Stand up, speak up, make a difference

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” William Faulkner 

.....still, its a move in the right direction

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

Obama's new rules for police actually ban just one new piece of equipment — the bayonet


Yesterday, President Obama made headlines announcing new rules to limit the federal government's sale of military equipment to local police departments. As The Week's Peter Weber reported, the ban prohibited the Pentagon selling "tracked armored vehicles, weapons or ammunition of .50 caliber or higher, camouflage uniforms, grenade launchers, or bayonets" to police.

Unfortunately, an investigation by The Washington Examiner found that only one of the items on Obama's ban list (the bayonet) is actually affected by the rule change — the rest were already banned, some for more than two decades.

Meanwhile, Obama's rules do not ban the sale of other military equipment, notably mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles — the armored vehicles that became a defining image of police militarization in Ferguson, Missouri — to local police. And though the Obama Administration says it will consider having police departments return some of the equipment they've already received, it's worth noting that some departments have already tried to do this, only to have their returns refused by the Pentagon.

Finally, it is potentially significant that Obama's prohibition targeted the "sale" of military equipment to local police, but past equipment transfers have typically been loans or gifts provided free of charge without a sales transaction. Bonnie Kristian

......you paid and they got away with it (The pay off funds came from a mingled Justice Department grant)

TAKE ALONG LOOK AT THIS CHILD'S FACE BECAUSE YOU AND I ALLOWED THIS HAPPEN AND WE ALLOWED THE COPS WHO DID IT TO GET AWAY WITH IT. WE ARE AS GUILTY AS THEY ARE.

New Low: Sheriff’s Office Claims Infant at Fault for SWAT Team Blowing His Face Apart with Grenade

By Mike Sawyer on May 21, 2015

 “Merely by being in that room, Bou-Bou had assumed the risk of coming under attack by a SWAT team. By impeding the trajectory of that grenade, rather than fleeing from his crib, Bou-Bou failed to “avoid the consequences” of that attack.”

Habersham County Sheriff, Joey Terrell, has allegedly given the most asinine defense about why a SWAT team blew a babies face off. The defense was allegedly used in a federal lawsuit on behalf of an infant hit with a grenade by SWAT during a botched raid in May of last year.

As previously covered, Bounkham “Baby Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, 19-months-old, was asleep in his crib. At 3:00 am militarized police barged into his family’s home because an informant had purchased $50 worth of meth from someone who once lived there. During the raid, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the sleeping baby’s crib, exploding in his face.

Beyond the disfiguring wounds on the toddler’s face, the grenade also left a gash in his chest. As a result, Bou lost the ability to breathe on his own and was left in a medically induced coma for days after the incident. Bou was not able to go home from the hospital until July.

No officers were charged for their near-deadly negligence, and the department claimed that they did not know that there were children in the home. They defended their reckless actions by saying that they couldn’t have done a thorough investigation prior to the raid because it “would have risked revealing that the officers were watching the house.”

The family filed a federal lawsuit for damages that ended last month in a settlement (paid for by taxpayers) not only totaling less than the amount of the infant’s medical bills, but split up between family members. Furthermore, the conditions of the settlement included restrictions on further litigation pursued by the family in order to ensure that taxpayers, not the individuals who almost killed an infant, will be responsible for any further payout.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Author William Norman Grigg poured over the defense presented in this case by the Sheriff’s Office, and his findings are unbelievable – so unbelievable that we at The Free Thought Project originally thought it might be sick satire. No officials in their right mind would blame an infant for getting hit with a grenade during a botched raid, right? Wrong, according to Grigg.

“The act of sleeping in a room about to be breached by a SWAT team constituted “criminal” conduct on the part of the infant. At the very least, the infant was fully liable for the nearly fatal injuries inflicted on him when Habersham County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Long blindly heaved a flash-bang grenade – a “destructive device,” as described by the ATF, that when detonated burns at 2,000-3,500 degrees Fahrenheit – into the crib.

Why hasn't this coward cop been arrested? He gets to resign and it all goes away? What would happen to you in this case?

FREDERICKSBURG, VA

A Fredericksburg Police officer has resigned after an investigation determined his use of a Taser and pepper spray on a suspected hit-and-run driver was unwarranted. The whole incident was captured on the responding officers' body cameras.

Investigators say on the afternoon of May 4, 34-year-old David Washington was driving a silver Hyundai the wrong way on Jefferson Davis Highway when he struck a Jeep and kept on going.  The Hyundai had previously run over the median on Route 1 and also knocked down a city road sign.

A short time later, the Hyundai stopped at the intersection of Cowan Boulevard and Powhatan Street. The driver of the Jeep and a witness followed and remained on scene as Fredericksburg Police officers arrived to investigate.

The first two officers on the scene, Corporal Matt Deschenes and Sergeant Crystal Hill, held Washington at gunpoint and ordered him out of his car, but he did not comply. A few minutes later, a third officer, Shaun Jurgens, arrived on the scene. As the Hyundai driver remained unresponsive in his vehicle, Officer Jurgens used his Taser on the man in an effort to gain his compliance. One of the Taser prongs apparently did not make a proper connection and the Taser use was ineffective. Jurgens then used pepper spray on Washington, and he then removed the driver from the car, with the help of Corporal Deschenes.

An ambulance was called to the scene to treat Washington for the pepper spraying and to remove the Taser prong still attached to his skin. Washington was transported to Mary Washington Hospital, where it was discovered that he was experiencing a medical emergency that had begun at some point in the preceding hours.

An investigation was then opened to determine if the use of force was necessary. That investigation determined that in this instance, the officer using the Taser and pepper spray was not appropriate.

Officer Jurgens resigned from the Fredericksburg Police Department on May 14.

“The use of force demonstrated in the incident involving Mr. Washington was not in compliance with department policy or training,” said Captain Rick Pennock in a statement. “We take matters such as these very seriously and require that officers at all times exercise appropriate restraint and good judgment in their dealings with citizens.”

Meanwhile, charges are pending against Washington for hit and run with property damage, reckless driving, and driving on a revoked or suspended license (third or subsequent offense).

In America, cops can murder people and drive drunk and nothing happens, if I'm wrong explain this tape and the Fairfax County Police

Jersey City cop 'highly intoxicated' in traffic stop, but not charged; why not?

Infuriating Video of Drunken Cop, Illustrates Just How Crooked the Thin Blue Line has become

By Matt Agorist

Jersey City, NJ — Sgt. Vincent Corso, a Jersey City cop, was out for a drunken and reckless drive on January 30, 2014, when he was stopped by a Robbinsville police officer.

At the beginning of the stop, Corso tried to claim that he was “on the job,” and that he should be let go.

“Are we OK here?” Corso asks.

“Yeah, just sit in your car,” Robinson Police Officer Shawn Bruton says.

When Officer Barbara Borges arrives, the situation then escalated.

“Do we have a problem?” Corso asks her.

“Yeah, we do have a problem,” she says. “You’re intoxicated and you’re driving a motor vehicle.”

A minute later, off camera, a physical altercation can be heard.

Corso gets out of his car multiple times and walks towards the officers. Amazingly enough, this large man, who was armed, walking towards them and engaging in a struggle, did not cause the officers to fear for their lives and kill him.

He committed several crimes, some that would have gotten the average person killed, including resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. Not only does Corso physically resist, but he was armed while doing so.

The incident is documented in a dramatic video and multiple police reports obtained via a public-records request. The video, taken from the dashboard of one a Robbinsville police officer, shows one officer telling Sgt. Vincent Corso, the Jersey City cop, that he is too “f***** up” to drive, while just off camera there is an apparent struggle after the officers tell Corso they plan to confiscate his gun.

Corso was drunk, belligerent, endangering the lives of all those on the road and armed. However, because of his badge he was given an absurd amount of leeway and special treatment.

Despite being involved in an armed altercation with police officers, this man escaped the situation unscathed. Corso was released without charges into the custody of the Jersey City police department, and he remains on the job.

A subsequent mudslinging and finger-pointing match has erupted as a result of this cover-up. According to NJ.com,

Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Casey A. DeBlasio said the incident did not warrant a criminal investigation into the conduct of the Robbinsville officers.

Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried defended his officers’ actions. Jersey City police told them Corso was on duty at the time of the traffic stop, according to Fried, so Robbinsville officers decided the best course of action would be to allow Jersey City cops to take him into their custody.

“Why he wasn’t disciplined or charged by Jersey City police,” he said, “I can’t answer that question.”

Corso is no stranger to controversy. In 2000, he shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old boy, Michael Anglin. After the grand jury failed to indict him, buying his story that his gun accidently went off, the taxpayers shelled out $2.4 million.

In the video below, take note of all the actions taken by Corso that would have gotten the average person shot. Is this justice?