“This is a court of law, young
man, not a court of justice.” Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Jr.
On May 26, 2010, a Fairfax County
jury….in only 10 minutes …found a schoolteacher not guilty of molesting a
12-year-old girl in their school gym.
The cops had charged the teacher with aggravated sexual battery and
abduction.
The entire case against him was
based on the testimony of two sixth-grade girls who said the teacher had picked
up one of the girls in the middle of the school gym, carried her into an
equipment room, laid her down on a mat, and massaged her shoulders, groping her
in the process.
He did admit to lightheartedly
picking up one of the girls and twirling her in the air. However there are no mats in the equipment
room where the girls said he carried one of them. The main accuser, who acknowledged having a
grudge against the teacher for threatening to discipline her for her bullying
behavior on the school bus patrol, said the teacher briefly touched her breast
and buttock during the incident.
The cop who investigated the
child molestation claims never looked at the room where the alleged incident
was supposed to have occurred. School
administrator explained to her that the room could not fit the tumbling mats
that the lying 12-year-old accuser claimed she was placed.
In fact, when staff and parents
tried to tell the police investigator in the case what actually happened, she
threatened them with prosecution for obstruction of justice. The school district investigator confirmed
those claims.
When the accuser’s close friend
and corroborating witness to the incident quickly tried to retract her story,
her mother said, the cop refused to hear what the little girl had to say. The cop told the mother “if she changes her
story, they’re going to wonder why she changed her testimony. She said, ‘I know how to do my job. Don’t tell me how to do my job”
Shortly after the little girl
recanted, Fairfax County launched a Child Protective Services investigation
into the witness’s mother for alleged inappropriate behavior by her
boyfriend. The witness’s mother was eventually
cleared of any allegations of misbehavior.
The Jurors said the prosecution
had no case, and after reading their legal instructions, it took the seven
women and five men about 10 minutes to come to their unanimous decision. Four jurors said they thought that the
teacher should never have been arrested in the first place.
Several months after the teacher
was acquitted, Fairfax prosecutors dismissed another of the cop’s child abuse
cases when the investigator acknowledged that she had misstated some key facts
in her sworn testimony.
The cop has not been fired. The Board of Supervisors said and did
nothing.
“Power-lust is a weed that grows
only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.”
Ayn Rand
SPEAKING OF CHILD MOLESTATION AND
INCEST……………….
“It’s becoming a disturbingly
familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
In May of 1995 the Fairfax County
Department of Family Services accused a long serving member of the Fairfax
Police Department of molesting his daughter.
In July 1996, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court of
Fairfax County entered an order finding that the children were abused and/or
neglected. The cop was eventually found
guilty of raping his 11-year old daughter.
On August 16, 1991, a County cop
was sentenced to two months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of sexual
battery although he was indicted on a felony charge of forcible sodomy. After pleading guilty to the reduced charge,
he was sentenced to 12 months in jail with 10 suspended. Pretty good deal actually. Think you would get the same deal?
In 2009, a Fairfax County cop was
charged with sexually assaulting former girlfriend. The charge was forcible
sodomy.
In November of 1984, a D.C.
police officer tried to tell Fairfax County police two months that a
Springfield man was involved in child prostitution, but his call was never
returned. The police denied it of course, but could not explain why the DC cop
would accuse of them of such a thing.
In Feburary of 1971, a Fairfax County cop was
arrested and dismissed from the force in a connection with a charge that he
contributed to the delinquency of a 15-year-old Springfield girl.
SPEAKING OF ABUSING
CHILDREN…………………….
“When honor and the Law no longer
stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose?” Anne Bishop
On July 2, 1975, a Fairfax County
cop was convicted of assaulting a 16-year old boy. The judge found that the cop punched the boy
in the face after the boy got into a fight with a teenage friend of cops. The police leaped into action and sent the
cop home WITH PAY after the conviction.
ANYWHERE ELSE IN AMERICA IT WOULD
BE CALLED MURDER
“Law never made men a whit more
just.” Henry David Thoreau
September 4, 1974: As horrified
neighbors watch, police break up a teenage lawn party with batons. One teen was arrested. He later committed suicide in his jail cell,
not an uncommon happening in Fairfax County.
The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.
DRIVING-CHALLENGED
One of the problems with handing
over an almost unlimited amount of other people’s cash to people who have spent
their lives in salary is that they have no true understanding of the value of
the money their spending.
In August of 1991, the cops could not explain
why more than $1 million worth of brand new police cars were sitting unused on
a fenced grassy lot; their batteries disconnected depreciating and
deteriorating.
An off the record answer from the cops was
that they bought one million dollars’ worth of cars they couldn’t use because
they thought the big sedans they favor would no longer be manufactured. Then it was learned that the cops had
actually spent $3,200,000, not $1,000,000 to buy twice as many cars they
needed. The Board of supervisors said
and did nothing.
In March of 2008 a female cop
with the Fairfax County Police sped through a red light without her siren on
and struck and killed 33-year-old Ashley McIntosh, a kindergarten teacher's
assistant.
The cop sped through the intersection without
putting on her brakes. The police said that the cop had been dispatched to a
call about a fight in progress but have never provided any proof that there was
actually such a call. And for good
reason. There was no fight. Eventually the cops admitted that the matter at
hand was the arrest of a shoplifter.
Witnesses said the cop didn’t
have her siren on. The police must have known that. The interviewed people who
saw the woman killed. But they insisted they didn’t know if the siren was on or
off.
The in-car video camera was
active and working at the time of the crash, but the police refused to release
it to the press or discuss what it showed. Nor would they release the cops name
to the public.
The chief of police called
McIntosh's parents to express his sympathy and then ruined the moment with a
joke by promising "a comprehensive, balanced, and fair investigation of
the crash”.
When the family hired a lawyer,
the police stopped communicating to anyone about the killing. The victim’s
family received no updates from police on what happened, nor were they
contacted from the department's victim services unit.
The public and the family
launched an online petition urging police "to conduct a fair, impartial,
and full investigation”. More than 600 people signed it in two weeks.
When asked to explain the foot
dragging of the police investigating themselves, the cops said “we want to make
sure we have all the facts, analyzed every bit of data to have a complete
package to present to the commonwealth's attorney." Or, in other words
“We’re really in trouble now, this has made the national news, and we don’t
know what to do next”
Over 700 people attended
McIntosh’s funeral.
In 2010 the County agreed to pay
McIntosh’s family $1.5 million. The cop who hit her paid nothing. The police
department budget went untouched. They
got away with it.
The cop was charged with reckless
driving but found not guilty, which, even in Fairfax County, came as a
shock. Then another judge ruled that the
cop was not entitled to "sovereign immunity”, as a government official
performing her duties, because her actions were grossly negligent. The cop was doomed anyway. The department has a way of punishing those
who embarrass it, because as everyone knows, only the department is allowed to
embarrass itself. The cop was placed on administrative duties and the
department took no disciplinary action against her. Then she was accused of
falsifying her time cards and forced to resign.
In February of 2011 Ashley's Law
was passed by the two houses of Virginia's General Assembly 137 to 1. The law requires those operating police cars
and fire engines in Virginia to activate emergency lights and sound sirens before
driving through a stop light, slow down and yield to other cars, or stop
completely if they wanted to keep the siren silent.
The Fairfax County Council did
and said nothing to help pass Ashley’s Law.
In 2008 it was reported by the
Washington Post that at least 370 Fairfax County cops commute to work at the
taxpayers’ expense by using county cars for the trip. The people of Fairfax
County pay for the cars gas, maintenance, insurance, and tolls, to the cost of,
in 2008, $2.5 million dollars a year. The report said that the cops also the
cars for as personal vehicles, and some have used patrol cars on fishing and
hunting trips. At the same time, Chief of Police Rohrer said he did not have
enough vehicles for the force, although his fleet of 1,304 is the second
largest in the area, behind Prince George's County
As we’ve already seen, the
Fairfax County Police are driving challenged.
On May 20, 1970, a Fairfax County cop ran over a 5-year-old County boy,
crushing his left arm and pelvis. A
Fairfax County police spokesman said that the department was investigating the
incident but the results of the investigation were never released to the
public.
Three months later, a cops who
claimed he was chasing a phantom “speeding motorist “crashed his police cruiser
into a third car. And yes, as you
probably guess, the phantom speeding motorist escaped. A Fairfax County police spokesman said that
the department was investigating the incident but the results of the
investigation were never released to the public.
January 23, 2006: Business owner
Jatinder Baboota was on his way to one of the five gas stations he owned when a
Fairfax County police cruiser slammed into the right side of his car, killing
him. Police did not disclose the crash
to the public. Police said Baboota was
at fault for turning in front of a police car with its lights and sirens
on. However, an investigation by the
family disputes that the cruiser had on its lights and siren and suspects the
cops were speeding and lied about the details to authorities.
On August 24, 1961, a Fairfax
County cop slammed his car into 70-year-old citizen’s car, killing the
citizen’s elderly brother. The cop on
the scene denied that she had made any mistakes and said she was driving at normal
speeds even though she hit the car fast enough to throw the man through the
windshield. After killing the man’s
brothers, the cop gave the man a ticket.
EXTRA SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR EXTRA
SPECIAL PEOPLE
In June of 2010, the wife of powerful Indiana
Sen. Richard Lugar was arrested for drunk driving after she slammed into a
parked car and took off. The cops waited
for three hours before administering a blood test to her and to be even more
extra special nice, they dropped the hit and run charges.
But when the breath test administered at jail
three hours after her arrest showed a 0.11 percent blood-alcohol level, above
the 0.08 percent legal limit, the cops were really worried because now they had
to press charges. Here’s the lighter
part of the story, the cops said a three-hour lag between the incident, and the
breath test is within the normal range because of the time it takes to
transport someone to jail.
The jail is in Fairfax, she was
arrested in McLean about fifteen minutes away.
Later on when she was found guilty in court, the mandatory jail sentence
imposed on her was suspended. Outraged
the politics playing by the police, the Board of Supervisors demanded an
international investigation….no, that didn’t happen either. In fact, the Board of Supervisors said and
did nothing.
October 3, 2006: A Fairfax County
Cop struck and killed a bicyclist who was trying to cross-busy Arlington
Boulevard. The police released the name
of the victim but not the name of the cop.
An internal investigation into the crash was also begun.
Since the department has decreed
that all information pertaining to its officer’s personnel matters is secret,
the cops name was withheld from the public and the outcome of the investigation
is secret as well. The Board of
supervisor said nothing and did nothing.
In October of 1966, a Fairfax
County cop killed a 26-year old mother of two when he slammed his cruiser into
her car. The cop was chasing a speeder,
who escaped. Surprisingly enough, the cops blamed the woman, and said she had
run a red light. Police said the cops
was driving at 60 miles an hour which means he was probably during 80 to 100
miles an hour.
In June of 1966, a Fairfax Cop
ran over and killed a 15-year-old boy.
The cop was on his way to a domestic dispute. The cop said he was travelling 55 miles an
hour in the 45 miles an hour zone when he struck the child. The Fairfax County police investigated and
found the Fairfax County Police innocent in the boy’s death.
THIS IS NOT A POLICE STATE IN THE
MAKING. THIS IS NOT A POLICE STATE IN THE MAKING. KEEP SAYING IT, OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND
MAYBE IT WILL COME TRUE.
“The police can't stop an
intruder, mugger, or stalker from hurting you. They can pursue him only after
he has hurt or killed you. Protecting
yourself from harm is your responsibility, and you are far less likely to be
hurt in a neighborhood of gun-owners than in one of disarmed citizens – even if
you don't own a gun yourself."
Harry Browne
In 2005, by popular demand, and
the law of the state, traffic camera in six Northern Virginia jurisdictions
were switched off. Police were no longer
allowed to photograph cars that ran red lights.
The cameras were a violation of civil liberties. But the Fairfax County Police kept the camera
in place and kept them rolling “to collect data”
Fairfax was the only Northern
Virginia jurisdiction to require pictures.
The Fairfax police demanded it and they got. In 1996, the cop
photographed applicants “so that they could more easily identify physical attributes”
a police spokesman said. Police are keeping the pictures and may use them later
to verify information.
In 1960, the Fairfax County
Police were wiretapping phones without a court order. Fairfax police were the only suburban
Virginia police with their own wiretap equipment. The Board of Supervisors knew about it and
endorsed it. In 1966, the chief of
police was called to Washington testify before the US Senate because of the
chief’s statement that “We do wire taps in cases where we need them”. Meaning that the Fairfax County Police alone
decided where they were needed. When a
Senator suggested to the chief that his men might be breaking the law by
discussing what was said on a wiretap, the chief said that it wasn’t a worry
because his men only spoke to each other.
Let me repeat that. The chief
said that it wasn’t a worry because his men only spoke to each other. The Senator called that “a fine spun theory
of law”
In July of 1996, a cop smashed his car into a
motorist’s car. The cop said he was
chasing a stolen car. A Fairfax County
police spokesman said that the department was investigating the incident but
the results of the investigation were never released to the public. The Board of supervisors said and did
nothing.
On June 2, 1995 an off duty
Fairfax County cop saw a man driving erratically. The cop stopped the man who admitted he had
been drinking The off-duty cop arrested defendant and, although an on-duty
uniformed cop was then on the scene, the off-duty cop transported him to the
police station, where defendant gave a breath test. In granting the motion to suppress the arrest
and breath test, the court ruled that the off-duty cop had only the authority
of a private citizen, and while he could arrest defendant for a breach of the
peace, such as dangerous driving, his authority ended upon the arrival of the
on-duty cop.
In 2008, a Virginia State Crime
Commission study found there were at least 1,227 traffic pursuits by cops in
Virginia in one year, 15 percent of which ended in crashes. And those wrecks killed 11 violators but no
cops. How remarkable is that?
WE’LL JUST MAKE A LAW FOR THAT.
“The more corrupt the state, the
more numerous the laws.” Tacitus, The
Annals of Imperial Rome
For several decades the Fairfax County Police
had been charging citizens involved in accidents with "Failure to maintain
proper control of a vehicle" until 1980 when a Virginia State Senator
establishes that there is no such on the books anywhere in America including
Fairfax County. Several weeks after the
practiced is forced to stop, the legislator was involved in a minor fender
bender. Police recognize him and arrest
him for reckless driving.
“When there's a single thief,
it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, its taxation.” Vanya Cohen
In October of 1998, the police
announced yet another moneymaking crack down of drivers for "aggressive
driving" and "road rage".
Road traps are an old southern cop trick to make money, and this crackdown
was a real moneymaker. In the 1990s, the cops, ticket pimps for the Board of
Supervisors, gave out more than 60,000 tickets a year in that racket.
In April of 1997, the Fairfax
County police released an "urgent bulletin" that someone had stolen
one of their very expensive unmarked cruisers, a burgundy Ford Crown
Victoria. The car wasn’t stolen. A cop had taken the car home with him to
Prince William County, where he and most other cops on the Fairfax County
police force live. The cops said that another cop had “mistakenly took the
wrong car home”
…..THE OPERATIVE WORD HERE IS
STUPID
In March of 2008, the cops
misunderstood a complaint from a Springfield trucking company about an employee
who had been fired while driving trailer that belonged to the company. Fairfax Police wrongly assumed he had stolen
the trailer and used GPA to track the man to Georgia.
Fairfax phoned the Georgia state
police who arrested the man at gunpoint.
He served 34 days in jail. A
Fairfax County jury found the driver innocent and awarded him $50,000 in
damages for malicious prosecution, $200,000 for false imprisonment and $340,000
in punitive damages, just under Virginia's cap of $350,000. The people of Fairfax County paid the tab,
the cops walked away scot-free and the Board of supervisors said and did
nothing.
SPEED AGAIN AND WE’LL PULL YOUR
TONGUE OUT
October 10, 1980: A federal court
finds that two Fairfax Police cops used excessive force against a citizen after
he was arrested for speeding. The court
found that the cops pulled the man from the car by his hair, handcuffed him,
and pushed his head repeatedly into the cars fender.
In 1988, there was a fatal car
crash involving a speeding squad car and a citizen. The cops blamed the
citizen.
BEATING THE LAW INTO THEM, AND
GETTING AWAY WITH IT.
"Brutality and insolence of
policemen have increased greatly, and the Police Commissioners seldom, if ever,
convict officers for these offenses. Humble citizens of all races today are in
more danger from the policemen's clubs than they are from the assaults of
criminals. The inaction of the Commissioners in the cases of the Negroes is
entirely consistent with their general conduct in all citizens'
complaints." Frank Moss, October 1,
1900
On November 16, 1987, a female
undercover cop shot and killed a drug suspect named Jose Carlos Rodriguez, by
defended the killing by stating that it was an accident and that the reason he
shot the man dead was that the man had “startled” him. The Fairfax County Police investigated the
shooting by the Fairfax County cop and as hard as it is to believe, they found
the cop innocent and said that the shooting was caused "an unintentional
reflex".
"This was strictly an accident," said the cops "She fired
it but without any intention of having it fired. He kind of came up like a jack in the
box. It startled her, and she shot the
gun.” …sending bullet into Rodriguez’s
head. On the lighter side of things, the
Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said he would review the autopsy
results and the findings of the police department's investigation.
“There is plenty of law at the
end of a nightstick.” Grover Whalen
On June 28, 1989, Troy M. Davis,
a Black day laborer who lives in Ohio and travelled to the DC area for work was
arrested for disregarding a red light.
The cops determined he was drunk, took him to the Mount Vernon Police
Substation and that’s where the beatings started, at least according to
Davis.
He acknowledged that he swore at
the cops as they took him to his cell and said that once inside the cell, one
cop grabbed by the throat and started choking him while another handcuffed
him. The cop who was choking him slammed
Davis’s head into a windowsill, which knocked him out. When he woke up he was in the Mount Vernon
Hospital, getting 15 stitches sewn into his head.
“The state calls its own violence
law, but that of the individual crime.”
Max Stirner
In September of 1990, Victor M. Cruz, a
Salvadoran native and resident of the District of Columbia sued the police for
$60 million claiming that excessive force used by the police while they were
arresting him resulted in permanent brain damage.
Cruz said the police clubbed him
after he was handcuffed and subdued for traffic violations. …… for traffic violations. Cruz’s lawyer noted that it is "ironic
that the same kind of police brutality that Mr. Cruz sought to escape in El
Salvador ends up victimizing him just a few miles from our nation's capital”.
Cruz was allegedly worked over after he was
charged with driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license,
reckless driving, and failing to stop for police. The cop he accused of doing most of the
beating was fired.
AND SO ENDED HIS CAREER
On February 4, 1979, Fairfax
County Deputy Chief told a county panel that his department’s procedures for
investigating an officer accused of brutality is decided in favor of the
department and the officer and unfair to the public.
