Self-glorification

  We should build a rose garden to the memory of citizens killed by the Fairfax County Police. Don’t chuckle over it. There are enough people in this county willing to finance and promote the project.

   Just as the Fairfax County cops best bud Gerry (With a G, dearie) Hyland wants to tax our food, the cops decided to a mid-day self-glorification rally on company time. They have that much of our money to spare.  The manufactured event, a memorial service held at the Public Safety Rose Garden located behind police headquarters, was to recognize police officers killed in the line of duty.

  We should recognize police officers who sacrifice their lives for the public good. But in all fairness to the people of Fairfax County, we have done that and done that many times.

   Considering the enormity of police budget, the over gross overhead of assistant/deputy police chiefs, combined with the extremely generous paychecks and golden retirement parachutes we give the Fairfax County police …SHOULD’T THE COPS BE DOING THIS SORT OF THING ON THEIR OWN TIME AND AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE?

    This is to say nothing of issue that the Fairfax County Police spend an inordinate amount of time promoting themselves which is what the parade in the rose garden was about and which leads us to the question that if the cops were forced to put on the display in the rose garden on their own clock instead of ours, would they be conducting these self-serving ceremonies at all?  No, probably not because these sort of high drama gatherings are for the sake of illusion, a means of telling the taxpayer “Don’t look at what we take. Look at what we give”

    But they do take. They take a lot, especially when we factor in that Fairfax County cops, by and large, don’t live in this country which is very generous to them. Their paychecks are spent in Prince William County. The homes they buy are there as well. Their kids take short buses, no doubt, to Louden schools.  

   Yet the enormous overhead cost of redundant and unnecessary staff in the police department comes out of our counties budget. Same with the fat paychecks we give them and lucrative retirement deals they weaseled out of us. Our county pays for it.

    And what is this “Public safety rose garden?”  Why are we paying for this? If the cops want their own garden, they should build one out of their pockets and not ours. And why do they get one at all? Does the County assessor get an apple grove in his honor or garbage collectors a field of lilies?  Enough is enough.

D.C. police officer faces Pittsburgh hearing in drug ring case

A District of Columbia police officer charged with laundering money for a California-to-Pittsburgh cocaine ring under indictment since 2009 is free on bond pending a preliminary hearing next week before a federal magistrate here.

Jared Weinberg made a brief initial appearance today in federal court in Pittsburgh following his arrest Monday at his precinct in Washington, D.C., where he has been a police officer for a little more than a year.

He is charged with conspiracy to commit money-laundering for the ring, believed to have sold as much as four tons of cocaine between 2000 and 2009.

Officer Weinberg is accused of laundering drug proceeds for Damon Lewis Collins, identified as a California drug supplier for a trafficking organization run by Robert Russell Spence of Coraopolis.

Mr. Spence and Mr. Collins are among some two dozen alleged members of the ring under indictment here since 2009.

A separate indictment handed up in 2012 has charged six others with money-laundering, including Officer Weinberg's father, Howard Weinberg.

Several ring members have pleaded guilty, including Montel Staples, the former athletic director and basketball coach at now-closed Duquesne High School.

Prosecutors said Mr. Staples was a go-between who passed cocaine money to his brother, Tywan Staples, of Oakland, Calif., from Mr. Spence.

An affidavit prepared by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS says Officer Weinberg and his father rented apartments in and around Baltimore for Mr. Collins to use in the cocaine business.

The IRS estimated Mr. Collins laundered more than $2 million by structuring cash deposits into his own bank accounts and the bank accounts of 13 other people, including Officer Weinberg.

Structuring is a technique used by drug organizations to conceal the source of funds and evade currency transaction reports.

The case began in 2008 when one of the accused ring members, Ruben Mitchell of Stockton, Calif., brought a bag onto a flight from Oakland to Pittsburgh that was too big to fit into the overhead compartment.

The plane stopped over in Las Vegas, where the bag ended up on a carousel while the flight continued on to Pittsburgh with Mr. Mitchell.

When no one claimed the bag in Las Vegas, officials opened it, found 19 kilos of cocaine and called the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Pittsburgh to watch Mr. Mitchell when he arrived.

At the airport, drug agents watched Mr. Mitchell as he frantically looked for his bag.

DEA began building its case and arrested him in Idaho in 2009. Prosecutors said the ring had initially mailed coke from California to Pittsburgh, but as the operation grew larger, members started using couriers on flights.

Marinette police officer charged with writing checks to himself out of police account

MARINETTE - A former Marinette police officer has been charged with fraud for allegedly writing himself checks from the Marinette Police Explorers bank account.

According to the criminal complaint, Ryan Ilse wrote himself two checks from the account. One was for $180, which he cashed at Curry's Food, and the other was for $300, which he cashed at Brown's Corner.

When Ilse cashed the checks, he reportedly told the clerks at the stores that the checks were for overtime he had worked for the police department. He later admitted that he used all the money for gambling.

Ilse has been charged with two counts of Theft by Fraud. Each count is punishable by up to nine months in prison or a $10,000 fine.

2 California Borough officers suspended after leaving post while on-duty

CALIFORNIA, Pa. —

Two California Borough police officers have been suspended as a result of an incident last Friday that the police chief believe put the public at risk.

California Borough Police Chief Rick Encapera said the problem goes back to last Friday night when the on-duty officers weren’t where they were supposed to be.

Police said a bar fight broke out at Sigz Bistro located off the California University campus and spilled into the street.

Channel 11’s Jodine Costanzo confirmed that three California Borough officers were on-duty, but two, officers Justin Schultz and Terry Childs, left for a couple hours for an unauthorized errand miles away in the city of Washington, leaving one officer patrolling the entire borough on a busy Friday night.

Outraged students and business owners packed a California borough meeting Thursday night where council voted unanimously to suspend those Schultz and Childs for 30 days without pay.

Encapera said their actions created a public safety issue even though nearby departments provided backup.

Also, at the meeting Thursday night, many accused Schultz and Childs of unprofessional conduct and using excessive force.

Encapera promised that the accusations will be investigated, but the department’s trust and reputation have been called into question.