI Agent Spared Jail After Assaulting 15-Year-Old Boy Because of Stellar Career



An FBI agent captured on video shoving a Maryland teenager was spared a jail sentence Wednesday because of what a judge called a stellar career.

The Washington Post reports that Gerald Rogero, a unit chief in the FBI’s counterterrorism division, likely will continue his duties with the bureau.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Steven Salant placed Salant on two years’ probation and ordered him to undergo anger-management classes.

“Would it be in the best interest of the defendant — as a result of this isolated and unfortunate mistake of judgment — to deprive him of his employment, of his livelihood?” Salant asked from the bench, speaking to a courtroom packed with FBI agents supporting their colleague as well as friends and family supporting the teenager. “To impact upon his children? To impact upon the service that he can bring to the community? I think not.”

Rogero, 46, shoved a 15-year-old boy, sending him to the pavement.

[fruhmenschen]

a volunteer civilian review police board
would be the first stop for Mr Bundy





Bill Clinton’s FBI Head Is Called In to Show Bill Clinton ‘Not Present’ at Jeffrey Epstein Underage Sex Orgy
bill-clinton APJacquelyn Martin(L) and Jeffrey Epstein
AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin; Florida Department of Law Enforcement

by Patrick Howley10 Jan 2016

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... i-head-is/


Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz has retained former President Bill Clinton’s FBI director to help show Clinton was not present at alleged sex orgies thrown by his former client, a convicted pedophile and close Clinton friend.

2 stories

1.

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/fbi-fi ... hird-week/

FBI finally contacts Ammon Bundy as Oregon occupation nears third week
Bethania Palma Markus
21 Jan 2016 at 15:55 ET

It does not appear a resolution is near, however. Local KOIN reported Wednesday that so-called militia members were coming to the occupation from other parts of the country and they believe they’re on a mission from God.

“God wants us here, there’s a sense that’s beckoning and it comes from heaven,” militiaman Kelly Gneiting said. “We’re doing what’s right, we’re doing what the founding fathers would do because we’re inspired by God, also.”

2.

FBI agents caught creating child porn addiction.

FBI ran website sharing thousands of child porn images

January 21 2016

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016 ... /79108346/

WASHINGTON — For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it described as one of the Internet’s largest child pornography websites, allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a government site in the Washington suburbs.

The operation — whose details remain largely secret — was at least the third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users who officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and anonymous computer network. In each case, the FBI infected the sites with software that punctured that security, allowing agents to identify hundreds of users.

The Justice Department acknowledged in court filings that the FBI operated the site, known as Playpen, from Feb. 20 to March 4, 2015. At the time, the site had more than 215,000 registered users and included links to more than 23,000 sexually explicit images and videos of children, including more than 9,000 files that users could download directly from the FBI. Some of the images described in court filings involved children barely old enough for kindergarten.

That approach is a significant departure from the government’s past tactics for battling online child porn, in which agents were instructed that they should not allow images of children being sexually assaulted to become public. The Justice Department has said that children depicted in such images are harmed each time they are viewed, and once those images leave the government’s control, agents have no way to prevent them from being copied and re-copied to other parts of the internet

[fruhmenschen]

msfreeh, I kind of get the impression you don't like the FBI much. Now I don't dispute what you post against them; and I'll have to confess, I haven't read much of what you've posted. And I do confess to not feeling very well disposed toward them myself, especially in view of some of things I'm aware they've done or haven't done in the last few decades. And I think there are serious questions about their legitimacy and what they regard as their purview and jurisdiction in terms of Constitutional limits on government.

Maybe you've been asked this before, but was there any one thing that set you off against them, maybe something unjust that was directed against you personally. You've probably answered this before, so maybe you can just put a link in to the specific post where you've explained this, if you don't mind.

Just curious.

I believe FBI agents are the perfect teaching tool.

They are teaching voters and taxpayers what happens
when taxpayers hire mercenaries to protect them.

Nothing will change until voters and taxpayers

1. see themselves as owners of the criminal justice system

2. change their beliefs about how they want their system to operate.

The criminal justice system now operates as a punitive system
that does nothing more than produce
more vicious and competent criminals


3. voters need to evolve themselves into restorative justice.

until then your votes and tax dollars will be used to punish
you.

[fruhmenschen]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html


Handguns and FBI agent's badge stolen from car in Bay Area
Three handguns and an FBI agent's badge were stolen early Friday from a locked and alarmed vehicle in the latest such incident in the San Francisco Bay Area, the FBI said.

Two other recent thefts in the area had tragic results after firearms stolen from law enforcement agents' vehicles were subsequently used in slayings. The spate of incidents since July has prompted proposed state and local legislation.


See the most-read stories this hour >>
Two .40-caliber Glocks and one .45-caliber handgun were stolen from an FBI vehicle parked in a residential neighborhood in Benicia, FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said. An FBI badge, credentials and other FBI property also were taken.

The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward, but Swankie offered few details about what happened, citing the

[fruhmenschen]

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1 ... since-2004


BGA PUBLIC EYE: City pays a price for police misconduct — $642 million since 2004

WRITTEN BY BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION POSTED: 01/30/2016, 06:45PM

Police dash-cam video image of Laquan McDonald being shot.
By Andrew Schroedter

The city of Chicago has spent nearly $642 million dealing with police-misconduct legal claims over a 12-year period, according to data obtained from City Hall.

That includes $106 million in just the past two years.


Boko Haram burns, kills scores in Nigeria

BBC broadcaster Terry Wogan has died at 77

Final poll shows Trump with lead heading into Iowa Caucus


In 2015, the city spent more than $40 million — including $5 million paid to the family of Laquan McDonald, who was killed by Officer Jason Van Dyke in a shooting caught on police dash-cam video — to cover misconduct-related settlements, judgments, legal fees and other costs.

That included roughly $28 million spent on damages, $10 million on outside legal expenses and $3 million on other costs, according to the data from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s law department.

Last year’s bill for police misconduct was the city’s lowest since 2007’s total of nearly $41 million.

It also marked a drop from the previous two years. In 2014, spending on police-misconduct cases amounted to $65 million. In 2013, the figure was $96 million — the highest tally in 12 years.

But last year’s tab is likely to keep rising because of outstanding legal bills from 2015.

The city currently is facing more than 450 police-misconduct lawsuits.

There were 273 misconduct lawsuits filed in 2015, down from 289 the previous year, says Bill McCaffrey, a law department spokesman.

Told of the findings, Lou Reiter, a retired Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief who has testified as an expert witness in Chicago in police-misconduct

[fruhmenschen]

Don't worry boys and girls.

The man who served 30 years was not related to you.
Go back to sleep.

As Bobbie Linicum was recently heard to say.

" I want to believe these are the good guys".



https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/ ... story.html


After 30 years, a prisoner gets a chance for justice


George Perrot was tied to a rape by an FBI analysis of a strand of hair, a method that has since been discredited.

George Perrot was tied to a rape by an FBI analysis of a strand of hair, a method that has since been discredited.



January 28, 2016

George Perrot could soon be free at last. He should never have been behind bars.

In a groundbreaking ruling with national implications, a Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered that he be given a new trial on the rape charge that put him behind bars for so long. It is the first time a judge in the United States has ruled that justice was denied because prosecutors relied on forensic hair analysis, now widely discredited.

“George was only 17 when he was arrested and has spent 30 years in prison without ever receiving a fair trial,” said his attorney, Kirsten V. Mayer. “He never had the opportunity to do the everyday things that are so easy to take for granted when you are not in prison. We are now working to reunite him with his family as soon as possible.”

Perrot was charged with raping an elderly Springfield woman in 1985, when he was 17, even though the victim, a neighbor, insisted he was not her attacker.

No matter, prosecutors argued: There was other evidence against Perrot — most notably, a single strand of hair found at the scene. On the stand, an expert witness from the FBI testified that the hair, found on the victim’s bed, was a match for Perrot, and that only someone “with a lesser amount of training” would conclude otherwise. In closing arguments, prosecutor Francis Bloom told jurors the hair evidence was so strong that Perrot could be innocent only if police had planted that strand in the victim’s house.

The jury convicted him.

We now know that Bloom crossed a line — in this and in other ways — presenting the jury with a false choice, a fact underscored by Judge Robert J. Kane’s thoughtful and thorough decision Tuesday.

Over the last two decades, consensus has grown that the microscopic hair analysis that was crucial to Perrot’s conviction, and a factor in hundreds of others, amounts to bogus science. The FBI now acknowledges that nobody can identify a particular person as the source of a hair or say whether a match is even probable.

“It is not a close call,” Judge Kane wrote. “Without that [hair analysis], the Commonwealth’s claims of Perrot’s violence were open to several lines of attack conducive

[fruhmenschen]

couple of stories



1.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 ... ept-secret


Leaked police files contain guarantees disciplinary records will be kept secret
Guardian analysis of dozens of contracts revealed by hackers shows more than a third allow or require destruction of civilian complaint records


Files released following the hacking of the country’s biggest police union show guarantees of secrecy over disciplinary records, a Guardian analysis finds.
Sunday 7 February 2016 07.00 EST Last modified on Sunday 7 February 2016 07.01 EST


Contracts between police and city authorities, leaked after hackers breached the website of the country’s biggest law enforcement union, contain guarantees that disciplinary records and complaints made against officers are kept secret or even destroyed.

A Guardian analysis of dozens of contracts obtained from the servers of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) found that more than a third featured clauses allowing – and often mandating – the destruction of records of civilian complaints, departmental investigations, or disciplinary actions after a negotiated period of time.

The review also found that 30% of the 67 leaked police contracts, which were struck between cities and police unions, included provisions barring public access to records of past civilian complaints, departmental investigations, and disciplinary actions.

Samuel Walker, a professor in criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said there was “no justification” for the cleansing of officers’ records, which could contain details of their use of force against civilians.

“The public has a right to know,” said Walker. “If there was a controversial beating, we ought to know what action was actually taken. Was it a reprimand? A suspension?”

Walker said that while an officer’s whole personnel file should not be readily available to the public outside of




2.
Chicago police officer suing estate of teen he fatally shot
Officer Robert Rialmo’s lawsuit provides the officer’s first public account of how he says the shooting happened late last year

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 ... tally-shot



One day after Antonio LeGrier’s death his mother, Janet Cooksey, said at a press conference her son, an honor roll student, did not have a history of aggressive behavior.
Sunday 7 February 2016 08.11 EST Last modified on Sunday 7 February 2016 08.13 EST

A white Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed a neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the teenager’s estate, arguing the shooting left him traumatized.


Families of two people killed by Chicago police seek answers: 'When does it end?'
Read more
The unusual lawsuit was filed on Friday amid Chicago city leaders’ efforts to win back the public’s trust after several cases of alleged police misconduct.

3.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editoria ... story.html



In moving forward on criminal sentencing reform, California should remember its history
San Quentin guard

An armed guard stands watch on a gun ramp at San Quentin State Prison on Dec. 29, 2015.

What were the staples of '70s cop movies and TV dramas? OK, sure — wide ties, floppy collars, sideburns and muscle cars. Maybe a disco soundtrack. But what else?

There was also the rant — the diatribe by the beleaguered police detective or the outraged deputy district attorney against naive or corrupt decision-makers in the justice system. In seemingly every episode, a hard-working, no-nonsense guardian of public safety would catch the rapists, the murderers and the pushers, only to have some liberal judge cut the crooks a break because he or she believed their sob stories.

Or maybe a parole board filled with crooked political appointees would set the bad guys free, so that they could return to their criminal ways. The cops and prosecutors could only complain: When are we going to take this system away from the do-gooders and politicos who know nothing about the streets?
In reforming criminal sentencing laws, California should be sure that it is climbing a ladder toward ever-more effective and enlightened sentencing. -

Meanwhile, in academia, sociologist Robert Martinson summarized a study of prison rehabilitation programs in a 1974 essay that politicians and newspaper headlines famously boiled down to a catchphrase: “Nothing works.”

And if nothing works, why have open-ended (“indeterminate”) sentences, such as five years to life? How could parole boards rationally decide to grant or deny parole if no prison program could actually change the behavior of inmates after their release?

That message made sense to another figure from of that era, California Gov. Jerry Brown. In 1977, he signed a bill eliminating open-ended sentences and ending the state's 60-year mission to make its prison system an instrument of rehabilitation. From that point forward, the purpose of prison would be strictly punishment.

The move was applauded by conservatives who wanted to eliminate the discretion exercised by judges and parole boards and replace it with set, certain prison terms. The move was applauded by some liberals, too, who didn't like losing rehabilitation but argued that judicial and parole board discretion was too often exercised in racial terms, with whites receiving favored treatment over African Americans and others. And besides, how fair was it to send someone to prison without allowing him to know how long he was going to be there?

On paper, the change looked promising. What could be more fair than set terms for specific crimes? You're convicted of crime X, and you're sentenced to Y number of years. No special deals, no favored treatment, no distinction based on race or social circumstances. Truth in sentencing. It's like they sang in one of those '70s cop shows: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Do you want to know if your doctor is on probation?
Do you want to know if your doctor is on probation?

But it wasn't that simple. There was a new focus on sentence “enhancements”: More incarceration for using a gun, for example, or for being in a gang, or for having a previous record. Plea bargains didn't disappear, as many expected, but rather became all the more important, with prosecutors using the threat of enhancements as leverage to extract guilty pleas. Discretion didn't disappear; it was merely transferred from judges, juries and parole boards to prosecutors.

Abolishing open-ended sentencing, an older and wiser Brown now says, was the worst mistake he made in his first go-'round as governor.

Late last month, he proposed a ballot measure as a partial correction. It's by no means a full roll-back to pre-1977 sentencing laws, but it would return some discretion to the judges and parole boards who lost much of it in the 1970s and continued losing it as the Legislature and voters mandated increasingly more onerous prison terms.

The central issue is discretion: What ought to be its role, who gets to exercise it, and subject to what constraints?

Are we as a society now older and wiser, like Brown, with more data, more experience and more perspective about criminal justice? After all, there have been many studies refuting the “nothing works” findings of the 1970s and, besides, that was never the point Martinson was trying to make. There is now a solidifying body of evidence about which laws, programs and methods of supervision result in positive behavioral change inside and outside of prison, and a better understanding of how parole and rehabilitation credits can reduce criminal recidivism. It would be foolish to ignore 21st century knowledge in order to proceed with a 1970s sentencing scheme.

One 1970s tough-guy movie actor, who became a 1980s superstar and governor of California in 2003, signed a bill that again made rehabilitation a goal of the state's corrections system. But prisons have remained too crowded to adequately implement effective programs.
Get your free weekly take on the most pertinent, discussed topics of the day >>
Get your free weekly take on the most pertinent, discussed topics of the day >>

And what about the liberals' former reasons for mistrusting open-ended sentences? The nation in recent years

[fruhmenschen]

Tallahassee Senator Wants Payment For Injured Local Woman

February 8 2016

http://news.wfsu.org/post/tallahassee-s ... ocal-woman


Sen. Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee) is pushing a claims bill for a local woman through the legislature. Montford says the bill would give $1.15 million dollars to Angela Sanford who was involved in crash with a Leon County ambulance in 2013.

“The car driven by Mrs. Sanford’s husband, an active FBI agent stationed here in Tallahassee was struck by an ambulance at an intersection. As Mr. Sanford was entering the intersection with a green light the ambulance was approaching the red light. The ambulance was given an upgrade call and activated his siren. The siren activation occurred only 4 seconds before the crash and Mr. Sanford applied his breaks

[fruhmenschen]

REASONS TO CREATE A VOLUNTEER CIVILIAN REVIEW
POLICE BOARD WITH SUBPOENA POWERS



1.

The VCRPB must have subpoena powers

2.

The VCRPB must be all volunteer with 10-15
members that turn over to new members every
three years.

3.

The VCRPB must have the power to hire and
fire law enforcement.

4. The VCRPB must set and enforce standards of
performance for law enforcemet as well as the
entire criminal justice system

5.

The VCRPB must have the ability to expand
it's oversight to the courts and jails.
Setting and enforcing standards for those
taxpayer owned institutions as well.
Realizing the success or failure of a community's
need for safety is determined by the successful
creation and enforcement of standards
for the police,courts and prisons.

6.

The VCRPB must recognize the criminal
justice institutional models it creates
contributes to the psychological
evolution of the community members
to the extent the community allows
itself to be participants not recipients
in the creation of the criminal justice system
model.


http://www.sltrib.com/home/3535116-155/ ... es-to-salt

Activists call for changes to Salt Lake City’s police civilian review board
By MICHAEL MCFALL | The Salt Lake Tribune connect
First Published Feb 13 2016 05:27PM •

[fruhmenschen]

2 stories


1.

http://graphics.latimes.com/officer-inv ... ft09a-8gp1

Police in six Southern California counties have shot more than 2,000 suspects since 2004. Only one officer was prosecuted — he was acquitted

Feb. 19, 2016
Warning: This video contains graphic imagery. Bystander video of the shooting of Elio Carrion. (KTLA)

A grainy video showed 21-year-old Iraq war veteran Elio Carrion on the ground, pleading with a San Bernardino County deputy who held him at gunpoint.

Carrion was a passenger in a car that Deputy Ivory Webb pulled over after a high-speed pursuit in Chino. Carrion, who was unarmed, is heard telling Webb “we mean you no harm” seconds before the deputy shot him three times without visible provocation.

The bystander video of the 2006 shooting drew national attention and prompted a rare prosecution: Webb is the only on-duty officer charged with a crime in more than 2,000 Southern California police shootings since 2004, a Times examination of District Attorney’s files, coroner’s reports and court records show.

Webb’s attorney said the deputy feared Carrion might have been reaching for a weapon as he rose to his feet. A jury acquitted Webb. San Bernardino Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos, who maintains he was right to file the charges, said the verdict taught him a lasting lesson about public sentiment.

“They may be marching in the streets about police shootings,” Ramos said, but when people serve as jurors, “they


2.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/f ... -1.2537960



Georgia grand jury declines to indict former state trooper who hit teens’ car

Friday, February 19, 2016


A.J. Scott dash cam video moments before fatal crash
NY Daily News
00:00 / 01:57

A fatal crash victim’s family is protesting after a Georgia grand jury declined to indict the former state trooper seen running his car into four teens’ vehicle in a video released Thursday.

The dashcam footage of the September crash that killed two girls and left two boys seriously injured went public the day after a Carroll County grand jury decided against any charges for former State Trooper Anthony (A.J.) Scott.

Scott, who was driving 91 mph seconds before his car collided with one driven by 18-year-old Dillon Wall, said “I feel sorry every day” about the Sept. 26 crash. Yet the family of Dillon, who is recovering from a brain injury and the loss of his friends Kylie Lindsey, 17, and Isabella Chinchilla, 16, has planned a Friday rally outside the courthouse in Carrollton.

“It’s ridiculous,” Wall’s aunt Lena Wall told KXIA-TV. “Dillon would have had time to make that turn had that cop not been going 90 miles an hour down a dark, wet road.”
Dashcam video released Thursday showed the September crash that killed two people. WXIA
Dashcam video released Thursday showed the September crash that killed two people.

Dillon was trying to turn left on U.S. 27 highway around 11:30 p.m. when Scott’s patrol car t-boned his friend's 2005 Nissan Sentra, according to state police records cited by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Wall said her nephew never saw the patrol car coming up the hill and Scott got fired in October. The trooper, who had slowed to 68 mph but was still well over the 55-mph limit, wasn’t driving to the scene of an emergency, trying to pull anyone over or blaring his siren.

“Turns out he was running at a high rate of speed through this intersection in a territory that’s he’s familiar

[fruhmenschen]

http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-n ... rt-records


FARLEY | FEBRUARY 22, 2016
CATEGORY: RED DIRT NEWS
DA tried to force jail inmate to provide false testimony against former lawyer, documents show

NEWKIRK, Okla. – Scott Loftis goes on trial Tuesday for crimes he says he never committed in a county where corruption apparently has reared its ugly head one more time.

But Loftis isn’t a run-of-the-mill criminal defendant. He’s a Ponca City defense attorney who received his juris doctorate in 2004 and was named a Rising Star lawyer in 2012 and 2013. He’s defended alleged rapists and won their acquittal.

He filed a bar complaint against a Kay County assistant district attorney who was prosecuted by the Oklahoma Bar Association, an action that didn’t set well with District Attorney Brian Hermanson. Before his election as DA in 2010, Hermanson was best known as the defense lawyer for Terry Nichols, convicted in a state trial for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Most damaging of all, Loftis fed an FBI agent information about alleged civil rights violations, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, connecting those nefarious activities to Kay County and state law enforcement officials. Loftis also told the DA he planned to run against him in the 2014 district attorney’s election.

None of those actions made Loftis a popular guy in Kay County law enforcement circles. He was a pariah, an outcast who reportedly needed to be dealt with, court records indicate.

Now, Loftis is facing trial on four felony charges that he and his lawyer, Sapulpa’s Wallace Creekmore, claim are bogus and were trumped up, according to court records. Creekmore, who typically does not comment on pending cases, did not return a message for comment.

Court documents show Loftis warned Hermanson he would oppose him in the next district attorney’s race. Loftis made his election bid for DA public in June 2013. A month later, a woman identified in court records as Hollie Kelle made an accusation to Ponca City police that Loftis sold her methamphetamine over 18 months, extending from January 2012 to July 2013. However, prosecutors didn’t file the felony drug charge of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute until Feb. 2, 2015.



Kay County Courthouse in Newkirk, Oklahoma. (Peggy Browning / Red Dirt Report)

However, the drama and intrigue doesn’t stop there.

This case and the winding tale of alleged corruption and vengeance among Kay County powerbrok

[fruhmenschen]

http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/201 ... 31-months/

Criminal Justice, Immigration, National, Open Records
US Dept. of Homeland Security loses 1,300 badges and credentials in 31 months
January 27, 2016 11:05 AM·




According to a spreadsheet of lost, damaged and destroyed items, various agencies inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 1,300 badges and credentials lost or stolen, and no fewer than 165 firearms lost or stolen over the course of 31 months*.

[fruhmenschen]

http://www.sltrib.com/home/3573153-155/ ... -suing-his

Former Utah police officer suing his department, claiming emotional distress
First Published February 23 2016


Former West Valley City police officer Shaun Cowley and his attorney, Lindsay Jarvis answer questions about a settlement with West Valley City on Cowley's back pay during a press conference in Sandy, Utah Monday, June 8, 2015.
Courts » Former West Valley City cop who killed Danielle Willard says he was defamed


Former West Valley City police officer Shaun Cowley and his attorney, Lindsay Jarvis answer questions about a settlement with West Valley City on Cowley's back pay during a press conference in Sandy, Utah Monday, June 8, 2015.
(Danielle Misha Willard Courtesy photo)
Danielle Willard • Shot and killed by WVC police officer.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former West Valley City police officer Shaun Cowley and his attorney, Lindsay Jarvis answer questions about a settlement with West Valley City on Cowley's back pay during a press conference in Sandy, Utah Monday, June 8, 2015.
Former West Valley City police officer Shaun Cowley and his attorney, Lindsay Jarvis answer questions about a settlement with West Valley City on Cowley's back pay during a press conference in Sandy, Utah Monday, June 8, 2015.
West Valley City Manager Wayne T. Pyle is joined by West Valley City Police Chief Lee Russo as they answer questions during a press conference about former police officer Shaun Cowley at the West Valley City Hall in West Valley City, Monday, June 8, 2015.

A former West Valley City police officer is suing his former employer, claiming he was made a "scapegoat" after the fallout of a fatal shooting.

Shaun Cowley filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday against the West Valley City Police Department, the city and its manager, a number of current and former officers, and the Salt Lake County district attorney.

In his complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Utah, Cowley claims that his constitutional rights were violated, that he was defamed and that he suffered emotional distress.

Cowley was fired after a review of the Neighborhood Narcotics Unit, which was sparked by his fatal shooting of 21-year-old Danielle Willard during an undercover operation in 2012. Though Cowley eventually got his job back, he quit shortly thereafter.

"We are disappointed that Shaun Cowley, who voluntarily resigned from West Valley City, has decided to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City," city officials said in a statement Tuesday. "We have yet to be served, but we intend to vigorously defend any suit brought against the City by Mr. Cowley."

After Cowley was recruited to the narcotics unit, he claims neither he nor any of its members received any formal training concerning proper drug enforcement procedures or evidence handling.

At a January 2012 drug investigation, Cowley alleges he confronted his superior, Lt. John Coyle, about an "illegal search" of a home.

"Coyle alleged he saw drug paraphernalia and a large amount of U.S. currency in plain sight after knocking on a suspect's door," and called Cowley to help while another detective authored a search warrant, according to the lawsuit. When Cowley arrived, "Coyle had already begun searching the suspect's home prior to the issuance of the search warrant and located a large amount of US currency inside the closed drawers of a tool chest."

After Cowley confronted his lieutenant, "Coyle ordered Cowley to be quiet or face punishment for insubordination," the lawsuit adds. "Cowley shortly thereafter asked to be transferred from the NNU but was denied a transfer

[fruhmenschen]

Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:12:11 -0400








FBI Director Ducks the Most Important Question in the Apple Fight



| Thu Feb. 25, 2016 1:00 PM EST

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/02 ... -fbi-fight

If Apple is forced to help unlock the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, what else can the government make private companies do? Don't ask FBI Director James Comey.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee repeatedly asked Comey that question during a committee hearing on Thursday. It was Comey's first public appearance before Congress since a Los Angeles court ordered Apple last week to help the FBI by writing new code that would bypass security features on Farook's phone. Apple refused, and the battle between the company and the FBI is now major national news.

The fight centers on whether Apple, by complying with the court order to write new code for the FBI's use, would set a precedent allowing the government to request essentially anything from tech companies to aid investigations, whether it was cracking encryption or sneaking surveillance tools into software updates. But when faced with several questions on the topic, Comey pleaded ignorance.

"I think the answer would best come from a technical expert and a good lawyer. I'm neither of those," he said in response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, about the potential limits on the government's powers to demand help from tech companies. Comey is in fact a good lawyer—he received a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1985 and served as deputy attorney general, the second-in-command at the Department of Justice, during the Bush administration.

Another committee member, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), later tried again. "Where does this authority end?" he asked Comey. "Can you paint a very bright line for us with respect to where you think that authority ends?"

"I don't think I can," Comey replied. "I'm really not qualified as someone to give you a good answer to that one." When Himes attempted to clarify, asking if the FBI thought its ability to request help stopped with just Farook's iPhone—a position Comey has taken over the past week—Comey again ducked. "I actually have not thought of it," he told Himes. "The FBI focuses on case and then case and then case."

Comey did acknowledge that the Apple case "would be instructive for other courts," but he argued that the order would be limited because it applied only to an iPhone 5c—the model Farook used—running a specific version of Apple's iOS operating system. Many tech experts disagree with that argument, saying the FBI's request for new code could be demanded for almost any device.

While Comey did not directly address the notion of precedent, some of the FBI's supporters in law enforcement have said publicly that the Apple case could give them the ability to demand that companies provide them access to the phones of criminal suspects for any number of crimes. Apple is currently fighting at least 12 other similar orders for help gaining access to phones held by law enforcement, and Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, a leading advocate for giving government access to encrypted devices, says his office has 175 phones that law enforcement officials want to access.

Max J. Rosenthal is a reporter at the Mother Jones DC bureau covering national security, surveillance, and occasional sports shenanigans. Send him tips, ideas or

[fruhmenschen]

EXCLUSIVE: CCRB chairman says police unions are ‘squealing like a stuck pig’ for calling for his removal
Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 9:14 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ccr ... -1.2543106


Richard Emery, the chairman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, says police unions won't drive him out of office.

Those, Mr. Chairman, are fighting words.

The embattled chairman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board lashed out Wednesday at police unions, likening their calls for his removal to “squealing like a stuck pig.”

In his first public response to a controversy over his law firm representing a man suing a sergeant and a cop who were investigated by the CCRB, Richard Emery vowed that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the Sergeants Benevolent Association are “not going to drive me out.”

“I was chosen by Bill de Blasio because of my extensive knowledge of police cases,” Emery told the Daily News.

POLICE UNION BOSS URGES DE BLASIO TO REMOVE CCRB CHAIRMAN

“I’m not going to deprive the public and people who are abused by police officers of having access to excellent lawyers because some union is squealing like a stuck pig.”
Civilian Complaint Review Board Chairman Richard Emery, pictured along with Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch on the front page, characterizes the PBA as "squealing like a stuck pig."
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Emery said the unions have seized on the lawsuit issue revealed by The News like “some small scrap of meat” to undermine the improvements he’s made to CCRB, including a 60% increase in substantiated complaints.

“I take their criticism as a sign of respect,” he said. “They’re taking us seriously.”

The presidents of the two police unions expressed outrage over Emery’s use of the word “pig,” which carries the inflammatory sting of an epithet against cops.

“Mr. Emery’s reference to police officers as ‘pigs’ betrays his unshakable contempt for the men and women of the NYPD who have risked their lives to make New York the safest big city in the world,” said sergeants union leader Ed Mullins.

NYPD SERGEANTS AND CCRB IN STANDOFF OVER COP CASES PROBED BY CHAIRMAN RICHARD EMERY'S LAW FIRM