Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Federal judge tosses out MySpace mom Lori Drew’s conviction. Good. Now if we can only prevent Congress from passing a ridiculous law to “be sure this never happens again.”
Prince George’s cop caught on dash cam punching a motorist during a traffic stop. A police spokesman has indicated he thinks the officer’s actions were “appropriate.” You don’t say.
Esquire calls Reason “the scathingly brilliant libertarian journal that’s the secret guilty favorite of Washington insiders Left and Right.” Secret and guilty are sort of fun. I envision David Broder keeping us in a brown paper bag in a secret drawer of his desk at the Washington Post, underneath his flask of Beam, his Glock, and–of course–the porno.
Pastor tased, congregation pepper sprayed after the pastor came to assist a member who had been pulled over in the church parking lot.
The New York Times goes searching for the perfect burger. Right now, the best burger I’ve ever had was at a dark, dirty, low-ceilinged 70s-vibe spot in Clayton, Missouri called The Fatted Calf. Second would probably be Ray’s Hellburger in Arlington, Virginia.
Fresh off his mission to fight crime by banning the sale of individual slices of pizza, for his next trick, D.C. City Councilman demonstrates his complete ignorance of basic supply and demand. This is the same guy who sponsored the D.C. smoking ban. He’s also the one Christopher Hitchens said treats his constituents “like a bunch of retarded children.” See, there’s no problem that can’t be fixed by the concern, get-to-it-iveness and moxie of a few very wise politicians!
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TheAgitator.com
The Fatted Calf is good stuff! And your description is dead on.
Just so everyone gets the message that the cops are two steps above God and we “civilians” are three steps below s**t.
I gotta check out the Fatted Calf next week- I’m only 30 minutes away…
Re the Councilman and the Cabs, I’d say he understands supply and demand in the sense that he recognizes that the glut of cabs will make cab fares drop. My guess is that he’s more into rent-seeking as, if the city council controls the supply of cabs, he can then arrange to get operator permits for his “friends.”
Well, they do keep electing him, don’t they?
I loved this from the DC councilman article:
‘D.C. Taxicab Commissioner A. Cornelius Baker said during a recent meeting that the city must move “toward a regulated taxi force” and create a system “that sustains our drivers and also creates wealth for them in the long term.”‘
there was nothing mentioned about getting out of the way and allowing the cab drivers to work their asses off to create their own wealth…
Hey wait a minute… I recognize that name… “Manuel de Jesus Espina”. That’s the guy who was assaulted and killed by an off duty PG cop a while back. Hey! It’s the same guy!
So basically, this cop goes around trying to goad people into attacking him, huh?
Apparently, this incident occurred several months before the killing of Espina, (Espina was drinking a beer in the stairwell right outside his door when Jackson, off duty and moonlighting as ’security’ assaulted him, chased him into the apartment, and shot him.)
Gee, I guess this guy flaunting arrest by driving around with tinted windows got off lucky, huh? Nice touch how the fact that Jackson perjured himself is covered up by Maj. Andy Ellis.
Watch the video… Jackson does everything he possibly can to escalate the situation once he figures out he can make a totally mickey mouse arrest. Anything to boost that arrest rate, huh asshole? The guy couldn’t get out of the car if he wanted to, because Jackson was in his way the whole time.
Could Prince George’s Police be more fucked up? What… do they get ‘award points’ redeemable for prizes for escalating simple interactions with civilians into arrests?
Best burger is in Hodad’s in Ocean Beach, San Diego. Large, juicy and incredibly tasty. Second best would be In-N-Out’s Double Double.
On the taser incident..
“Officer Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him”
WTF? HE was going to arrest him for ‘interfering’? In his own church’s parking lot?
Of course, the Police Chief, Ray Smiley, totally backs the officer’s report and statements… because you know, cops never lie or submit false reports.
My reading doesn’t stop for any Holiday and certainly not the “eve” of a Holiday that’s not Christmas.
Pointless abuses of authority: 1 point
Illegal searches: 2 points
Beating up a suspect: 2 points
Beating up an innocent bystander: 5 points
Arresting the innocent bystander you’ve just beaten up for “resisting arrest: 7 points (in addition to points already earned)
Seizing cameras: 3 points
“Accidentally” deleting incriminating photos from seized cameras: 0 points (required procedure) Failure to do so: -20 points.
Discovering that dashcam wasn’t working: 7 points for each dashcam.
Tazing a suspect: 6 points
Tazing an innocent bystander: 8 points
Shooting a suspect: 8 points (2x points if suspect dies)
Shooting an innocent bystander: 10 points (2x points if bystander dies.)
Actually arresting a criminal: 0 points.
;)
Oh, and I forgot:
Shooting the puppy: 15 points.
Yeah… I won’t be surprised to hear a cop yell “Bingo” after tasing a guy. You know that has to be the center square on the “Escalation Bingo” game card.
Reposting BamBam’s link from last night. It’s the same source video of the PG cop beating, but this one gets the Fox News treatment, where they conclude that if you think the cop did anything wrong here you’re anti-american and advocate cop killing at all times.
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/01/video-shows-cop-punching-suspect/
#10 | Aresen
excellent! how many points would kicking in the front door be worth? what about strip searching a girl? asset forfeiture?
we can drag this out ALL DAY…
Kicking in front door: 1 point
Kicking in front door without saying “Police”: 4 points
Kicking in front door of wrong house: 6 points
Strip searching girl: 1 point for each year’s age difference between the cop & the girl.
Asset forfeiture: 1 point if the “suspect” actually goes to trial; 10 points if never charged.
Good for Broder! I personally keep Makers Mark with my Glock and porno but Beam is a good substitute.
Just for clarity’s sake…. what punishment do you believe Lori Drew deserves, if any?
Lori Drew should have ‘dumbass’ tattooed on her ass and then get on with her life. her 15 minutes of fame should be over.
how many points for being a douchebag DARE propagandist?
what about manufacturing charges- ‘dui’ ‘resisting arrest’, etc?
speed traps gotta be worth something!
how many bonus points do they get to work in Prince George county?
how many points for acquiring military grade equipment for your department?
being a dog cop?
Depends if you have pictures of you and the dog on one of THOSE websites.
So, uh, I’m pretty much with the PG cop on this one. I used to have illegal tint, and the first thing you learn is to roll all the windows down when you’re pulled over. Pretty much the opposite of this is to crack the window, turn your music up, smoke a cigaratter, and blatantly bullshit the cop about your insurance and tint status. If you do decide to do those things, get the fuck out the car when you’re told to. If not the cop might drag your dumb fat ass out, either for safety or for fun. Or you could just not be a jerk, and maybe have a case if he beats you up.
#20 Alex:
Hold on a minute, Alex. I admit, during the first part of the video, I could have sworn I was watching part of Chris Rock’s famous “How to Not Get Your Ass Beat by the Police.” The driver is not as likely to elicit sympathy as, perhaps, the pastor in the Webster, TX, story, but I think this is still a pretty clear case of excessive force.
It is not intelligent to turn up your music and act ignorant when you get stopped. My impression is that this guy probably acts like this all the time. However, watch the video again and take note of the second officer on the passenger side of the car. If the officer needed to remove the driver, he could have signaled his partner over and they could have each taken an arm and/or leg and pulled him out. The punches were punishment, pure and simple. The police are not supposed to be in the business of dealing out punishment on the street. To make things worse, the officer then falsified his report to justify the premature beat down. Filing a false police report is a crime.
If you don’t have a problem with what you saw in this video, you are opening the door to all sorts of “attitude arrests,” and being an idiot is not against the law.
Yeah, if “being an idiot” were against the law we could lock up all our politicians now.
well said, Helmut!
I love how it’s constantly mentioned that traffic stops are one of the more dangerous aspects of police work… well, no shit it’s dangerous- people don’t like having their money stolen!
there are plenty of instances where cops are antagonizing citizens with minimal provocation. Alex seems fine with getting beat if his ‘tint status’ or papers aren’t in order, but to me it’s just more bullshit. I’m not sure why this guy was pulled over, but I’m willing to bet it’s some minor traffic infraction or not having a current tag. The amount of nonsense we have to put up with to be allowed to drive has gone way past reasonable. In Missouri, you need a copy of your paid personal property tax receipt, proof of insurance, current safety inspection, and to pay all the local taxes and fees tacked on to the licensing process before you can legally drive. Couple this with all the bullshit speed traps, red light cameras, sobriety check points, asset seizures, restrictions on carrying alcohol, safety restrictions, vehicle searches when you are stopped, etc. I would love to know how many people run from the cops because they think they can’t afford to pay for the infraction. I’ve had tenants not be able to pay their rent because of these minor infractions. For people living hand to mouth, a $200 traffic fine (not unusual) can be crippling. Why not run and take a chance on not being crippled?
These cops are on the clock- they’re not pressed for time. There’s no excuse for this nonsense- he needlessly escalated a bullshit traffic stop.
Wtf @ Prince George. Do they have a giant poster of Cartman hanging in their sheriffs office?
Have you ever had that deep-friend burger they sell at the bar in the inner harbor (bawlmer)? I hear it’s amazing
Sorry, should have provided a link. It’s the “heart attack on a plate” burger served at Mother’s.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bal-fo.burger13may13,0,7465709.story
My favorite burger place is Igor’s in New Orleans. The last time I was there was before Katrina, so I don’t even know if it’s there anymore. I have no clue how they seasoned the meat, but the flavor was incredible.
I would point out that he didn’t necessarily ‘turn up his music’. We may have just not heard it until the officer opened the door and walked up. (I think this is the system with the mic on the uniform)
Also, I don’t know why they’re doing this, but the cops are communicating with hand gestures above the car.
It looks like intentional escalation to punish the guy for COCing him (Contempt Of Cop) by not immediately throwing himself on the ground yelling “Yes, Sir!”
Oh, and Marty, he was stopped for having window tint that was too dark.
Oh yeah. I’m sure that DC is right on the edge of the abyss. It’s probably only days away from the utter collapse of the entire taxi industry in DC. Either that or someone is simply partnering with a particular group of taxi companies to artificially restrict competition and rob their customers.
In any case, you can be pretty certain the only understanding anyone has of economics is on the part of the taxi companies. Neither voters or politicians have the vaguest understanding of economics. In fact, I would say that the education system’s complete failure to teach economics to American students is the single most destructive failing of any agency in the country and easily qualifies as an act of treason.
Cab story:
They’re probably just drooling at the possibility of raising 800,000,000 dollars by selling medallions to drivers. That’s 8,000 cabs at… conservatively… 100,000 dollars each. Of course, if the current New Your price is used… that could be up to 4.5 billion dollars. That’s insane. Wanna drive a cab? Buy a house and bolt it to your hood.
If that ain’t robbery, I don’t know what is.
Stop calling it “Tazed” or “Tazered.”
Call it what it is: electrocution.
#29 Bob: “I would point out that he didn’t necessarily ‘turn up his music’. We may have just not heard it until the officer opened the door and walked up. (I think this is the system with the mic on the uniform)”
Good point, Bob. I think you are correct. The audio, like the video, was likely activated when the officer hit his lights, and we probably heard the music when he stepped out of the squad. With that in mind, I would just say that it is probably a good idea to turn OFF your music, rolll down your window and keep your hands on the steering wheel after you are stopped. This is not a sign of subservience, it’s just a matter of safety. This doesn’t gurantee that a traffic stop won’t go bad (even knowledge that a camera is on doesn’t do that, as the PG County Officer demonstrated), but it does make it less likely that a simple misunderstanding will result in a confrontation.
To #17: The girl’s family should sue her ass for everything.
#17 I agree with Adam W. here. It’s a civil issue, not a criminal one.
US Gov (not just Obama) is critical of Iranian (police heroes or authoritarian thugs) responses to their demonstrations (freedom revolutionaries or rioters). OK, how different would US Police responses be?
Although the US won’t experience a real revolution, we are primed for a deadly clash between demonstrators and police.
Of course the demonstrators will be called terrorists and rioters and the police will be called heroes.
The things that get me more is the officer’s report and the unctuous FOP ass that comments on it.
Jackson knew he was lying on the report. He knew that there was videotape to back it up. But he still put down the lies, he still said ‘Oh, he hit me first’, and he still acted the way he did in the first place. What does it say about those in the police force that just out and out lying like that is tolerated? That it’s dismissed as ‘well, that’s what he thought happened’. How many other people are shafted by what guys like this ‘think’ happened? Why is this behavior not drummed out of the police. We’re supposed to believe their evidence in court. How? They show they’re unreliable every time one of these cases come up! How can ANYONE in a court believe this guy’s testimony ever in the future?
And Mr. FOP, looking through his blue-colored-glasses, that’s just what I expect from those chowderheads now.
Look, whether or not the Lori Drew prosecution was properly drawn and conducted in law is one thing. Quite another is taking the position that driving a vulnerable child into mental instability and suicide is a civil matter rather than a crime.
My brother is a complete asshole to cops because he has issues with authority. He will call them all kinds of names and sass them even when they are being reasonable.
One time, he got a ticket and the officer wrote the wrong court date on it (it was a Sunday) and he entered the police station yelling
“Officer _________ is an idiot. He can’t even write a fucking ticket.”
He tells this story with great enthusiasm. It’s hilarious to him.
Should the cops, as public servents, just take it like a similarly-treated fast food worker should? Yeah.
But I do wonder if my brother’s behavior is making incidents like this MORE likely because if I had to pull over people like my brother, I’d probably turn into a mean SOB too.
CC
who wouldn’t exactly cry if some cop punched her brother though she recognizes it would be wrong. But the only revenge I’ve seen the cops have is to be very quick to pull him over for minor infractions, and to detail his behavior with drama and enthusiasm whenever a cop is asked in court how my brother behaved at the traffic stop.
Megan Meier would get more support if she was a dead golden retriever.
Stop calling it “Tazed” or “Tazered.”
Call it what it is: electrocution.
—
I said this on here once and someone corrected me.
Electrocution is killing someone with electricity.
Dictionary seems to support this.
But that leaves a gaping whole in the English
language that there is no word for electrically injuring someone
as punishment or to get them to comply.
Using the word “Tazed” gives specificity to the action that occurred, so that a reader is aware we aren’t discussing someone that accidentally grabbed a downed wired during a rainstorm, or was strapped into an electric chair.
Words matter.
The Fatted Calf is awesome. The ordering process is a strange ritual that’s not easy to figure out. It is dark, but not dirty.
Well, the objection is that the word “tazed” is too
euphemistic to describe the action of using electricity
to immobilize or subdue someone.
@38
Well unless you mean crime in the moral sense instead of the legal one, but given the context, it’s clear we are talking about the legal sense here.
And in that sense you are, sad though it might be, wrong. If you look, they prosecuted her for violating the terms and conditions of myspace and committing internet fraud (or something along those lines). So they didn’t even have a crime that they could trumpt his up to fit into. Whether someone should write a law making the specific harrassment of a minor where the harasser should reasonably know that it would cause significant emotional trauma a crime, is a different debate than whether it is, in fact (meaning under current existing law, a crime.
At civil law there is a cause of action called “Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.” Doesn’t that seem like exactly what happened here? So really this is exactly a civil matter, because thats the only body of law that has seemed to address this issue.
I could live with there being laws against impersonating someone else online, but even that wouldn’t punish people for doing what Lori Drew did.
Bob #6, not ratting out rogue colleagues: Priceless.
Flogging, perhaps, Chalicechick? Maybe the stocks? :D
Best burger I ever had was a bacon double cheeseburger at My New Place in 29 Palms, California, my first weekend back from Desert Storm. It was so good, I immediately ordered (and ate) another one. I was reasonably drunk, but I don’t think that’s relevant.
#38 | seeker6079 | July 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am
‘Look, whether or not the Lori Drew prosecution was properly drawn and conducted in law is one thing. Quite another is taking the position that driving a vulnerable child into mental instability and suicide is a civil matter rather than a crime.’
you’re opening a huge can of worms here… while despicable, this girl had issues that could’ve been triggered by many different things. My daughter went to school with her and there’s much more to this girl than being harassed by a dumbass neighbor.
this is just stupidity. no crime here, move along.
Didn’t Lori Drew explicitly say as she was pretending to be someone else on myspace that she should kill herself? Emotional manipulation of a minor by an adult that results in death should carry some kind of criminal punishment. I agree its not murder, but five years in jail seems like a good punishment to me.
Sure she may have had other issues, but thats why a grown women shouldn’t be playing emotional hardball with someone else’s kids.
But to clarify, the laws that they chose to try and prosecute her for violating are ridiculous. I’m surprised that we don’t have some sort of criminal law that covers this better than “Illegally accessing computers” and “violating myspace’s terms”
Ok, apparently if I would read the whole article I would know that jurors decided that she wasn’t guilty of inflicting emotional harm on a minor. So nevermind to everything I have said.
Teacher, if you lean on me to do my homework one more time, I’ll kill myself.
#41 How about “compliance torture”?
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