Fairfax County Police cancel event due to ‘political climate'

Good! Once again;

-Stay inside your over priced police stations and leave people alone

-Drop your punk attitude

-Stay out of our politics

-Cut your insane budget by 50%




FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA. (WUSA9) - Fairfax County Police has canceled their Cops on a Corner event due to the “political climate.”

Officers with the Reston District Station where scheduled to be out in the community Monday at 6 p.m. They were to talk to the community about safety and recent incidents.

On July 13, Fairfax County police posted on their Facebook page that the Cops on the Corner event has been postponed.

The new date and time has yet to be announced.

Hero's my ass

Daniel Shaver, unarmed man killed by Arizona police officer, cried and begged for life before shooting

Unarmed man killed by Arizona cop cried, begged for life

NY Daily News

BYJASON SILVERSTEIN

Updated: Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 2:49 PM

An unarmed man who was shot and killed by an Arizona police officer in January cried, complied with police orders and begged for his life before the fatal firing, according to a newly released police report.

Mesa Police Officer Philip Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of Daniel Shaver, a 26-year-old Texas man. Authorities have declined to release Brailsford’s body cam footage from the deadly encounter.

But a report released Tuesday includes extensive description of the footage, detailing Shaver’s desperate final moments before Brailsford fired five shots at him with an AR-15 rifle.

Police confronted Shaver January 8 after responding to reports of a man pointing a rifle out the fifth-floor window of a La Quinta hotel.

The night of his death, Shaver had invited a man and woman at the hotel to his room for drinks, according to the report.

After some shots of rum, the man asked Shaver about a case that appeared to hold a musical instrument. Shaver opened it to reveal a pellet gun and dead sparrow inside. Shaver told them he was on a business trip with Wal-Mart and “his job is to kill all of the birds that get inside the buildings,” according to the report.

Shaver then briefly pointed the pellet gun out the window.

When police found Shaver, they warned him that he “may not survive” if he did anything that could be considered a threat, the report says.

Brailsford’s body cam shows Shaver appeared to making small jerking motions while he had his hands behind his back, according to the report.

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An officer yelled at him, “If you do that again, we are shooting you. Do you understand?”

“No, please don’t shoot me,” Shaver said.

At one point, Shaver’s hand appeared to move toward his waist. An officer was heard yelling, “Don’t,” before Brailsford fired.

Shaver was not armed. His hand motion appeared to be him “attempting to pull his shorts up as they were falling off,” the report says.

Previous reports have indicated Shaver may have been drunk at the time of the shooting — despite telling officers he was not — and possibly did not understand police orders. Shaver’s autopsy report has not been released.

Brailsford was charged with second-degree murder and fired from the department. The new report reveals Brailsford had etched on his rifle: “You’re F---ed.”

Shaver’s widow and the mother of his two girls, Laney Sweet, posted a YouTube video Tuesday saying prosecutors are considering a plea deal for the ex-cop. The Maricopa County Attorney has not commented on the case.

Texas police officer fired for excessive force in shooting death of naked, unarmed teenager David Joseph

BY NICOLE HENSLEY

Austin police Officer Geoffrey Freeman had an array of tools to subdue a naked and unarmed 17-year-old boy without lethal force, but instead, he drew his firearm and shot David Joseph.

The Austin Police Department fired Freeman, 41, Monday afternoon in response to the February shooting that killed David — a Connally High School senior and son of an immigrant mother from Haiti — for violating its excessive force policies.

“Officer Freeman’s decision to draw his weapon when he exited his vehicle was unwarranted,” Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo wrote in a memo detailing Freeman’s disciplinary action for violating the Civil Service Commission rules.

Acevedo listed Freeman’s baton, stun gun, pepper spray, a bean bag shot gun stashed in the trunk and even physical force as ways to stop David without lethal force.

It’s unclear if Freeman, a 10-year veteran of the Austin force, will face criminal charges related to the Feb. 8 shooting. He has 10 days to appeal Acevedo’s decision.

“My family is glad to hear that Officer Freeman will not hurt any other unarmed black men,” David’s brother,Fally Joseph, said in a statement to KXAN-TV. “When he took my brother away from us, he stole something no one can ever give us back. We are glad to know that the City of Austin thinks David’s life mattered, and that Officer Freeman will not be on the streets again.”

Freeman encountered the teen — nicknamed by friends “Pronto” — running around a street at 10:25 a.m., blocks from David’s home in the city’s northern suburbs. Following several complaints from residents, the young black subject — clothed at the time — had been harassing residents, even chasing a man.

“Sounds like this guy could either be, he’s 10-86 (subject with mental illness) and losing it or high or something,” Freeman told dispatch.

Instead of waiting for additional officers per department policy when engaging with “subjects displaying symptoms of substance-induced excited delirium,” Freeman approached David alone. He stopped his cruiser within 90 feet of David and got out of the vehicle drawing his weapon.

David then charged Freeman, refusing to stop despite commands and within 6.7 seconds, the cop fired at least one gunshot, striking David out of sight from the cruiser’s dash cam footage. Backup wouldn’t arrive for another minute and a half.

An autopsy found no trace of gunpowder on David’s body meaning the teenager and Freeman were separated by several feet at the time of the shooting.

Additionally, a toxicology report determined David had traces of Xanax, anti-histamines and marijuana in his system, his family told KXAN-TV, but the results conflicted with Freeman’s belief David was experiencing excited delirium.

“No one was under a threat of imminent harm or suffering serious bodily injury or death by Mr. David,” Acevedo determined.

This is the core of the cop problem in America

The violation of the inner person is the greatest territorial crime of all.

—	George Orwell

Fairfax County: Four Arrested at Natasha McKenna Protest

Racial justice group calls for Sheriff Kincaid to fire deputies.

By Tim Peterson

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Four demonstrators were arrested Monday morning at a protest outside the Fairfax Courthouse for the February 15 in-custody death of Natasha McKenna.

The protest organized by the Northern Virginia Chapter of the national organization Showing Up for Racial Justice had some 20 protesters.

It coincided with members from SURJ delivering a petition to Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid demanding the termination of the deputies who handled McKenna’s extraction from the jail, where she died during the process.

McKenna, who was 37 at the time of her death, was diagnosed with mental illness in her youth.

AS DEPUTIES attempted to prepare her for transport to the Alexandria jail, they forced her to the ground, then restrained her limbs in a chair and eventually covered her head with a spit hood. One deputy used a taser on McKenna four times over the course of the incident. McKenna lost consciousness and was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she later died.

Cat Clark of Alexandria, an activist and organizer with SURJ, said the petition was delivered, but not acknowledged by Kincaid’s office.

When asked to respond to the demonstration and petition, Sheriff Kincaid released the statement: “Everyone has the right to protest lawfully and peacefully and also petition on issues that matter to them. I hope that regardless of where each of us stands on the issues of the day, we listen and learn from each other.”

Because of how they viewed the petition’s reception, Clark said the demonstrators decided to spread across Chain Bridge Road from the Courthouse to draw more attention.

 “When a naked woman who is mentally ill is shackled to a chair, bag over face, basically tased to death and there are no repercussions of any kind,” Clark said, “people need to speak up, hold her name in the light, stand up for her.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh completed an investigation of the incident and concluded there were no grounds for criminal charges. The Sheriff’s office has completed its own administrative investigation but has not said whether any of the deputies faced discipline.

Demonstrators chanted and held signs reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Justice for Natasha McKenna” and “You promised you wouldn’t kill me”--which McKenna can be heard saying on a video Kincaid released of McKenna’s transport from the jail to the hospital.

City of Fairfax Police responded to the incident, as demonstrators in the roadway were illegally obstructing the free passage of others.

Police warned the protesters they would be arrested if they didn’t leave the street, spokesperson Sgt. Natalie Hinesley said. All but four made their way to the sidewalk. Those that remained were arrested.

Hinesley said the four were taken before the a magistrate immediately and were subsequently released under their own recognizance.

A statement from SURJ said Brendan Orsinger, 34, was one of the four arrested for remaining in the street. “Our silence perpetuates violence,” he said. “Too often we take our privilege and walk away from tough conversations. I don't want to be complicit in oppression anymore.”

THE JULY 11 PROTEST represented one of seven SURJ chapters around the United States taking nonviolent actions calling for changes in policing on the same day.

An administrative investigation took place within the Sheriff’s Office to determine whether policies had been upheld or violated and if any disciplinary action should occur. The Sheriff’s office wouldn’t comment on results of the administrative investigation, when asked whether any of the deputies had been disciplined in any way or whether any policies had been changed in response.

Good for you Sun Gazette!

Sun Gazette editorial: Supervisors’ hearing on police reforms uninspiring

Perhaps we’ve just become jaded after years of empty promises of holding to account the leadership of the Fairfax County Police Department.

It is through those somewhat skewed lenses that we listened to members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors take a big-picture look at the more than 200 recommendations that came out of the Ad-Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, formed last year after Fairfax officials were (rightly) pilloried for their reaction to the shooting of unarmed Kingstowne resident John Geer in 2013.

Some of the recommendations can be implemented immediately, others are more aspirational, and some no doubt are unworkable. But we were struck, during the June 21 Board of Supervisors meeting, that Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. seemed to fall back, on several occasions, on the issue of cost.

He worried, for instance, about the price tag of equipping all patrol officers with tasers, which can be an effective, non-lethal alternative to guns. He also voiced concern about the cost of body cameras.

Memo to Roessler: Let the Board of Supervisors worry about coming up with the cash. Wringing your hands over financial issues sends a signal that you’re less than gung-ho over implementing reforms. The image problem of the county police is not improved by such behavior.

Individual members of the Board of Supervisors, too, came off poorly at the June 21 meeting. Several – not all, but some – seemed to be attempting to settle old political scores and compete in games of “gotcha” rather than taking the issue of improvements to policing with the seriousness it deserves.

Fairfax County aspires to be a leader in local governance, and in some ways, it is. 

 The systemic concerns about policing, which appear as much a top-down problem as bottom-up, are a blot that is holding the county’s aspirations back.

Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said

Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said his police department “might be willing to begin a pilot program with body cameras worn by officers, but outfitting all officers with the devices would involve a “staggering cost,”

Do you believe this arrogant little fuck?

At this point in the murder spree and law breaking by his cops, he should not have choice

“Roessler said. In addition, the cameras still have many legal questions that must be resolved, he said.

Yeah, they’ll send more cops to jail.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh strikes again

A Fairfax County Adult Detention Center inmate who died after being tasered by a sheriff’s deputy in February 2015. Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh ruled no crime occurred.

Killer cop released after 12 months

  

Adam Torres, the first Fairfax County police officer ever convicted of an on-duty shooting has served 12 months for the killing and was released from jail five days after being sentenced for the involuntary manslaughter death of John Geer.

 Think about……if you gunned and unarmed person down, do you really think they’d let you off with a 12 month sentence and then release you on time served?

Once again County Prosecutor Ray Morrogh, the best friend a criminal ever had,  said the 10 months Torres served before agreeing to plead guilty to a reduced charge was roughly equivalent to the time he would normally spend in jail after sentencing….so they let the son of bitch go.

 The county….BUT NOT POLICE DEPARTMENT FUNDS…….paid Geer’s family $2.95 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit.

This is Fairfax County Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins

This is Fairfax County Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins of the Hunter Mill District. 

She’s an idiot.

 Hudgins actually was dumb enough to say, in a public forum "We must remember our officers are putting themselves in harm’s way to keep us all protected."

No. Wrong. The over funded, over staffed Fairfax County Police are a danger to the community and we need protection from them because they have killed more unarmed citizens in the county in the past seven years than criminal have killed in that same time frame.

Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Morrogh struck again when he …once again….. declined to charge a Fairfax County Cop for running over a pedestrian and killing him back in April. Jeff Ponce Aguilar was struck and killed in the overnight hours on April 2 at Beulah Street near Hilltop Village shopping center, while crossing the street on his way home from work. Morrogh of course determined that the officer did not bear criminal responsibility for the wreck.

Cop watch

Go back and get a warrant

arrest

Frisk

Detained

Am I free to go

Cops have been murdering citizens for a long time...just ask the people of Fairfax County

Here’s a better way to punish the police: Sue them for money

By Jon O. Newman June 23

Jon O. Newman is a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The acquittal Thursday of another Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray, like the acquittal 25 years ago of the Los Angeles officers who beat Rodney King, reveals the inadequacy of the criminal-law remedy. Suing the police for money under a strengthened federal civil rights law would be a better response to police misconduct.

Right now, however, federal law makes it more difficult to sue a police officer for denying a citizen his constitutional rights than for injuring him by ordinary negligence. If an officer negligently drives his car and injures a citizen, the victim can win money just by proving negligence, and the city that employs the officer pays whatever the jury awards.

But when an officer uses excessive force or makes an unlawful arrest or search, proving wrongful conduct is not enough. Under Section 1983 of the federal civil rights statute, the officer can escape liability with the special defense of qualified immunity — showing that he reasonably believed his conduct was lawful, even if it was not. And if the jury finds the officer liable, federal law does not require his employer to pay the award.

Juries, and even judges in non-jury trials, are reluctant to convict police officers of a crime, even in the face of ample evidence. With rare exceptions, they simply will not say “guilty” and risk sending an officer to prison. Suing the officer for money damages in a federal civil rights suit is the only realistic way to establish police misconduct and secure at least some vindication for victims and their families.

But Congress needs to strengthen Section 1983 in three ways. First, the defense of qualified immunity should be abolished. If an officer violates the Constitution, the victim should win the lawsuit, just as he or she wins when hit by an officer negligently driving his vehicle.

Second, the city (or county or state) that employs the officer should pay a damage award, just as a governmental employer pays for injury caused by an officer’s negligent driving. A jury would be more willing to rule against a city than to make a police officer pay out of his own pocket.

Third, the local U.S. attorney, not just the victim of the unconstitutional conduct, should be authorized to bring the suit. When federal law has been violated, a federal lawyer should act on behalf of the victim. A jury is more likely to take the matter seriously if a U.S. attorney sues than when the victim is the plaintiff, who can sometimes be perceived as a not very respectable member of the community.

There is no reason for federal law to make it more difficult to hold a police officer accountable for denying constitutional rights than for injuring by negligent conduct. Congress should act to make a strengthened Section 1983 remedy available for the next episode of police misconduct. 

Cop Abuses Bad Cyberbullying Law to Arrest Man For Calling Him A Pedophile To His Face

Legislators like pushing cyberbullying/cyberharassment bills, but seldom seem to consider how their badly/broadly-written laws will be abused. Like many legislators pushing cyber legislation, New Jersey politician David Norcross just wanted to help the children.

State Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) said the bill is tailored specifically to protect children, closing a loophole in state law that prevents people from being criminally prosecuted for online harassment of minors.

"There have been cases of cyber harassment across the country that have taken a tragic turn, and ended in the loss of life," Norcross, who co-sponsored the bill with state Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-Hudson), said. "We have to make sure that our state laws reflect the reality that children are being harassed and bullied every day on the Internet. That means making sure those who engage in this conduct can be held accountable under the law."

The bill would ban people from using electronic devices and social media to threaten to injure or commit any crime against a person or his property, or send obscene material to or about someone.

So much for the "specific tailoring." Norcross wanted to protect kids from bullies, but instead it's "protecting" a cop from a local man with a long history of colorful speech and law enforcement interactions.

They’ve busted him for smoking pot, running a business past curfew, and not keeping his restaurant’s kitchen clean enough.

On Friday, however, it was Ed Forchion’s mouth that got him slapped in handcuffs, freedom of speech notwithstanding.

Days after Forchion stood outside his eatery and pot temple shouting “f— the police!” and calling one of the police officers a “pedophile,” NJ Weedman was charged with cyber-harassment and disorderly conduct.

The cyber-harassment charge, according to a copy of the complaint filed by Officer Herbert Flowers, was based on a Facebook and YouTube video of the confrontation in which Forchion is heard telling Flowers he’s a pedophile, while the disorderly conduct was for Forchion’s F-bombs against police “in public and social media forum.”

F-bombs are protected speech, so even the "disorderly conduct" charge is largely baseless. But the use of the cyberharassment law -- which carries a possible penalty of 18 months in jail and a $10,000 fine -- is completely ridiculous. If Forchion committed no crime by calling Officer Flowers a pedophile in person, no crime was committed simply because this confrontation was recorded (by a third party) and posted to YouTube (also, apparently by a third party).

This is simply a bad law being abused because that's what bad laws -- no matter how well-intentioned -- allow people like Officer Flowers to do.

Officer Herbert Flowers has a history of subjectively interpreting Constitutional rights. He may have been upset by Forchion's F-bombs, but that doesn't explain his decision to punish Forchion for using his First Amendment rights. But Flowers has been down this road before.

Here's the conclusion reached by the New Jersey Appeals Court, at the tail end of a six-year legal battle.

[W]e conclude that a reasonable police officer in 2006 could not have believed he had the absolute right to preclude Ramos from videotaping any gang activities or any interaction of the police with gang members for the purposes of making a documentary film on that topic.

The unreasonable police officer was none other than Herbert Flowers.

Ramos is a documentary filmmaker. In 2006, he was working on a project about the emergence of gangs in Trenton. Flowers is a police officer employed by the Trenton Police Department. Ramos contends that he had five encounters with the Trenton Police during the time he was filming the activities of various members of the “Sex Money Murder” Bloods sect, one of the largest Bloods gang units in Trenton. Three of the encounters involved Flowers. He alleges that Flowers’ actions during those three encounters interfered with his constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, as well as his right to be free from unlawful police search and seizure.

One of those encounters:

On July 6, 2006, the Trenton police responded to a call from the Trenton Public Library to investigate a meeting being held by known gang members on its premises. One of Ramos’s sources gave him a tip that he should go to the library to film the events as they unfolded. Once Ramos arrived at the library, Flowers told him he was interfering with a police investigation, adding: “I am sick of you already, I am sick of seeing you, I do not want to hear you anymore, you are not allowed here anymore.” Ramos asserts that Flowers grabbed his video camera and put it in his car.Flowers then told Ramos: “If I see you again … I am locking you up and I don’t care what for … you better not let me see you again … watch what happens.”

The filmmaker was charged with multiple violations after his arrest by Flowers. Only one charge stuck (obstructing a sidewalk), which was downgraded to a mere city ordinance violation.

Flowers is using a badly-written law meant to close statutory loopholes that prevented adults from being charged for harassing minors via social media to punish an adult for saying mean things to him to his face. Because Flowers didn't arrest Forchion on the spot, this means he had to go looking for "evidence" of Forchion's supposed "cyberharassment," which the officer somehow feels is a better statutory match for verbal abuse he experienced in person. Sure, Flowers could try to sue Forchion for defamation, but that takes time and Flowers' own cash. Flowers would rather have taxpayers finance his vendetta and see Flowers face a possible $10,000 fine and a stretch in jail than walk away from the disorderly conduct charge he likely won't be able to make stick.

This is why we warn against the unintended consequences of laws like these. It's not because we don't care about bullied kids. It's because adults -- especially those in positions of power -- will abuse them to stifle speech. Rather than simply ignore the personal attack, Flowers chose to treat it as a criminal offense. The end result is that Forchion, a.k.a. "NJ Weedman" -- a person who runs a "pot temple" he apparently feels is beyond the reach of state regulation -- is now the least ridiculous participant in this confrontation.

Just another child on the internet not getting it... AT ALL!

Why many hospice doctors like me won't participate in legal physician assisted suicide

On June 9 California will join four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — in allowing physician-assisted suicide. Meanwhile, my state, Arizona, and a dozen or so others are considering their own “right to die” laws. As a hospice physician, about twice a year I am asked by a patient to prescribe a lethal dose of a medication. Oncologists throughout the country report that up to half of their patients at least ask about it.

But even if it were legal in Arizona, and I knew a patient met all the criteria established by law, I would still not hasten his or her death. That would be my right as a doctor, and it will be the right of doctors in California as well.

629 people detained, traffic stalled at a cost of several thousand dollars and for what?

Fairfax sobriety checkpoint nets violations

Fairfax County police officers from the McLean District Station conducted a sobriety checkpoint at Route 50 and Graham Road in the Falls Church area May 13 to search for drunk drivers.

Officers screened 629 vehicles and did not cite any motorists for driving while intoxicated. However, police did issue seven traffic summonses and recorded one criminal violation.