Monday, March 21, 2016

Texas Shootout

SeeMd. officer shot to death; 2 arrested

Black man killed white cop?

"Texas officer fatally shoots man suspected of damaging sign" Mar. 13, 2016

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston police officer has fatally shot an unarmed man suspected of damaging a traffic sign and charging toward the officer three times.

Police spokesman John Cannon said Sunday that investigators believe the man was on drugs.

That justifies it in my mind.

The officer was on patrol Saturday afternoon when he saw an agitated man damage a street sign, pace and yell obscenities.

It's called free speech, but I'm sure Trump is to blame.

Cannon says the officer used a Taser on the man twice, but it was unsuccessful.

When the man came at him a third time, Levi fatally shot him.

The suspect and officer are both black....

Interesting.

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Related:

"A suburban Dallas police officer who shot and killed a teenage burglary suspect and wounded another boy while off-duty was released from jail on bond Thursday, authorities said. Ken Johnson, a Farmers Branch police officer, was arrested Wednesday on murder and aggravated assault charges in the shootings Sunday in Addison."

At least it's not like Pennsylvania:

"Officer in good condition after gunfire near Philadelphia" March 13, 2016

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania mayor says a police captain is in good condition after getting hit in a shootout that left one suspect dead and another hospitalized.

Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland is vowing transparency in the investigation into Saturday's gunfire. He's also praising police for restraint in dealing with a hostile crowd afterward.

Kirkland says bricks and bottles were thrown at police trying to investigate the shooting. He blames the violence on an influx of guns into the community about 18 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

Kirkland said police exercised restraint in what he called "a hostile situation." 

"The police department is not the enemy," police commissioner Darren Alston said.

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Isn't Indiana right next door? 

They are an extorter, not an enemy:

"Justice department condemns profit-minded court policies targeting the poor" by Matt Apuzzo New York Times   March 15, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department Monday called on state judges across the country to root out unconstitutional policies that have locked poor people in a cycle of fines, debt, and jail.

It was the Obama administration’s latest effort to take its civil rights agenda to the states, which have become a frontier in the fight over the rights of the poor and the disabled, the transgender and the homeless.

In a letter to chief judges and court administrators, Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights prosecutor, and Lisa Foster, who leads a program on court access, warned against operating courthouses as for-profit ventures.

It chastised judges and court staff members for using arrest warrants as a way to collect fees. Such policies, the letter said, made it more likely that poor people would be arrested, jailed, and fined anew, all for being unable to pay in the first place.

The courts have worked against the poor since time immemorial. 

That's why the rich set 'em up.

It is unusual for the Justice Department to write such a letter. It last did so in 2010, when the department told judges that they were obligated to provide translators for people who could not speak English. The letters do not have the force of law, but they declare the federal government’s position and put local officials on notice about its priorities.

Gupta said that in some cities, hefty fines served as a sort of bureaucratic cover charge for the right to seek justice. People cannot even start the process of defending themselves until they have settled their debts.

“This unconstitutional practice is often framed as a routine administrative matter,” Gupta wrote. “For example, a motorist who is arrested for driving with a suspended license may be told that the penalty for the citation is $300 and that a court date will be scheduled only upon the completion of a $300 payment.”

The letter echoes the conclusions of the Justice Department’s investigation of the Police Department and court in Ferguson, Mo. Investigators there concluded that the court was a moneymaking venture, not an independent branch of government. 

They just figured that out?

Gupta, who oversaw that investigation, has often cited Ferguson as a cautionary tale in her speeches, describing how fines for minor offenses like jaywalking pulled people into the criminal justice system and made it impossible to escape.

They tell us on their way out the door!

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See: Getting Juiced in Chicago

Taxpayers and citizens have to the tune of $662 million for bad conduct by authority.

I'm sure the Foxx will clean up the chicken coop:

"Immense challenges ahead for Chicago area’s next prosecutor" by Sophia Tareen Associated Press  March 17, 2016

CHICAGO — First-time candidate Kim Foxx easily beat two-term Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez this week in the Democratic primary, as Alvarez’s re-election bid was dogged by critics who alleged waiting a year to charge a white police officer in a black teenager’s shooting death was a cover-up. Activists who protested Alvarez celebrated Foxx’s win, but also warned that they expect Foxx to make changes and they’ll hold her accountable.

Foxx, who grew up in the notorious Cabrini Green housing project and says that gives her a necessary perspective, said Thursday that she’s encouraged by the interest of the activists and other groups. But she said her approach to the office would be to look at all cases fairly — including recognizing that police officers put their lives on the line.

‘‘I don’t think you should go into this job believing that you have to appease an agenda,’’ she told The Associated Press. ‘‘It’s about justice.’’

That would be the best way to keep it.

Besides the heightened attention to police shootings, her victory also comes during a spike in violent crime in Chicago and the search for a new police superintendent after the ouster of the last one over the same shooting case that hurt Alvarez.

Foxx is favored to win in November in the heavily Democratic region against Republican Christopher Pfannkuche....

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Her first case:

"Lawmaker’s daughter charged in bloody staple attack on political rival" by Sarah Larimer Washington Post  March 19, 2016

Bob Zwolinski tweeted a gruesome picture of his face earlier this month. He was bloodied and bruised — with a staple visible on his forehead.

“Politics is a contact sport,” wrote Zwolinski, who was running for a state House seat in Illinois. “Apparently that’s literally the case.”

Zwolinski told The Post on Friday he was attacked when a verbal confrontation outside his campaign offices escalated to violence. The left side of his face was “swollen like a balloon,” he said, and he needed stitches and a tetanus shot after the beating, he said.

I'll bet it was Trump's fault.

Plus, medics had to take that staple out of his head.

“Which was a first for the ER,” Zwolinski said.

The incumbent whom Zwolinski was challenging in the Democratic primary, state Representative Cynthia Soto, would go on to win the race. But her daughter, Jessica Soto, has since been charged in connection with the March 6 attack.

Frank Avila, the attorney for Soto and Fichter, presented a different version of the attack, telling The Post that Jessica Soto wasn’t involved in the physical altercation, and that Fichter was acting in self-defense.

“I think this is just taking politics to the next level,” said Avila, who called Zwolinski’s behavior “extremely bizarre” and characterized the incident as a media stunt....

It's called a newspaper, and what of it?

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Related:

"Throughout the day, angry, tearful mourners came Monday to the scene of the fatal shooting, the first murder in this suburb since 2008. “Why?” one woman screamed outside the door of Edison Tejeda’s apartment."

This as they are talking gun control in Lexington of all places, the birthplace of American independence.