By sesquiculus on Sep 7, 2008

One of the major causes of the American Revolution and the direct stimulous for the 4th amendment were general search warrants (called “writs of assistance”). These allowed crown servants to search any property they liked, allegedly looking for smuggled goods. All in the interest of law enforcement. You don’t want miscreants and smugglers to go unpunished, do you?

The abuses of these search powers by lower class “servants of servants” so enraged the colonial middle and upper classes that they eventually joined “the mob” in violent revolt against British rule.

By indycarlover1 on Jul 1, 2008

I forgot how fun it was reading the funny papers in the morning. I haven’t read this site in quite some time, but the entertainment value alone was worth my random scrutiny, today. I especially love the correspondence related to (By ProudToBeRed on Jan 24, 2008 ). My god man, are you serious???????????

By Barney on Jun 20, 2008

http://www.prentissvoice.com/

By cedric chapman on Apr 23, 2008

Yes, I’m sure there are a few good cops left, I even know a couple, but for the most part cops are power hungry and love nothing more than intimidating people with their badges and authority. The fact that they can pull you over for not wearing a seat belt(and in virginia they certainly will)is nothing more than a form of intimidation. If i feel the need to wear a seat belt, I will. If not that should be my choice. Here in virginia, the cops thrive on there stupid little road blocks that they have on almost a daily basis. it serves no purpose, but to intimidate and waste peoples time. they say its for catching drunk drivers, how many drunks drive around at 10:00 in the morning? Here they might stop you for a seat belt infraction, tinted windows (how come the cops have their cop car windows tinted so dark you cant see in their cars?) but its against the law for a civilian, or if barney thinks your mufflers a little to loud. All these laws were not put in place for your safety, they could care less about that, they were put here as a means to oppress and bankrupt the american citizens….

By Joe on Mar 5, 2008

Chris, you may be a honorable person but if I had a job that required me to screw my fellow citizens day in and out, I’d quit. I’m quite sure you recognized that fact after only a few days of employment. You had a choice not to take that oath and not become an officer or quit after you saw the light. I suspect the uniform you put on and the authority you carry probably had some to do with it.
The vast majority of us posting here are intelligent enough and at one time physically fit enough (in my case) to have become a law enforcement officer. It’s not rocket science. Of course I’m sure you’ll disagree with that statement. Many of us were in the military at some point so we know how to take and follow orders (discipline). We know what it is to be a minion. ‘ya we may have even given it a thought …..for about a minute! But no thank you under the current circumstances.
I couldn’t take such a oath to uphold the laws when I realize how laws are concocted now-a-days. Money runs the whole system and lobbyist are the ones who throw the money at candidates, who become politicians, who make the laws, who owe favors back to their donors. You know the system; you are a dues paying member of some law enforcement/ lobbying organization. The average voter/citizen can’t possibly compete with a system like that. Therefore the system fails most of us. Sad but true. Books have been written on the subject so I’m not going to get into it.
Your gonna say “well that’s the system, take it or lump it”. That’s of course not a very constructive way to view the problem.
I would refer you back to some the previous posts by James Young because Mr. Young pretty well sums up my sentiments also.

By RICK GOLD on Mar 4, 2008

TO (OFFICER) CHRIS:

THE CHP’R WHO PULLED ME OFF THE FREEWAY FOR NOT HAVING MY SEAT BELT ON WAS WASTING EVERYONE’S TIME AND FURTHERING THE AIMS OF THE POLICE STATE HE SUPPORTS. WHETHER OR NOT I WEAR A SEAT BELT IS MY CHOICE; ONE OF MANY CHOICES AND A FREEDOMS THE STATE HAS USURPED. SORRY OFFICER BUT I DON’T NEED TO BE PROTECTED FROM MYSELF; PARTICULARLY BY AN AGENT OF THE STATE WHO HAS A VESTED FINANCIAL INTEREST IN THE STATE’S ACCESS TO MY WALLET. YOU WANT TO PROTECT ME ?? FINE. PULL ME OVER AND RECOMMEND THAT I PUT ON MY SEAT BELT. THAT IS “TO PROTECT AND SERVE”. ANYTHING ELSE IS JUST ABUSING THE CITIZENRY SO YOU CAN USE HIM AS A PROFIT CENTER.

WITH REGARD TO MY YOUNG EMPLOYEE WHO WAS FINANCIALLY RAPED BY THE SYSTEM FOR BLOWING A BIT OVER THE LEGAL LIMIT: THE POINT WAS THAT HIS VERY MILD BREAKING OF THE LAW SET HIM UP FOR A FINANCIAL FALL THAT WAS HORRIBLY EXCESSIVE AND ORCHESTRATED BY A STATE THAT COULD CARE LESS THAT THE PUNISHMENT DIDN’T FIT THE CRIME. A DUI IS SERIOUS AND DESERVES SERIOUS ATTENTION BY LAW ENFORCEMENT. WHAT THIS INCIDENT DIDN’T DESERVE WERE A BUNCH OF LEGAL PROTOCOLS IN PLACE THAT PAUPERED THIS NICE KID AND JACKED UP HIS LIFE. NO MATTER. THERE WERE BUCKS TO BE MADE AND THE STATE GOT THEIR PIECE AND ORCHESTRATED IT SO THAT MANY OTHERS GOT THEIRS AS WELL. I CALL THAT “JUST-US”; AND A “JUST-US” HORRIDLY TYPICAL OF THE SYSTEM LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE COURTS HAVE IN PLACE TODAY.

IT’S A SHAME AND A SHAM. AND IF YOU SUPPORT THAT SYSTEM YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

RICK GOLD

By Chris on Feb 26, 2008

I just gotta chime in here. Okay…Rick Gold posted

{I GOT PULLED OFF THE FREEWAY FOR NOT HAVING A SEAT BELT ON. (I MEAN JEEZUS!!)

Have you ever had to explain to a parent that their child didn’t live through an accident because they weren’t wearing a seat belt? Something that you consider to be so minor may be something major to somebody else. Besides, in many jurisdictions it is required by law to wear your seat belt.

I’VE GOT AN EMPLOYEE WHO BLEW A POINT OR TWO OVER THE ALKY LIMIT, WAS CHARGED WITH DRUNK DRIVING. ENDED UP COSTING HIM A TOTAL OF $10,000, LOST HIS INSURANCE, AND HIS DRIVERS LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED. WHY BECAUSE HE WAS A SKOSH OVER THE LEGAL ALKY LIMIT ?? THAT’S JUST BULLSHIT !! THIS VERY NICE KID’S LIFE GOT JACKED UP BY THE SYSTEM AND ALL THE PAYEES LINED UP TO GET A PIECE OF HIM. JUSTICE ?? NO FREEKIN’ WAY.}

On the DUI instance…the last time I checked ignorance is no excuse to break the law. If the legal limit is .08 and you blow .09 it doesn’t matter. You’re still impaired. I’ve seen people that can blow a .18 and function a lot better than people that blow a .06. The point is that there’s laws in place and ignorance is no excuse to break them. If you don’t like the laws then do something to try and get them changed or just don’t break them. I WISH I lived in a society where I didn’t have job security as a law enforcement officer. I don’t agree with all the laws…but I have taken an oath to uphold and enforce those laws. Besides, I don’t wanna explain to somebody that their son, husband, daddy, wife, daughter, mother isn’t coming home ever again because a drunk driver hit them but it’s not that big of a deal because they only blew a “skosh” over the legal limit.

I’m off my soap box…for now.

By Texan2 on Jan 29, 2008

To the LEOs,

If the main duty of the police is to keep the peace, do you think that changing the title from “Police Officer” to “Peace Officer” may change the attitudes of officers and/or perception of the citizens?

How does the pulling someone over for speeding and basically taking a week’s pay from them fit into “Protect and Serve”?

Most of time when I interact with the police is when someone has wronged me or for a “traffic violation”. When I have been wronged in some way the officers usually cannot do anything, chooses not to do anything, or treat me as if I was the problem. Many times I have been pulled over for a “traffic violation” the officers have been “creative” in determining what wrong I have done to society. So far out of my 25+ years of interaction with the police, only once has an officer been helpful (it was a theft and I had to do the legwork), and his partner treated me as if I was the thief.

Do not get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the times I was guilty of a moving violation and pulled over and cited… I’m complaining about all the times I was not doing anything wrong, was pulled out, cited and convicted of a false offense.

I have friends that are in law enforcement, good guys… they hate being tax collectors and do the job for the few times they get to help someone. I have nothing but respect for officers like them. But there are officers that get-off on the power and meeting their “goals” to advance their career. Think about it, what kind of officer are you? Are you one that wants to help society, do a job and collect a paycheck, or show that you are powerful and should be respected? If you want to help society think about your actions and how you are going to affect another human beings. Do you do more good than harm? All the good you do cannot undo the harm you do.
PS my hair is short, I drive a sedan… got pulled over less when I drove a sports car.

By Robert on Jan 28, 2008

My 23 year old son worked nights at a grocercy store for three years.(ten miles from our house)He was going to junior college during the day and working for tutition and car insurance. He would leave work at 4am and like clock work he would be pulled over about a mile from our house. There would always be two squad cars. one behind and than one facing him with all lights on.!. They would walk around the car checking all the lights. Ask for his licsence….where he was going and such. Why did they pull him over?. He had long hair. yes he was an evil doer that also was in a band. They would rotate the officers pulling him over. Once the pullover was done they then would follow him home. Then he decided to cut his hair…actually shaved his head. Surprise they stopped following him and pulling over.

By barneyfife on Jan 28, 2008

*****Visit my site and see how The Prentiss County Sheriffs Dept and the Booneville Police Dept trample our rights daily****

http://www.freewebs.com/barneyfife1/

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By James Young on Jan 28, 2008

I want to expand the discussion about LEO’s isolation from the public. One of the results of this isolation is that back in the days of the beat cop, all the citizens knew and interacted with him in every day occurrences; now, however, virtually any contact between LEO and citizen is confrontational. The most common interaction is with a traffic stop, most of those for speeding. Here, a citizen is told he is doing something dangerous and wrong but he knows better and the cop knows better. So, the citizen gets dinged for nothing and is supposed to respect the system that perpetrated this and the agent who carried it out?

By James Young on Jan 27, 2008

You whine too much writes:
{2 things - If you don’t think criminals carry semi automatic firearms, you are naive.}

What that has to do with anything, I don’t know. I’ve been accused of many things but naiveté is not one of them.

The point of my post was that LEOs have isolated themselves, first off the streets and into cars away from citizens; then into a virtually unique language; then into militaristic ritualism; then into a separate society. And they pay a heavy price for it: elevated divorce, alcoholism and suicide rates (how many guys do you know personally who have “gone to the closet”?). They have lost the respect of the citizens.

And the key to all of this is that they brought it on themselves.

{Also, if you are addressing the picture where the officer is attempting to remove Elian, his finger IS NOT on the trigger.}

Yeah, he might have to move his finger 3 mm to reach the trigger in case Elian’s abuela attacked him.

{ I do agree that situation should have been handled differently.}

There is hope after all.

“No cop has ever been held accountable.” – JY

{Cops are held accountable on a daily basis. You just don’t see it because that will not make “ratings” type news.}

You took that out of context. No cop – and no forensics “expert” and no prosecutor – has ever been held accountable in the instant case. It ruined at least 2 families. There is an 80+ year old man who had to go back to work to earn the money that the family had to spend to correct a police mistake. Where is the justice?

{ Google “police officers convicted”.}

So what? Of course there are officers who have been convicted, some even of truly egregious crimes. They are the exceptions that prove the rule.

A much more important number is the number of officers who know of misconduct by their fellow officers but overlook it.

Don’t get me wrong here. I support stringent qualifications and professional pay for officers. I support most of their tactics employed to assure their own safety. I pay for professionalism and I expect the performance to meet the pay.

What I don’t like is the deliberate intimidation in the street, misconduct under cover of authority, the institutional cover-ups, the refusal to accept science when it clearly contradicts their assertions and the use of public funds to lobby for anti-citizen laws. Most cops never met a restriction that they didn’t like.

How much money is spent of police training – law, physical, tactical, et al – across the nation. . .only to hand the new officer a radar unit and the instruction to “go get ‘em.” What an insult. Yet, speeding cites outnumber all other traffic cites combined by more than two to one. What a waste.

By You whine too much! on Jan 27, 2008

James Young said:
“They have specialized and militarized their uniforms/equipment to point that they have become a caricature of themselves. Google “Elian Gonzalez,” look at the two leftmost pictures and tell me where I’m wrong.”

2 things - If you don’t think criminals carry semi automatic firearms, you are naive. I will not take a knife to a gun fight. Also, if you are addressing the picture where the officer is attempting to remove Elian, his finger IS NOT on the trigger. I do agree that situation should have been handled differently. Try again.

“No cop has ever been held accountable.”
Cops are held accountable on a daily basis. You just don’t see it because that will not make “ratings” type news. Google “police officers convicted”.

By RICK GOLD on Jan 27, 2008

JON,

RE AL GORE AND “2004″. OBVIOUSLY A BRAIN FART ON MY PART. IT WAS, INDEED, THE 2000 ELECTION IN WHICH HE WON THE POPULAR VOTE. NOTE THAT THE POINT REMAINS SOLID WHETHER IT WAS THE ELECTION OF 2004 OR OF 2000.

REGARDS.

RICK GOLD

RICK GOLD

By jon on Jan 27, 2008

Back to a comment on the 24th…Mr. Gore did not win the popular vote in 2004. It was absolutely impossible to win the popular vote in 2004 because he didn’t run for president. Mr. John Kerry was running for office of President and I believe he did not carry the majority.

By Officer Josh on Jan 27, 2008

You can bash us all you want E. Myers but i wonder what kinda record you have? The newpapers only report what terrible things we do but never the good. (We do nothing good) ill take the words out of your mouth for you but the family who sends me a christmas card every year for saving there sons life can contradict your statements.

By James Young on Jan 26, 2008

You whine writes: {For those of you that do not respect Law Enforcemnt, may you be involved in a collision with a drunk, unisured, unlicensed, underage rich boy whose Mommy and Daddy will try to buy you off. At least then you will be rich enough to move out of my country. Try Canada!}

What a non sequitur. Since respect for law enforcement is not a factor in crashes, I’ll address only the poster’s premise.

LE used to be respected but over the years squandered that respect through their own actions. One need only read the newspaper to see stories about the misconduct of LEOs, a common occurrence. We have LEOs that lie to juries, falsify reports, take bribes, intimidate witnesses, and abuse the authority granted them by the citizens.

What we don’t see is the look-the-other-way, help-a-fellow-officer attitude that tacitly accepts and therefore encourages malfeasance.

Nobody made these guys give other officers a pass where regular citizens would be cited. Law enforcement as an institution pulled their officers off of the street where they could interact with citizens, putting them into virtually soundproof cars and isolating them from contact with the public. Cops speak their own language and increasingly mix only with other cops. They have specialized and militarized their uniforms/equipment to point that they have become a caricature of themselves. Google “Elian Gonzalez,” look at the two leftmost pictures and tell me where I’m wrong.

Even my 80+ year-old mother considers the police “worthless” and thinks the officers who perjured themselves in a capital murder case should be doing “life in McAlester [OK state prison]. The case resulted in wrongful conviction, now overturned but with residual damages to too many folks to count. No cop has ever been held accountable.

It used to be that we all felt safer when a cop was around but the cops themselves have reverse that and everybody is on eggshells when a cop is near them. No, it is not up to the citizens to change their attitude but up to the cops to change their behavior.

By You whine too much! on Jan 26, 2008

For those of you that do not respect Law Enforcemnt, may you be involved in a collision with a drunk, unisured, unlicensed, underage rich boy whose Mommy and Daddy will try to buy you off. At least then you will be rich enough to move out of my country. Try Canada!

By honest texan on Jan 26, 2008

1) For “there are no good cops” and other very important (somehow) related issues, please see this website and watch their short promo video:
http://www.leap.cc/

2) As far as the little diversion of Iraq and other very important related issues, please watch this important video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oARBdBtGenM

3) As far as police protection from other people, I urge everyone to thoroughly read through this website:
http://www.a-human-right.com/

4) Remember this well: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” -Benjamin Franklin

5) While I’m at it, take a look at the following video link about H.R. 1955 which got passed in the house:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM

By James Young on Jan 26, 2008

straight talker writes:

{Then, and only then, will you quit wasting our oxygen.}

That’s copspeak. “Oxygen thief” and “waste of oxygen” are common epithets hurled at unfortunates of many varieties by cops.

By straight talker on Jan 25, 2008

E-Meyers

The more I think about it, I hope some crack addict puts a bullet in your head and pisses on you afterwards. Then, and only then, will you quit wasting our oxygen.

By straight talker on Jan 25, 2008

Hey E-Meyers

I hope you are a victim of a terrible crime and the police don’t do a thing for you. You obviously don’t appreciate the price paid for the freedom you have. Yes, you do have the right to your nearsighted, pathetic opinion. You can thank those that protect you, both at a national and local level for that.

By a new old cop on Jan 25, 2008

Debatable to who? You, the typical civilian who is not placing there life on the line every day they are at work or the cop who is there doing it?? That statement would be the same as me saying that YOUR study of traffic and the things the government does wrong, will not elevate YOUR expertise in that particular field. I have told you in our phone conversation some of the things your group are trying to obtain for the people are great, but some are just a twist of words trying to further your agenda.

James…you never cease to amaze me at some of your ignorance towards LE! I am not talking about Cops or reality shows when it comes to videos. I am talking about the ones that come straight from the departments where the incident occured. You can not deny the fact that any type of training, weather it be in video, writing, or verbal, can/will elevate your level of expertise in your field of work!!

The way you twist words is just OUTSTANDING!!! I commend you.

By E. Meyers on Jan 25, 2008

FASCISM…FASCISM….FASCISM……..

If this isn’t fascism, whats the difference between this and the real thing? The United States has been declared a combat zone. That means if they don’t like you you will disappear.

PROUD TO BE RED; Drop dead. Your living a lie. Power corrupts. Cops imagine more crime than actually exists. They need to justify taking their pay checks.

They are human failures hiding behind a gun and a badge. They view themselves as good guys, so they need a victem to play the bad guy. Thats us.

There are no good cops. The system is the crime. If your part of the system your part of the crime.

As for your story about the guys getting shot. For every one that you produce like that I’ll tell you a hundred that shows police as failures and bullys.

The truth be told, the police are the real criminals.

If your a cop and you really want to help society, shoot yourself in the foot and while your home recovering make somethintg with your hands.

People with no authenticate power only have the power of denial. Thats cops.

By James Young on Jan 25, 2008

All of us are aware of the endless loops of clips played on Cops! and other reality shows. Whether those are suitable as “training” films is debatable but if you want to subscribe to the theory that watching horrible and often fatal mistakes somehow elevates your level of expertise, then go for it.