Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
- What does it take for a police officer to get fired? One sure way is to rat out other officers, or to go to the media when you feel the department isn’t living up to Scalia’s new professionalism. Note too that when an officer leaked to the media that a fellow officer had been granted “professional courtesy” during a DUI, it was the leaking officer who was investigated.
- Supreme Court deals another blow to free speech.
- iPod magazine ad, circa 1977.
- The city of Jacksonville, Florida pays $200K to the family of Isaac Singletary. Singletary was killed in 2007 when he came out to confront what he thought were drug dealers on his front lawn. They were undercover cops posing as drug dealers. On his property. So they killed him.
- Best cease-and-desist letter I’ve seen to date.
- Hey, I’m “notable”! Do I get some sort of t-shirt for this? Maybe some cake?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm by Radley Balko
and is filed under General Drug War, Police Professionalism.
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TheAgitator.com
The govenment did something right….their undercover officers posing as violent drug dealers were exactly like the real thing!
And the taxpayers spared no expense.
Re: Hey, I’m “notable”!
Jan Harold Brunvand is also a notable alum – in the pre-internet days when there was no snopes.com, his books were a valuable resource for information about Urban Legends.
I think the Pork Board will need to be suing a lot of porn companies as well….(
Hehehehe…double entendre’ FTW
Supreme Court deals another blow to free speech.
I wonder how long it will be before Wikileaks is declared a terrorist organization preventing Americans from donating to them. They’ve already been declared an enemy of national security by the Pentagon.
Damn right you are notable. You’ve done great work that has advanced the cause of justice, removed Stephen Hayne, got regular appearances on TV, a well respected blog, a crop of regular readers (and a wikipedia entry).
Hey, I’m “notable”! Do I get some sort of t-shirt for this? Maybe some cake?
I’m afraid the admiration of untold number of fans (at least 17) will have to do.
Best cease-and-desist letter I’ve seen to date.
Anyone for making an ad declaring freshly ground National Pork Board members are the next “other white meat”?
The reply on Thinkgeek.com was genius:
“It was never our intention to cause a national crisis and misguide American citizens regarding the differences between the pig and the unicorn,” said Scott Kauffman, President and CEO of Geeknet. “In fact, ThinkGeek’s canned unicorn meat is sparkly, a bit red, and not approved by any government entity.”
http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/2010/06/officially-our-bestever-cease.html
ok, how about this for new professionalism?
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/96770434.html
Dave Orlowski can swim 2.4 miles.
He can bike 112 miles.
He can run 26.2 miles.
In fact, the 54-year-old athlete can do all of these one right after the other – several times a year. He completed six Ironman triathlons last year, has done three so far this year and hopes to compete in yet another one in Klagenfurt, Austria, on July 4.
Orlowski can also play a round of golf, as he did recently at a fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin.
But this is something the guy won’t do:
He won’t work for the Milwaukee Police Department.
That’s because the former homicide detective has been declared “permanently and totally incapacitated for duty.”
Regarding the Maricopa police officer, that little gem of a community is south of Phoenix and is quite the place for raising cows. Its nothing more than a town run by redneck ranchers that so wants to be like Phoenix.
“Do I get some sort of t-shirt for this? Maybe some cake?”
How bout a nice slice of Key Lime pie? ;p mmmmm
The iPod ad “circa 1977″ may have 1977 in the name, but there was no such product in the 70′s. It has a 32 bit risc processor and enough memory to store 4,000 4mb songs – that’s 16 GB. This would have been bigger than the biggest supercomputer on the planet in 1977 – several times over.
I can’t believe the Jacksonville story. The found the police acted within guidelines…. how about just backing away from the guy’s property when he asks you to leave? Is that to difficult? Back away to cover and call for backup in uniform if you think he’s really dangerous.
The evidence provided is that a bunch of armed men who look like drug dealers were on his lawn and he told them to leave at gunpoint. They then told him to drop his gun – and he’s supposed to comply with that?
The two officers who fired at Singletary said they had no choice but to shoot Singletary when he refused commands to drop his gun.”
Are they fucking stupid? They had no choice but to shoot him. Walk the fuck away, asshole. $200k, they got off way, way too cheap.
Wired Magazine has a bit about the work of Alex Varanese which includes the iPod 1977 parody ad. Apparently he’s got some other fun 70′s parody ads in his gallery as well.
Best cease-and-desist letter I’ve seen to date.
I would like to forward that thinkgeek link to PETA without making it clear that “Canned Unicorn” was a spoof.
You sure? I’d bet most real drug dealers would have walked away from that situation, because the cons vastly outweigh the pros for shooting him. For the cops, that calculation is somewhat different, because there aren’t any cons for them.
Do you think this was the first time grandpa chased drug dealers off his property? I suppose it’s possible, but it seems unlikely.
I can’t find unicorn meat in my supermarket. Is there no species we won’t hunt to extinction?
Imagine if any of us shot a man while pretending to be drug dealers…
“Well, shit man, I’m just out here trying to stop the bad guys by dressing like one so I can fool ‘em, and then you got this stupid mother fucker wasn’t smart enough to figure it out. He should’ve just tried to buy drugs from me instead his kind was supposed to. Then he would’ve just gone to jail.”
Only highly trained professionals with the mission of protecting the general public are authorized to murder innocent people while treaspassing on private property while impersonating criminals.
Dave Kruuger “I wonder how long it will be before Wikileaks is declared a terrorist organization preventing Americans from donating to them. They’ve already been declared an enemy of national security by the Pentagon.”
Dave, why do you hate America? Don’t you realize every time you post it makes a puppy cry? An American puppy?
Either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists….and freedom of speech…and freedom of the press…and the terrorists.
“Do I get some sort of t-shirt for this? Maybe some cake?”
No, but you will get a letter from the university, asking for additional donations.
I might have to take this feed out of my reader. The content and quality and what not is great, but I Just Can’t Take This Anymore.
Maricopa…isn’t that Asshole Arpaio’s county?
How about Minotaur: It’s now for dinner.
Or Only buy hormone free Monster Farms Griffins.
Hmmm….I read the Maricopa police article a bit differently….what I got out of that is that an officer was driving drunk, but was let go as a courtesy. Another officer complained to the City Council about it, so the council launched an investigation into the complaining officer and/or the drunk driving officer(the article is unclear). Stant was asked questions about the entire incident involving the drunk driving, and he refused to answer, so he was fired.
It seemed to me that he was fired for protecting the bad officer…but I could be wrong.
$200K to make a murder charge go away? I’ve got $200K and a loooong list!
They had no problem believing the crooked cop…because he was a cop. But the only non-murdering eyewitness happened to be an ex-felon (most people in the US are guilty of felons thanks to our legal system) and they couldn’t believe his story that the cops fired first and the 80 year old man pulled his gun only after he was shot.
YCMTSU!
When you hurt free speech, you decrease national security.
PS: EVERYONE watch GASLAND on HBO.
A police officer getting fired is just ‘a isolated incident’, so don’t get carried away.
Yeah, the article was unclear as to who was being investigated and who Stant refused to answer questions about. However, it appears that probably it was the leak officer who was being investigated, not the drunk.
So are the dissenting justices in the Humanitarian Law Project case providing material aid to terrorists through their decision? Am I, by posting this snarky comment?
Hey, I’m “notable”! Do I get some sort of t-shirt for this? Maybe some cake?
The cake is a lie! The cake is a lie!
Hamas is great!
Am I a terrorist now?
They weren’t just “posing as drug dealers”, they were dealing in drugs. Singletary had likely run non-police drug dealers off his property before – the non-police kind would have simply left when a guy with a gun shows up.
Have to disagree with your characterization of the Supreme Court case. They got this one right. The main point is that these are terrorist organizations. There is no legitmate purpose to them that would get around the fact you are providing material support to a criminal organization. This isn’t about speech, it’s about providing resources to criminals. Has no one here heard of being an accessory to a crime?
If I provide a gun to a criminal knowing it can or will be used in a crime, am I guilty? Yes. If I provide a car to a bank robber knowing it will be used as a get away vehicle am I guilty of a crime? Yes. If I provide money to a terrorist so they can buy bombs am I guilty? Yes. The US Constitution states that treason is providing aid or comfort to the enemy. Does that violate the First Ammendment too?
Nor have I seen anyone else comment on the hypocracy of the dissent. These three judges are the same ones that voted to uphold McCain-Feingold (except Sotomyer who wasn’t on the court at the time but it’s likely she would have voted the same way) which was about restricting free speech. So these three decided providing material support to terrorists is protected by the First Ammendment but protecting American citizens free speech about their political system wasn’t.
So Jimmy Carter can’t pal around with his buds in Hamas anymore? Darn, I’m depressed now. It was so obvious that his work had done so much to engender peace and hope in the middle east, too. [/sarcasm]
To go along with the best cease-and-desist letter ever, here is the best disclaimer of responsibility ever, from the Nelson Rocks private nature preserve in West Virginia. Courtesy of the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20080508012326/http://www.nelsonrocks.org/disclaimer.html
“The two officers who fired at Singletary said they had no choice but to shoot him when he refused commands to drop his gun.”
How’s this for a choice — fucking LEAVE. Leave the man’s property like he told you to. I hate these cocksuckers more everyday. When the fuck are these assholes going to start being held criminally liable like you or I?
I sent a message to the National Pork Board using their website. This is what I got back:
Jerri,
While we understand the humorous nature of ThinkGeek’s “unicorn meat product,” as the owner of the The Other White Meat(r) trademark, we are required by law to challenge any infringement or dilution of the trademark or face the possibility of losing trademark protection. America’s pork producers have invested millions of dollars to successfully develop the mark The Other White Meat(r) for over 20 years. Due its success, dozens of entities have tried to capitalize on The Other White Meat(r). We face infringement and dilution nearly every week. Any infringement or dilution of the mark, no matter how big or small, could substantially lessen the mark’s value and impact for U.S. pork producers. Our only interest is in protecting U.S. pork producer’s investment in The Other White Meat(r) trademark.
Regards,
Teresa
Teresa Roof
Manager, Public Relations
National Pork Board
Office: 515-223-2616
Fax: 515-309-6126
troof@pork.org
—–Original Message—–
From: website@pork.org [mailto:website@pork.org]
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 4:09 PM
To: Pork Board
Subject: Pork.org site – User Feedback
This message was received from: Jerri Ward Email address: jward@garloward.com
Feedback: I think that you need new attorneys:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/21/national-pork-board.html
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please conserve our natural resources, think twice before you print this email.
This message contains confidential information belonging to The National Pork Board and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by email if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses and The National Pork Board does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy from: The National Pork Board, P.O. Box 9114, Des Moines, IA 50306. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The National Pork Board.
Re the old bloke murdered by those cops; does he have sons or grandsons? I hope one of them has the balls to track down those cops and kill them. Quietly, quickly, cleanly.