Oregon Officials Consult Precogs, Arrest Man for Bloody Shooting Spree That Killed Four Next Week

From Puppetgov.com:

Several Oregon government and law enforcement agencies are patting themselves on the back for preventing a possible mass shooting incident by sending a SWAT team to arrest a recently laid-off employee of the state’s Department of Transportation. A news release from the Medford, Oregon, police department (yes, they put out a news release announcing their good work) says the man purchased three guns after his dismissal, and that former colleagues described him as “very disgruntled.” He was taken to a mental hospital for evaluation.

The problem is that the man doesn’t appear to have committed any actual crimes. Authorities have filed no charges against him. He did recently buy three guns, but he purchased all three of them legally. A spokesman for the Oregon State Police told South Oregon’s Mail Tribune newspaper, “Instead of being reactive, we took a proactive approach.”

Now perhaps a recent layoff, the legal purchase of three guns, and concerns from former co-workers are indeed red flags that someone’s planning a rampage. And maybe this arrest really did save lives. But there’s a phrase we use to describe the sort of society where the police can come into your home, arrest you, commit you to a mental facility, and confiscate your legally-obtained property on no more than a hunch that you might commit some crime in the near future.

The article linked above is short on details. It will be interesting to see what legal authority these law enforcement agencies cited to get a search and/or arrest warrant—assuming they obtained one.

Dad Branded A Paedophile Over Pic Of Son

The UK is getting totally insane. There have been lots of this type event taking place there. It would seem that ultimiately, the state is preparing people to accept the fact that the state is better at rearing children than the parents are. Fortunately, the people don’t seem to be buying it.

From SkyNews (with video):

A man who took a picture of his son while they were out shopping was accused of being a paedophile and threatened with arrest.

// //

Kevin Geraghty-Shewan had taken four-year-old Ben to the Bridges Shopping Centre in Sunderland to spend £10 the boy had been given as a treat.

He told Sky News: “Ben spotted a children’s ride which had a train on it and wanted to have a go because he’s obsessed with trains.

“When he got on my wife suggested we take a picture of him.

“I took the picture on my phone and suddenly this security guard came up and told me it wasn’t allowed because I could be a paedophile.

ATF seizes 30 toy guns, infuriating local business owner

From koinlocal6.com:

CORNELIUS, Ore. – A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.

Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.

The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.

Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.

“With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.

Brad Martin is furious about the loss of money, for sure, but also in what he now thinks as a loss of his time and the use of government agents to seize toy guns.

“All this manpower, all this time, all this taxpayer money, [it is] wasting my time and my profitability,” Martin said. “[Just] to seize 30 toy guns!”

Ben Martin disagrees that the toy guns could ever be considered dangerous.

“To say these are readily convertible to machine guns is absolutely preposterous,” he said. “The round wouldn’t go into the firing chamber and even if the firing pin did strike the primer the gun would basically blow up in your face.”

ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.

The Martins said they’ve received shipments before from Taiwan that were missing the orange tips and were simply asked by customs agents to drive up to Tacoma and paint the tips orange themselves. They are wondering why it is an issue now.

Woman, 61, arrested for asking ‘why’

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Four women, two of them well into middle age, were discussing funeral plans for a friend when an Atlanta police officer told them to move.

Three did but one asked “why.” In answer to her question,  Minnie Carey, then 61, was handcuffed, put into a police wagon and taken to jail, where she was held for nine hours.

The Citizen Review Board found that Atlanta Police officer Brandy Dolson had violated APD policies and had falsely arrested Carey.

“I was blown away,” Carey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I had heard about people in the community being harassed by the police … It really didn’t shock me as much as it probably would have if I had not heard of people going to jail for no reason. I figured I was just another one.

“But I had the right to ask ‘why’ I had to move,” she said.

Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency

This will get the sheep lining up for their shots. Also, it gives the government the authority to do pretty much any damn thing they please, as far as implementing some type of marshall law. It’s just a case of how far they want to take it. It basically gives them a blank check in that regard.

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.

The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government’s initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the flu, known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor’s offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

Portland officials want to deputize city water security officers

From Private Officer News:

PORTLAND, Ore. Oct 16 2009 – Should Portland’s water supply be guarded by security officers who carry guns?

 

It’s a plan generating a lot of heat and something City Commissioner Randy Leonard never thought would be an issue.

Leonard wants Water Bureau security guards to become peace officers so they can deal with problems at reservoirs but one colleague is questioning the need for guns.

Water Bureau security guards currently keep watch over Portland’s reservoirs, protecting drinking water from trespassers who intend to do harm and troublemakers who toss in things like beer bottles or paint. Leonard now wants the 19 security guards deputized, which would allow them to arrest people.

“By having that authority, we think we have a better argument with the federal government to give us a waiver so we don’t have to cover our reservoirs,” he explained.

The guards would also carry guns.

“These are people who work alone at night, oftentimes women who work alone at night patrolling some of the most desolate places that are the water supply system,” said Leonard.

But Commissioner Dan Saltzman is concerned about the idea and said he hasn’t heard a compelling rationale for why Water Bureau staff should be armed. And he questions their training and experience.

“When they need police, police are there to provide backup,” he said. “That arrangement hasn’t been proven to me or shown to me that it’s not sufficient. If the council really believes we should have armed patrols at reservoirs, then I say the Water Bureau should set up an interagency agreement with the Police Bureau to have the police do that.”

It would be the same thing that is done with TriMet. But Leonard said he is surprised to hear that his colleague thinks that way.

“Ironically, in the past, Commissioner Saltzman has actually hired private armed security for our reservoirs but somehow he sees a difference in that, than having our city employees be certified to carry weapons.

Saltzman’s office said the security company was First Response. They are retired police officers and there were only six of them.

Saltzman said he is not against having security guards at the city’s reservoirs – he is worried about creating another police agency within the city where the cost would come out of people’s water bills.

Pennsylvania Drafts 2009 Mandatory Vaccination Law

From Swineflu.baywords.com:

State governments continue promoting emergency powers legislation, even while insisting these unconstitutional powers will never be used. Here are a few excerpts from Pennsylvania House Bill 492, the “Emergency Health Powers Act” [PDF]:

Section 2523-D. Effect of declaration.
(b) Emergency powers of Governor.–During a state of public
health emergency, the Governor may:
(4) Mobilize all or any part of the Pennsylvania
National Guard into service of the Commonwealth. An order
directing the Pennsylvania National Guard to report for
active duty shall state the purpose for which it is mobilized
and the objectives to be accomplished.

Section 2532-D. Access to and control of facilities and
property.
The public health authority may exercise, for such period as
the state of public health emergency exists, the following
powers concerning facilities, materials, roads or public areas:
(3) To control, restrict and regulate by rationing and
using quotas, prohibitions on shipments, price fixing,
allocation or other means, the use, sale, dispensing,
distribution or transportation of food, fuel, clothing and
other commodities, alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives
and combustibles, as may be reasonable and necessary for
emergency response.
(5) To control ingress and egress to and from any
stricken or threatened public area, the movement of persons
within the area and the occupancy of premises therein, if
such action is reasonable and necessary for emergency
response.

Tempe woman fights home’s ‘hazard’ listing

From AZCentral.com:

Police defend designation but won’t say why residence was flagged

A Tempe woman’s 911 call has uncovered widespread use of a police database that flags addresses across the Valley as hazards without ever consulting the people living in the houses.

Local and national law enforcement agencies use the database to collect information about Valley residences. The information, filed into a computer-aided dispatch system, can include prior emergency calls to a home, as well as criminal activity or threats tied to an address.

Valley police departments claim that the databases are “internal” or “private” and that releasing their contents to the public could endanger public-safety officials or residents.

Police call the databases an invaluable public-safety tool.

Civil-liberties advocates acknowledge the system’s usefulness, but they say it has the potential to raise suspicion unjustly about a person.

One Tempe resident has discovered that once a residence is labeled a threat, there is little recourse to challenge the accusation.

Eleanor Holguin discovered her address is on Tempe Police Department’s hazard list when she called 911 for a medical emergency in August.

Holguin’s fight with Tempe had begun months before that 911 call. Earlier in the year, she had criticized Police Chief Tom Ryff in an unrelated matter, going so far as to say he should resign.

Then in August, she found her elderly father on the floor and called 911. As paramedics cared for her father, two Tempe police cars showed up.

Holguin said a paramedic said he wanted to speak to her and an officer outside. She said the paramedic asked if she had recently moved to the address or if she knew of any reason why her house would be “put on a hazard file.”

Holguin responded that her family had lived at the address for 40 years. Not familiar with a hazard file, she said she asked the paramedic to explain the term.

Holguin said the paramedic told her that “whenever we get that (hazard) dispatch on our call log it means we’re possibly going into a hostile situation. That could mean other things like you could be on some terrorist list.”

Holguin was dumbfounded. Then, she recalled the complaints she made against Ryff.

“It’s intimidation … because I spoke out” against the police chief, she said.

Holguin sent an e-mail to Tempe’s city manager and City Council and later met several council members to ask why her address was on the list.

On Aug. 14, Holguin got a response from City Manager Charlie Meyer: “You raised a question about your residence being listed as a potential ‘hazard.’ I have consulted with the city attorney and have decided that any such information related to any address in the city being listed as a potential ‘hazard’ to public-safety personnel is not appropriate to release due to the sensitive nature of such information.”

Holguin has attended three council meetings to express her outrage.

“Who knows how many people are on this list?” she asked. “It’s not bad just for me, but also for the paramedics and the police. The person who did this is . . . reckless and irresponsible . . . that they would put these men and women into a position to be thinking that they’re going into a hostile situation.”

Although Holguin has gotten no response from police, Tempe’s fire chief last month agreed to notify firefighters that dispatches to her address should be handled the same as any other call.

On Friday, Ryff denied Holguin was being singled out.

“I support citizens’ rights to voice concerns regarding any public officials including me as a police chief,” he said. “I can tell you that in my entire career, I have never placed or asked that anyone be placed on a hazard file. I have not retaliated against Miss Holguin indirectly or directly.”

But Tempe police refuse to say what placed her on the list.

Releasing information about why an address is a threat could anger a resident, leaving public-safety officials and the public at risk, Tempe Sgt. Steve Carbajal said.

Some other Valley agencies agreed. Although Mesa, Surprise, Buckeye and Avondale police said they do not notify residents of flagging, they would likely release the reason for flagging to a homeowner if asked, unless doing so compromised an investigation.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, acknowledged the system could be a valuable police intelligence-gathering tool. But that should not outweigh residents’ right to address police allegations, she said.

People should have an opportunity to “challenge that information, correct any inaccuracies and make sure that the intelligence being gathered is being done for legitimate purposes … (not) because of someone’s First Amendment activities,” she said.

Police officials said that the system is not abused and that in most cases an officer must have a supervisor’s approval to file a residence as a hazard.

Republic reporters Lisa Halverstadt, Dustin Gardiner, Megan Boehnke, Jackee Coe, JJ Hensley and Ofelia Madrid contributed to this article.

Cub Scout utensil gets boy, 6, school suspension

I can’t begin to describe how completely absurd this is. Zero tolerance == zero common sense.

From MSNBC.com:

First-grader brought it to eat his lunch with; now he’s facing reform school

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 2 hours, 46 minutes ago

Dressed in a button-down shirt and tie and speaking calmly and articulately, first-grader Zachary Christie hardly looks or acts like the sort of kid who should be spending 45 days in reform school. But, thanks to a zero-tolerance policy, that’s where Zachary’s Delaware school system wants him to go after he made the mistake of taking his favorite camping utensil to school.

A Swiss Army-type combination of fork, spoon, bottle opener and knife, the tool has been Zachary’s favorite ever since he got it to take on Cub Scout camping expeditions. “He eats dinner with it, breakfast and everything else, so it never occurred to him that this would have been something wrong to do,” the 6-year-old’s mother, Debbie Christie, told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Tuesday from Newark, Del.

‘Can I have that?’
Zachary, an A student who sometimes wears a shirt and tie to school just because he likes to, told Vieira he put the tool in his pocket on Sept. 29 for a very simple reason: “To eat lunch with. I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen. I wasn’t thinking about this. I was thinking about having lunch with it.”

But when the tool fell out of his pocket on the bus and he walked off the vehicle with it in his hand, a teacher intercepted him. “She said, ‘Can I have that?’ ” Zachary recalled.

What Zachary didn’t realize was that he had fallen afoul of the Christina School District’s zero-tolerance policy toward weapons in school, one of many such policies implemented in the wake of such incidents as the Columbine High School massacre. The policy does not allow teachers or administrators to take into account intentions or the character of the student; if a student has a knife, suspension and subsequent assignment to the district’s “alternative placement school” — aka reform school — is mandatory.

Racial issue
Christina, which, according to its Web site, is the largest school district in Delaware with some 17,000 students, made its policy zero-tolerance because of concerns over racial discrimination. Studies have shown in other districts that when school officials are given discretion over such cases, African-American students are disciplined at a disproportionately high rate.

TODAY A combination fork, knife, spoon and bottle opener is Zachary Christie’s favorite utensil — but it got him in trouble at school.

“The idea was to avoid discriminating against any student and to treat all students the same,” George Evans, president of the Christina school board, told NBC News.

While some experts favor such zero-tolerance policies, others question their efficacy, saying there is no indication that they cut down on violent incidents in schools. One of them, national school safety consultant Kenneth Trump, told NBC News, “The school administrators have to be able to administer consequences and still have some discretion to fit the totality of the circumstances.”

The totality of Zachary’s circumstances was that he had no idea that it was wrong to take his favorite camping tool to class. When the teacher asked for it when he got off the bus, he handed it over, unaware that he was already in serious trouble. He went to class while his principal called his mother.

“She said that I needed to come to the school immediately; that Zachary had brought a dangerous weapon into school, and I needed to come and pick him up. He would be suspended for five days pending a disciplinary action committee hearing. She said that he had a knife,” Christie told Vieira.

TODAY Zachary spoke to TODAY along with his mother, Debbie Christie, and her fiance, Lee Irving.

When his mother arrived at the John R. Downes Elementary School with her fiance, Lee Irving, Zachary was called from his first-grade classroom to join them.

“When they called my name up, I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’ ” he said.

Home school, not reform school
Zachary was suspended immediately for five school days. At the end of the suspension, he and his mother appeared before the district’s disciplinary action committee, where his principal and others spoke up for his good character. It didn’t matter. The committee’s hands were tied. The rules said he had brought a knife to school and would have to spend 45 days in the reform school.

Christie decided she would not send her son to that school. Instead, she has been home schooling Zachary while waiting for an opportunity to address the district’s board of education, which was to meet Tuesday night.

“I understand why they have it, but I don’t agree with the implementation of it,” Christie said of the zero-tolerance policy. “I think they need to look at the age, maturity, intent, situation; bring in the teachers who know the child or the principal, and allow them to make the first call in these situations,” she said. “Looking at other schools’ codes of conduct in the Delaware Valley, their first step would have been a suspension.”

Christie assured Vieira that her son is well aware of the necessity of not taking anything new to school without first asking and is not a threat to anyone. She hopes the school board will agree with her.

Caught on tape: Cop assaults 15-year-old special needs student

From Raw Story:

UPDATE (at bottom): Cop who assaulted teen now in jail on rape charge; shot ex-wife’s new husband 24 times in ‘self defense’

For the offense of not having his shirt tucked in, 15-year-old special needs student Marshawn Pitts was slammed into a wall of lockers and pounded repeatedly in the face by a police officer who broke the boy’s nose and bloodied his mouth.

The Dolton, Illinois teen told a local CBS affiliate that the officer was cursing at him as he complied with the order to tuck in his shirt. Then, “it was just like, boom!” he said.

The assault, which took place in May, was recorded on a security camera at the Chicago suburb’s Academy for Learning.

“The academy is a high school for special-needs students who are emotionally disturbed or struggle with behavioral disorders,” noted Chicago Breaking News. “Marshawn was a student there because he suffered brain injuries when he was hit by a car years ago, [family attorney Edward] Manzke said.”

During the recording, the officer stoops down and places a cup of coffee on the floor, then threw the teen into the lockers before pummeling him and pinning him to the floor in a maneuver known as the “face-down take-down.”

“Zena Naiditch of Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at the video and said the type of physical restraint used by the officer has killed students,” CBS News reported.

Naiditch added that the hold can be lethal because those trapped by it are left unable to breathe. CBS noted that seven states currently prohibit officers from using the “face-down take-down.”

The officer has not been identified, but due to the filmed evidence of the assault he has been terminated from the force.

Manzke told WBBM News Radio 780 that Marshawn has since transferred to a new school and the family is planning to file a lawsuit.

This video is from CBS 2 in Chicago, broadcast Oct. 7, 2009.

UPDATE: Cop who assaulted teen now in jail on rape charge; shot ex-wife’s new husband 24 times in ‘self defense’

The officer who brutally beat special needs student Marshawn Pitts has been identified as 38-year-old Christopher Lloyd, according to Chicago Breaking News, which spoke to Lloyd’s father.

The news agency reported that Lloyd is currently in jail after being charged with the rape of a woman he knew and is facing a 20-year sentence should he be convicted.

The Chicago Tribune-backed service adds: “A lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, Nicole McKinney, last summer alleges he gunned down her new husband Cornel McKinney in front of their children outside their home on the 6100 block of South Langley Avenue on Feb. 17, 2008.”

An autopsy revealed Lloyd shot the man 24 times, the agency found. He was not jailed at the time as Chicago police accepted his explanation that the killing was in self-defense.

Lloyd also reportedly told his father that the boy he was filmed assaulting had a history of behavioral problems and had cursed at him when told to tuck in his shirt.