After they have taken such a beating:
"Views clash on naming Boston officers in drunken driving cases; Department maintains secrecy" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff December 30, 2014
Two specialists in the state’s public records law say that the Boston Police Department is violating the statute by refusing to release the names of five officers who were caught driving drunk. But Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he has no plans to order police to release the information.
What do you do when those who are sworn to uphold the law violate it?
Department officials declined to release the names in response to requests from the Globe as part of a review of off-duty drunken driving involving law enforcement officers. Using public records and interviews, the Globe counted at least 30 officers in Massachusetts since 2012 who have been caught driving drunk, including five from Boston.
In several cases, police departments attempted to withhold records even when the officers had been in serious crashes. The Globe also found that at least 10 officers were kept on the police payroll after their driving privileges were suspended and they could not perform their normal duties.
“There is no exception in the public records laws for information embarrassing to the police,” said Jeffrey Pyle, an attorney at Prince Lobel Tye LLP in Boston who specializes in the First Amendment, public records, and media law.
Another First Amendment and public records attorney, Peter Caruso Sr. of Andover, added, “These are public records as clear as the nose on your face.”
The attorneys said the decision to withhold the names was particularly hard to justify since Boston police have published the names of dozens of civilians who were arrested for drunken driving on its website. The withholding of names makes it difficult for the press and public to determine whether the officers had been accused of drunken driving or other misconduct before.
Boston Police Lieutenant Michael McCarthy said the city believed names of the officers were protected under a law set up to restrict access to the state’s centralized database of criminal records, commonly called CORI for Criminal Offender Record Information.
Trying to hide behind that?
“The department does not have discretion when deciding to release this type of information,” McCarthy said.
He explained that the department is free to release names of people who are arrested shortly after the incidents but are prohibited from doing so when someone requests the information later on. He declined to cite a court ruling or statute that spells out that difference.
After initially withholding most of the documents related to the five officers, McCarthy agreed to release reports with the names blacked out, including two additional incident reports showing that the officers had been in collisions.
Then they are essentially worthless.
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Boston isn’t alone in limiting the release of information. Newton blacked out the name of a Newton officer who was arrested by Brookline Police, saying it was confidential personnel information.
This from the government that collects all your data.
And in several other instances, the Middlesex district attorney’s office blacked out officer names on court records in drunken driving cases, citing CORI restrictions....
The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said she was concerned about the decision to keep the names secret, particularly when the police regularly release the names of ordinary residents who are arrested.
“When police officers treat their own differently by keeping secrets about the department,” said Carol Rose, the group’s executive director, “it undermines community trust and public safety.”
The trust is already gone, and Walsh defended the department.
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At least the state cops release the names:
"State trooper pleads not guilty to driving drunk; Passenger hurt in off-duty crash
SALEM — A state trooper who was involved in a serious off-duty car wreck last spring pleaded not guilty Tuesday to drunken driving and other charges in Essex Superior Court.
Dale Jenkins, 36, was arrested after officers found his car, a 1965 white Corvette, crashed into a utility pole in North Andover shortly after midnight on May 3, 2014, seriously injuring a 53-year-old passenger who was airlifted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Jenkins, who had cuts on his head and arms, would not provide police the name or other information about the injured passenger, according to the North Andover police report.
The report said Jenkins smelled of alcohol, was unsteady on his feet, and confessed to a firefighter while being taken to the hospital that he had been drinking.
During the booking process, Jenkins said, “I’m [expletive]-ed” several times, according to the police report. After saying he was a state trooper, Jenkins lowered his head, slumped his shoulders forward, and said “14 years down the drain all because of a stupid decision.”
Jenkins declined a breath analysis test, causing his license to be automatically suspended for 180 days. He also refused medical treatment, which could have yielded blood alcohol results.
Without blood alcohol results, it is often difficult for prosecutors to win a conviction in a drunken-driving case. Massachusetts is one of the few states that won’t allow prosecutors to use a refusal against drunken-driving defendants in court.
Jenkins was initially arraigned in Lawrence District Court in May after the accident but was arraigned again after a grand jury indicted him Nov. 18 on charges of operating under the influence with a serious injury, assault and battery with a serious injury, and carrying a firearm (a personal gun, not his duty weapon) while intoxicated.
Jenkins, wearing a dark suit and red tie Tuesday, said little other than “not guilty” in court and did not respond to questions from a Boston Globe reporter after the hearing. His lawyer, Hank Brennan, said, “This was an extremely unfortunate accident,” Brennan said in a hallway inside the courthouse. “We are confident that when the evidence is heard by a jury, the evidence will overwhelmingly favor an acquittal.”
The State Police have suspended Jenkins without pay pending the outcome of the case. The court also has ordered him to abstain from alcohol, not to drive without a valid license, and not to possess firearms, while out on $20,000 bail.
State Police spokesman David Procopio said the department is monitoring the court case and will take action when the case is resolved.
“The State Police have no tolerance for impaired operation and will take appropriate disciplinary action,” Procopio said. “Additionally, our thoughts are with the passenger that night.”
At least 30 law enforcement officers in Massachusetts have been charged with drunken driving since 2012, including seven state troopers such as Jenkins, the Globe reported this month.
An eighth state trooper was fired after he was caught driving the wrong way on Memorial Drive in Cambridge but was not charged criminally.
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Related: “The sad thing is he is the most compassionate and gentle soul that you would ever meet.”
Cops also getting drunk on power:
"De Blasio addresses tense group of new officers" by Andy Newman, New York Times December 30, 2014
NEW YORK — Two days after scores of police officers turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at a murdered officer’s funeral, a scattering of boos and jeers greeted the mayor Monday as he addressed a Police Department event: the graduation ceremony for the fall class of 884 new officers.
And once again, de Blasio found himself speaking to turned backs.
A half-dozen or so audience members at Madison Square Garden — out of thousands — faced away from him as he spoke....
As the mayor forged on with his speech, thanking the recruits for making the “heroic choice” to become police officers, the crowd settled into silence.
“It takes a special kind of person to put their lives on the line for others,” de Blasio said. “To stare down the danger, because that is what you will do.”
But when he told the academy class that on the job, they would “confront problems that you didn’t create,” a heckler yelled out “You did!” and drew applause....
Also on Monday in Los Angeles, authorities said two men opened fire on a police car patrolling a tough part of Los Angeles overnight. The two officers inside were not injured and one was able to shoot back, but no one was wounded.
One of the suspects in the Los Angeles shooting was later arrested, and the other is on the loose.
The shooting occurred amid heightened tensions about attacks on police in New York and elsewhere in the country after grand juries declined to indict white officers in the killings of unarmed black men.
Police have not yet determined a motive for the Sunday night shooting in South Los Angeles — an area plagued by gang violence — but said there were no indications it was linked to other attacks on police in the country.
Deputy Chief Bob Green said police were looking into whether the officers might have driven into an ongoing incident and were inadvertently fired at....
In his speech Monday, de Blasio hammered one message again and again to the recruits, who wore badges ribboned in black in memory of the two slain comrades: that everything would be done to keep them and the police force they join safe from harm. “It’s our job to protect you,” he said.
The mayor finished his speech to tepid applause and no audible boos.
Some members of the department have been in open revolt against the mayor for his comments and actions since a grand jury declined Dec. 3 to charge the officer whose chokehold killed an unarmed black man, Eric Garner.
De Blasio encouraged demonstrators who protested the grand jury decision, saying, “Anyone who believes in the values of this country should feel called to action right now.” And he said he has often spoken to his biracial son about “dangers he may face” in interactions with police.
The main police union earlier this month distributed a flier to officers urging them to disinvite the mayor from their funerals should they die in the line of duty.
With de Blasio at odds with many officers, the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, has been thrust into the role of peacemaker. On Sunday, he stood by de Blasio’s comments on race relations — saying it is the “reality” that officers have to deal with. But Bratton said he understood the officers’ frustrations, even though he found it “inappropriate” to express them at the funeral of an officer slain on the job.
Bratton also addressed the graduates.
“We are at a very difficult time in this country, in this city, and in this department,” he conceded. But he added, “You have the opportunity with that badge on your chest to do extraordinary things.”
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Related:
During funerals, both protesters and police should show restraint
Walsh, police officials join activists in prayer service
Weston tollbooth worker faces suspension over message
"Psychiatric patient charged in death
NEW YORK — A patient at a New York City psychiatric center was charged with killing another patient at the facility, police said Saturday. Brett Smith, 19, of the Bronx, was charged with second-degree murder, officials said. He was arrested after Leon Little, 51, was found unconscious inside the Bronx Psychiatric Center shortly before 8 p.m. Friday. Officers responding to a 911 call found Little unconscious and unresponsive with abrasions on his throat (AP)."
That's crazy.
"Death penalty sought in Jewish site shootings" by Bill Draper, Associated Press December 19, 2014
OLATHE, Kan. — A Kansas prosecutor will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist from Missouri who was ruled competent Thursday to face trial on charges of killing three people at two Jewish sites in suburban Kansas City, Kan.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe revealed his intention to seek the death penalty at a hearing for Frazier Glenn Miller, 74, of Aurora, Mo., who has said he felt it was his patriotic duty to kill Jews.
He was double-crossed.
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Miller has told several media outlets that he intended to use the trial as a means to ‘‘put the Jews on trial where they belong.’’
Miller is a Vietnam War veteran from southwest Missouri who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party.
He was the target of a nationwide manhunt in 1987, when federal agents tracked him and three other men to a rural Missouri home stocked with hand grenades and automatic weapons. He was indicted on weapons charges and accused of plotting robberies and the assassination of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s founder. He served three years in federal prison.
Miller also ran for the US House in 2006 and the US Senate in 2010 in Missouri, each time espousing a white-power platform.
This guy smells like such a psyop it's sickening.
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